Institut für Sinologie der Universität Wien

1 6.2.2 29
1 ~ () I \lmT
1. BINNICK is a member of the Department of Linguistics
. 11 Scarborough College in the University of Toronto.

Ils i n ~ the methods of transformational generative grammar, this

IH,,,k presents the first systematic study of the syntax of modern
M" 'l )~ol ian, based on research with a native speaker and in the
1IlI,c!ern written language. An Altaic language related to Turkish,
~1:lll C hu, Korean, and perhaps Japanese, Mongolian also closely
n'sl!mbles Hindi and other northern Indian tongues in its grammar.
'I'llis little-known language exhibits numerous features which
dirrer greatly from those generally cited in the literature of
I in g uistics. The almost total lack of moveme nt transformations
i s notable, as weIl as other features which will be of interest
l o sc holars of univer sa l linguistic theory. In addition, the
s Lro ng tendency towards left-branching structures has implica-
LLo ns for languag e processing theories. For orientalists, the
IlOO k provides an introduction to the application of contemporary
I Lnguis tic methods to a language used today in the heart of Asia.
Robert I. ßinnick

MODERN MONGOUAN
A Transformational Syntax

University of Toronto Press

I Honto ßuffolo London
 This book is dedicated to
© University of Toronto Press 1979
the memory of my father,
Toronto · Buffa10 London
Jack Binnick
Printed in Canada

Canadian Cata10guing in Pub1ication Data

Binnick, Robert I., 1945 -
Modern Mongo1ian
Inc1udes indexes.
ISBN 0-8020-5422-6
1. Mongo1ian 1anguage - Syntax. I. Tit1e.

PL403.B55 494.2 C78-001413-8

Contents

1' 1,,1 ac e xi

,\ , kllow1edgments xiii

',vlllho ls and abbreviations xv

i\hb reviations in the glosses xvi
i\ llbreviations for the sources xvii

1II II 'udu etion xxi

1'\1;' 1'
,I I ,,"tura1 typo1ogy and the basic strueture
"I 1 IJ(' simple sentenee 3

I 11 i) asie typo1ogy 3
1, I Noun phrases 6
1. 11 Metanominal struetures 6
1.12 Modifieation 12
1.121 Nominal modifiers 13
1.122 Adjeetiva1 modifiers 15
1.123 Adjeetiva1s 26
1.13 Apposition 28
1.14 Nomina1izations 31
Ve rb phras es 32
1.21 The main verbal 34
1.211 Intransitive main verbal 34
1.212 Copu1ar main verbal 35
1. 213 Transitive main verbal 37
1.214 'Ve rb1 ess ' sentences 39
1. 22 i\dve rbiaJ s 39
1. 23 Shirt or e l e me nt s 43
1.2'3 1 1 ~ lllpkl S i s s h iFt 43
1.2'32 I':xLC1CLioll 4l,
 ix Con t ents
viii Conten t s

- - - - - - - - -- - - -_.- -- PART 4
PART 2 46 Pro nominali zation 112
Coordinate structuring
~. 1 Deictic 112
2.1 Sentence conjoining 4 6 4. 2 Anaphoric 112
2.2 Phrasal conjunction 49 4.21 Deletion 112
2.3 Conjunction reduction 51 4.22 Noun-deletion 114
4.23 Possessives 115
4.24 Reflexive-possessives 116
~.3 Special cases 118
PART 3 55
Complex sentences: sentence embedding 4.31 neg and n ' 118
4.32 x' 119
~. 4 Sentence pronomina1ization 120
3.1 The problem 55
3.11 Verb forms and their uses 57
3.111 The indicative verb ending s 57
3.112 The converbal verb endings 59 I'ART 5
3.113 The ve rb al nominal endings 64 Sen tence-1eve1 ru1es 122
3.12 Sentence embedding 64
3.13 Problems 68
3.14 General statement of results 69
3.2 The derivation of converbals 70 I'ART 6
3.21 Sentence embedding 70 Sli lllma ry of ru1es 124
3.211 Gerundials 70
3.212 Auxiliaries 75 (,. l Phrase- struct ure ru1es 124
3.213 Preverbs 81 (,. 2 Transformations 125
3.214 Special cas e s 81
3.22 Conditions for conve rbals 82 l lid ex of Mongo1ian forms 127
3.23 Rul es 83
3.3 The derivation of verbal nominals 83 1:"lle ra1 index 131
3.31 Sent e nce embeddin g 83
3.311 VNs as NPs 83
3.312 VNs as PPs 83
3.313 Predicates 84
3.314 Attributive and appositive 84
3.315 With a copula 84
3.32 Conditions 86
3.33 Other rules 87
3.331 EQUI 87
3.332 Relative clause formation 89
3.333 Negative extraction 95
3.334 BAJTR 95
96
3.34 Negative nominalization
3.4 Subjects 97
3.41 Subj ec t cas e 97
3.42 Ind i r ec t di sco urs e 100
3 . 43 PCl.ss i vcs 10 3
3 . 1, /, Ci IIi S:! L i v('s IO 'j
'l .') L I' x i v :! I I ,, :! 1 ' '' li , l i ('''1,,11 : 11 1" ,,1 11 ' 11' :: lO H
Preface

In ,v a book on the syntactic structure of the contemporary Mongolian

I ,III); ua ge? In an age in which humanistic studies have largely yiel-
11 , ,11 t o the social sciences, with their computers and statistical
,11 1:1 I ys es, it is not obvious what contribution a largely technical
11 1 II dy of an obscure language can make to an understanding of the
IJ' 1I I d around us o As this book is intended for at least two diffe-

I "II[ a udiences, linguists and those interested in Mongolia gene-

1, l lly , I shall provide a number of answers to this question.
n v fellow linguists will always welcome yet another description
" I ,lIle of the world' s three thousand languages. Languages struc-
1, " :l l l y and/or genetically akin to Mongolian have entered cruci-
I 1 I v i nto the general linguistics literature, but where syntax is
", " ,'(' r ned Mongolian itself has not done so. The purpose of the
I"":;l' nt volume, as I see it, i s to make up for the scarcity of
" " Ik Ln English; aside from a section in John C. Street's Khalkha
II '/I" [ure , there is practically nothing on the syntax of the mo-
,1,' , 11 La nguage. There is indeed beginning to be a considerable
I,,, '[ y oE work in Modern Mongolian syntax, but for the most part it
I I W I " i t ten in languages which most Western scholars do not com-
111 11 11 1, s uch as Mongolian, Japanese, Hungarian, and Russian. More-
"v " I , :L t :Ls l argely based on linguistic theories wh:Lch most gene-
I11 I in g uists no Ion ger consider adequately enl:Lghtening.
1111' s tudy of Modern Mongolian has a contribution to make to the
,," 1i in u i ng inves t igatio n of linguistic universals. Of the Altaic
I IIl i', ll. lge s, if we exclude Korean, only Turkish has received any
1' 1", 11 d lnOunt of syntactic study from general linguists. Mongolian
I I ' 1" i Le different in numerous respects from the languages usually
, 11, ',[ Ily g eneral ling ui s t s, and a number of spurious universals
\ I I I Il(' d l sprove el by what fo liows . For this reason I have endea-
"" "1".1 Lo make th e book as useful as possible to l:Lnguists with
"" 1,111 1i I :La rity w:Lth th e lang uage.
In ,,11 I Il a ve att e illpt e d 1s to g:Lve a s gooel a descript:Lon and ac-
,,, "" 1 IIf Ll lC 1, 111 f ', lI:l)l,C' <JS 1 co uld, us1 n g as my framework transfor-
1111 11" " :1 1 ;', CIH.' I":IL i V l ' g r :IIIIIl J: IJ" (TC) anel s p cc ,iFlcally the generative
'"1, 1111 [l" S Vl'r s ["'l 11l l' I""l,,,r. 01' :!l1 LI, (' p:IJ";ldi g IllS of l:Lngu:Lstic re -
, ""l i I 1)(, 1 i l'v(' LI, :,I Llli ~: ""l' I:: 1111 ' 1li( )s L ""ndll ('Lv c not only to
xii Preface
finding solutions to the probl e ms of the past but also to finding
new problems which will rend er the study of Mongolian grammar at
once interesting and fruitful. At the same time honesty and cla-
rity have not been sacrificed to a neat formalism or paradigmatic
purity; we linguists have all seen grammars rendered unreadable
and/or unus able by a strict adherence to the idiosyncratic fe ti-
shes of one group or other of theoreticians, and I have pref err ed
noting areas requiring further study to offering glossy but in-
substantial and ad hoc 'solutions' and descriptions.
Mongolists, Altaicists, and Orientalists in general will know
little or nothing of contemporary linguistic thought, and of
those who do I expect many will not find TG particularly conge-
nial. To render this work available to such a reader I have kept
theorizing, terminology, and formalism to the minimum needed, but
such things cannot of course be dispensed with altogether. The
symbols and notations to be used are exp lained below, and the
reader unfamiliar with TG is advised to read this prefatory mate-
rial and th e introduction carefully. An understanding of any
Mongolian language is not easi ly gained, but it is time that this
language family, which has been spoken in the heartland of Asia
for millennia, is recognized to be of historie importance, along-
side Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
What I have attempted here is a detailed grammatical study,
but, based as it is, on informant work with one native speaker
(with additional material from the modern literary language), it
is not the definitive grammar which may someday appear. It does
not in the main tou ch on either morpholo gy or lexicology; it
touches on semantics very little, for all its great importance
to syntax, and for this reason man y areas have been omitted:
questions, imperatives, ellipsis, pragmatic particles, and so on.
However, enough data has been provided so that future research
may buil d on what is here, and so that the book will be a useful
refer ence work.
Of what use is a book like this? It is hard to say; perhaps
none. But history teaches us with numerous examples that we live
in a four-dimensional continuum in which everything connects,
and in which obscure and seemingly unimportant facts and specu-
lations have been known to come in time to ass urne great practical
import. So may it be with the study of this interesting tongue.
Acknowledgments
I I>q;an my study of the language in the summer of 1972 under a
1', ' ,111 1 from the American Philosophical Society. I was fortunate
I " I>l' able to work with Mr Yidamjab Meng, a native of the Chakhar
" 'I ', ion of Inner Mongolia, who was then teaching at the University
" I \'J:is hington. In a very real sense this is Yidamjab' s bo ok,
1,"':I' d a s i t largely is on his native speaker ' s knowledge of his
III')', uag e. Analysis of my 1972 notes (marked he re 'Bk'), along
,, 111, a reading and re-reading of Street's Khalkha StY'ucture , made
"", ,Iwa r e of the gaps in my (and everyone else' s) knowledge of
fl"") ',11 Li an syntax. A research grant from the Canada Council, sup -
1, 1, '",,' nted by one from the University of Toronto, enabled me to
'J, " k wi th Yidamjab again in 1974 and deal with those gaps (notes
I, ,"" Lhat work appear here marked 'R').
1'III'o ughout my research Yidamjab's dedication to scholarship,
1I 1'I " Il c ouragement, and his toleration of my numerous errors, has
1" "' 11 0 E the first importance. Without hirn this work would lite-
I ,I I y ha ve been impossible. Onee again in the summer of 1977 a
I" ,11' 1 f rom the University of Toronto allowed me to work with my
1,1", 'd, this time on semantics, and I hope to publish the results
1,,, , I I y .
' I, ' ;md 'Bk' examples us ed he re and elsewhere were ehecked by
I' , ,, I ,' ss o r s Nicholas Poppe and John R. Krueger. This help rendered
11", ,,, ('o ns id e rably more reliable, though ultimate responsibility
I" , ,l i I examples rests with me. I would also like gratefully to
"I ,"' wl c dge h e re their other generou s assistance and e neourage-
''', 11 I , OLhe r s who have also watered the wildflower of my Mongo-
11 '1 1 I, 's wh o de serve mention are Prof esso rs Wayne Schlepp, Michael
,1" I,I I\l , Kei th Scott, Kuonr a t Haderlein, and Eric Hamp.
I \" " 11 Icl a l so like to acknowl e dge the parts played by th e fol-
1",, 111)', in ma lcL ng th is r esear c h possible: Ruth Mittelholtz and
1\ , 1,11 I Il\ll, l' r ty, my r esea rch ass is tan t s , who con tributed more than
I I",v Illil1k; I'ctc r Salll s , who as teac he r, fri e nd, and colleague
1"" ,11,": ,ys dl'sl' r vl' d Lh ~lnk s ; Lli c g l'antln g a ge ne i e s which have sup -
1'''1 1,' <1 Il,i s wII I' k - l l, (' I1l1I l'l' i(,,'In I' hil(l sn phi c ,q l Soc i e ty, the Canada
',,, ,",1 1, : IIld 11, \, lIn i v(' r s il y " I 'I'\l"'"IIIl; "nd f in a 'lly, Lee and Sam.
p

xiv Acknowledgments

This book has b een publish e d with th e h e lp of a grant from the Symbols and abbreviations
Ca n a dian Feder a tion for th e Humanities, using funds provided b y
th e Social Sciences and Humani ties Resea rch Council of Canada,
and a grant to the University of Toronto Press from the Andr ew
W. Mellon Foundation.

Toronto
Oc tober 1977

::" l1tences known to be unacceptable, or which are predicated as

' "l g rarrunatical, are prefi xe d with an asterisk, thus: *Mary e01.JS
,',t L At times I have us e d a range of values of acce ptability,
)',Il Lng from * through ? * and ? to OK. Sentences ungrammatical

I l' l a tive to a certain meaning, but ot h erwise ungrammatical, a re

I' ,-ef ixed with an exclamation point. For example, pronouns in
li " g lis h may precede or follow their refere nt, and adverbial
" 1ause s may pr e cede or follow the ma in clause. But in certain
,':! s es these two generalizations produce in conjunction a rela-
, I ve ly ung rarrunatical sentence. Sentenc e (ii) would be predicted
, " me a n th e same thing as (i), but in fact, although (ii) is a
IIi'rf ec tly good sentence, it cannot me an what (i) does. Therefore
I , Ls marked with an '!'.
(i) After Diefenbaker was no longer prime minister, he re-
mained in Parliament .
(ii) ! He remained in Parliament after Diefenbaker was no
longer prime minister .
I',,,"c ntheses are used to mark optional elements: Tom ate eake and
,://" (ate ) eookies. '*( ... ) 'means ' ... cannot b e deleted';
' ( A... )' mea ns ' ... must b e deleted.' Thus:
( I Li) Tom *(ate) eake and Sue ate eookies.
( iv) Tom ate eake and so did I (*eat eake )
N" ,,,· l y a ll sen t e nces have been marked as to th e ir so urce, using
'1 11' 'lbbreviations given in the table of sources ; a few infrequen-
, I y c lted items are omitt e d from the list.
In c onn ection with th e 1974 research I prepared a concorda nce,
1" " , 1Y comp u t e rize d, par tly on fil e cards, 0 fanumber of sampIes
" I wl" itt e n tex t. Pa rt of this material is marked 'Mao' below, and
' ''"''' S from the tran s l ation of the Quotations from Chairman Mao .
11,. 1)1l 1 Ltl ca l Inten t lay b e h i nd choice of this material, and the
v !, 'w: ; ;1 r e n() t, 0 E co urs e , n e cessarily those of the researcher.
,: I " ,;scs iJ c:co mpal1ying exa mpl es a r e t h ose of the source, in gene-
1,11 . l.iL e r; 11 g l o sses ilr e g ive n, usin g the abbreviations explained
1.. , I,.w . '1'1, (' ;l C'c ompCl n y il1 g 11011 - "1 i t e ra l g l o sse s a r e in two cases in-
d" \>i' IIII l' nl o ! llil' Mong o i i " 11 l'xi llnpl cs il l1d not alwa ys c lose: the ' F '
,11111,1,, :: :" "(' )', l ll ssl' cI I nlill v"r !ClIl S I\n )', 1 i s li Lr;l l1 s "l;Jtions of the
xvi Modern Mongolian xv .i 1. Symbols and abbreviations

works represented (Cervantes ' Don Quixo te and Turgenev's Fathe rs /ildi cative verbs Verba l nominals
and Bons ) and the 'Mao ' examples from the English-language edi- I' I"l'sen t -ne pres imperf ec t - ee impf vn
tion of the 'little red book.' This explains s uch di screpanci es \v 11 ne ss ed -lee wit perf ec t -sen pf vn
as imperialistuud represented in glosses by 'imperialism.' l' l l'te ri te -J(ee ) pret futur e -
References contain page numbers fol l owed optionally by example I',I S L - ev past infinitive - ex inf
numbers. Thus (Stre e t 129.1) means the first example or sentence frequ e ntative -d~g freq
on page 129 of Kha lkha Btructure. References to examples in the agentive - gc agent
present work contain paragraph numb e rs followed by example num- ",lILVe rbals Other
....
bers, thus: 69.2 . IIlI pe r fect -J impf particles (vari.ous) part
I have tra nsferred al l examples n ot a lrea dy in the Cyrillic Pe' r fe e t - eed pf plural - üüd " PL
script into writing, a nd then transliterat ed a ccording to the Illoda l -n mod question üü Q
sch e me given below. In Russian names an d words I have tran sl it e - ('ondi tional -vel cond reflexive-
rat ed E howeve r as e and 3 as e. lerminal -tel term possessive - ee RP
('o mpara tive -xeer comp
CyriUic La tin CyriUic Latin Cy riUic Latin :, ucce ssi ve -xleer succ
A A J1 L X X I'o ntemporal - megc cont
E B M M lL C
:tb temporal -seer abt

B V H N l{ C ALphabetical List of Abbreviations

r G 0 0 lJl S
.tbl ablative case mod modal converbal
.n D G Ö m sc .Ib t abtemporal converbal nom nominative case
. t CC ac cusative ca se part particle
E E 11 P 'b
.I)',e nt agentive ' ~ominal past past verb
E E p R bl y ('I H Il comitative case pf perfect converbal
C "omp compa rat {ve converbal pf vn perfect nominal
}K J S b
"ond conditional converbal PL plural particle
3 z T T 3 E t'o nt contemporal converbal pres present verb
.!:tt dativ e -lo~a tive case pres cript prescriptive verb
Vi I Y U 10 JU
II-e q frequenta~ive nomina l pret preterite verb
t1 J Y U H JA )', , ' n genitive case RP reflexive-possessive
q:, Illtpe r imperativ,e verb particle
K K F
IllIpE imperfect converbal Q ques tion particle
Abbr e viations in th e Glo ss es IlIIpf vn imperfectnominal succ successive converbal
111 r future-in~initive term t e rminal converbal
In the lit eral gloss es I have abbreviated the grammat i ca l cate- nominal . vol voluntative verb
gor y of endings. The following tabl es give th e various sets of Illst r in s trumedtal case wit wi tnessed verb
end ings, with only the most common front - vo calic form of each
cit e d. There follows an alph abe tical list of the abbre viations A""reviations for the Sources of Examples Cited
and their va lues .
A S. Erde ne, Ödrijn od, Ulan Bator 1969
Noun cases Imperative verbs
nominative o nom imperative 0 imper Attsti n William M. Austin et al ., Mongol Reader (Uralic and
Altaic se ries 29), Blo omington, Ind. 1963
genitive -i jn gen prescriptive - eere j prescript
-"je I'.k My not es of 1972 - to b e used Hith care
dative-lo cative - ed dat voluntative vol
1\. ,ttWC
ac cusat ive 1 o acc Re nate Ba uwe, ' Akkusativ und Gene tiv de s Subjekts in
mongo l ischen Glied - und Neb e nsätzen,' Wis senschaftlich e
2 - ijg acc
abl a tive - ee r; <lb "I '/,e1:-tschri ft en der Humbolilt- Um:v ersität 18 .513-18, 1969
i n st rulIlc n t ,,1 -(,(' I' i ns ll- 'I'.A . 1\C' t- La).\ilcv, /,ekrri/w r;ov-remennyx mongol ' skix
('o mi l:tl I V ( ' - /I',j ('0 111 / i ! ( 'I"Il!IIY'II.,p' ,jl/;:!/ko() , Mo s \,()w 197/1
xviii Modern Mongolian xix Symbols and abbreviations

Binnick Robert I. Binnick, 'Mongolian Structure,' unpublished I ~ oss

paper, 1974 John R. Ross, 'Constraints on Variables in Syntax,'
Comrie Bernard Comrie, 'The Syntax of Causative Construc- unpublished dissertation, Massachusetts Institute
of Techno10gy, 1967
tions: Cross-language Similarities and Divergences, , Stree t
in M. Shibatani, ed., The Grammar of Causative Con- John C. Street, Khalkha Structure (Uralic and Altaic
Series 24), Bloomington 1963
structions (Syntax and Semantics 6), New York 1976 1I
CWH The Chicago Which Hunt (Proceedings of the parases- Uran ügsijn cuulgan , Ulan Bator 19 68
Xe l Xel zoxiol [Language Journa1J 5 (1967), Ulan Bator
sion on relative clause constructions, Chicago llnderhill Robert Underhill, 'Turkish Participles,' in
Linguistic Society regional meeting 8), Chicago 1972
Linguistic Inquiry 3 (1972), 87-100
DR A.R. Damba-Rin~ine and G.S. Mupkin, eds., Russko- Z
Mongol'skij slovar', Moscow 1960 C. Sandag, Gadaadyn uran zoxiol, Ulan Bator 1967
Zebek S chalonow Zebek, Mongo lisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch,
FL Gadaadyn uran zoxiolyn unsix bicig [Foreign Litera- Leipzig 1961
ture ReaderJ, Ulan Bator 1967
Greenberg Joseph H. Greenberg, 'Some Universals of Grammar
with Particu1ar Reference to the Order of Meaning-
fu1 Elements,' in Greenberg, ed., Universals of
Language, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Mass. 1966
GWM Nicholas Poppe, Grammar of Written Mongolian,
Wiesbaden 1964
Hangin John G. Hangin, Basic Course in Mongolian (Uralic
and Altaic Series 73), Bloomington 1968
HanginD John G. Hangin, A Concise English-Mongolian Dic-
tionary (Uralic and Altaic Series 89), Bloomington
1970
Kas ' j anenko Z.K. Kas'janenko, Sovremennyj mongol'skij jazyk,
Leningrad 1968
KhGr Nicholas Poppe, Khalkha-Mongolische Grammatik,
Wiesbaden 1951
L J. Lovdoj, Xavtgaj cagaan ulz, Ulan Bator 1967
Luvsandendev A. Luvsandendev, Mongol Oras tol' [ Mongol'sko-
Russkij Slovar'J, Moscow 1957
Mao [Mao Tse-tungJ, Darga Mao Czedungijn ügijn tüüver
- the 'litt1e red book' in Mongo1ian translation,
Peking 1972
MLH Nicholas Poppe, Mongolian Language Handbook,
Washington, D.C. 1970
Montgomery David C. Montgomery, Mongolian Newspaper Reader
(Ura1ic and A1Eaic Serie~ · 102), B100mington 1969
N C. Nacagdor], Uülen süüde~, Ulan~~ator ~~68 .
Orchin S. Luvsanvandan et al. , eds., Orc'L-n cag'L-Jn mongol
xel züj [Contemporary Mongolian LinguisticsJ, Ulan
Bator 1966
Orlovskaja M.N. Or10vskaja, 'Combinability of Mongolian Adverbs
with Different Parts of Speec h a nd Their Pl ace in
the Sentence, ' Mongolian Studies , e d. Louis Ligeti,
Budapest 1970, 371-5
R My notes oE 197<1 - to hc lI sl· d wiLI, C:1re
Ragcaa ß. 1{ ; l g~; ll1 ;lnd C. J ;II1 <- ldorT, M()Jl~/(l1 x('/I/i,j Ö:liiüLber zi-l,J
I SY IlI:l x " I Ill l' M<l il f'. <l IIIIII 1.!1I1 P. II!lf',l ' l. 111 :111 II"Lor 1968
=

Introdudion

Mo ngolia and the Mongols

'1' 0 mos t people the name 'Mongolia' conjures up, if anything, an

Image of Mongolian hordes, of the vast Gobi, of Marco Polo, or of
I(oy Chapman Andrews. Even to scholars of Asia it is little more 0)
Ihan the homeland of the Yuan dynasty. But in fact Mongolia exists
I (l day as a country and a nation and a people. Though most Mongols
live in Inner Mongolia, and there are speakers of both 'Mongolian'
(K ha lkha and r ela ted dialects) and related Mongolian languages as
I :Ir a field as Afghanistan and the Volga region, it is with Outer
~ 1 (\llgo lia, the People 1 s Republic of Mongolia (or MPR), that we
,,1,;,11 cuncern ourselves here .
'I'his is ' a vast land, and a n empty one, perhaps the most under-
1'() l'ula t ed country in Asia. From west to east it runs for some
I/,()O kilometres, and from north to south 1300, giving in all a
,"1 11 Lo n and a half square kilometres , in which live something
<>VI' r a million or so p eo ple. This population density of 0.6 per

I, 11/ may be compared wi th that of 1. 6 for Canada. Mor eoe ver, prob-
,,1,1 y half the country is virtually uninh ab ited; a quarter of th e
1"'l' uLation live in the capital, Ulan Bator (Ulaan Baatar). Thus
11 i s an even emptier land than de nsity f igures alone would indi-
, . I! L' .

'I'hL s vas t land has a lways been the centre of tensions, th e

)lIlIl l'ing-off spot for every wild adventure. The Runs may h ave had
/1", 11" origins here, and the Turks, Tartars , and Mongols lived
I" , I ( , befo re they se t forth to war in Russia and Centra l Europe,
111 111:1 , and India. Wave a ft er wave of nomadic tribesmen arose and
"'v l' I'l out of th e mountains a nd deserts which lay west and south
" I 11:1 ika l a nd north of the Chinese walls. These invaders knew no
11 ,ll('gy b e yond the speed of their ponies, no ideology beyond
11 11 ' / 1" el es :i re for plund e r. Always they were in the end defeated
<> I ,rll :-;()rbeel. Th e ir e ne mies prospere d and progressed, but they
I, 111, 1I Il C ei what a lways th ey had b ee n. Les s than ninety years after
1111, I 1:1i fou nel c d h Ls elynasty, the Mo n go l s wer e e xpelled from China .
11 11 11 ' l h i rl('('l llh cc nlUl"y W ; I S lh c ze nlth oF Mon go l g lory a nd con-
'1 ,,' '' >1 :: , wl' l' 1l I h l' IH) lIi l'!' o f L1l c' 1\ 11,'111 g r:l zcd :ll lh e gates oF Budap es t,

xxii Modern Mongolian
the late fourteenth represented thei r deeline and fall, their
nadir. Only Tamerlane remained to remind the world of what had
been. By the sixteenth eentury this energy that had spewn armies
out into Euras ia was spent, and it was never to eome again.
The Mongois beeame Lamaistie Buddhis ts and began a long deeline.
How steep a deeline this was is a eontroversial subjeet. The
Russo-Mongolian History of the Mongolian People's Republic (Moseow
1973) depi e ts th e MPR at the b eginning of the twentieth eentury
as a vietim of the petty prinees and Chinese merehants who des-
Doiled it a land of sueh great poverty, ignoranee, disease, and
illiterae; that the Mongoi people we re dying out. Certainly the
pieture drawn by sueh travellers as the missionary James Gilmour
is in aeeord with this. In his Among the Mongol s (London [1882J)
the Rev. Gilmour deseribes a poverty-strieken land under the heel
of arbitrary Mandarins. At one point he notes (p . 187) that 'the
number of possible patients to be found in any one plaee is eq ual
t o the total number of the inhabitants.' Most Wes t ern writers to-
day tend to give a less bl e ak pieture, but there ean be no doubt
that Mongolia was a sad land, and there is no need for me to re-
peat further the endle ss aneedotes whieh have been selee ted to
pieture that sadness. It is b eyond doubt that the Chines e revo-
lution and the ensuing Mongolian r e volution of 1924 saved the na-
tion and reversed its de eline. Even thos e to whom the politieal
eeonomy of the MPR is repugnant admit that there has been signi-
fieant pro gress.
Indeed, in some r espe et s, eonsidering how fa r it has had to
eome, Mongolia has been remarkably sueeessful. I f we are to under-
stand the language and literat ure of Mongolia, espeeially that o f
the MPR, we must for get pietur es que images of yaks and eamels in
the dunes. Mongolia today is a nation in whie h 41 per eent of the
working population is in industry, and only 20 per eent in agri-
eulture (aeeording to A.J.K. Sanders, The People ' s Republic of
Mongolia, London 1968); it is a member of the Unit e d Nations and
regula rly sends its a thletes to the Olympies (they won a silver
medal a t Montreal); the MPR has a university and a tel e vision
system, an airline and an oper a house (whieh regularly per f orms
Swan Lake!); and so on. Canada has e stablish e d diplomatie rela-
tions with the HPR, and it is rumoured t hat the Uni ted States may
soon follow suit. Genghiz would definitely ne ither unde rstand nor
approve.
The Mongolian Language
As the Mongois are genetieally r e l ate d to th e Chines e , many peo pl
have s upp osed that their lang ua ge ;] nd h is tarL ea l e ul t ure were als
relat e d t o th e Chinese . Man go i i a n i s in 1-:1C L ,'ln 1\ 1 t ;d l ang uage ,
relat e d ta th c TUI-ki c l :ln l~ lI.'l I',l' S (111(' 111<1111 1', 'I'III-ki s li, llzbck, Turkmcl1,
Azer b:llj :ln, l' l (' . ) , I " 11 1(' M:I IH' IIII 1:111) ',11:1)''<'':, : lI1d I tl (' ('1-1:1111 ot li crs .
~x iii Introduetion
I(u y Andrew Miller has argued that Japanese is also Altaie and
I"lcLta inly there are a number of struetural similarities a~d pos -
:; Lble eognates. Korean also has a number of similarities to both
I\ ltaie and Japanese. There 1s no generally ae eepted view on the
Il'lati onship of Korean, Japanese, and Altaie, and some seholars
II:lve even argued that Altaie is the result of eonvergenee o f un-
Il'lated neighbouring languages rather than deseent from a eommon
':t lure e. In any ease Mongolian has nothing to do with Chinese. Go-
il1g a bit further afield, there have been efforts made to relate
I\ l taie to the Uralie group, whieh ineludes Finnish Estonian and
11 •
11I1garlan. There are a number of striking resemblanees '
between ,
Ill cs e languages, but there are few eonvineing eorrespondenees
,lIld s e~o lars prefer to aseribe these faets to linguistie areai
""()s~ -lnfluenees over a long period of time. This question too
I ('ma~ ns open. F~r m~re ~nf~rmation, see Nieholas Poppe, Intro -
,1/("t1-on to AUa1-c L1-ngu1-st1-CS (Wiesbaden 1965), wh1eh eontains
,111 cx t ensive bibliography. For th e position of Korean see also
1:, " . I ."~R~ms:edt, 'St~dies in Korean Etymology,' Memoire; de la
," ', 'w te F1-nno-Ougr1-enne 95 (1949); for Japanese, see Roy Andrew
~ ll llt;r, Japanese and Other Altaic Languages (Chieago 1971). For
11", near relation~ o~ Khalkha, see the faseiele on Mongolistik
" I vol ume 5, A lta-/-st1-k, of the Handbuch der Orienta lis tik (Leiden
1%/, ) and N. Poppe ' s Introduction to Mongolian Comparative Studi es
111(,ls1nki 1955).
11 ,iS important to dea l with the ambiguity of the term 'Mongo-
I I 111 a s regards language, and to define narrowly the language
"., ,I rc eo neerned with h e re. Apart from Mongolian, with one mil-
I I,"I s peakers in the MPR and at least as many in Inner Mongolia,
1111':;(' rela ted languages are spoken today: Buriat in the Buriat
\',:; I( () f the USSR, with perhap s 300,000 speakers; Kalmyk in th e
I 1II11yk ASS R, with perhaps 150,000; Oirat in the HPR and China,
( 1111 :1 t least 60,000; and a numb e r o f small, lo ea l langua ges with
IIl y w lie~e from a eouple of thousand to perhaps 150,000 speakers,
1,, 11 111.2 Lther lit e rary nor eultural languages: Moghol in Af ghanistan
11.1) ',111" in Maneh uria a nd Sinkiang , Monguor in Kansu, Santa and '
"" I I (lW Uighur i n Kansu, and Bao-an in Chinghai . In China the old
I 11,' 1":1ry lang uage in the vertieal seript is still used as the
'/ 1 11 I l'l1 La ngua ge; its 'elassical' forms are heavily influeneed
I, .. 11".' ver na eula r, and when read aloud loeal sp ee ch is used. For
, , I 1.1In purpos e s this old written language is still used in th e
111'1', IHlt 110rmally for publie purposes Mongolian is wr itten in a
111", 11 11,'<1 Cyril Lic alp habet. This h as l ed some uninformed crities
1", ', 11 1(' leI t he MPR t o eo nelud e that Mongolian was being turned
111 1,' I{ ,l s s i:ln! Il i s true that Mon go lian h as been influeneed by
11" ", 1,111, hut o nl y In lh e way that Ja panese has b een by English.
11, 111, 1 : 111 1" II : q ~cs 11 ~lv c borrowe d ;t nd "Ioa n-t ran s lat e d a vast array of
"'IJ 1( ' 1'1 1\:: . Ili C' I I Ll' r :ll-y I"o nn s or beltli c ullu r es have been al tere d.
J\ t t I
111 I (11)( ' Il .' 1"" (' V( , I~ I 11:1 f 11 I :I 1 11(' (I l I I:IL . I :IP :IIll";l' W:l S t ll r n In g i nt o English.
xxiv Modern Mongolian
The new literary language i s e l ose to the spoken verna eular, and
no great harm is done in pretendin g t h a t the Khalkha dial eet is
equivalent to this language. Certainly literary Mongolian diff e rs
today less from Khalkha an d Khalkha l ess fro m s ueh diale et s a s
Chakhar than many English diale e ts differ from eaeh other and from
written English. The Buriats a nd Kalmyks have old literary l a n-
guages using ve rtiea l seripts not di ssimilar to the Mongolian, but
they to o today use the Cyrillie alphab e t. These thre e languages
differ from eaeh other, a nd use diff e ring spelling eonventions,
but are substantially mutua lly intelligible, ee rta i nly no diffe rent
from one a nother than, say, Portug uese and Spanish and Italian.
Mongolian was f irst written down not long after the MongoI tribes
united in th e twel fth eentury . The l angua ge previous to that time
is usuall y ealled Aneient Mongolian. The vertieal seript was b o r-
rowed from the Uighurs, a Turkie people who h ad had a seript sinee
the seventh eentury. This seript, like nearly all alphabets or
syllabaries of Eurasia ean be traeed baek ultimately to the Semitie
peoples of middl e antiquity, and henee is distantl y rela ted not
only to our own alphabet, whieh traees its aneestry through Creek
and Phoenieian to the same souree, but to the alphabets of the
modern Semitie, Indian, Tibetan, South Asian, and ne a rl y al l Euro -
pean languages. The oldest inseription in the vertieal seript we
have is traditionally dated at 12 25 AD. The l a ngua ge in it is
Middle Mongoli a n, whi eh exist e d until the seventeenth eentury .
This language is relatively eonservative in s ome ways ( f or example,
a bilabial initial lost in Modern Mong oli an was preserved as Ihl
in Mi dd le Mongolia n, but some modern dia l eet s sti ll h ave I~/: Old
Turkish öküz = Middle Mongolian hüker , Classieal Mongolian üker,
Monguor fuguor 'ox'; Manehu f on ' year ' s time ,' Korean pom 'Spring '
= Middl e Mon go lian hon, Classieal Mon go lian on, Monguor fän 'year .'
See N. Pop pe , Vergl ei chende Grammatik der Altaischen Sprachen I,
Wiesbaden 1960).
The modern pe r io d b egins around the sevente e nth eentury and may
be assoeiated e ulturally with the transit ion from the pagan , noma-
die e ulture tha t produeed the Secret Hi stor y of the Mongols to the
Buddhist eulture whieh translated so many basie works o f Buddhism
into Mongo lia n , where indeed some Sanskrit works are today uniquel y
preserved. In the twentieth eentury th e new literary language in
Cyrillie h as further broken wi th the past ; both s t yle and eontent
have been he avily aff ee ted by foreign influenees and the n eeds of
a new , modern eiviliza tion . Although th e folkson g , riddle, epie,
a nd so on are s til l prese r ved, s ueh forms as the newspaper and
th e novel hav e put new demands on the lan guage , wh ieh h as gr own
in sophisti eation with its authors . In r ee ent year s a l a r ge n umb e r
of foreign works, mainly from Ru ssia n, h av e b ee n tr a n s lat e d i nt o
Mongolia n, e nrieh ing t he l a ng ll age . '1' 0 d,lte , lInf o rtun .:1 t e l y , v e ry
little Mo ngo l L.:1 n l it c r ,'l t l"-c h;ls h(,l' n ll-, ln s l ,ll e t! In Lo Wcs t e rn
t o ng ucs .
:·: xv Introduetion
For thos e unfamilia r with the Mongolian language some basie
I>,)ints eoneerning the phonology a n d morphology a r e outlined he r e.
The data is ehiefly drawn from MLH and KhC r .
Phone tieal l y the vowe ls of Khalkh a a r e all unlike thos e of more
1,Im iliar languages. The deseen dant of the u vowel, for e xampl e, is
I) I-ono une e d as a very retra et ed vowel s ound i ng to the We s te rn e ar
I ike a v e ry h igh (elose) o-sound. The old ü vowel is usually re-
11-.:1e ted to een tra l posi tion, s ounding roughly like the vowel in
I\lI le~ iea n ~nglish pur e . Despite these purely phonetie developments,
IL lS ObV10US tha t Mongolian has ba s i eally today the same seven-
v<l we l system i t had in the elassieal language. The system of the
I,mg uage ass i gns vowels t o ea t egori e s aeeording to three variables
I", Lght (eloseness), frontedness or baeking, and rounding (labial i- '
.',,1ti on ) , as shown in th e table below:
Front Back
Rounded Unrounded Rounded Unrounde d
//I:lh u i u (i)
Nr'll-hi gh o e o a
11i s to rieally, Mo ng olian had a n eight-vowel system like Turk i s h ;
1I ha d a baek high unrounde d vowel, 14:.1, eo rresponding to th e
v<>wel spel l e d today in Turkish wit h an undotte d 'L This merged
wiL h li(, yielding the present system . Howeve r, i t h as been a r gue d
I 1,, 1t th1s merge r was purely phonetie; a s far as the phonologieal
':ys te m is eoneerned, there i s s ti l l a n opposition of fronting for
Illg h unrounded vowels. See Erie P. Hamp, 'Vowel Harmony in Classi-
", l i Mongolian, , Word l4.29lff (1958); Th eodo r e M. Lightner, 'On
I I", De se r i ption o f Vowe l Harmon y and Consonant Harmony, , Word
'1.2L,4ff (196 5) .
'I' ll e r ep resent ation of the vowels in the written language i s some-
,,, I!.lt eomplex. As noted, vowels tend to be phone t i e a lly re t rae t ed ,
,IIld somewhat l owered, so th a t the a pproximate phonetie val ue s for
I I", vowe ls lü ö i e u 0 al (spelled in Cyrillie y e K :3 Y 0 a )
, 11" I H 3 1 - 2 0- J 0 J . Initial syl l ab l e s are s t ress e d , unless
1<> 11" vowels (ineluding diphthongs) o e eur, in whieh eas e th e f i rs t
'<>lIg vowel is stressed. Unstressed short vowels not in the initial
',v l l nble a re we a ke ned; depending on whieh syllable they are in and
11", l'l' nt po of s p e eeh, they be eome sueeessi ve l y unstr esse d vowels
" I,wels wit h vowe l qualit y , glide -like un eolo ure d sehwas, an d f1-
II " l ly de l e t e d a lt oge th e r.
1\,; a rul e , s pe lling represen t s the vowels in a straightforward
lV, I Y , unllke En gli s h. Ther e a r e some e xeeptions, however:
I. 1\ f j n.:11 lil Ln .:1 hae k- vo eal ie word i s s pelled ' b exeept a f-
1, ' 1 ('l'r La in co nso na nl c lu s t e r s : l a r x il ar::c ' apX b •
.'. 1\ l o ng I L: I i s s pc I I cd 'iJ K 11 Ln fr o n t -voea li e word s and y bI
111 I>:1 (' k- v() c;t! i c ' lIl l'S : /llIln l :/ 111'1:111:) MK HI111 bu t / tani:/TaHbl
11 1 l'l ' I-L:t i 11 Ptl S i l i o ne: p 1
-(', 11 ('[:tl> l e VIlW l' I e: : 11-(' o llll t te d Ln wri. t in g .
xxvi Modern Mongolian
For example, lxi (as weIl as certain other consonants) can never
occur finally, and a final vowel after lxi is always predictable
as to quality if non-high. Therefore non-high vowels after lxi
are omitted in spelling: lirexel is spelled irex Rp3X. Similarly,
I~/, II/, and /;/ are usually the historical product of the pala-
tization of It/, Id/, and Is/ respectively before /i/. Therefore
lil at the end of a word after them is omitted: the dative of irex
is irexed and that of Dor] .II.oPJK is DorJid.
4. A long vowel immediately after lil is written short: thus
lorxio:dl is orxiod OPX110,n;.
When a short, non-high vowel precedes a long vowel in the next
syllable it is deleted. Thus from ge- 'say' and the pf ending - eed
we get ge edr88,n;. On the other hand, when two long vowels are
adjacent, an epenthetic /gl is inserted to separate them: the pf
of baj- 'be' is bajgaad 6aHraa,n;.
Mongolian has vowel harmony. Save in some foreign borrowings all
vowels in a word must be either front or back. /il is neutral,
though roots in which the first vowel is lil are automatically
front-vocalic. Thus ir- 'corne' has the rf ireed . When a suffix is
added to astern, it takes the same vocalism a s the stern. Thus suf-
fixes have no inherent frontedness; here I cite suffixes in front -
vocalic form purely as a convenience. High unrounded vowel suffixes
are spelled with R if short, RR if front and long, H if back and
long (the long is spe l led R if directly following a short vowel).
b of the stern is changed to 11 before a suffix, however: cyprYYJIb
has the dative cypryy JIR,n; ./i: I directly following a long vowel
does not add Ig/, but simply deletes. The accusative of sanaa is
sanaag from sanaa + -ijg (-yg), not *sanaayg or *sanaagyg. Some
suffixes similarly alternate lul and lü/: uls uud 'nations,' but
xö l güüd 'vessels.'
Non-high vowel suffixes are a more complex situaion, since Mon-
golian also has rounding harmony. A non-high vowel following an-
other non-high must share its fronting and rounding; in effect, it
must be its copy. Thus some suffixes have four different forms. As
non-high rounded vowels can occur only in the first syllable or
immediately following another non-high rounded, not only is the
position of many vowels predictable, but most non-first-syllable
vowels are predictable vowe ls are generally deleted, except under
certain conditions. Igevec/, for example, is gevc r8B'-l and
/gadanal is gadna ra,n;Ha, because /vc/ and /dnl clusters do not
occur. Since Mongolian occasionally adds unpronounced vowels to
prevent certain ambiguities of reading, th e s pelling system has
a more complicated appearance than it r e ally nee ds to, giving rise
to complex mnemonics.
The consonant s a r e Ib d g t C C z 'j s s x Y III n rJ L r/, written
6 ,n; r 'I' l ~ LI :3 :r: C :Jl X i' M I r JI p . Wi r " S ClI1l C cxcc p t Lo ns (noted
be low) th c ge ne 1-:1 I r"on l' Li (' V:i1l1l'" ur L" l','l' ;Ir e :Ippro x irn:l t c l y
I h cl )', Les ~ ;TZ T " :-; 1, j 111 11 11 ~ I,
xxvii Introduction
1. Intervocalically Ibl ranges over [ß v wJ; it is spelled VB.
Thus lirevell irvel RPB3JI but Icelembell celembel ~8JI8Mb8JI.
2. Igl has numerous a l lphones differing in tensing, voicing,
a nd fronting.
3. lxi initially is pronounced [ hJ but elsewhere [ x ] (roughly
t he sound of Spanish j in junta or Scots ch in loch.
4. IrJI occurs only finally, and is spelled n, since Inl never
oc curs finally except under certain conditions to be discussed
below. Historically this distribution is due to the circumstance
t hat IrJ I arose from velarization of Inl before a velar such as
/g /; subsequently final Ig/s were lost, leaving I~I in place. The
ea se is analogous to that of English ISirJI from original Ising/.
/\ phonetic final [n] does occur, but only as the result of vowel
de letion under rapid tempo in colloquial speech; such an Inl is
:11ways followed in spelling by a vowel: GaUHa is [bä.nJ; BaH is
IvarJ J · /gl following the velar nasal is usually retained before
;r vowe1. Thus the ablative of aH 'wild game animal' is aHr a aC.
Some final [rJ J 's result from pure velarization of In/; these have
110 forms in I g/. Th e ablative of aH 'friend' is accordingly aHaac.
5. Iyl is spelled j;f in certain cases, e. g. j ork 110PK 'York.'
LJ s ually it is written with the following vowel, thus: Ija/.ii,
/je l e, Ijol Ei, Ijöl e, Ijul 10 , Ijül 10. (Note the ambiguity of
~ and 10 .)
6 . lei and 131 sometimes alternate; lei follows voiceless con-
s <> na nts and Ir/, Ijl occurring elsewhere. The imperfect of gar-
i S thus garc rapq but the impf of oro- is oro] 0POJK. Similarly
/ LI a nd /dl alternate, as in Turkish.
I s hall now say something of morphology. In the body of this
wOLk I have been careful to give morpheme boundaries indicated
II, us with a dot: gar.c. In glosses, I have separated' the glosses
lor s pecific morphemes with a hyphen: go out-impf. For the abbre-
v i a t i ons used in the glosses, see pp. xv-xvi.
Mo ngolian roots fall into vari.ous classes depending on their
1I1('aning. Certain classes are open-ended. These are content words
,I nd a llow affixation. Minor classes are more or less closed. Typi-
": 11 1y these are words wi th functions rather than meanings, and
lI:; lI ally th ey do not allow a ffixation. The language is agglutina-
I I vc , with a rich array of derivational and inflexional elements
wl, i e h can be used to build long words containing up to five or '
111" I"lo mor ph eme s . Prefixe s and infixes absolutely do not occur, nor
d" g r amma ti c al r e duplications, ablaut grades, or suppletive forms.
I, I-l')', ul ar it ies a re s o f ew in number as to be negligible: such '
• ,"'l's ca n be tr ea t e d a s s eparate lexical items in the vocabulary.
N O lill s t e l11s t a ke a ffi xes in thi s order: root + (any derivational
1" l1l t' lI tS ) + (plul-nl) + ( case ) + (po s sessive). Certain doubled cases
"" (' 111- , Lltu s : mi ni) ([(w!lnd 'at I11Y f a th e r' s ' ('chez mon pere') con-
(,11 11 " SIl (' !J :1 douhl ", d C lse , :1 dnt i ve (d ) a t o p a genitive (yn).
f\ l'" s s " SS i VL' ( ' : 111 h(, : 111 ,,,'clill :lr y )~l' 11Ltiv ~iJ pronoun in short form:
xxviii Modern Mongolian xxix Introduction

