- bɔ /- ba construction in Assamese: its synchrony and diachrony

This study describes a particular construction marked by - bɔ /- ba in Assamese, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Assam. - bɔ /- ba nominalizes a verb that functions as the head of the construction. The study examines two aspects of the construction: its internal and external syntax. It aims to compare the construction’s internal syntax with that of its corresponding finite clauses and of ordinary noun phrases. The comparison focuses on two aspects: (i) the means of signaling the syntactic relationship between a - bɔ marked predicate and its dependents (subjects and objects), compared to its corresponding finite predicate and its arguments; and (ii) the relationship between a noun and its dependents within a noun phrase. The comparison is carried out in three ways: by dependent marking, by head marking, and by word order. A central methodological issue in the analysis of the construction concerns its treatment as a clause in the existing Assamese literature. A comparison of its internal and external syntax with that of the corresponding finite clause shows that it cannot be analyzed as a clause. Rather, it is a nominalization that differs from its corresponding clauses both internally and externally. This reanalysis is supported by diachronic, cross-dialectal, and cross-linguistic evidence.