View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by SZTE Doktori Értekezések Repozitórium (SZTE Repository of Dissertations) Interrogative words and content questions in Tundra Nenets Nikolett Mus A PhD dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Szeged University of Szeged Doctoral School in Linguistics Uralic Studies PhD Programme Supervisor: Beáta Wagner-Nagy, Prof. Dr. Szeged, 2015 This page intentionally left blank ii Acknowledgements The story of this dissertation began at the University of Szeged in 2001, when I missed a Finnish course, which was obligatory at the first year of Hungarian studies. Instead of Finnish I had to choose any other “related” language such as Udmurt, Mordvin or Nenets. At that time, I was reading a series of books written by Margit Sandemo. A really exciting part of this series is set in Siberia among Enets characters. I did not think the difference could be great between Nenets and Enets, therefore I decided to attend the Nenets language course held by Erika Körtvély. The course aroused my interest towards Samoyed linguistics and turned my attention to Samoyed syntax which was a less described field of study at that time. I owe special thanks to Erika who became my advisor later. I feel very fortunate to have had such a great teacher. I definitely have to thank to my supervisor, Beáta Wagner-Nagy, for taking on my research. She accompanied the developement of this dissertation and her comments were useful in writing. I hope that our work will continue in the future. In addition, I thank to my opponents for the first, departmental, defence, Anna Gazdik and Valentin Gusev, who provided extremely helpful reviews about the previous version of this work. I also owe thanks to my boss, Marianne Bakró-Nagy, as well as, to my colleagues at the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I am grateful to Mária Sipos, Zsuzsa Duray, Csilla Horváth and Zsuzsa Várnai for having read various parts of this work and proposing changes and corrections. I am grateful to Veronika Hegedűs, who read this dissertation and corrected my English. Without her comments this study would be much less. Furthermore, I would like to thank Evdokija Lampay and Elena Evay for providing data on Tundra Nenets negation and for filling in my questionnaire whose parts have also been used for this dissertation. In addition, I would like to thank Oksana Dobzhanskaya for her intercession. I am also thankful to Tom Blauwendraat for helping me in writing the PERL script. For the funding of my study I thank the Eötvös Scholarship of the Hungarian State. My dissertation could not have been realised without Barbara Egedi, who has constantly helped, inspired and encouraged me. She provided me with valuable feedback in all aspects of my work. Our late-night discussions illuminated me and helped me to answer thousands of questions. In the course of our work she became my best friend. I cannot be grateful enough for her support and for all of those cunning plans we made together. I also would like to thank friends, especially Bori Németh, Eszter Simon and Dávid Takács. Many other people have contributed to the dissertation in its current state, to all of whom I would like to express my gratitude. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family: to my mom who supports me in every conceivable way and who encouraged me not to give up anything. I am also grateful to my sister who always believed in me more than I have. I am very glad for having her. Finally, thanks go to my brother-in-law, János, for being the member of this family. This dissertation is dedicated to my family. iii Contents Acknowledgements iii List of abbreviations vi 1. Introduction 1 2. The Tundra Nenets language 5 2.1. Demography and ethnography 6 2.2. Writing system, transcription, glossing conventions 12 2.3. The main typological features of Tundra Nenets 14 2.4. Previous research on (Tundra) Nenets and Samoyedic languages 26 3. Data, sources and methodology 31 3.1. Preliminary considerations 31 3.2. Sampling frame 33 3.2.1. Recorded texts 35 3.2.2. Imagined texts 36 3.2.2.1. Phrasebooks 36 3.2.2.2. Methodological handbooks 37 3.2.2.3. Reading books 38 3.2.2.4. Textbooks 39 3.3. Data collection strategies 41 4. The subject of the study 43 4.1. Speech act distinctions 44 4.2. The subtypes of interrogative clauses 47 4.3. Content questions 52 4.4. Defining the analysed constructions in Tundra Nenets 59 4.5. Previous research on Tundra Nenets (content) questions 64 4.6. Research questions 69 5. The lexico-semantics of interrogative words 70 5.1. Non-selective interrogative words 71 5.1.1. Possessor 74 5.1.2. Comitative and instrument 74 5.1.3. Beneficiary and goal 76 5.1.4. Non-human versus selection/quality 77 5.1.5. Non-human versus reason 79 