min' 'my,' or a reflexive-possessive pronoun - ee 'one' s own,' as r oot, saj - 'good, wei l, pretty, fine,' as an exampl e of the rich-
in mori . d. oos . oo 'from one's own horses. ' The ac cusative ending ness and power of the system:
is u se d with def in ite objects (the car) and the nominative serves
as accusative with indefinites (a car). (This i s only an approxi- Adjectival/Adverbial Nominal
mation.) saj.n ' go od; weil' saj .c.uud 'best workers'
As i n oth er Asian languages, the plural is used only to empha- saj.taj 'with good qualities ' saj . 3ra. l 'improvement'
si ze the plurality; otherwise a singular f orm do es duty fo r both. saj .xan 'handsome , fine, attractive' saj.saa . l 'prai se'
Nom should b e transla ted 'book(s),' therefore. Compare dial ect saj . saa. l . taj 'praisewor th y '
English with numerals, e.g. 'that's three mil e from here.' saj.saa . l . yn 'praise -'
Adjectives take no inflections and ag ree wit h no nouns. In some saj.saa . x . güj 'unpraising '
examples, an adjective appears t o take a case ending, but in s uch saj . tar 'as it sho uld b e '
examp les (usually truncated sent e nce s) the a dje ctive is function -
i ng predicatively wi t hin a sort of nomin al iz ed sentence, f or ex- Verbal
amp le in: minij baga.d 'when I was small.' saj . da . x 'b e to o good '
Verb s take four di f fer en t se ts of in fl exiona l e ndings - imp e ra- saj.d.uula.x 'make too go od'
tive, indicative (finite), ger undial, and verbal nomi nal (part i- saj .3ra.x 'b ecome b et ter'
cipial ). These l as t are genera lly nomi na li zed forms, a nd a s such . ... l
s aJ.~r.uu a.x 'make better'
can take a n y e nd i n g a noun can. Thus : saj . saa. x 'praise '
minij gar.sn.yg ter me d. sen. güj 'he didn't know I had gone out' 8aj.saa . gda . x 'b e pra is ed '
my go o ut-pf vn-a cc he know-pf vn- less
Here garsan has a n accusative ending a nd medsen the ad je ctival - This list is by no means exhaustive.
fo r ming n egative s uff ix - güj '-l ess . ' NP + - güj is eith er nominal In theory wo rds of up to nine o r more morphemes can oc cur. Gene-
or adjectival; b oth minij medsengüjg (med.sen.güj.g) 'my not know- ra lly sp eaking, s uffixes are added dire c tly to the stern (intrusive
ing' (acc) and minij medsengüjd (me d. se n .g üj . d) 'in my i gno rance ' /g / be ing one e xce ption) . In agglutinative languages th ere are no
are possible. ~ eman ti c or phonological merge rs of s ucces sive morph emes s uch as
Cert ain enclitic par ti cles obey vowe l harmony. The se include oc cur in synthetic l anguages; th e po i nt of morph emic junc ture i s
the pragmatic par ti cle s süü and dee , rüü, and the ques tion pa r- us ually clear. In indic a ting morpheme boundaries I have assigned
ticle ÜÜ . Other particles do not ob ey vowel h a rmony - nar and bo l , /g / arbitrarily to the following morpheme, however: sat . aa.gaad
fo r example. 'having caus e d to burn,' baj . guula .x 'to c ause to be, establish .'
A sma ll clas s of root adverbs exis t s (for example, odoo 'now ') . In cas es of vowe l dele tion, or wh e re s hort vowel s ar e not clearl y
Of the other minor class es , only postpo si tions are in any sens e in one morpheme o r the other, I have a lways as signed short vowels
cont ent wo rd s, and these can sometimes t ake case e ndings. Thus Lo th e p re cedin g, and lon g vowe ls to the followin g morpheme, a s
ömnöös ' f rom before' (abi of ömnö ). However, postpositions are s hown in th ese exampl e s : xe le . x 'to say,' g. eed 'having sa id.'
of t en not r oo ts, but derived, e.g. xürte l 'until' f rom xürex
'reach' ; t h ere are no prep os it ion s . Ce rt ain ad ject ives and adverbs Transforma t ional Grammar
take diminutives: gancxan 'only, ' dulaaxan 'wa rm' from dulaan 'hot, '
e tc. The number of infle c ted minor words i s smal l. Indeed, there I'o r th os e un famil iar with transformational grarnmar, some remar ks
are relatively f ew mi nor class words in the language a t al l, s ince Il c e d to be made ab out it as weil.
it prefer s to us e verb or noun roots to derive it s grammatical Tran sf o rmat i onal generative gramrnar (TG) is a hybrid development
words ( even bo lood ' and' from bo lox ' become ') . Thus dund serves " f Ame ri can a nd Europ ean s truc tura lism. It i s des c riptive as op-
as th e noun 'middle,' the adj e ct ive 'middle,' th e adverb '(in the ) I'ose d to normative or prescriptive, and it is empirical r at he r
mi ddl e ,' and the postposition ' among , amid.' llian ph ilosophica l in its meth od ology . It is s truc tura list r ather
Derivati ona l morph ology is extreme ly ri ch. Caus a tive and passive Ikm f un c tiona lis t, although a number of scholars have in recent
ve rb s can b e formed; inde ed t h e r e a r e ca us ative pas s i ves : v,'a r s advocat e d fun c tio na listic ideas withi n TG. St ructura lism
unse . gd. uule . x ' to caus e to be kiss e d. ' Fro m a s ma l] nurnb e r of Illvol ves def initions s uch as 'a c hair h a s four legs an d a ba ck and
element s the lan g ua ge c an bu i I ci i1 VCI"Y I"r gc nU1l1b c r o f s U' ms . For , I bot tom conn ec t e d in a ce rt a in way ' a nel i s c onc e rn eel with the
a survey o f t hc (lc riv <ltJ "n <iI IIlilrpli o lo )',y , S l ' l ' I< II C: I", MI,II , "r S tre e t . 1(' l a tion s hip s betwe e n fo rma l e l e me nt s . Fun c t i onalis m involves
It s uf fi c e s () e ll (' I' l' r l' .", I y " I " w ,!i 11 1< ' I" n ,,:> 1>,,111 P li j"s L o ne d"f ini t[ o ns I i h ' ' <'I ch;dr Is f o r s i t t -i ng o n' eilld :L s conce rneel wit h
xxx Modern Mongolian xxx i Introduction

the uses of particular elements. Here I have followed a strongly A diagram such as
structuralist approach, but future research may weIl indicate NP
~
functionalistic solutions for a number of problems, for example, xot
the relationship between topic, focus, and word order . indicates that there is structure between the NP and the noun
In syntax , the major innovation of TG was the notion of a two- xo t. I occasionally abbreviate further, drawing a line from NP
level analysis, distinguishing the apparent, superficial surface t o the noun.
structure from an underlying deep or basic structure. These are A set of PSRs may be abbreviated as weIl. If
analogous in some ways to the phonemic (phonological) and phone- NP = N
tic levels of phonology. Here it will be clear which level I am NP = Dem + N
dealing with at any point. ar e two rules, we can write instead:
It is the goa l of TG to formalize grammar, to render it expli- NP = (Dem) N
cit and formal. As Mongolian TG is only beginning it has not been If
possible to formalize the grammar as with a more developed area. Adj 1 = Adj
However, the attempt to formalize a grammar provides a tremendous Adjl = PP
heuristic for seeing problems which would otherwise hide behind we can write instead:
our linguistic intuitions. In connection with the research prepa- j
Adjl = {Adj, pp} or Ad 'I = {Ad }
J PP
ratory to this monograph I programmed a computerto produce sen-
tences using a portion of this grammar. This work was invaluable ' ... ' in such a group means 'and so on': Adj ={ good, happy,
in clarifying a number of issues for me . qu ick, . .. }.
The basic structure of language is definable as a set of rules The transformation of an underlying structure into its super-
for the membership or constituency of words and higher linguistic fic ial structure is called a (transformational) derivation. Trans-
units. These phrase-structure rules (PSRs) define the way in which formational rules (TRs) define functions relating pairs of tree
structures combine to form larger structures until the level of s t ructures in such a derivation. There is a certain casualness of
the sentence is reached. If a clause can consist of a noun phrase s peech sometimes in the TG literature which has led to an 'abus
(NP) and a verb phrase (VP) in that order, we write: d e langage' and several misunderstandings:
S = NP + VP 1. Because of the dual use of the term 'generate, ' and a meta-
which can also be diagrammed with the tree diagram (P-marker) pho rical concep t of change, transformations are often taken to be
S p roc essesj they are not, they are functions. 'Generate' is closer
in meaning to 'specify' than to 'produce.'
NP
----------------
VP
or the bracketed notation : SeNP + VP J S· The PSR is a rule, whereas
these are structural configurations. In the above tree S is said
2. Sometimes we talk as if one sentence were the transform of
a no ther, e.g. 'Sue was kissed by John' ' is the passive of' 'John
k is sed Sue . ' In fact , TRs do not directly relate surface struc-
to dominate NP and VP. The nodes labelIed NP and VP are sisters tu res. When we say sentence S is the passive of sentence T, what
and each is a daughter of S, which is mother to both . If we had we really mean is that they share a basic structure and the only
the diagram no n- automatic difference in their derivations is that one contains
S an application of a rule, passive formation, which the other does
~ no t.
NP VP
3. TRs affect tree structures, not strings, although we use
De~N ilra cketed notation as an abbreviat ion for trees.
we would say that Dem was ultimately dominated by S, but directly Transformational rules contain four parts as a rule. The struc-
dominated only by NP . Lur al description (SD) defines the class of structures to which
When we do not wish to show al l the substructure of some consti- Lhe rule can a pply (H optional, or must apply, if obligatory).
tuent, we draw a triangle. Thus I. c t ters such as X, Y, Z, Aare used to range over any substructure
S or S
:IL a ll, i n cl ud in g null s. Thus
-~ ~
NP SC X - NP - Y - NP - Z J
. . . NP ... s
i ndi ca t e th a t a n NP i s in a n S ; I n t hc r J. r st t r ee J.t ma y not b e 1'(' Pe r s to a n y c l a use or sen t en ce con tainin g two NPs . When two terms
th e e n t ire S , in t h e seco ncl [h en' I,: p()!-;s ihl y nnt h -I n g e l se i n t h e II lI l s t b e Lci c nt ica 1 o r co- r e Fe r e nti a l, we u se s ub scripts: NP . Thus
S , h u t wc ei n n O I w l l. l, [ n d (, I II II 1 11\' ,: 11 ' 11<'1111- 111 )'. : d )()Vl' NP, i
s ' X - NP I - Y - NP I - ZlS
=

xxxii Modern Mongolian xxxii i Introdu ction

refers to any structure containing two identical or co-referential I n gene ral, I have fo llowed the precep ts of th e gene rativ e sem-
NPs. antic s (GS) school of TR thought; but this is unimportant, as th e
The stru ctural index (SI) assigns a r eference numb er to each ma j or diff erences between GS a nd other TG schools involves sema n-
sentence element. In the structural c han ge (SC) these are used to tics, with wh ich I have n o t directly concerned myse lf here . The
indicate changes. Transforma ti ons can p errnu te eleme nts. Thus general th eo r y of g rammar a nd the grammars of specific languages
SI: 1 2 3 have much t o offer each o th er, but here I have taken a strongly
SC: 1 3 2 e mpirical stand, avoiding iss ues of TG if they were not immediate ly
means 'switch the third and second terms of the structural descr ip- of import. But alt hough I have tri ed to cover a wide scope, it is
ti on.' They can delete elements; thus clear that huge gaps remain; a nd the past suggests that as new
SI: 1 2 3 research delves more dee ply into syntax a number of issues not
SC: 1 3 raised here will come to be central.
means 'delete the second t erm of the structural description.' Some Indeed, if the present work has any val ue at all, it is as a
lin gu ists (myself included) believe that they may add structural s pur to, and a ste pping-of f place for, f uture research. It is by
elements. Thus no means a definitive statement. It is in the nature of contem-
SI: 1 2 3 po rary ling ui stics to proliferate questions r at h er more rapidl y
SC: 1 2 3 uu than answers, but the se are interesting questions . What answ ers
means 'add to the right of the third term of the structural d es- I have given I b elieve t o be an improvemen t over previous accounts,
cription the word uu . ' b ut the his tory of linguistics and of language study allow no illu-
Placement next to a particular term indicates that the elements s io ns about permanence; indeed, only if the futu re fi nds th ese
in question are ordered thus left-to-right. If we want to be more answers obsolete will this work have served its purpose fully.
specific about the struc t ure we can us e '+' to indi cate sisterhood
(both nodes are d ominated immediately in the tre e by the same n o de),
or ' #' to indi cate Chomsky- adj unction, in whic h a new mother node
i s crea t ed dom inating directly both elements, and having the same
lab el as the original element. Thus given
SI : 1 2 3
SC: 1 2 3 # güj
whe re 3 is lab e ll ed V, the new node above thi s V a nd güj will be
lab elled V.
One important nota tion is

[: ] ==~ [:]
which is to be read: 'A be comes C and B becomes D. ' Sometime s this
is written usin g curly bra c k ets, and/or with subscripted i's.
' ==,.0' means 'dele te'; '0 ==.' n:ean s 'insert.'
Although PSRs a re unorder e d, TRs are orde red. Thi s does not r e -
fer to proces sing through t ime, but rath er to prior i t y . As an a n a -
lo gue , consider th e expression '2x4+1 2.' If we order the arithme -
tical operations from the left, this exp r ession equals 20 , from
th e right, 32. Ye t '2x4+l2' exis t s at one point in time , and can
be read as a numeric al expression rath er than a recipe for a cal -
cula tion, that is, a s a fun ct ion of th ree cons tan ts.
Here I have not attempted to find a compl e te ordering for the
TRs. Tha t will involve furth er work. Hut a numb er of sc hol ars ,
principal l y at Indi a na Univ e r s it y , h ave 3 r g ue d i n r cce n t yea rs
against ex trin s i c ( ex p "l i ci t) onlc l" ln g J"' l nt l o n s 'ln TR s .
MODERN MONGOUAN
A Transformational Syntax
1.
5tructural typology and the
basic structure of the simple sentence

/. 0 Basic typology

1. Greenberg (1966) proposed that there are certain universal

"" r r e lations between the basic word order type of a language and
II Lhe r structural properties of its grammar. To a very large extent
~1 "l1golian, with the other Altaic languages, as well as Japanese
,IIld Korean, bear out these correlations. Mongolian, in his termi-
1I1l 10gy, is a type 111 or SOV language, one in which the basic 'un-
III:1 r ke d' word order is subject- object-verb.

~ . More specifically, Mongolian is a type 23 language: it has

I" ,s t p ositions rather than prepositions, and all adjectival and
f·.,· "i t i val modifiers precede the noun they modify. These facts are
I vplca l of the Altaic languages. Greenberg also correlates suf-
I IXl n g and postpositions. The Altaic languages have only suffixes
(" "din g s), no prefixes.

1 . As a consequence of having postpositions, suffixing, and

::OV or der, wi th the other correlated structural features thus en-
I .,i l e d by Greenberg's universals, type 23 languages exhibit strongly
1, ,1 L-branching tendencies on all levels of structure. Thus if we
oI , .IW co nstituent structure diagrams (phrase-markers or trees), we
IJ "" t ha t long branches tend to run to the left, with a large num-
1" ' 1 oE branches going off to the right. This is in stark contrast
1. 111 , ri ght- branching languages like English, in which long branches
1'111 Ln the ri ght. For example, consider diagram (1) of the struc-
11 11 ,. llf a derived ward. The suffixes 'stack' fram the right,
l' I .IIII' hin g ta the left:
1:1. anxaal'a . l. güj 'unabservant'
a bse rve -ation-l ess
11>.
~v\ e (ward)
Na un ( s t e m)

Vl' I~~
I
, 11/. 1;(( , /1'< I
I ~/ li.' /.
4 Modern Mongolian 1 Structural t y polo gy of th e simple sentence

This contrasts with a non-SOV, prefixing lang~ag~ like Ge'ez ~d~ta

But i n fa c t we shall ar g ue b elow that (1) must come from a comp-
from G. Gragg, 'Sumerian and Sel e cted Afr~-Asl a tlc Languages, I,n
le x s tructure with two e mbedded (subordinat e ) clauses contained
The Chicago Which Hunt , Chicago 1972), WhlCh stacks from the left
within it. For thi s reason, some of the generalizations developed
and branches right:
in this part wi ll seem to hold only for a small port ion of t he
2a. za-ta- qatala ' who was killed'
s uperf icial ly simple sentenc es of the language. In general, a
who was killed
LT'uly simple sentence will h a ve but one verb. Since Mongolian
2b. Adjective (word)
se ntences rarely exhibit only one verb, the basic structuring
-(verb (stern) II C' arly always undergoes a radical transformation on the surface

/ /~er~(root) leveL We shall have to start off maintaining accordingly some

za ta qatala . _
There is one interesting except ion to the stacklng ot suffl~es ln
Mongolian, h owever, name l y possessive suffixes , which functlo~
within the logical scope of the case-ending ~f a nou~, but ~hlCh
follow it (and h e nce a re grammatically speaklng outslde of ltS
scope) in the ward. Thus (3), like (4), is to be interp re ted as
(5), not (6).
3. mori . d . oos . min ' 'from my horses'
horse-PL-abl-my
4. minij mori. d . oos 'from my hors e s'
my horse-PL-abl
5. [ minij morid J oos
6. minij [ mor idoos J
The same structural t endencies se en in (lb) are exhibit ed, as we
shall see , on the syntactic level .
4. In this chapter we shall be concerned with thed.most b aS !C
str~ctural tendencies of the language. Because c oo r lnate s en ~nce
merely conjoin s imple clauses, a nd becaus ~ compl ex . sentenc es otten
obs c ure the basic structuring, we st a rt wlth the slmple sentence,
and build later on this to show the structure of more complex syn-
tactic units. In g eneral the struc ture of this mono g raph follows
that of the langua ge, going from bas ic structures to mo re co~plex
one s. However, th e superficial g ramma tical struc tur e often hl~es
the underlyin g gr a mmatical relationships. For example, accord lng
to the a pparent, superficial grammar of Mongol ian, sentence (1)
below must be counted a s a simple sentenc e . Its tr ee structure is
given in (2).
1. Ter or . ] ir.] baj.na. 'He is on his way in.' (Street 145)
that enter-impf come-impf be-pres
2.
Ile cess ary polite fictions.
. .
5. As noted earlier, we sha ll not be concerned with a number
Ilf ~ery important phenomena of th e language which involve seman-
Li cs a nd pragmatics. For example, we c a nnot say much about ques-
lio ns. Phenome na which take as their d o main a whole sentence,
ra ther than jllst a clause, we shall leave for the end. Her e we
:;ha ll be concerned with the simple clallse. For the structure of
l he claus e no g reat analysis is needed. Mongo lian is an SOV lan-
,',ua ge, the verb occuring clause-finally. However, this does not
"'(' a n that the structure is tripartite. One must reco gnize that a
('o pula, for exa mple, serves to predicate an adjectival or nominal
"f the sub jec t , and that a transitive v e rb links subject and ob-
i l'c t. In gen erative semantic analyses (see, for example, J.
M('Cawley, 'English as a VSO La ngua ge ,' Language 1970) this is of-
Il' n taken to mean that a numb e r of NPs are attached to a predicate
vl' rb. However, i n mo re conservative TG analyses, it is argued that
9 II, e simple clause consists of a subject and a predicate or verb
p h rase . This makes good sense, particula rly as a structure is
I r~ nsfo rmed towa rds its superficial structur e . There are numerous
.11'g umen ts which have been developed in favour of this analysis.
1)' le may b e given here. In ellipsis, a verb phrase may be l e ft be-
Il ind , as in (1), or a subject (2) . But it is hard to imagine a
"l) ll tex t in which only the subject and object may be left behind.
L 'So what did J o hn do th e n?'
'(John) opened the window and jumped o ut.'
2 . 'Who kissed Jane?'
'John (kissed her).'
~ I, II l )', ol ian ellipsi s shows the same results. Thus we can assume that
1 111' simple clau se c ons ists of a subject follü\ved by a verb phrase.

------------
NP
S

VP?
VP ?
VP

----------------------V
V
""' ''1
G. S tructurally speakin g the subject of a simple clause is a
phrase . Accordingly, in o ur phrase-structure role (PSR) (1)
"". <I v I' i.ne th e c l a us e as a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb
1,1 11 ; , SC (VP) . In sectio n 1.1 we discuss some ways in which subject
111':; ; ' r (' s t l"uc tura l1y diff e rent fro m other NPs . Sec tion 1.2 will
oIl::,' '' ss t he VP . Not e that h e re ' s ' s tands for 'c lause.'
------------------------
\~
1 1/' .• ;
. \~
1 1' . • / II( ''; . Ur I
I. S = NP + VI'
6 Modern Mongolian 7 Structural typolo gy of th e simpl e sentence

1.1 Noun phrases ,,; i n ce the restrictions on co-occurrence of their elements resembles
Ill orp hology more than it does syntax proper. Some examples are oxin
7. As in all languages, the noun phrase is one of the major düü 'younger sister' (daughter + younger brother); gazar .züj
structural constituents of the Mongolian sentence. It rnay be de- ' ge og raphy' (land + science); and ard t ümen 'rnasses; people'
fined in two different ways. Functionally it is definable in terms (worker + mass); etc. See MLH 94-5; St reet 88-9, 106-7, 108-11;
of its privileges of occurrence, its external grarnrnar. Structur- I\e rtag aev.
ally it is definable in terms of its interna 1 structure. A noun
phrase generally has the following privileges of occurrence: (i) 11· All modifying and attributive elements stand before the
as subject of a clause (a uniqu e function); (ii) as a predicate Illo dified element. However, superficially a number of elements can
nominal (a function it shares with adjectivals); (iii) as object ro llow the core noun. These include:
of a verb or postposition (a unique function); (iv) as modifier 1. negatives bis, -güj: us.güj 'water less'
of some other constituent. However, if we define the NP as a noun 2 . subject particles bol, n': Luvsan bol 'Luvsan (subject),
with its various modifiers (this is the ma jor type of NP) we fi nd 3. plural endings and nar : bid nar 'we'
that not all NPs share al l the privileges of occurrence. For ex- 4. case endings: ter nomyg 'that book (acc)'
ample, subject NPs may be marked with the subject particle bol or 5. possessive pronouns: najz min' 'my friend'
n '; such marked NPs can only occur as subjects. 6. the particle x~: tana j .x' '~ours'
7. the particles c and 1 : xen c 'whoever'
8. However, it is clear that these various markers are ext er- 8. a summing numeral: Luvsan bid xo~r 'Luvsan and I'
nal-to the NPs marked by them, so that we can arrive at a single Luvsan we two
structural definition that will hold for all NPs. The various 9. certain quantifiers: xün bUr 'all men'
elements that occur to the right of an NP, or indeed to the right person all
of the head or governing noun of an NP, are in fac t not part of \~e shall go through these various elements and show that in no
the NP. This can be shown even for cases and the plural marker. ,'else are they properly within the NP, that they are always either
We shall treat these various element s as not basic elements to be I ransf ormationally inserted or can fulfil some special function
defined by the PSRs, but elements which are either inserted by lI litside of syntax.
transformational rules, or which fulfil various pragmatic or dis -
course functions, and hence which are outside the scop e of this ~ . The negative element bis occurs super fic ially in predicate
present work. Such elements a re discussed in 1.11 below. "" pula position. It serves a n adverbial function, not a truly ad-
jl'c tiva l one. For example, it can modify a predicative adjectival,
9. In discussing noun phras e s we shall leave for later the ,' " in (3). In (1) it stands in for the deleted or understood cop-
dis-Cussion of various NPs showing a coordinate or complex nature. "I..,. Bis cannot freely occur with every NP. It is clear that it
For example, derived nominals will be disc uss ed as a transforma- I:: so me kind of adverbial element, so that the structure in (5)
tional phenomenon. Pronouns will receive aseparate study as weIl. I:; close r t o the correct analysis than that in (4), for example
In what follows we shall occassionally provide a superficial and (I) .
even ad hoc analysis of certain features of th e NP so as to make I. Ene minij nom bis. 'This isn't my book.' (Street 161)
the discussion clearer for the reader. this my book not
2. Cagaan bis, xar. ' [ It's ] not white, [but] black.'
1.11 Metanominal structures white not black (Street 161)
l. Bol.ox jum bis. 'It simply won't do.' (Street 161)
10. With the exception of derived nominals, pronouns, and sen- become- in f thin g not
tences used as NPs, the core or head of an NP is a l ways a noun. S 5. S
~
NP~
We shall assurne that this is a clear-cut category in Mongolian .
NP vp
11. There is a class or set of c l asses of co mp ound nouns with
the privile ges of occ u rrence oE a s ing l e noun . Semanti c ally th e'~
funct ion as nouns as we 'll ; s Ollle are wr itt e n ;J S s i n g l e words. Th y
are all b est tr e ilt c cl <1,,; l ex i c :11 llniL ,,; rOI" LI' l' Plll"P0";l'''; of sy nt a x ,
I
{' l I(!
NAg
117/ m' J n01l1 b-is en e
/~
~
NP Neg

minij nom
\
b-is
8 Modern Mongolian q St ructura1 typ o10gy of the simple sentence

See Street 158, 161, and 192-3. Si nce words like bÜl? (1), büxen (2), and bolgon (3) can stand by
-güj can be attached to any no un (6) or verbal nominal (7); how- Lhemselves (c f . 4,5), and the NP before them can take no other
ever, the resultant unit is an adjectival, not a nominal, phrase, pos tponed modifiers, this shou1d be taken as a case of apposition,
and as such is no NP. with the NP modifying a noun. This is a subcase of a PSR like (6a),
6. usgüj gazar 'a place without water' (Street 199) :md for mnemonic purposes we \"rite (6b).
7 . Bi mede.x.guj. '1 don't understand. ' (Street 193) 1. sajn mar' bür 'every good horse' (Street 177)
1 k n ow-inf-not good horse every
2. xün büxen 'everyone' (Street 177)
14. Plural endings are attached to nouns phonologically: they person all
undergo vowel harmony and receive stress as part of the word, and 3. ödör bolgon ' every day' (Street 177)
in spelling in the modern language are usually written as part of day every
a noun. However, cases and plural endings do not modify only a 4. ene büxen 'all this' (St reet 178)
noun, but a whole NP. Thus the plural endings are outside of the this all
NP. There is also a collective marker, nar, which is spelled as 5. Bi ter doloon bügd. ijg uns1-.v. 'I read all seven of them.'
aseparate word, does not undergo vowel harmony, and which serves I the seven a1l-ac c read-past (R 168.103)
to indicate collectivity. The fact that it can take an agentive I'art ly we treat thes e as apposition because of semantic co-occur-
nominalization in - ge as in (1) shows that it takes a whole NP in r c nce restrictions between the quantifyin g term and the appositive
its scope . Accordingly, we treat both the plurals and the collec- NI'. See Street 177- 8.
tive alike as having the NPs in apposition to them. Notice that 6a . NP NP + N
nar, at least in journalistic style, can occur with two or more 6b. NP = NP + Q
nominals (4). The structure of (2) accordingly is like (3). We post
establish (5) as a PSR, using the subscripts purely as a mnemonic, 'I'h e NP in this PSR and in paragraph 14 cannot be metanominal in
(· I, a ra cter.
not as part of the formalism itself.
1. njagtla.n bodo.ge nar 'accountants' (Street 95)
order-mod think- agent coll ective ~. The plural marker and postponed quantifiers merely specify
2. Ted ein' bjenjediktijn bülgem.ijn lam nar mön baj .na . l i le q uantity of an NP, whereas case markers and subject indicators
, 11" ( ' only secondarily structural and pertain directly to the func-
those your Benedictine monastery-gen monk co1lective same
I ions of the NP. And just as PL and Qpost are mutua1ly exclusive
be-pres
.IIIU so form a pair, the subject marker (SM) a nd a case ending are

- - - - - --
'Those are Benedictine friars.' (FL 84.26)
II IIILua1 1y exclusive .
3. S
The subject of a sentence is generally on1y marked when there

!~~~VP
I;; a possibility of confusion. This might happen, for example,
,,, I,,' n the subject is a demonstrative (cf. 1,2):
I. Ter bol bags baj . na . 'He is a teacher.'
that SM teacher be-pres
ted ein' I nar 2 . Ter bags baj.na . 'That teacher exists.'
that te ac her be-pres
4. [Gap t ion on a pho to: ] Zurag deer: (Züün garaas ) tus aJ axuj . 1/
picture in 1eft hand-able this wor k- gen 1111 ' SM bol makes e xplicit the boundaries of the subject NP. Occa-
tergüünij aJilein D. Ganbold, M. CogJmao, N. Mjadapnaa nar. '. lo l1;1]ly a written dash, corresponding to a pause, serves the same
main worker ... co11ective I" " -I)()s e. Noriko A. McG awley has suggested to me that bol functions
'In the photo: (from the 1eft) first c1ass workers in this Il lIW h like the Japanese topic marker wa. As the syntax and seman-
industry ... ' (Unen, 6 Jan. 1976, p.3, co1umns 1-3 at bort OIlI) I 1,' " oE n e ith er wa nor bol are at all weIl understood, this leaves
5. NP = NP + PL
111 il1tcresting question for future research. In any case, we can-
PL ",, 1 d c al with bol h e r e .
In (5) 'PL' is und e r s t oo d to inc1ude nar ; eh e coordi na t e NP i n (4) N', hi s t orically a possessive, can s e rv e as a subject marker,
is taken as an examp] e of a pl a jn NP. ' '' ' 'l.l ll y wit h n o mi nal:i zatio n s , as in (3) a nd (4), where it is a
'" 1 <1 1 COIII[l lClllc llL i z in g p;1r ti c ] c .
15. Ge rtain qU;Jnti I" y i 11 ) ', 11 ' 1" IlI S ('; 11' 1"llow LI", vun " U' "1 01' i1n NI',
10 Modern Mongolian
3. Marta.x n' xurdan, gemsi.x n' udaan. (Rageaa l6)
forget-inf SM quick, repent-inf SM long
'Forgetting is quick but repentanee lasts long.'
4. Dund tariaein.taj negen njagtra . x n' zajlsgüj euxal,
middle peasant-eom unite-inf SM neeessary task do so inf-
tege.x.güj bol buruu jum . (Mao 32.1)
not if bad thing
'It is essential to unite with the middle peasants, and it
is wrong not to do so . '
N' ean also oeeur with ordinary nominals. Bere it is best trans -
lated as 'the' (5). Bowever, in other eases it seems to eorrespond
roughly to bol (6) . In yet other eases it eorresponds to the
Russian word ze.
5. Ard.yn ardeilsan diktatur n' xoer arga.taj baj.dag.
worker-gen demoeratie dictatorship SM two method-eom be-freq
'The people's demoeratie dictatorship uses two methods.'
(Mao 43.1)
6 . Xen n' manaj dajsan be? 'Who are our enemies?' (Mao 12.3)
who SM our enemy ve/Q
16a. One interest i ng use of n' with nominalizations is to form
quasi-adverbial phrases. Thus in (1). This usage is, as Street
(227) put it, 'not yet fully understood.'
1. Uüd.ee nee . sen n', nöxör Baatar baj.v. (Street 228)
door-RP open-pf vn part friend B. be-past
'When [IJ opened the door, there was [myJ friend Baatar.'
17. One must be eareful to distinguish other uses of these par-
tieles from their SM use.
Bol ean be a haplologized version of bolbol 'if it beeomes'; as
such it ean oeeur after a sentenee or nominalized sentenee begin-
ning xerev 'if . ' See Street 231. This is the historieal origin of
the SM use of bol . A typieal example:
1. Xerev bi endüür . ee . güj bol. . . 'If I am not mistaken ... '
if I err-impf vn-not if (FL 84.20)
N' with NPs other than nominalizations ean be: (a) possessive
pronoun 'his , her, their'; (b) genitivized subjeet treated as
possessive pronoun; or (e) pronominalized NP 'of them.' (a) will
be treated with possessives; its postpositioning is transforma-
tional, as is that of (b), whieh is transformational in orlgln.
(See paragraph 19 for possessives.) (e) will be treated similarly
to x'; see paragraph 20 below.
18. NPs with explie i t ease en d i n gs ean serve as adjeetivals o r
adverbials . For eased NPs as adj ee tiva l s . a nd eerta in ot h er a dj
tival NP s, see p aragrap h 55 . Fo r cas~ J NP s o s adv e r bi a ls, se e
paragra ph 132 .
11 Struetural typology of the simple sentenee
1 9 . Sometimes ease endings ean be followed 'illogieally' by
s hif ted possessives (see paragraph 3). Sometimes a double pos-
ses sive ean oecur:
1. minij sajn oxin düü min' 'my good younger sister'
my good girl younger brother my (R 164.73)
We shall not attempt here to aeeount for examples like (1). The
r e f lexive-possessive is just a special ease of the possessive,
whi eh is true as weIl of derived possessives in RP form . See para-
l', ra ph 370 for examples.
Note that an embedded subjeet rnay be lifted out of its S aeross
Lhe outer NP, as in (2) or (3) :
2 . Tan.y xar.san ter jum ein' avarga bieten bis salxin teerem
you-gen see-pf vn the thing your giant bodied not wind mill
baj.na.
be pres
'Those are not giants but windmills you see.' (FL 82.10)
3 . Arvan najm xüre.x.tej n' ...
ten eight reaeh inf-eom-his
'When he reaehed eighteen ... ' (FL 341.11)
20. The partiele n' ean also result from deletion of a nominal,
,IS i n (1). A nominal with a genitival ease ean be pronominalized
wi t h x' as in (2). (A nominal in x' ean take a plural ending: see
1); lra g raphs 382, 384 for details.)
1. Neg n' tend baj. na. 'One of them is there.' (Street 184)
one the there be-pres
2. Minij mor' end baj.na, tanaj.x' xaa baj.na?
my horse here be-pres, your part where be-pres
'My horse is here, where's yours?' (Street 188)
2J_. There are two partieles whieh ean be added to any NP . One
I:: C. This is often 'illogieally' plaeed. It has two meanings:
w lLh in terrogatives, usually WH-words (xen 'who, , ete.) it forms
Ilid e fini tes, meaning '-ever, at all,' as in (1,2). It generally
I'II - oee urs with negatives .
I . Erdöö j uu e baj. dag. güj ... 'Still nothing in sight .. . '
no thing part be-freq-not (FL 340.9)
c
2 . Jasan ugüj. 'Nothing' s wrong.' (Street 237)
wh ie h part not
111 (J ), e i s s e mantieally within the seope of xend.
'1. xen. d e gar . e bolo. x xereg
who- dat p ar t h a ppe n-impf beeome-inf thing
' a th i n g t h at eo u l d happ e n to a n y one' (Street 237)
'1'1,(' se eond u se is as a n ' e mph atie or eo ntr a stive' (see Street
'I/ - H). Wit h no un phrases it ge n e ra l ly rn ean s 'al so' or 'even,' as
111 (1,) ;Jnd (5 , 6 ) r es pe etive ly .
1, . I, U iJ ,C;W'1 (,'ey'el. 7: J g ü::: . cen, bi C Ü;-: . sem . (R)
12 Modern Mongolian 13 Struetural typology of the simple sentenee

Luvsan Gerel-acc see-pf vn I part see-pf vn

'Luvsan s aw Gerel and I did too.'
5. Ter minij. x. ijg c av. san! 'He even took mine! ' (R188. 47)
2.
SC?)
---------
NP
NP

6
o _______________
N-------------------------- NP
that my-part-acc part take-pf vn
6. Bi tednüüs.ijn negen.ijg c ol . oJ üz .sen . güj .
Adjl N.P
I them-gen one-acc part find-impf see-pf vn-not I \
'I didn't ever get to see one of them.' (R 188.46) AdjN
(Tednüüsijn is a colloquial Chakhar form.) ~. • \ . \ I
gegc ne gen ~span~ rycar
22 . The particle l also 's eems to express contrast or weak em- 1. 121 Nominal modifiers
phasis' (Street 239) when modifying an NP. It is mutually exclu-
sive with c.
We shall omit any a nalysis of either here. ~ 26. The following types of NP ean preeede a nother NP in non-eo-
1. Gevc imperialist . uud dajn.yg degdeex l jum bol bid aj .x c ord i nate struetures:
but imperialist-PL war-ac c unleash part be if we fear-inf (a) verbal nominal: 1. ire . x Jil 'the eoming year'
xereg.tej. come-inf year
part nec e ssity- c om 2. ' Buu zasag törijg üüsgene ' gedeg ünen esijg .. .
'But if the imp e rialists insist on unlea shing another war, gun barrel power-ace grow-pres say-freq truth fact-ace
we should not be afraid of it.' (Mao 70.9) 'the truth, "Politieal power grows out of the barrel of
Here l admittedly modifies an ad jectiva l ver~a! nominal. a gun'" (Mao 64.5)
2. GeteZ dajn . yg zövxön dajn . aar l ustga. J cada.x ... (b ) NP in genitive case: 3. Luvsany bicig 'Luvsan's book'
but war-acc wage mod war-instr abolish-impf can-inf (c ) NP in some other ease: 4. üxer, morin teregtej xümüüs
'But war can only be abolished through wa r.' (Mao 66.8) ox horse eart-eom people
'people with ox- and horse- ear ts' (Street 198)
23. The summing numerals xoer and gurav will be treated when (d) NP with no expl ie it ease: 5. Toronto xot 'Toronto'
we~eal with conjunction. See section 2.2. Toronto city
Thus the metanominal e lements are all not actual elements of 6. Sanco najz min' 'Saneho my friend' (FL 83.12)
the NPs associated with them. Saneho friend my
7 . neg dusal us 'a drop of wat e r' (Street 198)
1.12 Modification one drop water
(e ) a WH-word: 8. xen xün 'whoever' (R 46.20)
24. As we noted above , the core of most NPs i s a noun. Since a who person
noun can occur without any mod ifi eation in any o f the funetions 9. al' nom 'which book'
listed in para graph 7, it elea rly is an NP. which book
1. NP = N A nominalized sentenee preeed i ng a noun (a) stands either in an
Sinee many no uns paraphrase noun phras es , semantieally they should " djee tival or appositive relation to the following noun (or NP);
be labelied as NPs as well. This is important in eonnee tion with ',,' e below. An NP in some ease form (b, e ) likewise i s ad jeetiva l
the strueturing deseribed below. ! I) eharacter. One with no case form may be appositive (d). Simi-
1,l rly (e) is best treated as adjeetiva1. In only two eases ean we
25. A noun whieh is an NP ean be preeeded by various modifying Il lleak truly of one nominal modifyin g another.
elements whieh ar e nominal (seetion 1.121) or adjeetival (seetio n
1 . 122) in eharaeter . (It may a iso ent er into an a ppo s i tive strue- 27. The first e as e is that of measur e phrases with some nomina l;
tur e: see seetion 1 .13 .) The resulting NPs mayaiso be f urthe r ,I n~as ure ph rase pr eeeded by a quantity speei f ies the quantity of
modified, and in thi s way noun phrases of eo nside r a bl e eompl exit y ,I no minal, whieh ean b e mas s (1) or count (2). Additional examples
ean be built up. Con trary to the general l eft-bra nehe dness of , II' l' given in (3) and (LI).
Mongolian, NPs often h ave eonsid era hl c ri ght-bra n ehing , as for .I.. 9380 kuh mety' BOY'OO ' 9380 e ubie me ters of ear th' (Street 175)
example i n ( 1), diagriJlll mc d jn (2) . 9380 e ubi e metres eart h
1. Don Di c(fo !)c Y'rt; rlf- Vm':,I;: :l(':r"(. II( ':W II 1::I'rllll r'?J {'nr, I 2 . 3 km vo.?:;-/ Y' u.sn . !J U5v [;u:;am ' <1 1lI[) in scwc r 3 km. [lon g] '
clon D i l')~() !' ('n'z dl' V: II-)'': I''; (': 111 - :1)',(' 1)1 11 1)(' SP:1I1 ; s ll kn i ght J k il ollle Lr cs c1il- Ly w:ltf'r- gC Il 1lI:lin l i ll l' (Str ee t 175)
' ,) SP:lil! :, iJ I(I '{ )', I,I hy I h, ' 1):1111, ' ,, 1.1 ,'1) 1). d, ' V. ' ( 1"1, B'l . I )
14 Modern Mongolian 15 Structur a l typology of the simple sentence

