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The loss of case system in Ardeshen Laz and its morphosyntactic consequences

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Published/Copyright: May 29, 2019

Abstract

Pazar (Atina) and Ardeshen are the two western dialects of Laz spoken in Turkey. Pazar exhibits alternating case patterns for arguments depending on their semantic denotation, while Ardeshen has lost its morphological case system. Yet, both dialects make use of a rich verbal agreement system. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the absence of case morphology on Ardeshen with specific emphasis on subjecthood. We will argue that Pazar Laz, retaining differentiated case marking for the subjects, typologically constitutes a clear example of Initiation-language. Ardeshen, on the other hand, has lost some of the Initiation-language properties available in Pazar, which we will argue to be correlated with the loss of its morphological case system.

Abbreviations

all

allative

appl

applicative

aug

augment

benef

benefactive

caus

causative

cop

copula

dat

dative

erg

ergative

exp

experiencer

nml

nominalizer

nom

nominative

obj

object

p

person

past

past

pl

plural

ppl

person plural

pres

present

ps

person singular

pv

preverb

recip

recipient

stat

stative

subj

subject

ts

thematic suffix

val

valency

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Published Online: 2019-05-29
Published in Print: 2019-05-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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