NoNact: The language does not have action nominals.

I. Verbs of perception, e.g. ’see’, ’can be seen/visible’, ’hear’, ’feel’, ’can be heard/audible, can be felt/tangible’ as subjects or objects:

(1a) jü-t-aʌ sēť-əʌ.

come-prs.ptc-3sg be.audible-prs.3sg

you can hear he is coming.’ (Csepregi 1998: 108.)

(1b) nūm torəm mən-m-am əntə wūj-əm.

upper sky go-pst.ptc-1sg neg see/know-pst.1sg

’I haven’t seen my way to the upper sky.’ (Csepregi 1998: 72.)

II. Alongside predicates meaning ’to be ready’

(2) qɔ̄t wär-m-aʌ tərəm.

house make-pst.ptc-3sg be-ready.pst.3sg

’The house has been built (the house is ready).’ (O. J. S.)

III. Next to negative predicates and in negative cluases:

(3) jowət-t-al qow-ən əntəm.

arrive-prs.ptc-3sg long-loc pred.neg

’He/she will arrive soon (his/her arrival is not far).’ (Chr 108.)

(4) mā jāstə-m-am müwə jəm-ɣə pīt-ʌ.

I speak-pst.ptc-1sg what good-tra follow-prs.3sg

’There is no use of my speaking (what good can come out of my speaking)’. (Karjalainen–Vértes 1964: 291.)

IV. Participle adjuncts of nominals

Some common nouns e.g. wär ’work, task’, tɔ̄ɣi ’place’ and  süj ’noise’ have derivational-like properties. As nominalizers, these nouns can denote actions: məntə wär ’going away, journey’, waʌtə tɔ̄ɣi ’life’, moʌəɣtə süj ’whispering’. These constructions, contrary to the examples under section I–III., can appear in any syntactic position (5)–(7).

(5) kāčəŋ məntə wär kēʌɣət-i ūʌəŋtə-ʌ-i.

all go-prs.ptc task port-abl start-prs-pass.3sg

‘All journeys start from the port.’ (Aypin 2003: 46.)

(6) ʌī-tə wär-a ārjaʌ-a!

eat-prs.ptc task-2sg pay.attention-imp.2sg

’You just eat!’ (Csepregi 2011: 20.)

(7) məŋ wūrŋi jowət-tə tɔ̄ɣi-jat jəm-at ʌāɣʌəks-əw.

we crow come-prs.ptc place-fin good-ins wait-pst.1pl

’We have been waiting for the coming of the crow so much.’ (Aypin 2003: 25.)

Although action nominals do not form a distinct category in Surgut Khanty, there are ways to express so-called “complex events”. In some syntactic constructions, the personal affixed form of participles take nominative and accusative functions, which can be interpreted as action nominals (1)–(4). Moreover, participle adjuncts alongside particular nominals can also denote “complex events”.