Left-dislocated topic in West Caucasian languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2024.311Abstract
This paper considers dislocated topics in living West Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adyghe) languages, i. e. in West Circassian, Kabardian, Abkhaz, and Abaza. Despite the fact that previous studies on morphosyntactic properties of the representatives of this language family denied the existence of dedicated topic constructions in any of them, the results of the present study allow us to assert that there are at least two grammaticalized patterns that introduce topics without integrating them into the subsequent related clause. The first construction containing simple dislocated topics either leaves them unmarked or (in West Circassian and Kabardian) marks them with the absolutive case. The second construction marks the dislocated topic or a combination of the topic with a copula with a conditional marker. These two strategies are typologically widespread and are attested in other — indigenous Caucasian and Turkic — languages of the area. However, even though both patterns under consideration can be described as left dislocation, they differ in terms of their distribution. In particular, only the construction marking the topic with a conditional suffix allows indefinite and quantified topics (which are in general unexpected in such constructions). Besides, we discuss specific constructions in which the topic expression defines the situation mentioned further (also referred to as “predicate clefts” and “predicate topicalization” in the literature). While in most cases described so far this phenomenon involves the obligatory repetition of the predicate (or its replacement with a proform in the clause), at least West Circassian does not show any requirement of this kind. The data include both examples retrieved from corpora (for West Circassian, Kabardian and Abaza) and examples obtained through elicitation.
Keywords:
information structure, West Caucasian languages, topic, situation topic, predicate topicalization
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Литература
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Arkadiev, Lander 2020 — Arkadiev P., Lander Y. The Northwest Caucasian languages. In: The Oxford handbookof languages of the Caucasus. Polinsky M. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. P. 368–446.
Arkadiev, Panova 2024 — Arkadiev P., Panova A. Independent pronouns in languages with pronominal affixes: evidence from Abaza. In: Corpus scientiae: Papers in honor of Vera I. Podlesskaya. Korotaev N., Sumbatova N. (eds). Moscow: Buki Vedi Publ., 2024. P. 30–58.
Arkadiev, Testelets 2019 — Arkadiev P., Testelets Y. Differential nominal marking in Circassian. Studies in Language. 2019, 43 (3): 715–751.
Bagirokova et al. 2022 — Bagirokova I., Lander Y., Phelan P. Number in West Circassian. In: Number in the
world’s languages. Acquaviva P., Daniel M. (eds). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. P. 261–304.
Chirikba 2003 — Chirikba V. A. Abkhaz. Muenchen: Lincom Europa, 2003.
Cinque 1990 — Cinque G. Types of Ā-dependencies. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.
Fenwick 2011 — Fenwick R. S. H. A grammar of Ubykh. Muenchen: Lincom Europa, 2011.
Forker 2020 — Forker D. Information structure in languages of the Caucasus. In: The Oxford handbook of languages of the Caucasus. Polinsky M. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. P. 973–1002.
Givón 2021a — Givón T. Syntax: An introduction. 2nd ed. Vol. I. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2021.
Givón 2021b — Givón T. Syntax: An introduction. 2nd ed. Vol. II. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2021.
Haiman 1978 — Haiman J. Conditionals are topics. Language. 1978, 54 (3): 564–589.
Hewitt 1979 — Hewitt B. G. Abkhaz. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1979.
Kabak, Schiering 2004 — Kabak B., Schiering R. A corpus study on the distribution of Turkish ise and its clitic form. Turkic Languages. 2004, 8 (2): 232–244.
Kindlein 2016 — Kindlein D. Aspects of information structure in written Kabardian narrative. Unpublished manuscript, University of Gloucestershire, 2016.
Kuteva et al. 2019 — Kuteva T., Heine B., Hong B., Long H., Rhee S., Narrog H. World lexicon of grammaticalization. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Lambrecht 1994 — Lambrecht K. Information structure and sentence form: topic, focus, and the mental representations of discourse referents. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Lander 2021 — Lander Y. Fronted topics, clefted foci and the parameter of integration into the clause. In: Problemy obshchei i vostokovednoi lingvistiki. Sochetaemost’ iazykovykh edinits i iazykovye modeli. Pamiati Z. M. Shaliapinoi (1946–2020). Panina A. S. (ed.). Moscow: Institut vostokovedeniia RAN Publ., 2021. P. 112–123.
López 2016 — López L. Dislocations and information structure. In: The Oxford handbook of information structure. Féry C., Ishihara S. (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. P. 402–421.
Maisak 2019 — Maisak T. Borrowing from an unrelated language in support of intragenetic tendencies: The case of the conditional clitic =sa in Udi. Diachronica. 2019, 36 (3). P. 337–383.
Maslova, Bernini 2006 — Maslova E., Bernini G. Sentence topics in the languages of Europe and beyond. In: Pragmatic organization of discourse in the languages of Europe. Bernini G., Schwartz M. L. (eds). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2006. P. 67–120.
Rizzi 1986 — Rizzi L. On the status of subject clitics in Romance. In: Studies in Romance linguistics. Jaeggli O., Silva-Corvalàn C. (eds). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 1986. P. 391–420.
Surányi 2016 — Surányi B. Discourse-configurationality. In: The Oxford handbook of information structure. Féry C., Ishihara S. (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. P. 422–440.
Vicente Tojo 2007 — Vicente Tojo A. L. The syntax of heads and phrases: A study of verb (phrase) fronting. Utrecht: LOT Publ., 2007.
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