The North Samoyedic interrogative verb meaning ‘say what’

A cross-linguistically rare interrogative category (i.e., an interrogative verb with the meaning ‘say what’) is observed in the North Samoyedic (Uralic) languages. The interrogative verb in these languages is used in content questions, and functions as the predicate of the main or the embedded clause. It takes the regular verb morphemes with two exceptions: it (i) does not display object agreement, and (ii) cannot combine with the regular past tense morpheme. Furthermore, there is also an ordering restriction on multiple questions containing the interrogative verb. The morphosyntactic evidence suggests that the North Samoyedic interrogative verb is analyzed as a result of a wh-object incorporation. Kokkuvõte. Nikolett Mus: Põhjasamojeedi keelte küsiverb tähendusega ‘mida ütlema’. Põhjasamojeedi (uurali) keeltes esineb keeleüleselt haruldane küsiv kategooria (st küsiverb tähendusega ’mis asja’). Nendes keeltes kasutatakse küsiverbi sisuküsimustes ja küsiverb toimib pea- või kõrvallauses predikaadina, liitudes tavaliste verbimorfeemidega, välja arvatud kahel juhul: küsiverb (i) ei väljenda objektiühildumist, ja (ii) ei kombineeru lihtmineviku morfeemiga. Lisaks on küsiverbil teatavad järjestuspiirangud küsiverbi sisaldava kompleksküsimuse korral. Morfosüntaktilised andmed viitavad, et põhjasamojeedi küsiverb on analüüsitav kui küsisõnalise objekti inkorporatsiooni tulemus. Аннотация. Николетт Муш: Северосамодийский вопросительный глагол ‘что сказать’. В северосамодийских языках (уральская языковая семья) есть типологически редкий вопросительный глагол со значением ‘что сказать’. Этот глагол используется в частных вопросах в качестве предиката главного или подчиненного предложения. Он принимает обычные словоизменительные суффиксы за двумя исключениями: он не сочетается (i) с объектным спряжением и (ii) с показателем прошедшего времени индикатива. Кроме того, существуют ограничения на относительный порядок вопросов с вопросительным глаголом. Данные морфосинтаксиса свидетельствуют о том, что северносамодийский вопросительный глагол возник в результате инкорпорации объекта — вопросительного местоимениия

The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies: Finno-Ugric Peoples and Languages in the 21st Century

The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies was one of the biggest conferences in the last years among the Finno-Ugric events. Finno-Ugric People and Languages in the 21st Century dealt mainly with the language and political situation of the Finno-Ugric languages in Russia. Recent researches on descriptive linguistics and new approaches to theoretical and typological issues were also presented at the Congress

On the semantic distribution of copular verbs in Tundra Nenets

It is well known from the literature that sentences with nominal, adjectival, and adverbial predicates in Tundra Nenets involve the use of copular or copula-like verbs (namely ŋa-, me- tara-, xæ- (xăja-)), at least under certain grammatical conditions. Tundra Nenets existential clauses, in addition, contain a copula-like (so-called existential) verb (tăńa-). Even though the copulas are already identified in the language, and the behavior of the various copular elements is well-documented and described, certain distributional aspects of copulas are not indicated in the existing literature. The present paper is devoted to clarify some cases of the (semantic) distribution of copular verbs in Tundra Nenets that have not been affected in detail so far. My goal is (i) to resolve certain seemingly exceptional cases that show difference from the pattern indicated in the literature, and (ii) to add further observastions to the discussion. The topics covered in the present paper are the followings: the use of the copulas ŋa- vs. tara- in clauses with NP/AP predicates; the distribution of the copulas ŋa- vs. me- in locative clauses, and the copula-distribution in locative and existential clauses

Syntax of multiple questions in Tundra Nenets

The paper discusses the relative order and syntactic position of wh-phrases in Tundra Nenets multiple wh-questions. Contrary to previous proposals, it will be argued that the wh-phrases in multiple wh-questions are rigidly ordered and their order is constrained by the Specificity Filter. Evidence on the application of the Specificity Filter comes from the ungrammaticality of certain relative orders, i.e. *how-any wh-phrase, and the answers that are given to the multiple wh-questions, i.e. the answer does not specify values for the first wh-phrase but it pairs X and Y in both cases. Thus, the first wh-phrase in the construction is interpreted as a distributive universal quantifier. This is supported by the fact that the first wh-phrase can trigger object agreement on verbs (that is otherwise not possible in the case of wh-objects). Additionally, the wh-sequence can be preceded by elements that normally cause Intervention effects in single wh-questions, but a focussed expression cannot precede them. So in Tundra Nenets multiple wh-questions at least the first wh-phrase undergoes movement and it supposedly appears in the topic position