3. 70 garuj ga gazar 'more than 70 hectares of land' 1.122 AdjectivaZ modifiers

70 more than hectares land (Mont gomery 46)
4. 300 mjanget SürenJav 30. A noun phrase can consist of a noun alone, or one of seve ral
300 thousand Sür enjav I ypes of NP modified by a nominal. Usually such an NP is f urther
'Sürenjav [who has dr i ven] 300,000 [ km.]' (Mont gomery 58) IIlodified by an adjec tival. The following are the main typ e s of
"on-nominal modifiers:
28 . The second case is that of a quantity term, often that of 1. a number, No: gurvan JiZ 'three years'
a group or container, preceded by a quantity, not necessarily 2. a quantifier, Q: oZon Ji Z 'ma ny years'
specifying an amount, but rathe r naming a ma ss (1,3) or a group 3 . a WH-word, X: xen xün 'whoever'
(2). The modified nominal is an NP (4,5). 4. a demonstrative, Dem: ter xün 'that person'
1. = example 26.7 above. 5. an adjective, Adj: sine tereg 'new car'
2. neg süreg xon ' 'a flock of sheep' (Street 176, has surag ) An ad jective can itself in turn be modified thereby producing
one flock sheep an a djectival phrase: '
3. arvan xöxüür arx ' 'ten wineskins of wine' (MLH 143) 6. ix si ne ter eg 'a very new car'
ten wineskin wine ve ry new car
4. neg ix ajaga xjatad caj 'a large cup of Chine se tea' Similar ly, numerals may be modified:
one big c up Chinese tea (R 165.81) 7. gurvan garuj xün 'more than three persons'
5 . neg ajaga xaZuun xjatad caj 'a cup of hot Chinese tea' three more than person
one cup hot Chinese tea (R 165.83) A quantifier too may be modified:
(4) shows that the modifying term is also a whole NP. 8. ix olon xün 'very many people'
The structur es of 27.3, 1, 5 are given in diagrams (6-8). Le t us.call these adjectival phrases (Adjl); we can subscript them
ac cordlng to their main constituent, thus: Adjl , e tc. Adjl
6. NP 7. NP a lso occurs: Q X
9. al ' c
xün 'anybody at all; whatever person'
Adjl
~
NP
-----------------------NP
NP N
I /~----------------
NP

A1d jl ~P
NP
I
NI
'1'0 summa r ize , an NP may be modified by these t ypes of phrases:
AcljlNo ' AdjlQ' Dem, Adjl, a nd AdjlX'
N~v
I I .
JI I No
I I
N
1l. We shal l ass ume that a noun alone cannot be
70 garuJ ga gazar neg dusaZ us '-In NP. Thus the struc ture o f 30.5 is not (1), but mo dified, only
8. NP (2) .
1. NP 2
/--------------- . ~ NP

~NP
Adjl
I
---------------
NP

~
~----------
Adjl
I
NP
N
Adjl

~I
Adj
N
I Adjl
I
Adj
NP
I
N
No Adjl N Adj sine tereg ~! I
S'l-ne tereg
I A1 j I I 12 . Now we define an NP
modified by an adject ival as NPA. It is
neg ix ajaga xjatad caj I 1" .' 1r that NPA can i tself b e modified, as in (1) dia gram (2).
I. Luvsan . y sine tereg 'Luvs a n's new car' '
29. The s e cond case is that o f a nominal con s isting o f a noun Luvsan- gen n ew car
phra se in appo s ition t o met 'likeness' or zereg ' sor t . ' :~ .
1 . CojJamc . yn zereg xümüüs 'p eople like Choijamc'
~ I I
Choijamc-gen sort people

a , 0 , u like some sound

(Str ee t 176)
2. a, 0 , u met zarim avia ' some so und s like a, 0, u'
(Str ee t 177) NP
A n Gen
~NP
Adjl
( 2) shows that this phrase is orcl c r e cl -like a ny a dj ectiva l, sin '('
it pr ecedes th e qua ntifi e r : :!1Y"illl . Sc' pnrn grilph 52 . NI I I
Aclj NI
I ~l I
1,/ IIJ[:aY! ?! S'&ne "ieY'ct]
16 Modern Mongo1ian 17 Structura1 typo10 gy of the simple sentence

In general, it is possible to reiterate, deve10ping noun phrases 3. NP : xatuu setgelt zarim neg xün 'some hard-hearted person'
Q
of increasing complexity. However, it wou1d be wrong simply to hard hear ted some person (Street 197)
admit two purported PSRs as in (3) and (4) to supplement the PSR 4. NP : xuv'sgalt dajn 'revolutionary war' (Mao)
N
(5) . revo1utionary war
3. NP NP + NP 5. NP ter ix nertej gurvan xün 'thos e three famous people'
No
4. NP Adjl + NP the very famous three person (R 157.45)
5. NP N 6. NP : *sajn ter xün 'good the person'
D
This is because not every NP can be modified by every NP or every
NPl probab1y cannot be NPX either.
Adjl. There are restrictions on these co-occurrences. In part
these restrictions are semantic, and in part syntactic, having to
do with the derivation of adjectivals from under1ying relative 35. NP 2 = NP N, A, C, Q. NP 2t NP D, No, X·
clauses. For the moment we sha1l not go fur th er than attempting 1 . NP A : gurvan xar mor' 'thre e black horses' (MLH 146)
to outline the types of word-orders and co-occurrences which are three black horse
possible, using the subscripted symbols we have deve10ped. The 2. NP C : tümen narn .y tujaa 'ten thousand sunbeams' (MLH 146)
same elements in different order produce either good or bad sen- 10,000 sun-gen beam
tences depending on the scopes of modification involved. Thus, in 3. NP Q: neg xeden züjl.ijn ucir 'severa1 good reasons '
Engli s h, example (6) is definitely more acceptable than (7). one several kind-gen reason (R 168.101)
6. a 1itt1e old grannie lady 4. NP N: xoer xün 'two pe rsons'
7. *an old grannie 1ittle lady
5. NP No : *xoer arvan xün 'two ten persons'
Cf. (8-11) below.
8. ter olon sajn xümüüs 'those many good people' 6. NP D: *xoer ter xün 'two the persons'
9. *ter sajn olon xümüüs 'those good many peop1e'
10. Luvsany xoer eine tereg 'Luvsan's two new cars'
36. NP3 = NPN, A, No, C· NP3 ~ NPQ, D. NP3 can probab1y =
11. *xoer Luvsany eine tereg 'two Luvsan's new cars' NI' X ,but I have no examp1e.
1. NP A: olon eine bajsing.uud 'many new buildings' (Street 175)
33. To talk of thes e restrictions, let us define a set of sym-
many new building-PL
bols thus:
olon narny tujaa (cf. 35.2)
1. NP N
N *olon xeden xün 'several many people'
2. NP
Z AdjlA + NP l
olon xün 'many people'
3. NP Adj1 + NP 2
No No 5 . NP : (see 34.4)
4. NP Ad j 1 + NP 3 No
Q Q 6 . NP D: *0 l071 ter xün 'many the people'
5. NP NP + NP
C gen 4
6. NP Dem + NP \7 . NP4 = NPN A C Q D, No but perhaps not NPX.
7. NP
D 5 I. NP A : Luv~an : y iin~ tereg (Luvsan's new car'
X X + NP 6
We shal1 define the symbols 'Adj1' etc. 1ater. It will be our job
2 . NP C : odoo üje .~jn Mongol Ard. yn Xuv'sgalt Nam (Montgomery)
to define NP1 , . .. ,NP6. These are so far merely ad hoc symbols used ~~day perlo~-gen Mong~l Worker-gen Revolutionary Party
to describe the va rious constituents' privi1 eges of occurrence, ~h: .Mongollan People s Revo1utionary Party of today'
\ . NP • mLnLJ olon nom 'my many books' (R l8l.l3a)
and have no theo retical value. In actual structures all NPs will Q'
simply be lab e11ed 'NP.' /, . NP : mini j tereg 'my car '
N
', . Nlo
No
: Luvsany gur'van nom 'Luvs an 's three books'
34. NP = NP but not NP ·
l N, A, G, Q, No D (,. NI' 0: tanaj tar' ner' tej 8am gedeg muur (R 166.95)
1. NP A: ulaan torgon deal ' ~1 r e d s i 1 k c n coa t ' (MLH 1lo6)
yo ur th c f:lllloU S S :tlll cn I I c d C<l t
r ed s ilk C O:1 L , L Ii :1 L f:tIllOli S C:I L S: IIII (I r Y Ot ll" " ,
2 . NP,,: ney·. 1(') ( · (· I· ('~r . ;)11 :rlill f : lIllOtl: ; : :(,f d I (' I" '
I ( Il 166 .93) .J I :;,) p:I 1" :1 ) ', 1" " pli /,0.
Il : 11 11l' - l '( .11I Ii rI IlY -) '.(· 11 P"1 :I(l ll
18 Modern Mongolian
38. NP5 NPN, A, G, Q, No but not NPD, and perhaps not NPX.
1. NP A: (see 34.5)
2. NP : t el' Mongo l Al'dyn Xuv I sga lt Nam 'that MPRP'
G
(R 181.12a)
3. NP : t el' o lon xün 'those many people'
Q requires further research to say. Cf. (8), where it is preceded
4. NP : t el' xün 'that person'
N 8. Avarga hie t j amar am'tad hi lee ?
5 . NP No : ene gUl'van xün 'these three people' (R 175.15a)
6 • NP D'' *tel' ene xün 'that this person'
39. Certain other modifying elements can also occur, which have
special privileges of occurrence. Amongst these are:
1. WH-words and phrases (AdjlX): al ' gurvan xün 'which three
people' (R 168.109)
2. ÖÖl' '(an)other': ÖÖl' neg gurvan xün 'another three people'
(R 18l.l4a)
3. gane: gane t el' öndöl' xün 'only the tall men' (R 154.18)
only the tall men
4. hal'ag 'almost'; xagas 'half'; etc.: xagas aral 'peninsula';
hal'ag suudel' 'penumbra' (HanginD). We shall treat these
terms as adverbial elements entering into nominal compounds .
40. An adjectival containing a WH-word (AdjlX) can precede
NPNC1,2,30.3), NPA(3,4), and NPNo(5,6,39.1). It can~ot.preced~
NPD, Q, or NPX, since X is equivalent to Dem and Q ln lts defln-
ing function. ~.
la. Minij al' negen.ijg n ' ta uns~.s an?
my which one-acc the you read-pf vn
'Which [ one] of mine have you read?' (R 185.33)
lb. _Ter olonnom.uud.yn a l ' negen. ijg n '
the many book-PL-gen which one-acc the
'which [ one] of the (many) books ... ' (R 185.32)
2. öör jamar c s i s t em 'any other system' (Mao 23 . 2)
other which part system
3. Alivaa huruu üz e l hodol, alivaa xort övs, alivaa cötgör
whichever wrong view idea, whichever poisonous weed, which-
su l mas. i j g ...
ever devil demon-acc
'All erroneous ideas, all poisonous weeds, all ghosts and
monsters ... ' (Mao 19.7; cf. Mao 85.4)
4. j amar si ne masi n 'what a new car'
5. jamal' negen hodlog.yg 'such a pol icy (a cc )' (Mao 5.5)
6. . .. al' neg öör saltgaan . aas
which one other motive- abI
'from this oth er motive ... ' (N 3 .11)
It is preceded by NPG (1 ) a nd by 8 8~ ( 2) ; i t pr o ba bl y a l so can bc
prec ed ed by a VN ac t i n g os a n RC ( 7) :
19 Structural typology of the simple sentence
7. 1960 on . d Kanad. aas gar. s an alivaa xün
1960 year-dat Canada-abl leave-pf vn whatever person
(Montgomery) 'whatever people who left Canada in 1960'
It can also be preceded by certain other modifiers, though which
by NPdat.
giant bodied which beings were
'What giants?' (FL 82.7)
41. Less can be said concerning öör and gane. Gör can precede
NPN (40.6) and NPX (40.2). It can also precede NPNo, especially
be fore neg ; öör neg = ~another' (HanginD). Cf. (1,2):
1. öör neg zurag 'another picture' (L 14.23)
2. öör xoer t er eg 'two other cars' (R)
I t can precede X alone, often preceded by an NPabl; the structure
i n (4) is given for (3) because of (5). Cf. (6).
3. cam . aas öör xen c hi s 'no one but you'
you-abl other who part not
('niemand anders als du, kein anders als du' - Zekek 139)
4. NP
~
NP(?) Neg
~~ I~
NP e hi s
~
Adj1.... N
:r
/~
abl öör
eamaas
IX
xen
5 . üün. ees öör 'other than this' ('krome togo' - Luvsandendev)
6 . tüün . ees öör xun haj . x . güj 'no one but hirn'
this-abl other person be-inf-not
('krome togo nikogo net' - DR 275)
I t can also prec ede NPA (7) and NPQ (8). It apparently cannot
precede NP!? (9) or NP gen (10).
7. öör sine tereg 'another new car, other new cars' (R)
8 . öör olon tereg 'many other cars' (R)
9 . *öör tel' ter eg 'the other car' (R)
10. *öör minij tereg 'my other c ar(s)' (R)
« 10) i s accepta bl e in the sense of 'other than my car. ') Gör
" :111 be pr ecede d by X, s uc h as jamal' 'which' , or a genitive (11).
I I. 0uvsan . y öör gurvan nom 'Luv san's othe r three books'
1,2 . Tt l s hard to de t e rm -i l1C Lf gane a nd ganexan ( i t s diminutive)
," " ;j Ct ua l l y a dj cc t1val ra t Irc r t ha n adve rb ia l. Ce rt ai nly they ac t
"Y II I:lct i .1l 1y as ir :1d j ect i v:1 1. '!'h e i r d is tr Lbu tio l1 seems roughly
11I ,"l ll1r Lo th a t o r [5(JY' , pr C(,t' d ", )\ NI'N( 1, 2) , NI' No( 3), a nd NPG (4).
20 Modern Mongolian 21 Structural typology of the simple sentence

Notice that they can precede a pronoun (5,6). What elements, if body good person
any, can precede gans(xan) remains an open question. 'a person whose body is good' = 'a healthy person' (Street 179)
1 . . . . gane ödör e .,. 'even [ forJ a single day' (Mao 88.1) Often n' appears instead of the identical NP (2); this is similar
2 . . . . ganexan ryear' ... 'but a single knight' (FL 83.2) to a construction in which the deleted NP is within a postpositional
3. gane neg xün 'only one person' phrase (pP) (3):
4. Ganexan JiJig tereg maan' ... 'Only the carriage 2. üs n' urt muur
only small carriage our (FL 345.14) hair its long cat
(Note the displacement of man ' < manaj in (4).) 'a lon~-haired cat' = 'a cat whose hair is long' (R 122.20)
5. gane bi 'only I' ('nur ich' - Zebek 35) 3. Ter bieig deer n' baj.x sireen.d bi dur.taj.
6. gane bi c bis 'not only I' ('ne tol'ko ja' - Luvsandendev) that book on its be-inf table-dat I desire-com
'I want the table with a book on it.' (R 92.40)
43. One type of adjectival remains, namely the verbal nominal. For further information see the section on the relative clause.
rn-form it is a nominalized sentence. Generally, except in apposi- See too MLH 145.
tive examples, it serves as a relative clause (RC), some und er-
lying element of the sentence being identical to the NP it modi- ~. Noun phrases of great complexity can be built up using the
fies. This RC is generally first among the modifiers (we may various modifiers. To illustrate not at all atypical structures,
argue that it is transposed into this position); it is not clear we give derived structures of some examples not cited above.
whether öör and gane would precede or follow it. The nominalized (1,3,5) a~e di~g~a~~d in (2,4,6) on pages 23, 24, and 25 respectively
S can be followed by any type of NP except perhaps NPX (but see 1. Lat1..n Amenk.1..Jn orn.uud.aas süül.ijn üje.d 1:r.J baj.gaa
above); for problems in its analysis see the section on the rela- Latin Arnerica-gen country-PL-abl end-gen period-dat come-impf
tivization and transposition transformations. (We will later treat medeen. üüd ...
-güj as extr~cted from within the S.~ be-impf vn report-PL
1. NP: aireen deer baj. gaa tom aar eag 'Reports coming from La tin America recen tly
A table on be-impf vn big yellow clock (Montgomery 11)
'the big y'ellow clock on the table' (Street 207) 3. 1960 on.y 8 dugaar sar.yn 9-nöös xojs Laos.t gar.san
2. NP : Biskaj mu3.aas jav.aa negen xatan ~960 year-gen 8 th month-gen 9-abl since Laos-dat happen-pf
No
Biscay region-abI go-impf vn one lady Javdal
'a lady of Biscay' (FL 84.17) vn event
3. NP : Toronto xoton.d suu .J baj . san olon xün 'the events which have happened in Laos since August 9, 1960'
Q
Toronto city-dat live-impf be-pf vn many person (Montgomery 13)
'many people who lived in Toronto' (R) 5. Lat~n Amer~k.yn büx ard tumn.ij g zorijgjuul.] baj. gaa
4. NP : Saja jav.san ter avtobus.t bi suu.san .güj. Latln Amerlca-gen all people mass-acc inspire-impf be-impf
D just go-pf vn that bus-dat I sit-pf vn-not
Kuh. yn baatar'. lag ard tum[enJ
'I didn't take the bus which just left.' (R 169.114) vn Cuba-gen hero-ic people mass
5. NP : cinij zaxi.san jum 'the thing you asked [ me to buy J ' 'The heroic Cuban people, who are ins plrlng all the people
N
your ask-pf vn thin& (Str ee t 207) of Latin America' (Montgomery 12)
6. NP : manaj üzel sanaa . g joloodo.x onol.yn ündes
G
our view thought-acc guide-inf theory-gen base 45a . In general, an NP can be modified, and the new NP modified
'the theoretical basis guiding our thinking' (Mao 1.2) ,lg~i n. More and more complex NPs can be built up in this way.
No adjectival can precede the verbal nominal. For details on the WhLle there are numerous syntactic, semantic, and eve n pragmatic
endings of nominalized S's, see Street 205-8, MLH 132-5, or KhGr I;,ctors.that enter into the possible structuring of an NP, and
81-4. For -güj, see Street 193-4, KhGr 95. "( )nS~raln the.order oE elements , given a certain meaning, it is
~;~:ssLble to g _Lve a general picture of the order of modifi er s.
44. A special case of th e relativ e clause i s tha t wlü c h trans - , ' I' ::ll1d !Ja nc ca nnot be assigned a place in this summary as of
I

lates 'whose.' Sup e rficia lly the se ;Jre quit e dUfcrent [rom orcli- Y(' L, how evcr , ror lack of dat a . The following table summarizes
nary verbal nominals, s in ce it j s lloL o!Jviolis :l lw:lYs t h;Jt elil i.clen - fi, e or de," or IlIodjr iers:
tical NP ha s bee n de l cted:
]. hif> :;o.i fil,i :r:iill
22 Modern Mongolian 23 Structural typolo gy of the simp le sentence

"""Z
p..
Z
QJ '-'
"0 Z ~
~ p..
cU ~ '-v-" Z
u QJ
J.-<
p.. ~
..,
r-1
QJ "0
"0 <t:
~ QJ 0
u
p..Z
cU
u QJ
J.-< 0 Z
p.. Z
.r-1., <I----
QJ "0

------------
"0 <t:
~ QJ
cU u <t:
u
~p.. <t: ~
QJ
."0.,
r-1 ~----------------------------------- ~
:~
:~
"0 <t:
~ QJ ~
cU u <:Il
u QJ --.....r <:Il
J.-< ~
p.. 0' <:Il
..,
r-1
'"
QJ "0 ·e
"0 <t: t:i
~ (J-,
cU
u
QJ
u .""t:i
----~~----- pf'
QJ
J.-< ..Q
p.. Z
S :> r""
QJ
"0
~
QJ
'"
.",

~ QJ
cU u
u ~
QJ
J.-< - - - -
p.. ~
QJ
00
QJ p..
"0 Z
~ QJ
cU
~----
u ~
- ............_ _-p..§2
J.-<
p.. Z
§2 ...'l
>i1
r-1 <t: U)
t:i
This table is to be read as follows: an NP N (N alone) can be pre- t:i
ceded by Adjlx, in which case th e combination is an NPX, or by an ~

AdjlNo, yiel ding an NPNo, or AdjlA, yielding NPA, e tc. An NPX may
be preceded by an AdjlNo, yielding an NPNo, or by an AdjlA, yiel-
ding an NPA, and so on and so forth . The table can also be read
from left to right: a verbal nominal can precede an NPG, or an
Z Z ~
NPD, or an NPQ, etc., in which case we have an NPVN . If there is ~ ~- '""
no VN, and NP gen can precede an NPD or NPQ o r NPA, etc ., yieldin g
in any case NPG. Finally , cer tain of th e modifiers ca n cycle
ba ck, so that an Adjlx ca n modify a n NPN n , o r a n AdjlA ca n modtfy
p..
7 c..'J

Z " " p..<t:

. ",

Z oq:
an NPA, a nd so on. , I

, I
4. NP N
-I'-
A
~---------NP
NP
I
::s:
o
P.-

SC,!)
I
N
,.,ro
::J
I
VP :s:
o
PP--~
::J
NP V I)q
o
~ /"~ f--'
,....

~ABL
NP bl P NP
I
DAT
'"
::J

NP N
~ I
NP NP I
j\ gen /\G
,/ \ NP gen NP
I

:960 ony
- L~ . 8- dugaar 9-n oos xojs Laos
saryn
I~ t garsan javdaZ

N
NP, \.Jl

CIl

NP ----------------""--- ---------------
~
n-
,.,
~--------- ~NP
C
I
SC?) NP
(l
n-
C
A
I /{en ~~\ "f--'
vr NP GEN Adj 1 NP 'n-"
~ 1 1 \ '<
vI' V N Adj N '"CJ
o
NP -----------~V f--'
o
~~ACC
I)q
'<
NP o
G

N~
t-n

n-
~ gen / '0,
I ::>
ro

~I
NP A GEN t r
dj1Q

?~
I I \ I \
I
\
~
[J)
,....
i3
'"CJ
f--'
ro
~a tin Amerik yn büx ard tümen ijg zörijgJüüz] bajgaa KubCaJ yn baatarZag '-
ar-d~tum
~
·· ,en [J)
ro
::J
n-
ro
::J
(l
ro
26 Modern Mongolian
1.123 Adjectivals
46. Adjectivals can be built from adjectives with pre-modifiers,
with certain postmodifiers, or they can be exocentric adjectivals.
47. The simplest adjectivals consist of single adjectives: sajn
'good,' sajxan 'weIl,' etc. There are a large number of ways for
morphologically deriving adjectives; some of these are productive
and may involve as yet undiscovered transformations. For a list
of such devices, see Street 99-102.
48. Most adjectives and adjectivals can be modi fied by an in-
tensifier such as ix 'big' hence 'very,' j amar 'how,' tun 'very,'
daanc 'too, t demij 'too,' xacin 'terribly,' mas 'very,' and so on.
Some examEles:'
1. ix cadaltaj 'very strong' (FL 348.06)
2. t un durgüj 'very undesirous' (FL 349.14)
3. mas baga 'very small' (L 17.13)
Some of these can modify other adverbials; i n fact tun (U 89.19)
and mas (U 91.05; Bk 27.08) can modify ix. What differenc es in
meaning between t un, mas, and ix there may be, and what restric-
tions on their use, are not known to me at presen t.
49. Other adverbials also modify adjectivals. There are too
many to list, but most have pragmatic fun ctions, e.g. ajxtar 'cer-
tainly,' lav 'certainly,' döngö j 'scarcely,' neeree 'really,' araj
'hardl~,' barag 'almost,' and so on: e.g.,
1. Cinij sanaa bodol neeree zöv jum.
your thinking thought truly right be
' Your opinion is certainly correct.' (FL 348.08)
50. Amongst adverbials which can modify adj ectivals are cased
NPs. Some of these (1) do not differ semantically from the adver-
bials mentioned in paragraph 49. Street 190 gives numerous exampl es
where the cased NP has a specifying function, e.g. (2). An ablative
is used for comparison (3) and the genitive for superlatives (4,5).
1. gajxal .taj sajn xün 'a wonderfully good person'
wonder-com good person (FL 345.18)
2. mori n.d sajn xün
horse-dat good person
'a good horseman, a good rider' [ lit: 'a per s on good at
horses'] (Street 190)
3. Jamc - cam. aas t argan 'Jamc is f a tt er than you. '
Jamc - you- abl fat ( Str ee t 190)
4. unegn. ij xar 'the bl ac ke s t fox ' (Kh Gr 60)
fox- gen blac k
5. xamag . yn sn,jn ' t he b e sL n r ;,11' (I( he r ( 0)
a ll- gen good
27 Structural typology of the simple sentenee
51. A measure phrase consists of a measure NP followed by an
adjective of measure:
1. 5214 metr urt '5214 meters long' (Street 189)
52. A nominal ending in me t 'like' can modify an adjectival:
1. tömör met bat 'strong like iron' (Street 189)
53 . Numeral adjectivals can take quantifying postmodifiers
(St;ee t 191) such as: garuj 'more than, , s~am 'nearly,' ilüü
'more than,' orcin 'about,' etc.
54. Adjectivals can take a negation, usually bis (Street 192)
bu~some times -güj (Street 194) if the adjectival is an NP in -n:
1. sajn bis 'not nice' (Street 192)
2. xaluun.güj 'not hot' (Street 194)
55. Besides NP n (see paragraph 56) there are several typ es of
a djectivals not built on adjectives:
(a) NP in comitative case:
1. olon mor'toj 'with a lot of horses' (Street 198)
(b) NP + güj:
2. us.güj 'without water' (Street 199)
( c) NP + sig:
3. sajn xün sig 'like a good person' (Street 200)
(d) NP + t :
4. Ji mst 'fruit-' (Street 200)
5. galt tereg 'train' (literally 'fire car') (R)
(e) Adverbial + x':
6. xuv'sgalyn ömnö.x 'pre-revolutionary' (Street 208)
7. odoo.x' 'present' (Street 209)
( f) certain postpositional phrases:
8. tüünij daraa ödör 'the day after that' (Street 209)
that(gen) after day
56 . Certain nominals ending in attributive ('floating') -n may
" ~ di fyother nominals; Street (probably correctly) treats these as
.,djectival (201-2):
1 . cemben büteelig 'wool(en) tablecloth' (Street 201)
2. morin t ereg 'horse-cart' (Street 201)
57. To sum up, an a djectival may be defined as:
Adjl = lAdj, AdjlA, Adjlm, Adjlmet, AdjlNo, Adjlx', Adjlneg,
Adjl com, Adjl güj, Adjlsig, Adjlt, PP, NPn}
Adjln g = 'Adjl + NE G [ NEG us ua lly is actualized as bis]
AdjlA (lInt e ns , Advbl}) Adj
Adj1m NP m + Adjm
Adjlm c t = NP + lI1a l,
Adj 'l Nu No (Qp os )
28 Modern Mongol ian
Adjlx' = Advbl + x'
Adjlcom NP + COM
Adjlsig = NP + sig
Adjlg~j = NP + güj
Adjl t = NP + t
PP = NPcase + Postcase [The subscripts indicate case govern-
NP n = N + n ment. J
1. 13 Apposition
58. In appositive structures two nominals are co-equal. In
Mongolian t here are two types of appositives: (a) a common noun
associated with a proper noun (here ' noun' can be a NP) ; (b) a
common noun associated with a pronoun .
59. In addition to the s e constructions, a nominalized S associa-
te~with jum 'thing, ' xereg ' thing,' and certain abstract nouns
(ünen 'truth'; ucir 'reason') may be treated as appositive. See
paragraphs 63-6 below.
60. A common noun associated with a proper noun phrase general l y
has reference to a title or occupation , or a name, but not invari-
ably .
Certain titles always follow their proper nouns (Street 182):
1. Cin~is xaan 'Chingis Khan [=emperorJ' (Street 182)
2. DorJ guaj 'Mr Dorji' (Hangin)
3. Dee van 'Prince Teh ' (Street 182)
Certain other titles are freely reversible (7,8) and can occur
either before o r after the proper nominal (Street 183) , though
titles borrowed from Russian usually precede (5,6):
4. Mongol .c erdemten A. Mostaert
Mongolist scholar A.M.
'Mongolist scholar A. Mostaert' (Xel 103)
5. Akad. B. Rincen 'Acad(emician) B. Rinchen' (Xel 5)
6. Marsal S.M. Budennij ' MarshaI S.M. Budennij' (Montgomery 3)
7. Sanco naiz min' 'friend Sancho' (FL 83 . 12)
8. najz Sanco Panso min' 'friend Sancho Panza' (FL 82.4)
(4) shows that titles are full NPs. We treat names as NPs . Thus
two types of NP are:
l. NP = NPtitle + NPprop (or the reverse order)
2. NPtitle = (Adjl) Ntitle
61 . PI ace
names and the like are freely rev ersible with common
nominals of place, though proper nominal first is t h e more usual
order . (SeeStr ee t l8 l.) CL (1,2).
l. Ulaan Baatar xot ' the city 0 f Ulan Ba tor ' (R 166.90)
2. ter ner-te j {.rot Ulaan Fjaa !;a'Y' } ' t l! C' f;l Ill O U S c- I ty of U . ß. '
{/ l(1.(rr!. linrrl.m · :w I
29 Structural typology of the simple sentence
We adopt the formulae:
3. NPN = Npl ace + NP geog (or the reverse order)
4. NPgeog = (Adjl) Ngeog
62. The second ca se of appositive is that of a common noun in
ap position to a pronoun such as bid 'we.' Although the order is
fr eely reversible, the normal order has the pronoun following.
( See Street 182.)
1. kommunistuud bid 'we Communists'
No te that the NP must agree in number with the following pronoun.
This introduces special problems which we will not deal with here.
A special case of this type of construction may be a pronoun
with a numeral, as in bid xoer 'we two' (Street 179). Perhaps re-
lated are the constructions in (2,3) :
2. ax düü xoeulaa 'the two brothers [togetherJ' (FL 352.2)
3. eceg avga ax xoeroo 'his (own) father and uncle ' (FL 352.3)
63. A nominalized sentence, usually in -x may be followed by
various nominals. In certain cases they are clearly acting as
complements to (i.e. are in apposition to) abstract nominals:
l. =26.2
2. xuv'sgal.ijn esergüül.üüd.ijg usta.x javdal (Mao 51.3)
revolution-gen opponent-PL-acc suppress-inf question
'the question of suppressing counter-revolutionaries'
3. olon uls.yn baga xural xuralduula.x s anal (Montgomery 13)
many nation-gen council convene-inf idea
'the proposal to convene an international conference'
Se e too paragraph 68.
Here there is no question of modification , and no underlying
el ement of the S is equivalent to the head NP. The possibility
of in terposing a numeral as in 'Three reasons for not deriving
"kill" from "cause-to-die'" demonstrates that the appositive term
is a full NP. Thus we can treat this construction along with the
I"ela tive clause.
64. Such a sentence can occur before ucir 'reason ' and tul 'be-
('a use oL' Ucir is clearly an abstract noun like those cited in
1J: lragraph 63, although i t often serves as a subordinating conjunc-
'I on (structurally a postposition) as in (2), where it means 'be-
" :Iuse of, sinc e, a s.'
I. Ter övc.tej tul ir. sen . güj .
he si ckn ess - com because come-pf vn-not
'He didn't come becaus e he was sick.' (Hangin 24)
2. Gdoo Can J<aj - si negent xutg.aa bilüüd.eed bajg.aa ucir bid
now Chang Kai-shek once s word-RP s harp en-pf be-impf vn rea-
bas xu·t ga b'i luud . ex :x;er·eg t e j.
s o n we al s o s word s har pen-inf n ecessa ry
( J{ 166 . 9l) ' !l s Chf a ng K:l i -s h ' k i s now s har pcning his s words we must
s " : II" Jw n o ur " LOll. ' (M;l() 12 . 2)
30 Modern Mongolian 31 Struetural typology of the simple sentence

Street (212-13) treats both tul and ueir as postpositions. However , 'We must have faith in the masses.' (Mao 3.2)
the latter at least can occur as a noun (3). Moreover, no case is The lack of any special case on the subject argues against (6).
demanded of the nominalization which precedes these terms. Thus, The impossibility of *bid xeregtej in the sense of 'We must (do
while Str ee t's analysis may be correct, no harm is done here by i t)' argues against (7). Tentatively, therefore, we aeeept (5),
treating ucir at least as an abstract noun in keeping with para- assimilating this to the appositive struetures already cited.
graph 63. However , this will yield false results in the case of 5. S 6. S
tul, which cannot be modified. We shall not discuss here deer in ------~ ~
the sense of 'while.' NP ~P NP VP
I I

l\J
3. Ucir n' ... ' The reason is (Mao 77.11) NP S NP

65. The analysis of VN plus jum is not always simple. Sometimes

~COM
NP
~ /~m
jum comes close to being an indefinite head noun to which the VN
is attached as a relative clause:
l(?)-~p NP COM
1. Minij asuu.san jum ...
my ask-pf vn thing
'My question (FL 347.15)
~J

-------
In (1) jum serves as object of asuusan ; in (2) it is almost a bid olon tümnijg xeJeg tej bid olon tümnijg 1ereg tej
subject to xeregtej: itgex itgex
2. =66.2 7. S
A similar usage is perhaps seen in (3):
NP VP
3. Xara.gda.x jum bas alga uu? 'Not in sight yet?' (FL 340.6) I
see-passive-inf thing also not-be Q Adjl
On the other hand, in (4), jum is not the noun but the copula:
S (?)
4. Xuv'sgal xij.x jum bol ...
revolution make-inf be if bid ~g xer~gtej
---------------Adj
'If there is to be a revolution (Mao 1.2) itgex
We construe (4) as meaning 'if one is to make a revolution.'
1. 14 Nominalizations
~. Finally, a similar problem arises in regard to xereg. It
certainly acts as an abstract noun, as in (1) . 6 7 . One kind of noun phrase does not fit into the pattern of
1. Teg.J bürmö.sön bexji.x n' bolom].güj xereg. 'lominal we have been describing, namely the nominalization. Here
do so-impf entirely strengthen-inf subject possible-not thin g we shall be concerned with the verbal nominal and with the agen-
'For that is impossible . ' (Mao 27.6) t ive nominalization.
Here the predicate me ans 'impossible thing.'
There is certainly ambiguity when xereg appears after a verbal ~. A nominalized sentence with the -ge ending ('nomen actoris')
nominal, particularly in the comitative case. Is the structure of s e rves as a nominal. See KhGr 83 MLH 132, Street 183-4.
(4) that in (5) or (6) or (7)? Certainly xeregtej can occur by 1 . luus tuu.ge xoer javga.n. ~ün
itself, as in (3). mule drive-agent two walk-mod people
2. Xereg jum xel.bel bi zövsöör.nö, teg.eed l bol. loo jum bis uu. 'two m~letreers on foot' (FL 84.16)
necessity thing say-cond I agree-pres do so-pf part become- 2 . meSe.g~ xün 'a knowledgeable person' (KhGr 83)
wit thing not question 3. unsi.ge xüüxen 'a reading girl' (MLH 132)
'They tell me the truth, I agree, that's all.' (FL 352.27) LI. xool zöö. ge 'waitress' (food server) (Street 183)
3. Xuv'sgal xij.x jum bol xuv'sgalt nam xereg . tej . f\" Ln (1,2,3) it often is in apposition to xün or some other noun.
revolution make-inf thing if, revolutiona ry p a rty necessity - ( I) s hows th a t it d efinitely is desentential in its derivation ,
com "1 1 L b e yond notin g th at it may be some type of relativization it

'If there is to b e a revolution, th e re must b e a r e volution- I:: no t cl e ar j us t wh at t h e und erlying structure iso Its external
ary party.' (Mao 1 . 3 ) I ', 1' :1 111m;) r se e ms to b e t ha t 0 F a ny v er b a l nominal.
4. B'id 0 lon twnn . 7:,j:; 7: iae . :r; xe Y'r' (7 . I e.i . On e oth e r ty p e o [ no mi nal s ho uld b e me nt io n ed her e, namely that
we ma ll Y rn ;; SR - ;l e ' t r ll HL- I ,,1- 11,"',''' ' ' 11 Y - ( ' \l1II I" -,'": , ' o ne wl, o i ,., in L<.' r l!s Ll'd /inv Iv e d in .. . , ' fo r example
32 Modern Mongolian
Mongole 'Mongolist' (Xel; Luvsandendev); eme 'doctor' (Street 93) .
Street (93) states that this is a 'freely productive' suffix, and,
in fact, it can occur with a whole sentential structure (5). Hence,
it is probably a type of agentive nominalization. Its treatment,
as with the -ge agentive, remains, however, a moot point, as it
is not clear what its underlying source would be.
5. Sekspir.ijg zoxiol.e nar ... ~'Shakespearean scholars ... '
Shakespeare-acc study(noun)-c PL (Z 69.18)
69. A nominalized sentence in the form of a VN can be a subject
or~ulfi l any other function of a nominal. However the VN does not
share the internal structure of other NPs. In Part 3 I show that
\ms derive from Ss. Accordingly, we introduce the rule:
1. NP = S
70. A number of questions remain in regard to the structuring
of NPs. However, the preceding discussion gives the basic facts.
1.2 Verb phrases
71. Almost all sentences have in their superficial structure a
predicate or verb phrase (VP) , unless it has been deleted by el-
lipsis. The VP of an apparently simple sentence and none the less
achieve considerable complexity, involving the embedding of other
clauses within it, as in the case of (1).
1. Ard tümn.ij dund ene asuudl.yn tal. aar zarim xümüüs öör
people mass among this question-gen side-abl some people
üze l barimta l. J baj. gaa j um.
other view hold-impf be-impf vn be
'Among the people there are some who see this question in a
different light.' (Mao 51.4)
72. Generally, the verb phrase of an underlying simple sen tenc e
contains only four parts, in this order: (a) an optional gro up of
adverbial modifiers; (b) the 'main verbal' or core of the verb
phrase; (c) optionally negative elements; and (d) the tense ending .
Sentences which are truly simple, however, are exceedingly rare.
73. The main criteria for the surface superficial structure are
the-following: (a) expansion - phrases which are expansions of
others are constituents of the same typ e ; (b) subs titutability -
phrases which are mutually substitutabl e are constituents of th e
same type; and (c) co-occurrence - co-occurrenc e relations gene-
rally hold between members of th e same constituent .
74. On thes e g rounds th e 'ma in v e rbiJ" (MV) is ce rt ai nly a con-
stituent. The co mpl eme n ts, ohj e ts, nnd pr l' v(' l-bs wili c h n se nt e n ('
can hav e ar e cl e rin e cl in U' rm s oC LI, t' v'r h. 'l'hu s ,I,i:x: 'C e nr' take.'
33 Structural typology of the simple sentence
a n objec t in the ablative case, but xelex 'say' does not. There
are certain co-occurrence restrictions holding between the adver-
bials and the main verbal, such as the fact that genet 'suddenly'
cannot co-occur with a stative verb such as bajx 'be,' but on the
who le almost any adverbial can occur with almost any main verbal.
75. It is less obvious that the adverbial phrase is actually a
co nstituent, even on the surface. In fact in a number of cases
there is found aseries of modifiers, each of which modifies the
follo wing material. In generative semantics it has been argued
that adverbials are underlying predicates taking sentential argu-
ments (see, for example, the appendices to G. Lakoff, Irregularity
in Syntax , New York 1970), so it is probable that ultimately the
st ructuring shown here can be accepted only as an ad hoc descriptive
device. In (1) Eid enx tajvny tölöö bat zo gsoJ , 'We stand firml~ for
peace and ... ,' enx tajvny tölöö 'for peace' modifies bat zogsoj
'strongly standing,' rather than both modifiers directly modifying the
verb. Howeve r, as a first approximation we s hall simply tr eat the set
of adverbials as a constituent, leaving it for future research to in-
di cate what the underlying structures and co-occurrence rel ations are.
~. On the surface, tense is undoubtedly part of the verb. In
under lying structure this cannot, however, be the case. First,
several transformations of Mongolian grammar are considerably
c omplicated if we make such an assumption. Secondly, generative
semantic research has strongly indicated that tense is outside
the scope of the verb with which it appears on the surface. For
examp le, consider these facts. It in English can refer back to a
se n t ence, as in (1). But notice that if it literally refers to the
;mtecedent S, this is equivalent to (2). But in fact, (1) me ans
(3 ), not (2). Therefore the tense must be outside of the antece-
d ent S proper. For convenience here, and as a first approximation,
we s hall indicate tense as a separate element of the VP near the
underlying level, and as part of the verb near the surface.
1. John didn't marry Susan, even though the fortune-teller had
predicted it.
2 . *John didn't marry Susan, even though the fortune-teller
had predicted he married Susan.
3 . John didn't mar ry Susan, even though the fortune-teller pre-
dict ed he would marry Susan.
( 'I'111s exampl e is by Noam Chomsky, cited in G. Lakoff, 'Pronomina-
1 i za tion, Nega tion, a nd th e Analysis of Adverbs,' in Jacobs and
1(llsenbaum, e d s ., Readings 'in English Transformational Grammar,
1\llsto n 1970, wh e r e the argument also comes from.)
1_",-. Neg iJt i o n w i t h a [Ln i te v e rb is ex tr e me ly uncommon. The ne-
1'.· 11 ion in Lhe I [L c'r nry Llngtl :l g' , (';; , hns been replaced in the
" ll lloqui ;IJ 1;1I1 )',1I ;1)',l' h y -!/ ii,j wiLl!" VN . cr . (1, 2 ). See paragraph
34 Modern Mongolian
278 on negative nominalization.
1. Ci es irne. ' You will not come.'
2. Ci irexgüj. 'You will not come.'
78. Thus the main rule of the VP is:
1. VP (Advbl) MV (Neg) Tns
1.21 The main verbal
79. Within the main verbal the following types of elements, and
in-rhis order, can occur: (a) object, (b) comp l ement, (c) preverb,
(d) verb. The nature of each of these parts depends on the verb,
and there are co-occurrence restrictions holdin g between each and
the verb. For the most part, the various elements are optional,
though there may be some verbs requiring, for example, an object,
or a comp lement. The verb is obligatory.
80. Again, it is difficult to determine any internal constituency
for the MV. We shall accordingly take the sections as co-ordinate
and define co-occurrence across these sections, keeping in mi nd
that semantically an object may be the object of a preverb-verb
combination.
In drawing trees in this mono graph I have usually as a kind of
shorthand ignored the in t ernal struc turing of the MV, if not the
MV itself.
81 . As a first approximation, we write:
1. MV (NP acc ) (Compl) (Prevb) V
82 . Some few intransitives can stand alone:
1. Dajn baj.Jee. 'There was a war. '
2. Bi ir.ne. 'I'm coming.'
3. Ted üxe.ne. 'They die.'
as can reciprocals; and most transitives can occur with or without
an object (one exception being xeregZex 'to use'):
4. Bi ide .ne. '1'11 ea t; I eat.'
Generally verbs occur with a t least one object or complement, how-
ever.
83. It is useful to discuss main verbals according to the type
of verb which occurs in them. There are three types: (a) intran-
sitive, (b) copular, and (c) transitive.
1.211 Intransitive main verbal
84. As noted ab ove , intransitiv e verh s ca n s Land without compl ' -
me nt, a nd th ey ne ver t:lke :ln o hj ('C' I; we s L:,bl i ,' I, :'l co-occ ur r e n e
rul e : i n tra ns lL i v ' ve rb s (VI :lll nw Ii n o hi <, (' I :; .
B'). '1'1" ' 1'(' :11 '(' 11 "':1( ' ,' 1," "11'11 " I 1111 1:1 11 ,11 1 I v " V" II> :
15 Structural typology of the simple sentence
(a) EXISTENTIAL - ViI = bajx 'be'; bolox 'be, become'
(literary) (b) STATIVE - Vila = üldex 'remain'; ürgelJ Zex 'endure, last'
( colloquial) (c) MOTIVE - Vi2 orox 'enter'; garax ' exit '; xödlöx 'move'
(d) ACTIVE - Vi3 = üxex 'die'; üüsex 'begin'; zogsox 'cease!;
bolix 'end'
(e) INCHOATIVES OF INTRANSITIVES - Vi3a = [ These are generally
formed from adjectives.J bajanjix 'become rich' from
bajan 'rich'; ecestex 'come to an end' from eces 'end'
(f) RECIP~OCAL - Vi3b = [These can be formed from any verb.J
bar~ldax 'wrestle' from barix 'hold'; jarilcax from jarix
'talk.' [ These require a plural subject.J
(g ) STATIVE OF ADJECTIVES - Vi3c = xündrex 'be heavy' < xünd
'heavy'
,86. Mo tion verbs t a ke complements . Some motion verbs can occur
w lt hou~ c~mp~ement,or .with either a dative or ablative complement:
II,us xodZox move, n~s ex' fly.' Others require that if there is
,I complement, it is either dative or ablative:
Vi2 GENERAL MOTION
Vi 2a MOTION FROM - garax 'exit, leave, go out'; mordox 'depart'
Vi2 b MOTION TO - orox 'enter, go into'; ojrtox 'near, approach'
82· Many intransitive verbs, particularly motion verbs, can take
I"' c ve rbs which describe the quality of the action. These are al -
I II"S t adverbial in quali ty:
L. xam! irex 'come along with'
2. naas irex 'come over'
J. türüünd javax 'go ahead'
I,. dor orox 'go und er ,
l'III'r e must be semantic restrictions on such collocations but that
1'1 ~)ut Sid~ .... t~e scope of our present study. Other preverb~ are verbs:
J . xar ~ ~rex 'come back' (literally 'come returning')
.' (,. evdeJ orox 'break in(to)' (literally 'enter breaking')
'" " 1,' pr everbs are embedded clauses. There is a constraint that the
'" "'Ie c t and any object of the verb in the embedded S be equal to
11' ,ll of the outer S. (See section 3.213.)
/. Preverb = {Adv, Sf
111\ . The re must be
complex co-occurrence restrictions between
111 1' "I linplements and
pr everbs and other types of intransitive verbs
1111"1" " ave not b een inves t iga t ed and are outside the scope of this·
\011" k .
I. "I:: ('olm,Zar' mw:n ve.Y'bal
11 1( , Cl' I- L:l'Ln co p,,1 il l- verhs
int rans itive hut t a k e nominal or
1.11 ,', Il v: 11 CO lllp l l'III(' nl s .
1J1i. '1'1" , 111:1i 1I l' 1" ':;1(" : " I V, "I' ,' I I " ! ';
I I)
V"" I' / /'".i,I: ' ''' "; /"'/",1 ' 'I ,, · , IH '\ ' Pllli '
36 Modern Mongolian 'll Structural typology of the simple sentence

(b) Vcopla = suux 'remain, stay'; javax 'serve as' 93. It is not clear what preverbs copular verbs can take.

