Discontinuous nominals, linear order, and morphological complexity in languages of the North Caucasus

Konstantin Kazenin

doi:10.1515/LITY.2009.020

Article

Discontinuous nominals, linear order, and morphological complexity in languages of the North Caucasus

Konstantin Kazenin

Published/Copyright: December 3, 2009

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From the journal Volume 13 Issue 3

Abstract

The article deals with discontinuous nominal expressions in three languages of the North Caucasus region: Lak (Nakh-Daghestanian), Circassian (Abkhaz-Adyghe), and Nogai (Turkic). It is argued that discontinuity in these languages can bring about “non-configurational” structure, where the noun and the modifier are co-dependents of the verb. Particular attention is paid to the opposition of “simple” and “inverted splits”, with the parts of the discontinuous nominals in their canonical or an inverted order. It is demonstrated that inverted splits in the languages under study regularly are morphologically more complex than simple splits. Some typological consequences of this observation are discussed.

Keywords:: agreement; Circassian; discontinuous constituents; focus; Lak; morphological complexity; Nogai; (non-)configurationality; noun phrases; syntax

Correspondence address: Komsomol'skij prospekt 38-94, Moskva 119146, Russia; e-mail: kz@regnum.ru

Received: 2008-08-09

Revised: 2009-07-21

Published Online: 2009-12-03

Published in Print: 2009-November

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/LITY.2009.020

Keywords for this article

agreement; Circassian; discontinuous constituents; focus; Lak; morphological complexity; Nogai; (non-)configurationality; noun phrases; syntax