5.2. Selective interrogative words 79 5.2.1. The non-restricted selective interrogative word 80 5.2.2. The restricted selective interrogative word 81 5.3. The qualitative interrogative word 82 5.4. The interrogative size specification 83 5.5. The quantitative interrogative word 84 5.5.1. The interrogative category of rank 85 5.5.2. The subspecification of interrogative time category 85 5.6. The interrogative place specification 86 5.7. The interrogative time specification 88 5.8. The interrogative manner specification 89 5.9. Other semantic categories 89 6. The parts-of-speech categories of interrogative words 91 6.1. The interrogative pronouns 93 6.1.1. Interrogative pronouns as constituents of the main clause 94 6.1.2. Interrogative pronouns as complements of phrases 103 iv 6.1.3. The attributive use of the non-human interrogative pronoun 105 6.1.4. The adverbial use of the non-human interrogative pronoun 107 6.2. The interrogative determiners 109 6.3. Interrogative adjectives 112 6.4. Interrogative quantifiers 115 6.5. Interrogative adverbs 118 6.5.1. Sentential interrogative adverbs 119 6.5.2. The predicational interrogative adverb 122 7. The syntactic position of interrogative phrases 126 7.1. Intransitive content questions 132 7.1.1. Existential content questions 146 7.1.2. Predicative possession expressed by content questions 149 7.2. Transitive content questions 153 7.3. Content questions with nonverbal predicates 169 7.3.1. Content questions with nominal predicates: equative and inclusive constructions 174 7.3.2. Predicative possession with definite possessed item expressed by content questions 180 7.3.3. Content questions with adjectival predicates 182 7.3.4. Content questions with quantifier predicates 183 7.3.5. Locative predicates expressed by content questions 184 7.3.6. Temporary possession expressed by content questions 188 7.3.7. Content questions with temporal predicates 188 7.3.8. Content questions with manner predicates 189 8. Conclusions 191 List of references 194 v List of abbreviations Abbreviations used in the glosses 1 first person IMPF imperfect 2 second person IND indicative mood 3 third person INDF indefinite ABL ablative INST instrumental ACC accusative INT interrogative mood ADJ adjective LIM limitative AN action nominal LOC locative AOR aorist NOM nominative BEN benefactive NARR narrative CAR caritive NEG.AUX negative auxiliary CNG connegative NEG.EX negative existential verb CO linking element NOM nominative COM comitative OBJ objective conjugation COMP comparative OBL oblique CONT continuative ORD ordinal number CVB converb PCP participle DAT dative PL plural DEF definite PROB probabilitive DIM diminutive PROS prosecutive DU dual PST past EMP emphatic clitic PX possessive suffix ESS essive REFL reflexive FREQ frequentative SEL selective FUT future SG singular GEN genitive SUP supine GER gerund TR transitive HAB habitual VX verbal agreement suffix HORT hortative Abbreviations used in the text agr agreeing element AL Anna Latysheva (Accessed 2015-06-01) E.La Ekaterina Laptander (Accessed 2015-06-01) Ev.L Evdokiya Lampay FT full text L locational adverbial NP noun phrase O object PD possessed item PR possessor pred predicate Q interrogative phrase S subject of intransitive and transitive clauses TE text excerpt X oblique adverbial constituent vi V finite verb VT Valentina Taleeva (Accessed 2015-06-01) vii 1. Introduction The aim of this study is to provide a description of Tundra Nenets (Northern Samoyedic, Uralic) content questions. Tundra Nenets is an indigenous, endangered, minority language spoken in the Russian Federation. The language belongs to the Northern Samoyedic group of the Uralic language family. Although a significant number of linguistic description of Tundra Nenets may, at first sight, appear, the language can be considered as a poorly documented and described language compared with the other Samoyedic or Finno-Ugric languages. This is particularly true for the syntax of Tundra Nenets, since there are two grammars available which focus on the description and analysis of the Tundra Nenets clauses (see Tereshchenko 1973 and Nikolaeva 2014). Despite the fact that these grammars describe the basic grammar of the main clause-types found in Tundra Nenets, comprehensive analyses of content questions are not provided. In addition, there are grammar books (e.g. Kupriyanova et al. 1957, Almazova 1961) used in primary schools, which do not satisfy the criteria for modern linguistic descriptions. These sources in question, furthermore, may provide the results of analyses based on historical data since the investigations summarised were carried out at least 50 years ago. In summary, my main aim is to remedy the deficiencies in the literature in respect of content questions in Tundra Nenets.