A Grammar of Tundra Nenets

Description

The book is the first substantial description of Tundra Nenets, a highly endangered Uralic language spoken in Western Siberia and the north of European Russia, destined for the international linguistic community. Its purpose is to provide a thorough documentation of all of the major grammatical phenomena in the language. The grammar particularly emphasizes the description of syntax, because this has traditionally been a very neglected area of Nenets studies. Many syntactic aspects have not received a systematic treatment in the existing literature or have not been addressed at all. Since the existing works are not easily available, incomplete, or idiosyncratically presented, Tundra Nenets syntax has played little or no role in the considerations of modern linguists, whether more descriptively or theoretically inclined. The book is largely descriptive: it is not intended to address theoretical questions per se and the description is not meant to be formulated within a particular framework. However, it identifies and discusses issues which are of broad typological and theoretical interest. The description is richly exemplified. Most of the cited examples are the result of fieldwork conducted by the in various locations. They are sentences produced by native speakers either spontaneously or elicited in response to questions posed in Russian. Other examples are excerpts from original texts. Acknowledgments Table of contents Abbreviations 1. Introduction 1. Tundra Nenets language 1.1 Genetic affiliation 1.2 Geographical location 1.3 Dialects 1.4 The number of speakers 1.5 The functions of the language 1.6 Basic typological profile 1.7 Brief overview of previous studies 2. About this grammar 2.1 The structure 2.2 The data 2.3 The transcription 2.4 Glossing and translational conventions 2. Phonology 1. Phonemic inventory 1.1 Vowels 1.2 Consonants 2. Phonological processes 2.1 Postlexical alternations 2.2 Alternations sensitive to morphology 2.2.1 Phonologically conditioned processes 2.2.2 Lexically conditioned processes 3. Stem types 3.1 Primary stems 3.1.1 Consonant-final stems 3.1.2 Vowel-final stems 3.1.3 Irregular stems 3.2 Secondary stems 3.2.1 Accusative plural stem 3.2.2 General finite stem 3.2.3 Reflexive stem 4. Remarks on prosodic structure 4.1 Syllables 4.2 Stress assignment 3. Grammatical classes 1. Nouns 1.1 Morphosyntactic properties 1.2 Nominal derivation 1.3 Nominal mixed categories 1.3.1 Adjectival forms of nouns 1.3.2 Verbal forms of nouns 1.3.3 Adverbial forms of nouns 2. Adjectives 2.1 Morphosyntactic properties 2.2 Adjectival derivation 3. Verbs 3.1 Morphosyntactic properties 3.2 Deverbal derivation: aspectual classes 3.3 Denominal derivation 4. Pronominals 5. Adverbs 6. Postpositions 7. Numerals 8. Conjunctions and particles 9. Interjections 4. Nominal inflection 1. Number 1.1 Dual 1.2 Plural 2. Case 2.1 Nominative 2.2 Accusative 2.3 Genitive 2.4 Dative 2.5 Locative 2.6 Ablative 2.7 Prolative 3. Possessive morphology 3.1 Form 3.2 Function 4. Predestinative 4.1 Nominative predestinative 4.2 Accusative predestinative 4.3 Genitive predestinative 5. Predicative forms of nouns 5. Verbal inflection 1. Agreement 1.1 Subject agreement 1.2 Object agreement 2. Tense in the indicative 2.1 Present 2.2 Past 2.3 Future 2.4 Habitual 2.5 Future-in-the-past 3. Mood 3.1 Imperative 3.2 Hortative 3.3 Jussive 3.4 Subjunctive 3.5 Apprehensive 3.6 Necessitative 3.7 Potential 3.8 Inferential 3.9 Reportative 3.10 Interrogative 3.11 Dubitative 3.12 Probabilitative 3.13 Approximative 3.14 Reputative 3.15 Debitive 4. Non-finite forms 4.1 Participles 4.2 Action nominal 4.3 Converbs 4.4 The conditional 4.5 The auditive 4.6 The connegative 6. Clitics and multi-based affixes 1. Clitics 1.1 Exclamative =n’uq 1.2 Focus =(η
