LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:9 September 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Clausal Gerund in Manipuri

Amom Nandaraj Meetei
Chungkham Yashawanta Singh

Abstract

This paper explores the basic structures of Clausal Gerund (henceforth CG) in Manipuri within the core idea of Minimalist Program (1995). The idea of AGREE in the syntactic derivation is built-in between the verbal domain, the probe, and the argument DP, the goal through valuation approach. Examining the behavior of these gerunds in respect of how they license overt or covert DPs most often marked with accusative Case (for internal arguments) as well as nominative case (for external arguments) are blocked from Case-less positions, this paper climaxes the insights for the researchers to embody some ultimate understanding of the syntax of defective sentential domains in general. Primarily, the paper will consider two gerund structures to be (i) the subject must be PRO and (ii) the subject must be lexical one. In order to defend the idea of CGs, a theoretical approach along with the supporting empirical examples will be provided and so reaching the finale juncture where the distributive restrictions of CGs on the source of the interaction between Case and AGREE valuation will be shown on the ground of limited possibility of A-movement out of a CG.

Key words: Verbal noun, Case, Agree

1.0 Introduction

This paper makes an attempt to concretize the mystifying category of verbal noun in the literature of nominalization constructions. They are very peculiar in that the arguments (subject or object) of a verbal noun can be realized with verbal case marking system such as nominative or accusative at the clausal level. Following the linguists propounding the syntactic VP projection of verbal nouns (Valoi 1991, Borer 1993, Hazout 1995, Marantz 1997, van Hout & Roeper 1998, Fu, Roeper & Borer 2001, Borer 2005a, 2005b, Park 2008) within the exo-skeleton approach, we also argue that verbal nouns are categorially verbs not nouns and they can be embedded within nominalizing structures in which a derived nominal structure or a gerund structure gets surfaced. Further, this paper explores some of the basic similar properties a clausal gerund behaves in the sense of Pires (1999, 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2001c) within Minimalist Program approach, dictating that the subject can be either a PRO or an overt DP Case-marked with accusative case or nominative case in a class of gerund, hence Clausal Gerund. Section 2 will be about the structure of verbal nouns where derived nominal structures, i.e., a clausal gerund structures are briefly introduced. Section 3 is on verbal nouns as verbs, exploring the properties of verbal noun structures in which adverbial modification and verbal nouns stacking are analyzed. Constituent structures of verbal nouns in respect of the topicalization and scrambling are also sightseen hereafter. Section 4 introduces the new thoughtful level of clausal gerund structure where some properties of clausal gerunds are displayed and syntactic derivation of clausal gerunds is also proven under the literature of minimalist program. Section 5 concludes the paper.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Amom Nandaraj Meetei
Lecturer/Resource Person
Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDC-IL)
Manasagangothri
Mysore-570007
Karnataka
India
amomcha@gmail.com

Ch. Yashawanta Singh
Professor
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Canchipur-795003
Manipur
India
chungkhamyash@gmail.com
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