Ilja A Seržant
Biographic Data
| ID | 1453354 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ilja A Seržant |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ilja A |
| FAMILY NAME | Seržant |
| SIGNATURE | SERŽANT I A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Potsdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8066-9251 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Argument marking reflects audience design effects
This paper contrasts typological and diachronic evidence on argument marking with theoretical proposals made in psycholinguistic research about the ways various types of audience design strategies affect production, with a focus on ambiguity avoidance in argument roles. The aim is to find convergent evidence from psycholinguistics as well as from typological and diachronic research. This evidence suggests that argument marking in functional const…
Evolution of differential object marking in Macedonian dialects
By the late Middle Ages, a part of South Slavic, including Macedonian and Bulgarian, had lost nominal case inflection, leading to the disappearance of the old Slavic differential object marking (DOM) system. In the 19th century, some southern Macedonian dialects developed a new DOM system based on the preposition na ‘on, to’. This study explores the evolution of this DOM system by comparing Southern Macedonian texts from two periods — the mid-19t…
Efficient sentence processing significantly affects the position of objects in Russian
In this article we explore various properties of direct objects in Russian that may condition the preference for a preverbal versus postverbal position of the object, against the general trend towards VO constituent order in Russian. First, we show that a preference for OV over VO order is associated with (in order of increasing effect size) animacy and definiteness of the object, personal pronouns in object function and pronominal object clitics…
Statistical signal versus areal/universal/genealogical pressure
Article Statistical signal versus areal/universal/genealogical pressure: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo was published on October 1, 2025 in the journal Linguistic Typology (volume 29, issue 3)
Distance-based approach reveals convergence effects in word order among the languages of the Circum-Baltic linguisticarea
We probe a new approach to linguistic areas. Instead of similarity of a feature across languages of the area, we focus on its adaptation to the area. Adaptation is a set of changes and/or retentions in a language towards, but not necessarily into, similarity with the other languages of the area. Technically, we estimate adaptation by comparing the distance between the focus language from the area and a geographically and genealogically closely re…
A typology of positional differential argument marking
In this paper, we introduce the notion of positional differential argument marking, a pattern in which the use of argument-coding devices, such as flags or indexes, is contingent upon the linear position of arguments in the clause. Compared to factors such as animacy and referentiality, the impact of word order on differential argument marking is understudied. In order to fill this gap, we compiled and annotated a dataset of 93 PDAM patterns, ide…
Inhilldaugar
Combining non- and minimally invasive archaeological survey, geomorphological methods and linguistic studies enables a better understanding of the dynamic use of the Daugava waterway from the Bronze to the Viking ages. Results indicate a common origin period of many fortified settlements and also identify research questions about cultural fluctuations in the Baltic-Slavic-Scandinavian contact area
Universal attractors in language evolution provide evidence for the kinds of efficiency pressures involved
Efficiency is central to understanding the communicative and cognitive underpinnings of language. However, efficiency management is a complex mechanism in which different efficiency effects—such as articulatory, processing and planning ease, mental accessibility, and informativity, online and offline efficiency effects—conspire to yield the coding of linguistic signs. While we do not yet exactly understand the interactional mechanism of these dif…
Diachronic typology of partitives
The present paper investigates diachronic developments that partitives undergo over the course of time. First, it is shown that true-partitives (part-whole-relation partitives) encoded by adpositional strategies are not stable cross-linguistically and tend to develop into pseudo-partitives, which are defined as constructions that encode simple quantification but retain the morphology of true-partitives. Secondly, the frequency bias towards indefi…
Cyclic changes in verbal person-number indexes are unlikely
This paper discusses the emergence and demise of verbal person-number indexes on the basis of a sample of 310 languages. First, qualitative evidence is provided to show that there are different ways in which indexes may emerge, and that independent anaphoric pronouns are not the only possible source. Second, quantitative evidence is provided against the claim that indexes tend to demise via phonological attrition in the course of time. A consider…
Slavic Morphosyntax is Primarily Determined by its Geographic Location and Contact Configuration
This paper seeks to identify causal factors constraining the diachronic dynamics of particular morphosyntactic categories of Slavic. It is suggested that the modern inventory of Slavic languages is not a result of accumulation of historically accidental changes and non-changes. Instead, it is argued that macro-areal pressures constrained by the geographic location and the particular language-contact configuration determine the selection of inheri…
