Non-Referential Uses of Nominalization Constructions: Asian Perspectives

Abstract

This study reviews extended uses of nominalization constructions in a wide range of Asian languages. It combines typological and diachronic perspectives, and traces how nominalization constructions over time develop from referential to non-referential uses. The latter include modifying functions (e.g. relativization and adverbialization); in some cases, nominalization constructions further develop into finite clauses, and sometimes are reanalyzed as stand-alone constructions with mirative, evidential, epistemic, attitudinal, or other speaker mood/stance interpretations. These developments form part of a general tendency for versatile constructions to extend from proposition-based uses to grammatical and pragmatic uses (a laTraugott 1982, 1989, 1995, inter alia). This review, in particular, focuses on semantic extensions within and beyond the nominal domain, with the latter extensions involving reanalyses in functions whereby nominalization constructions drift from referent identification to event predication and the expression of speaker’s stance.