On (non-)finiteness in Inuktitut *

• Main Authors: Alana Johns, Carolyn Smallwood
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: inuit; inuktitut
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.87.7256; http://r1.chass.utoronto.ca/twpl/pdfs/twpl17/TWPL17_johns_smallwood.pdf

In this paper we examine the appropriateness of the term ‘nonfinite’ for a construction in Inuktitut containing the mood morpheme-llu- (which has been variously labeled participial, appositional, etc.). We find that the label non-finite is conventionally used when a minimal (but not fixed) set of properties is found. We conclude that-llu- does not meet this minimal requirement and is therefore not non-finite. The –llu- construction in Inuktitut has been the subject of a great deal of interest in recent generative literature. An example of this –llu- construction is provided in (1). 1 1. 2 nigi-llu-nga te-tu-nia-kKunga (L) eat-llu-1s tea-consume-near.fut-1s.intr.indic ‘While I’m eating, I’ll drink tea.’ A variety of terms have been used to label this mood morpheme. Some of these are listed below. Among the labels are semantic descriptions, such as contemporative and concomitant, and grammatical labels such as gerundial and infinitive. 2.-llu verbs in Inuit languages