DOCSLIB.ORG

The Syntax of Khanty* Márta Csepregi – Katalin Gugán 0. Introduction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Syntax of Khanty* Márta Csepregi – Katalin Gugán 0. Introduction The syntax of Khanty* Márta Csepregi – Katalin Gugán 0. Introduction Khanty is an indigenous language spoken in Western Siberia, its speakers inhabiting mostly the banks of the River Ob and its tributaries from the middle course of the river up to its wash. According to the census of 2010, 30934 citizens of Russia claimed that they were of Khanty origin, but only 9584 declared that they can speak the language as well. As the speakers are scattered at a vast territory, there are such significant differences between the dialects that it is also questionable whether one can speak of “the” Khanty language as such, or there are in fact several Khanty languages. Traditionally, three dialect groups are distinguished, the Southern (Irtyš, Demyanka, Konda) the Eastern (Vakh, Vasyugan, Surgut, Salym) and the Northern group (Obdorsk, Šuryškar, Kazym, Šerkal), and each of these can be further divided into variants. Southern Khanty is already extinct, Eastern Khanty is severely endangered, and Northern Khanty is threatened according to the classification applied by endangeredlanguages.com. As it is unfeasible to give a comprehensive syntactic description of all Khanty dialects, the present paper will focus on the Surgut dialect, with occasional references to other variants. The linguistic data presented here are either elicited (in that case, the abbreviation stands for the name of the informant), or cited from published text collections (these cases will be marked with references). The first Khanty grammar, based on the Irtish and Surgut dialects, was published at the middle of the 19th century. By the turn of the 19th century investigations covered the whole linguistic area where Khanty was spoken, and the grammars that were written then are important sources up to these days (Patkanow and Fuchs 1911, Paasonen and Vértes 1963, Karjalainen and Vértes 1964). The following variants of Khanty have been described individually: the Sherkaly and Synja dialects (Steinitz 1950), the Vakh dialect (Terëškin 1961, Gulya 1966), the Shurishkary dialect (Rédei 1965), the Surgut dialect (Csepregi 1998, 2016), the Kazym dialect (Nëmysova 1988, Kaksin 2007), the Obdorsk dialect (Nikolaeva 1995, 1999), and the Vakh-Vasyugan dialect (Filchenko 2010). On the other hand, the *The authors would like to acknowledge the following grants of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office: FNN 107793, Multilingual practices in Finno-Ugric communities (Márta Csepregi), ERC_HU_15 118079, Languages under the Influence. Uralic syntax changing in an asymmetrical contact situation (Katalin Gugán). Khanty grammar of László Honti (Honti 1984) covers all variants in a single volume, following a historically oriented approach. Khanty data and linguistic descriptions have become accessible on the Internet as well, thanks to the recently constructed rich databases (Havas et al. 2015, Skribnik 2014–2017). Section 1. Word order and sentence types 1.1. Basic word order in a sentence 1.1.1 Finite verb and its arguments A simple context-free translation of a sentence including a transitive predicate with two overt arguments shows clearly that Khanty is an SOV language. (1) iki qåt wär-ł. man house make-PRS.3SG ‘The man builds a house’ (LNK) The grammatical category of subject appears in the nominative case, and agrees in person and number with the predicate. Information structure is a determining factor in sentence structure. Khanty shows a strong preference for the configuration in which the information structural role primary topic (that constituent of the sentence that is predicated about) appears as the grammatical subject of the sentence (Nikolaeva 1999), and the operation of passivization is partly motivated by the preference of the isomorphism of the grammatical subject and primary topic (for further details, see 1.1.8). Topical subjects can be dropped. The grammatical category of object is only marked with the accusative in case it is a pronoun (2); in case it is a noun, it is not distinguished from the subject morphologically (1). (2) məŋ łüw-at kənč-ł-əw. we (s)he-ACC look.for-PRS-1PL ‘We are looking for him.’ Transitive verbs can appear either in the subjective or in the objective conjugation; verbs in the objective conjugation display agreement with the object in number. If the object is a noun, the choice between subjective / objective conjugation is assumed to depend partly on thematic role of the given argument, and partly on its information structural role. A patient or theme argument of a verb triggers the objective conjugation if it is among the presupposed arguments of the sentence, i.e. if it is the secondary topic of the sentence (Nikolaeva 1999, 2001, Dalrymple— Nikolaeva 2011). For instance, in (3a) the patient object ‘pike’ represents new information, therefore, the verb only agrees with the first person singular subject. However, its already discourse-old in (3b) and (3c), therefore the verbs appear in the objective conjugation, and the object can be dropped. (3) a. ma sårt wäł-0-ǝm. […] I pike kill-PRS-1SG b. nüŋ ał łiw-e you PROH eat-IMP.SG<2SG c. ma nŏq kił-t-am-ka I up wake-PRS.PTCP-1SG-COND nik1 tärt-ł-em. up fry-PRS-SG<1SG ‘I killed a pike! [Answer] Don’t eat it! When I wake up, I’ll fry it.’ (Csepregi 1998: 68) Non-agreeing objects are assumed to be within the focal domain of the sentence (either as parts of it, or themselves being the focus). In this case, they appear in the preverbal position, which is assumed to be the focus position, and only a limited set of elements may stand between the focused element and the finite verb. As opposed to this, topical objects appear earlier in the sentence, and adverbials may appear between the topical object and the verb (Nikolaeva 1999). 1.1.2. Non-finite verb and the object 1 This preverbal particle is almost impossible to translate into English, as it carries so many different meanings (although they are conceptually related for the Khanty speakers). In the given example, it means ’on(to) the stove’, but it can also mean ’into the forest ’ or ’down to the river’. Object marking and object placement do not differ in finite and non-finite clauses, that is, pronominal objects of non-finite sentences are accusative-marked, whereas nominal objects appear in the nominative (4a, 4b). (4) a. məŋ łüw-at kənč-čaɣə jăŋq-Ø-əw. we (s)he-ACC look.for-INF go-PST0.1PL ‘We left to look for him/her.’ (forrás?) b. iki qåt wär-taɣǝ ǝntǝ łăŋq-ǝł-Ø man house make-INF NEG want-PRS-3SG ‘The man does not want to make a house.’ (A.S.P.) 1.1.3 Word order in imperatives Imperative and prohibitive sentences exhibit the same SOV word order pattern as assertive sentences. Verbs in the imperative sentence appear in the second person imperative with different forms available for the singular (5), dual and plural, distinguishing subjective and objective conjugation, the latter agreeing with the object in the three numbers (6). Special imperative forms used for addressing family members that cannot be spoken to directly for taboo reasons ceased to be used during the 20th century. (5) nüŋ ńarǝk quł wǝr-a! you row fish do-IMP.2SG ‘Do some row fish!’ (Csepregi 1998: 66) (6) ǝnǝł kür piŋ-ǝm ał sǝɣr-e! big foot finger-POSS.1SG PROH cut-IMP.2SG<OBJ.SG ‘Don’t cut off my toe!’ (Csepregi 1998: 96) There might be some word order variation in sentences containing preverbal particles. According to one of our informants, the preverbal particle may precede of follow the verb, and the latter type of word order indicates a stronger type of instruction, potentially a command. A similar pattern is observable in the northern dialects (Eszter Ruttkay-Miklián, p.c.), but it is important to note that not all speakers of Surgut Khanty find the type represented by (7b, 8b) grammatical. (7) a. kem ł’iwt-a out come.out-IMP.2SG ‘Come out!’ (L.N.K.) b. ł’iwt-a kem come.out-IMP.2SG out ‘Do come out!’ (L.N.K.) (8) a. sup nŏq łiw-a soup up eat-IMP.2SG ‘Eat up the soup!’ (A.S.P.) b. *sup łiw-a nŏq soup eat-IMP.2SG up (‘Do eat up the soup!’, A.S.P.) 1.1.4 Pronominal objects Concerning word order, pronominal objects seem to pattern similarly to nominal objects both in finite (9) and non-finite (10) sentences. It has to be noted, though, that they differ from nominal objects with respect to objective agreement. Irrespective of person-number combination, overt pronominal objects in Surgut Khanty (as opposed to the northern dialects, c.f. Honti 1986: 100, Nikolaeva 1999: 65) do not trigger the objective agreement (9, 11). (9) məŋ łüw-at kənč-ł-əw. we (s)he-acc look.for-prs-1pl ‘We are looking for him.’ (10) məŋ łüw-at kənč-čə kič-əw әntem. we (s)he-acc find-prs.ptcp wish-poss.1pl neg.ex ‘We don’t want to find him/her.’ If a first or second person pronominal object is dropped, the verb still appears in the subjective conjugation (11). However, dropped third-person pronominal objects trigger the objective conjugation (12). (11) nüŋ mant änm-0-ǝn. ma nüŋat nŏq ałǝm-ł-ǝm. you me raise-pst-2sg I you(acc) up lift-prs-1sg nomǝn ałitł-ł-ǝm čymǝł. above carry-prs-1sg little ‘You have raised me. I will fly up with you. I will carry you for a while.’ (Csepregi 2011: 12) (12) łüw ymǝł-0-0 łüw owti-ł-a panǝ tuw-0-tǝɣ he sit-PST-3SG he top-3SG-LAT and carry-PST-3SG>3SG ‘He (=the man) sat on his (=the eagle’s) back and he (the eagle) carried him (=the man)’ (Csepregi ibid.) 1.1.5 Sentences without a copula Non-verbal predicates show different patterns with respect to the possibility of zero copula, and tense, number and person are also factors determining the presence or absence of the copula.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Études Finno-Ougriennes, 46 | 2014 the Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish Woman with Deep Blue Eyes 2
    Études finno-ougriennes 46 | 2014 Littératures & varia The Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish woman with deep blue eyes La mère de Dieu khantye et la Finnoise aux yeux bleus Handi Jumalaema ja tema süvameresilmadega soome õde: „Märgitud“ (1980) ja „Jumalaema verisel lumel“ (2002) Elle-Mari Talivee Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/efo/3298 DOI: 10.4000/efo.3298 ISSN: 2275-1947 Publisher INALCO Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2014 ISBN: 978-2-343-05394-3 ISSN: 0071-2051 Electronic reference Elle-Mari Talivee, “The Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish woman with deep blue eyes”, Études finno-ougriennes [Online], 46 | 2014, Online since 09 October 2015, connection on 08 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/efo/3298 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/efo.3298 This text was automatically generated on 8 July 2021. Études finno-ougriennes est mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale 4.0 International. The Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish woman with deep blue eyes 1 The Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish woman with deep blue eyes La mère de Dieu khantye et la Finnoise aux yeux bleus Handi Jumalaema ja tema süvameresilmadega soome õde: „Märgitud“ (1980) ja „Jumalaema verisel lumel“ (2002) Elle-Mari Talivee 1 In the following article, similarities between two novels, one by an Estonian and the other by a Khanty writer, are discussed while comparing possible resemblances based on the Finno-Ugric way of thinking. Introduction 2 One of the writers is Eremei Aipin, a well-known Khanty writer (born in 1948 in Varyogan near the Agan River), whose works have been translated into several languages.
    [Show full text]
  • JOURNAL of ETHNOLOGY and FOLKLORISTICS Editor-In-Chief Ergo‑Hart Västrik Guest Editor Pirjo Virtanen, Eleonora A
    Volume 11 2017 Number 1 JEFJOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY AND FOLKLORISTICS Editor-in-Chief Ergo-Hart Västrik Guest Editor Pirjo Virtanen, Eleonora A. Lundell, Marja-Liisa Honkasalo Editors Risto Järv, Indrek Jääts, Art Leete, Pille Runnel, Taive Särg, Ülo Valk Language Editor Daniel Edward Allen Managing Editor Helen Kästik Advisory Board Pertti J. Anttonen, Alexandra Arkhipova, Camilla Asplund Ingemark, Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Dace Bula, Tatiana Bulgakova, Anne-Victoire Charrin, Carlo A. Cubero, Silke Göttsch, Lauri Harvilahti, Mihály Hoppál, Aivar Jürgenson, Patrick Laviolette, Bo Lönnqvist, Margaret Mackay, Irena Regina Merkienė, Stefano Montes, Kjell Ole Kjærland Olsen, Alexander Panchenko, Éva Pócs, Peter P. Schweitzer, Victor Semenov, Laura Siragusa, Timothy R. Tangherlini, Peeter Torop, Žarka Vujić, Elle Vunder, Sheila Watson, Ulrika Wolf-Knuts Editorial Address Estonian National Museum Muuseumi tee 2 60532 Tartu, Estonia Phone: + 372 735 0405 E-mail: [email protected] Online Distributor De Gruyter Open Homepage http://www.jef.ee http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jef Design Roosmarii Kurvits Layout Tuuli Kaalep Printing Bookmill, Tartu, Estonia Indexing Anthropological Index Online, DOAJ, ERIH Plus, MLA Directory of Periodicals (EBSCO), MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO), Open Folklore Project This issue is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (projects IUT2-43, IUT22-4 and PUT590) and by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies, CEES). JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY AND FOLKLORISTICS ISSN 1736-6518 (print) ISSN 2228-0987 (online) The Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics is the joint publication of the Estonian Literary Museum, the Estonian National Museum and the University of Tartu.