Typology of coding patterns and frequency effects of antipassives
Frequency asymmetries within a minimal grammatical domain create offline associations that languages tend to exploit for a more efficient encoding. We explore cross-linguistic coding patterns of antipassives. We first argue that antipassive markers tend to have properties of derivational markers. Secondly, we show that antipassives are considerably rarer than the basic transitive constructions. The lower frequency correlates with the length of co…
Typology of partitives
This paper explores the coding patterns of partitives and their functional extensions, based on a convenience sample of 138 languages from 46 families from all macroareas. Partitives are defined as constructions that may express the proportional relation of a subset to a superset (the true-partitive relation). First, it is demonstrated that, crosslinguistically, partitive constructions vary as to their syntactic properties and morphological marki…
Diachronic evidence against source-oriented explanation in typology
Source-oriented explanation in typology challenges a number of well-established universals, including the correlational universals of harmonic ordering of heads and dependents. It dispenses with functional or cognitive explanations of these because harmonic orders may simply be explained as one order emerging from the other and thus as historical accidents. We provide twofold evidence against this approach and show that (i) universally preferred …
Dative experiencer constructions as a Circum-Baltic isogloss
The Independent Partitive as an Eastern Circum-Baltic isogloss
The paper claims that the independent partitive case in Finnic languages and the independent partitive genitive case in Baltic and East Slavic (henceforth: ip(g)) show considerable correlations that cannot be accounted for but by language contact. Given that both the ip (g) in Baltic and East Slavic as well as the ip (g) in Finnic are inherited from the respective proto-languages, the paper also offers a methodological discussion of how inherited…
The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects
This volume is an important contribution to the diachrony of non-canonical subjects in a typological perspective. The questions addressed concern the internal mechanisms and triggers for various changes that non-canonical subjects undergo, ranging from semantic motivations to purely structural explanations. The discussion encompasses the whole life-cycle of non-canonical subjects: from their emergence out of non-subject arguments to their expansi…
Rise of canonical objecthood with the Lithuanian verbs of pain
The present paper aims to uncover the processes governing the rise of canonical case-markings. Experiencer verbs with the ᴅᴀᴛExp–ɴᴏᴍStim case frame must necessarily first acquire canonical case marking on their second argument in order to enable the acquisition of the nominative by their first argument. The present paper concentrates, thus, on the acquisition of the accusative case by the second argument. Lithuanian verbs of pain are taken under …
[Review Of
Вячᴇᴄлᴀʙ Вᴄ. Иʙᴀнов (отв. ред.), Пᴇᴛᴘ М. Аᴘкᴀдьᴇв (сост.), Исследования по типологии славянских, балтийских и балканских языков (преимущественно в свете языковых контактов). Санкт-Петербург: Алетейя, 2013. / Vʏᴀᴄʜᴇsʟᴀv Ivᴀɴov & Pᴇᴛᴇʀ Aʀᴋᴀᴅɪᴇv, eds., Studies in the Typology of Slavic, Baltic and Balkan Languages (with primary reference to language contact). St Petersburg: Aletheia, 2013. ɪsʙɴ 978-5-91419-778-7. The main focus of the book is on var…
The so-called possessive perfect in North Russian and the Circum-Baltic area. A diachronic and areal account
Phonologische Isoglossen des Hochlettischen, Nord-Ost-Litauischen, Nord-West-Russischen und Weißrussischen
The present paper deals with common developments in phonology and/or phonetics of High Latvian, White Russian and North-West-Russian varieties. Only non-trivial processes are discussed, in order to exclude the possibilityof parallel, independent development. The focus of this paper lies on the High Latvian dialect as a local centre of language contact. In the first section a number of common phenomena of High Latvian and West-East-Slavic aredemon…
Buchbesprechungen
Bedeutung und Wurzel der tocharischen A Wurzel tsän
Bedeutung und Wurzel der tocharischen A Wurzel tsän
The Independent Partitive as an Eastern Circum-Baltic isogloss
The paper claims that the independent partitive case in Finnic languages and the independent partitive genitive case in Baltic and East Slavic (henceforth: ip(g)) show considerable correlations that cannot be accounted for but by language contact. Given that both the ip (g) in Baltic and East Slavic as well as the ip (g) in Finnic are inherited from the respective proto-languages, the paper also offers a methodological discussion of how inherited…
Typology of partitives
This paper explores the coding patterns of partitives and their functional extensions, based on a convenience sample of 138 languages from 46 families from all macroareas. Partitives are defined as constructions that may express the proportional relation of a subset to a superset (the true-partitive relation). First, it is demonstrated that, crosslinguistically, partitive constructions vary as to their syntactic properties and morphological marki…
The so-called possessive perfect in North Russian and the Circum-Baltic area. A diachronic and areal account