o)w°/=ey° 1.3 Assertive =ma 1.4 Affirmative =m°h 1.5 Emphatic =d’iq 2. Multi-based affixes 2.1 Limitative 2.2 Focus 2.3 Affirmative 2.4 Emphatic 2.5 Comparative 2.6 Polar 2.7 Moderative 2.8 Diminutive 2.9 Pejorative 2.10 Augmentative 2.11 Intensive 7. Noun phrases 1. Determiners 2. Possessive NPs 2.1 The structure 2.2 The properties of the agreeing possessor 2.3 Predestinative possessive phrases 3. Attributive modifiers 3.1 Interaction of concord features 3.2 Conditions on possessive concord 3.3 Quantificational adjectives 4. Quantified NPs 4.1 Universal quantifiers and numerals 4.2 Quantificational nouns 5. Non-possessive nominal dependents 5.1 Attributive nominative 5.2 Non-possessive genitive 5.3 Oblique forms of nouns 5.4 Deverbal nouns 6. Apposition 7. Constituent order 8. Adjectival, postpositional and adverbial phrases 1. Adverbial and adjectival phrases 1.1 Comparative and superlative constructions 1.2 Degree adverbs 1.3 Transitive adjectives 1.4 Agreeing adverbs 1.4.1 Agentive agreeing adverbs 1.4.2 Non-agentive agreeing adverbs 1.4.3 NP-internal agreeing adverbs 1.4.4 Intensifiers 1.5 Predicative adverbs 2. Postpositional phrases 2.1 Basic structure 2.2 Postpositional phrases as periphrastic cases 9. Basic syntax of simple clauses 1. Grammatical functions in active clauses 1.1 Subject 1.1.1 Coding properties 1.1.2 Behavioural properties 1.1.3 Non-canonical subjects 1.2 Direct object 1.2.1 Accusative objects 1.2.2 Predestinative objects 1.3 Oblique grammatical functions 2. Constituent order 2.1 Affirmative clauses 2.2 Constituent order in negative constructions 2.3 Dislocated constituents 10. Valence patterns and alternations 1. One-place predicates 1.1 Inflectional classes of intransitive verbs 1.2 Derived intransitives 1.3 Weather predicates 2. Two-place predicates 2.1 Accusative objects 2.2 Oblique objects 2.3 Genitive objects 3. Three-place patterns 3.1 Accusative and dative 3.2 Accusative and locative 3.3 Accusative and other cases 4. Passive 4.1 The structure and meaning of the passive construction 4.2 Grammatical functions 4.3 Impersonal passive 11. Non-verbal predicates 1. Existential constructions 2. Identificational constructions 2.1 Attributive forms as predicates 2.2 Nominative nouns as predicates 2.3 Pronouns and quantifiers as predicates 2.4 Non-finite verbal forms as predicates 2.5 Oblique forms of nouns as predicates 3. Locational constructions 12. Non-declarative clause types and negation 1. Interrogatives 1.1 Wh-questions 1.2 Yes-no questions 1.3 Alternative and deliberative questions 2. Directives 3. Exclamatives and addresses 4. Negations 4.1 Negation of finite clauses 4.2 Negation of non-verbal predicates 4.3 Negative polarity items 4.4 Constituent vs. clausal negation 4.5 Marginal negative auxiliaries 13. Overview of dependent clauses 1. Finite dependent clauses 2. Non-finite dependent clauses 2.1 The coding of the arguments 2.2 The clausal status 2.3 The position of non-finite clauses 2.4 Constituent order in non-finite clauses 2.5 Negation in non-finite clauses 3. Questions in complex sentences 3.1 Embedded questions 3.2 Questions out of embedded clauses 14. Relative clauses 1. The participial strategy 1.1 Structure 1.2 Accessibility to relativization 2. The non-participial strategy 2.1 Structure 2.2 Accessibility to relativization 3. Resumptive strategy 4. Relativization out of embedded clauses 5. Copular relative clauses 5.1 Proprietive relative construction 5.2 Attributive forms as predicates 15. Complement clauses 1. Sentential subjects 1.1 Impersonal constructions 1.2 Personal constructions 2. Sentential objects 2.1 Subject control constructions 2.1.1 Action nominal 2.1.2 Converbs 2.2 Object control constructions 2.2.1 Action nominal and participles 2.2.2 Converbs 2.3 Non-controlled clauses 2.3.1 Accusative action nominal 2.3.2 Action nominal in oblique cases 3. Clausal complements of nouns 16. Adverbial clauses 1. Action nominal clauses 1.1 Action nominal in oblique cases 1.2 Action nominal with postpositions 2. Converbial clauses 2.1 Conditional converbs 2.2 Evasive converbs 2.3 Modal converbs 2.4 Purposive converbs 3. Participial clauses 17. Anaphoric relations 1. Anaphora in simple clauses 1.1 Pronominals and anaphoric nulls in argument roles 1.2 Possessive pronominals 1.3 Null-headed NPs 1.4 Reflexivization 1.5 Reciprocals 2. Anaphora in complex sentences 2.1 Null anaphora in dependent clauses 2.2 Reflexives in dependent clauses 2.3 Non-reflexive anaphoric elements in dependent clauses 2.4 Anaphoric elements in main clauses 2.5 Reciprocals in complex sentences 18. Coordination 1. NP coordination 1.1 Juxtaposition 1.2 Conjunctions 1.3 Double duals 1.4 Postpositional strategy 1.5 Converbial strategy 2. Coordination of other categories 3. Disjunction 19. Texts References Index