A grammar of

Sanzhi Dargwa
Diana Forker

language
Languages of the Caucasus 2 science
press
Languages of the Caucasus

Editors: Diana Forker (Universität Jena), Nina Dobrushina (National Research University Higher
School of Economics, Moscow), Timur Maisak (Institute of Linguistics at the Russian Academy of
Sciences, Moscow), Oleg Belyaev (Lomonosov Moscow State University).

In this series:

1. Daniel, Michael, Nina Dobrushina & Dmitry Ganenkov (eds.). The Mehweb language:
Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.

2. Forker, Diana. A grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa.

A grammar of
Sanzhi Dargwa
Diana Forker

language
science
press
Forker, Diana. 2020. A grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa (Languages of the Caucasus 2).
Berlin: Language Science Press.

This title can be downloaded at:

http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/250
© 2020, Diana Forker
Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0):
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
ISBN: 978-3-96110-196-2 (Digital)
978-3-96110-197-9 (Hardcover)

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3339225
Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/250
Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=250

Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort

Typesetting: Diana Forker, Felix Anker, Felix Kopecky
Proofreading: Ahmet Bilal Özdemir, Andrew Spencer, Aniefon Daniel, Daryl
MacDonald, Felix Kopecky, Ivica Jeđud , Jeroen van de Weijer, Jezia Talavera, Laura
Arnold, Laurentia Schreiber, Mykel Brinkerhoff, Jean Nitzke, Sebastian Nordhoff, Sune
Gregersen, Tom Bossuyt, Alena Witzlack, Yvonne Treis
Fonts: Libertinus, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono
Typesetting software: XƎLATEX

Language Science Press

Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin, Germany
langsci-press.org

Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin

Contents
Acknowledgments xi

Spelling conventions xiii

Glosses and other abbreviations xv

1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Sanzhi community and the Sanzhi language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The sociolinguistic situation of Sanzhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Genealogical affiliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Dargwa languages and the problem of the “Dargwa ethnicity” . . . . . . 7
1.5 Typological overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.6 Literature on Dargwa languages, Dargwa people, and previous works on
Sanzhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.7 Documenting and describing Sanzhi Dargwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

I Phonology 17
2 Phonology 19
2.1 Consonant inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Vowel inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 Syllable and word structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Pharyngealization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5 Word stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6.1 Vowel deletion (vowel syncope) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6.2 Alternations in the form of enclitics/suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.6.3 Glide insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.6.4 Glottal stop insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.6.5 Sequences of identical vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.6.6 Other general processes affecting vowels: Pharyngealization and
formation of diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6.7 Vowel mutation (apophony) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6.8 Assimilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.6.9 Palatalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.6.10 Labialization and delabialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6.11 Gemination and degemination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Contents

II Nominal categegories 41
3 Nouns 43
3.1 Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.1 Frequent and productive plural suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.2.2 Modestly frequent plural suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2.3 Morphophonological rules and other restrictions . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2.4 The associative plural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.4 Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4.1 Functions of grammatical cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4.2 Functions of semantic cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.5 Derivation of nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5.1 Agent nouns with -či . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5.2 Agent nouns with and -kar, -q’aˁ, and -uˁq’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.5.3 Abstract nouns with -dex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.5.4 Action nouns/event nouns and tools with -ala . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.5.5 Action and event nouns with -utːi and -a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.5.6 Other derived nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.6 Reduplication and compounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.6.1 Reduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.6.2 N + N compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.6.3 Other compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.7 Phrasal compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

4 Pronouns 89
4.1 Personal pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them . . . . . . . . 90
4.2.1 The demonstrative series in the columns: iC vs. heC vs. hiC and
i(C)tːi vs. he(C)tːi vs. hi(C)tːi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.2.2 Proximity, distance, and elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.2.3 Pronouns and adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns . . 102
4.3 Reflexive pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.4 Reciprocal pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.5 Interrogative pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.5.1 ča ‘who’ and ce ‘what’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.5.2 Other interrogative words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.5.3 Interrogative pronouns used as indefinites . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.6 Indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.6.1 Specific indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.6.2 Non-specific indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6.3 Free-choice indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.6.4 Negative indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.7 Universal indefinites and other quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

ii
 Contents

5 Adjectives 121
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.2 Adjectives and the cross-categorical suffixes -ce and -il . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3 Formation of adjectival attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4 Comparative constructions with adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

6 Numerals 129
6.1 Cardinal numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.2 Ordinal numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.3 Distributive numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.4 Group numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.5 Multiplicative numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.6 Collective numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.7 Other numeral expressions and compounds involving numerals . . . . . 136

7 Adverbs 139
7.1 Spatial adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.1.1 Spatial adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns . . . . . . 139
7.1.2 Spatial adverbs related to postpositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.1.3 Other spatial adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.2 Temporal adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7.3 Manner adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.4 Degree adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.5 Formation of adverbials with the suffix -le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

8 Postpositions 149
8.1 Spatial postpositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.1.1 sala ‘in front of’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.1.2 sa ‘in front, ago’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.1.3 hila ‘behind, after’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.1.4 hitːi ‘after, behind’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.1.5 xːar(i) ‘down, at the bottom, under’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.1.6 qari ‘at the top, above, on, about’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.1.7 či ‘on, above’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.1.8 urkːa ‘between, among, within, in the middle’ . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.1.9 b-i ‘in, inside’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.1.10 šːule ‘at side, next to, near’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.1.11 tːura ‘out, outside’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
8.2 Non-spatial postpositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.2.1 b-alli ‘together, with’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.2.2 canille ‘together, with’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.2.3 bahanne/bahandan ‘because of’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.2.4 akːʷar ‘without, except, apart’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.2.5 q’atːin(na) ‘for the sake of, because of’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.2.6 ħaˁsible ‘according to’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

iii
Contents

9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical

suffixes 161
9.1 Predicative particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
9.2 Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
9.3 Temporal enclitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.4.1 The additive enclitic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.4.2 The enclitic =q’al . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.4.3 The enclitic =q’ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
9.4.4 The enclitic =n(u) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.4.5 Other enclitics that manipulate information structure . . . . . . . 177
9.5 Pause fillers, address particles, exclamatives, and interjections . . . . . . 179
9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.6.1 The suffix -ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.6.2 The suffix -il . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9.6.3 The adverbializer -le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

10 Place names and microtoponyms 197

III Verbal morphology 203

11 General remarks on verbal morphology 205
11.1 Overview of the general morphological structure of verbs . . . . . . . . . 205
11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
11.2.1 Differences in gender agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
11.2.2 Differences in the stem vowel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
11.2.3 Insertion of r in the imperfective stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
11.2.4 Insertion of l in the imperfective stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
11.2.5 Insertion of r in the perfective stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
11.2.6 Insertion of l in the perfective stem (and usually l-initial imper-
fective stem) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
11.2.7 Verbs with only one aspectual stem and other morphologically
exceptional verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
11.3 Gender agreement in verb stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
11.4 Person agreement and stem augment vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
11.5 The morpheme template of Sanzhi verbs and the structure of morpho-
logically complex verb forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.6 Spatial preverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
11.6.1 Location preverbs and spatial cases expressing direction . . . . . 217
11.6.2 Deixis and elevation preverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
11.6.3 Combinations of preverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.7 Negation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
11.8 Morphophonological processes affecting the formation and inflection of
verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

iv
 Contents

12 Verb formation 227

12.1 Formation of causative verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
12.2 Compound verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
12.2.1 Light verbs used in compounding and general remarks on com-
pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
12.2.2 Compounds with nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
12.2.3 Compounds with short adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
12.2.4 Compounds with ideophones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
12.2.5 Compounds with bound lexical stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

13 Indicative synthetic verb forms 243

13.1 Habitual present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
13.2 Habitual past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

14 Analytic verb forms 249

14.1 Forms based on the imperfective stem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
14.1.1 Compound present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
14.1.2 Compound past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
14.1.3 Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
14.1.4 Future in the past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
14.1.5 Obligative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
14.1.6 Obligative present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
14.1.7 Obligative past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
14.2 Forms based on the preterite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
14.2.1 The imperfective preterite and imperfective preterite resultative . 259
14.2.2 The preterite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
14.2.3 The (perfective) resultative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
14.2.4 The perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
14.2.5 The past perfect (pluperfect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
14.2.6 Experiential I and experiential II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
14.2.7 Experiential past I and experiential past II . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

15 Periphrastic verb forms 271

15.1 Verb forms with locational copulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
15.2 Verb forms with kelgʷ- ‘remain’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
15.3 Verb forms with b-el ‘remain, stay’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
15.4 Verb forms with the auxiliary b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, be
able’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
15.4.1 Periphrastic conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
15.4.2 Epistemic modal constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
15.5 Epistemic modality with the auxiliary b-urkː- ‘find’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
15.6 Indirect evidentiality with the auxiliary b-ug- ‘be, be at, stay, remain’ . . 282

16 The copula and other auxiliaries 285

16.1 The copula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

v
Contents

16.2 Locational copulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

16.3 Other verbs used in copula-functions and as auxiliaries . . . . . . . . . . 292

17 Non-indicative verb forms 295

17.1 Imperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
17.2 Prohibitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
17.3 Optative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
17.4 Modal interrogative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

18 Non-finite verb forms 305

18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
18.1.1 Simple converbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
18.1.2 Participles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
18.1.3 The infinitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
18.1.4 The subjunctive (i.e. agreeing infinitive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
18.1.5 The masdar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
18.2 Specialized converbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
18.2.1 The temporal/causal enclitic =qːel(la) ‘when, while, because’ . . . 322
18.2.2 The temporal marker -er ‘when, as’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
18.2.3 The temporal enclitic =sat/=satːin/=satːinna ‘until, before as much/
long as’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
18.2.4 The temporal adverb/postposition sar(ka) ‘until, before’ . . . . . 324
18.2.5 The temporal/causal postposition (h)itːi ‘after, because’ . . . . . . 324
18.2.6 The temporal marker -la ‘since, after’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
18.2.7 The periphrastic adverbial construction with b-el-le ‘while, as
long as, as soon as, until, when’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
18.2.8 The concessive enclitic =xːar(e) ‘although, even if’ . . . . . . . . 327
18.2.9 Constructions with zamana ‘time’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
18.2.10 Minor ways of forming adverbial clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
18.3.1 Realis conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
18.3.2 Past conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
18.3.3 Imperfective realis conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
18.3.4 Imperfective past conditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
18.3.5 Periphrastic conditional clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
18.3.6 Concessive conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

IV Syntax 339
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns 341
19.1 Valency classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
19.1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
19.1.2 Intransitive verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

vi
 Contents

19.1.3
Monovalent affective verbs and exceptional monovalent construc-
tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
19.1.4 Extended intransitive verbs and other constructions with biva-
lent predicates and absolutive S arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
19.1.5 Transitive verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
19.1.6 Extended transitive verbs (i.e. ditransitive verbs) . . . . . . . . . 350
19.1.7 Bivalent verbs with lexicalized objects and other rare construc-
tions with bivalent verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
19.1.8 Bivalent affective verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
19.1.9 Labile verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
19.2 Modification of valency patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
19.2.1 Antipassive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
19.2.2 Causativization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

20 Agreement 373
20.1 Pure number agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
20.2.1 General remarks on gender/number agreement . . . . . . . . . . 374
20.2.2 Semantic agreement and other peculiarities . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
20.2.3 Gender/number agreement with conjoined noun phrases . . . . . 382
20.2.4 Gender agreement with arguments in other than the absolutive
case (“Deviant agreement”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
20.3 Person agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
20.3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
20.3.2 Person agreement rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases 403

21.1 Noun phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
21.1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
21.1.2 Lexical, phrasal, and clausal modifiers in noun phrases . . . . . . 404
21.1.3 The structure and order of constituents within the noun phrase . 407
21.1.4 Floating modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
21.1.5 Nominalized modifiers used as head nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
21.2 Postpositional phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations 417

22.1 Simple clauses headed by verbs other than copulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
22.2.1 Copula constructions expressing identity, group membership and
attribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
22.2.2 Location, existence, and possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
22.2.3 Copula clauses without a subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
22.2.4 Copula clauses without a copula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
22.3 Grammatical relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

vii
Contents

23 Relative clauses 433

23.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
23.2 Positions that can be relativized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
23.3 Other syntactic properties of relative clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
23.4 Headless relative clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

24 Complementation 449
24.1 Complement-taking predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
24.1.1 Utterance verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
24.1.2 Liking and fearing verbs and other verbs denoting emotions and
volition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
24.1.3 Cognition predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
24.1.4 Manipulative verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
24.1.5 Phasal verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
24.1.6 Modal predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
24.1.7 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
24.2.1 The zero strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
24.2.2 The quotative particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
24.2.3 The cross-categorical suffix -ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
24.2.4 The masdar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
24.2.5 The perfective converb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
24.2.6 Infinitive and subjunctive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
24.2.7 The embedded question marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
24.2.8 The imperfective converb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
24.2.9 The pretend-construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
24.3 Reported speech constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
24.3.1 General characteristics of reported speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
24.3.2 Formal marking in reported speech constructions . . . . . . . . . 469
24.4 The syntactic properties of complement clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
24.5 Argument control in complement constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
24.6 Constructions that semantically resemble complement clauses . . . . . . 481
24.6.1 Parentheticals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
24.6.2 Nominalized relative clauses resembling complement construc-
tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
24.6.3 Adverbial clauses used with emotion and cognition predicates . . 486

25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses 487

25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
25.1.1 Scope properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
25.1.2 Focus and question words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
25.1.3 Co-reference and expression of shared arguments . . . . . . . . . 492
25.1.4 Linear order and iconicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
25.1.5 Morphosyntactic locus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

viii
 Contents

25.1.6 Island constraints: relativization and extraction . . . . . . . . . . 499

25.1.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
25.1.8 Adverbial clauses as independent utterances? . . . . . . . . . . . 500
25.2 The syntax of conditional clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

26 Coordination 505
26.1 Coordination of noun phrases and other phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
26.2 Coordination of clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
26.2.1 General remarks on the conjunctive coordination of clauses . . . 506
26.2.2 Conjunctive coordination of clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
26.2.3 Adversative coordination of clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
26.2.4 Disjunctive coordination of clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

27 Constituent order and information structure 511

27.1 Constituent order at the phrase level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
27.1.1 General remarks on the constituent order at the phrase level . . . 511
27.1.2 Floating genitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
27.1.3 Floating adjectives, postpositional phrases, and relative clauses . 515
27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure . . . . . . 518
27.2.1 Declarative clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
27.2.2 Information structure in interrogative clauses and question-an-
swer pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
27.2.3 Right and left dislocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
27.3 Other types of focus constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
27.3.1 Thetic sentences and presentational constructions . . . . . . . . 530
27.3.2 Contrastive focus and floating predicative particles . . . . . . . . 531
27.3.3 Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
27.4 Verb doubling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
27.5 Focus-sensitive particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

28 Interrogative clauses 541

28.1 Simple polar questions and disjunctive polar questions . . . . . . . . . . 541
28.2 Content questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
28.3 Tag questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
28.4 Subordinate questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
28.5 Other uses of questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions 553

29.1 Reflexive constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
29.1.1 Local reflexivization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
29.1.2 Emphatic reflexive and intensifying uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
29.1.3 Long-distance reflexivization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
29.2 Reciprocal constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

ix
Contents

30 Minor constructions 569

30.1 Comparative constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
30.2 Equative constructions and the expression of similarity . . . . . . . . . . 570
30.3 Comitative constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
30.4 Possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Appendix A: List of affixes and enclitics 577

References 583

Index 595
Name index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Subject index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

x
Acknowledgments
This grammar could not have been written without the support of many people and
institutions.
First of all I am indebted to the Sanzhi community, in particular to my main assistant
and consultant Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov, his wife Fatimat (‘Batichaj’) and his entire
family. His passion for Sanzhi culture, history and language, his extraordinary patience
in dealing with my endless questions and his linguistic intuitions made the work on
this grammar possible and in fact a wonderful experience. He and his family hosted me
during the entire project and allowed me to fully concentrate on my work while being
their guest in Druzhba.
The grammar is one of the results of the language documentation project Documenting
Dargi languages in Dagestan – Shiri and Sanzhi (2012–2019). The project was supported
by many other members of the Sanzhi community in addition to Gadzhimurad, in par-
ticular by Isakadi Bakhmudov and Asabali Gadzhimuradov. A big barkalla goes to all of
you!
The project has received financial support through a grant from the Volkswagen Foun-
dation (DobeS program) to Diana Forker (Grant Number 86 357). This generous support
is gratefully acknowledged. I am particularly thankful for the help of Vera Szöllösi (Volks-
wagen Foundation) and for the administrative support of Geoffrey Haig (University of
Bamberg).
The project has been conducted by an international team of researchers, first of all Ra-
sul Mutalov, whose idea it was to document endangered Dargwa languages and to apply
for a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. I also wish to thank my other two fellow
project members, Oleg Belyaev and Iwona Kaliszewska, as well as the student assistants
André Müller, Teresa Klemm, Felix Anker, and Nils Schiborr for scientific, technical and
practical support at all stages of the project.
The grammar has profited from many discussions with researchers, colleagues and
friends, especially the very active “Caucasian community” scattered around the globe,
but united by the interest and the fascination for the languages of the Caucasus. In partic-
ular I want to thank the reviewers who kindly provided many comments, corrections and
useful suggestions: Gilles Authier, Natasha Bogomolova, Ilya Chechuro, Denis Creissels,
Misha Daniel, Nina Dobrushina, Dima Ganenkov, Linda Konnerth, Yura Lander, Timur
Maisak, Zarina Molochieva, George Moroz, Jérémy Pasquereau, Stefan Schnell, Nina
Sumbatova, and Jussi Ylikoski. I am also grateful to Sebastian Nordhoff, Felix Kopecky
and the proof readers from Language Science Press for making it possible to publish high
quality books that are accessible to everybody. Finally I am lucky to have the best family
support I can think of.

Tanzt eure Revolution!

Spelling conventions
The writing system used in this grammar largely follows previous works on other Darg-
wa varieties (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003; Sumbatova & Lander 2014). Given below as
well is the Cyrillic orthography, which I use with the Sanzhi community and which
has been established in Forker & Gadzhimuradov (2017). It is almost identical to the
established orthography of Standard Dargwa (plus sounds that Standard Dargwa lacks,
minus sounds that do not exist in Sanzhi Dargwa). The letters given in brackets represent
phonemes that occur only in loan words.

Cyrillic orthographic IPA Cyrillic orthographic IPA

а a a сс sː sː
б b b т t t
в w, ʷ w, ʷ тт tː tː
г g g тI t’ t’
гI ʡ ʕ, ʡ у u u
гъ ʁ ʁ (ф) (f) f
гь h h х χ χ
д d d хх χː χː
е e, je e, je хъ q q
ж ž ʒ хь x x
з z z хьхь xː xː
и i i хI ħ ħ
й j j ц c ts
к k k цI c’ ts’
кк kː kː ч č tʃ
кI k’ k’ чː čː tʃː
къ qː qː чI č’ tʃ’
кь q’ q’ ш š ʃ
л l l шш, щ šː ʃː
м m m ъ Ɂ Ɂ
н n n э e e
(о) (o) o уI uˁ uˁ
п p p ю uˁ uˁ
пI p’ p’ ю ju ju
р r r я aˁ aˁ
с s s я ja ja
Glosses and other abbreviations
Glosses
1 first person imp imperative
2 second person in location ‘in’; preverb ‘in’;
3 third person spatial case ‘in, on, at,
abl ablative among’
ad spatial case ‘at’ animate indef indefinite
reference point indq embedded question
add additive inf infinitive
adjvz adjectivizer in.front preverb ‘in front’
advz adverbializer in.the.hands
ante location ‘in front’ preverb ‘in the hands’
(spatial case, preverb) intr stem augment vowel for
assoc associative plural intransitive verbs in certain
aux auxiliary verb forms
behind spatial preverb ‘behind’ ipfv imperfective
caus causative loc locative (participle);
comit comitative locative case ‘in, on, to’
conc concessive m human masculine singular
cond conditional mod modal
cop copula modq modal interrogative
cvb converb msd masdar
dat dative n neuter singular
dd definite description neg negation
dem demonstrative nmlz nominalizer
dir directional case npl neuter plural
down spatial preverb ‘down’ num numeral
emph emphatic particle obl oblique stem marker
eq equative enclitic opt optative
erg ergative ord ordinal
f human feminine singular outside spatial preverb ‘outside’
gen genitive pfv perfective
gm gender marker pl plural
group derivation of group numerals post posteriority
hab habitual temporal suffix ‘since, after’;
hither preverb ‘to the speaker, hither’ spatial case ‘behind’
hpl human plural pret preterite
icvb imperfective converb proh prohibitive
Glosses and other abbreviations

prs present sub location ‘under’

prt particle (spatial case, preverb)
pst past subj subjunctive
ptcp participle ten derivation of numerals
pvb preverb multiples of ten
q question thither preverb ‘away from
ref referential speaker, thither’
refl reflexive time derivation of multiplicative
sg singular numerals
spr spatial preverb ‘on’ up spatial meaning ‘up(wards)’