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vitality and Revitalisation Attempts of the Mansi Language in Khanty-Mansiysk
    Uralic Studies PhD Programme Graduate School in Linguistics University of Szeged The vitality and revitalisation attempts of the Mansi language in Khanty-Mansiysk PhD Dissertation Csilla Horváth Supervisors: Anna Fenyvesi, PhD Katalin Sipőcz, PhD Szeged 2020 1 1. Research questions The Mansi language is an endangered indigenous minority language spoken in Western Siberia. Linguistically it belongs to the family of Uralic languages, socially it belongs to the group of the so-called numerically small indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation. The beginnings of bilingualism (and probable multilingualism) of the Mansi society are no doubt located in the distant past, and it would be problematic to determine the starting point of language shift, but it is certain that researchers (e.g. Munkácsi 1889a: 208, 222-224) have been complaining about the difficulty of finding native speakers due to assimilation and rapid language shift for more than a hundred years. Thus, it appears to be likely that at least a part of Mansi society became a subject of language endangerment already during the 19th century, and the process has continued ever since. The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Khanty- Mansiysk as its administrative and cultural centre often use the name Yugra, which refers to the indigenous Ob-Ugric peoples, as well as to ornaments and festivals originating from Ob-Ugric traditions, thus creating the district’s and the city’s own identity within Russia (Nagy 2016: 10-11). In order to “authentically” represent the Ob-Ugric cultural elements, the majority society needs Ob-Ugrians, including Mansis, who are considered “authentic”, but defining the authentic Ob-Ugric identity is not unproblematic in urbanised conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary Situation of Khanty Language
    44 CAES Vol. 5, № 1 (March 2019) Contemporary situation of Khanty language Marija Launonen University of Helsinki; Helsinki, Finland; e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Khanty language faces numerous problems and tasks relating to dialect diversity, a small number of speakers, tensions between dialects, administrative divisions, education possibilities, urbanization and use of language in the contemporary world. A way that can be proposed to overcome these problems is to follow a Saami example in a decentralized approach to dialects, implementing online long-distance learning platforms. Several Khanty dialects are vigorously used among all age groups and have undisrupted intergenerational transmission, and the question in these cases, therefore, is about strengthening the language positions, not about reviving or revitalization. But there are few other dialects, where questions of reviving and revitalization are urgent questions. Keywords: Khanty language; language revitalization; Surgut idiom of Khanty language Introduction Khanty language, along with Mansi and Hungarian, belongs to Ugric branch of Uralic family. Khanty is spoken by an indigenous community, the Khanty people, who live in North-Western Siberia. According to 2010 census, in Russia 30943 people proclaimed themselves to be Khanty. 19068 of them live in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, 9489 live in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and 718 live in Tomsk Oblast. 9584 people have claimed to have good proficiency in Khanty language, and it is thought that almost all of them also have Khanty ethnic self-identity (Csepregi 2017). Khanty is usually divided into two dialect groups: Western and Eastern. The Western group is often divided further into Southern and Northern dialect groups.