91. Bajx can be replaced by so - called copular particles. Some 94. Any sentence may be expanded by the ad dition of an auxili-
of-;hese are (Street 158, KhGr 101): ;try verb, either a copular auxiliary such as bajx 'be' or an auxi-
1. bij - Detxij deer odoo dornod. yn satxi, örnöd.ijn ~alxi geJ I lary such as cadax 'be able to, can.'
world on now East-gen wind, West-gen wind geJ two 1. Marta . ] bajna. '(I) don't remember.' (Street 153)
xoer satxi bij. 2. Ta xo ton .d suu .] cad.na. 'You can live in the city.'
wind be you city-dat live- impf can-pres (Street 149)
'There a re two winds in the world today, the East Wind \.Je shall analyse these as copular intransitives taking a senten-
and the West Wind.' (Mao 83.8) I ial complemen t. For a list of auxiliary verbs, see paragraph 174,
2. mon - Manaj üjt xerg.ijg udirda.x got xucin bo t Xjatad . yn \,J here als o the various forms taken by included sentences are cited.
our action thing-acc lead-inf main force SM China-gen
Komnunist Nam mön. 95. Copular verbs of class Vcopl and the copular particles can
Communist Party same lake as complements sentences. See section 3.315.
'The force at the core leading our cause forward is
the Chinese Communist Party.' (Mao 1.1) ~.
Thus Vcop take adjectival or nominal complements; Vcopl
3. jum - Revizionism bot xöröngötön.1:j üz et surtt.yn neg xe7-be l' take NP>S complements; the subject of these must equal that
,': In
revisionism SM bourgeois view doctrine-gen one form "r the ou ter sen tence.
jum.
be ! , :? 13 'l'ransi ti ve main verba l
'Revisionism is one form of bourgeois ideology.'
(Mao 21.1) 97. Most transitive verbs can be used without an overt object.
4. jumsan - Ganc sirxeg budaa.g C orxi.x.guJ Jumsan .
only piece grain-acc even let-inf-not is 98. There are many transitives which take a single object in
'One should not waste any grain at all.' (Street 16 2 111 '-' acc usative. The main classes are:
5. bitee - Juund bi tedn .ijg too] bisr e.x jum bitee? (a) CREATION VERBS (Vtrl) = bajguulax 'found, establish';
how I them-acc accept-inf be was bolgox 'make, create'; xijx 'do, make'; üüsex ' start';
'And how am I accepting them?' (FL 359.25) gargax 'cause to happen'
These can have an existential (1) as well as a copulative functio" , (b) SPECIFIC VERBS OF CREATION (Vtrla) = bicix 'write'; barix
See paragraphs 333 ff. for their derivations. 'build'; zurax 'paint (a Bicture),
(c) CAUSATIVES OF Vinla = ürgeljtüülex 'extend'
92. As complements, copular verbs take either adjectivals (l- ll) (d ) CAUSATIVES OF MOTION = oruulax 'enter'; gargax 'pull out';
or~ominals (5-8), which are in the nominative case. zajtuulax 'set aside'
1. Aav.d.aa adit bol.] baj.na. (e) SIMPLE ACTIVITIES (Vtr3) = üzex 'see' etc.
father-dat-RP like become impf be-pr es (f) CAUSATIVES OF Vin3 = sataax 'burn'< satax 'burn"
'He is like his father.' bajaJuulax 'enrich'< baja]ix 'be rich' '
2. setgel.tej boto .x 'to fall in love' 111 l':lSe S (c,d,f) we have transformationally derived verbs - see
heart-com become-inf /" ',' Lion 3.44. For convenience only we refer to these classes as
3. dulaan bolox 'to get warm' ' l i Ib, Vt r2, and Vtr3a respectively.

4. soxor bolox 'to go blind'

5. Ter - emc bolno. 'He will become a doctor.' (Street 14]) 99. Some v e rbs can take a sing le object in the ablative. Such
6. Onöödör sajxan ödör bajna . 'Today is a fine day.' I', (V tr4) is ajx 'E ear, b e afraid of.'
(Street 141)
7. Ter tölöötögc javsan . 'H e served as ambas sador.' I (J.() , Some v e rbs C:ln take an 0 bj ec t in the accusa ti ve preceded
(Street 141) "1, 1 iOIl:1I1 y by il ll in clircct object in th e dative which serves as a
8. Gitler caasan bar ba,j , ;;ali /n''(; iiii.? ''' "Ild <' lII l' l1t, S uch v erbs nr e:
Hi tl er pa per I: i gc.' 1- hl'-p I' VI) 11(> L Cl (, I ) V I ': I ~ I \S (H' (: I VINC (V t r '» ~ (j:;ö:x; 'to give '
'W ,l S llitl c l- II OL: :1 P:'1 ll' I LI) ',v l-'! ' (~I.J(1 /B ,I) (h) V I ': I ~ I \S ()Io' NM1 1NC (Vlr'l: l ) !,i/lli/o.1: 't o appoint '
38 Modern Mongolian
(c) VERBS OF SAYING (Vtr5b) xelex 'say'
These last can take sentences as direct objects. See sections 3.11,
3.31. Their indirect objects are severaly limited.
101. Some verbs can take an object in the accusative preceded
optionally by an indirect object in the ablative which serves as
a complement. This complement is generally human with Vtr6a,b,c.
(a) VERBS OF TAKING (Vtr6) = avax 'take, buy, get'
(b) VERBS OF REQUESTING (Vtr6a) = gujx 'request, ask for'
(c) VERBS OF ASKING (Vtr6b) = asuux 'ask, inquire'
(d) VERBS OF LEARNING (Vtr6c) = medex 'learn'; sonsox 'hear'
(e) Vtr 6d ujax 'tie, fasten'; barix 'hold'
Vtr6c can take a sentential object. See sections 3.11, 3.31.
102. Some verbs can take two accusative objects. Generally one
of these is actually a comp lement. Thus with Vtr7 nerlex
, 'name'
.,
(the complement gives the name); with Vtr7a xuvaax separate lnto
a word like 'parts, groups' is the complement.
103 . Certain verbs regularly take a sentential ojbect. Such ar e
xüsex 'wish, want,' medex 'know.' Let us call these Vtr9·
104. Certain verbs t ake an obligatory direct object and a comp-
lement sentence. Let us call these VtrlO. Some are olox 'find,'
üzex 'see' and bodox 'think.' It is not known if something simi-
lar to th~ English reduction in (1,2) is possible.
1. I found her to be a stupid person.
2. I found her a stupid person.
See sections 3.11, 3.31
105. Some verbs can take an object consisting of a sentence and
the conjunction ge}. Let us call these Vtrll, Vtrlla. Some exampJ ( I
Vtrll = bodox 'think'; Vtrlla = xelex 'say.'
106. Verbs of saying can also add to this a n indirect object,
usually human. Verbs of command (Vtr12) like tusaax 'order' rest-
rict the object to a command sentence. For a discussion of the gr'I"
constructions, see section 3.42.
107. For almost any transitive verb not alr eady causative, a
causative, Vtr8, may be formed. The objects and complements of
such a verb will depend on those of the root v e rb.
108. Causatives may also be formed frorn co pula r v e rbs. Again,
their properties dep end on th e und e rl yLng v e rb. Some e xampl e s 0 1
such Vtr13 are bolgox 'make ,' 1>rüü l e:x; ' ca us t o COlll e , bring , s ' lld '
(based on the a uxili ary ). Fo r a d i s c ll ss io n of c:ll, s: l tlv c ve rb s , 1,, 11
sec tion 3 .44 .
'3 9 Structural typology of the simple sentence
1. 214 'Verbless ' sentences
109. A copula may be omitted, yielding apparently verbless sen-
tences. This can happen with any adjectival, nominal, or senten-
t ial complement. In the spoken language deletion of a copula after
il ve rbal nominal (5) is so common as to be almost obligatory. Such
ve rbal nominals are probablyon their way to becoming finite end-
lngs. See section 3.334 for discussion. Some examples:
1. Teg.J bürmösön bexJi .x n' bolomJ.güj xereg .
do so-impf entirely strengthen-inf SM possibility-not thing
'For that is impossible.' (Mao 27.6)
2. Dund tariacin.taj negen njagtra.x n ' zajlsguj cuxal ...
middle peasant-com unite-inf SM essential important
'It is essential to unite with the middle peasants ... '
(Mao 32.1)
3. ANU-yn xamsaatn.uud c ~Jm l xuv' zaja.taj. (Mao 82.2)
USA-gen accomplice-PL part thus part part fate-com
'The same fate awaits the accomplices of the USA.'
4. Manaj uls ba socialist orn.uuda.d enx tajvan xeregtej.
our country and socialist land-PL-dat peace necessary
'Our country and all other socialist countries want peace.'
(Mao 68.1)
5 . .. . tüünij n ' xün aJi.J ög.sön.güj.
it-gen the person notice-impf give-pf vn-not
'No one noticed it, however.' (FL 352.13)
1. 22 Adverbials
110. There are several kinds of adverbial, structurally speak-
I ll g .See paragraph l13ff. Semantically there are several kinds as
w(' ll , and their word order is in part determined by this:
1. TIME - Kommunist .uud bid, uls tör.ijn üzl. ee erdöö
Communist-PL we, nation power-gen view-RP always
nuu.dag . güj jum. (Mao)
conceal-freq-not be
'We Communists never conceal our political views.'
2 . PLACE - Sujx tergen . d Biskaj muJ.aas jav . aa negen xatan
coach car- dat Biscay region-abl go-impf vn one
suu.J jav .}ee .
lady sit-impf go-pret
'In the coach was a lady of Biscay.' (FL 84.17)
J. MANNER - Sine bajguul . yg alxam alxam.aar bexjüüle.x xeregtej .
n e w society-acc step step-instr consolidate-inf
n ecessary
' It h as to be co nsolidated step by step.' (Mao 27.7)
I,. REASON - Odoo fan Kai -si negent xutgaa bi Züüdeed bajgaa ucir .. .
'll s Chi ;ln g I([l i- s lte k has been s ha rp ening his swords ... '
(M ;lll I ') . /)
40 Modern Mongolian
5. MODALITY - Jagaad ge.vel ter gar.c ir.sen xar dursn.uud bo l
truly say-cond that happen-impf come-pf vn black
id sidten ergelzee.güj mön baj.na.
figure-PL magician doubt-impf vn-not same be-pr eH
'For those black-clad figures that you behold
must be, and without any doubt are, certain en-
chanters ..• ' (FL 84.21)
111. Their order is undoubtedly strongly affected by relation-
ships such as focus . In neutral order, however, there is a ten-
dency for the adverbial of time to come first, unless there is a
root adverb such as lav 'certainly' or bas 'also.'
112. 'Certain types of adverbials ... regularly ... occur be-
fore a subject [orJ after an object or complement. The details
of the formal restrictions on these '" orders ... are not clear. '
(Street 135)
l12a. The order of adverbials is determined by a large number
of factors, and more research will be required to sort out what
these are, and the possible orders.
113. In terms of structure, there are three kinds of adverbials:
root, endocentric, and exocentric.
114. Root adverbials are words like bas 'also,' mön 'the same
wa~ and so on. These as a rule cannot be modified, or affixed-
to .
115. Words which function as postpositions and certain other
adverbs may take certain endings. Thus ömnö 'in front' > ömnöös
'from in front'; xaa ',vhere?'>.xaaguur 'to where?',xaanaas 'from
where?' We should treat these as special examples of cased NPs.
See below for cased postpositional phrases.
116. Many adjectives can serve as adverbials as weIl, with no
formal change. Thus sajn 'good, weIl'; muu ' bad, badly.'
1. Sajn suugaaraj: 'So long!'
good stay-prescript
As Street notes: 'It is sometimes difficult to distinguish an ad-
verb from ... an adjective functioning as a comp lement.' (102)
117. Preverbs may be classed as adverbs, but th ey h ave differ e n l
privileges of occurrence.
118. Certain adverbs are 1ll0rphologicil "lly cl er i vl'cI. Tli ese aLe no t
I, L Structural typology of the simple sentence
pro ductive forms and need only be listed in the lexicon . See
Stree t 103-5.
1. baruuns 'westward'< baruun 'West'
2. xaas 'whither?' < xaa 'where?'
11 9 . An adverbial may consist of a postpositional phrase, con-
::Lsting of a postposition preceded by a cased NP:
1. gazar dor ' un der the ground' (Street 210)
earth und er
2. gol.yn ergen deer 'on the bank of the river' (Street 210)
river-gen bank on
1 20 . Some postpositions take a nominative case; if the noun is
" -ifloating n' noun, it takes the -n (119.2) (Street 210). Some
:;uch postpositions are: ööd 'at, against, towards'; dor 'under' ;
,leer 'on'; deegüür 'over'; tijs 'towards'; and dotor 'inside.'
1 21. A few verb forms are virtually indistinguishable from post-
posi tions and should be treated as derived postpositions, for ex-
"rnpI e xilrtel '(up) to, until' < 'on reaching.'
12 2. The cased forms of nouns mayaIso serve as derived postpo-
,; itions: xajuud 'next to' 'at the side (of)'; ol'ond 'in place of'
'Ln the place (of)' (cf. English instead of) .
1 23. Street (210) includes rüü amongst the postpositions, as
do~Poppe (KhGr 74); Rag:::aa (12) asserts that i t is a postposi-
I ion ('following word') as weIl. However, although it is written
"s as eparate word, it undergoes vowel harmony (2). Poppe shows
il taking a floating -n word in the indefinite case (KhGr 74; cf.
( I», which would imply a postposition. However, this form is
" Is o the bare stern of the noun. Furthermore, Kas'janenko (101)
':lJo ws rüü taking the nominative in such cases , as in (3). Crucial
,'vLden ce would be its deletability with deleted nouns in relative
" I :lUs e formation, since cases delete but postposi tiOTIS remain.
Illlwever, I have been unable to either find or elicit any such
I' x:llllples. But Kas ' janenko at least talks of a 'di rectional'
(/liI/)ravitel 'nyj ) case (32f), and gives both possessives and refle-
x ive-possessives (4) following it. (4) strongly suggests a case
I'lId ing rather than a postposition. Certainly the facts are unclear
, li presen t. I n ad dition, Kas'janenko shows the morpheme as having
" I 101ll0rphs in 1 after /r/ (2,5). This too suggests a case, but it
I:: premat ur e to assert that h is data is conc1usive.
1. us Y'uu 'towarcl s the wa t er ' (KhGr 74)
2. uxe r lüü ' towards th e cow ' (Kas ' janenko 102)
3.1"1/0 1"'111 r'uu 'to war cl s t h e l!Orse' (Kas'janenko 101)
I , . rr:.r: l'UIiUrlU ' tow:lrcls IJ i s O Wll ol cl cr br ot h e r' (Kas' janenko 102)
'). :1 1 ' 1' liiii 'LOW:l l"(ls Lll l' IJOll S(" ( I(: l s 'j :ln e nko 33)
 43 Structura1 typo10 gy of the simple sentenc e
42 Modern Mongo1ian

c) INSTRUMENTAL
124. Some postpositions govern the comitative case: xamt 'to-
1. means or instrument - morior 'by horse'; soxojgoor
ge ther with'; cug 'with.'
'with cha1k'
2. p1ace where - üüdeer 'through the door'
125. Some govern the ablative: gadna ' except for'; xojs 'after,
3. material - culuugaar bar'san 'bui1t of stone'
behind'; ur ' d 'before.'
4. ac cord - tanaj xelsneer 'as you said'
5. 10ca1ity - tariagaar javax 'to vi s it farms'
126. Some govern (optiona11y the dative-10cative case: xürtel
6. state - bagsaar 'as a teacher'
'unti1. '
7. time during - üüreer 'at dawn'
8. manner - sajxnaar 'nice1y'
127 . All other postpositions, save the few t aki ng the nomina-
9. purpose - javaxaar 'in order to go'
tive, take the -genitive case. A list of some can be found in
See Street 214-19; KhGr 58-65.
Street 210-11. See too KhGr 74-5; MLH 82-3.
133. In summary:
128. Postpositions can govern a verbal nominal in a cased form:
Advb1 = (Root Adve rb) (Time Advl) (Adv1) ... (Adv1)
1. Ger.ees gara.x. taj xamt boroo oro.v.
Adv1 ={NP cas e , pp}
house-ab1 exit-inf-com with rain enter-past
Time Adv1 ={NPtime/dat, PPtime}
'Just as they 1 eft the house it began to rain.' (Street)
This is of course on1y a very rough cha racterization.
129. Some postpositions can occur with a p1ain verbal nominal. 1.23 Shift of elements
--1. Boroo amsxij . s en deer av "ja !
rain 1et- up-pf vn on take-vo1 1.231 Emphasis shift
'Let's go whi1e the rain has let up .' (Street 212)
134. Cert ain sent ence elements can be shift e d out of their nor-
See s ec tion 3.312 for de tails a nd more examp1es.
ma~unmarked order for purpose s of emphasizing one element ove r
another . This is simi1ar to such shifts in o ther 1anguages .
130. Some postpositiona1 phrases can take cases:
1. Bi önöödör Luvsan. d neg nom . yg ögö.v.
1. NP ööd + ABL - 'to meet X'
'I gave a book to Luvsan today.'
2. NP ömnö + ABL - 'on behalf of X'
2. Bi Luvsan . d önöödör neg nom.yg ögö.v.
3. NP xamt + INSTR - 'together with X, at the same time as X'
'I gave a book today to Luvsan. '
4. NP POSTPOSITION + ABL - 'from ... ' Thus: xojnoos 'from
Al tho ugh something has been said, vague1y, concerning the order
behind X'
of such elements (see, for examp1e, Binnick 18ff, see too
See Street 211,213.
Or10vskaja), no theory has rea11y been devised to account for the
semanti cs of such shifting.
131. Postpositions and other a dverbs can also take cases; thus
At present it is impossible to det ermine if this is a 1eft-
endees 'frorn here.' s hi ft, right-shift, or scramb1ing ru1e.
132. Cased NPs can serve as adverbia1s or cornp1ernents; this
135. An adjectiva1 cannot be moved out of the VP:
inc1udes verbal nomina1s.
1. *Sajn bi suuJee. 'I was we11.'
a) DATIVE
1. 10ca 1 - xotond 'in the city'
13 6. WH-words t end to r emain by the verb:
2. dir ect iona1 - xotond 'to the city'
1. *Ta xeden cag . t ögZöö id. deg?
3. temporal - xoer cagt 'at 2 0 ' c10ck'
you which time-dat morning eat-freq
4. circumstance - üüni j g xi jxed 'to do this'
'What time do you eat in the morning?' (R 37.15)
b) ABLATIVE
2. Luvsan MongoZ . d xe zee j av.san ?
1. source - Kanadaas ' f rom Cana d '~ '
Luvsan Mongo1 ia-d a t wh en go- pf vn
2. cause - üünees 'from thi s '
'Wh en did Luvsan go to Mongo1ia? (R 136.1a)
3. separa tion - a.Y'.Tinaas ' <J wa y fr OIll l iquor '
4. parti t i v e - I;il ün7: j j ru " :;11 ([(1:1 ' () f wh ;) L iJ c s a i cl'
3. r,uvaan xezee MongoZd j avs an? (R 136 . 1b) [ (2) is preferred
t o ( 3). I
5 . ab t emp ora ] - .1;O(>-r· ('({~I!lr lll ' ,, 1 11 ("( ' 2 o ' v l () (" k'
44 Modern Mongolian /,5 Structural typology of the simple sentence

137 . Nothing can follow the v erb with its preverbs within the 2. Minij ger aJil.aas xol baj.x tul~ bi üd.ijn xool.oo
VP. my house work-abl far be-inf because, I noon-gen food-RP
zavod.oo id. deg.
138 . A predicate nominal cannot be moved out of the VP. factory-RP eat-freq
---1. *Xen t er xün be? 'Who is that man?' 'Because my house is so far from my work, I usually eat
who that man be/Q lunch at the factory.' (R 21.6)
2. *Minij düü t er bajna. 'He's my younger brother. ' 3. Mongol xe l.ijg jari.x.yg sura.x.aar~ Kanad.yn erdemten
my younger-brother he is Mongoi language-acc speak-inf-acc learn-inf-instr Canada-
Mongo l . d jav .san.
139. Just about any order not s o proscribed involving subject, gen scholar Mongolia-dat go-pf vn
object, and adve r];ials is permitted. Some examples: . 'The Canadian scholar went to Mongolia to learn to speak
1. a) Bat Dorji . d java. x xeregtej bol . sn . yg ojguula .v. Mongolian.' (R 43.8)
Bata Dorji-dat go-inf necessary become-pf vn-acc
convince-past 1 41. With objects:
'Bata convinced Dorji that it had become necessary to 1. Dcögdör öglöö Sijatal . aas ir.sen xün . ~J g ta üze .v. üü?
go.' (R 6.16) yesterday morning Seattle-abl come-pf vn person-acc you
b) Dor~id Bat ... (R 7.l6a) see-past Q
c) Dorjid javax ... bolsnyg Bat ojguul av. (R 7.l6b) 'Did you see the many who arrived ye sterday from Seattle?'
d) Javax ... bolsnyg Bat Dor3id ojguu l av. (R 7.l6c) (R 40 . 20a)
2 . a ) Tüün. ij aav ee3 i x xoton.d öcögdör jav.san baj .na. 2. Ter xün. ij zo cid buudald suu.3 baj.x.yg bi med. sen.güj.
b ) this-g en father mother big city-dat day before yesterday that person-gen guest building live-impf be-inf-acc I know-
go-pf vn be-pres pf vn-not
'His parents went to the big city the day before yester- 'I didn't know the ma n lived in a hotel.' (R 52.39)
day. ' (R 36.11) 3. Bid nar . yn i rex.i jg ödör bür minij oxin düü xulee. ne.
b) Tüüni j aav eeJ öcögdOr i x xotond javsan bajna . we nar- gen come-inf- a cc day every my younger sister wait-
(R 36 . 11a ) pres
c ) Dcögdör tüünij .. . bajna . (R 36.llb) 'My younger sister wai ts for us all day. ' (R 23.la)
d) Ix xotond tüünij ... bajna . (R 36.11c)
3. a ) Ter ün . eer t er nom. yg Nar an. d ög . sön. 142. The transformational rule:
that t r uly the book-acc Naran-dat give-pf vn I~'XTR
'He certainly gave the book to Naran.' (R 134.25) SD: S[NPi - X - NPj (Post) - yJ S
b) Ter üneer Narand ... (R l34.25b) SC : Move NPj to left over NPi.
c ) Ter Narand üneer ... (R l34.25c) (This rule may r e iterate.)
d) Uneer~ ter ... (R 134. 25d)

1. 232 Extr action

140. In some ca ses we suspect that a left-movement rule takes

plac e, not to mark emphasis, but to shift 'heavy' el ements, much
as i n English we prefer to shift heavy e l ements to the right of
light ones (we pre f e r he burned down the old wooden shack to he
burned the old wooden shack down ). This r ul e a ff e ct s a dve rbial s
(cas e d NPs and pPs) and obj ec t s only, a nd mov es them be fo r e the
subj e ct. The rul e follows r e f lexiv e-po ssessive pronominali za t i on.
Some examples with a dv erbi a l s:
1. Xi ceel davt . sn . aas xo.{;; boi un"trr. v.
l ess do- pE vn-abl after 1 8 1 ee p- prt.·L
' After t he l csso n W i l S pn'p:l I' L'cI, I Wl' lll Lo bl' d . ' (I{ 2'3 . ') ;,

2.
Coordinate struduring
2.1 Sentence conjoining
143. As in the case of other 1anguages, 10ng sentences can be
bui1t up in Mongo1ian through conjunction by juxtaposition. This
is, however, rare. For the most part use of this device is 1imited
to contrasting two general ideas (2) or making parallel statements
(1) .
1 . Bid oZon tümn.ijg itge.x xeregtej~ bid nam.yg itge.x
we many mass-a cc trust necessary, we party-acc trust
xeregtej.
necessary
'We must have faith in the masses, and we must have faith
in the party ... ' (Mao 3)
2. Jari.x n' ix xij.x n ' baga.
speak-inf comp1ementizer big do-inf comp1ementizer sma11
'Talk a lot, do 1itt1e.' (Rag~aa 16)
This is especia11y the case with a colon (3) or semico10n punctu-
ation in writing. As in Western 1anguages, the colon is used to
specify; in the case of (3), what fo110ws the colon serves to
specify the ijm 'thus.' A semico10n mere1y 100se1y connects two
ideas.
3. Bodi t xereg ijm Z baj . dag: ...
real thing thus part be-freq
'This is the way things a re: ... ' (Mao 87.2)
All such sentence conjunction is 1itt1e more than the Jo~n~ng of
semantica11y and pragmatica11y re1ated sentences within a phono-
10gica1 group. Cf. MLH 161-2.
144. Conjunctions such as 'and' are us ed in many 1anguages t o
string sentences into series, as in narratives . This is par ti cu-
1ar1y true in co110quia1 speech; the so-c a 11 ed 'run-on' sentenc
is the bane of the schoo1teache r. In Mongo1ian th e equ iva1ent oF
this seria1 'and' is a gerundia1 co nverba1, us ua 11y the i mp erf e l
(1), but also in - eed (2, 3) if a c10s e r co nn cc tto n is i ndi ca t e d ,
and ther e a re on1y two conju nc t s . Thu s :
47 Coordinate structuring
1. Tüjvee .J~ jalagda.J~ daxin tüjvee .J~ daxin jalagda.J~
make trouble-impf, fai1 -impf, again ... , again ... , do
inge.seer möxö.xö. d xür.ne.
thus-abt doom-inf-dat reach-pres
'Make trouble, fai1, make troubl e again, fai1 again
ti1l their doom ... ' (Mao 71.3)
2. Doliin - Aj Burxan min' ! g.eed gadagsaa güj.J gara.v.
Do1jin - oh God my: say-pf to outside run-impf go out-past
'Do1jin cr:!;.edl,.. flOh my God:", and ran outside.' (L 16.9)
3. Bazarov buca.j ir . eed~ sireen.d suu . J caj.gaa jaara.n
Baz~rov return-impf come-pf, tab1e-dat sit-impf tea-RP
uU. J exle . v .
hurry-mod drink-impf begin-past
' Bazarov came back, sat down a t the tab1e, and began has-
ti1y drinking tea.' (FL 352.1)
145. Mongo1ian also possesses a few coordinating conjunctions _
ba 'and,' for examp1e. However, with a few exceptions, these can-
no t connect sentences un1ess nomina1iz ed; they ordinari1y connect
nomina1s, adjectiva1s, or a dverbia1s. Bujuu 'or' is the commonest
connective with sentences, but its uses are restricted relative
to those of Eng1ish 'or,' Russian 'i1i,' and so on. Viz. (2).
1. ~erev . ijmerxüü bajdl . yg xangalt.taj ojZgo.x. güj bujuu
~f th~s state-acc sufficiency-com understand-inf-not or
ogt ojlgo.x .güj bol ...
entire1y understand-inf-not
'If this is not suffic ient1y understood, or is not under-
stood at all ... ' (Mao 18.5)
2. Ter end sil . ijg xagala.x ügüj bol zagluula . x geJ baj .na .
that this glass-ac c break-inf not if remove-inf quote be-
pres
'He int ends either to break the glass or remove it.'
(R 213.52, slight1y modified)
146. More common is the use of adverbi a l elements, in orlg~n
!',crundia1 converba1s, which have become a sort of suborindating
(·o njunction. They are unusua1 in that whi1e histor ica11y they go
wLt h the first of two c1auses they are now understo od to go with
II.t e se co~d. T~ei r treatment is not yet c1ear. Are they subordina-
I Il1g co nJunctlons or s e para t e gerundia1s? They are ca11ed by Street
" 'o nnectives' (1 24 - ~) and by Poppe (KhGr 96-7) 'Bindewörter.' The
(·.,nunon ones are gevc 'but' (1), getel 'however, neverthe1ess mean-
w l~L1e ' ~2), fro m g~ - 's ay '; tegvel 'then, if so, in that cas~' (3),
/ , ,Ieed so, then, ~n that way' (4), tegtel 'at that moment' (5)
Irom teg- 'd o so ' [c L tegex leer FL 84 .1 3J ; xarin 'but' (6); and
. , f l' W others .
48 Modern Mongolian
1. Gevc arvan xuruu.gaar.aa neg zereg dar. val jamar c sajxan
but ten finger-instr-RP one time press-cond what part good
aja gara.x.güj.
sound come out-inf not
'But if all ten fingers press down at once, there is no
melody. ' (Mao 115.4) " ...
2. Getel bid odoo.xon.d.oo usta.x.yg xüse.x.güj, teg.J xüse.J
but we now-diminutive-dat-RP liquidate-inf-acc wish-inf-
Ci bolo.x.güj .
not do so-impf wish-impf part become-inf-not
'But not right now; we cannot do it yet.' (Mao 38.6)
3. = 143.3
4. Amerik.yn imperialism araj unaga.gd.aa.güj, tegeed bas
America-gen imperialism still overthrow-passive-impf vn-
atom.yn bömbög.tej baj.na.
not thus also atom-gen bomb-com be-pres
'U.S. imperialism has not yet b een overthrown, and it has
the atom bomb.' (Mao 78.5)
5. Tegtel zöölön salxi ülee.J, teerem1.ij tom Jiguur.ijg
then weak wind blow-impf, mill-gen big wing-acc turn-
xöd5lgö.v.
past.
'At that moment a little wind came up and the big wings
began turning.' (FL 83.3)
6. Xuv ' sgal.yn esergüüc.üüd bidn.ijg jal.J cada . x.güj, xarin
revolution-gen enemy-PL we-acc smash-impf can-inf-not but
bid xuv'sgal.yn esergüüc.üüd.ijg jal.na.
we revolution-gen enemy-PL-acc smash-pres
'The counter-revolutionaries cannot smash us, but we will
smash them.' (Mao 92.5)
Compare the use of ges en in (7) and gexed in (8). _ v ' ... a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy ... '
7. Büx uls. yn xemJeen.ij ire . n.ij dajn xezee degd.sen c ges en
all country-gen mass-gen come-mod-gen war when break out-
bid belxen baj.x xeregtej.
pf vn part qesen we ready be-inf necessary
'No matter when this country-wide civil war breaks out,
we must be weIl prepar ed.' (Mao 90.1)
8. Gexed sons.son.y daraa tüün .ij daga .n aJilla .x. güj, ter c
but hear-pf vn-gen aft er this-gen follow-mod do-inf-not i "
bajtugaj, tüün.ij süümJi l .bel zoxi.no.
part but, it-gen criticize-cond should-pres
'Such views, however, are not to be acted upon, but to b
cr itic ized.' (Mao 114.11)
I have not investigated the semantics of co njunc tLon amI coor dL-
nation, which work on other lang uages rcv c.:lls to h c a cOlllpli ca tt'd
area.
49 Coordinate structuring
2.2 Phrasal conjunction
147. It is usually co nsid ered that sentences like (2) are d eri-
ve~by conjunction reduction) from those like (1). Sentence (3)
is amb iguous : it could derive from (4), but it also has a reading
i n which (4) would be an impossible source, namely if they are
t wins of each other. Cf. (5), which can have no source like (4).
1. Tom eats ice cream and Sue eats ice cream.
2. Tom and Sue eat ice cream.
3. Tom and Sue are twins.
4. Tom is a twin and Sue is a twin.
5. Tom and Sue are a h appy couple.
There a re many cases in ,.hich noun phrases are linked to form a
unit : group names like 'Mr and Mrs Jones,' 'Dion and the Belmonts,'
'the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey,' and so on; cf.
'Churchill was at onc e prime minister and minister of defence.'
Reciprocal verbs like jarilcax 'converse' require either conjoint
or plural subjects. We have already seen that one use of nar is
to form such gro up nominals (see paragraph 14). We shall see be-
low various other devices for this.
148. In Mongolian, too, explicit conjunctions link ei ther units
de rived by conjunction reduction or semantically linked units.
CL (1,2):
1. Ter bol darga bögööd bags.
he SM leader and teacher
'He is both aleader and a teacher.' (cf. Str e et 180)
2 . . . . dajsan ba bidn. ij xoorond.yn zörcil .d xolbo.gdo.x ...
emeny and we-gen between-gen contradiction- dat combine-
passive-inf
(Mao 51.3)
In (1) bögööd links two predicate nominals, ei ther one of which
('ould be true of hirn; (1) is equivalent to (3); but (2) cannot
Ill can 'a contradiction between oursel ves and a contradiction between
l he enemy.'
3. He is aleader and he is a t eacher.
Al'c ord ingly, some sup e rficial phrasal conjunction must be dealt
wi th in the underly ing structure, but other cases must be dealt
with as conjunc tion r eduction phenomena. See below in section 2.3.
~49. Expl icit conjunctions are used in phrasal conjunction: ba
' :Ind' links nominals (1), adjectivals (2), and adverbials (3);
j,,'!ood ' a nd' (literally 'it h avi ng become') links nominals (4)
,11,,1 ;'l dj ec tival s ( 5); holon ' a nd' (l i t e rall y 'becoming') links
1It>llIinals ( 6) ami adj ectjva l s ; and bu.,fuu 'or' links nominals (9),
50 Modern Mongolian 51 Co ordinate structuring

adjectivals (10), and adverbials alike (11). Bögööd 'and' links
nominals and adjectivals (7,8). Xijgeed 'and' (literally 'having
done') replaces it under certain conditions, and seems to be used
only with verbal nominals (12).
1. =148 .2
2. atom.yn ba üstörögc.ijn bömbög 'atomic and hydrogen bombs'
atom-gen and hydrogen-gen bomb ~ (Hao 81. 2)
3. üg.ijn exen .d ba xatuu gijgüüle.gc.ijn daraa (Street 214)
word-gen end-dat and hard illuminate-agent-gen after
'at the beginning of a word and after a hard consonant'
4 . nar bolood sar 'sun and moon'
5. örgön bolood öngöv 'broad and tall' (Street 195)
6. Ceren bolon Bat 'Ceren and Bata' (Street 180)
7. Ucir n ' irrrperializm baj. gaa bögööd tus oron. d xargis. uud,
reason the imperialism be-impf vn and our country-dat
angi.ud bas baj.gaa jum.
reactionary-PL class-PL still be-impf vn be
'Because imperialism still exists, because classes still
exist in our country.' (Hao 38.8)
8. cecen bögööd sijdvertej 'intelligent and resolute'
(Street 195t
9. am bujuu bicg.eer 'orally or in writing' (Street 180)
mouth or writing-instr
10. nogoon bujuu xöx 'gre~n or blue' (Stree t 195)
3. Grek bolood Turk xoer uls '"
Greek and Turk two people(s)
'the Greeks and the Turks' (R l87.44b) (see paragraph 396,
example 4)
This construction may be related to the use of summing numerals.
153. It is not entirely clear if any of these particles can be
used only in sentential conjunction or only in phrasal conjunc-
tion, or in both. Further research would be required to specify
precisely how each was used.
2.3 Conjunction reduction
154. Given a sentential conjunction, how is a phrasal type of
conjunction obtained from it? One suggestion, which has been made
by John R. Ross and others, is that a copy of the repeated con-
junct is Chomsky-adjoined to the sentence as a whole; that is,
that the shared material is copied and attached to a new node
above the topmost S. Then the identical material in the lower S
is deleted, e ffecting a kind of raising thereby. The constituents
wh ich are left are relabelled with the labels of their daughters.
This seems as good a suggestion as any. Consider the conjunction:
1. S

--------------
11. üg.ijn exen.d bujuu egsig üsg.ijn daraa (Street 214) Sl S3
word-gen end-dat or vowel letter-gen after
'at the beginning of a word or after a vowel letter' ~ AND ----------~VP
NP

~ ~ Lj~
12. Xen xerev tör.ijn er . x.ijg bulaa.n ava.x xijgeed
who if power-gen seize-inf-acc keep-mod take-inf and
'whoever wants to seize and retain state power' (Mao 66.1)
Luvsan xooZoo xijdeg Gerel xooloo xijdeg
The VPs of the two sentences S2, S3 are identical; we Chomsky-
150. Note that aseries of three or more members can be linked,
a djoin a copy of the VP to SO and delete the two VPs, yielding:
the connective particle preceding the last member, the others
linked by commas. A multiple use of the connective does not seem
2. S_l
possible.
So VP
151. Occasionally phrases are linked by commas alone:
1. socializm, kommunizm.d 'to Socialism and Communism'
(Mao 24.6) ~------------
S2
Sl

AND
53
I
NP
152. 'When all members of .,. aserial coordinat e nominal hav e
single, definite referents (usually living beings ... ), the nomi-
nal is regularly followed by a modifying numeral ... ' (Street 181) .
1. Ceren Bat xoer 'Ceren and Bata' (Str ee t 181)
~
Luvsan
ß Gerel xooloo xijdeg
Now, pruning e l"i min ates S2 and 53. (Pruning is the elimination of
Apparently only xoer 'two' a nd gurvan 'thr ee ' so occur. Not e th e ('('r t a in non-br a n c hi.n g S nod es . See J.R. Ross, 'A Proposed Rule of
use of apposition and conjunction in: "I" " ('C Pruni.ng,' in D.I\ . Re ib e l a nd S .A. Schane, eds ., Modern Studies
2. dornod.yn sal.x~I:, ö)"nööd. 'I:,in {;a !:u' :1",; :lXJ r:Y' ;;o!:J; /: / 11 j':Il(J['I:[;h , I';n g l c wood C.lirrs, N,r '1969.) Th:i. s leaves Sl and So domi-
eas t- gen wind, W 'S L - !~ l'n wind qu oLl' Lwu wind 11 ; 1 in g o nl y NI'H. Wl' '"l" I"b l:l I ll l'lli 'NI ',' y i c l d in g the d e rived surface
' t h c 1\; l s t Wind ;111c! LIII ' Wv s L Wind' (Mn" WLH) :r 1 l" lI(' 1 (I LV L L( ,(,:
52 Modern Mongolian 53 Coordinate structuring

3. 5_ 1. Avia.g sonso.J, xel.J bol .no.

