Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/49284

This paper aims to examine the function of “participles” (also known as “verbal nouns”) in Shinekhen Buryat, which belongs to the Mongolic language family. In the Altaic linguistics, verbal inflections are classified into three inflectional categories. 1) Finite forms (including indicatives and optatives); 2) converbs; and 3) participles. However, some “participles” seem to be less inflectional than the other “prototypical participles.” Therefore, by using Malchukov’s (2006) functional hierarchy of recategorization, we examine the situation of the decategorization (deverbalization) and recategorization (nominalization) of each of the “participles.” Furthermore, we will see that it is very difficult to classify some inflectional forms into “participles” or “converbs,” since such forms have both participial (modifying nouns) and converbial functions (modifying verbs). In conclusion, I will suggest the following two points: a) We can recognize some of the “participles,” which are more deverbalized than the “prototypical participles,” as the deverbal nominals rather than verbal inflections. b) In Shinekhen Buryat, we can not simply classify all the inflectional forms into three categories (finite forms, converbs, and participles). It does not seem to be suitable to classify non-finite forms into participles and converbs. We should reconsider the verbal inflections of the Altaic languages in a new framework.