The status of the non-finite OmstO morpheme in Erzya

This article approaches the +OmstO formative used in deverbal inflection from a concatenational perspective. It describes the morphological distinction between the elative-case non-finite in +Om+stO (‘to arrive’ sams => samsto; ‘to pray’ oznoms => oznomsto; ‘to go’ moĺems => moĺemste) and its counterpart the elative-case deverbal noun in +OmA+stO (‘to arrive’ sams => samosto; ‘to pray’ oznoms => oznomasto; ‘to go’ moĺems => moĺemasto). These parallel forms are then subjected to further morphological and semantic inspection: (i) compatibility with the three declination types, indefinite (zero), possessive (cross-referential adnominal person morphology) and definite (determiner) marking, and (ii) compatibility with functions attributed to the elative case of other common nouns. Finally, a tendency is discerned according to which both inflection types can be regarded as elative-case nouns distinguished by a [±PROGRESSIVE] parameter, whereby the so-called gerund is indicates a process, and the so-called deverbal noun a result.