| Mongolian (Khalkha), typologically an Altaic language, has two particles described as "subject markers", bol and n'. The purpose of this study is (1) to show that "subject marker" is a misleading term to describe either bol or n', (2) to offer a more satisfactory description of the joint function of bol and n', and (3) to offer an exhaustive account of the separate functions of each particle.; Based on an examination of subjects in Mongolian, the study concludes that Mongolian is both a topic-prominent and a subject-prominent language in Li and Thompson's (1976) terms. Further, bol is found to be a topic or a contrast marker, not a subject marker.; N' is the third person form of a set of postposed possessive pronouns. Like the other postposed possessives, n' often indicates possession or association. Further, n' is found to be a non-coreferential dependent subject marker when following a dependent clause predicate. N' can also serve as a pronoun with little possessive meaning. N' is often a partitive marker, indicating one of a group of items or part of the whole. Closely associated with this partitive function is the function of n' after an adjective. An adjective followed by n' acts as a noun, with n' a nominalizer. Finally, n' may serve as an indefinite pronoun, a function that is also related to the partitive function of n'.; The separate functions of bol and n', and an examination of definiteness marking in Mongolian (personal, possessive and demonstrative pronouns, use of the accusative case marker) indicate that bol and n' are both markers of definiteness.; Data from work with a native speaker and from texts includes sentences in context as well as in isolation, for bol and n' serve pragmatic functions, keeping discourse coherent, referring to previously-mentioned or contextually given information.; For students, teachers, and translators of Mongolian, this study will be useful. For linguists this study is important because it provides specific examples of linguistic problems which cannot be solved satisfactorily with reference to single, isolated sentences (topic, contrast, anaphora), but require an extra-sentential analysis. |
