In this paper, I describe the system of core perfective past-tense forms of Shiri Dargwa (East Caucasian). This is one of the few languages where an evidential resultative coexists with a bona fide perfect paradigm. Based on these facts as well as comparative data from other Dargwa varieties, I reconstruct the Proto-Dargwa system of perfective past-tense forms, which, I argue, was reminiscent of the Shiri situation.
I discuss the alternation between ergative (A) and absolutive (P) gender agreement of the auxiliary in Ashti and Kubachi Dargwa, which has previously been argued to involve topicality. I show that, while the sentence topic analysis is inadequate, text counts show that there is a correlation with discourse topic status.
Oleg Belyaev, Anastasia Kozhemyakina, Natalia Serdobolskaya
(2017).
In defense of COMP: Complementation in Moksha Mordvin.
Miriam Butt, Tracy Holloway King (eds.). Proceedings of the LFG17 Conference. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
We show that complement clauses in Moksha Mordvin (Uralic) cannot all be subsumed under the standard grammatical functions occupied by NP arguments, such as subject, object and indirect object. One salient subtype of clausal complements has a distinct, unique bundle of properties. In LFG terms, this amounts to adopting the standard distinction between the grammatical function COMP for complement clauses and SUBJ, OBJ etc. for non-clausal complements.
Gender agreement in Dargwa is always with the Absolutive (S/P) argument. Some dialects allow a single exception: a certain class of auxiliaries can agree in gender with either the Agent or the Patient of transitive clauses depending primarily on topicality. I propose that this alternation is typologically reminiscent of proximate/obviate systems found in various languages across the world.
Oleg Belyaev
(2016).
Ergative gender agreement in Dargwa ``backward control'' or feature sharing?.
Doug Arnold, Miriam Butt, Berthold Chrysmann, Tracy Holloway King, Stefan Müller (eds.). Proceedings of the Joint 2016 Conference on Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar and Lexical Functional Grammar. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
An LFG treatment of the Ergative (A)/Absolutive (P) variation of gender agreement of certain auxiliaries in some Dargwa varieties. I propose treating this phenomenon as a bona fide agreement alternation rather than Backward Control, as proposed in previous work. In this way the system can be viewed as a kind of proximate/obviative distinction. The idea is formalized in terms of LFG and feature sharing.
I describe the suffixes used in certain Ashti finite forms (-i-,-u-) which in other Dargwa varieties are interpreted as transitivity or inverse markers. However, in Ashti both suffixes are compatible with intransitive verbs. The range of effects that are associated with this alternation is similar to what is observed with unaccusative/unergative verbs in other languages.
Diana Forker, Oleg Belyaev
(2016).
Word order and focus particles in Nakh-Daghestanian languages.
M. M. Jocelyne Fernandez-Vest, Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. (eds.). Information structuring of spoken language from a cross-linguistic perspective. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
This paper offers an account of how information structure is expressed in the Nakh-Daghestanian languages. The focus of this paper is on word order and focus particles which can be regarded as the most important means of manipulating the information structure because they are to varying degrees employed in all languages of the family.
Oleg Belyaev, Mary Dalrymple, John J. Lowe
(2015).
Number mismatches in coordination.
Miriam Butt, Tracy Holloway King (eds.). Proceedings of the LFG15 Conference. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
A paper on number mismatches in coordinate phrases like red.SG and white.SG flag.PL `red and white flags’ (denoting two flags) in languages with adjective agreement, with particular focus on Russian and Italian. We argue that such facts cannot be accounted for within the standard approach to agreement, and provide our own LFG account of the phenomena.
John J. Lowe, Oleg Belyaev
(2015).
Clitic positioning in Ossetic.
Miriam Butt, Tracy Holloway King (eds.). Proceedings of the LFG15 Conference. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
We present data regarding the positioning of clitics in the Iron dialect of Ossetic, which is in some respects similar to data for ‘second-position’ clitics in more familiar languages, but in other respects is considerably more complicated. We propose a formal analysis which makes use of Optimality Theoretic LFG with stochastic re-ranking of constraints, which is able to capture the full range of the data, while avoiding having to assume the controversial phenomenon of clitic ‘movement’.
In this paper I analyze two so-called pseudocoordinating constructions in Ossetic where the conjunction ɜmɜ ‘and’ introduces causal and complement clauses, which is not typical of coordinating conjunctions.
Oleg Belyaev
(2015).
Cause in Russian and the formal typology of coordination and subordination.
Peter Arkadiev, Ivan Kapitonov, Yury Lander, Ekaterina Rakhilina, Sergei Tatevosov (eds.). Donum semanticum: Opera linguistica et logica in honorem Barbarae Partee a discipulis amicisque Rossicis oblata. Moscow: LRC Publishing House.
I analyze the syntax and semantics of three Russian subordinating conjunctions potomu čtobecause', *poskolʼku*since’ and tak kak `for’ from the point of view of the coordination vs. subordination distinction.
This paper is dedicated to two constructions in Ossetic where a seemingly coordinating construction is used to introduce semantically subordinate (complement and causal) clauses. I argue that the properties of these constructions are mixed between coordination and subordination, and their behaviour can be accouted for if one assumes a parallel architecture like that of LFG, with a clear separation between constituent structure, functional structure, and semantics.
A general description of the main syntactic and semantic properties of Ossetic correlatives, which are the main strategy of subordination in the language. I show that the relation between the matrix demonstrative DP (DPmat) and the relative DP (DPrel) is rather loose, with the availability of phenomena such as bridging and split antecedents. This suggests an analysis in terms of obligatory anaphoric coreference.
We show that the relation between the relative phrase (DPrel) and the correlate (DPmat) in Ossetic correlatives may involve special types of coreference such as split antecedents and bridging. This suggests an analysis in terms of obligatory anaphoric coreference rather than variable binding. The analysis is formalized in terms of LFG, Glue semantics and PCDRT.
This paper presents an analysis of suspended affixation and other related phenomena in Ossetic in terms of group case marking. This is achieved by splitting the case category into “external” (nine-valued) and “internal” (two-valued) subcategories. The former is an NP-level feature, while the former is word-level. I argue that only the latter corresponds to case from a typological point of view. The analysis is formalized in LFG with Lexical Sharing.
Candidate (PhD) thesis on the syntax and semantics of Ossetic correlatives. Provides a full description of their syntax and semantics, as well as speculations on areal influence.
A general description of the TAM system of Ashti Dargwa. Special attention is paid to three different varieties of habitual and a complex system of second-level periphrasis in conditional clauses.
This is an early paper where I argue in favour of an anaphoric analysis of Ossetic correlatives. It has largely been superseded by later publications on the same topic.
Diagnostic criteria of coordination vs. subordination are systematically applied across three Dargwa varieties: Itsari, Qunqi and Ashti. It is shown that, while converbs in all three languages have a similar range of functions, including clause chaining, their properties are quite different.
The Eastern Armenian and Iron Ossetic spatial systems are described and compared in detail. We show that most of their similarities can be explained without appeal to a common areal background.
Eric W. Holman, Cecil H. Brown, Søren Wichmann, André Müller, Viveka Velupillai, Harald Hammarström, Sebastian Sauppe, Hagen Jung, Dik Bakker, Pamela Brown, Oleg Belyaev, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Johann-Mattis List, Dmitry Egorov
(2011).
Automated dating of the world’s language families based on lexical similarity.
Current Anthropology.
In this paper, I analyze the the case system of contemporary Ossetic from the point of view of its historical evolution. I provide a critical review of the origins of individual case markers and propose a relative chronology of the loss of the old cases and development of new ones. I further investigate issues related to areal connections of the Ossetic case system.