    [Show full text]
  • Multilingual Facilitation
    Multilingual Facilitation Honoring the career of Jack Rueter Mika Hämäläinen, Niko Partanen and Khalid Alnajjar (eds.) Multilingual Facilitation This book has been authored for Jack Rueter in honor of his 60th birthday. Mika Hämäläinen, Niko Partanen and Khalid Alnajjar (eds.) All papers accepted to appear in this book have undergone a rigorous peer review to ensure high scientific quality. The call for papers has been open to anyone interested. We have accepted submissions in any language that Jack Rueter speaks. Hämäläinen, M., Partanen N., & Alnajjar K. (eds.) (2021) Multilingual Facilitation. University of Helsinki Library. ISBN (print) 979-871-33-6227-0 (Independently published) ISBN (electronic) 978-951-51-5025-7 (University of Helsinki Library) DOI: https://doi.org/10.31885/9789515150257 The contents of this book have been published under the CC BY 4.0 license1. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Tabula Gratulatoria Jack Rueter has been in an important figure in our academic lives and we would like to congratulate him on his 60th birthday. Mika Hämäläinen, University of Helsinki Niko Partanen, University of Helsinki Khalid Alnajjar, University of Helsinki Alexandra Kellner, Valtioneuvoston kanslia Anssi Yli-Jyrä, University of Helsinki Cornelius Hasselblatt Elena Skribnik, LMU München Eric & Joel Rueter Heidi Jauhiainen, University of Helsinki Helene Sterr Henry Ivan Rueter Irma Reijonen, Kansalliskirjasto Janne Saarikivi, Helsingin yliopisto Jeremy Bradley, University of Vienna Jörg Tiedemann, University of Helsinki Joshua Wilbur, Tartu Ülikool Juha Kuokkala, Helsingin yliopisto Jukka Mettovaara, Oulun yliopisto Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen, Kansalliskirjasto Jussi Ylikoski, University of Oulu Kaisla Kaheinen, Helsingin yliopisto Karina Lukin, University of Helsinki Larry Rueter LI Līvõd institūt Lotta Jalava, Kotimaisten kielten keskus Mans Hulden, University of Colorado Marcus & Jackie James Mari Siiroinen, Helsingin yliopisto Marja Lappalainen, M.
    [Show full text]
  • Angol-Magyar Nyelvészeti Szakszótár
    PORKOLÁB - FEKETE ANGOL- MAGYAR NYELVÉSZETI SZAKSZÓTÁR SZERZŐI KIADÁS, PÉCS 2021 Porkoláb Ádám - Fekete Tamás Angol-magyar nyelvészeti szakszótár Szerzői kiadás Pécs, 2021 Összeállították, szerkesztették és tördelték: Porkoláb Ádám Fekete Tamás Borítóterv: Porkoláb Ádám A tördelés LaTeX rendszer szerint, az Overleaf online tördelőrendszerével készült. A felhasznált sablon Vel ([email protected]) munkája. https://www.latextemplates.com/template/dictionary A szótárhoz nyújtott segítő szándékú megjegyzéseket, hibajelentéseket, javaslatokat, illetve felajánlásokat a szótár hagyományos, nyomdai úton történő előállítására vonatkozóan az [email protected] illetve a [email protected] e-mail címekre várjuk. Köszönjük szépen! 1. kiadás Szerzői, elektronikus kiadás ISBN 978-615-01-1075-2 El˝oszóaz els˝okiadáshoz Üdvözöljük az Olvasót! Magyar nyelven már az érdekl˝od˝oközönség hozzáférhet német–magyar, orosz–magyar nyelvészeti szakszótárakhoz, ám a modern id˝ok tudományos világnyelvéhez, az angolhoz még nem készült nyelvészeti célú szak- szótár. Ennek a több évtizedes hiánynak a leküzdésére vállalkoztunk. A nyelvtudo- mány rohamos fejl˝odéseés differenciálódása tovább sürgette, hogy elkészítsük az els˝omagyar-angol és angol-magyar nyelvészeti szakszótárakat. Jelen kötetben a kétnyelv˝unyelvészeti szakszótárunk angol-magyar részét veheti kezébe az Olvasó. Tervünk azonban nem el˝odöknélküli vállalkozás: tudomásunk szerint két nyelvészeti csoport kísérelt meg a miénkhez hasonló angol-magyar nyelvészeti szakszótárat létrehozni. Az els˝opróbálkozás
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Computational Linguistics For
    IWCLUL 2017 3rd International Workshop for Computational Linguistics of Uralic Languages Proceedings of the Workshop 23–24 January 2017 Norwegian University Centre of Oslo, St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Russia c 2017 The Association for Computational Linguistics Order copies of this and other ACL proceedings from: Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) 209 N. Eighth Street Stroudsburg, PA 18360 USA Tel: +1-570-476-8006 Fax: +1-570-476-0860 [email protected] ii Introduction Uralic is an interesting group of languages from the computational-linguistic perspective. The Uralic languages share large parts of morphological and morphophonological complexity that is not present in the Indo-European language family, which has traditionally dominated computational-linguistic research. This can be seen for example in number of morphologically complex forms belonging to one word, which in Indo-European languages is in range of ones or tens whereas for Uralic languages, it is in the range of hundreds and thousands. Furthermore, Uralic language