1 sound-acc hear-impf, speak-impf become-pres
-----------~ 'One may hear and speak sounds.' (5treet 240)
N~P ~ 2. Duu .ny xövc sul bögööd duu.ny süv uudam baj.xa.d
sound-gen band free and sound-gen open wide be-inf-dat
~NDD ~ 'When the glottal chords are relaxed and the glottis wide
~ Gerel
xooloo xijdeg
open .•. ' (5treet 240)
5treet expresses considerable puzzlement over this construction.
If AND is lexicalized as bolood or bolon this seems precisely
It is, however, possible to see that in the case of (1) we had
right. (These terms are phrased phonologically with the preceding originally
conjunct. ) 3. ONE aviag sonsoJ bolno, ONE aviag xelJ bolno.
Anaphoric pronominalization (see section 4.2) will delete the re-

---------
155. Consider a similar conjunction of VPs:
peated subject and object in clause two. It is gapping which de-
-1. 50
letes the first bolno. 5treet says (240) of 'metacoordinate' struc-
tures that given th e sequence
51 53 1.ABCD
Ll L.J Li LJ

-----------=----------
5 AND -----------
NP VP

~
N~~~ minij najz bajna
6
Luvsan
~
,Gerel~Jn
baJ~a ax '(where A is in construction with B, AB with C, and ABC with D),
'Luvsan is my friend and Luvsan is Gerel solder brother. the " acc idental" collocation BC might be expanded to produce
ABCB' C' D.'
156. What is likely to happen here is no~ :~njunct~~n redu~tion , In fact, the derived structure of 157.1 is (2), not (3).
bu~apping. (Conjunction reduction with bogood or x~Jgeed ~lll. 2. 50 3.
t k lace if the conjuncts are nominalized, however.) Gapplng lS ~
,0
aap~o~ess which deletes left occurrences of identical In verb~. Sl (?) 52 (?) VP
this case gapping results in (1). Note deletion by anaphorlc pro- I , ~
nominalization of the subject of the second clause. VP VP
1. Luvsan minij najz, Gerel.ijn ax baj.na.
Luvsan my friend, Gerel-gen older brother be-pres
50me other examples of gapping:
2. Gerel Dendev.d, Naran DorJi.d ünse.gde.v.
~
~
NP V V
~
I,,~
aviag sonsoJ xelJ bolno
5imilarly, 157.2 is semantically
V
I A I I
aviag sonsoJ xelJ
r
bolno
Gerel Dendev-dat Naran Dorji-dat kiss-passive-past 3. Duuny xövc sul bajx bögööd duuny süv uudam bajxad ...
'Gerel (was kissed) by Dendev, Naran was kissed by Dorji.' The first bajx has been gapped out; bögööd now looks as if it links
3. Luvsan ide.xe.d, Gerel uu.xa.d durtaj. two incompletely articulated constituents each in construction with
Luvsan eat-inf-dat, Gerel drink-inf-dat desirous bajxad.
'Luvsan (likes) to ~at~ Gerel likes .S~ ~rin~.'.. (R 2~5.~)" The study of gapping thus solves this puzzle.
4. Minij eeJ nom.yg unsi.j, minij ax b~c~ . J, m~n~J a~v J~r~.J
my mother book-acc read-impf, my old er brother wrlte-lmpf, 158. Gapping is one device which is used to avoid conjunction
baj.na. o f VPs. Normally VP-deletion, or the use of gerundial converbals,
my father speak-impf be-pr es i s e1l1ployed. Conjunction reduction with VPs is thus avoided. How-
'My mother (is) reading a book, 1l1Y brothe r (is) writing, l'ver, a dverbials and adjectivals can be conjoined, and here Ross'
my father is sp eaking. ' (Bk 43) IIlo del of co njun ctio n reduction fails, for there will be identical
Le rms on both s~d cs oE thc non-identicals. Starting with
157. An exa1l1ple like 156.1 he Jp s L'x p l;lin rJ Ill ys tl'r y I i kc '1l1 e ta- 1. r,uv:;rln O H /{)Ii Irio . /, ,,), /,uvr;an öndör bi"& . t e j.
coordinat ion' i.n S trcc t (2 39- /,0 ). SOllll' (' X'IIIII' I('S: I.U VS;1Il hl"()"d bOUY-CO Ill, Luvs :l ll t<l 'll body- co1l1.
'I." VS; II, i ,; will(' , 1,II V';; lIl i s l:lll.'
54 Modern Mongolian

if we Chomsky-adjoin from left to right on both sides, we get the

structure in (2); even by r elabelling SI, S2, SO, and S-l, we can-
3.
not arrive at a reasonable derived structure. I know of no general
theory of conjunction reduction which will produce the correct Complex sentences:
structures in all cases. All we can say at present is that con-
junction reduction involves deletion of identicals. sentence embedding
2. S -1
~
N COM
NP ~~

LJC\ LI
Luvsan övgön AND öndör bie tej
3.1 The problem

159. Few Mongolian sentences consist of a single main clause,

and few such clauses are simple, if we take 'simple' to mean con-
l58a. We may state the rules of conjunction reduction and gap- taini ng only a single verb. Even a quite brief sentence can con-
ping as folIows: tain thre e verbs:
CONJ-RED (Optional) {AND} 1. Ter or.] ir.] baj.na. 'He is on his way in.' (Street 145)
SD' [ [X - A - yJ [Z - A. - BJ J he enter-impf come-impf be-pres
. So SI i SI OR S2 l S2 So
Furthermore, at least in written Mongolian, sentences of extremely
SC: (a) Lf Ai is on a[!~!~tJbranch, Chomsky-adjoin Ai to So at great length can be constructed. rhe main device for such expan-
sion is the embedding within a sentence of sentential structures;
[!~!~tJ and delete Ai,in Sl,S2 this embedding is reiterative.

(b) relabel S dominating {:D} with label of other consti- 160. Such embedded sentential s tructures are usually nominalized
tuents it dominates (1, 2,3), occur within the scope of the complementizing verb gex
GAPPING (Optional) ' say,' or serve as converbal complements to other verbs (4,5,6).
SD: [[X - A J [y - A J J As such they can fulfil a wide range of functions: subject (1),
So SI i SI ' S2 i S2 So object (2), adverbial (3), complement or 'preverb' to verb or
SI: 1 2 3 4 auxiliary (4), subordinate clause (5), and so on. Even quite brief
SC: 1 3 4 sentences may contain two or three verbs, each contained in a
Conditions: Ai must be on a right branch separate sentential constituent, viz. (6).
1. Teg.] bürmösön bexJi.x n' bolomJ.güj xereg.
l58b. It is not possible at present to state precisely the rul es do so-impf entirely strengthen-inf SM possibility-not thing
involved in conjunction. Certainly these PSRs will be necessary, 'For that is impossible.' (Mao 27.6)
at least as a first approximation: 2. Aav.yg xödöö jav.sn.yg bi med.sen. (Kas'janenko 25)
l. S Sn (where n~ 2) father-acc country go-pf vn-acc I know-pf vn
'I knew that father had gone to the country.'
2. S = S {~~D} S 3. Ax.yg ger.t.ee xari.xad or.] bol.son. (Kas'janenko 25)
3. NP Npn (where n ~ 2) older brother-acc house-dat-RP return-inf-dat enter-impf
become -pf vn
4. NP NP {~~D} NP 'Whe n brother returned horne it was late .'
4. = 159.1
5. Bags . 7:jg 7:r.te l b1:d end xülee .] baj.na.
t eac il cr- acc co mc- t crm he r e we wait-imp f b e -pr es
'W c ,1 r c W::l i t i ng hL' r c t i "l I t h c tcac h e r come s.' (Orchin 327)
 57 Complex sentences
56 Modern Mongolian

2. Nom.yn oro. lt sajxan.

6. Enexüü gol nuruu baj.x.güj bol socializm.yn üjl xereg
book-gen arrange-lt attractive
this main back be-inf-not if socialism-gen deed thing
'The arrangement of the books is attractive.' (R 79.37)
jalalta.d xür.e eada.x.güj. 3. Ternij eölöölö. lt.ijg zövsöörö.v.
victory-dat reach-impf can-inf-not
his resign-lt-acc approve past
'Without this core, the cause of socialism cannot be vic-
'(I) approved of his resignation.' ( R 80.4lc)
torious. ' (Mao 2.3) 4. Ci ein' züüdel.] baj. l.giij.
you your dream-impf be-l-not
161. Traditionally verbal structures are named according to the
'You must be dreaming.' (Street 114)
kind of conjugational ending occurring on the verb. There are
Accordingly thes e should be treated as nominalizations with a
three such groups: sentential source. There are as yet unknown semantic constraints
a) 'factual' (Street 120) or 'indicative' (MLH 130) endings;
on the use of these nominalizations; also it is not clear what
verbs with these endings occur primarily in main or inde-
their transformational source would be; for example, do the -l
pendent clauses: thus bajna 'is' in 159.1 and 160 .5.
nominalizations come from active verbs and the -lt ones from pas-
,b) 'conver bal' (Street 219) or 'gerund' (MLH 135) endings;
sive? No rule can at present be stated.
verbs with these endings occur primarily in 'converbal'
or 'gerundial' phrases, which have variously been desc~ibed
163. We are faced with the task of deciding what the grammatical
as subordinate clauses or adverbial complements: thus ~rtel
rules are which govern the use of the various verb forms. This is
in 160.5, or} in 160.3, and xüre in 160.6.
a complicated task, and one of the most controversial areas of
c) 'participial' (Street 205) or 'verbal nominal' (MLH 132)
Mongolian grammar; although one of the most researched, it remains
e ndings; verbs with these endings occur in 'participial'
one of the most unsettled. Here we shall propose a transformational
or 'verbal noun' phrases, which have variously been des-
approach to the various issues raised, a discussion of which is
cribed as constituent clauses or nominalizations: thus
to be found in section 3.13 below. First we shall summari ze the
bex}ix in 160.1, medsen in 160.2, and so on. superficial structural facts for the reader.
162. In addition, there are two kinds of nominalized verb which
3.11 Verb forms and their' uses
can be expanded on the surface into sentence-l ike phrases: the
first is the agentive nominalization, which we have already men-
3. 111 The indicative verb endings
tioned. This is termed the 'verbal noun of the actor' by Poppe
(MLH 132) and lumped together with the other verbal nominals, but
164. The indicative verb endings are as follows. (Because of
Street (183) considers the ending -ge, although it forms 'agen t
vowel harmony, each has several allomorphs. We use the form in e
nominals , ' to be a 'gerund particle.'. Although certain agentive ,
...". in each case to identify them.)
nominalizations generally occur as slngle nouns, e.g . suragc stu-
dent' from surax 'to learn, , longer phrases are certainly possible:
165. Present Imperfect (pres) -ne 'denotes a time-less action
1. temter.e sudla.ge 'one who examines by groping.' (MLH 132)
that may take place in the future or at any indefinite time'
grope-impf examine-agent
(MLH 130). With certain auxiliaries, copulas, and stative verbs
2. luus tuu.ge 'muleteer' (mule-driver) (FL 84.16)
it is areal present tense. Otherwise it is a timeless expression
The second are the abstract and resultative nominalizations. Thes e
or a (near) future.
are principally -l and -lt. -l forms no uns 'most of them with ab-
1. (see bajna in 160.5) (present)
stract meaning' (Street 90). -lt is a result nominalization. Some
2 . ... ter dovtol.bol bid tüün.ijg ustga.na ...
examples: üxel 'death' from üxex 'to die'; zöv!öl 'conference'
they attack-cond we they-acc wipe out-pres
from zövlöx 'confer'; amJilt 'success' from amji x 'be successful ';
'If they attack, we will wipe them out.' (Mao 87.2) (future)
jalalt 'victory' from jalax 'conquer'; etc. Although ge n e r a lly
This form is n ev e r n e gated; instead the future verbal nominal in
such nominalizations are single nouns and f un c t io n as s u c h, th e y
-x wi th - güj '-l es s' is us e d. See paragraph 278 for discussion of
can be expended in such a way that th e y r e s embl e sent en ces ; e . g .
t h e n ega t i v e n omi n a li za t i on t ra nsformat i on. Thus the theoretical
Luvsany üxel 'Luvsan's death' is c l ose i n lTI ea njng to v e r b al nomj -
I':;; medene " 'ell e ) cl o es n' t kn o w.' is r e placed by the colloquial
nals like Luvsany üxex, Duvsan!/ ii:x::; en , e t c , SOlll L' eXi llllp I es :
Mcde.X(liiJ . ( S c'e MLII 130 , St r ee t 1 2 0.)
1. Tüün. ij mede . l dellr;.i ;:J:. (I ü,j .
hi s kn o w- l too f', rv " [ - !l O [
1 (, (, . 1'" ,, 1 1" ' 1' 1 , '(' 1 ( P : I:; [ ) - (! ' corr " " I)() IH I" llI or e o r l e ss to the
'l-J 'i s kn ow l vcll',V I:: I) <l l V I ' I" Y 1',1"1':1 1 ( 1\ / ',. ') I )
58 Modern Mongolian 59 Comp1ex sentences

English simple past tense. In statements it is not often used in 3.1 12 The converbal verb endings
the colloquial language, which prefers the verbal nominal of the
perfeet, but in ques t ions it occurs quite frequently ... ' (MLH 169. Converbal endings may be grouped into two groups, the prin-
131; cf. Street 122). cipal, though not the only, difference between them being the case
1. Ta zam.d.aa züdre.v üü? of the subject (KhGr 85, 106- 7) . The first group consists of -J,
you road- dat-RP tire-past Q - eed , and - n o The second contains the rest.
'Are you tired from your trip?' ('Did you get tired on The forms of the common converbals are:
your way?') (Street 122) a) Imperfect (impf) -J
With negation this form too is usually replaced in the colloquial b) Modal (mod) -n
language by the perfeet verbal nominal in -san plus - güj (MLH 131) . c) Perfeet (pf) -eed
See paragraph 278 for negative nominalization. d) Conditional (cond) -vel
2. Medsengüj. '(He) did not know.' (MLR 131) e) Concessive (concess) -vc
f) Contempora1 (cont) - megc
167. Present Perfeet (wit) - lee 'expresses an action which has g) Comparative (com) -xeer
taken place, and which has either been witnessed or is common1y h) Terminal (term) -tel
known' (MLR 130); 'used primarily when the speaker ... has first- i) Successive (succ) -xleer
hand knowledge of an event or state described, or when he is j) Abtemporal (abt) -seer
otherwise wi11ing to vouch for the accuracy of astatement'
(Street 121). Thus it is mainly used in past-tense contexts (1) 170. Certain others occur only in the literary language, such
and with a first-person subject, but it can occur with another as -nxen. -nxeer is dialectal; others are rare: -xee , -ngüüd,
subject (2,3), and with present time reference (3) - cf. (4). It -mseer, - ngee , -s, -xül, and so on. We sha1l not concern ourselves
is an attitudinal aSEectua1 type ending. here with these; their syntax is roughly that of the more common
1. Pavel Petrovic dotr.oo cürxij durgüjce.J exe l. lee. endings. See KhGr 88-9, MLR 140, Street 220.
Pave1 Petrovich inside-RP secret irritate-impf begin-wit
'Re was beginning to fee1 a secret irritation.' (FL 352. 15 ) 171. As we saw in discussing preverbs in the simple sentence,
2. Sambuu telefon . yg tos.c av . laa . a verb can serve as apreverb modifying another verb. Typica11y
Sambuu telephone-ace answer-impf take-wit the preverb is not expandable; in many cases the preverb- verb
'Sambuu answers the telephone.' (Street 121) combination is a single dictionary entry, for example (1) njagtlan
3. Ter ir. lee . 'Re's coming.' (Street 121) bodox 'to do accounts' (Street 144). In the spoken language at
he come-wit lea st -n is probably not productive. Rowever, -J
has in the co1-
4. Imperialist.uud urt nasla .x.güj bol. loo. loquial language tended to take on this modal function, and -n
imperia1ist-PL long 1ast-inf-not become-wit is sometimes used like -J, so that the two are often nothing more
'Imperia1ism will not last long.' (Mao 80.2) than sty1istic variants (see Street 222, KhGr 85-6, MLR 135).
2. Bi xasxira.n xele.v. 'I shouted.' (MLR 135)
168. Past Imperfect -J(ee) (pret) 'denotes an action which took I shout-mod say-past
place in the past and lasted some time' (MLR 131); 'either has
the meaning of arecent past, or emphasizes the present resu1t of 172. There are severa1 uses of -J
as in (1) üzeJ sonsox 'to see
a past action or of astate that existed in th e past' (Street 122) . emd hear' (Street 145), or in (2) be10w, which are difficult to
As these quotations indicate, this ending has a variety of aspec- ~e pa rate from the preverbal function, as Street (144-5) notes. A

tual functions which are as yet poor1y d efined. In co110quia1 t hird use is with an auxiliary or copula: (3) xar'J irex 'to come
speech it is not negated, being rep1aced by - sengüj ; cf. paragraph back' (Street 144), which in turn resemb1es -J
in coordinate
166. Examp1es: ~t ruc ture s .

1. Dze.x.güj jum, ted bügd. eer.ee unaga . gd. ci .Jee .
see-inf-not be, they a11-instr-RP overthrow- passive-pre t
'As we know, they wer e all ove rthrown.' (Mao 78 .4)
2 . ••. nasan tur s. d . aa dogo lon bololl aGY' . c ('(' . (FL 3<11.9)
age 1eap-da t-RP l-Lmpj.ng bc,co llJ i ng bcco IlJ C- I) 1"0 L
' ... r eta -Lne cl .:I " light I illll ' () Llll ' " IHI " I hi H d;I YH .'
2. Minij düü neg devter nom unsi.J suu.J baj.na.
my young e r brother one book book read-impf sit-impf be-pres
'My broth e r is si tting reading a book.' (Street 221)
173 . Any s impl e" nt e nce IlIC1Y be expand ed by adding an auxi1iary
vl'r b. ~i'h c r c ,lr c Lw o I([nd s: l'o pu1a r Llux-LLLary (bajx, bolox)
60 Modern Mongo1 i an 61 Comp1ex sentenc e s

and what Poppe ca11s ' descriptive' verbs . As a descriptive auxi- (j) cad- 'can, be ab1e'
1iary may be embedded be10w a copu1ar auxi1iary, or another des- 14. Xuv'sgal.yn esergüüc.üüd bidn.ijg jal.J cada.x.güj . . .
criptive auxi 1 iary (see 159.1), a 10ng series of verbs can be revolution-gen enemy-PL us-acc smash-impf can-inf-not
bui1t up. It shou1d be noted that the copu1ar auxi1iaries have 'The counter-revolution cannot smash us ... ' (Mao 92.5)
causatives, bajguulax and bolgox. (k) ald- 'fai1' meaning ' come c10se to'
15. üxen aldax 'to almost die' (Street 150)
174 . The most important auxi1iaries are (KhGr 91, Street 145-51 ) : (1) jad- 'be in need' meaning 'be unab1e to'
Ca) ir- 'corne' meaning 'action towards the speaker' (but cf . 16. Ter bie.e bar'.J jada.v .
(2)!) he se1f-RP hold-impf be unab1e-past
1 . . . . tolgoj nücgen gar.c ire.v. 'He was unab1e to contro1 hirnself. ' (Street 150)
head naked exit-impf come-past (m) üx- 'see' meaning 'try'
' .. . came out without his hat ... ' (FL 340.2) 17. Süül.d, ted mön dutax.aar daxi.J tense.J üze.v.
2. Xoer.dugaar züil n' xezeen . ees ijm l baj.saar ir.sen jum . end-dat, they same fai1ure-instr repeat-impf escape-
two-th point SM when-ab1 such part be-abt come-pf vn be impf try-past
' . . . point two is what has existed for a 10ng time.' 'Later they tried again to escape .' (Bk 29.82)
(Mao 90 . 7) (n) orxi- 'throw'~meanin& 'comp1ete1y'
(b) j av- ' go' meaning 'action away from the speaker' (3) or 18. Jag marta.j orxi.jee!
'action a10ng' (4) or a durative action (5). just forget-impf do comp1ete1y-pret
3. Suvuu nis.c jav . laa. 'The bird f1ew away. ' (Street 14 7) 'I just comp1etely forgot!' (Street 151)
bird f1y-impf go-wit (see 181.1 be10w)
4 . Süjx tergen.d . .. negen xatan suu.J Jav . Jee . (0) ög- 'give' meaning 'do for someone else'
coach-dat one lady sit-impf go-pret 19. Ter nadad tüün.ijg jaa.J xij.x.ijg xel.J ogo . v.
' In the coach was a lady .. . ' (FL 84 . 17) he me (dat) this-acc do how-impf do·-inf-acc say-impf
5 . xeregle . J java.x 'to keep using' (Street 147) give-past
(c) oc- 'set out' meaning 'action to there' 'He to1d me how to do it.' (Bk 51.1)
6. nis.c oci.x 'to f1y off' (KhGr 91) (p) av- 'take' meaning 'to do for onese1f, have done for one '
(d) gar- 'go out, exit' meaning 'acticn outwards, upwards' (7) 20. Bid xoer suudal ol.J av. laa.
or ' ability' (8) we two seat find-impf take-wit
7. güj.J gara.x 'to run out' (KhGr 91) ' We two managed to find seats. ' (Street 150)
8. Gdoo bi bici.J gar.na 'Now I can write (it).'
now I write-impf can-pres (Street 148) 175 . A verb occurring with a descriptive auxi1iary as we h a v e
(e) or- 'enter, go in' meaning 'action into' se en generally appears in the imperfect (or occasiona11y the mo-
9. güj.J orox 'to run in(to)' (KhGr 91) da l) converba1 form. Simi1ar1y the imperfect is common with bajx:
(f) exl- 'begin, start' it can be durative (1) or iterative (2):
10 . = 167 . 1 1 . Ter orJ bajna. 'He's coming in.' (Street 145)
(g) duus- 'finish, stop' 2 . ... sönö n' surguul' . d jav.J baj.na .
11. Dvgön tamxi.a tata.J duus. laa. night part schoo1-dat go-impf be-pres
old man tobacco-RP draw-impf finish-wit 'He goes to night schoo1 . ' (Street 152)
'The old man finished smoking.' ( Street 149)
(h) suu- 'sit, live, dweIl' meaning 'continue, keep on ' 176. The converba1 in -eed plus bajx can be pe.rfective (1) or
12. Ci juund inee.J suu.J baj.na? dura t i v e /iterative (2), depending on the nature of the verb.
you why 1augh-impf continue-impf be-pres 1. Bags ir . eed bajna. ' The teacher has a1ready arrived.'
'Why do you keep on 1aughing?' (S t r ee t 149) ( S tr ee t 1 5 2)
(i) amJ- 'manage to, succeed in' 2. Ta jaa . gaad jar. aad baj . na?
l3. Saardlag. yg araj camaj xanga . J wnJ i.;;baJ . na . yo u do h ow-p f hu rry -pf b e pres
demand-acc jus t b a r e1y fu1 f i 1-L lllp f s uccec cl- i mp f b e - pr e s 'Wh y a.r c yo u a 1wa y s hu rry ing ?' (Str e et 153)
'The r e sta ur a nt is j us t ba n ,l y ;lbL c t-o sat Ls [ y cl c man d . . . '
(Str e e t 14 9 ) 177 . Ce ,- L"in OU l l' l" c Ol1l b in"L i o ns of co nvcrba1 and a ux i 1iary can
62 Modern Mongolia n
oceur. For example, - eed with ir- implies surprise:
1. 'I'er manaj.d or.ood ir. sen .
he our-dat enter-pf come-pf vn
'He came right into our [ house ] " (Street 146)
-eed followed by the particle l assures a durative meaning:
2. 'I'er mongol.oor jari.ad l ir .sen.
he Mongolian-instr speak-pf part eome-pf vn
'He still speaks Mongolian.' (Street 146)
178. As we have noted, auxiliaries ean iterate. It is an open
question what sequenees ean oeeur, but it is doubtful that more
than two auxiliari es in a row ean oeeur.
179. - seer is unusual in allowing truncation of the copular
auxiliary. (-s eer only occurs with bajx .) See the discussion of
BAJTR (paragraph 276).
180. In addition to its use in preverbs, the imperfec t conver-
baI also serves in coordinate structures, a use difficult to dis-
tinguish from the subordinate clause use de scribed below in para-
graph 181.
181. The major use of converbals is to form adverbi a l or gerun-
dial subordinate clauses. It is difficult to tell with the perfect
and imperfeet when this use rather than coordination is intended ,
and there must be numerous ambiguous examples. All converbals ex-
cept - xeer may serve in fully expanded gerundial clauses:
(a) - eed: 1. Eceg n ' xüü. d. ee cöxör.c orxi . od eng . ijn gazar
gather his son-dat-RP abandon-impf do completely-
alba xaalga.x. aar bolo.v.
pf eivi l office service let enter-inf- i nstr
become-past
'His father gave hirn up as a bad job and let hirn
go into the civil servic e .' (FL 341.10)
(b) - vel : 2. Juu aV . bal taara .x jum .
wha t take-eond be suitabl e- inf be
'I must get something suitable.' (Str ee t 224)
(c) -vc : 3. 'I'a nar xianeen olon gar sarvalzuula.va ...
you PL ... many arm flourish-concess
'Though you flourish many a rms .. . ' (FL 83.5)
(d) -mege : 4. Don Koxot tedn . ijg dongo . ; xar . magc zevse . gc
Don Quixote this-acc make f l ee ting- impf see- cont
xia . d.aa xel. sen n' ...
fight-agent s qu ire-da t- RP say-p f vn SM
'The moment Don Quixot e laid e yes on them he
turne d to h is s qu ire and sa id .. . '
(e ) - tel : 5 . 'I'er .x oer . Un xooY'ond. aa ,ja)'-i lell . .] ) ((1). tal luu,,,;
t he two-ge n be Lw ee n-RI' ('O Il V(" ' Sl'- illlll r )',n - tl' l' m IIHII ('
63 Comple x sent e n ces
una.san, benedikt.ijn bülgem .ijn xoer lam zam.aar
ride-pf vn, Benedietine monast e r y-gen monk ro a d-
jav . aa n ' xara.gda . v .
instr go-impf vn the ir appear(see-passive)-pas t
'As the two were eonversing in thi s manner, the re
appeared on the road in front of them two friars
of the order of St. Benediet ... ' (FL 84.14)
(f)-xlee r: n. Mongol xün ge .xleer juu ge.x jum?
Mongolian person say-suee what say-inf be
'What would they say when (you) said (you were)
a MongoI?' (Street 226)
(g) -s eer: 7. 'I'er xoer saja . yn toxio l. son sürxij javdal. yn
the two just-gen happ en-pf vn quick event-gen
tuxaj jarilc .saar ...
about eonverse-abt
'And so, speaking of the adventur e which h ad just
befall en them ... ' (FL 83 . 19)
- xeer is unus ual in not allowing an exp licit subj ec t, that is, its
s ubject is always equivalent to an outer subject a nd henee always
deleted by EQUI .
(h) -xeer : 8. java . xaar 'instead of going' (KhGr 88)
182. Negation with eonverbals is unusual, though not unknown.
The imperfect is not negat e d; its neg a tion is - exgüj 'to not' (by
NEGNOM). Es can occur with - eed, -vel , and -vc, but examples are
not common a nd, particularly with the last two, verbal nominals
a r e preferred in the eolloquial language , that is, es - vel b ecomes
VN+güj bol; es - vc becomes VN+güj C. See paragrap h 183 .
183. In the colloquial language some times ev en without a nega-
tion -vel is avoided by using a verbal nominal plus bo l 'if,' the
hap lologized form of bolbol 'if it beeomes' (1). Similarly, - va
i s~avoided by usin~ a verbal nominal plus c
(2). (Historically
-vc i s relat e d to c anyway - See Str ee t 224, 237-8; MLH 86, 1 37.)
1. Eceg n ' am ' d baj . san bol ...
father his alive be-pf vn if
'If his fathe r wer e alive .. . ' (A 28.10)
2. Juu bol.son c ... 'Whatever's ha ppened ... ' (Street 23 7)
what b ecome-pf vn part
184 . One other peculiarity of a eonverbal is worth noting here.
-tel may b e followe d by the a blative case ending, in which case it
11 ;ls a 'concessive' meaning (1), or it may be follow e d by the i nst-
I' um ental :
1. saJn :x:ün ba,j . tal . aas ' alt hough you ar e a goo d man' (KhGr 87)
(FL 84 . 19) 2 . baJarl Im,j . taL . aa r ' whe n so meo ne is ri ch' (KhGr 87)
( '1' 11 (' - kiL ronll 111<1 Y J i so t ;l!< C re r 'l c'x i ve-ros sess ive end i ngs, as has
I" '(, r! po in Lcd o l1l by ;, l· c'; ld v r. 'I'lii s i s in 1 i ne wlth t he historical
64 Modern Mongolian
origin of this form; see paragraph 233 below.)
185. Other properties of converbals will be found outlined in
section 3.13 below.
3.113 The verbal nominal endings
186. Verbal nominal endings occur in phrases having some of the
properties of verbal phrases and some of nominals. They can as a
rule contain all the grammatical functions found within a full
sentence. They can, however, also take case endings and, in cer-
tain cases, the plural marker.
The forms of the principal verbal nominal endings are: (a)
future (infinitive) -x; (b) perfect -sen; (c) imperfect -ee; (d)
usual (frequentative) -deg.
187. Certain other forms which are not usually met with may be
noted, but will not otherwise be referred to here, namely the per-
fect imperfect (- eesen) , pluperfect -sensen, future perfect -xesen,
and usual perfect -degsen. See KhGr 83-4.
188. For discussions of the various uses of verbal nominals,
see section 3.3, especially 3.31. For discussion of other proper-
ties of the endings, consult the indices.
3.1 2 Sentence embedding
189. We distinguish, in the general theory of grammar, three
kinds of sentence, in terms of superficial grammatical structure :
simple, compound (coordinate), and complex. Generally a simple
sentence is held to be one containing a single clause. Although
several different approaches (structuralism, dependency theory,
etc.) have been applied to Mongolian syntax, it has been held
generally that a converbal form serving as a complement, a verbal
nominal within the predicate, and subject, object, or attributive
verbal nominals cannot count as separate clauses. When a verbal
nominal with some case ending on it is extraposed to the beginnillf',
(see paragraph 146) it might be termed a quasi-subordinate clau s
or quasi-gerundial. Otherwise verbal nominals are considered con-
stituent clauses or phrases, considered to be a very different
matter from 'real' subordinate clauses. In terms of external gra lll'
mar this distinction is absolutely corr e ct, but in t e rms of int ,"
nal grammar there is little, apart from cert a in endings, to di s-
tinguish a verbal nominal from a gerundi a l phrase from ;:tn ind e p " 1
dent clause, and semantically the r e may hc v ery ll tt l c di Ef e r ' nt' (.:
there are numerous examples of nomlnoll zc d CLIU Sl!S , r or examp.l "
the use of the v e rba l nomi na l s t o r c pLI Cl' r i 11 i Le rOrlli S wi Lll n t')\ 11
tion in the colloqula l L lIlgll:I)', l' , (Ir t lr c' ir II S ( ' l o :Ivolcl L1tl' p : ls l
65 Complex sentences
tense ending in statements. Superficially the two, clause and
phrase, are quite different; phonologically they are different
and they differ in regard to their syntax near the surface level.
But on a deeper level they are the same. When Mongolists have de-
bated whether Mongolian has subordinate clauses, it is clear that
they have been comparing apples and oranges, as it were. In a
syntax-based theory it is probably best to say that it has no
real subordinate clauses, with some debatable exceptions. But in
a function- or semantics-based theory we must speak of subordi-
nation.
190. As structurally speaking coordinate sentences in the imper-
fect c~nverbal or with bögööd do not differ from the corresponding
gerundlals, the superficial grammar in no way supports the exist-
ence of conjoined (coordinate) sentences, as far as the spoken
language at least is concerned, which generally lacks explicit
connectives like ba 'and' (though there are certain exceptions to
this, such as the use of bujuu 'or'). But once aga in we see that
here syntactic and functional (semantic) descriptions lead to dif-
ferent results. What we shall say here is that while structurally,
on the surface level, Mongolian tends towards simple sentences of
gr eat complexity, in functional terms simple sentences are extre-
mely rare, even in the spoken language. Mongolian, like all other
languages, has the ability to produce indefinitely long and comp-
l ex sentences with multiple emheddings of sentential structures.
Because of th~ great potential for ellipsis in the language,
~ po~en Mongollan often achieves an amazingly laconic style, and
l t lS not hard to find in Mongolian fiction, plays, etc., dialo-
gue of a page's length in which no one line consists of more than
a handful of words. On the other hand, it is common in the written
langua~e to have sentences which fill an entire lengthy paragraph
on thelr OWll.
191. There are several different approaches one can take to syn-
tax . Usually one starts by attempting to find rules which define
the grammatical uses of various syntactic or morphological forms.
Ilut if we start the other way round, with the grammatical functions
Lo be.fulfilled by those forms, we are led to ask very different
'1ues tlons. For example, we would want to know what the internal
,; tructure of a sentential constituent can be and how that struc-
Lur e relates to the environments in which a sentential structure
( " u~l d.occur. To a nswer such questions we would have to revise our
1 11 Lnklng somewha t and make some new distinctions.
.!2l. Tra ditI o n a ~l y morpho lo gi c al cat eg ories are taken as primary.
','tl r eXilmpl e , wc Illq~ ht os k o r the v e rba l nominal ' defl'ned as a par-
,
I (' 11 1 i.l r ve rb ro rm, o r :l plrr:l sl' e nelin g \vlth s uc h a v e rb form what
I , ,, illL l!r lldl ""Lrll cL llr v is , :llld in wlr :t t l'nvirolllll c nt s wlth wh~t uses
66 Modern Mongolian
it can occur as if we were to inquire concerning a man named
Dendev 'What , does this Dendev look like and wh at d oes h e d?'
o.
The syntax then follows the morphology.
But viewing things this way is precisely as insightful as re-
garding electricity and magnetism as two separate forces with
their own properties and categorizations. Verbal nominal phrases,
gerundial clauses, and independent clauses have very much the
same internal structuring, and if they differ in superficial
structure, this can be correlated precisely with their privileges
of occurrence. That is, it is in a particular environment that a
certain form occurs, rather than a certain form occurring by chanCE
in a particular environment. To use again a simile from chemistry,
it is as if the product of a chemical reaction were regarded as
unrelated to the source chemicals, but merely in complementary
distribution with one of them. As a transformationalist, one wants
to give this account of the grammar of Mongolian and all other
languages:
Suppose that all sentence-like structures (i.e. structures con-
taining a predicative verb) are basically the same, with the same
type of internal structuring, as defined recursively by one set
of rules which is the same for converbal clauses, verbal nominals ,
and independent clauses. Suppose that the apparent differences
between these constituents are triggered automatically or option-
ally by conditions in the environment, such differences affecting
the verb, the subject, or anything else within the sentence. As
a result, the superficial grammar would look rather different from
the underlying, basic grammar, just as a person looks different
after plastic surgery.
To a certain extent traditional grammar has always recognized
this type of grammatical duality. The treatment of indirect quo-
tation in Orchin for example shows that even structuralist app-
roaches have made use unsystematically of the notion of explica-
ting surface phenomena in terms of more underlying grammatical
facts.
193. Therefore we should not ask 'in what environments and uses
can a converbal occur?' but rather 'under what conditions does a
converbal arise?' This is what was meant earlier by a revision in
our thinking: morphology must follow syntax.
194. If we follow this new approach, a very diff e r e nt view of
Mongolian syntax arises. We are led first to ask whe r e in anoth e r
sentence a sentence may be embedded, and wha t c ons e qu e n ces for
its surface grammar follow ther e from. We s h a ll s till h a v e to con-
sider co-occurrence restrictions b e tween sent e n ce- l nt er n a l and
sentence- external phenome n a .
But it is necessa r y to d e mo ns t r.il t e th ;l t LlH.' r ' I S S ub s t ;ll1 t l ve
support for th e n e w v l e w. II cco rd In) ', 1y W(' IIIU S L (' (lIIS i d c r he rc t h
67 Complex sent e nces
nature of our argumentation, and how we are to proceed to justify
the kind of analyses we shall be led to make. For the transforma-
tional grammarian sets hirnself or herself the task not only of
organizing the data in a useful way but also of attempting to
' c apture,' in some sense, deeper truths about the language in
question, as well as Language in general, than mere organization
of the data can provide. This is a powerful claim, much less eas-
i ly satisfied than stated, and we have been only partially success-
f ul here.
Our argumentation is based on the premise that things which are
in general the same, but differ in some generally specifiable way,
will have the same underlying structure. In this way we simplify
a nd generalize the grammar and in no way reduce its predictive
power. What we gain for the cost of abstractness, the addition of
a transformational rule to the grammar, is not only a reduction
in the number and type of underlying structures but greater sim-
plicity in the interface between syntax and semantics. Also, by
s eparating out what is basic from what is superficial, we are in
a much better position to ask all sorts of interesting questions
i n historical, comparative, and universal grammar than might other-
wise have been the case.
A second type of argumentation involves internal structure. If
t wo structures share all relevant grammatical relations and inter-
na l co-occurrence restrictions, and, moreover, this sharing is
g eneral and systematic, we are justified in declaring the two to
be environmental variants. Thus there is only a difference in word
o rder between (1) and (2), they are otherwise literally th e same
sentence; somehow one of them has undergone a change in word ord e r.
This is not the case with the English sentences (3) and (4). Not
o nly are they not paraphrases of each other, but there is no sys-
tematic relationship, for while there are an indefinitely large
number of pairs related semantically as (1) and (2) are, and
sha ring the structural difference, there are few if any pairs
semantically related as (3) and (4) are, with their structural
dl fference.
1. Bi Luvsany javsnyg medsengüj.
2. Luvsany javsnyg bi medsengüj.
3. The wind hit the pillow.
4. The pil l hit the wi ndow.
'l' here is certainly in the case of (1) and (2) no need to propose
(wo different basic word orders; we define the difference as a
I'urely sup e rfi c i a l one.
195 . Finall y , it has been d emonstra t e d that sentences will share
" I L r e l e v a nt gra mma ti ca l r e l a tions a nd CO-occurrence restrictions
wil e l1, a nd 0111 y Ir, th ey mea n th e sa me thing ; that is most trans-
IO l"lll il ti o l1<Jll s t s ;Ig r ee t hat LI-nn S l o rm<J tl o n s do not c h~nge meaning.
1 1 I S<J b"sic (' 1; 11111 u r gl' ll l'r ;JLl vv Sl'lII;ln t l ('s t ha t th e fa irly clos e
68 Modern Mongolian
relationship of semantics and syntax can be attributed to the fact
that the latter is very much a function of the former. This too is
recognized by traditional grammar: for example, when a grammar
makes a statement like 'verbs of giving may t a ke both an object i n
the accusative and an object in the dative case,' it is implicitly
recognizing that the syntax is a f unct ion of the semantics, that
the fact that verbs of giving take two objects, one in the dat ive ,
is no accident.
As a corollary, we must recognize that when two sentences are
not synonymous, or when a sentence is ambiguous, we must look for
differences in underlying structure.
This is not to say that optiona l transformations do not exist,
or that pragmatic and discourse factors may not render an appar-
ently optional transformation obligatory under certain conditions .
Transformational grammar may help to simplify the grammar, but
grammar is still a very complex thing.
196. Having said all that, we now define a simple sentence as
one containing on the underlying level no embedded clauses (i. e .
sentences). A complex sentence contains at least one embedded S,
and a compound S contains coordinat e Ss. Cf. the diagrams:
1. Simple 2. Complex 3. Compound
S S S i nto a verbal nominal will be triggered by th e configuration (1)
D L~
•• , S •.•
~~
3.13 Problems
197. Assuming (and thi s assumption must ultimately b e defended
on empirical grounds) that each verb appearing in the supe rficial
structure of a sentence is the main verb of some sentential con-
sti tuent on the und erlying level, we must attempt to define the
conditions first which assign to verbs their particular endings ,
secondly which assign to the subjects of those verbs their super-
ficial form, and thirdly which produc e certain other changes.
198. This is necessary because, as we have seen, verbs may tak
four di fferen t kinds of ending, and sometimes two different end-
ings will be eq u ivalent semantically speaking (for e xample the
imperfects -} and - ee ).
199. Fur th ermore, the underlying subjects of surface expand e d
verb phrases may be deleted, may appear in th e nominative -ind ef i -
nite, accusative, geni tive, or dativ e cases ; may a pp ea r as fu ]l
nominals, as pronouns, possessive pr onoun s, 01' !"(-, rl ex .iv e- po sses>1 ' V'
pronouns.
69 Complex sentences
200. Finally, the adjustments in sentences produced by their
distribution in certain environments interact with each other in
complex ways that need to be explicated. One alteration can set
off a whole series of events.
In the remainder of part 3 we shall be attempting to define
these problems in specific terms and seeking to find general solu-
tions.
3. 14 General statement of r esults
200a. We sha ll see that in general there are three places where
a sentence can be embedded in another sentence. A sentence can
se rv e a s subject, object of averb, or object of a postposition.
These are posi tions normally reserved for nominals. We shall ar-
g ue that nominalized sentences in this position are noun phrases
which happen also to be sentences. Thus such sentences will appear
in the configuration d efined by PSR 69.1. (Cf. (1).)
1. NP
I
S
LJ
Thus, in general, the rules which transform an underlying sen tenc e
wi thin a tr ee structure. For details, see section 3.3 .
200b . We shall arg u e that verbal preverbs and other complement s
co ntaini n g a verb are derived from sentential structures which
have undergone a radical set of tr ansformatio n s. Such Ss will come
ou t of the VP and be dominated by the lab el VP, as in (1).
1. VP
~
S V
200c. In the case of gerundials and coordinate sentences we have
Ss which are directly dominated by the label S, as in (1). Accor-
dlngly, in any configuration in which an S is dominated by ano ther
S directly, the S will take on a converbal form, and it will as
wel l when dominated by VP. Thus all embedd ed Ss which are not no-
"' i nalized become converba ls.
1 00d. The rightmost verb in Ss not embedded und er another node
1 :, bel
take independent (indicative, finite) verb e nd ings.
200 e . Tb e d e rivation of converbals is discussed in sec ti on 3.2.
Not Lce that th e co nfig uratio n in 200a.l does not include cases
,,,I ,,' ,"c the se nt e n ce is adjoined to the cornplementizer gex; in this
", 1: <1' " rin i Lc rorm o bt o in s . Il owevc r, 200a .l do es include the case
wh<" ",, :In S ; :-; :ld i o ; ned La ;1 C I S" r orlll 0 '" postpo s ition, since in
 I

