Knowledge base · Part XII — The Simple Clause and Nonverbal Predication · this topic as a network

94. Pro-Drop, (Non)configurationality, and the Pronominal-Argument Debate

How does the language handle argument omission and the status of bound affixes versus free noun phrases?

7 sentences from 22 sources · every sentence names the pages it rests on

Obligatory head-marking and the appositional noun phrase

How does the verb mark its arguments, and what is the status of the noun phrase in apposition?

An overt independent subject noun occurs in the clause as an optional element cross-referencing the third-person subject prefix φ- rather than an obligatory argument. (Satō 2023)

ku=inkar

1SG.S=look.around

‘I look around.’

Satō 2025: 355 · HK

cep a=koyki

fish 4.A=catch

‘We catch fish.’

Satō 2025: 363 · HK

The free ordering of preverbal noun phrases

How freely can preverbal noun phrases be ordered, and what does this reveal about argument structure?

kamuy aynu rayke

bear human kill

‘The bear killed the man.’

Shibatani 1990: 22 · HK

aynu kamuy rayke

human bear kill

‘The man killed the bear.’

Shibatani 1990: 22 · HK

Null arguments and zero anaphora

Under what conditions are arguments omitted, and what discourse functions do overt noun phrases serve?

Personal pronouns in subject and object positions are frequently omitted because person and number are obligatorily marked on predicates. (Bugaeva 2006: 186) Objects that are clear from context are normally omitted, including causee objects in transitive causatives. (Bugaeva 2014) First-person, second-person, and indefinite-person subjects in the main clause are normally omitted because they are obligatorily marked on the verb. (Bugaeva 2015: 56) Third-person subject noun phrases, which receive zero marking on the verb, can be omitted when context is sufficient. (Bugaeva 2015: 56) An argument noun phrase that is clear from context does not need to appear in the clause and is not represented by a pronoun. (Nakagawa 2022: 14.6) A clause consisting of the null third-person subject prefix φ- and a verb is grammatically complete on its own without an independent noun. (Satō 2023)

sekor a=onaha a=unuhu haweoka kor i=kimatekka hine

QUOT 4.POSS=father 4.POSS=mother say.thus CONJ 4.O=encourage CONJ

‘Saying so, my father and my mother encouraged me on and then …’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

Discontinuous noun phrases

Are discontinuous noun phrases permitted, and if so, under what conditions?

toma ka sinep ka isam

mat FOC one FOC not.exist

‘There is not a single mat either.’

Nakagawa 2024: 383 · SAR