Knowledge base · Part XIII — Nominalization, Relativization, and Complementation · this topic as a network

101. The Nominalizers -p/-pe and -i/-hi (Participant, Event, Place, Fact)

How does the language nominalize clauses to refer to participants, events, places, or facts?

Form and place among the formal nouns

What are the forms of the nominalizers and how do they relate to formal nouns?

Certain nominalizers can be modified by adnouns. (Refsing 1986: 155) The nominalizer pe drops its vowel to become p after vowel-final stems. (Refsing 1986: 261) The nominalizing suffix is -p after vowels and -pe after consonants, meaning 'thing', 'person', or 'matter'. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) When the formal noun p is placed after a sentence-final phrase, it usually functions as a conjunctive particle rather than forming a noun phrase. (Nakagawa 2024: 379) The nominalizing suffix -i in Ainu possesses different allomorphs across dialects and forms. (Nam 2021) Synchronically, -i rather than -hi is considered to be the main or basic variant of the nominalizing suffix. (reported in Nam 2021) The historically original form of the nominalizing suffix -i / -hi is the generic noun ihi or hi 'thing, place, time'. (reported in Nam 2021) A construction nominalized by -h(i) can be analyzed as a modifying construction where the clause or verb modifies the generic noun h(i). (reported in Nam 2021) As a rule, the nominalizing suffix -(h)i retains h when preceded by a vowel and lacks h when preceded by a consonant. (reported in Nam 2021) The Ainu nominalizing suffix and construct suffix both originate from the generic noun (i)hi 'thing, place, time', undergoing a parallel phonological development from (i)hi to -i. (Nam 2021) Nominalizers in Ainu function to derive nominal expressions out of verbal ones. (Refsing 1986: 24) Both hawe and siri are frequently used in nominalizations that can form part of or constitute a sentence-final form. (Refsing 1986) Refsing includes katu among the nominalizers and finds no examples of it entering into sentence-final constructions like ruwe, hawe, or siri. (Refsing 1986) The combination pe ne functions as an assertive sentence-final form. (Refsing 1986: 237) Tamura describes hike only as a semantically neutral nominalizer and omits it from coordinative conjunctional particles. (reported in Refsing 1986: 244) In the Shizunai dialect data of the author's informant, hike never occurs in the nominalizing function described by Chiri. (Refsing 1986: 244) Chiri lists another (h)ike that attaches to 'adjectives' to function as a nominalizer, as in poro-ike or pirka-ike. (reported in Refsing 1986: 245) Nominalizers in Ainu are noun-like bound words that can only occur with adnominal modification. (Refsing 1986: 258) The initial [h] of the nominalizer hi is dropped after consonants, and also after vowels in rapid speech. (Refsing 1986: 261) The nominalizer hi is used in the formation of some personal pronouns. (Refsing 1986: 261) Pe may be modified by demonstrative pronouns, as in taan pe 'this thing/guy'. (Refsing 1986: 261) With numbers, pe functions as a counter for things, as in sinep 'one thing' and tup 'two things'. (Refsing 1986: 261) Adnominal modification of haw(e) 'voice' and hum(i) 'sound' is idiosyncratic because it does not involve simple relativizing extraction, but rather resembles nominalizers. (Satō 2008: 172) Nouns that nominalize a clause to form a content clause (expressing 'that...', 'the content that...') are called nominalizers (meishikaji). (Satō 2008: 175) The nominalizer humi functions to denote 'sound' or 'feeling/impression'. (Satō 2008: 176) The nominalizer katu expresses 'way, manner, appearance'. (Satō 2008: 177) The nominalizer kunak expresses '(thinking/saying) that probably, intending to'. (Satō 2008: 177) The nominalizer kuni expresses '(thinking/saying) that probably, intending to'. (Satō 2008: 177) The morpheme p/pe also functions as a formal noun. (Satō 2008: 178) The nominalizer ruwe denotes 'trace, (abstract) fact/matter asserted by the speaker'. (Satō 2008: 178) ruwe is used for pre-existing states, and for actions that are not in progress at the reference time point. (Satō 2008: 178) The nominalizer siri denotes 'manner, appearance of an action in progress at the reference time point'. (Satō 2008: 178) i functions as a formal noun meaning 'thing / fact / matter'. (Satō 2008: 368) The suffixes -p(e) and -i function productively not just as lexical derivational suffixes but as phrasal and clausal nominalizers. (Shibatani 1990: 32)

Participant nominalization: the one who, the thing that

How does the language form participant nominalizations meaning 'the one who' or 'the thing that'?

