Verbal complementation in Khmer

Abstract

This thesis presents a description of verbal complementation in Khmer. The theoretical framework used in this thesis is that of Lexical-Functional Grammar. Three major types of verbal complements and their characteristics have been investigated at length. There are two types of sentence-like (S-like) complements in Khmer: S-like complements with a complementiser and S-like complements without a complementiser. This study shows that the characteristics of S-like complements without a complementiser are similar to those of S-like complements with a complementiser, except that only S-like complements with a complementiser can be preceded by the negative or the polar question particle. The interpretations of pronouns in S-like complements with and without a complementiser are the same as that of simple sentences. There is no control relation in S-like complements either with or without a complementiser. As Khmer is a pro-drop language, an argument in S-like complements with and without a complementiser can also be unexpressed. The interpretation of an unexpressed argument in S-like complements with and without a complementiser is free as is that of normal clauses. Controlled complements in Khmer are classified into subject-controlled complements and object-controlled complements. The controller of the unexpressed complement subject is an argument in the matrix clause. Although the strings produced by a complement-taking predicate followed by a controlled complement are superficially similar to those of serial verb constructions, it can be shown that controlled complements are lexically specified by the matrix predicate whereas the verbal structures following the first verb in serial verb constructions are not. In addition to these three major types of complements, this study investigates the verb qaoy in complements. Although qaoy has many meanings and functions, this study mainly focuses on the verb ~ meaning 'to have someone d? something; to allow'. When qaoy introduces a complement, it retains characteristics of verb. However, it is proposed that the verb qaoy in complements can be classified as the predicate~ and the non-predicate~- Characteristics of the predicate~ and those of the non-predicate qaoy in complements are examined. Of all complement constructions discussed in this study, complements containing gaoy are the most interesting ones. It is shown that formalisms of Lexical-functional Grammar are well suited for analysing complement constructions in Khmer. Although a string associated with a complement containing the predicate ~ and that associated with a complement containing the non-predicate ~ look superficially similar, LFG formalisms provide different analysis for these similar strings .