Cover not available

In:On Diversity and Complexity of Languages Spoken in Europe and North and Central Asia
Edited by Pirkko Suihkonen and Lindsay J. Whaley
[Studies in Language Companion Series 164] 2014
► pp. 275–310

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Anaphora in Ossetic correlatives and the typology of clause combining

 | Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences & Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities
Published online: 17 December 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.164.10bel
Ossetic, an Iranian language of the North Caucasus, makes extensive use of correlatives in its system of subordination. I argue that most subordinate clause types in Ossetic belong to this construction, with their function being derived from the combination of the meaning of the subordinating element and the form of the demonstrative correlate. I further argue that the link between the relative phrase and the correlate may involve indirect relations such as bridging and split antecedence. They must therefore be viewed as involving obligatory pronominal coreference, where correlates are semantically no different from ordinary anaphoric pronouns or definite descriptions.
References (68)
References
Abaev, Vasilij I. 1959. Grammatičeskij očerk osetinskogo jazyka (A grammatical sketch of Ossetic). Ordžonikidze: Severo-Osetinskoe knižnoe izdatel’stvo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1973. Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar’ osetinskogo jazyka (A historical and etymological dictionary of Ossetic), Vol. 2, L–R. Leningrad: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andrews, Avery. 2007. Relative clauses. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 2: Complex Constructions, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 206–236. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aoun, Joseph, Choueiri, Lina & Hornstein, Norbert. 2001. Derivational economy. Linguistic Inquiry 32(3): 371–403. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arsenijević, Boban. 2009. Clausal complementation as relativization. Lingua 119(1): 39–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asher, Nicholas. 1993. Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 50]. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asudeh, Ash. 2012. The Logic of Pronominal Resumption [Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 35]. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bach, Emmon & Partee, Barbara H. 1980. Anaphora and semantic structure. In Papers from the Parasession on Pronouns and Anaphora, Jody Kreiman & Almerindo E. Ojeda (eds), 1–28. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bashir, Elena. 2009. Wakhi. In The Iranian languages [Routledge Language Family Series], Gernot Windfuhr (ed.), 825–858. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belyaev, Oleg. Forthcoming. Systematic mismatches: Coordination and subordination at three levels of grammar. To appear in Journal of Linguistics.
Belyaev, Oleg & Vydrin, Arseniy. 2011. Participle-converbs in Iron Ossetic: Syntactic and semantic properties. In Topics in Iranian Linguistics [Beiträge zur Iranistik 34], Agnes Korn, Geoffrey Haig, Simin Karimi & Pollet Samvelian (Eds), 117–134. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhatt, Rajesh. 1997. Matching effects and the syntax-morphology interface. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 31: 53–68.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Locality in correlatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 210: 485–541. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bos, Johan, Buitelaar, Paul & Mineur, Anne-Marie. 1995. Bridging as coercive accommodation. Paper presented at CLNLP Workshop , Edinburgh, April 3–5, 1995. [URL] (16 January 2014).