The most commonly used complementizers are neutral hi/i and pe/p, or the epistemic complementizer kun-i(-hi). (Bugaeva 2012) In Hokkaido Ainu, the nominalizers hi 'thing/place/time' and pe 'thing/person' are commonly employed in clausal nominalizations. (Bugaeva 2016) Because -p and -pe can refer to animals and inanimates, using them to refer to human beings carries a somewhat blunt tone, whereas -kur always carries an honorific nuance and can even refer to a deity. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) The nominalizer pe is mostly used for unspecified concrete things or persons, but it may also refer to abstract matters like hi. (Refsing 1986: 261) When a verb is used nominally as the object of a main verb (as in mokor k-esinki), it does not take a subject personal affix. (Satō 2008: 90) The nominalizer meaning 'thing' is realized as p after vowels and as pe after consonants. (Satō 2008: 177) When p/pe is placed sentence-finally to nominalize a sentence, it often forms a more emotional expression conveying regret or surprise. (Satō 2008: 178) The expression pe ne ('it is that...') is used with emotive force, conveying an attitude of 'above all, after all'. (Satō 2008: 335) p functions as a nominalizer meaning 'thing / person / one'. (Satō 2008: 371)

Event and fact nominalization

How does the language nominalize a complete clause as an event or fact?

The nominalizer hi derives nominal expressions that always refer to abstract matters. (Refsing 1986: 233, 261) The nominalizing suffix -i (which also sounds like -hi after vowels) forms nouns from verbs and adjectives meaning 'the doing of an action', 'the place of an action', or 'the time of an action'. (Kindaichi & Chiri 1936) When hi is translated as 'place', the case particle marking the relation to the verb cannot be omitted and must be expressed (e.g. by oro ta or by the applicative prefix e-), forming a relative clause construction, whereas when hi is translated as 'time' or 'matter', it functions directly as a complementizer without such a constraint. (Nakagawa 2024: 511) In the majority of cases, the nominalizer hi follows verbs associated with speaking or listening. (Refsing 1986: 261) The nominalizer hi (which can become i after a consonant) means 'fact, that, time', functioning at a more abstract level than ruwe. (Satō 2008: 175) When hi is used together with case particles, it expresses temporal points, such as hi ta 'at the time when' and hi wano 'from the time when'. (Satō 2008: 176) While hi alone forms a simple clausal nominalization, co-occurring with the demonstrative adverb ene turns it into a noun clause expressing the concrete 'manner/way' of carrying out the clause's action. (Satō 2008: 176) When the demonstrative ene is present, the nominalizer hi 'thing, fact' frequently appears after the verb. (Satō 2008: 299)

Arity and the boundary between the two uses

How does the valence of the clause determine whether the nominalization refers to a participant or an event?

When p ~ pe refers to a concrete entity, it serves as the head of a relative clause, but when referring to an abstract state of affairs, it functions as a complementizer. (Nakagawa 2024: 512)

Analyses and open questions

What are the different analyses of these nominalizers and what questions remain open?

Sentences placed before a nominalizer are embedded as relational adjuncts to the predicate. (Refsing 1986: 81) Zero-nominalization reflects the oldest diachronic stage of nominalization in Ainu. (proposed in Bugaeva 2016) The nominalization strategy of adding a nominalizing word proliferates in Hokkaido Ainu and represents a later stage than zero-nominalization. (proposed in Bugaeva 2016) Sakhalin Ainu employs non-finite verbal forms containing possessive-style marking as a nominalization strategy, which can also be used as non-embedded finite structures in a broad range of presuppositional contexts. (proposed in Bugaeva 2016) Unlike Hokkaido Ainu, West Coast Sakhalin Ainu has developed a special clausal nominalization strategy attaching the nominal possessive suffix to the verb, which can also occur as a non-embedded form in presuppositional contexts. (Bugaeva 2016) Verbal forms regarded as nominalizations in Hokkaido Ainu do not bear any non-finite morphology, and nominalization is associated solely with the use of a nominalizing word. (Bugaeva 2016) Nominalizing words in Hokkaido Ainu are distinct from genuine nominalizers because they are not used for deriving adnominal forms. (Bugaeva 2016) Sakhalin Ainu possesses non-finite possessive-style marking on verbs (V-poss) that is not found elsewhere in Ainu. (Bugaeva 2016) In Sakhalin Ainu, V-poss nominalized forms occur mostly in the same contexts as the nominalizing words of Hokkaido Ainu. (proposed in Bugaeva 2016) In Sakhalin Ainu main clauses, sentence-final V-poss without a copula is typically found across a wide range of presuppositional contexts, including assertions, polar questions, and content questions. (Bugaeva 2016) In Sakhalin Ainu discourse, the nominalizing verbal form V-poss refers to old information, whereas finite verbal forms refer to new information. (proposed in Bugaeva 2016) In Ainu, the development of nominalized structures has occurred in a cycle in which independent structures gradually developed into dependent structures through embedding, and the dependent structures subsequently turned back into independent structures. (Bugaeva 2016) The use of p ~ pe as a conjunctive particle meaning 'although' developed out of its complementizer usage. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 513) Any complete sentence in Ainu may be either adnominalized by being placed before a noun or nominalized by being placed before a nominalizer. (Refsing 1986: 258) Nominalized adjunct clauses are rarely marked with case postpositions. (Refsing 1986: 258)