Efficient sentence processing significantly affects the position of objects in Russian
In this article we explore various properties of direct objects in Russian that may condition the preference for a preverbal versus postverbal position of the object, against the general trend towards VO constituent order in Russian. First, we show that a preference for OV over VO order is associated with (in order of increasing effect size) animacy and definiteness of the object, personal pronouns in object function and pronominal object clitics…
Phonologische Isoglossen des Hochlettischen, Nord-Ost-Litauischen, Nord-West-Russischen und Weißrussischen
The present paper deals with common developments in phonology and/or phonetics of High Latvian, White Russian and North-West-Russian varieties. Only non-trivial processes are discussed, in order to exclude the possibilityof parallel, independent development. The focus of this paper lies on the High Latvian dialect as a local centre of language contact. In the first section a number of common phenomena of High Latvian and West-East-Slavic aredemon…
Bedeutung und Wurzel der tocharischen A Wurzel tsän
Bedeutung und Wurzel der tocharischen A Wurzel tsän
Buchbesprechungen
Phonologische Isoglossen des Hochlettischen, Nord-Ost-Litauischen, Nord-West-Russischen und Weißrussischen
The present paper deals with common developments in phonology and/or phonetics of High Latvian, White Russian and North-West-Russian varieties. Only non-trivial processes are discussed, in order to exclude the possibilityof parallel, independent development. The focus of this paper lies on the High Latvian dialect as a local centre of language contact. In the first section a number of common phenomena of High Latvian and West-East-Slavic aredemon…
The so-called possessive perfect in North Russian and the Circum-Baltic area. A diachronic and areal account
The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects
This volume is an important contribution to the diachrony of non-canonical subjects in a typological perspective. The questions addressed concern the internal mechanisms and triggers for various changes that non-canonical subjects undergo, ranging from semantic motivations to purely structural explanations. The discussion encompasses the whole life-cycle of non-canonical subjects: from their emergence out of non-subject arguments to their expansi…
Rise of canonical objecthood with the Lithuanian verbs of pain
The present paper aims to uncover the processes governing the rise of canonical case-markings. Experiencer verbs with the ᴅᴀᴛExp–ɴᴏᴍStim case frame must necessarily first acquire canonical case marking on their second argument in order to enable the acquisition of the nominative by their first argument. The present paper concentrates, thus, on the acquisition of the accusative case by the second argument. Lithuanian verbs of pain are taken under …
[Review Of
Вячᴇᴄлᴀʙ Вᴄ. Иʙᴀнов (отв. ред.), Пᴇᴛᴘ М. Аᴘкᴀдьᴇв (сост.), Исследования по типологии славянских, балтийских и балканских языков (преимущественно в свете языковых контактов). Санкт-Петербург: Алетейя, 2013. / Vʏᴀᴄʜᴇsʟᴀv Ivᴀɴov & Pᴇᴛᴇʀ Aʀᴋᴀᴅɪᴇv, eds., Studies in the Typology of Slavic, Baltic and Balkan Languages (with primary reference to language contact). St Petersburg: Aletheia, 2013. ɪsʙɴ 978-5-91419-778-7. The main focus of the book is on var…
Dative experiencer constructions as a Circum-Baltic isogloss
The Independent Partitive as an Eastern Circum-Baltic isogloss
The paper claims that the independent partitive case in Finnic languages and the independent partitive genitive case in Baltic and East Slavic (henceforth: ip(g)) show considerable correlations that cannot be accounted for but by language contact. Given that both the ip (g) in Baltic and East Slavic as well as the ip (g) in Finnic are inherited from the respective proto-languages, the paper also offers a methodological discussion of how inherited…
Diachronic evidence against source-oriented explanation in typology
Source-oriented explanation in typology challenges a number of well-established universals, including the correlational universals of harmonic ordering of heads and dependents. It dispenses with functional or cognitive explanations of these because harmonic orders may simply be explained as one order emerging from the other and thus as historical accidents. We provide twofold evidence against this approach and show that (i) universally preferred …
Diachronic typology of partitives
The present paper investigates diachronic developments that partitives undergo over the course of time. First, it is shown that true-partitives (part-whole-relation partitives) encoded by adpositional strategies are not stable cross-linguistically and tend to develop into pseudo-partitives, which are defined as constructions that encode simple quantification but retain the morphology of true-partitives. Secondly, the frequency bias towards indefi…
Cyclic changes in verbal person-number indexes are unlikely
This paper discusses the emergence and demise of verbal person-number indexes on the basis of a sample of 310 languages. First, qualitative evidence is provided to show that there are different ways in which indexes may emerge, and that independent anaphoric pronouns are not the only possible source. Second, quantitative evidence is provided against the claim that indexes tend to demise via phonological attrition in the course of time. A consider…
Slavic Morphosyntax is Primarily Determined by its Geographic Location and Contact Configuration
