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Paradoxes of Finiteness: Facts From Nivkh and a Possible Approach to Their Formal Analysis. Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2026. Issue 2 (52). P. 18-32

This study examines the paradoxical properties of finiteness in Nivkh, where traditional criteria for distinguishing finite and non-finite forms are reversed. In Nivkh, forms that prototypically function as heads of independent predications (finite) are characterized by the absence of person-number agreement. In contrast, dependent non-finite forms (converbs) exhibit agreement features, can express temporal semantics, and can introduce their own subjects. The empirical data demonstrate that finite indicative forms in Nivkh lack personnumber markers, with plural marking being facultative. Temporal values are expressed for reference to future contexts through obligatory future tense marking. Conversely, converbial forms systematically exhibit personnumber agreement, express future temporal values, and in the Sakhalin dialect demonstrate a specialized marker -н combining person-number features with future temporal semantics. The ability to introduce subjects of converbs, most characteristic of -ӈа(н) forms, but observed also in “default” -т/р̌ converbs, seems very significant. The paper proposes a formal analysis within generative grammar, localizing Nivkh finiteness in the CP domain (FinP projection) while positioning non-finite forms in TP projections. The proposed analysis accounts for the absence of agreement in finite forms by direct subject movement to Spec, FinP, thereby bypassing TP and skipping phi-feature agreement mechanisms. Same-subject converbial structures are analyzed as TP configurations with PRO subjects acquiring person-number features from the matrix subjects via c-command relations. Switchsubject converbs are characterized by independent Fin projections licensed by the referential feature R from matrix clauses, which explains semantic restrictions on subjects in such constructions and their capacity for autonomous temporal reference. The analysis demonstrates that standard generative grammar's structural inventory adequately models non-trivial patterns of finiteness without recourse to continuum approaches or to revisions of fundamental syntactic theoretical concepts.

Keywords: finiteness/non-finiteness, converbs, complex clause, person-number agreement, generative grammar, Nivkh language