DOI:10.30842/alp2306573716224
Say S. S. Markirovaniye aktantov
dvukhmestnykh predikatov v novoarameyskikh idiomakh sela Urmiya.
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2020. XVI(2):
654–689.
The aim of this study is to identify valency classes in
Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA; < Semitic) varieties spoken in
Urmiya, Krasnodar Krai. These varieties’ homelands are in the
borderland of the present-day Iran, Turkey and Iraq. NENA speakers
settled in Urmiya following several waves of migrations and
multiple contacts with other languages (Iranic, Turkic, Russian,
etc.).
This study is part of a broad typological project based on a
questionnaire comprising 130 bivalent predicates.
Language-particular valency classes are identified based on devices
employed for encoding two predefined arguments.
In the NENA varieties of Urmiya, the main encoding devices are
verb indexing for subjects and (direct) objects and prepositions
employed for flagging oblique arguments.
Compared to other languages of Eurasia, including, e.g., Hebrew
and Standard Arabic, the NENA varieties of Urmiya display a
moderately-sized class of transitive verbs, which is typical of the
languages of the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. This class covers a
cross-linguistically predictable set of meanings, but displays an
unusual pattern of differential object marking, which
simultaneously includes optional object agreement and optional
flagging by the dative-like preposition ka.
Individual intransitive classes are, by contrast, rather
unpredictable in a typological perspective. Unusual features
include a systematic ablative-comitative syncretism and
idiosyncratic competition between mən and bi in
source-like arguments and between ka and +al in
goal-like arguments.
Finally, the NENA varieties display valency patterns with an
extraposed noun phrase unindexed on the verb. These patterns
reflect a transitory stage between discourse-motivated fronting and
a nascent type of integrated argument structure.
There is both language-internal and cross-linguistic evidence to
the effect that the valency class system in the NENA varieties of
Urmiya is in a diachronically unstable state, which arguably
reflects multiple contact situations and dialectal diversity.
Keywords
Neo-Aramaic languages, Semitic languages,
argument structure, valency classes, transitivity, differential
object marking, prepositions, verb indexing, language contacts,
multidimensional scaling
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