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Thetics and Categoricals
Edited by Werner Abraham, Elisabeth Leiss and Yasuhiro Fujinawa
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 262] 2020
► pp. 105–140

Copulas and information structure in Tanti Dargwa

| Russian State University for the Humanities

The paper describes the basic types of independent clauses in the Tanti dialect of Dargwa (Nakh-Dagestanian (= East Caucasian), Russian Federation). Most independent clauses in Tanti are headed either by the identificational copula or a finite verb form. Less frequently, we meet sentences headed by one of the four existential copulas. There are also some independent clauses headed by a non-finite verb form or a non-verbal predicate and containing no copula. The paper shows that the basic difference between the sentences with different copula types and without any copulas is the type of information structure of the relevant sentence. The identificational copula is a feature of categorical sentences; the position of the copula points at the focused constituent. The existential copulas tend to head thetic structures. Copula-less converbal clauses are often interpreted as mirative sentences, which can also be analyzed as thetic, but differ from the existential structures by the moment when the speaker obtains the knowledge of the situation.

Keywords: Nakh-Dagestanian, Dargwa, thetic sentences, existential sentences, mirativity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Tanti Dargwa: Necessary information
    • 2.1General
    • 2.2Types of clauses
      • 2.2.1Independent clauses
        • Copular clauses
        • Verbal clauses
        • Unmarked clauses
      • 2.2.2Dependent clauses
  • 3.Copulas and focus marking
  • 4.Clauses headed by existential copulas
    • 4.1Nominal predicate clauses with existential copulas
    • 4.2Verbal predicate clauses with existential copulas
      • 4.2.1Verbal predicate clauses retaining the existential meaning
      • 4.2.2Thetic sentences
      • 4.2.3Exclamatives
  • 5.Non-finite independent clauses without a copula
    • 5.1Independent converbal clauses: Mirative and thetic
      • 5.1.1New for the speaker
      • 5.1.2Mirativity and around
    • 5.2Other types of unmarked sentences
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 22 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.262.04sum
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