Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives

Research on nominalization, a process that gives rise to referring expressions, has always played a central role in linguistic investigations. Over the years there has also been growing evidence that nominalization constructions often extend to non-referential domains. They participate in noun-modifying expressions (e.g. genitive and relative clauses), subordinate clauses and topic constructions, finite structures with the nominalizers reanalyzed as TAM markers, and stance constructions with evaluative, attitudinal, evidential and epistemic overtones. This volume brings together historical and crosslinguistic evidence from more than 20 different languages representing six different language families spanning the Asian continent and the Pacific and Indian oceans to elucidate the strategies and grammaticalization pathways that give rise to both referential and non-referential uses of nominalization constructions. This collection highlights the diversity of strategies and at the same time the robust cyclical nature of change within and across languages. The combined diachronic and typological analyses in this volume are particularly valuable for linguistic research on diachronic morphosyntax and linguistic ‘universals’, and are also an important supplementary cross-referencing tool for linguistic investigations of versatile and ubiquitous morphemes in under-documented languages.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface; 2. Acknowledgment to reviewers; 3. List of contributors; 4. Introduction: Nominalization strategies in Asian languages (by Yap, Foong Ha); 5. From light noun to nominalizer and more: The grammaticalization of zhe and suo in Old and Middle Chinese (by Yap, Foong Ha); 6. On the polyfunctionality and grammaticalization of the morpheme kai in the Chaozhou dialect (by Xu, Hui Ling); 7. The Cantonese ge3 (by Sio, Joanna); 8. On gerundive nominalization in Mandarin and Cantonese (by Tang, Sze-Wing); 9. Nominalization in Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayan area: A typological perspective (by Genetti, Carol); 10. Aspects of the historical development of nominalizers in the Tamangic languages (by Noonan, Michael); 11. Innovation in nominalization in Magar: A Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal (by Grunow-Harsta, Karen); 12. Nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo (by Post, Mark W.); 13. Nominalization in Numhpuk Singpho (by Morey, Stephen); 14. Nominalization in Nuosu Yi (by Hongyong, Liu); 15. Finite structures from clausal nominalization in Tibeto-Burman (by DeLancey, Scott); 16. Linker, relativizer, nominalizer, tense-particle: On the Ezafe in West Iranian (by Haig, Geoffrey L.J.); 17. Nominalization and stance marking in Korean (by Rhee, Seongha); 18. A case of non-derived stand-alone nominalization: Evidence from Japanese (by Wrona, Janick); 19. Nominalization in Okinawan: From a diachronic and comparative perspective (by Shinzato, Rumiko); 20. Versatility of nominalizations: Where Japanese and Korean contrast (by Horie, Kaoru); 21. The functions of -an and =ay in Kavalan (by Hsieh, Fuhui); 22. Clausal nominalization in Budai Rukai (by Sung, Li-May); 23. Nominalization in Saisiyat (by Yeh, Marie Meili); 24. Rise and fall of referentiality: Articles in Philippine languages (by Nagaya, Naonori); 25. Referential and non-referential uses of nominalization constructions in Malay (by Yap, Foong Ha); 26. Expressing exclamatives in Malagasy (by Potsdam, Eric); 27. Nominalizations in Toqabaqita and closely related languages (by Lichtenberk, Frantisek); 28. Exclamatives and temporal nominalizations in Austronesian (by Kaufman, Daniel); 29. Discourse-structuring functions of Abui demonstratives (by Kratochvil, Frantisek); 30. Index; 31. Language index