On clause-internal complementizers in Ossetic and Pamiri

"The purpose of this work is to illustrate an extremely rare linguistic feature, namely the overt present of a root complementizer in assertive/indicative (i.e. unmarked) matrix clauses, of the Sogdian language, an Eastern Middle Iranian Language once spoken in a region located in the valley of rivers Zaravshan and Kashkadarya (roughly corresponding to the territory of modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). This linguistic fact is very interesting because it represents an overt evidence of the principle of endocentricity inferred in the Generative tradition since the early 80s. In comparative perspective, this uncommon feature of the Sogdian language may be associated to the mechanism of para-hypotaxis, previously studied in many different Romance languages (e.g. Old French, Old Italian, Old Catalan) and recently discovered in other genetically unrelated languages (e.g. Swahili, Zamucoan languages)."

Lingua, 2020

This paper presents a discussion of the syntax and typology of finite relative clauses in Armenian, based on data from a corpus of colloquial spoken language from the Republic of Armenia. In literary Armenian, the preferred strategy involves embedded postnominal relative clauses with relative pronouns. However, the spoken corpus data show a much wider usage of adjoined constructions, including left-adjoined RCs introduced by an indeclinable complementizer, a strategy which is paralleled in several other languages of the Araxes-Iran area. We also find 'inverse attraction' structures, where the relativized element precedes RP in RC case. Previous syntactic analyses of these constructions have concluded that, if the relativized element has a determiner other than RP, it must be outside RC, leaving the case-marking unexplained. However, all the languages in which they occur have undergone a change from RP > indeclinable complementizer, and it is proposed that the uncertain status of this element holds the key to understanding this construction, either in terms of contamination/hypercorrection, or, possibly, an intermediate 'agreeing complementizer' stage in the diachronic development. This interpretation can also be applied to Classical Armenian constructions where RPs can co-occur with resumptive pronouns, violating a proposed universal of relativization.

Studia Linguistica, 2001

Kayne develop a unique analysis for the relative clau e con truction ba d on the Linear Correspondence Axiom (L C ). ccording to Kayne 1994 outside the relative P relative clau e do not have a nominal head. For him the determiner directly selects the relative CP. Borsely (1997) and Platzack (1997/2 argue that thi kind of analy i ha many drawback . However. their arguments come from -initial relative clause con truction . Thi paper examine ho Kayne' approach handles -final relative clau con truction . V e will immediate! note that Kayne (1994) propo e the empirically erroneou genera1i ation that -final relative clau e lack an o ert complementizer. Contrary to Kayne. language uch a Amharic clearl have a complementizer.

Between analytical mood and clause-initial particles – on the diagnostics of subordination for (emergent) complementizers

The article addresses empirical and methodological issues that are of central concern for an assessment of uninflected function words doing services in clause-combining and/or in indicating the speaker's stance toward illocutionary force or propositional content. Such units have been variably treated: either just as 'particles', as subordinating conjunctions or complementizers, or as auxiliaries of 'analytic moods' (marking directive or optative illocutionary force). Whatever they are called, all these units scope over clauses and manipulate their reality status. A discrimination of these types of units is difficult or hardly possible, first of all, because core notions (especially '(analytic) mood' and 'complementizer') are ill-defined and their consequent cross-linguistic application suggests an almost arbitrary exchangeability: since the notional contrasts behind them are basically identical, clear criteria based on form and paradigmatic organization are warranted. Jointly, one needs to specify the format of the relevant units in terms of clines between morphemes and words, and between words and constructions, first of all for North Slavic by and South Slavic da. Concomitantly, the delimitation of discourse coherence from syntactic subordination poses notorious problems. First, embedding is a property on a gradient, mainly because symptomatic shifts of egocentricals need not (and often do not) occur simultaneously. Second, there is an enormous grey zone of clausal complements vs adjuncts leaving ample space for indeterminacy. Both intensional and extensional approaches to determining clausal complements have their inherent and empirical weaknesses, and one wonders whether these might be recompensated by combining both types of approaches. The article gives a complex account of general theoretical and empirical pitfalls, with illustrations from a comprehensive body of data across Slavic on a typological

2009

Introduction Uzbek is a Turkic language spoken in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and surrounding regions. The phenomena discussed in this paper are based on the standard dialect of Uzbek based on the dialect of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. For the sake of readability, standard Uzbek Latin orthography has been employed. The title of this paper is perhaps misleading, as the phenomena to be discussed are not so easily defined as being 'complementizers' or 'clauses'. A more appropriate pair of terms might be 'small clause' and 'complementizer-like head of a small clause'. Nevertheless, it is the difficulty in distinguishing these various categories that makes this topic worth studying, and we will keep this in mind as we examine Uzbek examples of the following type: (1) Ular they she'r-ni poem-ACC ilohiy sacred deb COMP bil-a-di. know-sc pres-3 'They know the poem to be sacred.'

faculty.uaeu.ac.ae

Languages

Data-Driven Approaches to Cross-Clausal Syntax, 2012

1. Introduction * Our contribution is part of a series of more comprehensive studies that investigate the nature and diachronic development of subordinate clauses in the history of Greek (cf. Fykias & Katsikadeli 2013, Karantzola & Sampanis 2016). This paper deals with the phenomenon of multiple complementation markers that introduce complement clauses. The commitment of taking into serious consideration and exploiting the methodology of contrastive linguistics constitutes an essential characteristic of our analysis. We explore the co-occurrence of multiple complement clause particles, which can either be currently observed in contemporary colloquial usage or –alternatively– have been attested during specific diachronic phases or in specific dialectal varieties of three different languages (Greek, Albanian and German). We develop a framework of contrastive analysis, which, on the one hand, aims at providing a detailed and accurate description of both similarities and differences among the grammatical systems of the languages under examination and, on the other hand, sets out to offer at least a sketch of an explanatory account. Our analysis will focus on the details of possible combinations of complementation markers. These specifics encompass such formal aspects as the linear word order of the elements involved, the matter of optional vs. obligatory status of these combinations in their respective contexts, the issue of selectional conditions in this concrete context (i.e. what counts as an eligible partner of the combination, such as the type of indirect questions that are combinable with the complementizer se in Albanian), and possible deviations from a more general pattern that has been established so far in the linguistic literature –especially in connection with Germanic languages (such as German and English) that have been studied more extensively. A further issue that is addressed concerns the question whether the subordinate/embedded clauses under investigation display main (root) sentence characteristics or not, along the lines of the distinctions that were first introduced by Emonds (e.g. 2004).

Ethiopian Journal of Languages and Literature, 2018

ː This paper examines the semantic features of complement clause types in Xɨmt'aŋa. Specifically, it describes, (1) the semantic relationship between the complement types and their complementizers, (2) the semantics of complement clause types based on their degree of reduction of information, (3) the manner of syntactic relation of complements to the matrix clauses in complement relation, and (4) the grammatical status of the complement predicates, in the language. The necessary data were collected from the native speakers using the elicitation technique. Then, the data have been analyzed qualitatively following the functional-typological approach. In this paper, based on mood distinctions, the indicative and subjunctive complement clause types are identified. The meaning of the complement clause type in Xɨmt'aŋa is characterized by the choice of complementizer. The complement clause types of Xɨmt'aŋa also differ in their degree of reduction of information. The manner of syntactic relation of the notional complements to the matrix clause in complement relation of the language is hypotaxis in which both the main and the complement clause involve a single assertion, but not paratactic construction in which two separate assertions are involved with main and complement clauses. Depending on the function of the complement type, the grammatical status of the indicative and subjunctive complement predicates are coded as verbs; whereas, the participle complement predicates are coded as adjectives, and the nominalized complement predicates as nouns. 1 This manuscript is part of the author's MA thesis (Andualem 2010) which is entitled as, "The Description of Complement Relations in Xɨmt'aŋa: Based on Functional-Typological Approach". It is taken with modification with respect to the journal format, language editing and assessing some works on the language which have been done after the completion of the MA thesis.