70 Modern Mongolian 71 Complex sentences

I

these instances the NP in question is 10wer then the constituents The comma makes clear what the non-literal gloss obscures, namely
containing those elements. Hence 200a.l must be understood to ap- that the overall structure of the sentence is that of two clauses,
ply strictly to NPs exclusively dominating Ss. no t three. The clause ending suuJ is coordinate with that ending
exlev within the second clause. Roughly then we have:
3.2 The derivation of converbals 2. S
~
3.21 Sentence embedding S S
eed ~
3.211 Gerundials S,:, S
] v
This right-branching structure is not at all atypical of complex
201. With the following exceptions, the primary use of conver- Mongolian sentences.
ba~is as gerundial, i.e. adverbial, clauses: -tel within the
Notice that in (2) the rightmost S, while embedded under another
scope of a case ending (see 3.214), -seer with a~copula (~.212), S, takes a finite, not a gerundial ending. This is because the
and -eed in coordinate sentences (see part 2), -J and -n ln pre-
rules for forming gerundials will be over-ridden by the general
verbs (3.213), and -J
and -eed with auxiliaries (3.212). cons traint stated in paragraph 200d.
Consider (3).
202. Such clauses are characterized by the fact that they may 3. Bodit xereg ijm l baj.dag: ter dovtol.bol bid tüün.ijg
have a full expansion with all the grammatical functions of an actual thing such part be-freq: it attack-cond we this-acc
independent clause (except for -xeer) , and by the fact that the ustga.na, teg.vel tüün.ij setgel n' xana.na.
remainder of the outer sentence may be a full clause. Thus in (1) wipe out-pres, do so-cond this-gen desire their gain-pres
there are clearly two full clauses, one ending in irtel. 'This is the way things are: if they attack and we wipe
1. Ax.yg ger.t.ee xari.ad düü.g xoni.o usl.aad ir.tel bid them out, they will have that satisfaction ... ' (Mao 87.2)
older brother-acc house-dat-RP return-pf younger brother- I t is clear from the colon and the comma that all that follows the
ene aJl.aa duusga.na. c olon explains ijm 'thus, so,' and tha t tegvel logically is subse-
acc sheep-RP give water to-pf come-term we this work-RP
quent to the clause preceding the comma. Thus it is clear again
finish-pres that (3) has the right-branching structure in (4). The relation-
'When older brother has returned horne and younger brother
s hip of the -deg clause and Sl is probably coordinate, but that
has come, having given water to the sheep, we will end
of the two -ne clauses certainly is o Once again, there is a right-
this work.' (Orchin 322) branching structure.
However, a comparison with (2) reveals that these criteria are
insufficient to differentiate a gerundial clause from an adverbial
cased noun phrase.
2. Bags.ijg ire.xe.d bid ger.t.ee baj.san.
4. /~l
teacher-acc come-inf-dat we house-dat-RP be-pf vn
'We were horne when the teacher came.' (Orchin 328)
S
deg
S
ne
S
ne
/------------
Furthermore, the possibility in the colloquial language of repla- I t should be noted, however, that the internal structures of the
cing -vc with a verbal nominal plus c
suggests that on neither -ne clauses, which involve gerundials and are similar, are not
surface structural nor semantic grounds can a gerundial be distin- rig ht-branching. See diagram (5). The structure is in general only
guished from an adverbial cased verbal nominal. The two differ, s li ghtly right-branching.
however, on the underlying level and in terms of their transform a - 5. Sl
tional derivations .
~S
S
203. Let us consider example 1.
1. Bazarov buca. J ir. eed, sireen . d suu . .7 caj . gaa ,jaara . n
~ ~
Bazarox return-impf come -pf, t a bl e -d at s i t - i mp f tea-RP S v el ~n e Sv e l Sne
uu.J exl e .v. fI final eXilllIpI e :
hastily drink-impf b eg in - p(l st 6 . (7e l,el (/n,jll an/". l.in öonr'llIö c' ondag . tO,j baj . gaa bögööd
'Bazaro x came b oc k, S;IL d ow n :11 LIIl' 1:11 ) 1(', :Ind hVi'':ln hilS - hu t W: l " OW Il - ) ',V n s p v(' i :,1 c lt :,r:ll'tc r -c o m b e-impf vn a nd this-
t-L l y drillkill !', L V: l . ' ( 1,' 1, '\', / .1 ) filill . (', ,, Ti;: , (),.; ,lrI,ill 11 ' ('I'.I,ill 11/;: l(iy' . / 1') 11(/'1 L bi c ,ium .
 1
72 Modern Mongolian 1

73 Complex sentences

abI see-cond war SM generality-gen nation power-com like

not be
'But war has its own particular characteristics, and in
this sense it cannot be equated with politics in general. '
(Mao 61. 4)
Here, while . the:e is.no.punctuation, and while bögööd semantically
marks coo~dlnatlon, lt lS clear that the first major clause ends
not in baJgaa or üzvel but with bögööd. The structure is:
7. ~ NP
S S
~d ~ _______________
Stel Seed Svel S2
204. For the most part, however, we shall be considering examples
that are not easily assigned internal structures. 203.1-3 reveal
that a gerundial is a clause, and that, because what follows can
be a fu:l sentence, itself perhaps compound or complex, a g e run-
dial S lS followed byanother clause. In a simple sentence such as
(1), the verb following the gerundial is not mer e ly an element of
the highess S but part of a lower clause.
1. Bags Erden.ijg duuda .J, sambar deer üseg bic.üüle.v.
teacher Erdene-acc call-impf, blackboard on letter write-
causative-past
'The teacher called on Erdene and had her write on the
blackboard.' (Austin 14.13)
205. As rega:ds 204.l~v~~at evidenc~ is there, ass~ming that th e
understood subJect of b~cuulev is bags, that the bags which is
prese~t on the surface derives from the first clause, rat her than
~he hlghest S? That is, what evidence is there that (1), not (2),
lS the actual structure of 204.l?
1. S created a somewhat more complex task for ourselves.
o
S~S
~ 2
A similar problem aris es in regard to adverbial phrases consis-
ting of preposed NVs und er some case, as in (3).
3. Düü us ava.x.aar jav.san.
younger brother water ge t-inf-instr go-pf vn
'Brother went to ge t water.' (Orchin 322)
What evidence is ther e to favour structure (4) for (3) over (5)?
4.~ ~
S NP VP
~tr ~ ./\ ~
L/_~ ---=~~ L ~ I
Düü ... avaxaar ... Düü düü us avaxaar javsan
206. Before attempting to resolve this problem, I should first
mention one further possibility. It is not logically necessary
that (1) in 205 really differs from ( 2 ) or (4) from (5), since
the SI of (1) could have been pr e posed from the VP und er SO; the
resultant derived structure would make (2) look just like (1).
Similarly, if the NP under the VP in (5) were prepos e d, a struc-
ture like (4) would result. What is gained by the hypothes is of
this preposing rule would be the el imination of the necessity to
have as a basic rule the generation of adverbial structures pre-
ceding the main claus e . Now these adverbials are to be genera ted
within th e VP like any other a dverbial. The price we pay is hypo-
thesizing a new transforrnational rule not needed elsewhere. Of
cour se, if we restri c t ourselves to NPs, we can identify this rule
with one of the few movement rules which we shall ne ed elsewhere,
but this would exclude gerundials, which are in no sense NPs.
As a ma tter of fact, this is precis e ly what we shall argue: that
preposing does not take place with gerundials, but tha t it may
take place with adverbial cased NPs. Thus we are left with a choice
between 205.1 and 205.2. Now we can return to our argument, having
207. The accusative plus infinitive construction in (1) where

~ ~t:~
namajg is clearly the subject of üzsengüj, suggests that i n fact
the underlying structure of (1) is like (2):
=-
bags Erdenijg duud- bags sambar deer useg bicüülev 1. Namajg end ar.] ire .xe.d, ta nar. yg uz.sen.güj.
2.~ me (ac c) h ere e nter-impf come-inf-dat, y ou PL-acc see-pf vn-not
'When I came in, I didn't see you .' (R l43.3la(b»

JP&K~-l
bags bags Ere!en":,j·.
,. :;n i /1 llii / - :;. ( / . / )1. ,'/111
v • •• • /
"0
74 Modern Mongolian 75 Complex sent ences

2. S tijm surxij xüc. tej bi s jum .

concess truth-dat-RP such power-com not be
NP VP
'In appearance the reactionaries are terrifying, but in
NP NPacc Neg v reality they are not so powerful.' (Mao 75.2)
~t ~ 2. Ene n ' üze.xe . d muu xereg bolo.vc üne.d. ee sajn xereg jum.
NP DAT NP ACC this SM see-inf-dat bad thing be-conc ess truth-dat-RP good
I thing be
S
'This may seem a bad thing, but in reality it is a good
NP VP thing.' (Mao 37.4)
---------------
S
~
V
Similarly, if xamt in (3) can refer to 'you and I' or 'you and
us,' then it is difficult to understand how xamt could occur in
~I a main clause when 'you' had already occurred in an earlier clause

bi bi bi
I 1I
or- ir- d tanar yg üz(?ev)
208. Now, is RP formation ordered before or after this extrac-
tion rule? One can get sentences like (1) or (2). Therefore RP
precedes the extraction rule. If converbals are also extracted,
it ought to be the case that RPs are possible in them; this is not
the case.
1. Ta üd.ijn xool.oo xe den cag.t id.deg ve?
you lunch (noon-gen food)-RP how many hour-dat eat-freq Q
'At what time do you eat lunch?' (R 3.13)
2. Ud.ijn xool . oo ta xeden cag . t id.deg ve? (R 4.l3a)
209. We have established that the subject which appears prece-
ding the converbal cannot be the original subject; furthermore,
the converbal precedes a clause. Therefore it is hard to account
for the presence of a subject before the converbal in cases like
181.4, since, if the converbal starts out embedded in the VP,
either it must und ergo EQUI, wiping out the subject of the lower
(converbal) clause, or (as we shall see is not true) EQUI is or-
dered after extraction. Thus it is hard to see how the subject
Don Kixot in 181.4 can be that of the lower clause if it is lifted
from the VP. No te that no converbal can appear withou t a preceding
subject.
Secondly, there are certain referential e leme nts other than pro-
nouns which appear in the clauses following ge rundials which seem
to refer back to some thing in the gerundial; these are terms regu-
larly referring back but not forwards. Thus tijm in (1). It is
hard to see how this tijm could refer back to the ger undial, if
th e gerundial starts out in the VP. Mor e over, ünendee is contrasted
with üzexed; again, this contrast is appropriat e to two separa te
clauses, not to an adverbial within a clause and the predicate of
that same clause. Cf. (2).
1. Uze . xe. d xargisc. uud. yn durs n ' ajxavtar bolo . vc ünen . d. ee
see-inf-dat r eac tiona ry-PL- ge n appearanc e the Eear ru l be -
to provide a referent.
3. Tan.yg ire . xleer xamt kino . d or. no. (Or c hin 327)
you-acc come-succ together movies-dat go-pres
'When you come, we sha ll go to the movies together.'
210. Finally, if 'we' in (1) can refer to ter xün, the same ar-
gument holds. The reference of bid is not prior to the reference
o f ter xün, as it would be if the converbal were extracted.
1. Ter xün.ijg xasgira.x.aar bid ger . ees.ee gar. san.
the person-acc shout-inf-instr we house-abl-RP exit-pf vn
'When that person shouted we l ef t the house.' (Orchin 328)
211. We conclude that adverbial clauses start out as clauses
direc tl y domin ated by the S dominating the main clause S, as in
(1 ). But adverbial cased VNs are preposed; they have a diff e r ent
s yntax.
1. S (independent)
~
S(converba l) S(independent)
.0 U
3.212 Auxiliaries
21 2. Three converbals occur with auxiliaries, namely the imper-
fec t, perfect, and - seer . See (1,2,3):
1. = 145.3
2. = 176.1
3. Gevc odoo imperialist.uud bas am ' d baj.gaa bögööd ted Azi,
but now imperialist-PL also alive be-impf vn and they Asia
Afrik, Latin Amerik . t xercgij balmad.aar aasil .saar baj.na.
Africa, Latin America-dat awful horrible-instr behave-abt
be-pr es
'Y e t Lmp criallsm is sti ll alive, still running amuck in
Asla, Arri C:l , 'lI1d LatLn Am e ri ca .' (Mao 80.5)
L I >. Tni ll:Jil y L !J ("-e :Ir" s('v" r :11 po.·.· i bi I Lti cs (or the s tructure
 77 Comp1ex sentences
76 Modern Mongo1ian

215. Secondly, in the case of VP-pronomina1ization and s evera1

of a simple converba1-auxi1iary structure such as in (1).
other rules affecting the subject of averb, the phrase bags
1. Bags ir.eed baj.na. 'Teacher has a1ready come.' ireed is never treated as a subject NP, whereas bags itse1f iso
(Street 152.10)
For examp1e, in a two-c1ause sentence, the subject of an imper-
Superficia11y speaking, there is no question but that the derived
feet converbal + Aux sequence can be de1eted in the second c1ause:
structure is as in diagram (2). However, there are severa1 pos si-
1. Zarc Gerel.ijn nüür.ijg ugaa.J ög.ööd, bas gar n' ugaa.san.
bi1ities for the source structure, assuming an under1ying embedded
servant Gere1-gen face-ace wash-impf give-pf, also hand her
S, name1y those in diagrams (3,4,5).
wash-pf vn
2. S 'Having c1eaned Gere1's face, the servant washed her hands.'
~
NP VP (R 31. 39)
V~V I t cannot appear in the second c1ause:
I ~ I I 2. *Nüür.ijg ugaa.gaad, zarc Gerel.ijn gar ugaa.san.
bags ireed bajna (R 31.39a)
3. S 4. S
~ BY 216. Moreover, whi1e diagram 213.5 is somewhat plausible with
I ---------------I
NP VP SUBJ- NP VP
bajna or bolno it becomes imp1ausib1e with other descriptive auxi-
N S S V 1 iaries, since these may require an indication of the subject.
II ----------------------V RAISE
This is the case with ögnö. In (1), if ögnö has no subject, how
NP VP NP VP
BY I I I c an this verb be se1ected, since it re1ates the action to the
I
N EQUI V N V s ubject?
I ~ / I I 1. Luvsan Gerel.ijn nüür gar.yg ugaa.J ög.sön.
bags bags ireed bajna bags ireed bajna
Luvsan Gere1-gen face hand-ace wash-impf give-pf vn
5. S
'Luvsan washed Gere1's face and hands for her.' (cf. R 32.42
~---------
cl>
~P
S
f
V
217. Fina11y, it is known that nothing can be moved in between
t he converba1 and the auxi1iary. This is inexp1icab1e if diagram
~-------------------VPI
NP
I
21 3 . 5 is correct, but easi1y explained otherwise. The
a rgument given in connection with diagram 213.4 ho1ds
negation
here too.
N V (S ee be1ow.) We conc1ude that 213.5 presents too many problems to
I ~ • I •
bags ~reed baJna be acceptab1e.
Let us consider first diagram (5). Not on1y does this oppose o ur
stated derived structure, which is based on the phono1ogy (the 218. Diagram 213.4 shares many of the 1iabilities of diagram (5)
major pause fo11ows the subject, not ireed, c1ear1y ireed bajna emd moreover costs us an ad hoc ru1e of subject-raising which is
is a phrase) and native speaker intuitions, but it makes certain nee ded only because bags is feIt to be the subject of the auxi1iary.
semantic claims. These are imp1ausib1e, as ireed bajna seems to I F 213.4 is the correct under1ying structure, raising of the sub-
be a semantic unit. But, aside from the problem of the subject's iec t NP of the lower S will trigger pruning of that S; the resu1-
case form, there are severa1 syntactic arguments against (5). lan t derived structure is that in diagram (1) . On syntactic and
l\ il o no1ogica1 grounds (1) is implausib1e, particular1y in regard
214. First, there is an optiona1 ru1e of right-movement of the 10 s entences 1ike 159.1. If this has an under1ying structure in
subject in yes/no questions in the co11oquia1 1anguage that a110ws I irre with 213.4, namely (2) be1ow, the derived structure will be
reformu1ation of (1) as (2). I i ke (3); this is totally unacceptab1e.
1. Ta nom.yg üze.J baj.na uu? 'You are readi n g the book?' 1. ______________r-------.-.
S
(R 1. 1)
NP NP VP
2. Nom.yg üze.J baj.na uu, ta ? (R 2.13) I I I
Assuming -J
bajna and - eed baj na hav e th e same stru c tur e , this is N VP V

~
tota11y imp1ausib1e g i v e n th e stru c tu re of d iagram 213 . 5 , s ince
the subject wou1d h a v e to b e 1-Let c d o u t o f t il c lowcr S . We be1i ev I v I
that no r u1 e o f Mongol -La n C:ll1 -lif t sO lllL't ilill l\ o uL o f :111 S to th e I)( (;r:; i 1".,.,1 I'u,iil' (
r ight.
78 Modern Mongo1ian 79 Comp1ex sentenc es

2. s 3. S can-pr es
NP
1
~
VP
1
NP--------1
--------
~I
NP VP
'Luvsan can speak Eng1ish, me to o.' (R 47 . 22d)
Cc ) TY'uncation (ellipsis) - This de1 e tes right copy NPs, etc.:
3, Luvsan ,, ', bi bas jaY'i . ] cad. na , (R 47.22c)
s V NP(?) VP V
I I
NP
I
s
--------------- VP
V
1
VP

~
V

I
22 2. Specifi ca11y, what can be de1 e t ed by these ru1es? Consider
t h e se examp1es:

----------
NP

I t
VP t eY' oY'J iY'J bajna
1. Dendev tuuJ unsi.J baj .na, xaY'in GeY'el sUY'a . x bicig
uns i . J baj .na. (R 18.58)
'Dendev i s reading a s tory, but Ger e1 is r eading areader.'
2. Dendev tuuJ bici . J baj .na, xaY'in GeY'el tuuJ unsi .] baj . na .
t eY' oY'j bajna 'Dendev is writing a s tory, but Gere1 is reading a story. '
(R 18.59)
219. The converba1 and the fo110wing v erb form a s emantic unit; 3. Dendev nom üze.J baj. s an, GeY'el bas üze.] baj.san.
negation can be 1ifted out of the converba1 over the auxi1iary. 'Dend ev was reading a book, Gere1 also was reading (it).'
As a ru1e, on1y one member of the pair can appear negated. Since (R 20.60)
we have other occas ions of this negative moving (NEGNOM), we find 4. --Ta nom unsi.} baj.na uu? 'Are you reading a book?'
it imp1ausib1e that it is being 1ifted out of a 10wer S, since in --Tijm, bi nom unsi.} baj .na . 'Y es , I'm r eading a book.'
these other cases it c1ear1y is not. (R 24.10a )
5 . Luvsan angli xel. ijg jaY'i .J cad . na, bi bas angli xel.ijg
220 . We conc1ud e that 213.4 is incorrect. Therefore the und er- jaY'i . J cad.na. (R 47.22)
1ying structure is that r e presented in 213.3. The 10we r subject 'Luvsan can speak Eng1ish, I too can speak Eng1ish. '
is de1eted by EQUI. No t ice that if the under1ying structure of 6. TeY' t üün. i jg xij.J cada .x. güj baj.na, bi bas tüün.ijg
159.1 is (1) be10w, in 1ine with 213.3, then the de rived structure cada.x. güj baj . na.
is diagram (2), which is acceptab1e. 'He can't do it, I too cannot do it.' (R 47.23a)
1. S 7. TeY' Mangol.d jav. x . yg xüse.J baj.na, bi bas tend jav~ x. yg
NP
--------------- VP xüse.J baj.na . (R 47.24a)
'He wants to go to Mongo1ia, I too want to go there . '
-------------------
---1-------
S V 'l'he s t r uctur e of (1) we predicate to b e that in (8) be10w:
NP
--------------- ~
S V
8. ~

NP
~
VP bajna
~
~I~
VP ~ VP 1

t,r ter tir oi, irJ bajna

~ ~~ I J VP~
VP I ~-------v
---~ I I
i I
221. Confirmatory evidence comes f rom d el e tion ru1 es which may P I
affect constituents. What is de1etab1e is a constituent, what is

xa~in
not, cannot be. Thr e e deletion ru1es are r el evant h e r e : I N I I
(a) gapping - This de1etes 1eft copi es o f th e ~v er b on1y: Dendev tuuJ unsi] bajna
Gel'el sl. unsi] baj na
1. GeY'e l Dendev . d [ünse . gde . vJ , NaY'an DOY'ji . d ünse . gde . v . w" predict tha t gapping can de1 ete bajna in SI; our informant a1-
Ger e1 Dendev-dat kiss-PASS-pas t, Naran Dor ji-d at kiss- Ill we d this ( R 18. 58a) though it seems to vio1ate the distaff-branch
PASS-pass "ll il s t r a i nt. We did not v erify the de1 e tabi1ity b~ 'ZP-de1etion of
'Gere1 was kiss ed by Dend ev , Na r a n by Dorji.' (R 104. 841t) lire' in c1ud ed VP in S2 , but we did v e r i f y that uns i j bajna cannot
(b) VP (oY' S) dele t i on - This de l e t es r igh t co py VPs : I ... cl ' "I e t ed 1"0111 S2 ( li 18 . 58c ) a ncl ca nno t t h e r e for e fo rm a consti-
2. Luvsan angli x el . i ,ja Jnvi . .7 end, lI([, IJi /irr:: "(.a(/. r!n , I tl l' II L :lP <l I' t 1 ,",)111 :;/11' 0 :1: I,i ;': i :/ .
Luvsan Eng1-L s h 1 [ln gllil ge-il(,(, s l' l': lk - irlll ' l l':ln- pr os, 1 al s
80 Modern Mongolian 81 Complex sentences

223. The structur e of 222.2 we predicate to be: 229. The evidence from deletion thus is somewhat confused and
1. S req uires more investigation, but there is considerab le support

-----\~
for the view that the phrase ending in the converbal is a consti-
tuent separate from the following auxiliary.
SI \ S2
N~-------W \ N~
N __ \
3 .2,1 3 Preverbs

I --------------- \ \ ---------------
~
~V
V \
N\~
~ V
IV 230. Preverbs may be grouped into those which are dictionary
entries and those which are not. Doubtl essly modal converbals, at

~ ~~!
Dendev tuuj biciJ
\
bajna xarin G. t.
J\ ~l
uns~J bajna
leas t in the spoken l anguage , should be treated as frozen forms
a nd list e d in the lexicon.

231. However, productive types of derived preverbs should be

Our informant again allowed gapping here in SI of bajna (R l8.59a) .
transforma tionally derived. In thos e cases where converbals, for
224. The structure of 222.3 is presumed to be as in (1). The example, seem to have no expansion, we can attribute this to the
informant allowed deletion of nom in S2 (truncation); h e did not rules which derive the form. That is, they only appear to have
allow deletion of the included VP (R 20.60b), but this was tested no expans ion as a consequence of their underlying form and the
with tijm 'thus' in place of the VP, which may have contributed automatic transformations which they und ergo.
to the decision.
1. S 232. The fact that preverbs can occur with any verb, not just
a uxiliaries, allows us to embed sentential constituents as pre-
8 ve rbs; however, these constraints are necessary on the underlying
SI 2 s truc ture:
~ ~ (a) the subject of a converbal must be identical to that of
NP VP NP VP
I I the outer clause;
N
---------------
VP V N VP-----~V (b) any object must be equivalent to that of the outer S;
~ ~

NP V Adv NP
I I
N N
I I II
Dendev nom üzeJ" bajna Gerel bas nom
225. In the case of 222.4, the informant allowed deletion of bi
(lOb), but he did not allow deletion of nom (lOe) on the grounds
t?at,it w~uld be unclear as to what was being read; presumably
mon same would be needed; there is some constraint operating
here. He did not allow deletion of unsiJ bajna, but this might b e
the distaff-branch constraint operating (lOe).
22~. In.~he case of 222.5 the following deletions were allowed :
angl~ xel~Jg (47.22c) by truncation, angli x elijg jariJ (47.22d)
by VP-deletion. This sugges ts that 213.4 is correct.
/
V (c) the time must be the same as that of the outer S.
ße cause of EQUI and (a), the subject will always delete; becau se
of pronominali zation and (b) the object will always delete' and
I because of (c) only the -J form can occur. Thus we can tre~t pre-
üzeJ" bajna
verbs in -J
as a special case of the converbal.
;1. 2 14 Special cases
233 . -tel is unusual in allowing an ablative or instrumental
"3se end ing to follow it, principally on bajtal (KhGr 87, MLH
1'39 ). This is the one exception to the generalization that only
vl'r bal nominals amongst the verb forms can take a case form. The
I, i s torical origin of this anomaly is known: Poppe states (GWN 180)
''I'he converbum terminale ending in - tala [modern -tal, -tel, etc.
- RB ] ... was originally a dative-locative (with the suffix - a)
" I nouns ending in - tal (cL surtal "doctrine" from sur- "to

227. In the case of 222.6, these deletions were a llowed:tüüm~ j ll
by.truncation (R 47. 23b), tüünijg xijJ by VP-d e l e tion (23c) ,,
baJna by BAJTR (23d-f). '
228. In the cas e of 22 2 .7, th ese we ,"(' ;l 'll ow(' d:
(24b), tend javxyg by trunciltion ( 2/,e ).
I "; II"n") . Thus, ul<utele "until he dies" was origina lly "till the
.I "" t h" or "to the d ea th. ,.. Here we shall not attempt an analysis
" I Lhe s truc tur e 0 r: t hi s cons truc t ion.
:)' )1,. S tr cC' L st;, U,,; ( 220) ' -:r:('(' r' ilPPdr ently cannot be expanded
! (, ilt ! by trull c ntlo 'l
I, y 11,(' " deli I i,)]\ (Ir" s lIbj t'cL l1 011,in:l l ,' :,nd o rr C' r s t he e xample:
82 Modern Mongolian
1. Inge. J cag. aa cüjtge. xeer ger. ee duud. "ja.
do this-impf time- RP waste-eomp house-RP eall-vol
'Instead of wasting my time this way 1'11 eall horne.'
(Street 225)
However , he notes (220,233) that it ean be followed by a 'posses-
sive' partiele, 'usually the reflexive possessive,' but offers no
examples. Poppe notes that the subjeet of the eonverbal must al-
ways equal that of the outer elause (KhGr 88); he too offers no
examples.
Not enough data is available to us to deeide , but it is likely
that -xeer has a deep strueture eonstraint that allows only equi-
valent struetures as subjeets, whieh are then deleted by EQUI or
possibly pronominalized.
3.22 Conditions for converbals
235. So far we have seen, with the dubious possible exeeption
of -tel with ease endings, that all eonverbals oeeur: (a) domina t ed
by S direetly (coordinate Ss; gerundial S) or (b) dominated by VP
(preverb; with auxi liary) . Tentatively then we assert: an S domi -
nated by VP or S reeeives a eonverbal ending. The question then
is: whieh ending, and what is the meehanism for assigning the
ending?
236. Reeall from seetion 3.112 that there are these eonverbals
of the first group prineipally: the imperfeet and perfeet. If an
S has the same tense as the next higher S, and if it is eonverbal,
it takes the imperfeet ending; if it is relatively past, it takes
the perfeet . This does not take into aeeount the semanties or
pragmaties of tense and aspeet, and in the ease of -eed plus baj-
presents eertain diffieulties.
237. In the ease of the other eonverbals, there is no obvious
tense relationship between eonverbal and higher verb. Moreover,
the various eonverbals have strong aspeetual meanings. Therefore
we propose that eonverbals of the seeond type may oeeur embedded
with endings already present in the underlying strueture . The eon-
verbals of the first group always arise through tense adjustment,
but those of the seeond are under1ying and are neeessa r y for sem-
antie interpretation. There is a restrietion, however, for wit h
the exeeption of -seer, no such ending may oe e ur exeept in a ger-
undia1 elause. (Aeeording1y, we susp e e t that - s eer wi th a uxi1iary
has a different strueture from tha t wh ieh we h a v e p r o posed.)
238. At present ther e a r e too ma n y un r es o1v e d probl e ms t o a tt e nlil l
serious1y to formul a t e a ru1 e of eo nv c rb a l f o rrn atL o n. 1\ st udy oE
tense and as peet is e e rt a i n ly rc qu i r e cl , f o r ('xil mpi e , hu t t h i. s t a l w~1
us out oE syn t a x i n to t h e r n 1111 o f s(' lIl nilti cs.
83 Comp1ex sentences
3.23 Rules
239. The reader is advised to eonsu1t the fo110wing seetions
for-transformational rules affeeting embedded Ss whieh u1timate1y
beeome eonverba1s:
(a) EQUI - seetion 3.331
(b) BAJTR - seetion 3.334
(e) Subjeet pronomina1ization - seetion 3 . 4
3.3 The derivation of verbal nominals
3.31 Sentence embedding
3.311 Verbal nominals functicning as noun phrases
240. Verbal nominals ean oeeur just about anywhere a noun phrase
ean oeeur. They ean oeeur as subjeet, objeet, or adverb i al (eased
NPs). They ean oeeur as objeet of a postposition (see 3.312) . They
ean oeeur in predieates (3.313), as attributes or in apposition
( 3 . 314) . They eannot form genitiva1 noun phrases, however. And
they ean oeeur with a eopular auxiliary whieh undergoes truncation
( see seetions 3.315, 3 . 334).
241. As subjeets, verbal nomina1s usually oeeur in the infinit e
o r perfeet, oeeasiona1ly also in the imperfeet . They never or
r arely oeeur with any other ending . They take bol in the sens e o f
' i f' as a kind of subjeet marker, but the 'possessive' n ' usua11y
a ets either as a subjeet marker or an indieator that the int e rior
s ubjeet has been de1eted or pronomina1ized . As objeets they take
t he aeeusative ease ending. As adverbials they take these eases :
d ative ('when', 'why'), ablative ('why'), and instrumental ('when',
'why').
242. Clearly there are underlying str uetura1 restrietions ; for
example, sinee a purpose is fulfi11ed after the des ire to do it,
o r the action whieh sets it up, it must be future relative to tha t
pr e eedent action. Thus only -x is allowed (241.11). These rest-
ra i nts are for the most part semantie and pragrnatie and henee out-
s id e the seope of this study .
Th e ease of verbal nouns is assigned mueh in the same way as the
case of ordinary NPs.
;, . 3] 2 Verbal nominals "n PPs and cased PPs
2 4 3 . Ce r t a in po st p os itions e a n t ake v e rbal nominals as objeets.
( I; - th ese cxa ll1 p l cs , t h e VN t a k es on th e ea s e f onn required by the
I)( ,s t pos it i o n .) So me .'"< li e h pos tp os ·i t ion s are :
C I ) d((Y'nrr ' :1 f" u' r ' wi t ll I\ IH .:
84 Modern Mongolian 85 Complex sentences

1. Dendev.ijn suu.sn.aas daraa ter nom unsi.v. normal1y occupied by a n ordinary nominal. This is with an auxili-
Dendev-gen sit-pf vn-abl after he book read-past ary. When an ordinary nomina l occurs in predicative position with
:After Dendevi sat down, hej read a ' book.' (R 93.23a) a copular verb, they function as predicatives, and the copula ser-
(b) xojs 'since, after' with ABL: ves much like a main verb. However, with a VN, the main function
2. Ei ir.sn.ees xojs~ ter nadad neg nom ögö.v. of the copula is to bear tense, and it is readily deleted.
I come-pf vn-abl after, he me(dat) one book give-past
'After I came in, he gave me a boök.' (R 205.41) Almost any VN may so occur:
(c) ömnö 'before, until' with ABL: (a) - x : 1. Imperialist . uud urt nasla.x.güj bol. loo .
3. Eid nüüs.ijg xür.x.ees ömnö ter ger . ees . ee sal.J jar.J imperia1ist- PL long last-inf-not become-wit
we PL-acc arrive-inf-abl until he house-abl-RP leave- 'Imperialism will not last long ... ' (Mao 80.2)
cada.x.güj. (b) - sen: 2. Gitler caasan bar baj .san bis üü?
impf draw-impf can-inf-not Hitler paper tiger be-pf vn not Q
'He cannot leave the house until we arrive.' (R 220.41) ' ... was not Hit1er a paper tiger?'(Mao 78.1)
(Not'e that bid nüüsijg is a Chakhar form.) (c) - ee: 3. Ta nar zasag tör.ijg ustga.x.yg xüse.J baj.gaa
yo~ PL state power-ace abolish-inf-acc wish-impf
244. Deer 'while, just as,' xojno 'after,' tul 'because,' and bis iW?
dar 'right after,' can occur with plain verbal nominals (see ba-impf vn not Q
Street 212) in truncated Ss, or af ter a complement in truncated 'Don't you want to abolish state power?' (Mao 38.4)
Ss: (d) -deg: 4. Eidn.ij.x.ees öör sanal.taj xoer janz.yn xumuus
1. Deer - Nar . taj deer jav ! 'Go while it's daytime.' we-gen-x'-abl other view-com two type-gen people
sun-com on go-imp (Street 212) baj.dag jum.
2. Tul - (see 64.1) be-freq be
3. Xojno - namajg ir . sen xojno 'after I came' (Street 212) 'Two kinds of persons hold views different from
me(ac c) come-pf vn after ours.' (Mao 51.5)
4. Dor - ir.sen dor(oo) 'immediately after (his) arrival'
come-pf vn under (RP) (Street 212) 249. The copular auxiliaries occur with predicative VNs and also
the copu1ar particles bij and jum . Other copu1ar particles may
3.313 Predicates also occur here (viz. 250.1).

245. VNs can also occur as predicate NPs. Here they translate 250. Conside r:
indefinite phrases and indirect questions in WH-words of the Indo- 1. Ei end suu.dag bilee. 'I used to live here.' (Stree t 207)
european languages, such as 'what he did': I here live-f req was
1. Cinij xel.deg züj.tej. (FL 84.6) The s uperficial structure of (1) is something 1ike diagram (2):

--------
your say-freq fact-com 2. S
'Ah, that is the truth.' ('What you said is true. ') NP Vp

3.314 Attributive and appositive ~

---------------
Adv V
V(?)
I
246. As we saw in section in 1.122, VNs can modify other nomi- I I
nals as relative clauses or stand in apposition to cer tain abstra I bi end suuJag bilee
nouns. The latter in no way differs from the apposition of a prop r 'fhe questlon
' is, what is the derivation of this structure? Presum-
noun to a common noun. ;lbly th~ ques ti on marked constituent is a VP. Then, bi could have
been ralsed from a n S of which thi s is the VP, or the surface bi
247. For an analysis of the r e l a tive clause, see sec tion 3.332. l'o u1d hav e triggered EQUI of the subject of this VP. Compare dia-
", rams (3,4).
3.315 With a copula

248 . In one case 101 v e rba L noml nn'! nn <)('C ttr In ~l po , iti on no t
 87 Comp1ex sentences
86 Modern Mongo1ian

5 4. 5 256. Negative VNs before bol- or baj- may also secondari1y

3.
I :::-15Y---- ari-;e-from converba1s by NEGNOM.
BY VP NPEQUI~
RAI5ING
5
------------
VP
Vcop cf> 5

VP
Vcop 3.33 Other rules

3.331 EQUI
~ ~
Adv V dv V 257. When a sentence is embedded and the subject of that sen-
I I I I
end suudag bilee end suudag bilee tence is referentia11y equiva1ent to some other NP in the matrix
sentence, that 10wer subject does not take on the form which a
251. Diagram 250.3 is imp1ausib1e, a1though i: yie1ds the cor- subject embedded in that position norma11y has, but instead under-
re~derived structure, because there is no subJect for the cop- goes one of a numb er of ob1igatory trans formations, the main one
u1a. A1though copu1as can be used existentia11y, this is not such of which, adeletion ru1e, we sha11 name 'equiva1ent noun phrase
a use. Another possib1e structure is that of diagram (1) be10w, deletion' (EQUI for short).
in which the entire 5 is the subject of bilee. This does not yie1d
the correct derived structure, however. 258. Usua11y the outer equiva1ent NP is the higher subject, or
a direct or indirect object. It is doubtfu1 whether any other NP
1. /---- can trigge r the se changes. Nor is it known whether all objects or
NP VP indirect objects will trigger them.
I I
5 V
~ 259. We have es t ab1ished the fo110wing ki nd s of embedded sen-
NP VP tences which might be be10w an equiva1ent NP:
Ad~ (a) a VN object (see paragraphs 260-2)
I
bi
I
end suudag
I
bilee
(b) a cased VN adverbial (263-4)
(c) a VN in a postpositional phrase (265)
(d) a VN with a copu1a or auxi1iary (266)
252. Diagram 250.4 also yie1ds the correct superficia1 stru~­ (e) a converba1 with an auxi1iary (267)
ture, and since we need EQUI e1sewhere, but not a ru1e of subJect- (f) a sentence under gex (in paragraph 268)
raising, it is to be preferred.
260. A verbal nominal object, as we saw (sections 3.11, 3 .31)
253. That in any case such an 5 cannot be dominated by VN is and sha11 see (3.41), has generally a subject in the genitive or
shown by the fact that, un1ike other VNs, they do not undergo ex- a ccusative cases (1,2):
traction: 1 . Bat .yn türgen sajn bol .x.yg bid bodo.; baj . na.
1. *(Bi) end suudag bi bilee. Bata-gen soon we1l become-inf-acc we think-impf be-pres
Moreover with BAJTR they serve as the actua1 predicate of the 'We think Bata will be we11 soon.' (Binnick 32.68b)
outer sent~nce. Yet they have no nominal feeling about them. 2. Aav. yg xödöö jav.sn. yg bi med.sen.
Fina11y, when serving with an auxi1iary they ca~not take ~he RP father-acc country go-pf vn-acc r know-pf vn
or possessive endings. This c1ear1y indicates thelr non-nomlna1 'r knew father went to the country.' (Kas 'janenko 25)
character. Ilut (in comparison to (1», when the subject is the same it is
Lransforrned into a RP pronoun and shifted:
3.32 Conditions 3. Bat t ürgen s ajn bo l. x . oo bodo .] baj .na.
Bata soon we11 be corn e-inf-RP think-impf be-pres
254. The 5s dominated by the label NP become verbal nomina1s. 'Bat a thinks he will be we1l soon.' (Binnick 32.68a)
S imL1ar1y, i n (4, 5):
255. Furthermore, it is c1ear that except for the perfect, fu- L,. Luvsan (\'1'(':1 . Un -irlc . :x; n ' boli . ul . ] cad. na ...
ture, and perhaps the imperfect VN, whi ch ar e s imp1y r e lative. LUVS<l11 Cl'C(.'g-gC11 ca t - i 11 r th c s top-CAUS - i mpf can-pr es
tenses 1ike the imperfect a nel perr ee t conv c rll;11 s , Lhc t e nse wl11 'l.l1 VS;lll ('; 111 PUL ; l s L O jl L o eCC('g ' s ca tin g ... '
have to be marked in the undC'rl y in g Sl' llt en '(' . Ss (\ olllinnt l' d b y VP ( ll illlli (' k ')2 . In )
which ar e so Illorkcd be 0 111 ' VN R .
88 Modern Mongolian 89 Complex sentences

5. Dendev id. x.ee boli.J cad.na ... (b) When a first person subject is equiva lent to a higher sub-
Dendev eat-inf-RP stop-impf can-pres ject:
'Dendev can stop eating ... ' (Binnick 52.126) 2. Bi zügeer neg nimgen deel av . "ja [J..eJ baj . na.
Thus an underlying genitive under identity with a high er subjec t I just one light deel take-vol geJ be-pr es
is t~ansformed by REFL-POSS pronominalization, and then shifted. 'I just want a light deel .' (Hangin 44)
3. Dendev udalgüj jav. "ja geJ bie .d.ee xele.v.
261. There are cases, however, where the lower subject is simply Dendev immediately go-vol geJ self-dat-RP say-past
delet e d. These are likely the underlying accusa tive cases. Thus: 'Dendev told hirnself to leave at once.' (Binnick 58.147)
1... , ganc ödör c bajlda. x . yg bid xüse.J baj.na .
even day part fight-inf-acc we want-impf be-pr es 266. We conclude:
we don't want to fight even a single day.' (Mao 88.1) EQUI (Obligatory)
2. Pool end.ees sönö jav.x.yg xüse.v. SD:
S
[X - NP
I
- Y [ NP. - ZJ
S
AJ
S
S J
Paul here-abl night go- inf-acc want-past SI: 1 2 3 4 5 6
'Paul wanted to leave here at night.' (Bk 22.4a) SC: 1 2 3 5 6
3. Pool Joon.yg end.ees sönö jav .x.yg xüse.v. Condi tions: (a) NP. NP. , and
Paul John-acc here-abl night go-inf-acc want-past :L J
'Paul wanted John to leave here at night.' (Bk 22.4c) (b) NP. is in the NOM or ACC case
J
EQUI must follow all other case adjustment rules.
262. The same facts hold true when it is a higher indirect ob-
je~which is involved, not a higher subject: ~ 3.332 Relative clause formation
1. Suudan.gyn xoroon . d jaa.J xüre . x . ijg ta nad zaa.j ögn.nö üü.
post-gen office-dat do how-impf reach-inf-acc you me(dat) 267. Mongolian has r elative clause structures comparable in
show-impf give-pres Q meaning and form to similar structures in Japanes e , Korean, and
'Would you please tell me how to get to the post office?' Turkish. See papers in CWH by J. McCawl ey, Tagashira, and also
(Hangin 60) v
Underhill 1972. (The following discussion is mainly taken from
2. Dendev Gerel . t jav.x.yg tusaa .v. 'Dendev told Gerel to go.' Binnick 35ff; examples are based on Bk.) There has been a hesi-
Dendev Ge r el-dat go-inf- acc tell-past ta ncy in the Altaistic literature to utilize the term 'rel a t ive
c lause' because the type of phrase under consid eration her e dif-
263. As we saw (sections 3.1, 3.32) and shall see (3.41), an fe rs in so many ways from the structur es which are used in other
adverbial verbal nominal with some case ending usually has either languages to express relatives. On the whole there is some ques-
a genitival or accusatival subject. tion as to the propriety of the use of the term 'clause' her e;
When the subject is the same as a higher subject a nd the case a s Edward Keenan (CWH 170) pointed out, the Mongoli a n 'relative
of the lower subject is normally accusativ e , it undergoes EQUI: clause' 'loses its sentential status and is incorporated into the
1. Bat java . x . aar bolo.v. 'Bata managed to leave.' head NP,' that is, the nominal which it modified. Furthermore,
Bata go-inf-instr become-past (Binnick 3l.67a) Mongolian, like the other languages mentioned above, lacks r el a -
When it is genitival, it undergoes the REFL-POSS rul e . tive pronouns: a relative cluase consists of a truncated sentenc e
No data is available on VNs in postpositional phrases. (desentential phrase) in apposition to, and preceding, some nomi-
nal head, as in (1) and (2):
264. The subject of a VN with a copula or auxiliary a lways equaln 1. minij üz.sen oxin ' a girl whom I saw' (Binnick 35.77)
the outer subject and henc e is always de l e t ed. my see- pf vn girl
2. mön tege .J xel.s en xün 'the one who said the same thing '
265. Under certain conditions the s ubj ec t of an indirec t quota- same do so-impf say-pf vn person
tion is deleted (see section 3.42 below). Nor, unlike the Indo- e uropean languages, does Mongolian have any
(a) When a second person subject is co- refer ential to an indi- I'honological c1i s tinction b e tween restrictive and non-restrictive
rect object: relative cla uscs ; t he dif( crcn ce is non-overt. Finally, whereas
1. Bags bidn . ees xiceel . ee saJll r!rw&' !;rrn uu? (fe.! asuu . v . i 11 t il c Tndo-curo pc;ln 1 :lIlgUiJ gc s r c lat Lve clauses gen era lly res emble
t eacher us - abl l css on- RP wc ll pn-, pill"('- pf VIl Q (fe.! ask-p/l111 IlldL' pl'nd e Il L c l .- ,u s 'S, i " Mo n",o l i"l1 t he v ' rbs of r elative clauses
' Tcac hc l:' <lskecl us i f Wl' il:l<1 dOll" (l ll r Il' SSO Il wl' I "I.' I:lkl ' Vl' I"!J"I 1l 0 ,,1i11." 1 (' nd 1111',::. I,'in,"l ll y, II H' lC'rlll ',"clative clause '
( l(iJg~: ' iI 1'39) "" ' Y II,"I v\' lH'l' ll ,"I v,>I (il'd 1l,'( 'I I1I: I(' 11 I ~I: I 1II11 ,' L i on ;ll , not ;l structura l

