converb

The term was coined for Khalkha Mongolian by Ramstedt (1902) and until recently, it was used mostly by specialists of Mongolic and Turkic languages to describe non-finite verbs that could be used for both coordination and subordination. Nedjalkov & Nedjalkov (1987) first adopted the term for general typological use, followed by Haspelmath & König (1995).

A converb depends syntactically on another verb form, but is not its argument. It can be an adjunct, an adverbial, but it cannot be the only predicate of a simple sentence or clausal argument. It cannot depend on predicates such as 'order' (Nedjalkov 1995: 97).

• On being elected president, he moved with his family to the capital.
• He walks the streets eating cakes.

{{fs interlinear|indent=3

|хүн инээж эхэлмэгц зүрх анхандаа хүчтэй цохилж аажмаар цохилтын хэм нэг хэвэнд ордог байна.

|hün inee-ž ehel-megc zürh anh-and-aa hüčtej cohil-ž aažmaar cohilt-yn hem neg hev-end or-dog baj-na.

|human laugh-ž begin-megc heart first-DAT-REFL.POSS strong beat-ž slowly beat-GEN rhythm one form-DAT enter-{{gcl|HAB.PTCP|participle of habit}} be-NPAST

|"As soon as a human begins to laugh, at first his heart beats strong, and slowly the rhythm of the beat assumes one (continuous) form."}}

The converb -megc denotes that as soon as the first action has been begun/completed, the second action begins. Thus, the subordinate sentence can be understood as a temporal adverbial. There is no context in which the argument structure of another verb or construction would require -megc to appear, and there is no way (possibly except for afterthought) in which a -megc-clause could come sentence-final. Thus, -megc qualifies as a converb in the general linguistic sense.

However, from the viewpoint of Mongolian philology (and quite in agreement with Nedjalkov 1995 and Johanson 1995), there is a second converb in this sentence: -ž. At its first occurrence, it is modified by the coverb ehel- ‘to begin’ and this coverb determines that the modified verb has to take the suffix. Yet, the same verbal suffix is used after the verb ‘to beat’ which ends an independent non-finite clause that temporally precedes the following clause but without modifying it in any way that would be fit for an adverbial. It would be possible for -ž to mark an adverbial:

{{fs interlinear|indent=3|

|Би … хүмүүсийн татгалзахыг тэвчиж чадахгүй гэж айж зарж эхэлсэн.

|Bi … hümüüs-ijn tatgalza-h-yg tevči-ž čada-h-güj gež aj-ž zar-ž ehel-sen.

|I {} people-GEN hesitate-FUT.PTCP-ACC bear-ž can-FUT.PTCP-NEG that fear-ž sell-ž begin-PAST

|"I started my business, at the very beginning fearing that... I wouldn’t be able to bear the hesitating of the people."}}

Such "polyfunctionality" is common. Japanese and Korean could provide similar examples, and the definition of subordination poses further problems. There are linguists who suggest that a reduction of the domain of the term converb to adverbials does not fit language reality (e.g. Slater 2003: 229).

Mostly, Uzbek converbs can be translated into English as gerunds, but the context is important as the translation has to be changed as per the former. For example, below are the two sentences including the converb {{lang|uz|turib}} from the verb stem {{lang|uz|tur-}} {{gloss|stand}}:

{{interlinear|lang=uz|indent=3

|Buni turib yozgan esangizlar.

|If you wrote it standing.}}

Alternatively, {{lang|uz|turib}} may denote the meaning of “then” i.e. consecutiveness, so the sentence in this case can be translated as “If you stood up (and) then wrote it”. But in the second example below the same converb {{lang|uz|turib}} can in no way be translated either with gerunditive or consecutive meaning:

{{interlinear|lang=uz|indent=3

|Uydan chiqmasimizdan turib ketib bo’lishibdi.

|They have gone out before we left (our) home.}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |editor-last1=Haspelmath |editor-first1=Martin |editor-last2=König |editor-first2=Ekkehard |year=1995 |title=Converbs in cross-linguistic perspective |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110884463|isbn=978-3-11-088446-3 }}
• {{cite book |last=Johanson |first=Lars |chapter=On Turkic Converb Clauses |pages=313–347 |editor-last1=Haspelmath |editor-first1=Martin |editor-last2=König |editor-first2=Ekkehard |year=1995 |title=Converbs in cross-linguistic perspective |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110884463-010|isbn=978-3-11-088446-3 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Nedjalkov |first1=Vladimir P. |last2=Nedjalkov |first2=Igor’ V. |year=1987 |chapter=On the typological characteristics of converbs |editor-first=Toomas |editor-last=Help |title=Symposium on language universals |location=Tallinn |publisher=Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR |pages=75–79 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.11401365}}
• {{cite book |last=Nedjalkov |first=Vladimir |chapter=Some Typological Parameters of Converbs |pages=97–136 |editor-last1=Haspelmath |editor-first1=Martin |editor-last2=König |editor-first2=Ekkehard |year=1995 |title=Converbs in cross-linguistic perspective |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110884463-005|isbn=978-3-11-088446-3 }}
• {{cite book |last=Ramstedt |first=Gustav John |year=1902 |title=Über die Konjugation des Khalkha-Mongolischen |location=Helsingfors |lang=de |publisher=Finnischen Litteraturgesellschaft |oclc=13921494}}
• {{cite book |last=Slater |first=Keith |year=2003 |title=A Grammar of Mangghuer: A Mongolic Language of China's Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund |location=London |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon}}
• {{cite journal |last=Ylikoski |first=Jussi |year=2003 |url=https://users.utu.fi/jumyli/wp-content/uploads/sites/1378/2022/09/defining.pdf |title=Defining non-finites: action nominals, converbs and infinitives |journal=SKY Journal of Linguistics |volume=16 |pages=185–237}}

{{refend}}

{{reflist|}}

{{lexical categories|state=collapsed}}

Category:Parts of speech