Paradoxes of Finiteness: Facts From Nivkh and a Possible Approach to Their Formal Analysis
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-2-18-32
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
References:
1. Gudan E.P. Gore-okhotnik [The Unlucky Hunter]. In: Golos Severa: sbornik proizvedeniy uchastnikov Vtorogo literaturnogo konkursa “Golos Severa” [Voice of the North: collection of works by participants of the Second literary competition “Voice of the North”] / eds. N.G. Veysalova, Z.S. Ryabchikova, S.L. Chernyshova, E.N. Bel’dy, V.N. Rudinskaya. St. Petersburg, Prezidentskaya biblioteka Publ., 2020. Pp. 235–252 (in Russian).
2. Shiraishi H. Sound Materials of the Nivkh Language, 2002–2015. URL: http://ext-web.edu.sgu.ac.jp/hidetos/HTML/SMNStitle.html (accessed 19 August 2025).
3. Shkalygina E.N. Iz vospominaniy ot avtora [From the author’s memoirs]. In: Sila traditsiy – The Power of Traditions / eds. Yu.A. Zavyalova, T.P. Derivedmid’, M.V. Semitko. Krasnoyarsk, 2021. Pp. 20–23, 38–39 (in Russian).
4. Nedyalkov V.P., Otaina G.A. Ocherki po sintaksisu nivkhskogo yazyka [Essays on Nivkh syntax] / eds. E.V. Genyushene, S.Yu. Dmitrenko. Moscow, Znak Publ., 2012. 304 p. (in Russian).
5. Lavgun I.O., Chkhavrun Z.V. Shaman, atlas KMNS [Shaman, Atlas of Indigenous Minorities of the North]. URL: https://www.atlaskmns.ru/page/ru/lang_nivhi_sahalin_all.html (accessed 19 August 2025) (in Russian).
6. Shternberg L.Ya. Materialy po izucheniyu gilyatskogo yazyka i fol’klora [Materials for the study of the Gilyak language and folklore]. St. Petersburg, Tipografiya Imperatorskoy akademii nauk Publ., 1908. 232 p. (in Russian).
7. Adger D. Three domains of Finiteness: A Minimalist Perspective. In: Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. 23–58.
8. Rizzi L. The fine structure of the left periphery. In: Elements of Grammar. Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1997. Pp. 281–337.
9. Stowell T. The Tense of Infinitives. Linguistic Inquiry, 1982, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 561–570.
10. McCloskey J. On the scope of verb movement in Irish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 1996, vol. 14, pp. 47–104.
11. Haegeman L. Theory and Description in Generative Syntax: A Case Study in West Flemish. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. 244 p.
12. Chomsky N., Lasnik H. The theory of principles and parameters. Syntax, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 506–569.
13. Sigurðsson H.A. Icelandic finite verb agreement. (Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax; Vol. 57). Department of Scandinavian Languages, Lund University, 1996. 40 p.
14. Landau I. The scale of finiteness and the calculus of control. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 2004, vol. 22, pp. 811–877.
15. Lyutikova E.A. Ad’ektivnye skazuemye v finitnykh i nefinitnykh klauzakh [Adjectival predicates in finite and nonfinite clauses]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya – Questions of Linguistics, 2024, no. 6, pp. 7–31 (in Russian).
16. Pires A. Clausal and TP–Defective Gerunds: Control without Tense. In: Proceedings of NELS 31. Amherst, GLSA, University of Massachusetts, 2001. Pp. 386–406.
17. Alboiu G., Hill V. Root gerunds in Old Romanian. In: Romance Linguistics 2013: Selected papers from the 43rd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), New York, 17-19 April, 2013 / eds. C. Tortora, M. den Dikken, I.L. Montoya, T. O’Neill. 2016. Pp. 1–20.
18. Babby L. Subject control as direct predication: Evidence from Russian. In: Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (FASL) 6: The Connecticut Meeting. 1998. Pp. 17–37.
19. Testelets Ya.G. Vvedenie v obshchiy sintaksis [Introduction to general syntax]. Moscow, RGGU Publ., 2001. 798 p. (in Russian).
20. Landau I. Two routes of control: Evidence from case transmission in Russian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 2008, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 877–924.
21. Cristofaro S. Deconstructing categories: Finiteness in a functional-typological perspective. In: Finiteness: Theoretical and empirical foundations. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. 91–114.
22. Bisang W. Categories that make finiteness: discreteness from a functional perspective and some of its repercussions. In: Finiteness: Theoretical and empirical foundations. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. 115–137.
23. Gruzdeva E. On syntactic definition of finiteness: Evidence from Nivkh. In: Per Urales ad Orientem. Iter polyphonicum multilingue. Festskrift tillägnad Juha Janhunen på hans sextioårsdag den 12 februari 2012 – Per Urales ad Orientem. Polyphonic multilingual journey. Festschrift dedicated to Juha Janhunen on his sixtieth birthday on February 12, 2012. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia – Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 264. Helsinki, 2012. Pp. 65–75.
24. Chomsky N. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In: Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik / eds. R. Martin, D. Michaels, J. Uriagereka. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2000. Pp. 89–155.
25. Grashchenkov P.V., Lyutikova E.A. Nemarkirovannye padezhi v imennoy gruppe i klauze: distributsiya i nabroski analiza [Unmarked cases in the noun phrase and clause: distribution and sketches of analysis]. Uralo-altayskie issledovaniya – Ural-Altaic Studies, 2024, no. 55, pp. 18–30 (in Russian).
26. Grashchenkov P.V., Ermolaeva M.B. O dvoystvennoy prirode tyurkskikh konverbov [On the dual nature of Turkic converbs]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 9. Filologiya – Moscow University Bulletin. Series 9. Philology, 2015, no. 2, pp. 42–57 (in Russian).
27. Shternberg L.Ya. Obraztsy materialov po izucheniyu gilyatskogo yazyka i fol’klora, sobrannykh na ostrove Sakhalin i v nizov’yakh Amura [Samples of materials for the study of the Gilyak language and folklore collected on Sakhalin Island and in the lower reaches of the Amur]. Izvestiya Imperatorskoy akademii nauk, 1900, November, vol. XIII, no. 4 (in Russian).
( 571.09 kB ) 
( 560.92 kB )
Issue: 2, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 18 — 32
Downloads: 65