Other abbreviations
A agent P patient
C consonant pro. pronoun
cond. conditional R recipient
dem. demonstrative refl.reflexive
ditr. ditransitive S single argument of an
E elicited example intransitive clause
EXP experiencer S subject
G goal s.o. someone
intr. intransitive T theme
IPA International Phonetic TAM tense-aspect-mood
Alphabet tr. transitive
lit. literally V verb
N noun V vowel
n no y yes
NP noun phrase
O object

xvi
1 Introduction
1.1 The Sanzhi community and the Sanzhi language
Sanzhi Dargwa is an East Caucasian (i.e. Nakh-Dagestanian) language from the Dargwa
(or Dargi) subbranch and belongs to the South Dargwa varieties (Glottocode: sanz1248).
In the literature, there is no unique terminology referring to Dargwa languages, dialects
or peoples, but several terms exist: Dargwa, Dargva, Dargi, or Darginskiy. For reasons of
uniformity and unambiguousness I restrict myself to the label and the graphic representa-
tion Dargwa and will not use the other terms. Sanzhi Dargwa is spoken by approximately
250 speakers and is critically endangered. The self-designation of the Sanzhi people is
sunglan-te (Sanzhi.person-pl) and the language is called sunglan ʁaj (lit. Sanzhi.person
language).
More than 40 years ago, all Sanzhi speakers left the village of Sanzhi, their village of
origin, in the Caucasian Mountains. Sanzhi is located in the Dakhadayevskiy rayon in
central Dagestan (today part of the Russian Federation), which is predominantly inhab-
ited by speakers of Dargwa languages.
The village of Sanzhi is located on the sunny side of the Ulluchay river valley, at an al-
titude of about 1,500 meters (Figure 1.5). The closest neighboring villages are Itsari, Shari,
Khuduts, Ashty, and Amukh. The distance from Makhachkala is around 200 kilometers,
from the regional center of the Dakhadayevskiy rayon, Urkarakh, it is 66 kilometers, and
from Derbent around 150 kilometers. There is no direct road to Sanzhi. In order to reach
the village, people go to Itsari by car or minibus and then walk around six kilometers
until they reach Sanzhi. Currently, the Sanzhi territory is part of the nature park Itsari.
The village consists of approximately 30 houses, which are in very poor condition and
not inhabited anymore (Figures 1.1–1.3). The only house with a roof that is relatively well
kept is the former school building. Sanzhi people regularly go to Sanzhi in the summer
to spend a few days fishing, berry picking, and doing other activities in their former
village. The village is surrounded by terrace fields that have been used for centuries to
grow crops such as rye, wheat, barley, oats, and in the recent past also carrots, radishes,
potatoes, and others. The traditional occupations of the Sanzhi people were farming and
breeding, in particular sheep breeding. Not far from the village, ancient rock paintings
can be found that, according to the Sanzhi people, have been the subject of investigation
by several researchers from Russia. Unfortunately, I was not able to find literature on
the paintings or the research expeditions.
From 1968 onwards, within a relatively short time span, all Sanzhi people moved to
the lowlands to ethnically and linguistically mixed settlements. The major reason for the
resettlement was the difficult life in the mountains. There was and still is no road leading
1 Introduction

Figure 1.1: The village of Sanzhi in 2011 (courtesy of Gadzhimurad Gadzhimu-

radov)

Figure 1.2: The village of Sanzhi in 2013 (courtesy of Iwona Kaliszewska)

2
 1.1 The Sanzhi community and the Sanzhi language

Figure 1.3: An old picture of Sanzhi, around 1957 (courtesy of the Sanzhi com-
munity)

Figure 1.4: The village of Druzhba in the winter of 2014 (picture by Diana
Forker)

3
1 Introduction

to Sanzhi, and also no electricity. From grade five on, children had to walk by foot to the
school in Itsari every day and in all weathers.
Today, the majority of Sanzhi speakers live in the village of Druzhba in the Dagesta-
nian lowlands (Kayakentskiy Rayon) (Figure 1.4) and to a lesser extent in other settle-
ments in Dagestan and other parts of Russia. Druzhba is an ethnically and linguistically
heterogeneous settlement with speakers of other South Dargwa varieties, other East Cau-
casian languages such as Tabasaran, Agul, Lezgian, and Lak, and also a very few Kumyk
(Turkic) and Russian speakers. In Druzhba, people make a living by working in the local
vineyards that used to be part of a sovkhoz (Soviet state farm). Many inhabitants, espe-
cially men, commute to other parts of Russia to work there and support their families
back home. A map of Dagestan with Sanzhi and Druzhba is given in Figure 1.5.

1.2 The sociolinguistic situation of Sanzhi

All languages of the Republic of Dagestan are official languages, but only 14 of them
have the status of being officially written languages. Sanzhi Dargwa, like many other
comparatively small languages and varieties spoken on the territory of Dagestan, does
not belong to the written languages.
Before the arrival of Russian in the remote parts of the central Dagestanian moun-
tains, where the original village of Sanzhi is located, Kumyk served as the language of
interethnic communication in the wider area. The main traces of contact with Kumyk
are the numerous Turkic loan words (e.g. the first part in ač barq’ij ‘open’ originates
from the Kumyk verb ač-maq, baχča ‘garden’ (identical in Kumyk), qːʷaz ‘goose’ from
Kumyk qaz, and many more). Nevertheless, among the Sanzhi speakers with whom I
worked, nobody claimed to have a significant command of Kumyk. All villages, except
for one1 in the immediate neighborhood of Sanzhi, are Dargwa villages with Dargwa
varieties closely related to Sanzhi, so that communication was and still is easily possible
just by sticking to one’s own variety.
Today, all Sanzhi speakers are bilingual or multilingual to various extents because they
know at least some Russian. Russian serves as the main language of interethnic commu-
nication and is the only language used in education and administration, and more gener-
ally in the public sphere in Dagestan. The degree of bilingualism varies from speaker to
speaker, but simplifying somewhat, it is possible to say that women of the oldest gener-
ation (60 years and older) are the only group for whom Sanzhi is the dominant language.
Men of the oldest generation as well as many members of the middle generation (age
30 to 60) are more or less balanced bilinguals, and use the two languages in accordance
with the different functional domains (public/official vs. private/speech community). All
members of the youngest generation are dominant in Russian, but everybody has at
least a passive command of Sanzhi and is able to use a simplified form of the language
in communication with members of the oldest generation, e.g. in interaction between
grandchildren and grandparents.

1
The exception is the village of Shara that was originally inhabitated by speakers of Agul, but today it is
also a Dargwa village according to my Sanzhi assistant.

4
 1.2 The sociolinguistic situation of Sanzhi

Figure 1.5: Map of Dagestan

5
1 Introduction

Figure 1.6: Sanzhi men at the Uraza Bayram, the holiday at the end of Ramadan
in 2013 (Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov, who is dressed in dark clothes, is stand-
ing on the left side) (picture by Diana Forker)

Thus, the contact situation is largely language maintenance for the oldest and middle
generation. Among the youngest generation language shift is observable, and it is rea-
sonable to assume that members of the youngest generation in particular who are still
children today will not pass on Sanzhi to their children. Some children and young people
in Druzhba still learn Sanzhi as their first language (this depends on the family situation),
but they come in contact with Russian right from the first day of their life. Russian be-
comes the dominant language at the latest when children start attending kindergarten.
Therefore, they generally have a limited and mostly passive command of Sanzhi and
prefer to speak only Russian. Sanzhi people of the young generation, including small
children, speak predominantly Russian with each other. More and more Sanzhi people
speak Russian not only to their neighbors in Druzhba, many of which are from other
ethnic groups, but even at home. Although the people have a positive language attitude
and are proud of speaking their own language, Russian is considered to be not only more
prestigious, but extremely necessary for the future of their children (see Forker 2018c for
more information).
Another factor influencing the linguistic situation is marriage between women and
men from different ethnic groups, which usually does not lead to bilingual children ac-
quiring both the language of the mother and of the father, but to children speaking only
Russian at home, as the parents use Russian to communicate with each other. I estimate

6
 1.3 Genealogical affiliation

that there are only a few families left in which both husband and wife are competent
Sanzhi speakers that have grown up in the village of Sanzhi. We can assume that in the
past the situation must have been different and the vast majority of wives were either
from Sanzhi or from the surrounding villages (Itsari, Chakhri, Kunki, Duakar, Dzilebki
are the main villages of origins of mothers and wives of the Sanzhi speakers with whom
I worked).
Since Sanzhi Dargwa is not employed in the public domain (e.g. administration, edu-
cation, media, court) the language is unwritten and used only for oral communication
within the Sanzhi community. The only printed material so far is Forker & Gadzhimu-
radov (2017), a collection of traditional stories and other texts. In school, Sanzhi children
have around two hours of mother tongue education per week, during which they learn
Standard Dargwa. Sanzhi speakers do not understand literary Standard Dargwa, because
Akusha Dargwa, the base for the standard language, is a Northern Dargwa variety and
quite different from Sanzhi. Therefore, in spite of the school classes, Sanzhi children
usually do not learn Standard Dargwa well and are not able to speak, write, or read in
Standard Dargwa, or make use of the few newspapers and TV programs that exist.

1.3 Genealogical affiliation

Sanzhi (Glottocode: sanz1248) belongs to the Dargwa (Dargi) languages, which form a
subgroup of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) language family. The exact number
of languages belonging to this family is unknown, but it can be estimated to be around
40. The internal classification of the family has not yet been unanimously resolved. Fig-
ure 1.7 shows one of the possible classifications (namely the classification according to
Kibrik 1996: xi). The internal division of the Dargwa branch into subvarieties is largely
taken from Koryakov (2006). Dargwa languages are commonly divided into a Northern
Dargwa group and a Southern Dargwa group, whereby Sanzhi belongs to the latter. The
spelling of the names for languages and varieties in Figure 1.7 follows the conventions
established in the literature and in the recent handbooks on East Caucasian languages
(Polinsky 2020; Koryakov et al. Submitted). Unfortunately, in a few cases this leads to dif-
ferences between the spelling of a village name and the spelling of the language spoken
in it (e.g. the village of Itsari vs. Icari Dargwa).

1.4 Dargwa languages and the problem of the “Dargwa

ethnicity”
Today, all languages spoken in the the Republic of Dagestan have the status of official lan-
guages (see the article 11 of the constitution of Dagestan, 2003). This includes Standard
Dargwa and Russian, among others. There is a distinction between the so-called “un-
written” and the “written languages” of Dagestan. The latter are (in addition to Russian),
Avar, Agul, Azerbaijani, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgian, Noghay, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, Tsakhur,
and Chechen. Written languages of Dagestan are, in principle, taught in school and used

7
1 Introduction

Nakh branch
Chechen, Ingush, Tsova-Tush (Batsbi)
Avar-Andic-Tsezic subbranch
Avar-Andic
Avar
Andic
Andi, Botlikh, Godoberi, Karata, Akhvakh, Bagvalal,
Tindi, Chamalal
Tsezic subbranch
Tsez, Hinuq, Khwarshi, Bezhta, Hunzib
Dargwa subbranch
Akusha/Standard Dargwa, Urakhi, Mugi, Tsudakhar, Gapshima-Butri,
Mjurego-Gubden, Kadar, Muiri, Mehweb, Sirkhi, Amukh-Xuduc, Shiri,
Qunqi, Icari, Sanzhi, Chirag, Kajtag, Kubachi-Ashti
Lak
Khinalug
Lezgic subbranch
Udi, Archi, Lezgian, Agul, Tabasaran, Tsakhur, Rutul, Kryz, Budugh

Figure 1.7: A family tree of East Caucasian

to some extent in the media (e.g. newspapers, journals). Until 1928, speakers of Dargwa
varieties used the Arabic script, but there was no standard orthography. From 1925 on-
wards, the first newspaper in a Dargwa language was published (Abdullaev 1954: 15). This
newspaper, as well as most books and other materials, was published in Akusha Dargwa,
the language which was later chosen as the basis for the literary standard Dargwa lan-
guage. There are several reasons for this choice: Akusha was and still is the Dargwa
variety with the most speakers, and the village of Akusha together with the surround-
ing villages formed an autonomous center (vol’noe obščestvo) for a long time. In 1930 at
the first Dagestanian conference on orthography, Akusha was appointed to be the basis
for the literary standard Dargwa language. In 1928, a Latin alphabet was developed for a
number of Dagestanian languages including Dargwa, Avar, Lak, Lezgian, and Tabasaran.
In 1938 the policy changed completely, and for all Dagestanian literary languages Cyril-
lic alphabets were introduced (Grenoble 2003: 48–51). In the following years the Dargwa
alphabet underwent several changes.
Dargwa people are officially considered to be one group that shares a common ethnic-
ity, and to speak various dialects of one and the same Dargwa language (see below for
the viewpoint of linguistics on this). According to the data of the Russian census from
2010, for instance, about 510 000 people consider themselves to be ethnic Dargwa, and

8
 1.4 Dargwa languages and the problem of the “Dargwa ethnicity”

thus represent the second biggest ethnic group in Dagestan (after the Avars). The vast
majority of them claim to speak Dargwa.
Dargwa languages are spoken in the central part of Dagestan (traditionally in the dis-
tricts Akushinskiy, Levashinskiy, Dakhadayevskiy, Sergokalinskiy, Kaytagskiy, and also
partially in the districts of Gunibskiy, Buynakskiy, Karabudakhkentskiy, and Agulskiy),
in a territory with a length of about 100 km and a breadth of about 70 km (Figure 1.8). In
the west, this area borders on Lak and Avar territory. In the north and east, the Dargwa
area borders on Kumyk lands, and in the south on Tabasaran lands.
The term Dargwa with its current reference was only introduced during Soviet times.
There was a policy at the time to create names for peoples and languages that often
lacked significance for the people themselves, and to introduce ethnic boundaries all
over the Northern Caucasus (Grenoble 2003: 114). The use of these names is nowadays
fully established and is largely maintained for political reasons (Šaxbanov 2009).
Historically, the term Dargwa (or Dargi) does not refer to an ethnic group (Abdullaev
1954: 13). There were seven unions of settlements in central Dagestan that referred to
themselves with a proper name and the term Dargwa: Akusha Dargwa, Bukun Dargwa,
Gutsi Dargwa, Kaba Dargwa, Utsmi (or Kaytag) Dargwa, Khamur Dargwa, and Sirkha
Dargwa (Magomedov 1999: 13). That is, Dargwa referred to settlement centers that con-
sisted of a number of small villages forming a unit, which were able to defend themselves
and their own interests against enemies (vol’noe obščestvo). Other urban centers in the
north, like Kadar and Gubden, whose inhabitants are also considered to be Dargwa peo-
ple today (and to speak Dargwa varieties), did not belong to those units to which the
term Dargwa was applied. They formed one administrative unit with Kumyk villages
(Abdullaev 1954: 12), and used Kumyk as their lingua franca (Dobrushina et al. 2020;
Wixman 1980: 58–59).
Similarly, there was not one single language with the name Dargwa, but a group of
related languages, in reference to which the names of the urban centers were used (Uslar
1892: 1). But since Soviet times, the classification of the Dargwa varieties as dialects of
one and the same Dargwa language has persisted in many publications and in all official
documents (e.g. Abdullaev 1954; Gasanova 1971; Musaev 2002; WALS2 ; Ethnologue3 ).
Following the most recent publications on the internal classification of the East Cauca-
sian language family (Koryakov 2006; Koryakov & Sumbatova 2007), the Dargwa branch
consists of 19 languages and about 40 dialects (see Figure 1.7 above). The biggest are
Akusha Dargwa (about 42 000 speakers), Mjurego-Gubden Dargwa (ca. 39 000), Urakhi
Dargwa (ca. 35 000), followed by Kajtag Dargwa (ca. 21 000), and Tsudakhar Dargwa
(ca. 19 000). Speakers of many Dargwa languages do not understand speakers of other
Dargwa varieties, and the variation between them is much bigger than between the
Andic languages, another subbranch of the East Caucasian family. The break-up of the
Proto-Dargwa language can be estimated to have occurred about two millennia ago
(Sumbatova, p.c.). However, the exact number of Dargwa languages is still subject to
debate, because descriptions are lacking for many of the individual languages and di-
alects. Thus, Figure 1.7 will likely need to be corrected in the future.

2
http://wals.info/
3
http://www.ethnologue.com/

9
1 Introduction

Figure 1.8: The East Caucasian (i.e. Nakh-Dagestanian) language family (map
courtesy of Yura Koryakov)

10
 1.5 Typological overview

The place of the Dargwa languages inside the East Caucasian family is also debated.
Some authors consider them to form a separate branch of the East Caucasian language
family (Gigineishvili 1977; Kibrik 1996: 142), others group them together with Lak (Has-
pelmath 1993; Koryakov 2006; van den Berg 2005).

1.5 Typological overview

Sanzhi Dargwa is typologically similar to other East Caucasian languages. It has a rel-
atively large consonant inventory including pharyngeal and ejective consonants, and a
medium number of vowels. With respect to its morphosyntactic structure, Sanzhi is pre-
dominantly dependent-marking with a rich case inventory. The grammatical cases are
ergative, absolutive, dative, and genitive. In addition, there is a plethora of spatial cases.
The morphology is concatenative and predominantly suffixing. Sanzhi has an elaborate
system of TAM forms. Verbal stems come in pairs that express imperfective and perfec-
tive aspect, and many can take spatial preverbs. Salient traits of the grammar are two
largely independently operating agreement systems: gender/number agreement and per-
son agreement. Gender/number agreement operates at the phrasal and at the clause level.
Within the clause, it is mainly controlled by arguments in the absolutive case and shows
up on verbs, adverbs, and on nouns in some of the spatial cases. Person agreement op-
erates at the clausal level only, and functions according to a person hierarchy. Sanzhi
has ergative alignment at the level of morphology. SOV is the most frequent constituent
order.
Features of Dargwa languages that have attracted the attention of typologists and lin-
guists working within various theoretical frameworks include gender and person agree-
ment (Sumbatova 2011; 2013; Belyaev 2013; 2017a,b; Ganenkov 2018; Forker 2016b), com-
plement constructions including reported speech (Ganenkov 2012; Forker 2019c), expe-
riencer constructions (Comrie & van den Berg 2006; Ganenkov 2006; 2013), local and
long-distance reflexivization (Forker 2014), backward control and long-distance agree-
ment (Serdobolskaya 2009; 2010; Belyaev 2016), the expression of space (Ganenkov 2010;
Forker 2019a), information structure (Sumbatova 2009; Forker & Belyaev 2016; Forker
2016b), and the problem of finiteness (Kalinina & Sumbatova 2007).

1.6 Literature on Dargwa languages, Dargwa people, and

previous works on Sanzhi
In comparison to some other Dagestanian languages, the description of Dargwa lan-
guages has a relatively long tradition. However, despite the impressive number of mono-
graphs and articles that have been dedicated to various Dargwa languages, the scope and
the quality of many of these works cannot satisfy modern scientific standards. Thus, in
the following I will mention only those works that are still in use and represent valuable
documentations and analyses of Dargwa. For a more detailed overview on the history of
the study of Dargwa languages, see Magometov (1983) and also the references in Temir-
bulatova (2005).

11
1 Introduction

The first scientific treatment of a Dargwa language (Urakhi) comes from Uslar (1892),
who visited the Caucasus in the second half of the 19th century. The next key scholar is
Said Abdullaev, who published a Russian-Dargwa (i.e. Akusha) dictionary and a gram-
mar of Akusha (Abdullaev 1950; 1954). Since the 1950s, Saida Gasanova has written many
articles and books about various Dargwa languages and dialects, concentrating mainly
on Muiri, Mjuregi, Urakhi, and Tsudakhar (e.g. Gasanova 1961; 1971). Other important
scholars are Zapir Abdullaev, who worked on Standard Dargwa and occasionally on
Urakhi and Kajtag (e.g. Abdullaev 1961; 1969; 1971; 1986; 1993; Abdullaev et al. 2014), and
Magomed-Said Musaev, who investigated various Dargwa varieties, including Chirag
and Akusha (e.g. Musaev 1975; 1978; 1983; 1980; 1984). There are also works on Sikhi
(Kadibagomedov 1998), on Kajtag (Temirbulatova 2005) and most notably on Kubachi
(Magometov 1963). Recently, two new dictionaries have been published (Jusupov 2005;
2009). Rasul Mutalov, one of the key participants in the language documentation project
resulting in this grammar, has written a number of papers and books on Icari Dargwa
and Standard Dargwa (Mutalov 1992; 2002; 2018).
In 1999, the first book in English on a Dargwa language (Akusha), written by van
den Berg was published, followed by a descriptive grammar of Icari Dargwa, which was
co-authored by Nina Sumbatova and Rasul Mutalov (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003). Icari
Dargwa is closely related to Sanzhi Dargwa; the two varieties are mutually intelligible
and the Icari grammar was a fruitful source of inspiration for this grammar of Sanzhi.
In Moscow, a group of linguists works on a number of Dargwa languages, of which
the major results are comprehensive studies of Tanti (Sumbatova & Lander 2014), Shiri
(Belyaev In Preparation), Mehweb (Daniel et al. 2019), Ashti (Belyaev 2012) and Chi-
rag (Ganenkov Submitted). Other important works from the same group are Kalinina
& Sumbatova (2007), Sumbatova (2009; 2010; 2011; 2013), Lander (2008; 2010), and Ser-
dobolskaya (2009; 2010). Sumbatova (Submitted) provides a recent overview on Dargwa
varieties. Sketch grammars in preparation include Ganenkov (Submitted) and Forker
(Submitted).
Topics in the morphosyntax of Sanzhi and other aspects of Sanzhi have been treated
in Forker (2016b; 2014; 2019b; 2018c; 2019c; Accepted). A collection of texts with Russian
translations and a Sanzhi-Russian and Russian-Sanzhi dictionary is Forker & Gadzhimu-
radov (2017).
There is not much to say with respect to the ethnographic literature on Dargwa people.
There are only two older monographs (Schilling 1949; Gadžieva et al. 1967).

1.7 Documenting and describing Sanzhi Dargwa

This grammar is the result of a language documentation project, Documenting Dargi lan-
guages in Dagestan – Shiri and Sanzhi, funded by the DoBeS program of the Volkswagen
Foundation. The project officially started in 2012 and ran until 2019. Within this project,
three linguists (Diana Forker, Rasul Mutalov, Oleg Belyaev), one anthropologist (Iwona
Kaliszewska), and student assistants from the Universities of Bamberg and Leipzig (An-
dré Müller, Teresa Klemm, and Felix Anker) documented, described, and analyzed the
two endangered East Caucasian languages Shiri Dargwa and Sanzhi Dargwa.

