Teonimi perifrastilises verbivormis
The Estonian Action Nominal in Verbal Periphrasis

Summary/Abstract: The syntactic behaviour of the Estonian action nominal in -mine, both on phrase level and clause level, has been generally characterised as being exclusively nominal. The present paper examines two clause patterns that seem to contradict this de scription. The patterns seem to involve a productively formed complex predicate consisting of an auxiliary and the mine-form of a lexical verb and expressing aspectual and passive meaning. As such they behave similarly to instances of verbal periphrasis and question the exclusively nominal treatment of the syntactic behaviour of the action nominal. It is briefly argued, however, that the morphosyntactic properties displayed by the action nominal in different contexts can be subsumed neither under the label of noun nor under that of non-finite verb form, requiring instead a constructional approach.

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