Dual Functions of Infinitives and Gerunds in Urdu and English: A Paradigm Function Morphology Analysis

الملخص

This paper examines the role of the infinitives and gerunds of Urdu and English in the light of the theoretical concept of Paradigm Function Morphology developed by Gregory Stump to analyze the dual role of the two forms in both languages. This study aims at explaining the correlation between morphology and function of the forms, especially in cases where a form confers several different functions. An infinitive like “to read” and a gerund like “reading” can be used as a subject, direct object, complement, purpose clause or verbal noun in English. In a similar way, Urdu non-finite forms (also termed as nominal non-distinct forms) may have nominal, verbal, complement or purposive syntactic functioning, depending on the environment, especially verbal noun forms ending in -na e.g. paṛhna (to read/reading). The study follows qualitative and comparative linguistic approach in which some examples are selected from the Urdu and English/L2 to examine relationship between morphological and forms and grammatical functions. The Paradigm Function Morphology is used to explain how the grammatical function is systematically realized in the form of morphology, without assuming it as the usage of the morphology that has no basis. It is claimed that both Urdu and English display multifunctionality of nonfinite verbal forms but the multifunctionality is more explicit in English than in Urdu where it is largely dependent on context, postpositions and the syntactic context. The study will be helpful in comparative morphology, Urdu-English grammar and theoretical linguistics.