12
 1.7 Documenting and describing Sanzhi Dargwa

Detailed information about the project, the languages and many texts, recordings and
pictures can be found on the project website.4 All materials gathered in the project are
accessible upon request via the Language Archive hosted by the MPI Nijmegen.5 The ma-
jor results of the project are, in addition to the grammar of Sanzhi, a book with narratives,
legends and other texts for the Sanzhi community (Forker & Gadzhimuradov 2017), the
electronic corpus of Sanzhi texts with audio recordings for every text and many video
recordings (around 24 hours of natural speech), and an electronic dictionary. Around
15 hours of speech have been transcribed in ELAN, translated into Russian, and are de-
posited in the Language Archive.6 A subcorpus of around 10 hours, which amounts to
more than 46 000 word tokens, has been fully glossed with FLEx7 and translated into
Russian and English. The texts have almost exclusively been recorded by myself in the
village of Druzhba. During the recordings I was accompanied by Rasul Mutalov, my fel-
low project member, linguist and native speaker of the neighboring Icari dialect, or by
Gadzhimuard Gadzhimuradov, my main language assistant, who led the conversation
and explained the aims of the project to the Sanzhi speakers. After recording the text
were transcribed in ELAN by using a Cyrillic orthography (page xvii) and by making use
of the help of native speakers. They also provided a Russian translation. In the ELAN
file I added a Latin transliteration following the orthography, which is also employed in
this grammar (page xvii). From the transcribed texts I chose a subcorpus, transferred the
Latin transcription into FLEx, glossed it and partially added English translations to the
Russian translations.
The glossed corpus has been put on the internet and is freely is accessible.8 This corpus
consists of 75 texts from 24 speakers of Sanzhi who were between 21 and 80 years old
when the texts were recorded (mostly between 2012 and 2015). Only three of the speakers
were 35 years or younger, whereas most were older than 50. Slightly more than half of
the speakers were female, but the majority of texts originate from male speakers.
The corpus contains the following types of texts:

• 32 fairy tales, legends, anecdotes

• 8 fairy tales translated from Standard Dargwa and Russian

• 10 autobiographical narrations and texts about the history of the village

• 4 recipes and other instructions or procedural texts
• 3 poems
• 3 natural conversations

4
http://www.kaukaz.net/dargwa/sanzhi/lexicon/index.htm
5
http://dobes.mpi.nl/projects/shiri_sanzhi/
6
https://archive.mpi.nl/
7
https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/
8
http://web-corpora.net/SanzhiDargwaCorpus/search/index.php?interface_language=en

13
1 Introduction

• 11 descriptions, conversations and narratives from the Family Problems Picture Task
(San Roque et al. 2012) (additionally archived with PARADISEC, in the collection
SocCog9 )

• 4 narrations produced by means of stimuli (two “Pear Stories”, two stories “Frog,
where are you?”)

The natural data has been complemented by many hours of elicitation. All natural
examples originating from the corpus are not further marked in this grammar. All exam-
ples which have been elicited are marked by (E).
The electronic dictionary of Sanzhi was built up with Lexique Pro10 and has been pub-
lished with Dictionaria.11 The dictionary contains around than 5 500 entries written with
Cyrillic and Latin script, Russian and English translations, grammatical information, and
example sentences as well as audio recordings for (almost) every entry. The dictionary
is also accessible via the project homepage.12
In August 2017, my main assistant Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov and I were able
to print a book with community materials and present it to the Sanzhi community in
Druzhba (Figure 1.9). The book contains 42 texts of various genres taken from the cor-
pus (fairy tales, legends, anecdotes, descriptions of games and recipes, oral history, and
a poem) written in the Cyrillic Sanzhi script with a sentence-by-sentence translation in
Russian, as well as a Sanzhi-Russian and a simplified Russian-Sanzhi dictionary, which
is also available on the project website.
Within the project I have undertaken more than ten field trips to Druzhba (including
two short trips to Sanzhi in 2013 and 2016) in order to gather materials on the language.
My major language assistant and consultant during all these years was and is Gadzhimu-
rad Gadzhimuradov (Figure 1.6), a videographer and cameraman from Druzhba, who was
born in Sanzhi. After spending his first five years there, his family moved to Druzhba,
but he has ever since kept close relationships with the village and is a strong patriot in
the best sense. Without the support and friendship of him and his family, in particular
his wife Batichay, neither the grammar nor the entire project could have been realized.
Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov not only helped me to gather, transcribe, and translate
materials, he also made many recordings by himself, translated texts into Sanzhi and
raised the interest of the Sanzhi community in the project. Patiently he sat down end-
less hours with me to go through morphological and syntactic paradigms. This grammar
could not have been written without his assistance.

9
http://catalog.paradisec.org.au/collections/SocCog
10
http://www.lexiquepro.com/
11
https://dictionaria.clld.org/contributions/sanzhi
12
http://www.kaukaz.net/dargwa/sanzhi/lexicon/index.htm

14
 1.7 Documenting and describing Sanzhi Dargwa

Figure 1.9: Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov presenting the first book in Sanzhi

(courtesy of Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov, 2017)

15
 Part I

Phonology
2 Phonology
Sanzhi phonology is typical for East Caucasian languages with its relative large con-
sonant inventory (§2.1) and medium vowel inventory (§2.2). Other topics covered in
this chapter are the syllable structure (§2.3), pharyngealization (§2.4), stress (§2.5), and
phonological and morphophonological alternations (§2.6).

2.1 Consonant inventory

Table 2.1 displays the consonant inventory for Sanzhi. The table gives the phonemic
value of the consonants and displays the orthographic representation used in this gram-
mar in italics (see also page xvii for the Cyrillic orthography). The three series of stops
are, in the order given in the table: voiceless non-ejective, voiced, and voiceless ejective.
The two series of fricatives are voiceless and voiced. All velars and uvulars also occur
in labialized form. All voiceless non-ejective stops and fricatives (except for the pharyn-
geal/epiglottal and the glottal sounds) also occur as geminates (i.e. tense).
The uvular stops /q/ and /qʷ/ have strong friction that makes them sound almost like
affricates /q͡χ/ and /q͡χʷ/. The friction is absent from the ejective /q’/ and the geminates
/qː/ and /qːʷ/.
The phonemic glottal stop is found in the noun beʔe ‘blood’ and at the end of some
words, for instance in the root-final position of two verbs ha-ʔ- (pfv)/h-erʔ- (ipfv) ‘say’
and b-erʔ- (pfv)/b-uʔ- (ipfv) ‘rot’ and the numeral kːaʔ-al ‘eight’. Except for beʔe ‘blood’,
only loan words and names contain the glottal stop in root-medial position (e.g. daʔim
‘continuation’, in the male name žaˁbraˁʔil).
A non-phonemic glottal stop, which is not written, occurs before word-initial non-
pharyngealized vowels, e.g. aba [ʔaba] ‘mother’, including vowel-initial words in com-
pounds, for example ca-ibil [t͡saʔibıl] ‘first’ (one-ord), or occasionally at other morpheme
boundaries of inflected words, for example, a-uk-un ‘not eating’ (neg-eat.ipfv-icvb) can
be pronounced [aʔukʊn] or [aʊ̯kʊn].
The semivowel /w/ is realized as a voiced labiodental fricative [v] or as a labial-velar
approximant [w].
In addition to the segments listed in Table 2.1, the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ is
attested in the ideophone uf b-ik’ʷ-ij ‘blow’ (whew hpl-say.ipfv-inf) and in loan words,
mostly from Russian, e.g. forel ‘trout’. In older loans it had been replaced with /p/, e.g.
purma ‘uniform’ (< forma).
All plain consonants occur in word-initial, word-medial, and word-final position. Gem-
inates are never found in syllable-final position. Three labialized consonants (/q’ʷ/, /χʷ/,
/ʁʷ/) are also not attested in syllable-final position. Table 2.2 shows the distribution of
2 Phonology

Table 2.1: The consonant inventory of Sanzhi Dargwa

pharyngeal/
epiglottal
alveolar
bilabial

postalv

palatal

uvular

glottal
velar
stop /p/ /b/ /pʼ/ /t/ /d/ /tʼ/ /k/ /ɡ/ /kʼ/ /q/ /qʼ/ /ʡ/ /ʔ/
p b pʼ t d tʼ k g kʼ q qʼ ʡ ʔ
/kʷ/ /ɡʷ/ /kʼʷ/ /qʷ/ /qʼʷ/
kʷ gʷ kʼʷ qʷ qʼʷ
/pː/ /tː/ /kː/ /qː/
pː tː kː qː
/kːʷ/ /qːʷ/
kːʷ qːʷ
fricative /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /x/ /χ/ /ʁ/ /ħ/ /h/
s z š ž x χ ʁ ħ h
/xʷ/ /χʷ/ /ʁʷ/
xʷ χʷ ʁʷ
/sː/ /ʃː/ /ʃː/ /xː/ /χː/
sː šː šː xː χː
/χːʷ/
χːʷ
affricate /t͡s/ /t͡sʼ/ /t͡ʃ/ /t͡ʃʼ/
c cʼ č čʼ
/t͡sː/ /t͡ʃː/
cː čː
nasal /m/ /n/
m n
liquid /r/ /l/
r l
semivowel /w/ /j/
w j

consonants by means of example words. The table contains a number of morphologically

complex words for which the relevant sound happens to occur at the end of the root, but
within the stem because the root is followed by suffixes (the root is given in boldface).
Final voiced stops do not undergo devoicing. Final voiceless non-ejective stops (/p/,
/t/, /k/, /q/) are post-aspirated. Stops in final position are released. They are also released
when a homorganic consonant follows, e.g. urek-c’al ‘sixty’, ħaˁžat-ce ‘necessary’ (need-
dd.sg), c’elt-ne ‘gravestone-pl’, le-d=nu (exist-npl=prt). If the voiceless stops /t/, /k/, or
the voiceless affricate /t͡s/ occur at morpheme boundaries and are followed by homor-
ganic consonants, all consonants are fully pronounced and released (1). Neither /t/ nor
/k/ nor /t͡s/ become geminates under the described conditions, although gemination is
otherwise a frequent process that applies across morpheme boundaries (§2.6.11). How-
ever, the ejective stop /k’/ can turn into a plain stop as shown in the examples in (1c).

20
 2.1 Consonant inventory

Table 2.2: Distribution of consonants

initial medial final

p puq’a ‘nest’ qupi ‘hoe’ t’up ‘finger’
b bec’ ‘wolf’ heba ‘then’ urχːab ‘mill’
p’ p’aq’ ‘shake off’ q’aˁp’i ‘shutter’ lap’ ‘wave’
pː pːiħaˁla ‘feather’ k’apːur ‘leaf’ —
t tum ‘hill’ kːaˁta ‘cat’ it ‘that’
d du ‘1sg’ juldaš ‘friend’ ca-d ‘is’ (cop-n)
t’ t’up ‘finger’ kːat’i ‘scarf’ t’ult’ ‘bread’
tː tːaˁm ‘trap’ tːutːu ‘beak’ —
k kabc ‘skin, fell’ dukala ‘apron’ dek ‘dung’
g gurmedi ‘type of kerchief’ zigar ‘hurry’ dig ‘meat’
k’ k’apːur ‘leaf’ nik’a ‘little, small’ hek’ ‘this/that (up)’
kʷ kʷač’a ‘paw’ mikʷa ‘fingernail’ nekʷ ‘straw’
gʷ gʷargʷal ‘onion’ targʷa ‘weasel’ mergʷ ‘lair, den’
kʼʷ k’ʷel ‘two’ r-ik’ʷ-ija ‘say’ (f-say.ipfv-inf) erk’ʷ ‘river’
kː kːaˁta ‘cat’ kːalkːi ‘tree’ —
kːʷ kːʷacːa ‘mare’ akːʷ-ar ‘without’ —
(cop.neg-prs)
q qaˁr ‘pear’ b-aqil ‘much’ qːaq ‘back’
q’ q’aˁp’i ‘shutter’ puq’a ‘nest’ aq’ ‘flock’
qʷ qʷesːa ‘ashes’ ha-lqʷ-an ‘the climbing one’ daˁrqʷ ‘barn’
(up-direct.ipfv-ptcp)
qʼʷ q’ʷaˁl ‘cow’ b-elq’ʷ-ij ‘break’ —
(n-break.pfv-inf)
qː qːap ‘sack’ qːuˁlqːuˁ ‘scythe’ —
qːʷ qːʷaz ‘goose’ miriqːʷ-e ‘worms’ (worm-pl) —
s sala ‘in front, before’ qusmuk ‘cupboard’ dus ‘year’
z zija ‘horsefly’ zize ‘strawberry’ keruz ‘slope’
sː sːika ‘bear’ musːa ‘place’ —
š šal ‘direction, side’ haniša ‘summer’ juldaš ‘friend’
ž žergʷa ‘wasp’ ižal ‘today’ hež ‘this’
šː šːi ‘village’ dešːa ‘ancient’ —
x xujal ‘five’ xurxe ‘sobber’ c’erx ‘fat’
xʷ xʷit’ ‘whistle’ (ideophone) ixʷ-le ‘early’ dirixʷ ‘fog’
xː xːamxːa ‘foam’ dirxːa ‘stick’ —
χ χat’a ‘bowl’ alχni ‘saw’ maχ ‘barrow’
ʁ ʁajal ‘twenty’ pːurʁum ‘carriage’ qːabaʁ ‘pumpkin’
χʷ χʷal-le ‘much, a lot’ b-iχʷ-ij ‘be, become’ —
(n-be.pfv-inf)
ʁʷ ʁʷab ‘ploughshare’ aʁʷal ‘four’ —
χː χːula ‘big, tall’ duχːu ‘clever’ —
χːʷ χːʷe ‘dog’ ha-d-erχːʷ-ij ‘fulfill’ —
(up-n-fulfill.pfv-inf)
c ca ‘one’ q’aca ‘he-goat’ kabc ‘skin, fell’
c’ c’il ‘then’ imc’a ‘superflous’ bec’ ‘wolf’
cː cːab ‘sky’ kːancːa ‘step’ —
č čina-b ‘where-n’ ʡaˁči ‘work’ deč ‘drinking’
čʼ č’an ‘wind, storm’ kʷač’a ‘paw’ ʡaˁmč’ ‘May it peel off!’
(peel.pfv.opt)
čː čːaˁʡaˁl ‘tomorrow, morning’ ečːa ‘she-goat’ —
a
The relevant roots of morphologically complex words are given in boldface. In these words, the respective
sound occurs at the end of the root, but within the stem because the root is followed by suffixes.

21
2 Phonology

initial medial final

ʔ aba ‘mother’ beʔe ‘blood’ b-aʔ ‘begin’
ħ ħaˁšak ‘pot’ pːiħaˁla ‘feather’ ʡaˁħ ‘good’
ʡ ʡaˁbal ‘three’ čːaˁʡaˁl ‘tomorrow, morning’ daˁʡ ‘face’
h hel ‘that’ buhem ‘bundle’ b-ah ‘owner’
m mikʷa ‘fingernail’ gurmendi ‘type of kerchief’ t’em ‘smell’
n nekʷ ‘straw’ haniša ‘summer’ arin ‘too much’
r rucːi ‘sister’ rursːi ‘girl, daughter’ q’ar ‘herbs’
l lazun ‘dough’ ʡuˁla ‘wheel’ hel ‘that’
w weral ‘seven’ gawhar ‘pupil’ alaw ‘around’
j jangi ‘new’ zija ‘horsefly’ hej ‘this’

(1) a. b-uˁc-ce/b-uˁc-te ‘thick’ (n-thick-dd.sg/n-thick-dd.pl)

b. tunt-ce/tunt-te ‘daring’
c. ik’-ka / hek’-ka ‘from that’ (dem.up-abl) (alternatively ik-ka / hek-ka)

All velar and uvular consonants occur in plain and labialized forms. The labialized ve-
lars and uvulars can be followed by all vowels except /u/. Labialization is mostly found
with syllable-initial consonants, but as Table 2.2 shows, there are also words with labi-
alized consonants in final position. In most words, labialization is restricted to one con-
sonant per root, but there are a number of words with two labialized consonants, e.g.
gʷagʷa ‘flower’, gʷargʷal ‘onion’, and xʷixʷit’ ‘pipe’. In addition to labialization in roots,
deletion of the vowel /u/ triggers labialization of the preceding consonant or following
consonant (§2.6.10). Labialized consonants are mostly found in nouns, numerals, adjec-
tives, adverbs, and verbs and also attested in a few particles, but not in pronouns or
suffixes. Labialization is absent from Standard Dargwa and therefore speakers who have
been trained in the Standard Dargwa orthography do not write them in Sanzhi, although
they pronounce them. Younger speakers often replace labialized consonants by plain
consonants and change a preceding or following a to o (in speech and writing). Minimal
pairs for some labialized consonants are given in (2).

(2) a. d-elq’-ij (pfv) ‘grind’ d-elq’ʷ-ij (pfv) ‘break’

b. b-iχ-ij (pfv) ‘tie, fasten’ b-iχʷ-ij (pfv) ‘be, become, be able’
c. akri ‘Akri’ (place name) akʷri ‘be not’ (cop.neg.msd)
d. ik’-i-j ‘for this / that up’ ik’ʷ-ij ‘say’ (say.m.ipfv-inf)
(dem.up-obl-dat)

Geminates are always voiceless, non-ejective, and unaspirated. All voiceless non-eject-
ive obstruents, except for pharyngeal/epiglottal and glottal segments, occur as gemi-
nates, and even a number of labialized consonants are geminates. The phonemic status
of geminates is proven by the minimal pairs and minimal oppositions in (3).

(3) a. iχ-i-j ‘for this / that down’ iχː-ij ‘guard, protect, care’
(dem.down-obl-dat)
b. b-uq-ij (pfv) ‘run, go’ b-uqː-ij ‘carry, bring’

22
 2.2 Vowel inventory

c. bus-ij ‘rain’ b-usː-ij ‘sleep, fall asleep’

d. b-ač-ij (pfv) ‘smear, spread’ ačː-ij ‘strike, hit onself’
e. b-ac-ij (pfv) ‘plough’ acːi-j ‘to the uncle’ (uncle-dat)
f. het-i-j ‘for that’ (dem-obl-dat) hetːi ‘those’

Geminate fricatives are not always easy to identify because fricatives can be tense in
emphatic pronunciation. But geminate stops and affricates are clearly audible as such,
because there is a significant difference in the closure duration between singletons and
geminates. Gemination can probably be analyzed as a difference between lax and tense
consonants, but the exact phonetic properties of geminates still need to be clarified by
future research.
In addition to their occurrence in stems, geminates occur at morpheme boundaries
(see §2.6.11 below). A few sonorants can also occur as tense consonants within roots (/n/,
/m/, /l/, /r/, and /w/) and/or at morpheme boundaries, but their phonemic status needs
further clarification. Only geminates of /n/, /r/, and /l/ are found in native items (4); the
other sonorants are only found in loan words (5).

(4) t’unneq ‘basket’ =malle (emphatic particle)

-lla/-la (genitive suffix) -lle/-le (adverbialzing suffix)
urra ‘foreign’
(5) Allah ‘Allah’ amma ‘but’
sːurrat ‘picture’ Maˁħaˁmma (male personal name)

2.2 Vowel inventory

Sanzhi has four plain vowels and three pharyngealized vowels, of which one (iˁ) is very
rare and whose phonemic status needs further clarification. Pharyngealized vowels and
pharyngealization are treated in §2.4. The vowels i, e and u have lax and tense variants,
whose distribution is not entirely clear. Table 2.3 shows the vowel inventory with the
orthographic symbols used in this grammar.
There is a long vowel [aː], which is not phonemic, but occurs relatively frequently. It
shows up only as sequences of homorganic vowels at morpheme boundaries (6) (most
often in negated verb forms), and occasionally as a stressed variant of short vowels. Long
vowels mostly occur in open syllables, but can occasionally also be found in closed sylla-
bles. The negative present-tense copula-auxiliary normally has a short vowel, but when
it is used as existential or locational copula, the first vowel becomes long (6d).

(6) a. aːgur < a-ag-ur ‘did not go’ (neg-go.pfv-pret)

b. aːčːib < a-ačː-ib ‘did not get’ (neg-get.pfv-pret)
c. čiaːžib < či-a-w-až-ib ‘did not see’ (spr-neg-m-see.pfv-pret)
d. b-aːkːu ‘does not exist’ vs. akːu ‘is not’ (cop.neg.prs)

The long high front vowel [iː] is rarely found when spatial preverbs are prefixed to
some verbs having [i] as stem vowel (see §2.6.5 below for examples).

23
2 Phonology

Table 2.3: The vowel inventory of Sanzhi Dargwa

front central back

high /i/ /u/, /uˁ/
[ı], [i]; [ıˁ], [iˁ] [u], [ʊ]; [ʊˁ]
i; iˁ u; uˁ
mid /e/
[ε], [e]
e
low /a/; /aˁ/
[a]; [aˁ]
a; aˁ

Sanzhi also has four diphthongs [ʊɪ ̯], [aɪ ̯], [εɪ ̯], and [aʊ̯] that can be analyzed as con-
sisting of two phonemes, a vowel, and a semivowel. Examples are given in (7).

(7) čuj ‘for themselves’ (refl.pl.dat) nejg ‘milk’

ʁaj ‘word, talk’ alaw ‘around’
caw ‘is’ (cop.prs.m); ‘himself’ (refl.sg.m)

2.3 Syllable and word structure

The minimal syllable consists of a single vowel. Initial vowels are always preceded by a
non-phonemic glottal stop not indicated in the orthography. The syllables in monomor-
phemic native words are V, VC, VCC, CV, CVC and CVCC. In other words, syllables
never have complex onsets, but can have complex codas. The general syllable structure
is shown in (8).

