Roles of Nominalization Structure of Nominalization

6.2 Roles of Nominalization

As a grammatical process, as well as a lexical derivational process, nominalization in Burmese produces abstract bounded units of information which by regular rules of construction, both grammatical and lexical in implication—due to the blending tendency of juxtaposition—result in highly complex grammatical objects packed with information, one syllable at a time. This information is easily structured and deciphered following the simple rules of organization. The discourse function of the nominalizing particle onf sany is to designate a topical “object” and for that object to continue in the paragraph or section until another topic is so designated. The particle onf sany also functions in the realm of deixis, evidentiality, designation of professions, and as a generalized nominalizer.

6.3 Structure of Nominalization

The structure of nominalization is, quite simply, that of predication. A statement becomes a linguistic object, completed, and packaged into a bundle of arranged meaning by the postpositional set, of which onf sany is the prototype. Even without a postposition, the simple N + V clause is ontologically nominalized by its function in relation to other constituents, as discussed under the section on why there are no adjectives in Burmese section 3.5.2. The grammatical counterpart to predication is the function of the particles to operate on the operand much like a verb does on a noun. There are many types of particles, each contributing both grammatical and semantic function to that operator-operand unit. The unit generated by this operation is also an ontological nominal, similar to the verbal predication. The nominal counterpart to predication is juxtaposition. The simplest predication in Burmese involving a noun is naming the noun, which is what a noun means Latin nomen, Old French nom, Burmese emrf nam name. The predication is one of existence or designation. A predication with two nominals and no verb is an equational predication. If for some reason there is a conceptual blend between the two nominals, then the emergent meaning may reconstruct the two as a whole unit semantically, but grammatically they combine into a compound noun. Thus, the result of nominal predication, like that of the other types is nominal. On the basis of word form categories and nominalization patterns three constructional forms are proposed to account for Burmese grammar: Word, Expression, and Sentence. Word is the level of naming; it is the level of construction of nominals. Expression is the level of construction of predication, both verbal and via particles. Sentence is the level of the observer commenting about linguistic objects; it is the level of sentence, paragraph, and text sections 3.1 and 3.6.1. The logical difference between the structures generated by “what the text is,” the ontological , and “what the text does,” the functional, is manifest in different macrostructures. The ontological text structure relates more directly to the role of sentence “subject” in Burmese, particularly in the propositional content part of the sentencetext, whereas the rhetorically structured text models units according to speaker purposes and communicative organization. The highest ontological level, Sentence, always reduces to a Word. Text is processed grammatically via rules of structural description of constituent structures into one whole nominal object. The grammatical processes operating in Burmese at all constructional levels are juxtaposition, operation, and headedness. These together with the rules of the structural description describe the structure of nominalization in Burmese.

6.4 Implications of the Structure of Nominalization