Büring, Daniel. 2004. Binding Theory [Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics]. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caponigro, Ivano & Polinsky, Maria. 2011. Relative embeddings: A Circassian puzzle for the syntax/semantics interface. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29(1): 71–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1975. Bridging. In Proceedings of the 1975 Workshop on Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing, Roger Schank & Bonnie L. Nash-Webber (eds), 169–174.Stroudsburg PA: Association for Computational Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culicover, Peter & Jackendoff, Ray. 1997. Semantic subordination despite syntactic coordination. Linguistic Inquiry 28(2): 195–217.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davison, Alice. 2009. Adjunction, features and locality in Sanskrit and Hindi/Urdu correlatives. In Correlatives Cross-linguistically [Language Faculty and Beyond 1], Anikó Lipták (ed.), 223–262. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dayal, Veneeta. 1995. Quantification in correlatives. In Quantification in Natural Languages, Vol. 2, Emmon W. Bach, Eloise Jelinek, Angelika Kratzer & Barbara H. Partee (eds), 179–205. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diessel, Holger & Hetterle, Katja. 2011. Causal clauses: A cross-linguistic investigation of their structure, meaning, and use. In Linguistic Universals and Language Variation [Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 231], Peter Siemund (ed.), 21–52. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dzaxova, Veronika T. 2009. Fonetičeskie xarakteristiki fonologičeskoj sistemy sovremennogo osetinskogo (ironskogo) literaturnogo jazyka (The phonetic characteristics of the phonological system of contemporary Iron Ossetic). Vladikavkaz: Izdatel’stvo SOGPI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erschler, David. 2012. From preverbal focus to preverbal “left periphery”: The Ossetic clause architecture in areal and diachronic perspective. Lingua 122(6): 673–699. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gagkaev, Konstantin U. 1956. Sintaksis osetinskogo jazyka (The syntax of Ossetic). Ordžonikidze: Severo-Osetinskoe knižnoe izdatel’stvo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gareyshina, Anastasia, Grashchenkov, Pavel, Lyutikova, Ekaterina & Tatevosov, Sergei. 2011. Sentential proforms and complementation in Ossetian. In Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft33. Text: Strukturen und Verarbeitung. [URL] (3 January 2014).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geach, Peter. 1962. Reference and Generality [Contemporary Philosophy]. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra. 1984. Toward a theory of long distance anaphors: A GB approach. The Linguistic Review 3: 307–361. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gerasimov, Dmitry V. & Lander, Yury A. 2008. Reljativizacija pod maskoj nominalizacii i faktivnyj argument v adygejskom jazyke (Relativization under the guise of nominalization and the factive argument in Adyghe). In Issledovanija po glagol’noj derivacii, Vladimir A. Plungian & Sergei G. Tatevosov (eds), 290–313. Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kul’tury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goedegebuure, Petra. 2003. Reference, Deixis and Focus in Hittite: The Demonstratives ka- “this”, apa- “that” and asi- “yon”. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
. 2009. Focus structure and Q-word questions in Hittite. Linguistics 47(4): 945–969. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosu, Alexander & Landman, Fred. 1998. Strange relatives of the third kind. Natural Language Semantics 6(2): 125–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haddad, Youssef A. 2009. Copy control in Telugu. Journal of Linguistics 45(1): 69–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heim, Irene R. 1982. The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Heine, Bernd & Kuteva, Tania. 2006. The Changing Languages of Europe. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamp, Hans & Reyle, Uwe. 1993. From Discourse to Logic [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 42]. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard. 2010. Why isn’t this a complementizer? In Comparisons and Contrasts [Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax], 190–227. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khachaturyan, Maria. 2013. Between correlative clauses, pronoun retention strategy, paratactic construction and cleft: Relative clauses in Mano. Presentation at 10th Biennial Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology (University of Leipzig, August 15–18, 2013).[URL] (5 February 2014)
Kulaev, N.X. 1961. K voprosu o probleme padežej v osetinskom (Towards the problem of case in Ossetic). In Voprosy sostavlenija opisatel’nyx grammatik, S.G. Barxudarov, N.A. Baskakov, A.A. Reformatskij (eds), 245–252. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo AN SSSR.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lipták, Anikó. 2009. The landscape of correlatives. In Correlatives Cross-linguistically [Language Faculty and Beyond 1], Anikó Lipták (ed.), 1–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyutikova, Ekaterina & Tatevosov, Sergei. 2009. The clause internal left edge: Exploring the preverbal position in Ossetian. Presentation at Third International Conference on Iranian Linguistics . University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, September 11–13. [URL] (4 February 2014).
. To appear. Nominalization and the problem of indirect access: Evidence from Ossetian. The Linguistic Review. [URL] (4 February 2014).