90 Modern Mongolian
term. It is clear that there is no essential structural distinc-
tion between relative clauses and o t her verbal nominals.
The rela t ive clause never contains within itself all the gr~m~ .
matical functions ordina r ily found in a clause. Thus in (l~ m1-nLJ
üzsen contains a transitive verb, but there is no overt obJect for
that verb' in (2) mön tegeJ xelsen c ontains a verb complex wi t h no
subject. it is precisely the function w~ich.is ~nd~rstood to ~er­
tain to the head of the construction whlch l.S mlsslng. Accordlng l y
we presume that relative clauses are full clauses in appositi~n
to an NP which is identical to some element of the clause modlfy-
ing it, so that that identical term is then deleted. That is, un-
derlying (1) is som e thing like (3):
3. S[bi oxin üz e (?v) J s oxin
I girl see girl
Under identity the oxin of the embedded clause deletes.. . This would require some constraint on the embedding of sentences
I have somewhat simplified (3). Even assuming that nomlnatlves
and certain accusatives are not marked for case, there is alw~ys
the possibility that the identical NP within the embedded S wlll
have some case ending. This is the case in (4), for example.
4. ene xüü.gijn suu.J baj.x xot
this boy-gen live-impf be-inf town
'the town in which this boy is living' (Binnick 37:84)
(4) must derive from something like (5), in which xotond has a
dative ending. ~ 'a glass-bottomed boat; a boat whose bottom is made of
5. SCene xuu xotond suuj baj(?na) J S xot . glass'
We postulate (5) because, in the independent clause equlvalent to
the S of (5), xo tond does appear, as we would expect in any case
from the suuJ bajna . Thus when embedded in the relative clause
structure many of these identical NPs are not strictly identical
to the head NPs; however, as far as determining identity is con-
cerned the case ending is ignored.
It i~ in regard to case that Mongolian 'relative clauses' dif~e r
in yet another way from finite, independe~t clauses. ~s.we saw ln
(1) the subject of a verbal nominal goes lnto the genltlval case;
as such it is available to the rule which forms reflexive-
poss e ssives.
6. Ta end ir .x. ee mede . v üü?
you here come-inf-RP know-past Q
'Did you know (then) that you were coming? ' (Street 137)
In (6) the under1ying subject, ta, of th e emb e dd e d s e ntence would
appear in the genitive if it ,vere not equ~va l en~ ~ o the outer sub-
ject. Since it is, however, it undergo e s ln add l t l on ~h~ ru~e . S
which transforms the g e nitiv e into the RP. Thus r e l a tlvlzatlon lS
another of the many cas e -ch a nging ru1 es a nd Lt mu s t pr ecede the
RP formation ru1 e .
268. I me nt io n e d e il I" I i e l" LIl: I L " S lll'('i: 11 s(' L o ( VN (' ndin gs occ ur
i n7 cl il tLv c c lau ses . Tlli ,; p O''< ' :: :llI:ll o)',O< I! ; I' l oh l (' III '; I n Lil o sl' r a Ls d
91 Comp1ex sentences
by case-changing, but more difficu1t ones, for while case-changing
merely rep1aces one member of a set with another, verb-ending-
changing involves replacing a member of one set with one of an-
other set which, moreover, seems not to share the same categories.
Certain of the VN forms, it is true, do parallel the finite verb
endings: the past perfect -v roughly corresponds to the perfect
VN -sen, for example. But there are three VNs which correspond
to uses of the present imperfect finite ending -ne: the imperfect
in -ee, the infinite or future in -x, and the frequentative in
- deg. There is no VN which precisely corresponds to the form in
- lee or that in -J(ee ). Thus, if we analyse the situation as a
change we may be confronted by semantic change under syntactic
transformation. To avoid this, we may wish to claim that relative
clause structures already in the underlying structure contain
participal forms or the semantic markings appropriate to them.
containing finite verb forms. At present there is no good argumen-
tation to select between these two solutions. If I incline toward s
c hange, it is because of the interaction between relativization
(and the corresponding complementation involving verbal nominals)
a nd passivization. Verbal nominal endings, especially the perfect
ones, are indifferently active or passive, as in (1):
1. erool n' sil. eer xij.sen ongoc
bo t tom its glass-instr make-pf vn boat
(Binnick 38:87)
A sentence like (1) is derived by passivization with subsequent
a gent-deletion and relativization. Thus relativization prec e d es
a t least one rule and follows at least one.
269. So far we have been discussing the ordinary sort of relativ e
c lause constructions in which a simple sentence is in apposition
to an equally simple noun phrase. But what happens when this gets
a bit more complicated? For example, can the noun phrase to be
de leted be within another NP? In general, it can. For example in
( 1), the source of which is (2), the deleted identical is within
NP . . (See paragraph 270.)
J 1. Toom ix nijslel xot u l s.uuda. d dur.ta j.
Tom big capital city country-PL-dat desire-com
'Tom likes countries whose capitals are large.'
(Binnick 38:88)
2. Toom NP. [SC ul s uudyn nijs1e1 xotod ixJ ulsuudadJ . durtaj.
NP
J J
II 'J we v e r, th e rc' a r e co n s tr a ints on this type of deletion. First,
I(oss ' coo rciLn ate s tru ct ur e co n s traint (Ro s s 1967) app1ies. No
"" ,,,) pllr c) sl' NJ>i C: ln IJl' de l e Lc d wL t h i n a co njun c tion of NPs. Thus
i 11 (1, ) , L IIV S (I" I" ( 'l' () I \v11 i (' 11 i s ('3) .
'l. Si '1',,, ,,,, NI' 1 11 : ,," I)() I , ", (\ ": 1 r I , j'l z(' ('!v) I sa r hol
NI s
i i
92 Modern Mongolian 93 Comp1ex sentences

4. *Toom.yn nar bolood üz.sen sar bol gazar. yg gerel bari.] 9. NP.
Tom-gen sun a nd see-pf vn moon SM land- acc illuminate-impf
baj. na. ~
be- pres
*'The moon, which Tom saw and the sun, is illuminating the
~. NP,
earth. '
One further constraint applies, name1y Ross' left-branch condi-
Yet another question is whether the NPj dominating the relative
tion. Consider the sentence in (10):
clause S may.be embedded, or whether it must be in the out er
10. Toom gürn.ij xaan . y xüüxen düü.g janagla.na.
clause. Not only can it be embedded (as in (5)), but it can be
What happens when this is embedded in an NP j next to, say, güren?
embedded in yet another relative c1ause (as in (6)). ., .. The result is, as we might expect, fine:
5. Dendev bol Luvsan.y amrag xüüxen.ijg öndör nuruutaJ baJ . x . ~JO
11. Toom . yn tüi!mij xüüxen düü"g n' janagla . san ter xaan.y
Dendev SM Luvsan- gen be10ved girl-acc ta11 be- inf-acc
Tom-gen his younger sister-acc his love-pf vn that king-
ix gajxa . v. güren ...
very wonder-past
gen realm
'That the girl that Luvsan loves is tall surprised Dendev. '
'The realm of that khan whose younger sister Tom loved
(Binnick 39: 92)
(Binnick 40:98)
6. Dendev bo l tey' pi vo uu. J baj. gaa xün. ij g j anag la. san
But with xaan or xüüxen duu the result is bad:
Dendev SM the beer drink-impf-be impf vn person-ace become
12. *Toomyn gürnij xüüxen düüg janaglax xaan bol .. .
xüüxen.d jari.v.
13. *Toomyn gürnijg xaany janaglax xüüxen düüg bol .. .
be1oved-pf vn gir1-dat speak-past
Notice that in the central NP of (10) (structure in (14)) NPs 1
'Dendev ta1ked to the girl who loves that man who is drink-
and 4 are the right branches respective1y of NPO and NP3. Thus we
ing beer.' (Binnick 39:93)
wou1d predict that neither can de1ete. However, NP6 is a 1eft-
However, cases like (7) are excluded. As can be seen in the under-
branch, as in NP3 (and NPo) , and can de1ete.
1ying source, (8), the lower copy of NPi is within a configuration
14. NP
like (9). To 'identify' the two NPi's, we must look across the
NP' dominating S2. This violates Ross' comp1ex noun phrase const-
~2
ratnt, and we right1y predict the ungrammat icality of (7).
7. *Bat ter uu.J baj . gaa xün.d jari.v pivo bol ... ~
NP 3 GEN
~N
N
Bata that drink-impf be-impf vn person-dat speak-past
beer SM ~
Ä

------
*'Beer which Bata spoke to the man who was drinking ... ' NP 4
8. NP
O NF'6 GEN J
~
~
W N
jl 1 I I
gürn ij xaan y xüüxen düüg
J v 270. Note that research has shown that the co-referential NPs
need not be in adjacent simplexes. In these examples they are two
sentence-l evels apart, for example :
1. Dendev . ijn üz.sen geJ xüse.J baj.x ter ~~n.ijg bid üz.sen.
Dendev-gen see-pf vn geJ want-impf be-inf the person-ace
we see-p f vn
'We saw th e man Dendev wanted to see.' (R 74.16)
2. Cerel . ?~ ,in Dendev üz . sen geJ ,Tel . sen ter xün.ijg bid bas
Dc r e l- gcn Dc nd ev s ec-pE vn <JeJ say-pf vn the person-ace
u ;: . [; (5. 71 .
w · ;l l so .·(·v- I'I vn
94 Modern Mongolian 95 Complex sentenees

'We sm., also the man Gerel said Dendev had seen.' (R 74.17) 1. Muur.aar xöö.gde .J baj.x xulgana t er buslag. yg ide.J
3. Dendev. ijn üze . J cada . x .güj t er xün. ijg bid üz.s en. eat-instr ehase-passive-impf be-inf rat the eheese-aee
Dendev-gen see-impf ean-inf-not th e person-ac e we see-pf vn baj.na.
'We saw the p e rson Dendev was unable to see . ' (R 74.18) eat-impf be-pres
'The rat whieh the eat is ehasing is eating the eheese.'
271. As in all ar e a s of Mongolian syntax, far more questions are (R 213.21)
rais e d by what littl e work has been done than have been answered. 2. Ter xulgana ide.J baj.x bus lag bol sar öngö.tej.
To give just one example , in all other language s with this type of the rat eat-impf be-inf eheese SM yellow eolour-eom
r e lative elause strueturing there is a elos e eonneetion between 'The eheese whieh the rat is eating is yellow.' (R 217.22)
topiealization, foeus, a nd relativization (s ee partieularly the 3. Muur.aar xöö.gde .J baj.san xulgan.y ide.J baj.san buslag
Ta g a shi ra and J. l1eCawl ey papers in CWH). The faet that nothing eat-!nstr ehase-passive-impf be-pf vn rat-gen eat-impf be-
o f the sort has been identified in Mongolian suggests not that bol sar öngö.tej.
sueh phenomena do not oe e ur, but rather that insuffi eient work pf vn eheese SM yellow eolour-eom
has b e en done to id e ntif y them. 'The eheese whieh the rat that the eat ehased ate is yellow.'
Ce rtain typologieal r emarks may be made about the r e lative (R 217.23)
e lauses of SOV and e sp e eia lly Altaie languages. As Gr e enberg noted,
Alt a ie relative elauses preeede the head nomina l. In general, rela- 271e. The relative elause formation rule is:
tive elauses in any languag e are on the non-d i sta ff side of their REL-CLS-FORM (Obligatory)
he a d nominal (that is, pr e eeding in SOV aad f ollowi ng in non-SOV SD: S [X S [Y - NP. - ZJ AJ
languages). It has be e n argu e d that non-predieative adjeetives o i l
Si So
d e riv e from full relativ e elauses via relative-el a use-reduetion. SI: 1 2 3 4 5
Sinee Mongolian adjeetiv e s, like English ones, pree e de their noun SC: 1 2 4 5
it is elear that English grammar eontains a rul e of modifier shift Conditions: Si is dominated by an NP whieh also dominates a
whieh is laeking i n Mongolian. The faet that adj eetives in both eopy of NP i
languages preeede th e ir nouns is a kind of aeeident. Note that NPi, if not = subjeet of Si, eauses GEN to be Chomsky-
The various adjeetiv a l modifiers mentioned above i n seetion 1.2 adjoined to the subjeet NP.
have as their souree relativ e e lauses, ther e fore.
3.333 Negative extraction
27la . More examples of n ' in relative elauses:
---1-. Minij deeguur n ' ni se .J öngör.sön ger bol 272. When a sentenee undergoes negative nominalization (see 3.34)
my over its fly-impf pass-pf vn house SM any negatiorr within itis extraeted and attaehed to the verbal no-
'The house whieh I flew over ... ' (R 112.27) minal:
Noti c e in (1,2) that a postposition attaehed to an identieal NP l. Ter ülger unsisangüj. 'He didn't read stories.' (R 147.8a)
is, unlike a ease-ending , not deleted; howe v er , th e NP is replaeed 2. Ter ülger unsisan bajsangüj.
by n ' . 'He hadn't read stories.' (R 147.8b)
2. Minij xasuugar n ' güjJ öngör sön ger bol ... 3. Ci end suuJ bajxgüj juu? ryou don't live here.' (R 198.2)
'The house along whieh Iran .. . ' (R 112.29) Roughly then:
3. erool n ' s ileer xijsen ongoc NEGEX (Obligatory)
'a glass-bottomed boat' (R l22.19a) SD: Sex Neg V vne J where vne is a verbal nominal ending
S
4. üs n ' urt muur 'a long-haired eat' (R l 2 2.20a) SI: 1 2 3 4
ha ir its 10ng e a t
SC: 1 3 4#güj (# Chomsky-adjunetion)
5. xetevc n' xooson bolson ter xün
'the man with a !} empty \va ll e t' (R 1 22 .2 la ) 3. 334 BAJTR
6. Deever de er n ' savar . taj baj . x neg te.Y'8(] . '/: ,j (J b-i üze . v.
roof on its mud- eom b e - inf one ea r - aee T see- past
2 73. A f orm oE th e v e rb bajx ean b e optionally deleted if the
'I saw a e ar wi th mud o n its roof .' ( R 2 I n. l n)
l e nse is e l car . Th is wo uld pr i n e ipa lly b e tru e in the present
le n s e .
27 lb. Fu rt h e r exn mpl ~s :
 97 Complex sentences
96 Modern Mongolian

1. Bi mede . x.güj. 'I don't know.'

1. Onöödr.ijn xiceel juu.ny tuxaj [bajnaJ?
I know-inf-not
today-gen lesson what-gen about is
2. Bi jav.san.güj. 'I didn't go.'
'What is today's lesson about? ' (Street 209)
I go-pf vn-not
2. Ter aJil.d.aa jav.san [bajnaJ.
he work-dat-RP go-pf vn is
278. For the colloquial language at least, the rule of negative
'He has gone to work.' (Street 155)
nominalization probably i nvolves merely changing an ending. Al-
3. Bi doloo. toj [bajnaJ.
though such examples as (1) do exist we shall not worry about them.
I seven-com am
1. Bi medexgüj bajna. (R)
'I am seven . ' (Street 156)
NE GNOM (precedes NEGEX)
4 . Ene minij xajag [bajnaJ.
this my address is SD: S e x - Neg - V - [pres] J
Past ; S
'This is my address . ' (Street 156)
SI: 1 2 3 4
SC: 123
274. After a verbal nominal (273 . 2) deletion in the colloquial
language is virtually obligatory (see Street 155) . In other cases
it is optional, but in the colloquial language bajna is regularly
3.4 Subjects
retained only when contrastive, as for example when tense is es-
pec i ally involved . Also, bajna can only be deleted after a nomi-
3.41 Sub j ect case
nal or adjectival complement. It cannot be deleted after a conver-
baI or other preverb:
279. The subject of an underlying S can, on the surface, either
1. *Dendev tuuJ biciJ [bajna deleted by gapping J
not appear at all, appear as a possessive pronoun, a possessive-
xarin Ger el tuuJ unsiJ bajna. reflexive ending, or appear in the nominative, accusative, or ge-
'Dendev is writing, but Gerel is reading a story . ' (R l8.59 B
nitive cases. Determining the factors which enter into th e s e l e c-
tion of the form of the subject is a complicated and controv e r sia l
275. Clearly the source of postpositional phrases premodifying
subject. Although it is one of the most researched areas of Mongo-
a nominal (see Street 209) is a reduced relative clause which has
lian syntax, we must still agree with Street that a defin i tiv e
undergone BAJTR (truncation o f a form of bajx):
solution requires further research. However, a first approximation
1. tüünij daraa [bajxJ ödör 'the day (which is) after that'
i s possible. The articles by Bauwe and Orchin were particula rly
(Street 209)
useful sources in the preparation of this section.
Here it is bajx i tself which is deleted .
280 . We shall now discuss the case where the subject of the em-
276 . Roughly:
bedded clause is not equal to that of the outer clause.
BAJTR
baj - YJ
SD: S 281. A converbal takes an accusative subject when it is serving
SI: 2 3
a s a gerund and its predicate is intransitive .
SC:
1. Tan.yg ire.xleer xamt kino.d ar.no.
Conditions: (a) baj + Y is sentence-final
you-acc come-succ together movies-dat go out-pres
(b) Y is a predictable tense ending
'We'll go together to the movies when you come.'
(c) baj is preceded by nominal or ad j ectival compl e -
(Orchin 327)
ment
2. Cam.ajg ir . seer manaj aJil sajJir.san.
you come-a bt our work improve-pf vn
3. 34 Negative nominalization
'Whe n you cam e , our work improved; since you've come, our
wo r k h as i mp rov e d . ' (Orchin 327)
277. In the colloquial lang uage a f i n it e v e r b is rar e ly negated.
/-lo we ve r 4- Bauwe c i t es a n examp le with a genitive:
What usually happens i s that a pr esen t t en se tur n s into t h e infi-
3. C?:n . ?:j ire . xleer bi . jav. na .
nitival VN and the n ega tion is extracted ( sec 3 . 333 ). Si lll _Lla rly
you- gen CO lll e -S ll CC 1 go- pres
the past tens e b ecom es - s en . Th u s :
' Whc n yo u COIlI V 1 s ll , ill go .' (BG lI we 516 )
98 Modern Mongolian
282. When a gerundial converbal has a transitive predicate the
subject is in the nominative-indefinite form:
1. Don Koxot üün.i jg xar. aad ...
don Quixote this-acc see-pf
'When Don Quixote had seen this (FL 83.4)
However, the nominative seems to occur also with the intransitive
predicate:
2. Margaas tenger ce l embel ...
tomorrow sky clear-cond
'If tomorrow the sky should be clear (Orchin 321)
283. When a converbal is below an auxiliary, the superficial
subject is in the nominative; this is a consequence of the dele-
tion of the 10wer identical subject.
284. When a verbal nominal is serving as a relative clause, the
subject will be deleted if the head NP is identical to it. How-
ever, if it is not identical, and some other NP has been deleted,
it will be retained and go into the genitive case, regardless of
the character of the predicate (which will in fact be transitive):
1. Ax.yn bic.sen zaxi.a bi av.san.
older brother-gen write-pf vn letter-RP I get-pf vn
'I got the letter which brother wrote.' (Kas'janenko 25)
2. Tedni j xij. sen aJ l . yg üz . l ee .
their (they-gen) do-pf vn work-acc see-wit
'(I) saw the work they did.' (Kas'janenko 25)
285. A nominative may ap pea r, however, if the subject is inde-
finite. Only with adefinite subject does the genitive appear.
Thus compare (from Bauwe 515):
1. xün jav.san z am 'the road someone took'
person go-pf-vn road
2. ene xün.ij j av. san zam 'the road which this person took'
286. Just as the conve rba1 with an auxiliary has a nominative
subject on the surface, so does a VN und er a copula; again, the
underlying subject of the VN has been deleted. In no other case
does a VN have even a superficial nominative subject.
287. One exception is an apparent nominative in e xamples such
as these, where one might expect genitive or accusative:
1 . Ei ir.sn.e es xojs ... 'After I came ... ' (R 205.41)
Eid nüüs.ijg xür.xe .d ... 'On our arrival (R 220.40)
(Note that bid nüüsijg is a Chakhar form.)
288. I suspect that furth e r r e s e arch will s how tha t th ese a r e
again ca ses of adel e t e d und er l y ing s ubj ec t.
99 Complex sentences
289. A verbal nominal with some case ending in an object or ad-
verbial function can take either a genitive or accusative subject.
Bauwe stresses that a genitive can only appear when the VN has
lost its verbal character and become purely nominal. Her discus-
sion seems unclear to me, but perhaps what is meant is that nomi-
nalized Ss take genitival subjects, whereas VNs which do not have
purely nominal functions do not.
290. With an intransitive predicate, an object VN may have either
a genitive subject (1) or an accusative (2).
1. Ax. yn xel . sn . ijg M mart. aa. güj .
older brother-gen say-pf vn-acc I forget-impf vn-not
'I haven't forgot what brother said.' (Orchin 321)
2. Tan. yg end s uu. dg . i jg bid xün . ees sons . son .
you-acc here live-freq-acc we person-abl hear-pf vn
'We heard from someone that you lived here.' (Orchin 322)
Once again, as in (1), a nominalization takes a genitival subject.
291. It remains for the future to determine whether examples
like the VN in 290.1 have a special underlying structure which
marks them as true nominalizations, or whether there are contex-
tual cues which trigger the genitival subject.
292. An indirec t question with genitival subject confirms the
use of the genitive with nominalized S:
1. Minij mar' xaasaa jav.sn . yg mede . v üü ?
my horse where go-pf vn-acc know-past Q
'Did (you) know where my horse had gone ?' (Orchin 325)
293. Orchin cites several pairs of alternatives. Both genitiva l
a nd accusative subjects can occur; they diff e r in meaning and
f unction onV.
1. (a) Cinij xele .x. i jg xüleeje.
(b) Camaj g ... (Orchin 325)
294. A similar set of facts obtains with adverbial cased VNs:
1. Namajg ir. sn . ees xojs ... 'After I came'
me(acc) come-pf vn-abl after (R 205.41)
2 95. In ac cord with what was said above, wh e n the VN serves as
a p redicate nomina l, the subject is always genitival:
1. Ene bol cinij xel .deg. 'This is what you said.'
this SM your s ay-fr e q (Bauwe 515)
2. Ene bol bidnij üz . deg . 'This is our view.' (Bauwe 515)
th is SM o u r see- f r e q
2 96 . In a ppos lti o n to a n a bs t r ac t no un s u c h as ucir 'r e ason,'
100 Modern Mongolian 101 Complex sentences

ünen 'truth,' etc., the subject of the VN is in the nominative. 301. A direct discourse may be turned into an indirect discourse.
CL 110.4. (Short discussions are found in Bauwe 516, KhGr 113; extensive
discussions are found in Rag~aa 139-41 and Orchin 330-6, especially
297. Generally (and informa11y), the rule of Subject Case Ad- 334-6.)
justment is:
SCA (Obligatory) 302. Any direct discourse which is a sentence can be changed
SD: [ (NP.) X S [NP]. - into an indirect discourse. The only change generally involves
So l 1 the subject of this sentence, and any nominal in the higher sen-
SC: Assuming NPi i NPj: tence which is equivalent to it . The predicate usually undergoes
(a) if Sl is a relative clause, NPj ==~GEN by RCF (which no change . (See paragraphs 304,309.)
precedes SCA);
(b) if there is no NPi (i.e. Si is a gerundial, 303. Generally, the subject of the lower S take on the accusa-
(i) if Vk is transitive, NPj does not change, tive case:
(ii) if Vk is intransitive, NPj optiona11y ==~accusa­ 1. (a) Cend nad.aas "Ax xödöö jav.san uu?" geJ asuu.v.
tive; Tsend me(abl) older brot her country go-pf vn Q geJ
(c) if Sl is in an NP, structurally speaking it can ==~ ask-past
GEN or ACC. (b) Cend nadaas axyg xödöö javsan uu geJ asuuv.
'Cend asked me whether brother went to the country.'
298. The rule Chomsky-adjoins the appropriate case ending to (Rag~aa 140)
the subject: Quota tion marks, if any, are deleted.
NPj ==~NP[NPj + caseJNP
304 . If the discourse lacks a specified subject, it must be sup-
299 . Thus, starting with a tree such as (2) for sentence (1), plled from the context (Orchin 336-7):
we derive via SCA diagram (3). 1. (a) Darga "surguul' tögs.mögc nutag.t.aa, oei.J axilla"
1. Minij ire.xe.d, Luvsan bajarl. laa. director school finish-cont home-dat-RP, go in-impf
'At my arrival, Luvsan was pleased.' gesen.
2 S 3. So pass-imp say-pf vn
~
NP. ~
~VP
NP
'The director said, "When school is done, go horne.'"
(b) Darga namajg (me-ace) surguulia (RP) tögsmögc
l / ________ i 1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
nutagtaa oeiJ axilla gesen. (Orchin 336)
NP V NP
~ ~ 305. On the other hand, if there is an outer indirect object
NP DAT NP DAT
I I an d the lower subject is co-referential to it, this subject is

~ ~~
del eted by EQUI:
1. (a) Bags bidn.ees "Ta nar xiceel.ee sajn davt . san uu? "
NP . VP NP VP teacher we-abl you PL lesson-RP weil prepare-pf vn Q
] I ~ I geJ asuu.v.
Ik Nfj Gr Ik (b)
geJ ask-past
Bags bidnees xieeelee sajn davtsan uu? geJ asuuv.
Luvsan bi 1.-rex d bajarlla Luvsan min ij irex 'Teacher asked us if we had prepared our lesson weil. '
(Rag~aa 139)
3.42 Indirect discourse
306. The ind irec t object may or may not then become a direct ob-
300. Direct discourse is report e d using th e verb gex ' say, ' "I('ct . I n 30 5 . 1 i t h as n o t changed , but cL (1).
usually in the form of geJ or gesen wi th a v e rb 0 f sayi n g s u c h 1111
1. (21) Bi DorJi . d " (;7: mar'gaas xural . d suu. gaaraj" geJ xele.v.
xelex or a verb of thinking s u c h as bodo.T . Anyt h ing can occ u r :r Do rji - ddt Y0 tl tOlllo rr o w meeti n g-dat be-prescript geJ
within such a quotat io n, ge.T ac t i n g pr e tty Illu c h ~I S iJ v e rba] quOl 1i SdY - P:lst
tionmark, a1 thoug h u s u a1ly a s tiJtclll c n L ()I- C01l111l:ln d i s so co n L:1 I il l' d ,
( I) II( /!(il './(.i ~! (; I("t) 1I/I !I':!({r/:: IJ:III 'lIld :;II.II~larr.m.i (J e:; xe lev .
102 Modern Mongolian 103 Comp1ex sentences

'I told Dorji to att end the counci l the next day.' (a') if NPj is not third person, NPk ==~ 0
(Ragcaa 139) and NPj ==~accusative
See too Orchin 336, Ragcaa 140. (b') if NPj is third, NPk may de1ete and NPj == ~
accusative, or (if NPj is not accusative) NPk
307. When a lower subject is co-referential with an outer in- ==~accusative i n third person;
direct object, i t might not b e deleted if the 10 is a third per- (ii) and ~ any NP , NP = = ~accusative.
son and the subject second. In this case the subject becomes a j k
third person pronoun referring back to the 10, and i n the accusa- 311. Again, the rule of IQF Choms ky-adjoins such a case form to
tive case. Cf. 306. 1 above. its NP. Thus in example 303 .1; see (1,2).
1. (a) Ax Bata. d fICi zaa. val oe. ooroj " ge] xel. ev. 1. ~SO
older brother Bata-dat you indicate-cond go in-prescript
ge] say-past NP VP
(b) Ax Batad tüünijg ( acc ) zaava l oeooroj ge] xelev. I -------'-"'"-=====-=----
:~l
'Brother told Bata he should go in if he wanted (?) V
to. ' (Rag;aa 140) N?iBL
1

I . NP~, VP \ ~,
1' 1 \
308. When the lower subject equals the higher subject a first
person pronoun is replaced by öörijgöö 'oneself': Cen d b ' aas ax xo"dö'" Javsan uu geJ
~
1 /
0 asuuv
1. (a) Bags "Bi ir. ne" ge] xel. eed gara . v.
2. So
teacher I come-pres geJ say-pf go out-past
(b) Bags öörijgöö irne ge ] xeleed garav .
NP
-~V~P~-=~
'Teacher said he was coming and went out.'
If there is an 10, however, it may simply be deleted:
(Rag;aa 140)
- - - - - -=====-=-----
NP NP V

~ ~
2. (a) Aav biden.d "Birwm.yn san.d oe . loo süü" ge] xel .sen.
NP ABL S
father we-dat I book-gen collection-dat go in-wit part

(b)
geJ say-pf vn
Aav bidend nomyn sand oeloo süü ge ] xelsen. N~~
'Fathertold us he was going to the library.'
(Ragcaa 140) l NPl7c~
I ygI xo..d....
Cendb~, aas ax , "
00 Javsan uu geJ asuuv
A thorough study should eventually be mad e of ambiguity of refe-
In other cases a featur e chang e is invo1ved.
rence and its consequences for deletability.
3.43 Passives
309. A possessive referring to the first person changes (cf.
paragraph 304) to a reflexive-possessive:
312. Mongo1ian has a productive morphological device for forming
1. (a) Aav bidn .ees "Minij deel xaa baj.na?" ge] asuu.san.
passive verbs, the suffix - gd-:
(b) Aav bidn . ees deel. ee xaa baj.na ge] asuu.san 1. Ene siree Mongol.d xij.gde . v.
fath er us-abl coat-RP where be-pres ge] ask-pf vn
this table Mongolia-dat make-p ass-past
'Father asked us where his coat was.' (cL Orchin 336)
'This !;ab1e was made in Mongolia.' (R 53.44)
2. Deeremc cagdaa . d buuda. gda .v.
310. The rule (informally stated):
band it po1ice-dat shoot-pass-past
IQF (Optional)
SD: [NP, - NP, S [NP - XJ ge - YJ S 'The b andit was shot by the police.' (R 54.50)
So l J 1
k S1 ° 313 . The semantic object, a s in 312.1, appears as the subject;
SC: (a) when NP is first person ==. öörijgöö
k Lhe semantic s ubject, as i n 312.2 , appears genera11y in the dative
(b) when NP is second person, Vilse .
k
(i) and = NP"
J 3 LL" Appil,-entJ y in mod e rn Mongo l ia n t hc pass i ve is r es tri c t ed
104 Modern Mongolian 105 Complex sentences

to transit ive verbs and semantic objects. While ögöx 'give' can 1. S
be passivized (1), only i ts semantic object (1), not its indirect
object (2), can appear as th e superficial subject. (See paragraph
331. )
------------
NP VP

-----------
NP V
1. Ene nom minij nöxör.öös nad ögö.gdö.v.
this book my friend-abl me (dat) give-pass-past
I V~NS
~ I I I
'This book was given to me by my friend.' (R 53.47) cagdaa deeremc buuda gda v
2. *Bi ene nomyg minij nöxöröös ögögdöv. The rule exchanges the two NPs and Chomsky-adjoins the dative to
the old subject NP, yielding diagram (2) as the derived structure.
315. Examples are found with instrumental (1,2) or ablative 2. S
(314.1) of the semantic subjec t. At present I have no clear ex-
---------------
NP VP

------------
planation of these examples.
1. Ter avg.aar.aa xamJi.gd.san. NP V
he uncle-instr-RP help-pass-pf vn
'He was helped by his uncle.' (R 54.54)
I
------------
NP DAT
I
~ V
~ I
PASS
I
TNS
I
2. Ene siree Luvsan.gaar xij.gd.ev. deeremc cagdaa deeremc buuda gda V
this table Luvsan-instr do-pass-past
'This table was made by Luvsan. ' (R 53.43) 3.44 Causatives

316. Following our analysis of causatives we might treat passive
as-a-t ransformation, triggered by a passive predicate dominating
an embedded sentence. There are, however, two possible analyses
of, say, 312.2; see diagrams (1,2).
1.
318. Mongolian has a productive morphological device for form-
ing causative verbs, th e suffix -üüZ-:
1. bajguuZax 'establish' from bajx 'to be'
2. irüüZex 'cause to come' from irex 'corne'

~
NP
NP
DAT
-----------------
S

--------------v
S
VP
Some verbs have an older, semi-productive suffix _g_:
3. boZgox 'make' from boZox 'to become'
4. gargax 'cause (to happen)' from gar ax 'happen'
There a~e certain other forms as weIl:
---------------VP
NP PASSA TNS 5. sataax 'burn' (transitive) from satax 'burn' (intransitive )
6. möxööx ' annihilate' fr om moxox 'perish'

I
---------------
NP VP

J"TNS
7. suuZgax 'seat' from suux 'sit'

----------
~ I I 319. There is a systematic relationship between the complements
cagdaa d cagdaa deeremc buuda pres gda V and objects which can be taken by a causative verb and those which
2. S can be taken by its underlying root verb. In general they are
precisely the same.
S
_______________ VP
I

r
NP VP V 320. Similarly, the primary object of a causa tive verb is equi-
--------------- ~ s valent to the subject of its root verb, and there are accordingly

T ~ ).rs PAr
cagdaa deer emc buuda pres gda V
the same co-occurrence restrietions holding between the two. For
e xample, any thing which can happen can b e caused to happen.

321. The main types of causatives ar e:

Diagram (1) does not derive a convincing derived structur e and re-
quires th e us e of EQUI. Nor is diagram (2) convincing.
317. Accordingly, I propose the following as a first approxima-
tion, pending further study:
~) of Vinl: bajguuZax 'establish'; no secondary object, some
complements: 'as X.'
(b) of Vinla: ürgeZ J ZüüZex 'extend ' ; no secondary objects,
so me co rnpl eme nts of extent : 'to X,' 'as f ar as X.'
106 Modern Mongolian
(c) of V' 2: these take the same complements as the root verbs.
ln ~ d b'
(d) of Vin3a: bajarjuulax 'enrich'; no secon ary 0 Ject or
complements (?)
(e) of Vin3b: examples must be quite rare. Primary object is
always plural.
(f) of Vin3c: examples must be rare.
(g) of Vcopl: bolgox 'make.' This can take a complement which
is adjectival or nominal:
1. Xuvcas ugaa.x gazar xuvcas xunar.yg cagaan bol.go.v.
cloth clean-inf place cloth clothing-acc white become-
caus - past
'The cleaner whitened the clothes . ' (R 58 .1)
(h) of AUX: caduulax 'enable.' If these occur, they would take
a sentential complement.
(i) of COP: if these occur, they would have a sentential comp-
lernent.
(j) of transitives: These take whatever objects and complements
the root transitive takes. Thus avcirüülev 'caused to bring '
has a secondary object:
2. Bi Gerel. eel neg nom aveir. üüle. v.
O
I Gerel-instr one book bring-caus-past
'I had Gerel bring me a book.' (R 25.18)
Bicüülsen 'caused to write' takes a secondary object and
a complemen t :
3. Bags GereZ. ijg duuda. J, sambar deer üseg bic. üül. sen.
teacher Gerel-acc call-impf, blackboard on letter write-
caus-past
'The teacher called Gerel and had her write on the black-
board. ' (Aus tin 14)
322. We conclude therefore that certain syntactic properties of
causative verbs are predictable on the basis of what their root
verb is, and need not be separately referred to. Indeed, since
-üiil- is productive, we need not list most causatives in the lexi-
con at all, as their semantic and syntactic properties are with
f ew exceptions predictable from those of their root verbs.
323. There are two ways of effecting this: we could simply note
t hat a verb with a causative suffix has all the properties of t he
roo t verb, but takes an object equivalent to the root subject.
However, there is an alternative treatment.
324. With a root which is intransitive, the semantic subject of
the root verb generally appears as an object of the causative verb,
in the accusative or indefinite case:
1. Bi Gerel.ijg jav.uulc .v. 'I sent Gerel.' (R 25.17)
I Gerel-acc go-cau s -past
107 Complex sentences
2. Boroo nogoo urg.uul.dag. 'The rain lets the grass grow.'
rain grass grow-caus-freq (R 26.23)
3. Ter erüül mend.ee sajn bol . go.v.
he health health-RP good become-caus-past
'He improved his health.' (R 58.3)
325. With a transitive verb, however, the semantic object of
the root verb remains - the subject becomes an instrumental, not
an object.
1. = 321. 2
2. Gerel Dendev.eer Naran.d nom.yg ög.üüle.v.
Gerel Dendev-instr Naran-dat book-acc give-caus-past
'Gerel had Dendev give Naran the book.' (R 27.25a)
326. There is a discussion of the Mongolian causative in the
context of a universal theory of causatives in Comrie. Comrie
writes (p.3) '[In a causative sentenceJ the surface exponency of
the embedded subject [i.e. the realization of the subject of the
root verb - RB] •.. dep ends on the syntactic arguments of the em-
bedded verb: if it has no direct object, then the embedded subject
appears as direct object; if it has a direct object, then the em-
bedded subject appears as an indirect object; if i t has bot h ... ,
then the embedded subject appears as one of the other oblique
cases ... More generally, if we order these four syntact ic pos i -
tions as follows:
subject - direct object - indirect object - other obliqu e c a s e
then we find that the embedded subject is shifted from left to
right along this list, to the leftmost position that is not al-
ready occupied. '
327. Examples of accusative or dative of the underlying subject
wiilian object can be found, but Mongolian seems to prefer to mov e
fur ther along Comrie's hierarchy to the instrumental case.
328. Evidence that a transformational, not a morphological,
solution to the causative analysis is preferable, is forthcoming
a s well from a study of adverbs. Consider:
1. Bat sönö ime . 'Bata will come at night.'
Embedded:
2. Gerel Bat.yg sönö ir.üül.ne.
Gerel Bata-acc night corne-caus-pres
'Gerel has Bata come at night. '
This is not ambiguous, because the adverb fol10ws Batyg; it can
o nly modify th e root verb. In (3) the adverb can only modify the
causa tiv e v e rb, not t h e root v e rb.
3. (,'eY'(, [ (;a1/(j /lai !Fl ü ,üülnc .
(3) d Ol'S n OL p;lr"pill-;I Sl' ( 2 ). Th ese f:l c t s c an onl y be explained if
108 Modern Mongolia n 109 Complex sentences

in fa c t the underlying souree o f (2) were something like diagram 3. Odoo jaax ve? 'Now what?'
(4). This gives two plaees for adverbials to be in the underlying now do what ve/Q
strueture. CAUS- FORM (Obligatory)
4. SD: S[NP - X - CAUS - Y J S

-----------
S i
NP

--------
~
NP

I A1~
S
VP

I
VP

~
CAUS
V
TNS

I
SI:
SC:
1 2
l#a ee 2
3
3
4
4
Conditions: If NPi alr eady is followed by ace, adjoin instr.
(# = Chomsky-a djunetion.)

334. Ve oeeurs when there is an ordinary verb:

Gerel Bat sönö ir üül ne ---1. Xaana as irsen be? 'Where has he eome from?'
2. Ci juund irsengüj v e? 'Why didn't you eome?' (Street 216)
329. Aeeordingly we propose that eausative verbs are transfor-
mationally derived from struetures ineorporating embedded sentences . 335. However, with bajx and bolox v e only oecurs in truncated
sentences; cf. to 333.2,3 above:
330. Note that a passive ean be eausativized: 1. Xeden aag bol} bajna? 'What time is it?' (Street 216)
1. Ter bol Dendev .ijn Gerel.t üz.gd.üüle .v. 2. Jagaad ijm bolov? 'How did it get like this?' (Street 126)
he SM Dendev-gen Gerel-dat see-pass-ea us-past Rarely does it eo-oeeur with a eopular verb:
'He eaused Dendev to be seen by GereI. ' (R 73.l4a) 3. Nom xaa bajna (v e )? 'Where's the book?' (Street 126)
Note the order of the affixes in the derived verb. See paragraph
312 for passives. 336. The best treatment of ve is as a transform of uu and fol-
lowing this a rule which deletes it a fter the eopulas; this lat-
331. Although our informant did not aeeept (1), passivized eau- t e r rule must follow BAJTR (and is apparently optional for some
satives do oeeur, as areader has pointed out: e.g., javuulgdax speaker s) .
'to be sent' ('to be made go'), üzüülegdex 'to be shown' ('to b e VE- FORMATION
made see '), ete. G.D. San~e ev , The Modern Mongolian Language SD: Sex - ~ - Y - uu J
s
(Moseow 1963), p. 87, also mentions this. SI: 1 2 3 4
1. *Tüünij bie saj}ruulgdav . SC: 1 2 3 ve (s ee paragraph 33 7)
'His body was improved by him.' (R 72.12) VE- DELETION
332. The rule a djusting the ease of the eausative eonstruetion SD: sex -{~~i=}-
Y - v eJ
s
must be a eyelie rule. It works like this: SI: 1 2 3 4
CAUS- FORM SC: 1 2 3
SD: S[NP - X - CAUS - Y J S Condition: Y eannot eontain a verb stem
i
SC: NPi takes on the aeeus ativ e unless th ere already is one; in
whieh ease it beeomes instrumental. The ease is Chomsky- 33 7. Ther e remain some unanswered questions coneerning the rule
a djoined to the subjeet. of VE-FORMATION. How de ep ly ean the WH word be embedded in order
to stil l trigger the rule? There surely must be cases where we
3.5 Lexiaalization of aopular partiales wo uld not want any old WH word to trigg er the rule; for exampl e ,
whi le some indireet quotes with WH wo rds would be allowed, what
333. The ordinary question partiele is uu : of direet quot es?
1. Ta sajn bajna uu? 'Howare you?'
However, when a ques tion eontains a WH-word such as xen 'who ' 338 . There are other par tie les whieh oeeur in lieu of the copular
jamar 'which, what, how,' jaax 'to do what, ' juund ' why ,' and so verbs , and these a r e definite ly eopulative partieles. They eo-oecur
on, the partiele is ve , if any partiel e a t a ll oeeur s . with a eop ula only when a do ubl e eopula is indiea ted; some such
2. Tanaj ner xen be? 'Who a r e yo u?' (be i s a v a riant of ve. ) partleles arc Iii.j , lIlön , Jum ' ·i s, ' ' are ,' bilee ' was. ' There are
CO-OCe LltT Cn '(' n' s Lri 'cion s o n L lI l ' i r us c .
yo ur name who ve /Q
110 Modern Mongolian 111 Comp1ex sentenc es

339. Bij seems to replace bajna freely; there may be semantic 1. Jamar C nöxcöl alga, ... 'That's impossible
or pragmatic government of its use, however. Bilee seems to re- such part possibi1ity not-is (L 19.02)
place bajv . ALGA-FORMATION (Optional)
1. Tijm bij. 'I see.' (FL 350.13) SD: SCX - Neg - bajna - YJ
thus is
s
SI: 1 2 3 4
2. 1859 on.y tav.dugaar sar.yn xorin.d bilee. SC: 1 alga
1859 year-gen 5-th month-gen 20-dat was Conditions: bajna is understood existenti a11y
'It was May the 20th, 1859.' (FL 340.1)
BIJ-FORMATION (Optional) 344. Yet another partic1e is biz; Zebek glosses it as 'wohl'
SD: X - baJ' - ~presJ
past
('certain1y'). Street writes (129) that it 'expresses the speaker's
fee ling that a statement is most 1ike1y true.' Like mön, biz
SI: 1 2 3 sometimes resemb1es a copular partic1e because it occurs with
bi j 1 truncated sentences:
sc: 1 [ bileeJ
1. Ter ir.sen biz . 'He must have come.' (Street 212)
But it co-occurs with copu1ar particles:
340. Mön occurs principa11y after a nominal comp1ement, and has 2. Camd em bij biz. 'You do have a mother.'
an equative force. you-dat mother be biz (L 13.13)
1. Xjatad.yn Kommunist Nam bol büx xjatad.yn ard tümn.ijg 3. Ajas.aas.aa l bol.no biz dee.
China-gen Communist Party SM all China-gen peop1e mass-acc situation- abl-RP part be-pres biz part
udirda.x gol nuruu mön. 'It all depends.' (FL 349.17)
1ead-inf main core is No tice that biz occurs outside (to the right of) the predicate
'The Chinese Communist Party is the core of leadership of phrase.
the who1e Chinese p eop 1e .' (Mao 2.2)
But mön can occur with bajna or other copu1ar particles: 344a . The ru1es mentioned above are unordered relative to one
2. Mön biz? 'Isn't that it ?' (?) (L 15.19) a nother, and mutua1ly exclusive. According1y they are probably
3. Ted ein' benedikt. ijn bülgem .ijn lam nar mön bajna. subcases of some postcyclic ru1e.
they yours Benedictine monastery-gen monk PL mön are
'Those are Benedictine friars.' (FL 84.26)
It seems like1y, then, that mön is an adverbial element and not
a predicative copula itse1f.

