Additive Particle in Turkic Languages of the Volga-Kama Sprachbund

Abstract

Introduction. The paper deals with the functions of the additive clitic =DA in three Turkic languages of the Volga-Kama Sprachbund: Chuvash, Tatar, and Bashkir. It aims to describe in detail the use of the clitic in the languages in question by way of analyzing typologically expected functions, as well as additional functions observed in the collected data, with special attention paid to those that have not been described before and on differences of its usage. Materials and methods. The analysis was based on a variety of source materials, including Chuvash data collected with elicitation during fieldwork (Maloye Karachkino variety) and Tatar (Mishar dialect), Bashkir (Kubalyak variety) data collected from published corpora of oral texts. Results. According to our data, the functions of the additive clitic =DA may be as follows: proper additivity, scalar additivity, formation of the concessive clauses, mirativity, conjunction, universal quantification, marking of the numerals with collective meaning, marking of indefinites, distributive plurality, usage in complex numerals and verbal constructions (complex verbs and serial constructions), and marking of contrastive topic and conjunctional adverbs. The most frequent contexts for the additive clitic are those of conjunction, slightly less numerous are proper additivity contexts and then mirative contexts, with universal quantifiers and indefinite pronouns. The discursive functions are least typical of the additive clitic in the languages under study, except for the Bashkir material. Also, its use in peripheral, conjunction-related, functions may be specific: Chuvash and Bashkir data (but not Tatar) include the examples of the clitic marking distributive plurality and of its use in complex numerals; then, Tatar and Bashkir data (no data for Chuvash) indicates the use of the particle as a part of complex verbs; and, finally, only Bashkir material includes serial constructions, with the additive clitic as an obligatory part. In all the other functions, the use of the additive clitic appears to be similar in the three Turkic languages of the Volga-Kama Sprachbund.

Keywords

• additive clitic
• volga-kama sprachbund
• turkic languages
• chuvash
• tatar
• bashkir
• scalarity
• additivity
• conjunction