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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 46:1 (2022) ► pp.1–39

A nonstandard type of affix reordering

The restrictive kə̄n in Ulcha

| Russian Language Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences | National Research University Higher School of Economics

This paper deals with the restrictive (limitative) marker kə̄n ‘only’ in Ulcha (Southern Tungusic). This marker has nontrivial positional features: it can attach before inflectional suffixes (as a derivational affix) or after them (as an enclitic). One might see the process of affix reordering described in Haspelmath (1993) as “externalization of inflection”, when a former clitic becomes a derivational affix. However, there is evidence that the uses of kə̄n after inflection are innovative as compared to those before inflection, not vice versa, and this direction of diachronic development is very unexpected. In this paper, I propose an explanation for this nonstandard reordering pattern and show that in fact it has the same motivation and the same mechanisms as previously reported types of affix reordering.

Keywords: Tungusic, Ulcha, restrictive, affix reordering, externalization of inflection, degrammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language and data
  • 3. Kə̄n and other restrictives in Ulcha
    • 3.1Uses related to the restrictive
      • 3.1.1In the sense of ‘at least’
      • 3.1.2In the sense of ‘ever’, ‘of all kinds’
      • 3.1.3In the sense of ‘exactly’, ‘the very X’
    • 3.2Other restrictive markers in Ulcha
      • 3.2.1The enclitics =məl and =muk
      • 3.2.2Free word forms
      • 3.2.3The enclitic =tan
      • 3.2.4The enclitic =dəkə
  • 4.The semantic scope of kə̄n
  • 5.Co-occurrence with different word classes
  • 6.Two positions of kə̄n
    • 6.1The internal position: Between inflectional suffixes
    • 6.2The external position: Postpositive particles in Ulcha
    • 6.3Doubling
  • 7.The morphological status of kə̄n
  • 8.Internal vs. external uses of kə̄n: The distribution
  • 9.Micro-diachrony: Internal uses > external uses
  • 10.The diachronic source: Diminutive?
  • 11.Similar cases in other Tungusic languages
  • 12Conclusions
  • 13.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 8 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19070.sto
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