The Morphology of Case and Possession in Balkar

Evidence that Oblique Cases Contain Accusative

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5900693
AutoresColin Davis (0000-0002-9559-0693, University of Konstanz, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen8
Número1
Páginas50
Fecha de publicación2023-02-07
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLanguages (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8010050
OpenAlexW4319439096
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas27

This paper uses facts about case allomorphy and possessive morphology in Balkar, a Turkic language spoken in southern Russia, to contribute to the examination of the internal structure of case. A number of recent findings in morpho-syntactic research indicate that case markers have a richer internal structure than their surface appearance typically suggests. Specifically, many works in this vein argue based on cross-linguistic facts about phenomena such as suppletion and syncretism that case features are organized into an implicational containment hierarchy. In this hierarchy, accusative case contains the features of the nominative, and the accusative is itself a sub-part of oblique cases. Many arguments for case containment have relied on diagnostics that are less direct than surface-level morpho-syntactic analysis. In this paper, I argue that there is a part of Balkar grammar that shows the containment of accusative case by obliques in a surface-evident way. While such containment is not normally evident in Balkar, I argue that in certain possessed oblique NPs we see an overt expression of the accusative, except when phonological factors interfere. I go on to discuss other related topics about Balkar and the case containment hypothesis more generally

Allomorph · Dative case · Genitive case · Grammar · Hierarchy · Linguistics · Morpheme · Noun · Oblique case · Political science · Possession (linguistics · Possessive · Syncretism (linguistics · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation