Information Structure in Caucasian Urum
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UNIVERSITÄT BIELEFELD FAKULTÄT FÜR LINGUISTIK UND LITERATURWISSENSCHAFT Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) Information structure in Caucasian Urum An empirical investigation on the effect of focus and topic on word order vorgelegt von Stefanie Schröter im Oktober 2017 Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Stavros Skopeteas Prof. Dr. Ralf Vogel i Eigenständigkeitserklärung Hiermit versichere, dass ich die vorliegende Dissertation selbstständig ver- fasst habe. Ferner versichere ich versichere, dass • mir die Promotionsordnung der Fakultät für Linguistik und Literatur- wissenschaft der Universität Bielefeld bekannt ist • ich die Dissertation eigenständig angefertigt habe, keine Textabschnitte von Dritten oder eigener Prüngsarbeiten ohne Kennzeichnung über- nommen und alle von mir benutzten Hilfsmittel und Quellen als solche kenntlich gemacht habe, • Dritte weder unmittelbar noch mittelbar geldwerte Leistungen von mir für Vermittlungstätigkeiten oder Arbeiten erhalten haben, die im Zusammenhang mit dem Inhalt der vorgelegten Dissertation stehen, • ich die Dissertation noch nicht als Prüfungsarbeit für eine staatliche oder andere wissenschaftliche Prüfung eingereicht habe und • ich weder diese Dissertation, noch eine in wesentlichen Teilen ähn- liche oder eine andere Abhandlung bei einer anderen Hochschule als Dissertation eingereicht habe. Datum: Unterschrift: Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier ◦◦ ISO 9706 ii Acknowledgments First of all I want to thank my supervisors Stavros Skopeteas and Ralf Vogel who encouraged my interest in syntax, experimental research and fieldwork. Thank you very much for your great support and the fruitful discussions. Special thanks go to Stavros Skopeteas for teaching me about Caucasian Urum. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to learn about such an interesting and inspiring language. I also gratefully acknowledge the Volkswagen Stiftung for funding the project ‘The impact of current transformational processes on language and ethnic identity: Urum and Pontic Greeks in Georgia’ and the research pre- sented in this work. Many thanks especially to my close colleague Johanna Lorenz and to our Georgian collaboration partners Nutsa Tsereteli and Svet- lana Berikashvili for the great time and the good teamwork. Moreover I want to thank all my present and former colleagues from the working group of the general linguistics department in Bielefeld for their support and useful comments: Leah Bauke, Georg Höhn, Beste Kamali, Johanna Lorenz, Gabor Müller and Claudia Wegener. Special thanks also to Anna Kutscher, Anna Yuklyaeva and Duygu Gulsen who supported me with the Russian and Turkish translations and the recordings for my studies. In particular I have to thank Violeta Moisidi who hosted me during my three fieldwork trips in Tbilisi. Violeta was a wonderful host and not only spent a lot of time in order to support me with the Urum translations and recordings but moreover helped me to find participants for my studies. Finally, I’m greatly indebted to my family, friends and especially to my husband Philipp. I am so happy to have such amazing people around me. Thank you so much for your endless support and patience and for listening to all my thoughts and sorrows. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to all speakers who participated in my studies without whom this research would not have been possible. iii Contents Eigenständigkeitserklärungi Acknowledgments ii Contents viii List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures xii List of Tables xiv 1 Introduction1 1.1 Relevance of the thesis....................1 1.2 The data............................1 1.3 Structure of the thesis.....................2 I Theoretical background4 2 Information structure5 2.1 Introduction..........................5 2.2 Concepts of information structure..............7 2.3 The notion of focus......................9 2.3.1 Definition.......................9 2.3.2 Focus types...................... 10 2.3.2.1 Non-identificational focus......... 10 2.3.2.2 Identificational focus........... 11 2.3.3 Strategies of focus marking............. 13 2.3.4 Summary....................... 15 2.4 The notion of topic...................... 15 2.4.1 Definition....................... 15 2.4.2 Topic types...................... 18 2.4.3 Strategies of topic marking.............. 19 iv 2.4.4 Summary....................... 22 2.5 Conclusion.......................... 22 3 Urum: A brief description 24 3.1 Introduction.......................... 24 3.2 Documentation and language use............... 26 3.3 Language contact....................... 29 3.4 Lexicon............................ 30 3.5 Phonology........................... 