This paper seeks to identify causal factors constraining the diachronic dynamics of particular morphosyntactic categories of Slavic. It is suggested that the modern inventory of Slavic languages is not a result of accumulation of historically accidental changes and non-changes. Instead, it is argued that macro-areal pressures constrained by the geographic location and the particular language-contact configuration determine the selection of inheri…
Typology of coding patterns and frequency effects of antipassives
Frequency asymmetries within a minimal grammatical domain create offline associations that languages tend to exploit for a more efficient encoding. We explore cross-linguistic coding patterns of antipassives. We first argue that antipassive markers tend to have properties of derivational markers. Secondly, we show that antipassives are considerably rarer than the basic transitive constructions. The lower frequency correlates with the length of co…
Typology of partitives
This paper explores the coding patterns of partitives and their functional extensions, based on a convenience sample of 138 languages from 46 families from all macroareas. Partitives are defined as constructions that may express the proportional relation of a subset to a superset (the true-partitive relation). First, it is demonstrated that, crosslinguistically, partitive constructions vary as to their syntactic properties and morphological marki…
Universal attractors in language evolution provide evidence for the kinds of efficiency pressures involved
Efficiency is central to understanding the communicative and cognitive underpinnings of language. However, efficiency management is a complex mechanism in which different efficiency effects—such as articulatory, processing and planning ease, mental accessibility, and informativity, online and offline efficiency effects—conspire to yield the coding of linguistic signs. While we do not yet exactly understand the interactional mechanism of these dif…
Inhilldaugar
Combining non- and minimally invasive archaeological survey, geomorphological methods and linguistic studies enables a better understanding of the dynamic use of the Daugava waterway from the Bronze to the Viking ages. Results indicate a common origin period of many fortified settlements and also identify research questions about cultural fluctuations in the Baltic-Slavic-Scandinavian contact area
Statistical signal versus areal/universal/genealogical pressure
Article Statistical signal versus areal/universal/genealogical pressure: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo was published on October 1, 2025 in the journal Linguistic Typology (volume 29, issue 3)
Distance-based approach reveals convergence effects in word order among the languages of the Circum-Baltic linguisticarea
We probe a new approach to linguistic areas. Instead of similarity of a feature across languages of the area, we focus on its adaptation to the area. Adaptation is a set of changes and/or retentions in a language towards, but not necessarily into, similarity with the other languages of the area. Technically, we estimate adaptation by comparing the distance between the focus language from the area and a geographically and genealogically closely re…
A typology of positional differential argument marking
In this paper, we introduce the notion of positional differential argument marking, a pattern in which the use of argument-coding devices, such as flags or indexes, is contingent upon the linear position of arguments in the clause. Compared to factors such as animacy and referentiality, the impact of word order on differential argument marking is understudied. In order to fill this gap, we compiled and annotated a dataset of 93 PDAM patterns, ide…
Argument marking reflects audience design effects
This paper contrasts typological and diachronic evidence on argument marking with theoretical proposals made in psycholinguistic research about the ways various types of audience design strategies affect production, with a focus on ambiguity avoidance in argument roles. The aim is to find convergent evidence from psycholinguistics as well as from typological and diachronic research. This evidence suggests that argument marking in functional const…
Evolution of differential object marking in Macedonian dialects
By the late Middle Ages, a part of South Slavic, including Macedonian and Bulgarian, had lost nominal case inflection, leading to the disappearance of the old Slavic differential object marking (DOM) system. In the 19th century, some southern Macedonian dialects developed a new DOM system based on the preposition na ‘on, to’. This study explores the evolution of this DOM system by comparing Southern Macedonian texts from two periods — the mid-19t…
Efficient sentence processing significantly affects the position of objects in Russian
In this article we explore various properties of direct objects in Russian that may condition the preference for a preverbal versus postverbal position of the object, against the general trend towards VO constituent order in Russian. First, we show that a preference for OV over VO order is associated with (in order of increasing effect size) animacy and definiteness of the object, personal pronouns in object function and pronominal object clitics…
Philosophy (18 works) · Linguistics (17 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (13 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (12 works) · History (11 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Language and cultural evolution (7 works) · Geography (6 works) · Mathematics (6 works) · Typology (6 works)