situations share a lot of geo-political aspects: the three national languages—Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian—are comparably small languages and only moderately resourced in terms of computational-linguistics while being stable and not in threat of extinction. The recognised minority languages of western-European states, on the other hand—such as North Smi, Kven and Vro—do clearly fall in the category of lesser resourced and more threatened languages, whereas the majority of Uralic languages in the east of Europe and Siberia are close to extinction. Common to all rapid development of more advanced computational-linguistic methods is required for continued vitality of the languages in everyday life, to enable archiving and use of the languages with computers and other devices such as mobile applications.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities
    ETHNIC AND LINGUISTIC CONTEXT OF IDENTITY: FINNO-UGRIC MINORITIES Uralica Helsingiensia5 Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities EDITED BY RIHO GRÜNTHAL & MAGDOLNA KOVÁCS HELSINKI 2011 Riho Grünthal, Magdolna Kovács (eds): Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities. Uralica Helsingiensia 5. Contents The articles in this publication are based on presentations given at the sympo- sium “Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities” held at the University of Helsinki in March, 2009. Layout, cover Anna Kurvinen Riho Grünthal & Magdolna Kovács Cover photographs Riho Grünthal Introduction 7 Map on page 269 Arttu Paarlahti Maps on pages 280, 296, and 297 Anna Kurvinen Johanna Laakso Being Finno-Ugrian, Being in the Minority ISBN 978-952-5667-28-8 (printed) – Reflections on Linguistic and Other Criteria 13 ISBN 978-952-5667-61-5 (online) Orders • Tilaukset Irja Seurujärvi-Kari ISSN 1797-3945 Tiedekirja www.tiedekirja.fi “We Took Our Language Back” Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy Kirkkokatu 14 [email protected] – The Formation of a Sámi Identity within the Sámi Sastamala 2011 FI-00170 Helsinki fax +358 9 635 017 Movement and the Role of the Sámi Language from the 1960s until 2008 37 Uralica Helsingiensia Elisabeth Scheller Uralica Helsingiensia is a series published jointly by the University of Helsinki Finno-Ugric The Sámi Language Situation Language Section and the Finno-Ugrian Society. It features monographs and thematic col- in Russia 79 lections of articles with a research focus on Uralic languages, and it also covers the linguistic and cultural aspects of Estonian, Hungarian and Saami studies at the University of Helsinki.
    [Show full text]
  • Workshop Information Structure and Discourse in the Minority Languages of the Russian Federation
    Workshop Information structure and discourse in the minority languages of the Russian Federation Friday 2nd December, SOAS University of London T102, 22 Russell Square 1 14.00-14.30 Welcome, Introduction 14.30-15.00 Gwen Eva Janda and Stefanie Andrea Eckmann: Reference Tracking mechanisms and automatic annotation based on Ob- Ugric Information Structure – Workshop on Information Structure and discourse 15.00-15.30 Chris Lasse Däbritz: Topic and Passivization in Eastern Khanty Dialects 15.30-16.00 András Bárány: On the syntax of differential object agreement in Ob-Ugric 16.00-16.30 break 16.30-17.00 Nadezda Christopher: Kazakh multi-functional particle ğoj: the first description 17.00-17.30 Katalin É. Kiss and Orsolya Tánczos: Possessive agreement grammaticalizing into a topic marker 17.30-18.00 Alexey Kozlov: Futurum pro habituali: interaction of aspect and information structure 2 Reference Tracking mechanisms and automatic annotation based on Ob-Ugric Information Structure Dr. des Gwen Eva Janda, LMU Munich, Stefanie Eckmann, B.A., LMU Munich Research on Information Structure of the past twenty years has led to new insights and revision on several topics in Ob-Ugric linguistics, such as the notion of definiteness, the use of the objective conjugation (see Nikolaeva 2001) or the passive (see Kulonen 2007). With regard to the latter, it has been shown that the correlation between syntactic and pragmatic role overrules that of syntactic and semantic role. Thus, the Ob-Ugric passive voice is used as a Reference Tracking mechanism: it sustains the realization of the highest referent in the pragmatic hierarchy - the primary topic - as the subject of the sentence (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Book of Abstracts
