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Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Rethinking theoretical and geographical boundaries
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto, Bernard Comrie and Peter Sells
[Typological Studies in Language 116] 2017
► pp. 179–201

Chapter 8
Noun-modifying constructions and relativization in the central and western Caucasus

| University of California Berkeley

Languages of the Nakh-Daghestanian family in the central and eastern Caucasus uniformly use gap strategies for relativization and GNMCC’s, despite different contact histories. Languages to the west and southwest (West Caucasian, Kartvelian) are very different, using relative pronouns and finite verbs. Despite long contact there is almost no accommodation of eastern and western types to each other. This sharp typological divide is a continuation of a larger Eurasian divide between western languages, which use finite relativization with relative pronouns, and eastern ones, which use participles and gaps. The stability of the divide in the Caucasus and its evident antiquity there are testimony to the non-Sprachbund status of the Caucasus.

Keywords: Nakh-Daghestanian, West Caucasian, Kartvelian, relativization, finite
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Survey of relativization strategies and GNMCC’s
    • 2.1Nakh-Daghestanian
    • 2.2Ossetic (Digor dialect)
    • 2.3West Caucasian
    • 2.4Kartvelian
  • 3.Survey of other relevant typological variables
    • 3.1Constraints on relativization: Role and/or case of RN
    • 3.2Preferred case or role, based on text frequency counts
    • 3.3Core chaining
    • 3.4Relationship of relativization to core chaining
    • 3.5Agreement and how it works
    • 3.6Survey: Summary
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.09nic
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