(8) (C)V(C)(C)

In the onset, every consonantal phoneme can occur (see Table 2.2 above for exam-
ples), whereas in the coda not all consonants are allowed. Note, however, that simple
underived verbs have stronger restrictions because they can basically only have /l/ and
/r/ in the onset as well as the pharyngeal stop /ʡ/ (in addition to gender exponents and
consonants used in the deixis/elevation preverbs, see §11.2 for more details on the struc-
ture of verbs). Labialized consonants in syllable-final position are rarer than in syllable-
initial position, but they are attested. Ejective consonants are also found (Table 2.2). By
contrast, geminate (i.e. tense) consonants are prohibited in the coda of syllables. Thus,
geminate consonants in roots that happen to occur at the end of syllables in morpholog-
ically complex words, for instance after suffixation, are regularly shortened (see §2.6.11
for examples). The nucleus consists of one vowel, which under certain circumstances can
be long (§2.2). The minimal syllable (and word) consists of the nucleus only (9). Some

24
 2.3 Syllable and word structure

words can be seen as containing diphthongs, but diphthongs are analyzed as a sequence
of a vowel and a semivowel. The most frequent syllable type is CV (10), but VC (11) and
CVC (12) are also relatively common. By contrast, syllables of the type V are relatively
rare, and u ‘you’ is the only native word that consists just of a minimal syllable.
(9) V
u ‘you’ 2sg a.law ‘around’

(10) CV
šːi ‘village’ qu ‘field’
χːʷe ‘dog’ ʁuˁ.ra ‘hare’ a.ba ‘mother’
du.ra.zi ‘threshing floor’

(11) VC
at ‘to / for you’ (2sg.dat) eb.la ‘in spring’

(12) CVC
dus ‘year’ ʁaj ‘word, talk’
mi.riqʷ ‘worm’ ʡaˁ.jar ‘dance’
ʡaˁn.čːi ‘earth, clay’ qaˁš.qaˁr ‘scab’
As mentioned in §2.2, there are no phonemic long vowels. Long vowels occasionally
show up at morpheme boundaries or when the vowels are stressed or emphasized.
The only types of superheavy syllables are VCC (13) and CVCC (14), with only sono-
rants (/r/, /l/, /n/, /m/, /j/) and /b/ permitted in the position of the first consonant in
the coda. Up to now I found only one exceptional noun that has a fricative before the
second consonant, this being q’ast ‘aim, intention, plan’. This noun is a loan ultimately
from Arabic (qaṣ̊d ); in Standard Dargwa its form is q’as. The syllable-final consonants
of superheavy syllables can only be plain stops, fricatives, or affricates including ejec-
tives, geminates, and labialized stops (i.e. obstruents). Although they are mostly voice-
less, there are also a few examples of voiced fricatives in the final position of (C)VCC
syllables (13), (14).
(13) VCC
ims ‘moth’ alχ.ni ‘saw’
arʁ ‘weather’ irk ‘threshing board’

(14) CVCC
laˁbz ‘mortar’ daˁrqʷ ‘barn’
nejg ‘milk’ laˁmc’ ‘lightning’
kabc ‘skin, fell’ c’ult.mi ‘plum’
jebš ‘base’ t’ult’ ‘bread’
b-ark ‘inside’ b-arx ‘direct, straight’
ku.bart ‘pressed dung’ qːuˁš.tːunk’ ‘rolling pin’
q’ast ‘target, intention, idea’

25
2 Phonology

There are no native words with syllable-initial consonant clusters. Consonant clusters
in (older) loans are broken up by insertion of epenthetic vowels either between initial
consonant clusters or before them. In the first case, the vowels vary and are often iden-
tical to the following vowel, as the first three words in (15) show. In the second case, the
vowel is /i/, as in the last two words:

(15) purust’in ‘bed sheet’ < Russian prostynja

kːalas ‘class’ < Russian klass
kiniga ‘book’ < Russian kniga
ispirt ‘alcohol’ < Russian spirt
ispakulan ‘speculator’ < Russian spekuljant

Another possibility is to apply metathesis, though this process is very rare, for example
Russian brigadir > Sanzhi birgadir ‘brigadier’.
The minimal word (i.e. free root) has the shape V (see the example in (9) above). Min-
imal bound roots seem to consist of a single consonant and are only found among verbs.
Examples are ha-ʔ- (pfv) ‘say’ and ka-xʷ-/ha-xʷ- (pfv) ‘pour, add’. These verbs obligato-
rily contain preverbs and the vowel can be analyzed as either belonging to the preverb
(which results then in the monosegmental verb stems) or to the verbs, or two both (ha-
+ aʔ- > haːʔ- > haʔ-).

2.4 Pharyngealization
The most frequent pharyngealized vowel is /aˁ/, but /uˁ/ is also relatively common,
whereas [iˁ] is restricted to very few words. The vowel /aˁ/ has phonemic status in Sanzhi
as the following minimal pairs and minimal oppositions show (16).

(16) a. šaˁm ‘candle’ šam ‘one year old ram’

b. qːaˁp (preverb) ‘twitch’ qːap ‘sack’
c. b-aˁʡ ‘leaf, side, face’ b-aʔ ‘end, beginning, edge’
d. waˁħ (or wah) (interjection) w-ah ‘owner’ (masc. singular)
e. ʡaˁʁʷa-l ‘fat’ (fat-advz) aʁʷ-al ‘four’ (four-num)
f. χːaˁb ‘grave’ urχːab ‘mill’

The vowel /uˁ/ is far less frequent than /aˁ/, and thus I so far have found only one min-
imal pair and only a few examples of minimal oppositions in which the pharyngealized
vowels only occur after uvular and pharyngeal sounds (17).

(17) a. ruˁqː-uˁl / ruˁqː-ul ‘educating’ r-uqː-ul ‘bringing’

(educate-icvb) (f-bring-icvb)
b. ʁuˁb-e ‘potatoes’ (potato-pl) qːajʁu-be ‘sorrows’ (sorrow-pl)
c. ʡaˁχːuˁl ‘guest’ duχːu-l ‘cleverly’ (clever-advz)
d. ʡuˁla ‘wheel’ ul-la ‘eye’s’ (eye-gen)

26
 2.4 Pharyngealization

There are a few words that seem to have a pharyngealized high front vowel, e.g. b-
iħ-iˁb ‘they fought’ (hpl-fight.pfv-pret), w-irʡ-iˁb ‘(they) betrayed him’ (m-betray.pfv-
pret), b-iˁʡ-iˁj ‘steal’ (n-steal.pfv-inf), čːiˁħri (village name). However, speakers are un-
certain about the presence of [iˁ] in Sanzhi words. Furthermore, I do not have any (near-)
minimal pairs with pharyngealized and non-pharyngealized high front vowels, and thus
further research is needed.
The vast majority of pharyngealized vowels occur in the adjacency of the uvular or
pharyngeal consonants (see Table 2.2). When pharyngealized vowels occur in roots that
contain those consonants, the vowels most frequently follow the consonants, but can
also precede them (18). The respective consonants are /q/, /q’/, /qː/, /χ/, /ʁ/, /χː/, /ʡ/, /ħ/
for /aˁ/ and /uˁ/, and for /aˁ/ also the labialized consonants /qʷ/, /q’ʷ/, /χʷ/, and /ʁʷ/. The
remaining uvular and pharyngeal consonants (/qːʷ/, /χːʷ/) are in general rare and I have
not found any words that contain both the consonants and pharyngealized vowels.
(18) ʡuˁrʡ-e ‘chickens’ (chicken-pl) ʡaˁnčːi ‘clay, earth’
q’aˁlči ‘foot’ ʁuˁc ‘arrow’
naˁq’iš ‘drawing’ q’ʷaˁl ‘cow’
daˁrqʷ ‘barn’
The pharyngeal stop /ʡ/ cannot be followed by non-pharyngealized /a/ or /u/, but only
by non-pharyngealized /e/ or /i/, that is */ʡa/ and */ʡu/ (18). And the pharyngealized vow-
els /aˁ/ and /uˁ/ are never followed by the glottal fricative /h/, but only by the pharyngeal
fricative /ħ/, that is */aˁh/, */uˁh/.
Nevertheless, pharyngeal /aˁ/ and to a lesser extent /uˁ/ can also be found in stems
that do not contain uvular or pharyngeal phonemes (19) (see also the first minimal pair
in (16) above).
(19) naˁs ‘dirt’ baˁs ‘argument’
laˁbz ‘mortar’ čaˁč ‘haircut’
t’uˁ ‘leg’ čaˁt ‘mud’
jaˁlči ‘worker’ šuˁra ‘puddle’
There are a number of words that contain two pharyngealized vowels. The vowels
can be either identical (i.e. both vowels are /aˁ/ or both vowels are /uˁ/ or they are /aˁ/
and /uˁ/ in either order (20).
(20) muˁʡaˁlim ‘teacher’ daˁquˁpːe ‘wounds’
qaˁjquˁjte ‘jaw’ ʡaˁχːuˁl ‘guest’
q’aˁq’aˁ ‘basin’ naˁqaˁ ‘oat’
ʡaˁrʡaˁ ‘chicken’ daˁrχaˁ ‘evening’
qːuˁlqːuˁ-l ‘by means of a/the scythe’ qːuˁnqːuˁpːe ‘noses’
(scythe-erg)
There is also some variation with those words that contain two pharyngealized vow-
els, in the sense that some speakers pharyngealize only one vowel whereas others pha-
ryngealize both. The vowel that is optionally pharyngealized can be the first (21) or the
second vowel (22).

27
2 Phonology

(21) pharyngealization of first vowel or both vowels

a. puˁšːuˁk’/puˁšːuk’ ‘blister’
b. maˁlʡuˁn/maˁlʡun ‘snake’
c. ʡuˁruˁs/ʡuˁrus ‘Russian’
(22) pharyngealization of second vowel or both vowels
a. daˁʡaˁna/daʡaˁna ‘secret, secretly’
b. durħuˁ/duˁrħuˁ ‘boy, son’

I found very few words that contain only one vowel that can optionally be pharyn-
gealized (23).

(23) a. duħi/duˁħi ‘snow’

b. zaˁnʁ/zanʁ ‘ring’ (ideophone)
c. čaˁʁir/čaʁir ‘wine’

There are also two derivational suffixes containing pharyngealized vowels. The suf-
fixes are -q’aˁ and -uˁq’. They are not productive and derive agent nouns from other
nouns, infinitives, and parts of compound verbs form (§3.5.2). These suffixes do not have
allomorphs with plain vowels.
Pharyngealization is a suprasegmental feature that spreads to inflectional prefixes and
suffixes, even in those words that do not contain pharyngealized vowels in the root,
but uvular/pharyngeal consonants. Only those prefixes and suffixes are affected that
start with the vowels /a/ and /u/ such that in affixes only the pharyngealized vowels /aˁ/
and /uˁ/ occur, but no other pharyngealized vowels. Other affixes that contain the same
vowels but start with a consonant do not have pharyngealized variants, for instance the
vowel in the local participle suffix -na cannot be pharyngealized (24).

(24) guči d-urq-aˁdi ‘I gathered’ vs. guči d-urq-na ‘the place of gathering’

In the case of the negation prefix a- this leads to a long pharyngealized vowel (see
§2.6.5 for long vowels resulting from sequences of identical vowels):

(25) a. či-aˁ-aˁħ-un > či-aˁːħ-un ‘did not fly on (something)’ (spr-neg-fly.pfv-pret)

b. aˁ-w-aˁq-ib > aˁ-aˁq-ib > aˁːq-ib ‘did not hit’ (msc.) (neg-hit.pfv-pret)

Furthermore, only affixes in immediately preceding or following syllables are affected.

Pharyngealization does not spread over the entire word. For nouns the suffixes contain-
ing pharyngealized vowels are the plural and oblique plural suffixes, as well as one suf-
fix deriving actions nouns (-a; §3.5.5). For verbs, the suffixes can be derivational (the
causative suffix, the spatial preverbs) or inflectional (negation prefixes a- and ma-, vari-
ous TAM suffixes). Examples are provided in (26).

28
 2.4 Pharyngealization

(26) a. qːuˁnqː-uˁpːe ‘noses’ (nose-pl)

b. baliqː-aˁ-lla ‘of the fish’ (fish-obl.pl-gen)
c. ruˁrq-uˁl ‘boiling’ (boil-icvb)
d. b-iħ-aˁq-ib ‘made fight’ (hpl-fight-pfv-caus-pret)
e. b-iʡ-uˁn ‘stole’ (n-steal.pfv-pret)
f. b-aˁq-aˁjaˁ ‘hit it!’ (n-hit.pfv-imp.pl)

The pharyngealized articulation associated with the vowel is maintained when the
vowel changes, that is when there is vowel mutation a > u, as, for instance, with plural
forms of some nouns (27).

(27) a. ʡaˁrʡaˁ ‘chicken’ > ʡuˁrʡ-e ‘chickens’ (chicken-pl)

b. q’ʷaˁl ‘cow’ > q’uˁl-e ‘cows’ (cow-pl)

There is one verb ‘go’ that occurs without a root vowel when prefixes are attached
and with a root vowel that can be pharyngealized or plain otherwise. The suffixes used
with this verb are obligatorily pharyngealized (28a), (28b), whereas for prefixes pharyn-
gealization is optional (28c).

(28) a. maˁ-q’-aˁtːa ‘do not go!’ (proh-go-proh.sg)

b. b-uq’-aˁq-ij ‘to make it go’ (n-go-caus-inf)
c. saˁ-q’-aˁn vs. sa-q’-aˁn ‘going’ (hither-go-ptcp)

At least with some affixes, pharyngealization is optional, and one can find one and the
same inflected word form with and without affixes that contain pharyngealized vowels
(29).

(29) a. b-aˁħ-uˁn-ce vs. b-aˁħ-un-ce ‘wet’ (n-become.wet.pfv-dd.sg)

b. guči b-aˁq-aˁraj vs. b-aˁq-araj ‘gather’ (gather hpl-assemble-subj)
c. kaˁ-q-aˁja! vs. ka-q-aˁja! ‘drag!’ (down-drag.pfv-imp.pl)

Pharyngealization includes loan words, even recent borrowings from Russian (30),
which are not pharyngealized in the donor language. It is even noticeable when (older)
Sanzhi people speak Russian.

(30) čaˁj ‘tea’ < Russian čaj

šaˁbk’a ‘hat’ < Russian šapka
ʡaˁšibkːa ‘mistake’ < Russian ošibka
šljaˁp’a ‘hat’ < Russian šljapa
ʡaˁčkːabe ‘glasses’ < Russian očki
luˁkːujte ‘lungs’ < Russian legkie

29
2 Phonology

2.5 Word stress

Stress is not a very prominent category in Sanzhi Dargwa. The stress is quite weak and
the stress properties of words are very hard to determine, but they seem to be largely
lexicalized. There are a few examples of minimal pairs or near minimal pairs that differ
only in stress (31).

(31) a. búk’ul ‘freezing’ b-uk’úl ‘thin, slender’

b. sːála ‘wedge’ salá ‘in front’
c. ákːʷar ‘without’ (postposition) akːʷár ‘not being’ (participle)
d. hána ‘cast iron’ haná ‘now’

Some affixes attract stress, so that the position of stress in roots and in inflected word
forms of one and the same lexeme may differ. For instance, plural suffixes of nouns
normally attract stress (32).

(32) a. qːap ‘sack’ > qːup-né ‘sack-pl’

b. kur ‘pit’ > kur-mé ‘pit-pl’

The factors influencing placement of stress require further research.

2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

Sanzhi Dargwa has a variety of phonological and morphophonological alternations that
affect vowels and consonants. Some of the processes that target vowels result from the
fact that hiatus is not allowed, and therefore the underlying word forms have to be
changed. A number of processes such as vowel deletion, alternation in the form of encl-
itics/affixes, degemination are syllable repair mechanisms, but others do not serve this
function.
Processes affecting vowels are vowel deletion (§2.6.1), alternations in the form of encl-
itics/suffixes (§2.6.2), glide insertion (§2.6.3), glottal stop insertion (§2.6.4), long vowels
resulting from sequences of identical vowels (§2.6.5), pharyngealization and formation
of diphthongs (§2.6.6), and vowel mutation (§2.6.7).
Processes affecting mainly consonants are assimilation (§2.6.8), palatalization (§2.6.9),
labialization/delabialization (§2.6.10), gemination (in combination with devoicing) and
degemination (§2.6.11) (although labialization and delabialization also have an effect on
vowels).

2.6.1 Vowel deletion (vowel syncope)

Vowel deletion (vowel syncope) is one means of avoiding two subsequent vowels at a
morpheme juncture. It is mainly found with encliticized negative auxiliaries. There are
three types of vowel deletion within the domain of verbal morphology. First, sequences

30
 2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

of identical vowels might lead to the deletion of one vowel or to vowel deletion in com-
bination with mutation (§2.6.7). Second, the initial vowel of the negative auxiliary is
deleted when the auxiliary is used as an enclitic (33).

(33) a. biχuble + akːu > b-iχ-ub-le=kːu (n-become.pfv-pret-cvb=cop.neg)

b. qːuʁace + akːu > qːuʁa-ce=kːu (beautiful-dd.sg=cop.neg)
c. kabišːible + akːʷadi > ka-b-išː-ib-le=kːʷadi
(down-n-put.pfv-pret-cvb=cop.pst.neg.1)
d. χʷalle + akːʷi > χʷal-le=kːʷi (big-advz=cop.pst.neg)

Third, there is one verb ‘go, direct oneself, move’ of which the root vowel u is deleted
when the gender agreement is masculine singular and the verbal root is preceded by the
deixis/elevation preverbs or the negation prefixes (34). These preverbs and prefixes end
in a. The process is accompanied by the labialization of the root consonant, that is, the
labial feature turns from a vowel feature into a consonantal feature. See §2.6.10 below
for more examples with the same verb stem.

(34) ha-(w)-ulq-an > halqʷan ‘the one that goes upwards’

(up-m-direct.ipfv-ptcp) (compare with ha-b-ulq-an up-n-direct.ipfv-ptcp)

As for nominal morphology, vowel deletion that is not caused by sequences of vow-
els is a regular component of plural formation. The deletion of a, i, or u in the final
syllable of mostly disyllabic nouns is found with the suffixes -be, -me, -re, -e, -ne, -upːe,
-urbe, and -ube (§3.2). If the last (usually stem-final) obstruent is a geminate it undergoes
degemination. Examples are:

(35) a. šuša > šuš-ne ‘bottle’

b. durħuˁ > durħ-ne ‘boy, son’,
c. daˁqaˁ > daˁq-uˁpːe ‘wound’
d. rursːi > rurs-be ‘girl, daughter’
e. murgul > murgl-e ‘man’
f. k’apːur > k’apr-e ‘leaf’

2.6.2 Alternations in the form of enclitics/suffixes

There are suffixes and enclitics that have allomorphs whose use depends on the syllable
structure of the item to which the suffixes or enclitics are added. The general rule is that
suffixes/enclitics consisting of a single consonant are attached to vowel-final words and
suffixes/enclitics of the form CV or VC to consonant-final words. Relevant suffixes and
enclitics are:

• the ergative suffix -l/-li (§3.4.1.2), e.g. du-l (1sg-erg) vs. kulpat-li (family-erg)
• the adverbializer -l/-le (§9.6.3), e.g. razi-l ‘happily’ vs. c’aq’-le ‘strongly’

31
2 Phonology

• the emphatic enclitic =n/=nu (§9.4.4), e.g. akːu=n (cop.neg.prs=prt) vs. le-d=nu
(exist-npl=prt)
• the enclitic for polar questions =w/=uw (§28.1) arg-ul=de=w? (go.ipfv-
icvb=2sg=q) ‘Are you going?’ vs. le-b=uw? (exist-n=q) ‘Does it exist?’

The last enclitic has another allomorph =ew that only occurs after the imperfective
converb suffix -ul, perhaps to avoid having two identical vowels in two adjacent syllables
(although this is generally allowed).
One can argue that the underlying form of the suffixes is the one with the vowel
(-li, -le) and that the vowel is deleted in the appropriate contexts. However, there is no
phonotactic need for such a deletion and it even goes against the general preference of
open syllables in final position (§2.3).

2.6.3 Glide insertion

Glide insertion represents a regular form of allomorphy. It is only found with the palatal
glide j and only before certain suffixes or enclitics that start with the vowel a. The re-
spective suffixes and enclitics are:

• the derivational suffix used to form the numerals 2–10, 20, as well as 100: -al/-jal,
e.g. aʁʷ-al ‘four’ vs. xu-jal ‘five’
• the derivational suffix ‘X-times’ for the formation of multiplicative numerals -na/
-jna, e.g. aʁʷ-na ‘four times’ vs. ʡaˤ-jna ‘three times’
• one of the allomorphs of the spatial case suffix of the loc-series: -a/-ja, e.g. kis-n-a-
b ‘in the pockets’ (pocket-pl-obl.loc-n) vs. tusnaqːa-ja-b ‘in the prisons’ (prison.
obl.pl-loc-hpl)
• optional marker for non-indicative verb forms that serves as address particle for
plural addressees -a/-ja, e.g. in the imperative plural suffix -ene-ja (alternative vari-
ant of -ene); the particle ma vs. ma-ja ‘Here, take!’
• the enclitic marking content questions: =e after consonants and =ja after vowels,
e.g. čina-b=e? ‘Where is it?’ (where-n=q) vs. ča=ja? ‘Who?’ (who=q)
• the enclitic marking embedded questions and forming specific indefinite pronouns:
=el after consonants and =jal after vowels, e.g. ča=jal ‘somebody’, ce=jal ‘some-
thing’ vs. čina-b=el ‘somewhere’

2.6.4 Glottal stop insertion

Another means of avoiding two adjacent vowels is the insertion of a glottal stop. This oc-
curs when spatial preverbs and negation prefixes are added to vowel-initial verbs. In the
following examples the glottal stops are given (although they are normally not written
in this position).

