TWO PARTICIPLES OF THE CARIB LANGUAGE OF SURINAM, WITH THEIR NOMINAL, VERBAL, AND ADJECTIVAL PROPERTIES.

The two participles referred to in the title (one a perfective, the other aspectually unmarked) occur as complements of finite verbs, as if they were nominals. At the same time, they still betray their verbal origin by having nominal complements themselves. Also, they are used as modifiers within the Carib noun phrase, as if they were adjectives. Because these two nonfinite verbs thus share parts of their systems with nouns, with verbs, and with adjectives. [ prefer to call them by the traditional name of "participle" and to eschew the term "nominalization"--even though the latter is widely accepted (see Carlin 2004:351, Derbyshire 1985:38, Gildea 1998:123. and Meira 1999:565). This paper has a double purpose, One is purely descriptive. Cariban linguistics needs careful and detailed descriptions of the complex sentence in all of the family's languages, and I considered it my duty to do my part for Carib (Gildea [forthcoming:sec. 5]). Second, close attention to descriptive detail unavoidably forced me into a modicum of theoretical discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]