Action Nominal Factive Functional Types of Nominalization

16 As a nominalized clause: That John wrote a letter…. John pm a|: onf sa re: sany John letter write NomTopic The pattern in 14 is exactly that of an independent clause or sentence, as in 15. It is also the pattern of a dependent clause, that is the pattern of a nominalized clause, as in 16. There is no significant difference in Burmese between a simple sentence and a nominalized clause except for the many more particles in the independent, or final clause, that refer to the sentence as a “thing” as a whole. This view is perhaps original here, so further comment is made since this study does not discuss the verb phrase in detail. Post-verbal particles are analyzed as higher level heads to “daughter” units that are often the whole of the preceding content. Thus in the verb phrase od|Sd\yD: si. hri. pri: ‘know be complete’ od si. ‘know’ is head to the larger construction of what was known. The verb |Sd hri. ‘be’ is a further predication in a chain of predications that the whole clause of which od si. is the head, exists. It is as if to say ‘x knows y’ then the next predication indicates in the verb chain that “ ‘x knows y’ exists’ ”. See sentence 3 part 2 of Snake Bite Text in appendix D for a complete display of these relationships. A further principle of tight reduced construction mirroring the semantic blending of elements into a whole is also exemplified in Burmese nominalizations. The basic principle being that reduction of postpositional particles reduces the grammatical and phonological “bulk” and that simplification iconically mirrors the extent of blending of the concepts into a whole unit. See Adjectival Nominal in 2.5.14. The following list corresponds to the types of nominalization patterns observed cross- linguistically. In Burmese, these patterns are based upon the same basic set of a regular nominalized clause pattern: Clause-Nom, or the relative clause pattern of an object or subject nominalization with the specific argument extracted as the head nominal of the relative clause, as in 17. 17 Clause - Nom Head [Subject Object]

2.5.1 Action Nominal

John’s writing the letter …surprised us. 18 The letter John wrote surprised us. am[ef a|: aom pm udk jon re: sau ca kui [[[[John write] Atr] letter] Ob] uGsefr wdkh onf tHhjo ap onf` kywan ma. tui. sany am. au ce sany 1p - female Pl NomTop surprise Cs NomSf The full sentence is included here in order to demonstrate the full form, but what is focal is the nominalized clause before the parentheses which functions as the subject of the matrix clause. 19 John’s letter he wrote surprised us. am[ef a|: aom pm onf jon re: sau ca sany [[[[John write] Atr] letter] TopNom] uGsefr udk tHhjo ap onf` kywan ma. kui am. au ce sany 1p -female Ob surprise Cs NomSf The difference between the action nominal in 18 and 19 is the profiling of the nominalized clause. In both examples the internal structure of the nominalized clause is exactly the same with the extracted object of ‘letter’ to form a construction of an attributive nominal clause. In 18 the ‘letter’ is the direct object marked by udk kui and in 19 it is the topic marked by onf sany. The topicalized nominal has the force of establishing the ground or basis for something else to follow. 20 For John to write the letter….surprised us am[ef D pm udk a|: | \cif: onf jon di ca kui re: ra. hkrang: sany [[[[[[John [Dm-p letter]] Ob] write] De] Nom] Nom] In 20 the deontic particle ra. is not obligatory in the nominalizing construction but, when added, the semantic force of the nominalization is reinforced as being “off” the main proposition line of the sentence. While it is perfectly clear grammatically that this nominal clause is subordinated to the main clause, the nominalizer itself is semantically “bland” and thus is more likely to occur with such verbal particles as those that establish the reason or type of action of the nominalized clause in relation to the main clause.

2.5.2 Factive

21 That John wrote the letter…. am[ef D pm udk a|: \cif: udk yif jon di ca kui re: hkrang: kui pang [[[[[[John [Dm-p letter]] Ob] write] Nom] Ob] Emp] 22 That John wrote the letter…. am[ef pm udk a|: cJh \cif: jon ca kui re: hkai: hkrang: [[[John [letter Ob] write] Pr] Nom] 23 That John wrote the letter…. am[ef pm udk a|: | \cif: onf jon ca kui re: ra. hkrang: sany [[[[John [letter Ob] write] De] Nom] Nom] 24 John’s having written the letter…. am[ef pm a|: cJh onf jon ca re: hkai. sany [[[John letter write] Pr ] Nom]

2.5.3 Future Nominal