32
 2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

(36) a. iʔa: biʔat’un < b-i-at’-un ‘stuck into’ (n-in-stick.pfv-pret)

b. aʔi: maʔisːit ‘Don’t take it!’ (alternative: majsːit)
c. uʔi: guʔičib < gu-ič-ib ‘occurred under’ (sub-occur.pfv.m-pret)
d. uʔa: gu-ʔagur ‘went under’ (sub-go.pfv.pret)
gu-ʔa-lik’-un ‘is not listening’ (sub-neg-listen-icvb)
e. aʔa: sa-ʔargul ‘is coming’ (hither-go.ipfv.icvb)
(alternative: saːrgul)
f. iʔi: čiʔiʁij ‘understand’
g. iʔi: biʔiʁitːe ‘you add it inside’ (n.inside.add.ipfv.2sg)
(alternative: biːʁitːe)
As can be seen in the above examples, in some cases alternative processes can be
applied, namely the formation of a long vowel in the case of a sequence of two iden-
tical vowels (36e), (36g), and the change from /i/ to /j/ if the first vowel is /a/ and the
second is /i/ (36b). The same can be observed for combinations of three vowels or com-
pound verbs. For instance, if the verb form sa-ʔargul given in (36e) is negated, we get
sa-a-ʔargul. In principle, it is possible to pronounce all three vowels separately, although
this is not the preferred variant in practice. Similarly, in compound verbs the first part
can be pronounced as a phonologically independent word or the two vowels can fuse
across word boundaries, for example dak’u uqandel vs. dak’uːqandel ‘if he appeared’. The
precise conditions of glottal stop insertion still require clarification.

2.6.5 Sequences of identical vowels

Long vowels can be the result of a sequence of two identical vowels or of the vowel /i/
plus the semivowel /j/. The latter happens when the dative suffix is added to nominals.
The only long vowels are /aː/, /aˁː/, /iː/, and in one case after vowel mutation /eː/. The
emergence of long vowels from two identical vowels is in many cases optional, with the
insertion of a glottal stop being the usual alternative. Two identical vowels at morpheme
boundaries occur only with verbs, either when the negation prefixes a- and ma- are
used or with spatial preverbs. Note that in particular with the negation prefix it is the
long vowel that carries the meaning of negation. If the two identical vowels would be
shortened, the resulting verb form would be identical to the affirmative verb form and
the negative meaning would be lost. Examples of the sequence are given in (37) and for
the long pharyngealized low central vowel in (25).
(37) a. a-ag-ur > aːgur ‘did not go’ (neg-go.pfv-pret)
b. sa-arg-ul > saːrgul ‘coming here’ (hither-go.ipfv-icvb)
(alternative: saʔargul, (36e))
c. qum a-art-u > qum aːrtu ‘does not forget’
(forget neg-forget.ipfv-prs.3)
d. sa-a-ka-b-išː-ib > saːkabišːib ‘did not put down’
(in.front-neg-down-n-put.pfv-pret)

33
2 Phonology

e. a-erč-ur > eːrčur/aʔerčur ‘did not saw’ (neg-saw.pfv-pret)

f. b-i-iʁ-itːe > biːʁitːe ‘you add it in’ (n-in-add.ipfv-prs.2sg)
(alternative: biʔiʁitːe, (36g))

Furthermore, the masculine singular agreement prefix w- can optionally be deleted

when it occurs between two identical vowels (and, more generally, before /i/). This pro-
cess also leads to long vowels [aː] and [iː] (38).

(38) a. a-w-at-ur > aːtur ‘did not let him’ (neg-m-let.pfv-pret)

(alternative: a-w-at-ur)
b. ma-w-ax-utːa > maːxutːa ‘do not go!’ (proh-m-go-proh.sg)
(alternative: ma-w-ax-utːa)
c. w-i-a-w-ax-an=de > wiʔaːxande ‘you will not go inside’
(m-in-neg-m-go-ptcp=2sg) (alternative: w-i-a-w-ax-an=de)
d. či-w-ig-ul=de > čiːgulde ‘you see him’ (spr-m-see.ipfv-icvb=2sg)
(alternative: čiwigulde)

2.6.6 Other general processes affecting vowels: Pharyngealization and

formation of diphthongs
Pharyngealization is a frequent process that is attested with verbal and nominal affixes
containing u or a. The pharyngealization feature of verbal and nominal stems spreads to
the closest prefixes or suffixes, but not to the entire word. The nominal affixes that have
pharyngealized allomorphs are the plural suffix -upːe, oblique plural suffix -a and the suf-
fix -a deriving actions nouns from verbs. The verbal suffixes are a variety of derivational
and inflectional suffixes. See §2.4 above for more details and relevant examples.
There are two diphthongs that arise when vowels are followed by the semivowels
/w/ and /j/. The diphthongs [aɪ ̯] and [aʊ̯], written aj and aw, are found in a few roots,
e.g. ʁaj ‘word, talk’, alaw ‘around’; more are given in (7). They also arise during certain
inflectional or derivational processes. The first diphthong is attested with verbs having
i as the root vowel and consisting only of one consonant, that is, verbs of the structure
(b-)iC(ː). They may have or may not have gender prefixes. When a spatial preverb ka-,
ha-, sa-, or the negation prefixes (a-, ma-) are added, the result is a + i > aj. For verbs
with gender prefixes the process only applies when the gender prefix w- for masculine
singular is omitted, which is always possible for verbs that have the root vowel i. The
forms with the gender prefixes b- or r- that do not contain the diphthong are given in
brackets.

(39) a + i > aj (iC(ː) > jC(ː))

a. ha-(w)-icː-ij > hajcːij ‘to stand up’ (up-m-stand.pfv-inf) (ha-b-icː-ij)
b. a-(w)-iχʷ-ij > ajχʷij ‘to not be able’ (neg-m-can.pfv-inf) (a-b-iχʷ-ij)
c. ma-isː-it > majsːit ‘Do not shave!’ (neg-shave.ipfv-proh.sg)

34
 2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

This process is optional to some degree. This means that under certain circumstances
that need further investigation, the two adjacent vowels a and i can be pronounced sep-
arately, not forming a diphthong. For instance, majsːit can alternatively be pronounced
maʔisːit (36b).
The diphthong [aʊ̯] arises when spatial preverbs or negation prefixes with the final
vowel a are added to verbs with the root vowel u. This can be verbs with a gender prefix
(b-uC(ː)-) that are inflected for masculine singular gender agreement (§20.2). The mascu-
line singular prefix w- is regularly dropped before verbs with the root vowel u (e.g. uc-ib
‘caught him’ vs. r-uc-ib ‘caught her’), and then the combination of the two subsequent
vowels turns into a diphthong that will be written aw (40). In the following examples
forms with overt agreement prefixes b- or d- are given in brackets at the end of the
example lines.

(40) a + u > aw (uC(ː) > wC(ː))

a. tːura-(w)-uq-un > tːurawqun ‘he went outside’ (outside-m-go.pfv-pret) (vs.
tːura b-uq-un)
b. sa-(w)-uq-un > sawqun ‘he came’ (hither-m-go.pfv-pret) (vs. sa-b-uq-un)
c. gu-sa-(w)-uc-ib > gusawcib ‘kept him’ (down-hither-m-keep.pfv-pret) (vs.
gu-sa-b-uc-ib)
d. a-(w)-uq’-idel > awq’idel ‘should I not go’ (neg-m-go-modq) (vs. a-d-uq’-idel)

The same happens to verbs that do not have a gender prefix (uC(ː)-) when the root
is preceded by prefixes ending in a (41). And again there are exceptions to the rule, e.g.
in sauq’ij ‘go towards, go to meet’ the two vowels do not form a diphthong, but are
separated by a glottal stop.

(41) a + u > aw (uC(ː) > wC(ː))

a. ka-utː-ij > kawtːij ‘tear off, rip off’ (down-tear.ipfv-inf)
b. ha-utː-ij > hawtːij ‘pull out, disassemble, take apart’ (up-tear.ipfv-inf)
c. ha-uχːaq-ij > hawχːaqij ‘ignite, set fire’ (up-sparkle-caus-inf)

2.6.7 Vowel mutation (apophony)

Vowel mutation is found with inflected nouns and verbs. In the case of nouns, it is trig-
gered by suffixation, in the case of verbs by prefixation.
The vowel a in the final syllable of nouns ending in a consonant is raised and backed
when one of the plural suffixes -e, -te, -be, and -re containing close-mid vowels is added,
that is, there is vowel mutation a > u (including aˁ > uˁ). The process can be accompanied
by delabialization (§2.6.10 shows examples). There are also one instance each of e > u and
e > i under the same conditions. Relevant examples are given in (42). See §3.2 for more
nouns.

35
2 Phonology

(42) a > u; e > u; e > i

a. qːap > qːup-re ‘sacks’
b. χabar > χabur-te ‘stories, news’
c. nez > nuz-be ‘lice’
d. ʁez > ʁiz-be ‘hairs’

Vowel mutation with verbs occurs when the spatial preverbs or negation prefixes with
the final vowel a are prefixed. The first type of verbal vowel mutation happens with
verbs containing the stem vowel i that are inflected for masculine singular or lack gen-
der agreement prefixes. The gender prefix is dropped and the two vowels merge. Verb
forms with overt gender prefixes are given in brackets at the end of the example lines
for comparison.

(43) a+i>e
a. sa-(w)-irʁ-an > serʁan ‘the one that comes’ (hither-m-come-ptcp) (vs. sa-b-
irʁ-an)
b. a-(w)-irχʷ-ar > erχʷar ‘cannot’ (neg-m-be.able.ipfv-prs.3) (vs. a-b-irχʷ-ar)
c. ka-(w)-irg-an=da > kerganda ‘I will sit down’ (down-m-be.ipfv-ptcp=1) (vs.
ka-r-irg-an=da)

This process is optional, but again the circumstances under which alternatives are
allowed need to be clarified (44).

(44) a. han a-w-irk-u > han awirku/han.erku/han.aʔirku ‘does not remember

him’ (remember neg-m-occur.ipfv-prs.3)
b. a-irʁ-ib=da > erʁibda/aʔirʁibda ‘I did not understand’
(neg-understand.pfv-pret=1)

The second type of verbal vowel mutation happens with verbs that have the stem
vowel e and lack gender agreement prefixes (45). Note that in the first verb given below
the vowel mutation results in a long vowel because the negation prefix a- assimilated
to the stem vowel and this, in turn, leads to a sequence of two identical vowels, which
then becomes a long vowel. This process commonly occurs when the negation prefix is
added to verbs beginning with the vowel a because if the sequence would be shortened,
the negated form would be identical to the affirmative form and negation could not be
expressed (37). The same logic applies to eːrčur (45a).

(45) a + e > e
a. a-erč-ur > aʔerčur/eːrčur (neg-saw.pfv-pret)
b. ha-erʔ-ul > herʔul (up-say.ipfv-icvb)

Finally, the combination of spatial preverbs ending with i and a verb without a gender
prefix and a as stem vowel or a following preverb ha- ‘upwards’ also leads to vowel
mutation. In the second case, when two preverbs combine, then the vowel mutation is

36
 2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

initiated by the disappearance of the glottal fricative. The affected preverbs are či- ‘on’ +
ha- > če-, kʷi- ‘in the hands’ + ha > kʷe-, hitːi- ‘behind, after’ + ha > hitːe-, b-i ‘in, inside’
+ ha- > be-. We can analyze this process as lowering of the vowel of the second preverb
(46). Again the process is optional and does not occur in slow, careful speech.

(46) i+a>e
a. či-ag-ur > čegur ‘s/he went’ (spr-go.pfv-pret)
b. či-ha-b-išː-ib > čebišːib ‘s/he put it up’ (spr-up-n-put.pfv-pret)
c. kʷi-ha-b-uc-ib > kʷebucib ‘s/he kept it in the hands’
(in.hands-up-n-keep.pfv-pret)

2.6.8 Assimilation
Progressive assimilation occurs with all verbal and nominal suffixes that have initial l.
The liquid assimilates to a preceding sonorant n or r (47). The following suffixes are
affected:

• genitive case: -la > -na/-ra

• loc-series (spatial case): -le > -ne/-re
• ergative case/oblique stem marker: -li > -ni/-ri
• perfective converb/adverbializer: -le > -ne/-re
• anteriority/causality converb -la > -na/-ra

(47) n + l > nn; r + l > rr

a. cin-la > cinna ‘his/her’ (refl.sg.obl-gen)
b. tuχtur-li > tuχturri (doctor-erg)
c. b-uč’-un-le > buč’unne ‘have read’ (n-read.pfv-pret-cvb)

With many words the process is optional, and in careful speech no assimilation takes
place.

2.6.9 Palatalization
Palatalization of velar consonants occurs with verbs when the causative suffix -aq or
suffixes starting with the front vowels i (48a), (49), (50a), (50b) or e (48b), (50c) are added,
or occasionally when the masdar suffix -ni is following (50d).

(48) x > š, xː > šː

a. či-ka-b-ixː-a ‘put it on!’ (spr-down-n-put.pfv-imp.sg)
vs. či-ka-b-išː-ij ‘to put it on’ (spr-down-n-put.pfv-inf)
b. b-ax-ul ‘going’ (n-go-icvb)
vs. w-aš-e! ‘Go!’ (m-go-imp.sg)

37
2 Phonology

(49) g > ž
b-ug-ul ‘remaining’ (n-stay-icvb)
vs. b-už-ib ‘remained’ (n-stay-pret)
(50) k > č, kː > čː, k’ > č’
a. b-uk-ul ‘gathering’ (n-gather-icvb)
vs. b-uč-ib ‘gathered it’ (n-gather-pret)
b. b-ikː-a ‘give it!’ (n-give.pfv-imp.sg)
vs. b-ičː-ib ‘gave it’ (n-give.pfv-pret)
c. er w-erk’-araj ‘in order to look at him’ (look m-look.pfv-subj)
vs. er w-erč’-e ‘Look!’ (look m-look.pfv-imp.sg)
d. b-ebk’-a ‘death’ (n-die.pfv-nmlz)
vs. b-ebč’-ni ‘death’ (n-die.pfv-msd)

When the masdar suffix is added the process is optional, at least with some verbs (51)
(although it occurs when other suffixes are added). However, with a few verbs such as
er b-ik’ʷ-ni ‘looking’ (look -n-say.ipfv-msd) it is ungrammatical.

(51) a. ubč’-ni/ubk’-ni (die.m.ipfv-msd) < b-ubk’- (n-die.ipfv-)

b. b-arč-ni/b-ark-ni (n-find.pfv-msd) < b-arkː- (n-find.pfv-)

2.6.10 Labialization and delabialization

There are two instances of labialization of stops triggered by the round vowel u. In the
first instance, a preceding vowel is lost and the loss is compensated for by labializing the
following stop (another example with the same verb has been provided in §2.6.1 above):

(52) w-i-ha-(w)-ulq-an > wihalqʷan ‘the one that goes inside’

(m-in-up-(m)-go.ipfv-ptcp) (compare with b-i-ha-b-ulq-an)

The second instance represents the combination of the two spatial preverbs gu- ‘under’
and ha- ‘upwards’. The glottal fricative between the two vowels is lost and the round
vowel disappears, leaving the initial stop labialized, that is gu-ha- > gʷa- (53).

(53) c’a gʷa-b-iq’-un ca-b

fire from.under.up-n-set.fire.pfv-pret cop-n
‘(She) set up a fire.’

Delabialization is a more widespread and predictable process. It occurs when verbs

that contain labialized stem consonants take suffixes beginning with the round vowel u
(i.e. one of the preterite allomorphs -ub, -ur, or -un):

(54) a. b-elk’ʷ-ij ‘write’ > b-elk-un ‘wrote’ (n-write.pfv-pret)

b. kaxʷ-ij ‘kill’ > kax-ub ‘killed’ (kill.pfv-pret)
c. ergʷ-ij ‘sieve’ > erg-ur ‘sieved’ (sieve.pfv-pret)

38
 2.6 Phonological and morphophonological alternations

With nouns delabialization occurs in the formation of the plural. When the plural suf-
fix or the oblique plural suffix is added to nouns that have a vowel a/aˁ in the root that
undergoes vowel mutation a/aˁ > u/uˁ, then the mutation is accompanied by delabializa-
tion of a stop that precedes or follows the mutated vowel. Furthermore, plural suffixes
containing u also trigger delabialization of preceding consonants when they are added
(55).

(55) daˁrqʷ ‘barn’ > duˁrq-be q’ʷaˁl ‘cow’ > q’uˁl-e

qːʷaz ‘goose’ > qːuz-re mikʷa ‘fingernail’ > mik-upːe
χːʷe ‘dog’ > χː-ude

Other plural suffixes do not lead to vowel mutation, and thus labialized consonants
are preserved, for example:

(56) kːʷacːa ‘mare’ > kːʷac-ne targʷa ‘weasel’ > targʷ-ne

gʷagʷa ‘flower’ > gʷagʷne žilixʷa ‘saddle’ > žilixʷme

2.6.11 Gemination and degemination

Gemination is not a common process, whereas degemination is frequent. There is op-
tional gemination in combination with devoicing, which always involves at least one
gender affix. This process occurs only with the gender affixes b (neuter singular/human
plural) and d (neuter plural/first and second person plural). The two lax voiced conso-
nants become tense and devoiced when they are preceded or followed by an identical
consonant. This can either be the same gender affix or the past tense enclitic =de, the
attributive plural suffix -te or occasionally when a preverb ending in p is used in a com-
plex verb (there are no preverbs ending in d). Examples are given in (57) and (58). In
careful speech the two consonants are pronounced individually, and no gemination and
devoicing take place.

(57) d + d/t > tː

a. či-d-d-iχ-un > čitːiχun ‘(they) tied them’ (spr-npl-npl-tie.pfv-pret)
b. le-d=de > letːe ‘we were there’ (exist-npl=pst) (le-b=de)
c. xari-d-te > xaritːe ‘the ones down’ (down-npl-dd.pl) (xari-b-te)
(58) b/p + b > pː
a. gu-b-b-iči-b > gupːičib ‘it lost’ (sub-n-n-occur.pfv-pret)
b. χːap b-arq’-ib > χːapːarq’ib ‘grabbed it’ (grab n-do.pfv-pret)

Gemination does not occur when two voiceless consonants follow each other, for ex-
ample ħaˁžat-te (need-dd.pl).
Furthermore, a number of verbal suffixes such as the habitual present suffixes contain
geminates, e.g. -tːe (-2sg.prs) (§13.1). These suffixes are probably diachronically complex
in their morphology, but since they synchronically function as entire morphemes that
are not further split up, they are not treated here.

39
2 Phonology

Geminates are regularly degeminated when they end up in syllable-final position, be-
cause geminates in syllable-final position are prohibited (see §2.1, §2.3). Therefore, when
suffixation leads to resyllabification, then degemination takes place, that is, tense con-
sonants become lax. Voicing is not affected. Within the nominal morphology we find
degemination of stops, fricatives, and affricates when the plural suffixes -be, -ne, and
-me are added (59).

(59) rur.sːi > rurs-be ‘girl, daughter’ cːa.cːi > cːac-be ‘thorn’
c’el.tːa > c’elt-me ‘gravestone’ e.čːa > eč-ne ‘she-goat’

Similarly, a number of nouns have underlying geminates (stops and fricatives) in the
word-final position that are only pronounced as geminates when suffixes that begin with
a vowel (e.g. the plural suffixes -e and -upːe) are attached (60). In those plural nouns the
geminates occur in syllable-initial position. By contrast, when the nouns are used in the
singular or when suffixes that start with consonants are added (e.g. the ergative suffix
-li), then the stops and fricatives are degeminated. More examples can be found in §3.2.
In the examples in (60) first the plural forms are given and then the singular forms.

(60) juldašːe > juldaš ‘friend’ baliqːe > baliq ‘fish’

ʡuˁrusːe > ʡuˁrus ‘Russian’ ħaˁšukːe > ħaˁšuk ‘pot’
miriqːʷe > miriqʷ ‘worm’ t’upːe > t’up ‘finger’
qːuˁnqːuˁpːe > qːuˁnq ‘nose’

Within the verbal system, degemination can only occur when consonant-initial suf-
fixes are added to verbal roots that have geminated consonants. The only relevant suf-
fixes are the masdar suffix -ni (or -ri) and the locative participle -na.

(61) a. ha-qː-ij (up-carry-inf) > haq-ni (masdar)

b. ka-b-ičː-ij (down-n-cut.up.pfv-inf) > kabič-ni (masdar)
c. b-arcː-ij (n-get.tired.pfv-inf) > barc-ni (masdar)
d. akːʷ- (cop.neg) > akʷ-ni/akʷ-ri (masdar)
e. b-učː-ij (n-drink.pfv-inf) > buč-na (locative participle)

40
 Part II

Nominal categegories
3 Nouns
The grammatical categories of nouns and other nominals in Sanzhi are gender, num-
ber and case. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. With respect to
number, nouns distinguish singular and plural. In addition, there is an associative plu-
ral. Sanzhi Dargwa has four grammatical cases, namely absolutive, ergative, dative, and
genitive, and many more semantic cases. Most of the latter are spatial cases.
This chapter describes gender (§3.1), number (§3.2), and case (§3.4) as well as the
derivation of nouns (§3.5) and the formation of nouns by means of compounding and
reduplication (§3.6).

3.1 Gender
Sanzhi has the typical Dargwa gender system of three genders that have a transparent
semantic basis: masculine, feminine, and neuter. To the feminine and masculine gender
belong only those nouns that denote humans or are perceived as humanoids or similar
to humans. This means that gender for humans follows natural gender, and all other
nouns are neuter. Gender agreement is a major grammatical trait of East Caucasian lan-
guages, including Sanzhi. The combined gender–number agreement affixes are given in
Table 3.1. All forms except the zero marking for masculine singular agreement can occur
as prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (only with two words). For more information on gender
agreement see §20.2.

Table 3.1: Agreement affixes in Sanzhi

sg 1/2pl 3pl
Masculine w/∅ d b
Feminine r d b
Neuter b d

Gender is normally not marked on nouns, but there are a few nouns that do carry overt
gender markers in word-initial position that seem to go back to gender prefixes. They
can be divided into two groups. The first group is kinship terms and the noun ‘owner’
that differ in their form depending on the gender of the referent (1).

(1) a. ucːi ‘brother’, rucːi ‘sister’, bucːi ‘pair (e.g. of shoes)’

b. ucːiq’ar, rucːiq’ar ‘cousin’ (male, female)
3 Nouns

c. rursːi ‘girl, daughter’ (no other forms available)

d. wah, rah, bah ‘owner’
e. bahinte ‘parents’ (plural form of ‘owner’)

The second group is nouns that express the gender of the (implicit or explicit) posses-
sor (2). Most of the words of the second group denote body parts. The first noun controls
neuter plural agreement since it is morphosyntactically a compound noun (§3.6.2). The
second noun controls neuter singular agreement, independently of the agreement prefix
used. The third noun controls agreement according to the referent and therefore in ac-
cordance with the prefix it has. For instance, babq’i (χalq’) ‘half (of the people)’ controls
human plural agreement. It thus behaves similar to the nouns in (1).

