SYNTAX OF A CAUSATIVE CONSTRUCTION IN THE NENETS LANGUAGES

Stenin Ivan Andreyevich

DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2017-1-25-35

Information About Author:

Stenin I. A. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Ul. Staraya Basmannaya, 21/4, building 1, Moscow, Russia, 105066. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Leninskie Gory, 1, build. 51, Moscow, Russia, 119991. E-mail: ystein88@gmail.com

The paper concerns argument structure of causative verbs in Tundra Nenets and Forest Nenets. Special attention is paid to marking of the initial subject of a non-causative construction. Changing of syntactic status of predicate’s arguments in course of causativization meets expectations and conforms to B. Comrie’s generalization known as “paradigm case”. According to it, the causee (initial subject) is demoted to the highest free position at the grammatical relations hierarchy. The basic ingestive verb (‘eat’) is of interest because it is transitive in the Nenets languages and does not admit omission of its direct object. However, it is causativized as if it were intransitive. Short comments on syntax of an analytic causative construction are also made.

Keywords: Tundra Nenets, Forest Nenets, causative, argument structure, ingestive verbs

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Issue: 1, 2017

Series of issue: Issue 1

Rubric: LINGUISTICS

Pages: 25 — 35

Downloads: 1178