Deconstructing categories: Finiteness in a functional-typological perspective

This paper examines the notion of finiteness in a functional-typological perspective, with particular regard to the status of finiteness and nonfiniteness as cross-constructionally and cross-linguistically relevant categories. Finiteness and nonfiniteness, as defined in functionally oriented theories of grammar, do not correspond to internally consistent classes. As the various properties that are taken as distinctive for finiteness and nonfiniteness do not combine with the same other properties from one construction to another, finiteness and nonfiniteness encompass a variety of entities that are similar with respect to some properties, but differ with respect to other properties. At the same time, however, the various properties that are regarded as distinctive for finiteness and nonfiniteness occur in predictable correlation patterns from one construction to another. The paper examines the cross-linguistic distribution of a number of such properties, such as presence vs. absence of tense, aspect, mood, and person agreement distinctions on the verb, expression of these distinctions by means of special forms not used in independent clauses, presence of nominal morphology (such as case marking or adpositions) on the verb, impossibility for the verb to take overtly expressed arguments, and coding of arguments as possessors