(2) a. wark-maχ ‘inside, inner parts, entrails’ (of human beings, male and female),
dark-maχ ‘inside, inner parts, entrails’ (of animals, in general)
b. wag, rag,bag, dag ‘middle, waist’
c. wabq’i, rabq’i, babq’i, dabq’i ‘half’

There is another word daˁʡ ‘face’ that clearly contains a frozen gender prefix and also
occurs as part of compound verbs, e.g., in b-aˁʡ-či-aʁ-ib ‘direct’, or as the root of spatial
adverbs such as b-aˁʡ-gubal ‘upside-down’. In principle, it is also possible to form the
masculine singular, feminine singular, and neuter singular variants waˁʡ, raˁʡ and baˁʡ
that seem to have the meaning ‘face, muzzle’ (of a man, of a woman) and ‘muzzle of an
animal, wall, facade’, but they are not used in natural speech and speakers have trouble
to find a context in which they could occur.1
Nichols (2007) calls the overt marking of gender on nouns in (1) and (2) “head gender”.
Nichols (2007) argues that synchronically, the initial segments of these words cannot
simply be considered to be gender agreement prefixes because for most nouns head
gender does not change in the plural, in contrast to agreement affixes on verbs and other
parts of speech. For instance, the plural of ucːi ‘brother’ and rucːi ‘sister’ is ucbe and
rucbe respectively, not bucbe. For the nouns of the first group in (1), the head gender is
determined by the natural gender of the referent and not controlled by another nominal.
Nichols also writes that only few such nouns are likely of verbal origin. As for the Sanzhi
words given in (1) and (2), I am unable to say anything about their origin.

3.2 Number
Most nouns in Sanzhi can be marked for plural by means of a suffix. The singular has
no special marking. Plural suffixes can be divided into three groups according to their
frequency and productivity:
1
There is another noun baˁʡ ‘leaf, sheet of paper, page’ that is arguable a cognate of baˁʡ ‘muzzle, wall,
facade’. The two nouns can be distinguished through their plural marking: baˁʡ > buˁʡre ‘leaves, pages’ vs.
baˁʡ > baˁʡuˁrme, baˁʡme ‘muzzles, walls, facades’.

44
 3.2 Number

(3) a. frequent and productive suffixes: -e, -te, -be, -me

b. relatively frequent suffixes: -re, -ne, -upːe, -urbe
c. very rare suffixes: -urme, -rme, -ube, -de, -une, -(u)bne

The first group is the only one that can be used with recent loan words from Russian
(Russian loans are indicated in the lists in (4) to (14)). The last group is restricted to one
or two lexical items. Many of the nouns undergo morphophonological processes before
the plural suffix is added. Plural suffixes containing the vowel /u/ have allophones with
the pharyngealized vowel uˁ, e.g. -uˁpːe.

3.2.1 Frequent and productive plural suffixes

In this and the following section, I provide examples for every suffix illustrating at the
same time the morphophonological processes. The morphophonological processes that
are applied when forming the plural of nouns are summarized in §3.2.3.

3.2.1.1 -e
(4) simple suffixation:
a. t’ult’ > t’ult’e ‘bread’
b. sːurrat > sːurrate ‘picture’
c. unc > unce ‘ox’
d. qːačuʁ > qːačuʁe ‘bandit’
e. χurejg > χurejge ‘food’
f. q’ampit’ > q’ampit’e ‘chocolate’ (Russian loan)
g. student > studente ‘student’ (Russian loan)
h. praznik’ > praznik’e ‘holiday’ (Russian loan)
(5) simple suffixation, but the final consonant (stop or fricative) occurs in its underly-
ing geminate form (see §2.6.11):
a. juldaš > juldašːe ‘friend’
b. baliq > baliqːe ‘fish’
c. ʡuˁrus > ʡuˁrusːe ‘Russian’
d. ħaˁšuk > ħaˁšukːe ‘pot’
e. miriqʷ > miriqːʷe ‘worm’
f. t’up > t’upːe ‘finger’
g. tusnaq > tusnaqːe ‘prison’

45
3 Nouns

(6) vowel mutation (and delabialization):

a. halmaʁ > halmuʁe ‘fiancée’
b. kːazat > kːazute ‘newspaper’ (Russian loan)
c. qːabaʁ > qːabuʁe ‘pumpkin’
d. q’ʷaˁl > q’uˁle ‘cow’
(7) various processes (vowel deletion, vowel mutation, underlying geminate occurs
on surface):
a. murgul > murgle ‘man’
b. k’apːur > k’apre ‘leaf’
c. amχa > umχe ‘donkey’

3.2.1.2 -te
Most of the nouns taking this suffix are disyllabic loan words ending in a resonant. This
suffix is also used for the plural form of long adjectives and, more generally, of predicates
(§9.6.1).

(8) simple suffixation:

a. šːišːim > šːišːimte ‘worry’
b. tuχtur > tuχturte ‘doctor’
c. qːanaw > qːanawte ‘ditch’
d. ħaˁkim > ħaˁkimte ‘ruler’
e. pawur > pawurte ‘cook’ (Russian loan)
f. mašin > mašinte ‘car’ (Russian loan)
g. bazar > bazarte ‘market’
h. salam > salamte ‘greeting’
i. kːapan > kːapante ‘shroud’
j. kep > kepte ‘drinking’
k. ukul > ukulte ‘injection’
l. ħaˁjwan > ħaˁjwante ‘animal, livestock’
m. dušman > dušmante ‘enemy’
n. mahar > maharte ‘marriage’
(9) vowel mutation:
a. χabar > χaburte ‘story, news’
b. šajt’an > šajt’unte ‘devil’
c. darman > darmunte ‘medicine’
d. bajram > bajrumte ‘holiday’
e. qːajtar > qːajturte ‘club’
f. q’uˁšːem > q’uˁšːumte ‘handcuff’

46
 3.2 Number

(10) other:
admi > adimte ‘person, human being, man’

3.2.1.3 -be
(11) simple suffixation:
a. ul > ulbe ‘eye’
b. milic’a > milic’abe ‘police(man)’ (Russian loan)
c. pːalaženija > pːalaženijabe ‘situation’ (Russian loan)
d. xːun > xːunbe ‘road, way’
e. ʡuˁnru > ʡuˁnrube ‘life’
(12) vowel mutation:
a. naˁq > nuˁqbe ‘eye’
b. qal > qulbe ‘house’
c. nez > nuzbe ‘louse’
d. qaˁr > quˁrbe ‘pear’
e. ʁez > ʁizbe ‘hair’
(13) vowel deletion and degemination (of fricative or affricate):
a. cula > culbe ‘tooth’
b. rursːi > rursbe ‘girl, daughter’
c. hinci > hincbe ‘apple’
d. rucːi > rucbe ‘sister’
e. cːacːi > cːacbe ‘thorn’

3.2.1.4 -me
(14) simple suffixation:
a. pikru > pikrume ‘thought’
b. buh > buhme ‘bundle’
c. dus > dusme ‘year’
d. t’uˁ > t’uˁme ‘leg’
e. irk > irkme ‘threshing board’
f. peč > pečme ‘oven’ (Russian loan)
g. šalakbluk > šalakblukme ‘building block made from concrete’ (Russian loan)
(15) vowel deletion and degemination (of stop or fricative)
a. kːurtːi > kːurtme ‘dress, shirt’
b. kːalkːi > kːalkme ‘tree’
c. beretːa > beretme ‘ax’

47
3 Nouns

d. q’aˁli > q’aˁlme ‘branch’

e. c’eltːa > c’eltme ‘gravestone’
f. qulexːa > qulexme ‘bracelet’
g. agarud > agardme2 ‘garden’ (Russian loan)

3.2.2 Modestly frequent plural suffixes

The following plural suffixes are not used with recent borrowings.

3.2.2.1 -re
Many monosyllabic nouns ending in a consonant take the plural suffix -re after vowel
mutation. Disyllabic undergo vowel deletion before the suffix is attached.

(16) vowel mutation (-a > -u):

a. qːap > qːupre ‘sack’
b. maχ > muχre ‘wheelbarrow’ (used to carry hay)
c. t’at’ > t’ut’re ‘thread’
d. k’at’ > k’ut’re ‘drop’
e. lac > lucre ‘fence, wall’
f. baˁʡ > buˁʡre ‘leaf, page’
(17) vowel deletion:
a. migʷi > migʷre ‘large basket’
b. ʡaˁmi > ʡaˁmre ‘window’
c. ʁuma > ʁumre ‘block’
(18) other:
xːunul > xːunre ‘woman’

3.2.2.2 -ne
The plural suffix -ne is mostly found with disyllabic nouns ending in -a or very occasion-
ally in -u/-uˁ) after deleting the final vowel (and degemination of the previous consonant
if it is a tense consonant). There are also a few monosyllabic nouns that make use of the
suffix.

(19) simple suffixation:

a. ʁʷab > ʁʷabne ‘ploughshare’
b. bar > barne ‘day’

2
This example slightly differs from all the others because the vowel, which is deleted, occurs in the final
syllable, but it is followed by consonant and thus does not represent the word-final segment.

48
 3.2 Number

(20) vowel deletion and degemination (stops, fricatives, affricates):

a. sːika > sːikne ‘bear’
b. ajarq’a > ajarq’ne ‘hunter’
c. žaq’a > žaq’ne ‘boar, pig’
d. šuša > šušne ‘bottle’
e. likːa > likne ‘bone’
f. čatːa > čatne ‘cover’
g. qːarqːa > qːarqne ‘stone’
h. c’eltːa > c’eltne ‘gravestone’
i. ečːa > ečne ‘she-goat’
j. durħuˁ > durħne ‘boy, son’

3.2.2.3 -upːe
This suffix occurs with a handful of nouns and by means of simple suffixation, final vowel
deletion, or surface appearance of underlying geminate consonant (in the last noun).

(21) a. zunra > zunrupːe ‘neighbor’

b. daˁqaˁ > daˁquˁpːe ‘wound’
c. muza > muzupːe ‘corner’
d. ʡaˁq’lu > ʡaˁq’lupːe ‘mind’
e. qːuˁnq > qːuˁnqːuˁpːe ‘nose’

3.2.2.4 -urbe
The suffix -urbe is mostly attested with disyllabic nouns ending in -a or -i. It can be
simply added to nouns ending in consonants; otherwise final vowel deletion applies.

(22) a. lac > lacurbe ‘fence, wall’

b. dahag > dahagurbe ‘slope’
c. uncːa > uncːurbe ‘door’
d. duʁa > duʁurbe ‘hayloft’
e. mašːi > mašːurbe ‘farmstead’
f. ʡaˁči > ʡaˁčurbe ‘work’

3.2.2.5 Other suffixes

There are a few rare suffixes that only occur with a very small number of nouns. Some
of these nouns also make use of alternative, more common plural markers.

49
3 Nouns

(23) -urme:
a. baˁʡ > baˁʡuˁrme ‘muzzle, wall, facade’
b. ʡaˁdat > ʡaˁdaturme ‘habit, tradition’
c. bek’a > bek’urme ‘pile, heap’
d. baha > bahurme ‘price’
e. baʔ > baʔurme ‘end, tail, top, summit’
(24) -ude:
χːʷe > χːude ‘dog’
(25) -une:
ʡaˁdat > ʡaˁdatune ‘habit, tradition’
(26) -(u)bne:
malla > mallubne ‘mullah’

3.2.3 Morphophonological rules and other restrictions

The distribution of the plural markers is basically lexical. For certain derived nouns plural
marking is predictable (e.g. agent nouns ending in -či take the plural suffix -be, abstract
nouns with the suffix -dex take the plural suffix -e and undergo gemination of the suffix-
final consonant). There are many nouns that can attach more than one plural suffix, and
both in texts and in elicitations one frequently comes across variation between speakers
as well as within the speech of individuals. Examples are provided in (27).

(27) a. urči > urče/určme ‘horse’

b. ʡaˁdat > ʡaˁdaturme/ʡaˁdatme/ʡaˁdate/ʡaˁdatune ‘habit, tradition’
c. dard > dardane/dardme ‘sorrow’

Plural suffixation is accompanied by a number of morphophonological processes:

• deletion of final -a, -u or -i of mostly disyllabic nouns with the suffixes -be, -ne,
-me, -re, -e, -upːe, -urbe, -ube
• vowel mutation -a > -u and -aˁ > -uˁ, -e > -u, -e > -i of the vowel in the final syllable
of words ending in a consonant with the suffixes -e, -te, -be, -re
• surface occurrence of geminate stop, fricative or affricate with the suffix -e and
-upːe
• degemination of stops, fricatives and affricates in the final syllable before a vowel
with the suffixes -ne, -be and occasionally -e, -ube

With a few nouns, the last vowel shifts to u or uˁ, and, as a consequence, the preceding
labialized consonant is automatically delabialized as in mikʷa > mikupːe ‘fingernail’, χːʷe
> χːude ‘dog’, and q’ʷaˁl > q’uˁle ‘cow’. However, in most cases, no vowel shift takes
place and thus labialized consonants are not delabialized, and only the above-mentioned

50
 3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions

morphophonological processes take place (vowel deletion, degemination), for example

mikʷ > mikʷbe ‘oak’, gʷagʷa > gʷagʷne ‘flower’, kaˁχːʷi > kaˁχʷne ‘dustpan’, and žilixʷa >
žilixʷme ‘saddle’. See §2.6 for more information on the morphophonological processes.
When case suffixes are added to nouns overtly marked for plural, then the final vowel
of the plural suffix changes from -e to -a (see §3.4 for examples).

3.2.4 The associative plural

In addition to the normal plural, Sanzhi has an associative plural formed with the suffix
-qal that probably originates from the noun qal ‘house’. The associative plural is only
used with nominals that have specific reference:

• personal names
e.g. Pajt’ima-qal ‘Patimat and the people associated with her’
• terms denoting kinship relations
e.g. aba-qal ‘mother and her relatives’, atːa-qal ‘father and his relatives’
• the pronoun ča ‘who’, for which it is the regular means of forming the plural: ča-
qal (§4.5.1)

Some kinship terms (e.g. ‘uncle’, ‘sister’) and personal names can also form the plural
by means of regular plural suffixes, but there is a clear difference in meaning:

(28) a. Muʔminat-be ‘girls with the name Muʔminat’

b. vs. Muʔminat-qal ‘Muʔminat and the people associated with her’
c. acːi-be ‘uncles’
d. vs. acːi-qal ‘a specific uncle and his relatives and associates’

Cases are directly suffixed to the associative plural marker.

3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions

There a couple of nouns whose behavior deviates from the majority as described in the
previous sections. This section provides examples of the different groups of divergent
nouns. There are three important parameters along which the divergent nouns can be
grouped:

• availability of a morphological plural

• gender agreement (only b-agreement, only d-agreement, or both)
• meaning (e.g. mass noun interpretation)

51
3 Nouns

The first clearly identifiable group consists of nouns that denote liquids and other
substances composed of small or minimal parts such as grains and dust-like materials.
These nouns normally control d-agreement, but b-agreement is possible if the noun is
interpreted as denoting a specific quantity (e.g. a bottle or a glass in case of liquids;
one grain or one ear in case of sand or cereals). The specific quantity reading occurs fre-
quently with some nouns (e.g. vodka, flour) and is therefore easier to obtain in elicitation.
The nouns do not have a morphological plural. Examples are:

(29) liquids
čaˁʁir ‘wine’, nejg ‘milk’, kːamput’ ‘homemade juice’, čaˁj ‘tea’, beʔe ‘blood’, nerʁ
‘soup’, ʡaˁraq’i ‘vodka’, hin ‘water’
(30) cereals, etc.
ač’i ‘wheat’, sːusːul ‘rye’, ʡaˁjlač’i ‘corn’, birinž ‘rice’ (with b-agreement: a sack or
single grain), t’ut’i ‘grapes’ (with b-agreement: a single grape)
(31) other substances
qːum ‘sand’, cːe ‘salt’ (with b-agreement: a specific quantity or one grain), pisuk’
‘caster sugar’ (with b-agreement: one bowl or sack), bet’u ‘flour’ (with b-agreement:
one sack)

The second group contains mass nouns that control only b-agreement and lack a mor-
phological plural, for instance bergʷa ‘smoke’, erza ‘dew’, duˁħi ‘snow’, and baˁqaˁla ‘but-
ter’. They can be reasonably treated as controlling neuter singular agreement.
The third group consists only of one noun χalq’ ‘people(s)’, which controls b-agree-
ment and lacks a morphological plural. Because of its semantics it is classified as human
plural.
The fourth group is composed of mass nouns that control only d-agreement and also
lack a morphological plural: mura ‘hay’, pːala ‘wool’, nekʷ ‘straw’, qʷesːa ‘ashes’, dalga
‘tool, product, detail’, wajaˁħ ‘thing’, and šuˁt’a ‘saliva, spittle’.
The fifth group consists of nouns that lack a singular form and only occur with what
seems to be a frozen plural suffix. These nouns control plural agreement (d-agreement),
for example mecːe ‘stinging nettle’, t’alaħne ‘dishes’, cːurbe ‘heaven’, and susme ‘throat’.
The last four groups are given in (32–35). It is not always possible to clearly identify
the mass noun reading. For all words in (32) and (33) that have the label ‘many’ in paren-
thesis after the English translation, the label ‘many’ refers to the normal (collective or
distributive) plural reading, e.g. many individual apricots.

(32) b- and d-agreement with plural meaning and/or mass noun reading; no morpho-
logical plural:
a. macːa b-agr. ‘sheep’ (one)
d-agr. ‘sheep’ (many/mass noun)
b. q’ar b-agr. ‘blade of grass’
d-agr. ‘grass, herbs’ (mass noun)

52
 3.3 Gender–number mismatches and exceptions

c. ʁaj b-agr. ‘word(s)’ (one/mass noun)

d-agr. ‘language, speech’ (mass noun)
d. qurekːa b-agr. ‘apricot’ (one)
d-agr. ‘apricots’ (many)
e. maʔ b-agr. ‘brain, marrow’ (one/mass noun)
d-agr. ‘brains’ (many)
f. t’ama b-agr. ‘voice, sound’ (one/mass noun)
d-agr. ‘voices, sounds’ (many)
g. bac b-agr. ‘month, moon’ (one)
d-agr. ‘months, moons’ (many)
h. tːaˁm b-agr. ‘trap’ (one)
d-agr. ‘traps’ (many)
i. šːala b-agr. ‘light’ (one/mass noun)
d-agr. ‘light(s)’ (many/mass noun)
j. c’a b-agr. ‘fire’ (one/mass noun)
d-agr. ‘fire(s)’ (many/mass noun)
(33) b- and d-agreement with distinct meanings; with morphologically formed plural:
a. meχ b-agr. ‘iron’ (piece of iron)
d-agr. ‘lock’
plural meχbe d-agr. ‘pieces of iron/iron as mass noun’
b. qːuqːu-laˁmc’ b-agr. ‘lightning’ (one/mass noun)
d-agr. ‘lightning’ (many/mass noun)
pl. qːuqːu-laˁmc’ne d-agr. ‘lightnings’
c. qːarqːa b-agr. ‘stone’ (one)
d-agr. ‘stones’ (many/mass noun)
plural qːarqne d-agr. ‘stones’ (many)
d. ʁez b-agr. ‘hair’ (one)
(d-agr. ‘hair(s)’ (many/mass noun))3
plural ʁizbe d-agr. ‘hairs’ (many)
e. čakar b-agr. ‘sugar’ (mass noun/one grain, piece)
d-agr. —
plural čakurte d-agr. ‘pieces of sugar’

3
This use not very common since there is a noun q’ačme with the mass noun reading of ‘hair’.

53
3 Nouns

(34) b- and d-agreement with no clearly distinct meanings (normally including mass
noun interpretation); no morphological plural:
a. ims b-/d-agr. ‘moth(s)’
b. xʷe b-/d-agr. ‘seed(s)’
c. daˁʡwi b-/d-agr. ‘war’
d. murhe b-/d-agr. ‘gold’
e. xːamxːa b-/d-agr. ‘foam’
f. šaχ b-/d-agr. ‘hoarfrost, frost’
(35) b- and d-agreement with no clearly distinct meanings; with morphological plural:
a. uncːa b-/d-agr. ‘door’
plural uncːurbe d-agr. ‘doors’
b. qix b-/d-agr. ‘nut(s)’
plural qixbe d-agr. ‘nuts’
c. ʁaˁl b-/d-agr. ‘sleigh(s)’
plural ʁaˁlme d-agr. ‘sleighs’

3.4 Case
Sanzhi Dargwa has four grammatical cases and 19 core semantic cases as well as one
minor directional suffix. The grammatical cases and the comitative are given in Ta-
ble 3.2. The 18 core spatial cases are provided in Table 3.3. The essive is shown in the
neuter singular/human plural form with the gender–number suffix -b. Illustrative partial
paradigms of a few nouns can be found in Tables 3.4–3.5.

Table 3.2: Grammatical cases

Case Suffix
absolutive -∅
ergative -l(i)
genitive -la (-lla)
dative -j
comitative -cːella

Case suffixation is (almost) completely regular and predictable. Like in many other
East Caucasian languages, including other Dargwa varieties, case suffixes in Sanzhi for
the most part do not directly attach to the nominal root, but are preceded by a so-called
oblique marker. For nouns in the singular, the oblique marker is identical to the ergative
suffix -li and will be glossed with obl. Demonstrative pronouns in the singular have -i
as the oblique marker; all nouns and demonstrative pronouns in the plural have -a.

