Abstract
In this paper I examine the multifunctional enclitic =go in the Nakh-Daghestanian language Avar. By means of a semantic map I show that its central function is the expression of emphasis and/or contrast. Other uses are the expression of identity, scalar additivity, reflexivity (including local and long-distance reflexives, emphatic reflexive uses), the marking of indefinite pronouns and adverbs, and the derivation of cardinal numerals and converbs. The paper also advances a hypothesis about the origin of =go and argues that it goes back to the copula -ugo. The use of the copula in cleft constructions gave rise to the emphatic/contrastive function, and all other uses can be viewed as extension of this function.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Avar speakers Zulejkhat Mallaeva and Murad Sindikov who shared the knowledge of their language with me. Their help with translations and discussions of the examples is invaluable and without them I would not have been able to write this article. Any errors remain my own. I also profited from the comments of an anonymous reviewer. A first draft of this paper was written during my period as a Feodor-Lynen Fellow at the James Cook University. I want to thank the Humboldt Foundation for financial support and Alexandra Aikhenvald for hosting me at the inspiring Language and Culture Research Centre.
Abbreviations
- abl
ablative
- add
additive
- apud
localization ‘near, by, at’
- caus
causative
- com
comitative
- cond
conditional
- cop
copula
- cvb
converb
- dat
dative
- dem
demonstrative
- emph
emphasizer
- erg
ergative
- evid
evidential
- excl
exclusive
- f
feminine
- fut
future
- gen
genitive
- imp
imperative
- in
localization ‘in’
- incl
inclusive
- indef
indefinite
- inf
infinitive
- int
intensifier
- iter
iterative
- lat
lative
- loc
locative
- m
masculine
- msd
masdar
- n
neuter
- neg
negation
- nmlz
nominalizer
- obl
oblique stem
- pl
plural
- proh
prohibitive
- prs
present
- prt
particle
- pst
past
- ptcp
participle
- q
interrogative
- quot
quotative
- spec
specific
- sg
singular
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Differential object marking in Standard Turkish and Caucasian Urum
- Causative constructions in Ainu: A typological perspective with remarks on the diachrony
- Towards a semantic map for intensifying particles: Evidence from Avar
- The oblique phrase and the order of the relative construction
- Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages
- Review article
- Typology of body part appellations
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Differential object marking in Standard Turkish and Caucasian Urum
- Causative constructions in Ainu: A typological perspective with remarks on the diachrony
- Towards a semantic map for intensifying particles: Evidence from Avar
- The oblique phrase and the order of the relative construction
- Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages
- Review article
- Typology of body part appellations