341. Jum occurs after a nominal or adjectival comp1ement. There

are~bviously constraints on its use, but these are not known at
present. It is not possib1e to specify a rule of JUM-FORMATION
beyond something like the rule in paragraph 339.

342. When bajna is negated, and the negation is understood to

point to an alternative (contrary, not contradictory), superfici-
a1ly it appears to abso~b the negation and become bis:
1. Ene minij nom bis. 'This isn't my book [ but someone e1se'sJ.'
this my book not (Street 16])
Again, however, it seems 1ike1y that bis, 1ike mön, is actua1ly
an adverbial. Like mön, it can in fact co-occur with a copula:
2. Zügeer e bis bajn.aa: 'That's not the right way!'
in direction part not is-intensive (L 18.10)

343. When bajna is u seä existentia11y, and is n ega t e d, it can

be replaced by alga:

4.
Pronominalization
4.1 Deictic
345. Mongo1ian has these personal pronouns (KhGr 71):
1st sg. - bi
2nd sg. fami1iar - ci
2nd sg. formal - ta
1st pl. - bid
2nd p1. fami1iar - ta(nar)
2nd p1. formal - ta
Mongo1ian distinguishes inc1usive and exc1usive in the first plu-
ral, except in the nominative - the root biden is inc1usive, whi1e
that in man is exc1usive.
346. For the third person, the demonstrative ene 'this' and ter
'that' and their plurals, ed and ted, are used.
347. The main interrogative pronouns are (KhGr 73): xen 'who';
xear'who' (plural - rare); jamar 'what kind'; juu 'what'; al'
'which'; etc.
348. Exp1icit indefinite pronouns do not occur, being rep1aced
by words 1ike jum 'thing,' xereg 'thing,' xün 'person,' and so on,
and the WH-pronouns mentioned above.
349. Directiona1, temporal, and other deictic words exist: 'here'
enar,-'there' tend, 'such' ijm, 'thus' tijm. The distinction between
the i-/e- fami1y of terms and the ti-/te- fami1y runs through a
who1e set of forms (such as ingex, tegex); cf. the 1ndo-european
distinction between the 'near' and 'far' corre1atives (cf. Eng1ish
here-there).
350. 'Now' is odoo; there is no special term for 'then.'
4.2 Anaphoric
4.21 Deletion
113 Pronomina1ization
351. Arepetition of a subject or obj ec t is generally not a1-
10wed; the anaphoric term is simp1y de1eted. Thus with the sub-
ject of a conjoined sentence (1) or the object in one (2); simi-
1ar1y withthe subject in a gerundia1 c1ause (3), or the object
in the same (4):
1. Gereli üüden.d zogso.], (*teri) bid nar.yg xülee.sen.
Gere1 door-dat stand-impf she we PL-acc await-pf vn
'Standing at the door, Gere1 awaited us.' (R 31.37)
2. Gerel max . ygi ava.J, (*tüünijgi) id.sen.
Gere1 meat-acc take-impf, it(acc) ea t-pf vn
'Ger e1 took the meat and ate it.' (R 31.38)
3. Dendev suu.gaad neg nom unsi.v.
Dendev sit-pf one book read-past
'Dendev sat and read a book.' (R 93.21a)
4. Bi ter nom.yg av.aad (*tüünijg) üz.ev.
I the book-acc take-pf it(acc) see-past
'I took the book and read it.' (R 94.2ge)
The object will be retained, however, if the reference is not in
the same sentence; simi1ar1y the subject. Cf.:
s.Ter nadad tüünijg jaa.J xij.x.ijg xel.J ögö.v.
he me(dat) it(acc) do how-impf do-inf-acc tell-impf give-
past
'He to1d me how to do it.' (Bk 51.1)
Note that the object can be deep1~ embedded:
6. Luvsan angli xel.ijg jari.j cad.na, bi bas jari.J cad.na.
Luvsan Eng1ish 1anguage-acc speak-impf can-pres, I too
speak-impf can-pres
'Luvsan can speak Eng1ish, and so can I.'
(R 47.22c; cf. 221.2)
352. The antecedent subject or object must not be 10wer than
the anaphor, however. 1f it is, forwards pronomina1ization, with
the anaphor fo110wing the antecedent, is not a110wed, that is, no
deletion is permitted:
1. Namajgi end or.J ire.xe.d, (!bii) ta nar.yg üz.sen.güj.
me(acc) here come-inf-dat, I you PL-acc see-pf vn-not
'When I came in, I didn't see you.' (R 143.31)
1 f bi is de1eted, the subject of the second c1ause is not c1ear1y
and unam~iguous1y understood. Simi1ar1y in (2,3) be10w. Cf. 353.1.
2. B'l- Dendev . yni süx.eer (!tüünij%)ono.v.
I Dendev-gen ax-instr him(acc) hit-past
'I hit Dendev with his hammer.' (R 88.45)
3. Dendev nad.taj jari.ad, bas nam.ajg cogo.v.
Dend ev me-com speak-pf, also me-acc hit-past
'Dendev s poke to me and hit me.' (R 94.33e)
111 (2), if t üürl'ijg we rc omLtt e cl, no particu1ar object wou1d be
ul1d e r s tood.
 115 Pronomina1ization
114 Modern Mongolian

353. A genitival is pronominalized with a personal pronoun : (b) Gen - N - case

1. Bi IDendev.ijn süx.eer tüünij terg.ijg} ono.v. 2. Sambuu.gyn.taj 'along with Sambuu's' (Street 187)
\Dendev.ijn terg.ijg tüünij sUX.eer Sambuu-gen-com
I Dendev-gen ax-instr/car-acc his car-acc/ax-instr hit-past (c) VN - N - Qpost
'I hit Dendev's car with his ax.' (R 88.44) 3. ir . deg bolgon 'everyone who comes regularly'
2. Bi Dendev.ijg tüünij süx.eer ono.v. (Street 187)
I Dendev-acc his ax-instr hit past
'I hit Dendev with his ax.' (R 88.45) 359. The rule:
l'l·-DELRTE (Optional)
354. Pronouns in adverbials cannot be deleted:
1. Süzanj Joon.di uurl.san ucir bol teri Marüaj.d tüünijj SD: S [ [djlj - N - case}
Susan John-dat get mad-pf vn reason SM he Mary-dat her NP { poss
tuxaj xudal xel.sen baj.]ee. ge
about lie tell--pf vn be-pret
'The reason Susan got mad at John was tha t he told lies to .VN . DAT}
1: 1.
Mary about her (= Susan).' (Bk 70.le) {
COM

355. Indirect objects are generally not deletable:

1. Namajgi baga. d, ter nadadi neg nom ögö. v. i Qpost i
Me(acc) small-dat, he me(dat) one book give-past SI: 1 2 3
'Hhen I was small, he gave me a book.' (R 205.40) SC: 1 3
Conditions: see above
356. Anaphoric pronominalization of whatever type can never run
backwards in Mongolian; the anaphor can never precede the antece- 4.23 Possessives
dent.
360. Hhen the possessor is not referentially equivale nt to th c
357 . The rule: subject of the simplex sentence, that is, when it is not it s a n-
tecedent or anaphor, it appears as a genitiva1 form of thc a ppr o-
ANAPHOR-PRO
NP. - ZJ priate pronoun or demonstrative:
SD: Sex NP i - Y - s
J 1. Minij nom.yg ög! 'Give me my book!' (R 88.1g e )
SI: 1 2 3 4 5 my book-acc give-imp
SC: 1 2 3 5 2. Bi cinij nom.yg unsi.san. 'I read your book.' (R 88.17f)
Condi tions: (a) Delete NPj if and only if I your book-acc read-pf vn
(i) NPi is subject or object, 3. = 353.1
(ii) NPi is not lower than NPj'
(iii) NPj is a subject or object 361. The rule is a subcase of that in paragraph 357.
(b) If and only if any of these conditions are not
met, pronominalize NPj with personal or demon- 362. Under certain conditions a possessive pronoun may be shifted
strative pronouns. to the end of the nominal. Thus:
(c) NPi is co-referential and identical to NPj. 1. [minij moriJ oos ==~mori . oos.min' ' from my horse'
4.22 Noun-deletion 363. The forms of the pronouns when so shifted are somewhat re-
d uced: minij becomes min'; cinij becomes ein'; manaj becomes man'
358. In certain environments a noun may be deleted. It may be (rare ); and tanaj becomes tan' . The third person is represented
so only if it will be understood from the context, that is, that hy n '.
it is i n some sense anaphoric . Examples: 1. lJuu . gaa ,x:ur aa, Snnco naj z min'.
(a) Adjl - N - cas e /posses sive : s o und - RI' s top - lmp, Sa nc ho fr"i. e nd my
1. Bi bag.yg av. "j a . 'I want thc s ma 11 on e .' ( Stree t 184) '11 c qui <ct, fr i c nd S:ln c ll o .' (F'183.J.2)
116 Modern Mongo1ian 117 Pronomina li zation

2. Tanij naada.x ein juu ve? simplex as the subject; it can be lower:
your p1ay-inf your what ve/Q 1. Gereli Dendev.eer nüür gar.aai ugaa.guuZ.san.
'What are you playing with?' (FL 351.17) Gere1 Dendev-instr face hand-RP wash-caus-pf vn
3. Taslagan.y n' too.g asuu.san. 'Gerel had Dendev wash her hands and face.' (R 32.44)
room-gen his number-acc ask-pf vn
'(I) asked th e number of his room.' (Street 234(3).1) 370. A genitiva1 subject can shift:
1. Buu genete.d dugara.x . aa boli.v.
364. Street notes (234-5) that in some cases it is hard to see gun sudden-dat fire-inf-RP cease-past
any pos s essive sense to the ending. Research is c1early needed 'The gun suddenly eeased its firing.' (Binnick 19.29)
into the syntax and semantics of such constructions. 2. Bat java .x.aa mart.Jee. 'Bata forgot his leaving.'
Bata go-inf-RP forget-pret (Binnick 31.66a)
365. A pronominal subject in the genitive can undergo this ru1e
as we11. Thus all transformationa1 rules deriving genitival sub- 371. The ru1e :
jects prec ede possessive shift. REFL-POSS (Obligatory)
SD: S[NP. - X - [NP. - GEN - YJ - ZJ
1. NP J NP S
366. SI: 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Dajn.aas ödör bür aj. saar baj.x ein' dajn degde .xe.d SC: 1 2 5 RP 6
war-abI day every fear-abt be-inf your war happen-inf-dat
Conditions: NPi and NPj are referentia11y equiva1ent.
xür.vel jamar asig baj.x bilee? This rule must foliowall rules deriving genitival subjects.
reach-cond what use-be-inf was
'If you are afraid of war every day, what will you do if
372. A RP may optionally, under unknown pragmatic conditions,
war actua11y comes?' (Mao 70.3) be replaced by öör- '(one's) own.'
1. Gerel nüür gar.aa öör.ijn savan.gaar ugaa.san. (R 32. 45)
367. The shift rule: Gerel face hand-RP own-gen soap-instr wash-pf vn
POSS- SHIFT (Optional) 'Gerel washed her hands and face with her own soap.'
SD: Sex NP [ Pro gen - YJ NP - 2. Bi öör.ijn.x.öö nom.yg av.aad, unsi.san .
SI; 1 2 3 I own-gen-x'-RP book-ace take-pf read-pf vn
SC: 1 3 2 'Having taken my own book, I read it.' (R 94.31e)
Condition: Pro not equiva1ent to simplex subject 3. Bi Dendev.d Ci öör . ijn . x.öön nom.yg uns geJ xeZ e .v.
gen I Dendev-dat you own-g en-x'-RP book read-imp quote say-past
4.24 Reflexive-possessives 'I told Dendev to read his own book.' (R 95 .35aii)
4. Bi nom.oo unsi.J baj.na, ta öör.ijn.x.öön.yg unsi . araj .
368. When the subject is equiva1ent to the possessor, the pos- I book-RP read-imp f be-pres, you own-gen-x'-RP-acc read-
sessive pronoun appears as a reflexive-possessive ending after prescript
the nominal: 'I am reading my book, you read your own . ' (R 183.22)
1. Bi {*minij nomyg} un'iJi. san. 'I read {my} book.' (R 88 .17 ,) 5. Toom öör.ijn.x.öö eudal.güj gedeg .ijg xülee .J axa.x.güj
your
nomoo Tom own-gen-x'-RP ability-not say(freq)-acc await-impf
Cinij nomyg} baj.na.
{ ! nomoo take-inf-not be-pres
2. {Mini j norrryg } ög! 'Give me {my } book! ' (R 88.1ge) 'Tom refus es to admit his own incompetence.' (Bk 79.3)
your 6. Joon öör . ijn . x.öö xij . sen xool.yg ide.] üz.x.ees ix aj.]
! Nomoo
*Cini j nomyg} John own-gen-x'-RP do-pf vn food - acc eat-impf try-inf-abl
{ Nomoo baj . v .
3. Dendev nüür gar . aa ugaa . san . v e ry f car-impf be- past
Dendev face hand-RP wash-pf vn 'Jo hn was afra id to try hi s OWH cooking.' (Bk 79.6)
'Dendev washed his hands emd f ace .' Not e t h c p,l' l1i tiv:t .l s lIhj c(' L lInl (' ,- I Y [l1 g (6).

369. Note that th e p osscsscd oh jcct I1 C'C U not 1)(' in t l, (' S : 'ITI C '3 7'} . /ii,~ ' «> 'h ";:) ::\ , 11 ' "( ' (' ("' :: WIIl'II 111 ,' n hj ('c l i s co- r c rcrc ntia l
118 Modern Mongo1ian
to the subj ect: ... ... ....
1. Süzan Joon.yg neg beleg bie.d.ee ava. J ög geJ guaJ.Jee.
Susan John-acc a gift se1f-dat-RP take-impf give-imp quote
ask-pret
'Susan asked John to buy her a present.' ... (Bk 70.2a)
2. Süzan Joon.yg bie.ijg.ee xajral geJ guaj.Jee.
Susan John-acc se1f-acc-RP love saying ask-pret
'Susan asked John to 1ike her.' (Bk 70.2 g)
3. Süzan Joon.yg büü bie.ijn.x.ee zurag.yg Marüaj.d üz.üül
Susan John-acc not se1f-gen-x'-RP picture-acc Mary-dat
guaj.Jee.
see-caus-imp ask-pret
'Susan asked John not to show her (= Susan) picture to
Mary.' (Bk 70.2i)
374. Ru1es cannot as yet be specified for these construc tions.
4.3 Special cases
4. 31 Neg and n'
375. When a possessive is used in the case of 'of them,' it
ob1igatori1y undergoes POSS-SHIFT (q.v.). Thus:
1. Neg [nom] n' tend bajna. 'One (book) of them is there.'
(Street 184)
2. Ene xoer züjl bol uul xereg . ijn ug canar, gol tal n' bolno .
these two thing SM root thing-gen root qua1ity, main side
the are
'These two points are the essence of the matter, the main
current.' (Mao 31.1)
3. Ene zurgaan salguur.yn dotr.oos xamg.yn cuxal n' socialist
this six criterion-gen inside-abI all-gen important the
zam ba nam.yn udirdlaga mön bol .no.
socia1ist way and party-gen leadership same because-pres
'Of the six criteria, the most important are the socia1ist
path and the leadership of the party.' (Mao 51.2)
376. In such cases the noun has been de1eted. It is often de-
1eted after a quantifying term 1ike neg or zarim 'sorne' (1). Thi '
looks 1ike pronomina1ization, then, but it is not.
1. minij arvan alim.y zarim n' 'some of my ten app1es'
my ten app1e-gen some the (R 132.19)
2. Al ' negen.ijg n' ta id.s en? 'Which one d id you ea t?'
which one-acc th e you eat-pf vn (R 185.34)
377. In some cases n' co-occurs with a po ssess Lve , not n eces -
sari1y in the third per so n, a nel secms to s rv c ;]S <l elctcLIllLnc r
meaning 'the (ones )' :
119 Pronomina1ization
L Minij ix xajY'cau end baj . x. güj, minig baga neg. ijg n'
.. •••• ?
uze.v uu.
my big box here b e -inf-not, my sma11 one-acc the see-past Q
'My big bo x isn't he r e , have you seen my sma11 one?'
(R 183.28)
2. Sireen deer baj . x nom . yn negen n' Dendev . ijn baj.na .
tab1e on be-inf book-gen one the Dendev-gen be-pres
'One of the books on the tab1e is Dendev's.' (R 128.45)
3 • ..• Xjatad . yn Kommunist Nam n ' ...
'the Communist Party of China' (Mao 3.5)
4. Ardyn ardcilsan di ktatur n' ...
'The peop1e's democratic dictatorship ... ' (Mao 43.1)
378. In some cases the noun has no genitiva1 modifier and
mere1y serves as adeterminer:
1. Xen n' manaj dajsan be? 'Who are our enemies? ' (Mao 12.3)
2. Ene xoer üz el n' ... 'These two views ... ' (Mao 52.1)
3 . ... i jmerxüü bajdal n' ... 'a deve10pment o f this kind'
(Mao 58. 2)
379. This is also true with VNs. See Street 228.2.
380. More examp1es of various phenomena wi th neg:
Ca) GEN neg n':
1. Tednüüs.ijn negen n' zuraac baj. na.
them- gen [a Chakhar form ] one the painter is
'One of them is a painter. ' (R 174 .8)
(b) neg n':
2. Al ' negen.ijg n' ta idsen?
which one-acc th e you eat-pf vn
'Which one did you eat?' (R 185.34)
(c) GEN neg:
3. Tednüüs.ijn negen C ene masin. yg örgö.J {~ada.x. g~t .}
cad. san. gUJ
them-gen one part this car-a cc lift-impf can-inf-notj
can-pf vn-not
'Not one of them cou1d lift the car.' (R 188.45)
(d) neg:
4. Bi tanaj malgaj.taj adil neg.ijg üze.v.
I your hat-com 1ike one-acc see-past
'I saw one 1ike your hat.' (cf. R 183.23)
1 . 32 X '
381. A noun moelifLe el by a gen itiva1 anel with no postmodifier may
be pr o norn i n:1I i zl' d hy :r; ' i f i t i s unel crs tooel in context, e. g. re-
p e: l L e cl:
I. 20. '2
120 Modern Mongolian 121 Pronomina1ization

382. With peopl e, a plural takes -n (- xin) if following a pro- 2. Bi Mongol xel.ijg xel.] cada.x. güj, gevc Idamjav cad.na.
noun (1) but becomes -xan after nouns (2): I Mongoi 1anguage-acc speak-impf can-inf- not, but Yidamjab
1. Manaj.xin möd ir . ne. can- pres
'Our peop1e will come soon.' (Stree t 188) 'I can't speak Mongolian, but Yidamjab can.' (Bk 60.12)
2. Ulaanbaatar xot.yn . xn.y bajar baxarxal
Ulan Bator city-gen-x'-gen joy pride 388. It cannot be deleted with a copu1ar auxiliary, however.
'The prid e and joy of the inhabitants of Ulan Bator' 1. Tijm, (*unsi.J) baj.na. 'Yes, I'm reading.' (R 24.l0g)
(Street 189) 2. Ter Mongol . d jav.x.yg xüse.] baj .na, bi bas (*xüse.]) baj.na.
he Mongo1ia-dat go-inf-acc want-impf be-pres, I also want-
383. Further examples: impf be-pr es
1. Ter öör.öön xarandaa baj . gaad bas biden . ij.x.ijg xüse.J 'He wants to go to Mongo1ia, as do I.' (R 47.24d)
he own-RP pencil be-pf also our-gen-x'-acc want-impf be-
baj. na. 389. The ru1e:
pres S-DEL (Optional)
'He has his own eencil, but he also wants ours.' (R 174.11 ) SD: [X - S. - Y - S. - Z J where Si' Sj are identica1
S 1 J S
2. Ter minij .x.ijg c av.san! 'He even took mine!' (R 188.47) SI: 1 2 3 4 5
he my-x '-ace part take-pf vn SC: 1 2 3 5
Note: Conditions: S. not und er NP and is followed by a copu1a.
3. Bi nom. oo unsi.J baj.na, ta oor.'&Jn.x.oon.'&Jg unsi.araj. J
I book-RP read-impf be-pres you own-gen-x'-acc read- 390. Ijm, tijm pronomina1ize Ss. The details are as yet unknown.
prescript
'I'm reading my book, you read yours.' (R 183.22) 391. Tegex , ingex pronominalize Ss as well. Again, there is no
goo d analysis at present.
384. The rule:
X'- PRO (Obligatory) 392. Although mön seems at times to replace a sentence, or NP,
SD: [X [ gen - N - caseJ - YJ it probab1y simp1y has an adverbial function, meaning roughly 'in
S NP NP S
SI: 1 2 3 4 5 the same way' :
SC: 1 2 x' 4 5 1. Toom Sijatal.d dur.taj, bi mön dur .taj.
(if human plural, xin or xan.) Tom Seatt1e-dat desire-com, I same desire-com
'Tom likes Seattle and so do I.' (Bk 54.1)
4. 4 Sentence pronominalization
385. When a verbal noun is repeated, it may be deleted:
1. Toom max id .sen.güj, Joon bas ügüj .
Tom meat eat-pf vn-not, John also not
'Tom hasn't eaten meat, nor has John.' (Bk 76.14)

386. This is true even if the VN is cased:

1. Luvsan gadaa gar.x . aar üze.v, bi bas üze.v.
Luvsan outside go out-inf-instr try-past, I also try-past
'Luvsan tried to go outside, as did I.' (R 48.26)

387. With a non-copular auxi1iary, a r e peated converbal can be

de1e t e d:
1. Ter tüünijg xij .] cada . x . güj ba,j . na, bi baD cada . x . güj .
he it(acc) do-impf ca n-inf-not bc-prcs , J a l so ca n- i nf-not
'He can't do it, nor ca n T.' (R L,7.23)
 123 Sentence-leve1 ru1es

2. Minij unsi. 3 öngör. sön olon nom.uud ixenx' n' end baj.na .
my read- impf comple t e -pf vn many book-PL g r ea t e r part of
5. them h e re be-pres
'Most of the books whi ch I read are here .' (R 186.39)
Sentence-Ievel rules 3. Masin . yg zasa.x . aar ir . sen xün, t üünij bag3.uud end bajna .
car-acc fix-inf-instr come-pf vn person, his tool-PL her e
are
'The man who came to fix the car, his tools are here.'
(R 187.4 3 )
4. Grek bolood Turk xoer uls . yn j ar al . taj beltge .sen xural
Greek a nd Turk two nation hast e -com conve n e -pf vn meeting
bol, tüünij exeel sine bajldaan degd.sen . ij ucir.aa
SM, its beginning n ew battle occur-pf vn-g e n reason-RP(?)
393. There ar e just three transformationa1 ru1es in Mongo1ian xojslo.v.
which operate on the sentence l evel. They are all b e 1 ieved to be delay-past
pos t- cyc1ic. 'The s t a rt of the meeting hastily a rranged by the Gre eks
and the Turks was d e 1 aye d by th e new battl e .' (R 187.44b)
394. In questions, a subj ec t may, in th e spoken 1a n guage, be
mov e d over th e predicate and any question partic1e. This is very 39 7. This displacement r u1 e is used infrequently i n the language.
co11oq uia1: There is to o little dat a at present t o a ttempt to formu1ate the
1 . Nom . yg üz e .J baj . na uu, ta? ru1e.
book-acc see-impf be-pres Q, y ou
'You're reading the bo ok?' (R 1.1, R 2.1e) 398 . Ellipsi s is an al1-pervading for ce in th e spoken Mongolian
Tha t this is not mere1y a vocative is shown by (2): 1anguage. At present, how ever , nothin g can be said concerning
2. Xaa baj.na ter Dugaa ein'? e 11ipsis.
where b e - pres that Dugaa your
'Where is tha t Dugaa of yours?' (Or1ovskaja 373) 399 . However, it is clear that the ru1e is semantica11y or prag-
matica lly governed. Much more study is r e quired b efo r e any thing
395 . The ru1 e: use ful can be said.
RIGHT- MOVE CO~ ptiona1)
[NP - XJ
SD: S. S.
J J
SI: 1 2
SC: 2 1
Condition: S. is a yes-no ques tion
J
396 . When a nominal phrase wou1d be extr e mely l ong it is extra c -
ted and moved t o the left. A pronoun is inse rted i n i ts p1ace.
Thus:
1. eingis xaan barag büx er t ene.ijg zaxir.san, t üünij(?) süür .
Genghiz emperor (~han ) a lmost all world-a cc conquer-p~ vn,
ijg ögödöj zalgamj la . san av . san ter bol mark polo .yn ~x . ee
his thron e ügedej succeed-pf vn take-pf vn the SM Marco
z ütge.J baj . san xuvlaj . yn avag eeeg bol.no .
Polo-gen great -int ensifier(?) s e rve -impf b e-pf vn Kubi1ai
uncl e fath e r become -pr es
' Gen ghi z Kha n, wh o almos t c onque r e d th e world, was suc-
cee d e d by th e emp c r o r Ogcd c j, wil o w~ s th e un c ] c o f that
KubL:l iJ L 1< 11 ,111 wh o m M"c cc) 1'010 sc rv e d. ' (1\ 1 66 . 9 /, )
 125 Summary of rules

(Adjlmet) NP + met,
6. (A:djl , )
x
Adjl + x ' ,
(Adjl )
Summary of rules eom
(Adjl .. ,)
NP eom '
Np + güj ,
gUJ
(AdjlN eg ) Adjl + Neg,
(Adjlt) N+ t,
(Adjl~, ) NP + sig,
Slg

(57)
6.1 Phrase-structure rules
401. The following eategories are either lexical or as yet haveno t
400. The phrase-strueture rules are (paragraphs are in paren- been formalized by a phrase-strueture rule: Tns, Q, Neg, Adv,
theses) : Pos t, Compl, Prevb , Qpost, N, V, Dem, Intens, No, X, Adj, NP m,
S = NP + VP (6) Adjm ·
VP (Advbl) MV (Neg) Tns (78)
MV = (NP ) (Compl) (Prevb) V (81) 6 . 2 Transformations
ace
Advbl = (Adv) (Advl, ) (Advl) ... (Advl) (133)
tlme 402. The study of Mong01ian transforma tional grammar i8 too in-
Advl = { NP , PP} (133) choa te to al10w formalization as transforma tions of a large numbe r
ease
PP = NP + Post (57) of grammatiea1 phenomena. The following rules have received some
ease ease treatment he r e : RIGHT- MOVE (395), S-DEL (389), X' - PRO (384), RP
NP { NP PL ' (371), POSS- SHIFT (367), N-DEL (359), ANAPHOR-PRO (357), ALGA
(343), BIJ (339), VE-FORM (336), VE- DEL (336), CAUS (332), IQF
N, (24,33)
NP + NP, (32) (310), SCA ( 29 7), NEGNOM (278), BAJTR (276), NEGEX (272), RCF
(2 71 c) , EQUI (266), GAPPING (158a), CONJ-RED (158a).
NP + N, (15, 32)
NP + Q (15)
post' 403 . Most of the cyclic rules can be partia11y ordered with
(NP ) Adjl +NP , (32f) (NP 1 is a ny NP exeept NP - 34 respeet to each other. In diagram 1, ru1 es which can be so ordered
A A 1 D
are connect ed by lines.
(NP No) Adj I No +NP 2 , (33) NP " NP - 35
2 D,No,X 1. RCF
(NP )
Q
Ad j l +NP ,
Q 3
(33) NP
3 " NP Q,D - 36 SCA
(NP G) NP +NP , (33) NP " NP - 37
gen 4 4 x NE GNOM
(NP )
D Dem+NP 5' (33) NP
5 " NP D, X - 38 NEGEX
(NP )
X X + NP 6' (33) NP
6 " NPD,Q,X - 40 RP
öör + NP ,
7
(41) NP
7 " NP
N,X,No
- 41 \pOSS-SHIFT
ganc + NP }
8
(42) NP
8 " NP
N,No,G
- 42) EQUI
NP = NP + PL ~14 )
PL TIle nominalizatlon of cla uses se t s up th e conditions in part for
Adjl = {Adj, ( 5 7) SCA (s ee 271 c , 29 7); Rcr Rnd SCA bot h pr eee de HP ( 371) sinee this
({Int ens~) Ad' rul e i s se ns i t i ve to t l,e' prcsc ncc "r : 1 C I~N e nding , ",hi e h co uld de-
( Ad J' l A) Advl' J, I"i ve fro m ' I t ll c'r nl l l', As NI,: r:Nm1 ( nB ) r v(' ds in to N I ~ CI':X (272 ) th ey
(AdjlNo) No (Pos t ), .'Ir l' in t l" in s l (': llI y () rd" I""cI; I{C I! : tl ,; ,) ('I"l'.'I l (':; 1': 11" 1 or t ll <:' st n lc lu ra l
Q
(Ad jl ) Q,
Q
(Adi l ) NI' I Ad\,
111 111 11 1
126 Modern Mongo1ian

description of NEGEX sentences. RP must fo110w NEGEX to assure

that the RP ending will fo110w - güj. RP must precede POSS-SHIFT Index of Mongolian forms
to assure the derivation in cases such as 370.2. RP must precede
EQUI (266) to assure that co-referentia1 NPs will be avai1ab1e
within Ss in cases 1ike the derivation of 265.1. RCF and SCA both
precede POSS-SHIFT, again because derived genitivals can shift
(viz. 366.1).

404. With the possib1e exceptions of CAUS and IQF there is every
reason to be1ieve that all the remaining ru1es are non-cyc1ic
(likely post-cyclic). They seem not to interact crucially with the
cyclic rules, they operate on topmost clauses (i.e. on the tree
as a who1e), and many create structures radically different from The numbers r efer to paragraphs.
those d efined by the phrase-structures rules (e.g. RIGHT-MOVE). Suffixes are entered under their commonest front voca1ic form
Given the tentative nature of the formulations of many of these (e.g. -aa will be found under - ee).
rules, it would be premature to a ttempt an ordering, but the fo1- References and discussion precede a semi-co10n; examp1es fo110w.
lowing may be noted: ALGA-FORM (343) and BIJ-FORM (339) precede The a1phabetica1 order used here is: a b e c d e e e g i j J k
BAJTR (276), since only unchanged forms of baj- can delete; and 1 mn 0 0 r s S t u Ü v x y z ' "
the VE ru1es (336) fo110w BAJTR, since, if baj- is de1eted, they
cannot app1y. VE-FORM is intrinsically ordered before VE-DEL. ajaga 28 bolbol 17,183
Very 1ike1y RIGHT-MOVE, which requir es that the question marker akad. 60 bo1g- 173;318,321,324
be uu , should follow the VE-rules. See (1). a1d- 174 bolgon 15;358
1. {ALGA-FORM a 1ga 343;65 bo10n 149
a1ivaa 40 bo100d 149;152
BIJ-FORM
a l' 347;26,30,39f,376 bögööd 148f,156,190;203,212
BAJTR amj- 174 bujuu 145,149,190
av- 174 büdg- 15,168
VE-FORM
bür 12,15;141,365
VE-DEL ba 145,149,190;109,148 büx(en) 15;45,146
baj- 175f,179,227,236,256,
RIGHT-MOVE
273ff, 335, 342 f c 12,22,182f,202;21,30,
bajguu1- 17 3 146,261,342f,383
bajta1 233 -c 68;60
barag 39,49 cad- 174;22,146,160,243,
bas 111,114;64f,146,149, 270,320
22lf,270,385f c~majg 281,293
bi d 62;12 -ein 14
bie 373;265 cinij 363;43,49,245,281,
bij <;:49, 338f; 91.344 293,295
bi1ee 338f;40,91,250f,365 ein' 19,363;14,162,340,
bi;3' 12f,54,342;19,66,92, 365,394
203,248 cuxa1 16,109
biz 344;340
bol 7,1 2,1 6f,24 1; 22 , 91, -cl (DAT) 221,312,325,355
1LI 5 ,l LI 8, 160 , 271;), 295 - w.lth VN 132,157,160,202,28 7,
- wlth jUIll h') 299, 35 2
- VN 1 B2 ; 1(, 1
w I L 11 - d ( I' 1. ) ')
110 1- 2 'dl,TI ',; I 'I, / I , :i (>,\ d : lI ll1 ~ 11 il
128 Modern Mongolian 129 Index of Mongolian rorlll: :

daraa 243;55,275 gesen 300;304 manaj 363;16,91 -s 170

dee 344 get~l 146;22 man~ 363 - sp~r 169,179,181,201,212;
deer 244 geve 146;212,387 ma:ssal 60 174,281
-deg 186,248,267;16,140, guaj 60 mas 48 - se n (VN) 186,248,267;43,92,160,
203,245,250,290,295, gurav 23 med- 13 243,244,260,270 ,2 84f,
324 gurvan 152;30,34f,37f,39 -meer 186 334
- with -güj 21,110 güj- 174 -mege 169,181; 30L, - wi th -güj 166,272,277;21,43,
-degsen 187 -güj 12f,43,54f,77,182,272; met 29,52 64,109,141,334,352
demij 48;162 3,162 metr 27,51 - sen sen 187
dor 244 minij 19,363;3,37,65 , 26 7, s urag- 28
dusal 26 -ijg 281;260 271a, 292, 299 suu- 174
duus- 174 - on VN 160,174,248,260ff, min' 19,363;3,12,26,60, -s 118
290,292 144 saxam 53
ed 346 ijm 143,349,390 mon 114,225,338,340,344, sig 55
-ee (VN) 186,198,248,267;43, -ijn 285;26,260,284 392;14,91,174,267 ;üü 308
64,71,149 - on VN 243 -ms eer 170
- with -güj 17,110,290 ilüü 53 -t 55
-ee (RP) 64,140,160,166ff,174, ing- 349,391 -n (modal) 169,171,201;14,68, tanaj 363;37
181,202,244,265,304, ir- 174,177 144,146,174,203 tan' 363
308,365 ix 48;30 -n (floating) 55f,120 ted 346;14,212
- on VN 267;260,370 najz 26,60,156 teg- 349,391
-ee- (CAUS) 318 jaa- 333;174,1 76,335 namajg 244,294,352,355 tegeed 146
-eed 144,169,176f,181f, jad- 174 nar 12,14,147;68,181,248 tegex1eer 146
201,212ff,236;64, jamar 48,333,347;40,146,365 -ne 165,267 ted 160
203 ,282 jav- 174 neg(en) 376,380;91,377 tegte1 146
-eer 184;315,325 javdal 45,63,181 -ngee 170 tegve1 146
- on VN 132,140,181,205,263 jum (N) 59,65,348;13f,43,66 -ngüüd 170 -tej 55,244;19,26,34,37,44,
jum (COP) 65,249,338,341;16,22, -nxeer 169 I 61,64,158,245,248,271b,
-ees 184;3,248,315
- on VN 243;132,140,287,294 49,71,91,110,149,168 , -nxen 169 273,358
-eesen 187 174,181,203,248 n' 7,12,16f,20,44,241, - with VN 128
end 349 jumsan 91 271a,377f;64,109,143, -tel 169,181,184,201,233,
ene 346;38 juu 347;21,181,183,272f 149,160,174f,181,267, 235;121,160,202
es 77,182;165 j~und 333;334 376 tend 349
exel- 174;167,203 -j 144,169,171f,198,201, ~
ter 38,346;30,37
212,232;4,156f,159,203 , oe- 174 ternij 162
-g- (CAUS) 318 351 odoo 350 tijm 349,390
ga 27 -j(ee) 168,267;82,110,174, olon 30,32,36 f ,38,181 tul 64,244;140
gane(xan) 39,41ff;261 370,373 or- 174;4 tun 48
gar- 174 orein 53 tuxag 243
ga~uj 53;27,30 km 27 orxi- 174
-ge 14,68,162;25,181 ög- 174,216;215,262 ueir 59,64,296; 149
-gd- 312;65,156,168,181, 1 12,22,177;66,109,143, ömnö 24 3 uu 333,336,394
221,271b,314f,330 174,203,344 öör 39,41ff;40,71,248 ügüj 21,145,385
ge- 106,146,160,259,300; -1 162 - öör neg 41 ünen 59,296;26
26,37,144 1av 49,111 öör- 372 ; 381 -ülil- 318,322;204,260,321,
geg;e 25 -lee 167,248,267;66,174, 5örij göö 108 , 1 10 32H, 32 8,330
gej 105,300;91,145,152, 284,299, 308 ii ;l.- I 7 L,
265,270,303,30 5 f -lt 162 r iiii I )'l
130 Modern Mongo1ian

166,267; 141,144,146, zaj lsgüj 16

-v
162,171,174,203f, zarim 376;29,34 General index
243,292,315,324 zereg 29
60 -züj 11
van
-vc 169,18lff,202
ve 333f,335f;16,378
-ve1 169,181ff;65,110,146,
165,203,282,307,365

-x 63,186,242,248,267;
26,43,65f,270
- with -güj 77,165,182,277f;13,
16,145f,160,167f,174, ablative (ABL) 130,243 conjoined phrases 9
24 3,248,270,272,377 a bstra ct noun 58,63 conjo ine d sent ences 180,190,193ff
- with n' 16 adjectiva1 (Adj1) 28,30,33,39f conjunction 14 3ff; juxtaposition
xaa 20 adjective (Adj) 30,46ff; as ad- 14 3; partic1 e 144ff; phrasa1
xaan 60 v erb 116; NP as adject iva1 147ff; r edu c tion 147ff; subor-
v
xacin 48 18; phrase 34,46ff dina ting 146
xagas 39 adverb: in VP 72,74,110 ff; NP connec ting word 146
-xan 382,384 as adve rbial 18,132; phrase contra st 21f
xarin 146 110ff converba1 161,213; conditions
xed 347 adverbial (Advb1) 78 fo r 235 f f; derivation 201f f;
xeden 35 agentive nomina1ization 262 ending 169ff; in coo rdination
-xee 170 ALGA-FORM 343,404 144,180
-xeer 169,181,202,234 almost 39 coordination 143ff,180,190
xen 333,347;16,21,26,30 a lso 21 copu1ar partic1e 13,91,249;
xereg 59,66,348;21,109,160 ANAPH-PRO 357 1exica1iza tion 333ff
xer egtej 22,64ff,109f,143,146 another 39 copu1ar verb 250
xerev 17;145,149 apposition in NP 15,46ff ,62 co re 10
-xesen 187 a ttributive element 12 count noun 27
xijgeed 149,156 a uxi1iary verb 94,173ff; copu- creation verb 98
-xin 382,384 1ar 17 3f f,249; des crip tive
-x1ee r 169,181;281 173ff; with converba1 212ff dative (DAT) 299
xo1!r 12,62,152;23,32,35,91 , deletion : N-de1etion 358ff; of
174,181 BAJTR 276,404 copu1a 109,244,273ff; of NP
xo11!u1aa 62 BIJ-FORM 33 9,404 20; VP-de1etion 222
xojno 244 demonstrative (Dem) 30,33,38
xojs 243;294 case ending 12,16 discourse 300
xot 61 CAUS 332,404 dis1ocation 396
-xU1 170 causative verb 98,318ff distaff branch constraint 222
xümül1s 26,29,32 c1ause 5
xün 348;12,15,26,30,109, colon 14 3 e11ipsis 398f
267,290 comitat ive (COM) 243 embedding 71,159ff,189ff,240ff
x' 12,17,20,55,381ff, common NP 60 EMPH 134ff
384;21,248,373 compa ri so n 50 emph asis 21 f,1 34ff
comp1 e ment (Co mp l) 63 , 79 FQUI 25 7ff,266,403
comp l ex s(' nL l' Il l'l' I ') <)r l , 'i! , '/I 'I
C:orn r i c , Ik l" II.' l r d 'IN, - , '( " '(' 2 1
132 Modern Mongo1ian 133 General index

EXTR 140 number (No) 28,30; phrase 30,35, shift: emphasis 134ff; in VP
extraction 140ff 53; summing 12,22 134ff; subject 394
subject 279ff; case 279ff'
floating - n 55,120 object 79,81 marker (SM) 16; partic1~ 12,
only 39 16, phrase 5,8
gapping 156ff OY' 144,146 sUIT@ing numera1 12,23,152
genitive (GEN) 37,243
gerundia1 20lff participia1 161 tense ending (Tns) 72,78
group noun 28 passive (PASS) 312ff thing 47
p1ace 48f topica1ization 397
half 39 plural (PL) 12,14,317 truncation 398f
hap101ogy 17,183 possessive pronoun 12
head 10 POSS-SHIFT 367,403 VE-DEL 336,404
postposition (POST) 115,130; VE-FORM 336,404
imperative 2 phras e (PP) 44,119ff; with verb (V) 79,81,85ff; of giving
indefinite 21 case 130f etc. 100f; phrase (V~ 5,71
indicative verb ending 161, predicate phrase 5,71 verbal nominal (VN) 44 69 161'
164ff pr eve rb (Prevb) 79,81,87,117,171, as NP 240ff; as PP 243ff' '
indirect discourse 300ff 230ff derivat i on 290ff; ending'
instrumental (INSTR) 130 pronomina liza tion 345ff; anaphoric 186ff; in cased form 128'
intensifier 48 351ff; deictic 345ff; deletion modifying 26; with copu1~
IQF 310,404 351ff; possessive 360ff; ref- 248ff; with postposition
lexive 368ff; sentence 386ff; 128f
JUM-FORM 341 shift 362ff VP: deletion 222; PSR 78
proper NP 60
main verbal (MV) 72,74,79; whose 44
copu1ar 89ff; intransitive quantifier (Q) 12,15,30; phrase WH-word 26,30,39f
84ff; transitive 97ff 30,36; postmodifier (Q ) 15,
mass noun 27f 53,358 post X'-FORM 384
measure phrase 27,51 quantity term 27f
metacoordination 157 question 394; subject shift 394
metanominal structure 10ff
modifier in NPs 12,25; nominal RCF 267,403
26ff reflexive-possessive formation
motion verb 86 140
REFL-POSS 371,403
N-DEL 359 relative c1ause 44; formation
negation (Neg) 12f,54,72,77f, 267,403; reduction 55
182; extraction 272; nomi- resu1t nomina1ization 162
na1ization 277ff RIGHT-MOVE 395,404
NEGEX 272,403 Ross, John R. 154
NEGNOM 278,403
nomina1ization 26,162; agentive S (PSR) 5
262; negative 277ff; resu1ta- SCA 247ff,403
tive 162 S-DEL 389
noun (N) 24, 60f; phrase (NP) 5, I semi- co 1on 143
7,32ff,40,43,60f,132,206 sent encc (S) 5 , 69,196
NP (PSR) 14,24,69