Pragmatic Reasons for Non-Clause-Initial Placement of Subjects of Active and Passive Clauses in Northern Mansi

Abstract

This article discusses the linear placement of the syntactic function of subject in Northern Mansi, concentrating on the less frequent non-clause-initial placement, and differences between the nature of subject in active (SA) and passive (SP) clauses. The study is realized as a template analysis. The main aim of this study is to elaborate and expand on my previous template analysis on Northern Mansi constituent order (Virtanen 2021), regarding the subjects of both active and passive clauses. The data used in the study are gathered from Лӯимā сэ̄рипос [Lūimā Sēripos], the only up-to-date Mansi newspaper. The most remarkable result of this study is that the majority of the non-clause-initial subjects are pragmatically focal, which affects the linear placement of the subject. This finding does not overrule the earlier findings concerning the correlation between primary topic and subjects, but it refines the whole picture.

Keywords

• mansi language; word order; information structure; subject;s linear order