54
 3.4 Case

Table 3.3: Spatial cases

Meaning Lative Essive Ablative

‘in, on, to’ (loc) -le/ -le-b/ -le-r(-ka)/
-ja/ -ja-b/ -ja-r(-ka)/
-a -a-b -a-r(-ka)
‘to’ (ad) -šːu -šːu-b -šːu-r(-ka)
‘in, on, at’ -cːe -cːe-b -cːe-r(-ka)
‘among’ (in)
‘under’ (sub) -gu -gu-b -gu-r(-ka)
‘in front’ (ante) -sa -sa-b -sa-r(-ka)
‘behind’ (post) -hara -hara-b -hara-r(-ka)

Table 3.4: Partial paradigms of two nouns (vowel-final stems)

Case ‘tree’ ‘donkey’

singular absolutive kːalkːi amχa
ergative kːalkːi-l amχa-l
genitive kːalkːi-la amχa-la
dative kːalkːi-(li)-j amχa-j
comitative kːalkːi-cːella amχa-cːella
ad-lative kːalkːi-šːu amχa-šːu
plural absolutive kːalk-me umχ-e
ergative kːalk-m-a-l umχ-a-l
genitive kːalk-m-a-(l)la umχ-a-(l)la

Table 3.5: Partial paradigms of two nouns (consonant-final stems)

Case ‘friend’ ‘clothes’

singular absolutive juldaš paltar
ergative juldaš-li paltar-ri/-li
genitive juldaš-la paltar-ra/-la
dative juldaš-li-j paltar-ri-j/-li-j
comitative juldaš-li-cːella paltar-ri-cːella/
-li-cːella
ad-lative juldaš-li-šːu paltar-ri-šːu/
-li-šːu
plural absolutive juldašː-e paltur-te
ergative juldašː-a-l paltur-t-a-l
genitive juldašː-a-(l)la paltur-t-a-(l)la

55
3 Nouns

There are a few differences between nouns ending in a vowel and nouns ending in a
consonant with respect to the distribution and the usage frequency of oblique markers in
the singular. With nouns ending in a vowel all case suffixes are mostly directly added to
the nominal stem (Table 3.4), but occasionally the oblique marker -l(i) precedes suffixes
of semantic cases, as in bušːukala-l-cːella broom-obl-comit ‘with the broom’, q’aca-l(i)-
šːu ‘to the goat’ (he.goat-obl-ad). With nouns ending in a consonant (Table 3.5), the
oblique marker obligatorily precedes the dative and the comitative, and is normally also
used before all spatial cases except for the loc-series with -le. If nouns are marked for the
plural, then overt case suffixes are always added to the plural oblique marker -a, never
directly to the plural stem.
The suffixes for the ergative and for the genitive can and most frequently do assimilate
after n and r (and s in the noun dus ‘year’) to -ri/-ni/-si (ergative) and -ra/-na (genitive).
The genitive of nominals in the plural is frequently realized as -lla instead of -la, but
this phenomenon seems to be at least partially subject to variation. It is hard to notice
in audio recordings of natural texts and speakers are not always aware of it. Therefore,
it will mostly not be acknowledged in the examples.

3.4.1 Functions of grammatical cases

3.4.1.1 Absolutive
The absolutive case is zero-marked and not indicated in the glosses. It occurs in the
following contexts:

1. on the sole argument of intransitive (36) and extended intransitive verbs (§19.1.2,
§19.1.4):

(36) di-la nuˁq-be ʡaˁbħ-ib ca<d>i

1sg-gen arm-pl get.tired.pfv-pret cop<npl>
‘My arms got tired.’

2. on the patient or theme argument of transitive and ditransitive (extended transi-

tive) verbs, (§19.1.5), (§19.1.6):

(37) du-l ka-d-iqː-an=da qix-be

1sg-erg down-npl-carry.ipfv-ptcp=1 nut-pl
‘I will bring nuts.’

3. on the stimulus argument of affective verbs (§19.1.8):

(38) itːa-j ʡuˁrus ʁaj d-alχ-ul

those.obl-dat Russian language npl-know.ipfv-icvb
akːʷ-i=q’al
cop.neg-hab.pst=mod
‘They did not know the Russian language.’

56
 3.4 Case

4. on the agent in the antipassive construction (§19.2.1):

(39) du baliqː-a-l ∅-uk-un=da

1sg fish-obl.pl-erg m-eat.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I (masc.) eat fish.’

5. on subject-like arguments and nominal predicates in copula clauses (§22.2):

(40) χalq’ kːuš-le=de

people hungry-advz=pst
‘The people were hungry.’
(41) het durħuˁ aždaha ca-w
that boy monster cop-m
‘That boy is a monster.’ (E)

6. on expressions of temporal duration (i.e. for a certain period):

(42) d-alt-u ʁajal bari

npl-let.ipfv-prs.3 twenty day
‘(They) leave (them) for 20 days.’
(43) ʡaˁbal dus kelg-un=da
three year remain.pfv-pret=1
‘I stayed there for three years.’

7. in vocative function:

(44) ce r-ik’-utːe, aba?

what f-say.ipfv-2sg.prs mother
‘What do you say, mother?’

3.4.1.2 Ergative
The ergative suffix is -li (allomorphs -ni, -ri after n and r respectively, and -l, which can
only be added to vowels). The ergative occurs in the following contexts:

1. on the agent of transitive and ditransitive predicates, including inanimate agents:

(45) žaq’-ne a-d-uk-i nušːa-l, akːʷ-i=w?

boar-pl neg-npl-eat.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-erg cop.neg-hab.pst=q
‘We did not eat boars, right?’
(46) hin-ni heχ lus b-ik’-aq-u
water-erg dem.down around n-move.ipfv-caus-prs
‘The water turns this around.’

57
3 Nouns

2. on expressions of reason/cause (though the dative is more common in this func-

tion, see §3.4.1.4):

(47) kːiši-l imc’a-l χalq’ b-ebč’-ib

hunger-erg additional-advz people hpl-die.pfv-pret
‘Many people died of hunger.’

3. on instruments (though the comitative is more frequent in this function, see

§3.4.2.1): In sentences such as (48) with two ergatives it is only marginally possible
to put the two ergative items directly next to each other, presumably because this
leads to processing difficulties. To overcome this problem the second ergative is
either placed in some other position, or is replaced with the comitative:

(48) du-l ka-b-irčː-ul=da t’ult’ dis-li / dis-li-cːella

1sg-erg down-n-cut.ipfv-icvb=1 bread knife-erg / knife-obl-comit
‘I cut the bread with a knife.’ (E)

4. in the construction with the verb ‘fill’ (49a), (49b):

(49) a. il-i-la azbar b-ic’-ib ca-b ʡuˁrʡ-aˁ-l,

that-obl-gen yard n-fill.pfv-pret cop-n chicken-obl.pl-erg
qːuz-r-a-l, k’urk’ur-t-a-l
goose-pl-obl-erg turkey.cock-pl-obl-erg
‘His yard was filled with chickens, geese, and turkeys.’
b. b-ic’-ib hel buq’a=ra sːusːul-li
n-fill.pfv-pret that hut=add rye-erg
‘And (they) also filled the hut with rye.’

5. on the patient in the antipassive construction (39);

6. when expressing the profession (50):

(50) il ħaˁjwan tuχtur-ri kelg-un

that animal doctor-erg remain.pfv-pret
‘He was a/the veterinarian.’

3.4.1.3 Genitive
The genitive suffix is -la (allomorphs -na, -ra after n and r, and allomorph -lla with many
nouns and pronouns marked for plural, and in some other contexts). It is used in the
following contexts:

58
 3.4 Case

1. with various types of relations, e.g. on noun modifiers denoting possession (36),
(51), (52), material (53), ingredients (54), units of measurement (55), properties (56).
Sanzhi does not distinguish between alienable and inalienable possessors. Some
more information on constructions expressing possession can be found in §30.4.
The position of genitives at the level of the phrase is analyzed in §21.1.3.

(51) nišːa-la sungli-la šːi-l-cːe-b

1pl-gen Sanzhi.person.obl-gen village-obl-in-n
‘in our village of Sanzhi’ (lit. ‘in our village of the Sanzhi people’)
(52) hel=ʁuna admi ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-w nišːi-j ca χːula-ce hunar-ra
that=eq person needed-advz cop-m 1pl-dat one big-dd.sg strength-gen
w-ah
m-owner
‘We need such a man, one with huge strength.’
(53) arc-la qulexa
silver-gen bracelet
‘silver bracelet’ (E)
(54) har žuralla q’ar-ra barcːik’ʷ b-irq’-id, galsːi-la
every various herbs-gen chudu n-do.ipfv-1.prs dock-gen
b-irq’-id
n-do.ipfv-1.prs
‘We make chudu (trad. food) from all various herbs, we make it from dock.’
(55) xujal litru-la čaˁʁir-la kanister
five liter-gen wine-gen canister
‘five-liter canister of wine’
(56) guž-la admi
strength-gen person
‘strong person’ (E)

2. on the arguments of most postpositions (§8):

(57) qal-la sala

house-gen in.front
‘in front of the house’
(58) qːarqːa-la hila-b
stone-gen behind-n
‘behind the stone’

59
3 Nouns

3. in partitive constructions (grammatically, they represent a genitive phrase with

an omitted head noun):

(59) hin-na b-erčː-a!

water-gen n-drink.pfv-imp
‘Drink (some) water!’ (E)

4. in the constructions of the fill-type (for which normally the ergative is used, see
examples (49a) and (49b)); the genitive is also possible in (60). In this example, the
genitive can be replaced by the ergative without any change in meaning. As in
the partitive construction, the genitive noun in (60) is actually part of a genitive
phrase of which the head noun has not been expressed, but could be added at any
time (e.g. kːuruškːa ‘cup, mug’). In contexts in which no such head noun could be
inserted, the genitive is ungrammatical and the ergative must be used instead. This
applies to (49a), (49b), which would not be admissible with a genitive.

(60) b-ic’-ib-le, hin-na b-erčː-ib ca-b

n-fill.pfv-pret-cvb water-gen n-drink.pfv-pret cop-n
‘Having filled (the glass) with water (he) drank it.’

5. in the gen + ‘make’ construction, there are a number of lexicalized phrases that
consist of a noun in the genitive used together with the verb b-arq’- (pfv) ‘do,
make’ (depending on the meaning there are also some other verbs allowed). This
noun can usually not be described as serving any specific syntactic function in
the clause, but instead forms a kind of compound together with the verb. The
argument that is syntactically the direct object and controls the gender agreement
on the verb functions as patient or it takes over the role of the affected participant
similar to a beneficiary (or maleficiary).4 More examples of such compound verbs
are given in §12.2.2.

(61) qalla + b-arq’-ij ‘marry off’; qalla + ka-b-at-ij ‘marry off’ (house.gen + down-
hpl-let.pfv-inf)
a. ca qal-la r-arq’-ib cin-na rursːi
one house-gen f-do.pfv-pret refl.sg-gen girl
‘(She) already married off one daughter.’

4
In the constructions in (61a), (61b), (62) and (63) the direct object (e.g. rursːi) can perhaps be interpreted as
the possessum and the genitive noun (qal-la) as possessor such that we would deal with a genitive phrase.
The phrase would, however, have the reverse case distribution of normal genitive phrases. The possessor
is normally a human referent and the possessum can be inanimate, but in the four examples it is the other
way around. Furthermore, in genitive phrases possessor and possessed usually occur next to each other
in the order genitive + noun, which is also not the case in these examples, but occasionally other orders
are possible (121) (§21.1.2). In sum, an analysis in which the direct objects and the nouns in the genitive
syntactically form genitive phrases needs to be rejected.

60
 3.4 Case

b. di-la k’ʷel durħuˁ qal-la ka-w-at-ur=da

1sg-gen two boy house-gen down-m-let.pfv-pret=1
‘I married off my two sons.’ (E)
(62) χːaˁbla + b-arq’-ij ‘bury’
di-la rucːi=ra χːaˁb-la r-arq’-ib-le=da
1sg-gen sister=add grave-gen f-do.pfv-pret-cvb=1
‘(I) buried my sister.’
(63) qaˁbla + b-arq’-ij ‘behead’; qaˁbla + b-aˁq-ij ‘behead’ (neck.gen +‘hit, strike,
wound’)
il bahandan u qaˁb-la ∅-urq-aˁn=de
this because.of 2sg neck-gen m-wound.ipfv-ptcp=2sg
‘Because of this you (masc.) will be beheaded!’

6. with the use of genitive pronouns in emphatic reflexive constructions (§29.1.2):

(64) ala r-uˁq’-aˁn!

2sg.gen f-go-imp
‘(You) yourself (fem.) go away!’ (E)

3.4.1.4 Dative
The dative suffix is -j. The dative occurs in the following contexts:

1. experiencer with affective predicates (65–67) (§19.1.3, §19.1.8)

(65) ce ħaˁžat-le, ∅-ik’ʷ-ar, at betsat w-ič-itːaj

what need-advz m-say.ipfv-prs 2sg.dat here.there m-lead.ipfv-subj.2
durħuˁ
boy
‘What need is there, he says, for you to bring the boy here and there.’
(66) dam simi d-ulq-u
1sg.dat anger npl-direct.ipfv-prs
‘I am angry.’ (lit. ‘anger directs to me’) (E)
(67) χatːaj at b-uχːar-re=w?
grandfather 2sg.dat n-be.cold-cvb=q
‘Grandfather, are you cold?’

61
3 Nouns

2. goal-like functions such as addressees (68) (for this role, the in-lative is more com-
mon, see §3.4.2.4), recipients (§19.1.6), beneficiaries/maleficiaries (69), and goals
of extended intransitive verbs with experiential semantics (70–72) or occasionally
spatial goals (73) and other types of goal-like constructions (74):

(68) dam / di-cːe b-urs-ib, …

1sg.dat / 1sg.obl-in n-say.pfv-pret
‘(They) said to me, …’
(69) b-irq’-an=da rursːi-j ʡaˁħ meq
n-do.ipfv-ptcp=1 girl-dat good wedding
‘(I) will make a big wedding for my daughter.’
(70) gu-lik’-an ʡaˁħ-le ʡaˁt’-n-a-la t’ama-j
down-listen.ipfv-ptcp good-advz frog-pl-obl-gen sound-dat
‘listening carefully to the sounds of the frogs’
(71) Murad-li-j χʷal-le urk’ec’i či-d-ulq-u Madina-j
Murad-obl-dat big-advz pity spr-npl-direct.ipfv-prs Madina-dat
‘Murad feels very sorry for Madina.’ (E)
(72) na il-i-j w-iχči ag-ur-re durħuˁ
now that-obl-dat m-believe go.pfv-pret-cvb boy
sa-r-∅-uq-un ca-w
in.front-abl-m-go.pfv-pret cop-m
‘Now the boy believed it (= the mouse) and ran away.’
(73) žergʷ-ne hitːi d-uq-un-ne ca-d durħ-a-j=ra
wasp-pl after npl-go.pfv-pret-cvb cop-npl boy-obl.pl-dat=add
kac’i-j=ra
puppy-dat=add
‘The wasps flew after the boy and the puppy’
(74) iž=ra xunul-li-j miši-l ca-r hel
this=add woman-obl-dat similar-advz cop-f that
‘This one also (= the person on a picture) is similar to a woman.’

3. expression of cause (75), (76), e.g. in the adverb hel-i-j (dem-obl-dat) ‘therefore’:

(75) hel qːaq ħuˁsen-na ʡaˁħ-dexː-li-j hel=ra

that Kak Hussein-gen good-nmlz-obl-dat that=add
kelg-un-il=de
remain.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘Because of the benevolence of Kak Hussein that (man) also remained
(alive).’

62
 3.4 Case

(76) točno het-i-la ʡaˁči, ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, het-i-cːe-r

exactly that-obl-gen work m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m that-obl-in-abl
ka-b-ič-ib χat’a-li-j
down-n-occur.pfv-pret mistake-obl-dat
‘This is exactly his deed, he says, this happened because of him, because of
his mistake.’

4. temporal duration (‘for’/‘in’) and points of time:

(77) palata-li-j ca-b har bari-j k’ʷel azir

ward-obl-dat cop-n every day-dat two thousand
‘(The price) for a ward is 2000 (rubles) per day.’
(78) har dusːi-j k’ʷel q’ap’a isː-i
every year.obl-dat two hat buy.ipfv-hab.pst
‘Every year he (usually) bought two hats.’
(79) du-l b-irq’-id dars ca saˁʡaˁt-li-j
1sg-erg n-do.ipfv-1.prs homework one hour-obl-dat
‘I will do the homework in one hour.’ (E)
(80) ixtːu-b čːaˁʡaˁl-li-j sːaˁʡaˁt kːaʔal-li-j w-iχʷ-ij
there-n morning-obl-dat hour eight-obl-dat m-be.pfv-inf
ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-w hel admi
needed-advz cop-m that person
‘That person needs to be there in the morning at 8 o’clock.’

5. prices:

(81) qːuruš-li-j b-ic-ib ca-b hel amχa

ruble-obl-dat n-sell.pfv-pret cop-n that donkey
‘(He) sold the donkey for three rubles.’

6. spatial functions (in elicitation, but not common in natural texts):

(82) čaˁkʷa kːalkːi-le / kːalkːi-j či-ka-b-iž-ib ca-b

bird tree-loc / tree-dat spr-down-n-be.pfv-pret cop-n
‘The bird sat down on the tree.’

3.4.2 Functions of semantic cases

Apart from the comitative all semantic cases have a basic spatial meaning. Table 3.3
provides the core spatial cases. As in most other Caucasian languages the spatial cases
are formally and functionally rather transparent and organized along two dimensions:
location and direction (movement). There are six suffixes that express different ways of
locating an item with respect to a reference point:

63
3 Nouns

• loc-series -le/ja: in, on a reference point (§3.4.2.2)

• ad-series -šːu: at, by, close to a (mostly) animate reference point (§3.4.2.3)
• in-series -cːe: in, on, at a reference point (§3.4.2.4)

• sub-series -gu: under a reference point (§3.4.2.5)

• ante-series -sa: in front of a reference point (§3.4.2.6)
• post-series -hara: behind a reference point (§3.4.2.7)

There is a semantic distinction between animate reference points (normally used to-
gether with the ad-series) and inanimate reference points (usually marked with the loc-
series). Furthermore, not all conceivable spatial constellations are covered by the location
suffixes. For instance, meanings such as ‘near’ and ‘above’ can only expressed by means
of postpositions (Chapter 8).
Furthermore, there is a three-way distinction in terms of direction (movement):

• lative (zero marked): direction to a goal

• essive (marked by means of the gender/number agreement suffixes): stative loca-
tion at a reference point

• ablative (-r or -rka): movement away from a reference point or movement through
or along a reference point

The direction markers can be directly suffixed to spatial postpositions/adverbs and

some other nominals that have inherent locational meaning (e.g. place names). With all
other items, direction markers only occur in combination with the location markers. In
addition to the core spatial cases given in Table 3.3 there is one minor spatial case whose
use is somewhat restricted, the directional -gm-a (§3.4.2.8).
The lative is formally unmarked and expresses direction and movement to a refer-
ence point. The essive is formally marked through gender agreement suffixes that agree
with the item whose location is expressed. This is normally the absolutive argument,
i.e. agreement of the essive adjunct confirms to the general rules of gender agreement.
The absolutive argument does not need to be overtly expressed in order to control the
agreement, but can be left implicit (83).

(83) qili sa-∅-jʁ-ib=qːella xːunul-la bek’-le-w či-w

home hither-m-come.pfv-pret=when woman-gen head-loc-m on-m
w-alkː-un-ne k-erg-ul=de
m-importune-pret-cvb down-sit.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘(After drinking alcohol the husband,) when he came come, he pestered his wife.’
(lit. ‘sat on the wife’s head’)

64
 3.4 Case

However, as example (84) shows, it is also possible for other prominent arguments to
control gender agreement on an essive adjunct. In this example, it is the implicit agent,
the first person pronoun in the ergative case referring to the masculine speaker that
controls agreement on the noun in the in-essive (see §20.2.4 for more details).

(84) hež sawχuz-li-cːe-w aʁʷ-c’al dus ʡaˁči b-arq’-ib=da

this sovkhoz-obl-in-m four-ten year work n-do.pfv-pret=1
‘In the sovkhoz I (masc.) worked for 40 years.’

The ablative has two meanings, ‘from’ and ‘through’/‘along’. It is most frequently ex-
pressed by the suffix -r, but -rka is also possible with apparently no difference in meaning.
The latter suffix is morphologically complex consisting of -r and -ka and less frequently
used than simply -r. Diachronically, -ka might go back to an elevation marker ka ‘down’
(and thus be related to the elevation preverb ka- ‘down’, see §11.6.2).5
The spatial cases are functionally and partially also formally close to spatial adverbs
(§7.1.2) and postpositions (§8.1) and can be used alone or together with them. Further-
more, there are semantic and formal resemblances with spatial preverbs (§11.6). Spatial
cases are also used for non-spatial purposes, e.g. as part of valency frames, in certain
constructions such as comparison or to express non-canonical agent constructions. In
the following, spatial and non-spatial functions will be described in more detail. Microto-
ponyms, some other place names (§10) and spatial adverbs (§7.1) diverge from ordinary
common nouns when inflected for spatial cases. In a nutshell, they have an inherent
locational meaning and are only inflected for direction (lative, essive, and ablative).

3.4.2.1 Comitative
The suffix of the comitative is -cːella. Diachronically it is probably complex consisting of
the in-lative -cːe and the genitive -(l)la. It is used with nominals having animate refer-
ents in the comitative function (85) as well as with inanimate nouns in the instrumental
function (86), (87) and to express manner (88) or experiencers (89) as well as in other
contexts roughly corresponding to the use of English with (90).

(85) xural d-ax-ul hej-ka=či-d-a di-la

by.foot 1/2.pl-go.ipfv-icvb this-down=on-1/2.pl-dir 1sg-gen
juldašː-a-cːella…
friend-obl.pl-comit
‘We (were) going by foot there with my friends…’
(86) paˁq ik’-ul q’isːa-l-cːella
strike say.ipfv.m-icvb crock-obl-comit
‘striking with the crock’

5
Tanti Dargwa, a relatively closely related variety, has four orientation markers, among them -ka, that are
only suffixed to nominals inflected for the lative or the ablative. (see Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 69–70 and
Forker 2019a).