Makeeva, Nadežda V. 2013. Kommunikativnye strategii i korreljativnaja konstrukcija v jazyke kla-dan i drugix južnyx mande (Discourse strategies and correlatives in Kla-Dan and other South (Mande) languages). Voprosy jazykoznanija 1: 77–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCawley, James D. 2004. Remarks on adsentential, adnominal, and extraposed relative clauses in Hindi. In Clause Structure in South Asian Languages [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory], Veneeta Dayal & Anoop Mahajan (eds), 291–312. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCloskey, James. 2002. Resumption, successive cyclicity, and the locality of operations. In Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program, Samuel David Epstein & T. Daniel Seeley (eds), 184–226.Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitrenina, Olga V. 2012. The syntax of pseudo-correlative constructions with the pronoun Kotoryj (‘Which’) in Middle Russian. Slověne 1: 61–73.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikitina, Tatiana. 2012. Clause-internal correlatives in Southeastern Mande: A case for the propagation of typological rara. Lingua 122: 319–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikunlassi, Ahti Olavi. 2008. Primestoimenno-otnositel’nye konstrukcii v sovremennom russkom jazyke (Pronoun-adjoined relative clauses in contemporary Russian). Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Partee, Barbara H. 1975. Montague Grammar and transformational grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 6: 203–300.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perlmutter, David M. & Ross, John R. 1970. Relative clauses with split antecedents. Linguistic Inquiry 1: 350.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prince, Ellen. 1990. Syntax and discourse: A look at resumptive pronouns. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Kira Hall, Jean-Pierre Koenig, Michael Meacham, Sondra Reinman & Laurel Sutton (eds), 482–497. Berkeley CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya. 1999. Binding theory. In The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, Robert A. Wilson & Frank C. Keil (eds), 86–88. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reuland, Eric. 2001. Primitives of binding. Linguistic Inquiry 32(3): 439–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sag, Ivan A., Gazdar, Gerald, Wasow, Thomas & Weisler, Steven.1985. Coordination and how to distinguish categories. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 3: 117–171. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serdobolskaya, Natalia. To appear. Semantics of complementation in Ossetic. In Semantic Functions of Complementizers in European Languages [Empirical Approaches to Language Typology], Petar Kehayov & Kasper Boye (eds). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Sideltsev, Andrej. 2002. Inverted word order in Middle Hittite. In Anatolian Languages [Association for the History of Language Studies in the Science & History of Language 6], Vitaly V. Shevoroshkin & Paul J. Sidwell (eds), 137-188. Canberra: Association for the History of Language.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sideltsev, Andrej V. Forthcoming. Clause internal and clause leftmost verbs in Hittite. To appear in Altorientalische Forschungen.
Sjögren, Andreas J. (Andrej Mixajlovič Šëgren) 1844. Osetinskaja grammatika s kratkim slovarem osetinsko-rossijskim i rossijsko-osetinskim (Ossetic grammar, with a short Ossetic-Russian and Russian-Ossetic dictionary), Vol. 1: Osetinskaja grammatika (Ossetic grammar). St.Petersburg: Tipografija Imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Srivastav, Veneeta. 1991. The syntax and semantics of correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9: 637–686. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stiebels, Barbara. 2007. Towards a typology of complement control. In Studies in Complement Control [ZAS Papers in Linguistics 47], Barbara Stiebels (ed.), 1–80. Berlin: ZAS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taghvaipour, Mehran A. 2004. An HPSG Analysis of Persian Relative Clauses. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Stefan Müller (ed.). Stanford CA: CSLI. [URL] (5 February 2014). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Todd, Terry Lynn 2008. A grammar of Dimili, also known as Zaza. Electronic publication: [URL]. Accessed 19 January 2014.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tret’jakova, Ol’ga D. 2009. Funkcii neopredelennyx mestoimenij bez pokazatelja neopredelennosti (na materiale slavjanskix jazykov) (The functions of indefinite pronouns without indefinite marking in Slavic languages). Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Serija 9. Filologija 1: 134–147.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca CA: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whitehead, Alfred North & Russell, Bertrand. 1925–1927. Principia Mathematica, 3 Vols, 2nd edn. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willis, David. Negation in the history of the Slavonic languages. In The History of Negation in the Languages of Europe and the Mediterranean, Vol. 1: Case Studies, David Willis, Christopher Lucas & Anne Breitbarth (eds), 341–398. Oxford: OUP.
