SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Deverbal nominalization in Kujireray

Deverbal nouns in Kujireray are formed by prefixing an uninflected verbal stem with a noun class marker. There is not however one single noun class marker that is exclusively associated with this function – there are at least six that are attested in such forms. Almost all verbal stems may form a nominalization in the noun class marker e- which is the default noun class. A large number additionally form one in ka-, another class with a large, heterogeneous membership. A smaller but significant number may form verbal nouns in e- and one other noun class marker. Where two nominalizations exist for the same verbal stem a number of syntactic and semantic differences are observed, pertaining to a number of factors including valence and cultural saliency. The presentation aims to explore some of these.