Nominalization patterns in Alto Perené, a Kampa Arawak language of Peru

Abstract

Abstract The paper investigates the inventory of nominalizing forms and examines restrictions on the morphosyntactic behavior of lexical and clausal nominalizations in Alto Perené (also called Ashéninka Perené), a Kampa Arawak language of Peru. It is shown that the deverbalization of lexical nominalizations is basically total. The substantivization cline of lexical nominalizations is characterized by various degrees of acquisition of nominal properties. Clausal nominalizations are found to retain aspect and realis marking and preserve argument structure. Clausal realis nominalizations display a variety of nominal characteristics such as spatial case, nominal plural number, and definiteness marking. Clausal irrealis nominalizations show highly restricted nominal properties. The relativization strategy is formed with the help of the participant nominalizers -ri and -ni.