Modern Hindi Grammar - Indian Institute of Language Studies (IILS)

4. SYNTAX

In (12a) the auxiliary verb of the embedded sentence is feminine,
therefore it cannot be co-referential with Ram. Whereas in (12), the
verb of the embedded sentence is co-referential with the verb of the
matrix sentence. Sentence (12) can be disambiguated by adding a
reflexive pronoun svayaM svayam/ Apnao Aap apne a:p ‘self’.

12b. rama nao kha (ik) maOM svayaM Apnao Aap p~ ilaK rha hUÐ.
ra:m ne kaha: (ki) m ́~ svayam/apne a:p patrlikh raha: hũ:.
Ram-erg said (that) I self letter write-prog.ms am
Ram (i) said, Im (i) writing a letter myself.

Similarly, the nominalization of an embedded sentence may also
result in a reported speech interpretation.

13. rama nao maoro/Apnao Aap p~ ilaKnao ko baaro maoM kha.
    ra:m ne mere/apne a:p patr likhne ke ba:re mẽ kaha:.
    Ram-erg my/he-refl letter write-inf-obl about said
    Ram told about my/his writing the letter.

Thus, there are no quotative markers to distinguish between direct
and indirect speech. Direct speech is preferred over indirect speech.

4.2.2.1.3. Non-finite Noun Clause

A non-finite noun clause may consist of an infinitive (or gerundive)
verb form. Infinitive gerundive forms can precede or follow the
matrix clause and are inflected for case like other types of noun
clauses. Non-finite noun clauses change the embedded verb into its
infinitival form (stem + naa na:) which lacks subject - verb agreement
and tense information. The infinitival form is like a derived noun
which can take case markers and postpositions. The oblique form of
the infinitival ends in -naa -na:. When changing finite noun clauses
into nonfinite clauses, certain morphological markers like person,
number, tense, aspectual suffixes are lost.

Finite verb Infinitival form
pZ, parh read pZ,naa parhna: to read