ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies
ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies 

A typology of ‘pinpoint’ contact localizations in Uralic and Altaic languages (based on the corpus of New Testament translations)

DOI:10.30842/alp23065737193197233
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Paramonova D. A. Tipologiya «tochechnykh» kontaktnykh lokalizatsiy v uralskikh i altayskikh yazykakh (na materiale korpusa perevodov Novogo Zaveta). Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 197–233.

This article provides the results of a corpus research focused on a semantic feature of verbs which describe physical contact localization and on the way this feature may affect the case marking of object noun phrases in physical contact constructions. The marking strategies used in such constructions are labeled ‘pinpoint’ contact localization. The study addressed contexts that include a contact verb and its localization point (e.g., ‘touch the hand’). A corpus of the New Testament translations (four canonical gospels, The Acts of the Apostles, and The Book of Revelation) was chosen as the main research instrument and the source of the study material. The numbers of the contexts selected in the different translations range between 28 to 31. The analysis was carried out for five Uralic (Finnish, Hungarian, Karelian, Meadow Mari and Erzya) and five Altaic (Turkish, Balkar, Yakut, Kalmyk and Chuvash) languages. The study found contact intensity to be an important feature in the total picture of contact localization. As an instrument to describe the connection between the marking strategy and verb semantics, I developed a gradual classification based on a hypothetical contact continuum taking into account the degree of contact intensity and the scale of its impact on the object. The classification distinguishes three types of contact. The first type labeled as ‘Loose contacts’ includes verbs describing low-intensity actions that do not produce a significant impact on the object (the core of the ‘pinpoint’ contact localization). They are most often verbs of touching or kissing. The verbs relegated to the second type are labeled ‘Tight contacts’ and can be defined as describing the actions of grabbing or hugging. Placed at the bottom line of the scale are ‘Deforming contacts’ which seemingly inflict significant changes on the object of the contact like all kinds of verbs describing the acts of punching or biting. The paper describes the marking strategies for all types of contact employed by each of the languages addressed and determines the relevance of every identified type of contact in accordance with the proposed semantic continuum.

Keywords
contact point, Uralic languages, Altaic languages, corpus linguistics
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Keywords
contact point, Uralic languages, Altaic languages, corpus linguistics
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