Discourse semantics and the form of the verb predicate in Karachay-Balkar

Karachay-Balkar, a Turkic language of the Northern Caucasus, uses both finite and nonfinite verb forms to report narrative events. How do language users choose between these options when producing discourse? I propose a discourse-semantic distinction between plain temporal sequence and a sequence with a causal nuance as the guiding force behind this choice and use a combination of observational and experimental techniques to substantiate this suggestion. Such a combination of methods can be used in various field studies of lesser-known languages. In addition, I provide a review of verb forms used in Karachay-Balkar to formulate the predicates of narrative and non-narrative clauses.