Degrees of nominalization: Clause-like constituents in Sakha

This article investigates aspects of complementation in the Turkic language Sakha (Yakut). Some embedded clauses in this language seem “more nominalized” than others. In particular, I compare the syntax of clauses built around a participial verb to the syntax of finite clauses and gerundive nominals. Participial clauses pattern with “less nominal” finite clauses with respect to the distribution of negative polarity items, in allowing scrambling, in allowing raising to object, and in the ability to function as indirect questions. In contrast, they pattern with “more nominal” gerundive nominals in details of their external distribution, in being active for case assignment, and in being islands for extraction in relative clauses. Finally, participial clauses are different from both finite clauses and gerundive nominals in being able to enter into relations of obligatory control. I show that this rather complex pattern can be derived from a simple difference as to which head in a minimally elaborated clause structure is nominal in each construction—“nominal” being understood as a category with a referential index but no specifier. The investigation leads to a refinement of my Reference-Predication Constraint, which divides up into two more specific conditions.