Gender agreement of the copula in Kubachi and Ashti Dargwa as a proximate-obviative system

Belyayev O. I. Soglasovaniye svyazki po klassuv kubachinskom i ashtynskom darginskomkak raznovidnost proksimativno-obviativnoy sistemy. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 508.

Dargwa languages possess two types of agreement: based on gender and on person. Gender agreement is controlled by the absolutive (S/P) argument of the clause, while the controller of person agreement is selected from among the core arguments (A, S, P) based on a set of complex rules that are based on the person hierarchy 2 > 1 > 3 or 1, 2 > 3, depending on the variety in question. However, in a number of dialects this general rule is violated in that certain elements receive gender agreement with the A argument, namely: auxiliaries with a gender slot and adverbials if they are located at the left or right edges of the clause. In this article, I demonstrate that such phenomena in Kubachi and Ashti are best explained by splitting the 3rd person in the person hierarchy into two categories: topical 3rd person argument (3rd person proper) and non-topical 3rd person argument (3’). This allows situating the Kubachi system in a wider cross-linguistic context, where it appears closest to the proximate-obviative systems of languages of North America.