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BASIC MEANS AND SOME IDIOETHNIC SPECIFICITY OF MARKING COMPONENTS OF LOCATIVE CATEGORY IN KET LANGUAGE // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2015. Issue 2 (8). P. 9-24

The research project deals with the analysis and description of the semantic category of location and motion in the Ket language using the approach advanced in the framework of the Theory of Functional Grammar as advanced by A. V. Bondarko and his research team. The investigation uses a notion of locative construction which includes three basic components: the object being localized (Figure, in L. Talmy’s notation), the reference object, or landmark (Ground) and spatial relations between the former and the latter. The semantic types of locative constructions based on the static and dynamic types of spatial relations, and topological and non-topological characteristics of spatial relations have been distinguished. The analysis of the basic language means of expressing spatial relations in Ket which include lexical items (motion and posture verbs, locative adverbs), grammatical items (case markers, locative postpositions), incorporated, and syntactic means (simple and polypredicative clauses) has been done. The research project examines the locational and directional markers on the components of static and dynamic spatial situations which include case markers, locative postpositions and adverbs differentiating essive, allative, elative and prolative meanings. The idioethnic specificity of marking spatial relations has been shown. The specificity consists in double subject marking of motion verbs, possibility of deriving transitive causative motion verbs from the corresponding intransitive motion verbs by adding one more subject agreement slot containing a subject marker which is co-referent with the subject marker of the original intransitive verb, the availability of incorporated motion verbs, аmong others. The notion of the non-verbal predicate as understood by Kees Hengeveld is proposed to be applied to the Ket material. The principal means of marking non-verbal predicates which involve personal and non-personal predicative suffixes are considered. The classification of the structural types of non-verbal locative predicates has been accomplished. As a result, the personal-predicative and non-personal-predicative predicates have been identified. The former are represented by substantive, substantive-postpositional, pronominal, pronominal-postpositional, adverbial predicates as well as some spatial nouns, and the latter – only by substantive-postpositional predicates.

Keywords: Ket language, Theory of functional Grammar, static situations, dynamic situations, different-level means of coding spatial relations, non-verbal predicates

VERB DERIVATION IN THE KET LANGUAGE: ACTANT DERIVATION AND INCORPORATION // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2018. Issue 2 (20). P. 9-18

The paper discusses the issues of noun incorporation in the Ket language. The evidence is given that incorporated nouns are inserted into a separate slot following the agent slot and separated from the kernel verb stem by inflectional affixes. The constructions including the verbs with incorporated nouns denoting semantic patients are considered. The possibility of incorporating semantic locatives, instruments and materials is only outlined. The basic and derived incorporated syntactic structures are analyzed using the dynamic syntax principles presupposing the availability of derivative relationship between syntactic construction. Thus, special attention is paid to prototypical incorporation which predetermins the opposition of non-incorporated and incorporated constructions. The mechanism of the “secondary” transitivizing of the derived intransitive incorporated complexes is described. It is concluded that incorporation in Ket is not used extensively compared to some other incorporating languages.

Keywords: Ket language, actant derivation, incorporation, patient noun incorporation, detransitivizing

PREDICATIVE QUALITATIVENESS CATEGORY IN KET: LANGUAGE MEANS OF EXPRESSING IT // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2020. Issue 3 (29). P. 32-43

The paper deals with the basic types of qualitativeness category particularly predicative qualitativeness and the language means of expressing it from the standpoint of functional grammar approach. It is shown that three types of predicative qualitativeness are identified in Ket. These are adjective-predicative, substantive-predicative and verbal-predicative ones. Adjective-predicative qualitativeness is expressed by adjective predicates, substantive-predicative qualitativeness — by compound nominal predicates and verbal-predicative qualitativeness — by predicates including finite conjugated verb forms. The basic inventory of language means forming predicative qualitative predicates is identified. The inventory includes underived qualitative adjectives, derived relative adjectives formed by means of the derivative suffix =ту, caritive adjectives, nonverbal substantive predicates denoting substantive-predicative qualitativeness; participles or infinitives; substativized complex modifiers; compound adjectives derived by means of the suffix =ту forming adjectives. The paper analyzes non-verbal means of denoting predicative qualitativeness, i.e. the predicates having as a head a word which doesn’t belong to the class of autosemantic verbs irrespective of the fact whether there is a verbal copula in the predicate structure. Two principal strategies of coding qualitative predicates have been identified including a person and number coding strategy which involves marking the non-verbal predicate by the affixes showing agreement with the subject of the qualitative construction in the categories of person, number and class (gender) and non-personal coding strategy implying the use of the suffix =сʹ (singular) — =сʹ=ин (plural) which allows for agreement with the subject only in the category of number. It is shown that there are cases of alternative coding of non-verbal qualitative predicates using either a person and number coding strategy or a non-personal strategy. The evidence that the grammatical category of degrees of comparison is not found in Ket qualitative adjectives is provided. The comparative and superlative notions are expressed by the syntactic constructions formed on the basis of adjectival qualitative predicates.

Keywords: category of qualitativeness, predicative qualitativeness, non-verbal predicates, personal and non-personal coding strategies, adjective, comparative and superlative syntactic constructions