30 3.5.1 Consonants...................... 30 3.5.2 Vowels........................ 31 3.5.3 Vowel harmony.................... 32 3.6 Nominal morphology..................... 32 3.6.1 Number........................ 32 3.6.2 Case.......................... 33 3.6.3 Possession...................... 36 3.6.4 Determiners...................... 37 3.6.5 Quantifiers and numerals............... 37 3.6.6 Personal pronouns.................. 38 3.6.7 Interrogative pronouns................ 38 3.6.8 Adjectives....................... 39 3.6.9 Negation....................... 40 3.7 Verbal morphology...................... 40 3.7.1 Passive........................ 40 3.7.2 Negation....................... 41 3.7.3 Person and number.................. 41 3.7.4 Aspect........................ 42 3.7.5 Tense......................... 42 3.7.6 Mood......................... 44 3.7.7 Adverbs........................ 45 3.8 Basic word order....................... 45 3.8.1 Structure of the NP.................. 45 3.8.2 Structure of the VP.................. 46 3.9 Questions........................... 48 3.9.1 Wh-questions..................... 48 3.9.2 Polar questions.................... 50 3.9.3 Tag questions..................... 51 3.10 Coordination......................... 52 v 3.11 Subordination......................... 53 3.11.1 Complement clauses................. 53 3.11.2 Adverbial clauses................... 53 3.11.3 Relative clauses.................... 55 3.12 Summary........................... 55 4 Word order in Turkish and Russian 56 4.1 Introduction.......................... 56 4.2 Turkish............................ 57 4.2.1 Basic word order................... 57 4.2.2 Word order and information structure........ 59 4.2.2.1 Focus and word order........... 60 4.2.2.2 Topic and word order........... 65 4.2.3 Summary....................... 67 4.3 Russian............................ 67 4.3.1 Basic word order................... 67 4.3.2 Word order and information structure........ 71 4.3.2.1 Focus and word order........... 72 4.3.2.2 Topic and word order........... 73 4.3.3 Summary....................... 74 4.4 Final comparison....................... 75 5 Syntactic approaches to information structure 76 5.1 Introduction.......................... 76 5.2 Some notes on the generative framework........... 76 5.2.1 The Minimalist Program............... 76 5.2.2 Derivation by Phase................. 79 5.2.3 Summary....................... 80 5.3 Overview of previous approaches............... 80 5.3.1 Classification..................... 80 5.3.2 Approaches to Russian IS.............. 84 5.3.2.1 Cartographic approaches......... 84 5.3.2.2 Non-cartographic approaches....... 88 5.3.3 Approaches to Turkish IS.............. 96 5.3.3.1 Cartographic approaches......... 96 5.3.3.2 Non-cartographic approaches....... 100 5.3.4 Summary....................... 104 5.4 A simplified syntactic approach to Turkish and Russian IS. 105 5.4.1 IS-related movement in Russian........... 105 vi 5.4.2 IS-related movement in Turkish........... 112 5.5 Summary and conclusions.................. 116 II Empirical studies and syntactic analysis 117 6 Focus 118 6.1 Introduction.......................... 118 6.2 Speech production...................... 120 6.2.1 Introduction...................... 120 6.2.2 Method........................ 121 6.2.2.1 Participants................ 121 6.2.2.2 Material and design............ 122 6.2.2.3 Procedure................. 125 6.2.3 Scoring........................ 126 6.2.4 Results........................ 127 6.2.4.1 Turkish................... 127 6.2.4.2 Russian.................. 130 6.2.4.3 Urum.................... 133 6.2.5 Summary and discussion............... 136 6.2.6 Interim conclusions.................. 138 6.3 Acceptability judgment.................... 139 6.3.1 Introduction...................... 139 6.3.2 Method........................ 140 6.3.2.1 Participants................ 140 6.3.2.2 Material and design............ 141 6.3.2.3 Procedure................. 145 6.3.3 Results........................ 146 6.3.3.1 Turkish................... 147 6.3.3.2 Russian.................. 152 6.3.3.3 Urum.................... 157 6.3.4 Summary and discussion............... 160 6.3.5 Interim conclusions.................. 161 6.4 Conclusions.......................... 162 7 Topic 164 7.1 Introduction.......................... 164 7.2 Speech production...................... 165 7.2.1 Introduction...................... 165 vii 7.2.2 Method........................ 170 7.2.2.1 Participants................ 170 7.2.2.2 Material and design............ 170 7.2.2.3 Procedure................. 173 7.2.3 Scoring........................ 174 7.2.4 Results........................ 175 7.2.4.1 Turkish................... 175 7.2.4.2 Russian.................. 182 7.2.4.3 Urum.................... 188 7.2.5 Summary and discussion............... 195 7.2.6