Focus position in SOV ~ SVO-varying languages – evidence from Enets, Nganasan, and Dolgan

It is well known that the basic word order pattern of a language is closely intertwined with the syntactic realization of argument focus constituents. SVO languages exhibit a focus position at the sentence’s right periphery, SOV languages exhibit an immediately preverbal focus position. The study at hand examines both the basic word order patterns and the syntactic realization of focus in Enets, Nganasan and Dolgan. The major outcome is that Nganasan and Dolgan are much more flexible with respect to their basic word order pattern and, in consequence, exhibit both an immediately preverbal focus position and a right-peripheral focus position, whilst Enets realizes argument focus constituents almost exclusively immediately preverbally. Kokkuvõte. Chris Lasse Däbritz: Fookuse asend SOV ~ SVO variatsiooniga keeltes – tõendus eenetsi, nganassaani ja dolgaani keeltest. On üldiselt teada, et ühe keele põhiline sõnajärjestus on tihedas seoses (kitsalt) fookustatud konstituentide süntaksiga. SVO keeltes on (kitsas) fookus reali seeritud lause paremas perifeerias, SOV keeltes on (kitsas) fookus realiseeritud vahetult verbi ees. Selles artiklis uuritakse nii põhilist sõnajärjestust kui ka fookuse süntaksit eenetsi, nganassaani ja dolgaani keeltes. Uurimuse kõige olulisem tulemus on see, et nganassaani ja dolgaani keeltes on põhiline sõnajärjestus tunduvalt paindlikum kui eenetsi keeles. Sellepärast realiseeritakse nganassaani ja dolgaani keeltes (kitsalt) fookustatud konstituendid nii vahetult verbi ees kui ka lause paremas perifeerias, samas kui eenetsi keeles realiseeritakse nad ainult vahetult verbi ees. Аннотация. Крис Лассе Дэбриц: Позиция фокуса в языках с вариативным порядком слов SOV ~ SVO – данные энецкого, нганасанского и долганского языков. Как известно, базовый порядок слов в языке определяет синтаксическую позицию фокусных аргументов. В языках SVO фокусные составляющие ставятся в конце предложения, в языках SOV – непосредственно перед глаголом. В данной статье рассматриваются базовый порядок слов и позиция фокуса в энецком, нганасанском и долганском языках и показывается, что в нганасанском и долганском языках порядок слов намного более свободен и, соответственно, фокусные аргументы могут располагаться как перед глаголом, так и в конце предложения; а в энецком языке позиция фокуса – почти всегда непосредственно перед глаголом

Typology of number systems in languages of Western and Central Siberia

Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht die Numerussysteme von sieben Sprachen aus vier Sprachfamilien (Uralisch, Turksprachen, Tungusisch, Jenesseiisch), die in West- und Zentralsibirien gesprochen werden. Nach einer kurzen Einführung sowohl in die Sprachen (Abschnitt 1) als auch in die Theorie von Numerus nach Corbett (2000) (Abschnitt 2) werden die Numerussysteme aller sieben Sprachen systematisch beschrieben (Abschnitt 3). In Abschnitt 4 werden die Numerussysteme verglichen und vor einem typologischen Hintergrund evaluiert; der Fokus liegt hierbei auf Numeruswerten (Abschnitt 4.1), Strategien zur Numerusmarkierung (Abschnitt 4.2), Numerus und Belebtheit (Abschnitt 4.3) sowie Numerusagreement (Abschnitt 4.4). Aus einer deskriptiven Perspektive zeigt der Artikel, dass die Numerussysteme der untersuchten Sprachen komplexer sind als häufig angenommen, vor allem hinsichtlich "General Number". Aus einer typologischen Perspektive kann eine interessante Korrelation zwischen dem Vorkommen von "General Number" einerseits und Agreementstrukturen in Nominalphrasen beobachtet werden. Weiterhin zeigen die Daten aus den beiden untersuchten Turksprachen hinsichtlich Numerusmarkierung einen ansonsten spärlich belegten Split zwischen der 1. und 2. Person auf der Belebtheitshierarchie. Insgesamt trägt der Artikel somit sowohl zur grammatischen Beschreibung der untersuchten Sprachen als auch zum generellen Verständnis der Numeruskategorie bei.This paper investigates the linguistic expression of number in seven languages from Western and Central Siberia. In a first step the number system of each language is described in detail, and afterwards the most relevant convergences and divergences of the languages are dealt with. Three particularly interesting phenomena are discussed in more detail: First, it is shown that the concept of general number, denoting noun forms underspecified for number, is able to account for a range of related phenomena (unmarked noun forms after numerals, nouns denoting paired objects). Second, singulatives in Selkup, Ket and partly Eastern Khanty are analyzed, whereby it is argued that their similar morphosyntactic and grammaticalization patterns allow for analyzing them as a contact phenomenon. Third, two splits on the animacy hierarchy between the first and second person in Dolgan as well as Chulym Turkic are presented. Finally, the results are evaluated against a broader areal-typological background, whereby it is shown that the category of number does not support any larger areal groupings within Western and Central Siberia, but that the analyzed languages rather adhere to patterns of number marking present all over Northern Eurasia

"Existential takeover" in locative predication in Northern Siberian languages: Typological implications

Presentation held at the 14th International Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology, Austin, Texas, 202

On the typology of locative predication in Samoyedic languages

Within the given paper, I investigate the patterns of the linguistic expression of locative predication (formalized as “X BE.AT Y”) in the Samoyedic languages, taking into account the two major typological approaches of Stassen (1997) and Ameka & Levinson (2007). The following patterns are shown: The encoding of the theme (unmarked subject) and the location (spatial adverbial included in the predicate) does not differ across the Samoyedic languages, but the linking element: In affirmative locative clauses, most Samoyedic languages exhibit a copula verb, which appears in predicate nominals/adjectives as well. The major exception from this pattern is the Forest Enets locative copula verb ŋa- ‘to be at’, which I discuss in more detail since its locative semantics appear to be a recent functionally motivated development. In negative locative clauses, in turn, negative existential verbs are used in all Samoyedic languages. Consequently, Samoyedic languages show a polarity split in the encoding of locative predication. Arguing that a locative interpretation of the successor forms of the Proto-Samoyedic copula verb is not felicitous from a synchronic point of view, I discuss the typological approaches of Stassen (1997) as well as Ameka & Levinson (2007). Finally, I present a first attempt at typological classification of locative predication, which is based on the analysis of the Samoyedic languages but might be validated by taking into account data from a much larger sample of languages

Lokative und existentiale Prädikation in Sprachen Sibiriens

Presentation held in the research colloquium [SlavLing]GÖ of the Slavic department in Göttingen (online

Locative and existential predications in languages of the Ob-Yenisei area

Presentation held in the Uralic Information Centre talk series (online

Existential, locative and possessive predication in Siberian Turkic languages

Presentation held at the 21st International Conference on Turkish Linguistics in Mainz, 202