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The Turkish nominalizer -(y)Iş demonstrates a broad spectrum of functions ranging from a deverbal word-formation device that forms lexicalized nouns with concrete and abstract meanings to an inflectional marker used in nominal clauses, especially in clausal complementation. In some uses, the item conveys manner semantics. While the item itself has been variously investigated and forms an established part of any Turkish grammar description, there is still a lack of consensus on its functional and semantic properties. This article investigates the morphosyntactic functions and the semantic features of the nominalizer -(y)Iş in light of the claims in the linguistic literature on the one hand, which include manner, countable events, factive imperfective, single instance of an event, direct reference to the inner process of an action, etc., and of examples from primary sources on the other, and evaluates the findings from the perspective of grammaticalization. It will be argued that the range of functions of this item and the fact that it seems to resist any straightforward analysis result from its transition from a derivational marker to an inflectional marker with tasks including complementizer functions, a process in which manner semantics will be argued to play a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to register the principal morphological and morphosyntactic items of the Manchu language that encode modal notions and to propose a functional and semantic classification for them. The inventory of items is classified according to three functional categories which are determined by their relationship to aspect within a hierarchy of scope. The position of a given modal item in the scope hierarchy is established by testing whether it is combinable with aspect, and if so, whether the modal item operates on aspect or forms part of the operandum of aspect. The three functional modal categories, which are also mutually distinct in terms of basic semantic properties, are investigated with regard to their internal semantic design. It will be suggested that while the domain of event modality can be adequately described with received theories of modality, the other semantic classes call for alternative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]