    Congressus Duodecimus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum, Oulu 2015 Book of Abstracts Edited by Harri Mantila Jari Sivonen Sisko Brunni Kaisa Leinonen Santeri Palviainen University of Oulu, 2015 Oulun yliopisto, 2015 Photographs: © Oulun kaupunki ja Oulun yliopisto ISBN: 978-952-62-0851-0 Juvenes Print This book of abstracts contains all the abstracts of CIFU XII presentations that were accepted. Chapter 1 includes the abstracts of the plenary presentations, chapter 2 the abstracts of the general session papers and chapter 3 the abstracts of the papers submitted to the symposia. The abstracts are presented in alphabetical order by authors' last names except the plenary abstracts, which are in the order of their presentation in the Congress. The abstracts are in English. Titles in the language of presentation are given in brackets. We have retained the transliteration of the names from Cyrillic to Latin script as it was in the original papers. Table of Contents 1 Plenary presentations 7 2 Section presentations 19 3 Symposia 197 Symp. 1. Change of Finnic languages in a multilinguistic environment .......................................................................... 199 Symp. 2. Multilingual practices and code-switching in Finno-Ugric communities .......................................................................... 213 Symp. 3. From spoken Baltic-Finnic vernaculars to their national standardizations and new literary languages – cancelled ...... 231 Symp. 4. The syntax of Samoyedic and Ob-Ugric languages ...... 231 Symp. 5. The development
    [Show full text]
  • Book of Abstracts
    Congressus Duodecimus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum, Oulu 2015 Book of Abstracts Edited by Harri Mantila Jari Sivonen Sisko Brunni Kaisa Leinonen Santeri Palviainen University of Oulu, 2015 Oulun yliopisto, 2015 Photographs: © Oulun kaupunki ja Oulun yliopisto ISBN: 978-952-62-0851-0 Juvenes Print This book of abstracts contains all the abstracts of CIFU XII presentations that were accepted. Chapter 1 includes the abstracts of the plenary presentations, chapter 2 the abstracts of the general session papers and chapter 3 the abstracts of the papers submitted to the symposia. The abstracts are presented in alphabetical order by authors' last names except the plenary abstracts, which are in the order of their presentation in the Congress. The abstracts are in English. Titles in the language of presentation are given in brackets. We have retained the transliteration of the names from Cyrillic to Latin script as it was in the original papers. Table of Contents 1 Plenary presentations 7 2 Section presentations 19 3 Symposia 199 Symp. 1. Change of Finnic languages in a multilinguistic environment .......................................................................... 201 Symp. 2. Multilingual practices and code-switching in Finno-Ugric communities .......................................................................... 215 Symp. 3. From spoken Baltic-Finnic vernaculars to their national standardizations and new literary languages – cancelled ...... 233 Symp. 4. The syntax of Samoyedic and Ob-Ugric languages ...... 233 Symp. 5. The development
    [Show full text]
  • Do the Khanty Need a Khanty Curriculum? Indigenous Concepts of School Education
    First published in Bicultural Education in the North: Ways of Preserving and Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ Languages and Traditional Knowledge, edited by Erich Kasten, 1998, 89–99. Münster: Waxmann Verlag — Electronic edition for www.siberian-studies.org Do the Khanty need a Khanty Curriculum? Indigenous Concepts of School Education Aimar Ventsel and Stephan Dudeck Khanty Education This paper addresses the situation of state-run education for the Khanty peo- ple of Western Siberia. We will focus on various concepts among Khanty activists themselves, as well as on the views of the government administration. Our study is based on interviews and conversations with the inhabitants of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, and particularly of the Surgut re- gion, which were carried out in the course of several trips since 1993. While our informants represent only a small segment of the Khanty population, given the situation of the Khanty today, their opinions and concepts seem to be the predominant ones. The Socio-cultural Background The situation of indigenous peoples in Western Siberia has suffered from a single prevailing conflict: since the Sixties, ruthless exploitation of the region’s rich oil and gas deposits has led to the large-scale in-migration of Russian- speaking people, forced industrialization and urbanization (Projektgruppe Gelebte Anthropologie 1995: 20–22). This development has both socially and economically marginalized the indigenous population, who live off fish- ing, hunting, reindeer breeding and the gathering of natural products (Mart- ynova 1996: 193; Prodan et al. 1992: 3; Afanasyeva 1996: 152). Political change since the collapse of the Soviet Union has made it possible for the in- digenous population to discuss their interests openly for the first time, and, in part, to assert these interests successfully in the political sphere.
    [Show full text]