Abstract
In this paper an attempt is made to shed light on the syntax of Young Avestan participles in the perspective of recent cross-linguistic research on converbs. After a short overview on terminological issues, the reader is provided with a general survey of the functional scale of the participles in Young Avestan. The focus is then placed on the “adverbial” function, which turns out to be the dominant one in the language. Within this context, the position of adverbial participial clauses within main clauses and scope phenomena are given a closer look. The position of adverbial participles is generally free, but a preference for postposing of purpose clauses clearly exists. Both conjunct and local scope of illocutionary force operators are attested. Data on negation is sparse, but indicates a restriction on main clause operator scope. A final section discusses the syntactic status of these participles.
Sommer, Florian