Yuasa, Etsuyo & Sadock, Jerry M. 2002. Pseudo-subordination: A mismatch between syntax and semantics. Journal of Linguistics 38(1): 87–111. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zevakhina, Natalia A. & Oskolskaya, Sof’ja A. 2013. Neopredelënnye mestoimenija bez markera neopredelënnosti v russkom jazyke (Indefinite pronouns without indefiniteness marking in Russian). Presentation at Tret’ja konferencija «Russkij jazyk: konstrukcionnye i leksiko-semantičeskie podxody» (12 September – 14 September 2013), St. Petersburg, Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Cited by (34)

Cited by 34 other publications

Arkadiev, Peter & Yury Lander
2021. The Northwest Caucasian Languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 368 ff. DOI logo
Beguš, Gašper
2021. Segmental Phonetics and Phonology in Caucasian languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 688 ff. DOI logo
Belyaev, Oleg
2021. Indo-European Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 572 ff. DOI logo
Belyaev, Oleg
2025. POSITION CLASSES OF CONJUNCTIONS IN BARTANGI. Lomonosov Journal of Philology 48:№2, 2025 ► pp. 70 ff. DOI logo
Borise, Lena
2021. Tone and Intonation in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 756 ff. DOI logo
Borise, Lena
2021. Word Stress in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 729 ff. DOI logo
Chumakina, Marina
2021. Archi. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 280 ff. DOI logo
Demirok, Ömer & Balkız Öztürk
2021. Correlatives in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 908 ff. DOI logo
Dobrushina, Nina, Michael Daniel & Yuri Koryakov
2021. Languages and Sociolinguistics of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 26 ff. DOI logo
Erschler, David
2021. Ellipsis in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 943 ff. DOI logo
Erschler, David
2021. Iron Ossetic. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 640 ff. DOI logo
Foley, Steven
2021. Agreement in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 844 ff. DOI logo
Forker, Diana
2021. Avar. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 242 ff. DOI logo
Forker, Diana
2021. Information Structure in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 973 ff. DOI logo
Friedman, Victor A.
2021. Lak. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Ganenkov, Dmitry
2021. Ergativity in the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 783 ff. DOI logo
Ganenkov, Dmitry & Natalia Bogomolova
2021. Binding and Indexicality in the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 873 ff. DOI logo
Ganenkov, Dmitry & Timur Maisak
2021. Nakh-Dagestanian Languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 86 ff. DOI logo
Kazenin, Konstantin
2021. North Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 67 ff. DOI logo
Komen, Erwin R., Zarina Molochieva & Johanna Nichols
2021. Chechen and Ingush. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 317 ff. DOI logo
Koryakov, Yuri
2021. Transliteration Tables. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 1082 ff. DOI logo
O’Herin, Brian
2021. Abaza and Abkhaz. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo
Maria Polinsky
2021. The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, DOI logo
Polinsky, Maria
2021. Introduction. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Maria Polinsky
2021. Languages and Language Names. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 1079 ff. DOI logo
Rostovtsev-Popiel, Alexander
2021. Megrelian. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 529 ff. DOI logo
Sumbatova, Nina
2021. Dargwa. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 146 ff. DOI logo
Testelets, Yakov G.
2021. Kartvelian (South Caucasian) Languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 490 ff. DOI logo
Öztürk, Balkız & Ömer Eren
2021. The Nominal Domain in Languages of the Caucasus. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. 811 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Abbreviations. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. xii ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Copyright Page. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. iv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Maps. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. xxvi ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Dedication. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. v ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Editor. In The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus, ► pp. x ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue