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.