Reflexive pronouns and reflexive possessive affixes in the Bystraya dialect of Even

DOI:10.30842/alp230657371711335

Buzanov A. O. Refleksivnyye mestoimeniya i refleksivnyye posessivnyye affiksy v bystrinskom dialekte evenskogo yazyka. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2021. 17(1): 13–35.

This study focuses on different means to license reflexivity in Even and addresses the distribution of reflexive markers within different domains, as well as some semantic properties of these markers.

The data for this study were collected through fieldwork in villages Anawgaj and Esso of Kamchatka Krai in June-July 2019 and January 2020. Even has different morphosyntactic means to express reflexive meaning that can be divided into two major sets: reflexive pronouns and reflexive possessive suffixes. The connection between reflexive pronouns and intensifiers is also described and a description of the internal structure of reflexive pronouns is proposed.

The paper presents different approaches to reflexivity and the discusses the binding theory. Further, reflexivity-marking strategies in Even are described and their analysis according to their syntactic status is proposed.

Finally, the paper addresses reflexives in Even and the phenomenon of the associative plural they show. Plural pronouns usually denote a group including a focal referent and its contextually specified associates. In case of a number mismatch between the reflexive pronoun and its antecedent in Even, the associates are interpreted as family members, which is well-attested for nouns but has not been described for pronouns. This behavior is unexpected from the typological perspective and deserves further investigation.

Reflexive pronouns in the Bystraya dialect function as reciprocals, while the reciprocal pronouns mentioned in grammatical descriptions have not been attested.

Keywords

reflexives, binding theory, intensifiers, Tungusic languages

About the author

Buzanov A. O.

anton.buzanov.00@gmail.com

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Keywords

reflexives, binding theory, intensifiers, Tungusic languages