Verbs of falling and their argument
structure in Circassian languages
DOI:10.30842/alp2306573716122
Bagirokova I. G., Ryzhova D. A. Glagoly
padeniya i osobennosti ikh argumentnoy struktury v adygskikh
yazykakh. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2020. XVI(1):
723–756.
This paper describes the semantics of falling in Adyghe and
Kuban Kabardian from a typological perspective. The analysis is
based on corpus data, accompanied by the results of elicitation.
Although they represent the same Circassian branch of the Northwest
Caucasian family, Adyghe and Kabardian still demonstrate some
differences in the way their predicates of falling are lexicalized:
while in Adyghe we have a distributive system which includes
special lexical means for different types of falling (verbal root
-fe‑ for falling from above,
wəḳʷerejə‑ for losing vertical
orientation, ‑zǝ‑ for detachment, and verbs from adjacent
semantic domains such as -we- ‘beat’ for destruction),
there is only one dominant (‑xwe‑) and several peripheral
predicates in the Kabardian language. What is peculiar about these
languages, when compared to the available typological data, is that
the parameter of orientation to the initial (Source) vs. final
point (Goal) of movement is of special importance in lexicalizing
cases of falling. In Circassian languages, simultaneous surface
expression of Source and Goal of movement within a clause is
prohibited for morphosyntactic reasons, and the lexemes denoting
falling are divided into Source- vs. Goal-oriented ones. For some
verbal roots, this orientation is an intrinsic semantic property
(cf. ‑zǝ‑ which is always Source-oriented); in other
cases, it is marked with specific affixes (cf. a locative
combination je‑…‑xǝ ‘down’ which marks re-orientation to
the Source of falling of the initially Goal-oriented Adyghe verb
-fe‑). Thus, our analysis of the material may not only
help to contribute to the general typology of falling but may throw
light on such a phenomenon in cognitive linguistics as the emphasis
on the final point of movement in opposition to the initial point,
also known as goal bias.
Keywords
lexical typology, verbs of falling, Adyghe,
Kabardian, Source, Goal, argument structure
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Keywords
lexical typology, verbs of falling, Adyghe,
Kabardian, Source, Goal, argument structure
