The Structure of Nominalization in Burmese

1. The Structure of Nominalization in Burmese How Underlying Nominals Provide Order to the Grammar

2. Ontological Nominals function as a kind of Architectural Support to Language

3. Burma 11-16th Century Written Burmese – Modern – Formal Burmese 17-20th Century Spoken Burmese – Modern – Colloquial Burmese

4. Burmese Nominals • Observation: Pervasive use of nominalization on multiple levels – word to sentence. • T-B Linguists have observed different kinds of nominalizations with odd functions across many languages (relativization/genitivization). • Nominals functioning as more than local nouns. • High frequency of affixually derived nominalizations functioning as other parts of speech — adverbs and adjectives.

5. What is nominalization? • A noun or noun-like construction • “The barbarians’ destruction of the city” • “John’s criticism of the book” • "A nominalization is a noun phrase that has a systematic correspondence with a clausal predication which includes a head noun morphologically related to a corresponding verb." • “The barbarians destroyedthe city.” • “John criticized the book.”

6. Cognitively, a Nominal is a Bounded Region

7. How is nominalization manifest in Burmese? • Compound Nouns: • ‘Television’ image-look sound-hear|kyf\rifoHjum: • [N+V]Noun + [N+V]Noun = Noun • ‘Tong’ bamboo hand pinch 0g:vufckyf • [[N+N]Noun + V]Noun • Nominalized Clauses: • ‘eating is good’ [eat + onf sany] good [V+P]Noun • ‘[his having cooked first without going to church] onf sany - caused us to have to return home twice”

8. Nominal Construction of New Vocabulary – ‘TV’ and ‘Tong’

9. Levels of Language Processing Conceptual Ontological Grammatical Semantic

10. What is Ontology? • In Philosophy: “Ontologyis the theory of objects and their ties. The unfolding of ontology provides criteria for distinguishing various types of objects (concrete and abstract, existent and non-existent, real and ideal, independent and dependent) and their ties (relations, dependences and predication)”.(Raul Corazzon 2003) • In General: “1. A science or study of being: specifically, a branch of metaphysics relating to the nature and relations of being; a particular system according to which problems of the nature of being are investigated; first philosophy”. • “2. a theory concerning the kinds of entities and specifically the kinds of abstract entities that are to be admitted to a language system."(Webster’s 3rd International Dictionary )

11. Ontology – Artificial Intelligence • An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization. • In AI: “That is, an ontology is a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the concepts and relationships that can exist for an agent or a community of agents. This definition is consistent with the usage of ontology as set-of-concept-definitions, but more general.” (Gruber 1993)

12. Formation Components

13. Form Classes – Three types Ontological Objects Conceptual Objects • Nouns • Verbs • Particles  Things Relations 

14. Juxtaposition — a normal formative processDoubles and Balanced Pairs • P + P chaining • N + N compounding • V + V compound and chaining

15. N + N  Nominal N + V  Nominal N + P  Nominal Positional Phrase Rules of Nominal Formation Grammatical Construction Ontological Construction • Compound Noun • Clause

16. Types of Nominals • Conceptual Nominal • Thing • Ontological Nominal • Form • Grammatical Nominal • Function Class • Semantic Nominal • Lexical Class

17. Ontological Nominal is not the same as Grammatical Nominal Ontological nominals (objects, concepts, or other entities) are: • abstract units that exist as linguistic entities via boundary features • perceptual and posited by the language itself • manifest by cognitive operations such as blending and conceptual integration as well as word formation processes

18. Key to Understanding Nominalization is onf sany • Nominalizes Sentences • (Sentence final particle) • Nominalizes Clauses • (Relative and Attribute Clauses) • Nominal Topicalizer Sentence Clause Word Grammatical Nominalization

19. Burmese: Head-Final Grammar • SOV • Verb final • postposition particle final • Final is the Head

20. Modifier + Head Configuration • Asymmetrical Relations of Figure and Ground Ground + Figure Absolutive vs. Figure + Ground Transitive • Modifier + Head • N + N • N + V • N/V + P • V + V

21. Sentence final Marker (Realis) onf sany

22. Nominalized Clause (Relative) onfsany

23. Topic Marker onf sany

24. Nominal Template – Formal Burmese (realis)

25. Nominal Template – Formal Burmese (irrealis)

26. Nominal Template – Colloquial Burmese (realis)

27. Nominal Template – Colloquial Burmese (irrealis)

28. Application of the Rules of Ontological Formation • N+N  N • N+V  N • N/V +P  N ND15

29. Formation Process

30. WORD EXPRESSION SENTENCE Simple and Complex Words, Phrases, Nominalized Clauses Clause or Particle Phrase Sentence, Section, Text Ontological Constructions Three Types

31. Ontological Form Rules

32. Ontological WORD One sentence Part 1

33. Ontological WORD One sentence Part 2

34. Ontological WORD One sentence Part 3

35. Ontological SENTENCE (Text) Structure • Structural Overview of one Expository Text • Topical Sections of Text - onf sany marked

36. Expository Text – Ground- Figure Relations [ Ground Figure ][ Ground Figure ] [ Ground ][ Figure ] [ Ground ][Figure]

37. Ontological SENTENCE (Text) Particle u ka. Agent/Source marks Sections of Text • Structure of a Narrative Text

38. Narrative Headedness Figure-Ground Relations Reverse of Expository Text Ground - Figure Relations

39. Particle uka. Sentence 1 

40.       Narrative Action Line and Offline – distribution of u ka.

41. Ontological NominalizationThe Structure of Abstract Objects that form: • Word • Expressions • Sentences (N+N) (V+V) (N+V) (N + P) (Word with Observer)

42. Advantages to Ontological Analysis versus only Grammatical or Semantic • Consistent and simple method of analysis that describes the organization of Word to Text, with same conceptual processes and rules of formation. • Separates Ontological from Semantic and Grammatical and leaves those differences for different constraints. • Explains predominance of nominals and why they are used as major constituents.

43. Further Advantages • Recognizes Burmese pattern preference for Doublets, Juxtapositioning, Balanced sets. • Recognizes Headedness and the way this is manifest in information structure via Ground – Figure gestalt.

44. Further Advantages • Recognizes the role of the Observer in • The Sentence and Text • The nature of nominals themselves • Provides the base forms for word constituency relations in complex units. • Analysis recognizes cultural values • balance and harmony • distance of the observer from the phenomena; Buddhist detachment

45. Burmese Proverb t|Sif \rifh. u^efwifh a-hrang mrang. kwyan tang. master high slave comely As the master’s position is exalted, the servant’s conduct becomes decorous.

46. THE BEGINNING Of Natural Sound

47. Practical Application

48. Burmese Primers — Demonstration of Ontological Forms used in Literacy Ontological Word

49. Literacy with WORD Level Units • Simple Words of One Syllable • Inherent Vowel and Tone, Teaching only Consonant e.g. u ka. ‘dance’ • One symbol = Burmese Syllable / Word • Juxtaposition of Balanced Set = Ontological Nominals • Simple Ontological Nominals of [N+N], • [N+ V] or [V+V]

50. KindergartenPrimerJuxtaposition,Balanced Pairs