65
3 Nouns

(87) saˁ-q’-aˁn zamana=q’ar nušːa mašin-ni-cːella saˁ-q’-un=da

hither-go-ptcp time=mod 1pl car-obl-comit hither-go-icvb=1
‘When we go back, we go by car.’
(88) hiχ bala-cːella ha-∅-jʁ-ib-le heštːu
dem.down misfortune-comit up-m-come.pfv-pret-cvb here
‘when he came here with sorrows ...’
(89) nu, a-cːella ag-ur-il daˁʡle
well 2sg-comit go.pfv-pret-ref as
‘as if it happened to you’
(90) ħaˁšukː-a-d d-i-d k’ʷel ʡaˁbal aʁʷal ʁunab-te χe-d
pot-loc-npl npl-in-npl two three four eq-dd.pl exist.down-npl
xari-gu-d ʡaˁm-r-a-cːella
down-sub-npl hole-pl-obl-comit
‘Inside the pot there are 2, 3, 4 things like this with holes on the lower side.’

3.4.2.2 loc-lative -le/-ja/-a, loc-essive -le-b/-ja-b/-a-b and loc-ablative

-le-r/-ja-r/-a-r
The loc-series is together with the in-series (§3.4.2.4) by far the most frequently used
series among the spatial cases. It can be broadly described as a general location marker
that expresses the most common location of a figure with respect to the ground. Both
its formal make-up and its functions are rather complex and deserve a future study. In
this section, I can only provide a sketch of its formation and its meaning. Formally, the
loc-series is very heterogeneous (in contrast to all other spatial case suffixes). It is either
expressed by dedicated suffixes -a and -ja or by a change of the final vowel i > e. The
vowel change almost exclusively affects nouns that take -li as their ergative suffix and
oblique stem marker, and thus we get -li > -le. However, not all nouns that have the
ergative/oblique suffix -li undergo the vowel change, but some of those nouns take a
suffix as loc-series marker. The occurrences of the allomorphs (suffixes or vowel change)
can only partially be predicted. I will first give the usage constraints for each marker,
describe its functions by means of examples and in the end compare it to similar markers
from other Dargwa varieties. In addition to the relatively regular ways of forming the
loc-series by means of the just listed allomorphs, there is a special class of nouns that
has inherent locational meaning and can be said to semantically express the loc-series
as well although synchronically no case suffix can be identified. This class consists of
native place names (mostly names of villages and microtoponyms, Chapter 10).
The default way of forming the loc-series for nouns in the singular is the
vowel change of the ergative/oblique suffix -li > -le. The combinations *-li-le
(-obl-loc) or *-l-le (with a deletion of the vowel of the ergative/oblique suffix) are un-
grammatical. The suffix -le is used after consonants and vowels. There is one noun, neqːi
‘cave’, which has neqːe as the loc-lative (in addition to the regular form neqːi-le), i.e. we
have again the vowel change i > e.

66
 3.4 Case

The suffix -ja is only used after the vowels a, i and u. It occurs with most nouns in the
plural, personal and demonstrative pronouns, plural reflexive pronouns as well as with
very few other nouns in the singular, e.g. qu-ja (field-loc), aba-ja (mother-loc).
The suffix -a is used with a number of nouns of which at least some make use of -li as
ergative/oblique suffix. Examples of such nouns are ħaˁšak ‘pot’ (90) (comitative ħaˁšak-
li-cːella), mistːik’ ‘mosque’, qːatːa ‘canyon’, musːa ‘place’, daˁrqʷ ‘barn, cattle-shed’, šːi
‘village’. With a few of these nouns the suffix is simply added to the noun, e.g. mistːik’-
a ‘to the mosque’ and ħaˁšuk-a ‘into the pot’. With those nouns that have stem-final
a, the locative case differs from the base stem in the pitch accent that switches to the
final vowel, e.g. musːá ‘place/to the place’ (92).6 Thus, we can assume that a + a > aː
> á. The noun ‘village’ has the special locative form šːa ‘(in)to the village’. This form
is not the oblique stem because it does not serve as the base form for the formation
of other cases. Furthermore, the more common way of saying ‘in the village’ is to use
the in-essive (51). The suffix -a is also attested for some plural nouns that make use of
-ne as the plural suffix, e.g. mus-n-a (place-pl-obl.loc) ‘to the places’, kis-n-a-b (pocket-
pl-obl.loc-n) ‘in the pockets’, buruš-n-a-r (mattress-pl-obl.loc-f) ‘on the mattresses’.
These examples can perhaps be analyzed as undergoing a vowel change e > a for the
formation of the loc-series.
The meaning of the loc-series is rather broad. It has a basic general spatial and di-
rectional meaning indicating movement to a goal, static location at a reference point
and movement away from a reference point. Usually the location is the most typical lo-
cation. The reference points can be places (92), place names, villages, cities, buildings,
institutions (91), body parts, vehicles and other means of transport, containers (94), and
so on. The loc-series translates into English as ‘to, in, on’. Its meaning includes vertical
location, e.g. on a wall (93), and also location inside a reference point (94), (95). Note
that instead of the loc-series it is possible to use the in-series in examples (93–95) with
no difference in meaning (§3.4.2.4). However, it seems that with certain locations there
are conventionalized uses of the one or the other suffix. For instance, with names of set-
tlements the loc-series occurs (96), whereas with the noun šahar ‘town’ the in-series
form šahar-ri-cːe is used. With ħaˁšak ‘pot’ the loc-series is clearly preferred (95), but the
loc-series form ħaˁšak-li-cːe is also attested (116). Further research is needed in order to
arrive at a more detailed picture about the semantic similarities and differences between
these two spatial case series.

(91) tusnaq-le-w=uw iž ʡaˁrmija-le-w=uw?

prison-loc-m=q this army-loc-m=q
‘Is he in prison or in the army?’
(92) ca musːa-d k’e-d, ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, kːalk-me
one place.loc-npl exist.up-npl m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m tree-pl
‘In one place, there are, he says, trees.’

6
This refers only to the nominals that take the suffix -a. It is not the case that every nominal ending in a
takes the suffix -a, e.g. ʡaˁrmija-le ‘in the army’.

67
3 Nouns

(93) sːurrat baˁʡ-le-b sa-r-h-aq-ib ca-b

picture wall-loc-n ante-abl-up-hang.pfv-pret cop-n
‘The picture is hanging on the wall.’ (E)
(94) t’unnuˁq-le d-i-ka-d-irxː-ul …
basket-loc npl-in-down-npl-put.ipfv-icvb
‘putting (the pears) into a basket ...’
(95) d-i-h-ax-ub-le rurčː-an ħaˁšukː-a luxː-id
npl-in-up-pour.pfv-pret-cvb boil-ptcp pot-loc cook.ipfv-1.prs
‘We pour (the khinkal) into a pot with boiling (water) and cook it.’

When used together with the postposition či-b, the loc-series can also express the
meaning ‘above’ (see §8.1.7 on postpositions for an example).
When the locative suffix is followed by the ablative case, the meaning is ‘from, through’
(96), (97).

(96) Maˁħaˁčqːala-le-r sa-∅-jʁ-ib-le, hel apiracːija

Makhachkala-loc-abl hither-m-come.pfv-pret-cvb that operation
b-arq’-ib ca-b
n-do.pfv-pret cop-n
‘He came back from Makhachkala and had the operation.’
(97) aq d-arq’-ib-le, heštːi či-r-d-ax-ud erk’ʷ-le-r
high npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb these spr-abl-1/2pl-go.ipfv-1.prs river-loc-abl
‘We roll up (the trousers) and go across the river.’

In the basic meaning, the loc-series is only used with inanimate nouns and can be
opposed to the ad-series (§3.4.2.3), which is used with animate nouns to express the
same general meaning. Thus, compare (98) and (106):

(98) du wabše uškul-le ag-ur-il akːʷa-di

1sg at.all school-loc go.pfv-pret-ref cop.neg-1
‘I did not go to school at all.’

In (99), the participle bearing the loc-ablative refers to a picture showing people who
drink and the speaker is asked to begin his story with this picture.

(99) hel-tːi b-učː-an-t-a-ja-rka w-aʔ-∅-ač’-e caj-na!

that-pl n-drink.ipfv-ptcp-pl-obl-loc-abl m-begin-m-come.pfv-imp one-time
‘First begin with these who drink!’ (said to a man)

The loc-essive can also be used for the expression of metaphorical location and direc-
tion, e.g. di-la ʡuˁnru-le-b (1sg-gen life-loc-n) ‘in my life’, and for a number of construc-
tions denoting feelings and emotions that are located in body parts or in persons (100),
(101).

68
 3.4 Case

(100) u urk’i-le r-ak’-utːe, …

2sg heart-loc f-move.pfv-cond.2sg
‘if I remember you (fem.), …’
(101) di-ja-r či-r-ka-d-erχːʷ-aja!
1sg-loc-abl spr-abl-down-npl-apologize.pfv-imp.pl
‘Forgive me!’

The loc-series can also be used with animate nouns. In this case the spatial meaning
is ‘on, onto’ and thus more specific than when used with inanimate nouns:

(102) heχ-tːi daˁquˁ-pːe aba-ja-d či-d

dem.down-pl wound-pl mother-loc-npl on-npl
‘the wounds on the mother’
(103) w-ax-ul urči-le-w tːamqːar sa-∅-jk’-ul …
m-go.ipfv-icvb horse-loc-m stagger hither-m-move.ipfv-icvb
‘(he was) riding on a horse and shaking …’

Occasionally, one can find expressions for points in time marked by the loc-essive, e.g.
sːaˁʡaˁt kːaʔal-le-b (hour eight-loc-n) ‘at eight o’clock’. However, other cases such as the
dative are more common in this function. The loc-ablative is regularly used in phrases
with the meaning ‘after (time)’, e.g. k’ʷel ʡaˁbal minut’-le-r (two three minute-loc-abl)
‘after two, three minutes’.
Finally, the loc-ablative occurs in comparative constructions (104) marking the stan-
dard of comparison (§30.1):

(104) ala qːuʁa-l arg-ul ca-b di-la-ja-rka

2sg.gen beautiful-advz go.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl 1sg-gen-loc-abl
‘Yours (i.e. your story) is better than mine.’

Synchronically, all markers are allomorphs of the same case. For instance, in tusnaq-le-
b (prison-loc-hpl) ‘in the prison’ vs. tusnaqːa-ja-b (prison.obl.pl-loc-hpl) ‘in the pris-
ons’ the only difference is the number of the noun to which the case suffix is attached.
Furthermore, it is ungrammatical to have both the vowel change and a suffix -a or -ja
with one and the same nominal, e.g. *ša-ja (village.loc-loc). Normally each nominal can
apply only one operation to form the loc-series, but there are a few examples that prove
that there is some variation, e.g. neqːe vs. neqːi-le ‘into the cave’ (cave.loc vs. cave-loc).
As the above description has shown, the distribution of the allomorphs used is at least
in part lexically determined and needs further study.
Diachronically, all markers go back to formally and functionally unrelated markers.
This becomes clear when we compare Sanzhi to other Dargwa varieties. In her com-
parative paper on spatial cases in Dargwa, van den Berg (2003b) provides spatial case
paradigms of ten Dargwa varieties from north to south. For the analysis of the Sanzhi
locative marker three groups of suffixes are relevant:

69
3 Nouns

• some varieties have a suffix -j or -ja with the meaning ‘on’

• some varieties have -n(a) or -le (or variants thereof) with the meaning ‘in a hollow
space’

• some varieties have -n(a), -la, or -le (or variants thereof) with a general locative
meaning7

The Sanzhi locative case marker seems to be a mixture of all three groups. Formally
its exponents correspond to suffixes from all three groups, and functionally the marker
unifies the three different meanings. Other Dargwa varieties show a similar picture. For
instance, Tanti Dargwa, another south Dargwa variety, has a super-series expressed
with the suffix -ja that is part of the regular paradigm of spatial cases. In addition, it has a
category ‘location’ (lokalizatsija) that is only formed from the direct stem of nouns in the
singular (Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 66–68). This special form is used when expressing
the most natural location of a figure with respect to the ground. As the Sanzhi locative,
its formation is very heterogeneous by means of unproductive suffixes (-na, -ni), vowel
change (i > e) or a switch of the pitch accent to the word final vowel a. The Tanti examples
parallel the examples of the Sanzhi locative given above.
Mekegi, a northern Dargwa variety, has a general locative suffix -le that is directly
added to the nominal stem. This suffix is mentioned in van den Berg 2003b, but unfor-
tunately she does not provide examples or a description of its meaning. In the same
paper, van den Berg suggests that this marker has cognates in Akusha Dargwa (-la) and
Urakhi Dargwa (-la) and notes that its precise meaning requires further investigation.
The Akusha Dargwa grammar by the same author provides a few examples of the suffix
-la, which is only added to inanimate nouns (van den Berg 2001: 24). On the same page,
the grammar also mentions a couple of nouns with irregular locative forms that have
shapes analogous to some of the Sanzhi words discussed in this section.

3.4.2.3 ad-lative -šːu, ad-essive -šːu-b, and ad-ablative -šːu-r

The series of spatial cases formed with the suffix -šːu denotes movement to a goal (the
moving item is not further specified for precise location with respect to the goal), general
location that can be broadly translated with ‘at, by, with’, and movement away from a
source. The goal, location or source, i.e. the noun bearing the spatial case suffix, mostly
has an animate referent. Thus, the loc-series and the ad-series are in a kind of ani-
macy opposition. However, as (107) and (108) show, inanimate reference points are also
allowed.

(105) na istikan-na juldašː-a-šːu ʁudur ∅-ič-ib ca-w hel

now glass-gen friend-obl.pl-ad mix m-occur.pfv-pret cop-m that
‘He mingled with his drinking friends.’

7
Van den Berg (2003b) further hypothesizes that there is a connection between the markers for ‘in a hollow
space’ and the general locative markers.

70
 3.4 Case

(106) na iltːi q’ad-n-a-šːu mallu-bn-a-šːu b-ax-ul ca-b

now these qadi-pl-obl-ad mullah-pl-obl-ad hpl-go.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘They are going to the qadis, to the mullahs.’
(107) ag-ur-re ca-b sːika-la mergʷ-li-šːu
go.pfv-pret-cvb cop-hpl bear-gen lair-obl-ad
‘They went to the cave of the bear.’
(108) c’il il Amirħaˁmza uq-un-ne ca-w tupang-li-šːu
then that Amirhamza go.pfv.m-pret-cvb cop-m rifle-obl-ad
‘Then Amirhamza took a rifle.’ (lit. ‘went to the rifle’)
(109) dajark’a-b-a-šːu-b b-at-ur=da mašin
milkmaid-pl-obl-ad-n n-let.pfv-pret=1 car
‘(We) left the car with the milkmaids.’ (in the place where the milkmaids used to
work)
(110) hel-i-šːu-rka k-aqː-ib-le kaʁar
that-obl-ad-abl down-carry-pret-cvb letter
‘From him (they) brought a permission (lit. ‘letter’).’

3.4.2.4 in-lative -cːe, in-essive -cːe-b, and in-ablative -cːe-r

The suffix of the in-series is -cːe. The locational meaning can be roughly translated as
‘in’ (111), or ‘on, at’ (112), and its directional meaning is ‘to’ (113).

(111) ca šːi-l-cːe-b ca kulpat, χːula kulpat b-už-ib ca-b

one village-obl-in-hpl one family big family hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl
‘In one village lived a big family.’
(112) c’ili heba, burma-cːe-w, h-asː-ib-le bet’u ...
then then threshold.obl-in-m, up-take.pfv-pret-cvb flour
‘Then, on the threshold, (he) took the flour, ...’
(113) χːuˁrba-cːe wabše admi w-ax-an akːu=q’al
graveyard-in at.all person m-go.ipfv-ptcp cop.neg=mod
‘No person at all should go to the graveyard.’

Note that in contexts such as ‘in a settlement’, ‘in a container-like object’ or ‘on a ver-
tical surface’, it is possible to use the loc-series instead of the in-series with no semantic
differences between the two variants. Thus, compare (111) with (96), (114) with (93), and
(116) with (95).

(114) sːurrat baˁʡ-li-cːe-b sa-r-h-aq-ib ca-b

picture wall-obl-in-n ante-abl-up-hang.pfv-pret cop-n
‘The picture is hanging on the wall.’ (E)

71
3 Nouns

(115) Murad uncːa-l-cːe q’ut’ ik’-ul=de

Murad door-obl-in knock say.ipfv.m-icvb=pst
‘Murad knocked at the door.’ (E)
(116) rurq-aˁn ħaˁšak-li-cːe d-i-h-erxʷ-itːe
boil-ptcp pot-obl-in npl-in-up-pour.ipfv-2sg
‘You pour (them) into a pot with boiling (water).’

The in-ablative does not only translate as ‘from’ (117) and more specifically as ‘from
within, out of’ (118), but is also used to denote ‘among, along, through’ (119). Thus, we
find it in superlative constructions (120) (§30.1):

(117) ʡaˁli-l b-erqː-ib di-cːe-r welesepet

Ali-erg n-take.pfv-pret 1sg-in-abl bike
‘Ali took away my bike.’ (E)
(118) il durħuˁ tːura ha-w-q-un ca-w hel zamana qːap-li-cːe-r
that boy outside up-m-go.pfv-pret cop-m that time sack-obl-in-abl
‘At this time that boy came out of the sack.’
(119) li<b>il-li-cːe-r hel-tː-a-cːe-r ca χːabar b-irq’-an ca-b
all<hpl>-obl-in-abl that-pl-obl-in-abl one story n-do.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘From all, from them (i.e. from all pictures on the table) (you) need to make one
story.’
(120) bah χːula-ce w-irχ-i=w χatːaj ču-la
most big-dd m-be.ipfv-hab.pst=q grandfather refl.pl-gen
ucː-b-a-cːe-r?
brother-pl-obl-in-abl
‘Was grandfather the oldest among his brothers?’

The in-lative has also more metaphorical uses when marking the goal-like argument
of the verbs aq- ‘go through’ (121) or b-arχː- ‘be engaged in’ (122) and other predicates
(123).

(121) jašaw-li-cːe qar aq-ib ca-b uže ču-la

being-obl-in up go.through.pfv-pret cop-hpl already refl.pl-gen
‘They dedicated themselves to their life (i.e. they cared for their living).’
(122) xːunul ha-r-arχː-ib ca-r cin-na ʡaˁči-l-cːe
woman up-f-be.engaged.in-pret cop-f refl.sg-gen work-obl-in
‘The wife is engaged in her work.’
(123) du hi-j r-erʔib cik’al-li-cːe ħaˁsib r-arq’-ib-il=da
1sg who.obl-dat f-rotten thing-obl-in test f-do.pfv-pret-ref=1
‘Other (people) considered myself as rotten.’

72
 3.4 Case

Young speakers use the in-ablative alone (124) or in combination with the postposi-
tion b-alli ‘together’ to express the comitative. Older speakers reject such a usage by
pointing out that the comitative case -cːella that can be optionally combined with the
same postposition (§3.4.2.1) is the only grammatical variant.

(124) hel-ka sa-∅-jʁ-ib nik’a durħuˁ welisipjed-li-cːe-r

that-down hither-m-come.pfv-pret small boy bike-obl-in-abl
‘From over there a little boy with a bike came.’

The in-essive is used in the temporal expression ‘in the year X’ (125).

(125) xːunul ka-r-iž-ib=da urek-c’a-ra-ib dusːi-cːe-b

woman down-f-be.pfv-pret=1 six-ten-num-ord year.obl-in-n
‘I married in 1960.’

There are a number of non-spatial functions that the in-series fulfills. The in-essive
expresses temporarily limited possessors (126).

(126) hel ručka=ra le-b iž-i-cːe-b

that pen=add exist-n this-obl-in-n
‘He also has a pen (in his hands).’

The in-lative denotes temporarily limited recipients (127), addressees (128) and causees
(129) (see §24.3 for reported speech constructions and §19.2.2 for causativization).

(127) [a man arrives in prison and receives the clothes of prisoners]

heχ-tːi tːapri=ra wačag=ra kːurtːi=ra heχ-i-cːe
dem.down-pl shoe=add trousers=add shirt=add dem.down-obl-in
kʷi-lukː-un ca-d
into.the.hands-give.ipfv-icvb cop-npl
‘The shoes, the trousers, the shirt is handed over to him.’
(128) hel kulpat-li-cːe χːabar-t-a-l ∅-ux-ul ca-w
that family-obl-in story-pl-obl-erg m-tell.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘He is telling the stories to his family.’
(129) aba-l Madina-cːe kaš b-erk-aq-un
mother-erg Madina-in porridge n-eat.pfv-caus-pret
‘Mother made Madina eat porridge.’ (E)

The in-ablative marks causers and causes (130), involuntary agents (131) and other
non-canonical agents (132). In the involuntary agent construction, the verb cannot be
transitive, i.e., it cannot have a genuine agent argument, but must be intransitive or
labile. The added involuntary agent is thus rather an adjunct than an argument.

73
3 Nouns

(130) cin-ni-cːe-r ka-d-ič-ib χat’a

refl.sg-obl-in-abl down-npl-occur.pfv-pret mistake
‘the mistakes that he made (that happened through him)’
(131) di-cːe-r a-arg-u ʡaˁħ-le
1sg-in-abl neg-go.ipfv-prs good-advz
‘I cannot do it well (lit. it will not go well from me).’
(132) heχ xːunul-li-cːe-r w-elqː-un ca-w
dem.down woman-obl-in-abl m-satiate.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He had enough of his wife.’

3.4.2.5 sub-lative -gu, sub-essive -gu-b, and sub-ablative -gu-r

The suffix of the sub-series is -gu. The spatial meaning of the sub-series is ‘under’. It
is added to the oblique form of the noun, but for many nouns the oblique form can be
identical to the citation form (133–135).

(133) ag-ur ca-r qːʷat’a-gu dacːi d-arq’-ar-aj

go.pfv-pret cop-f bush-sub urine npl-do.pfv-prs-subj.3
‘(She) went to pee under the bushes.’
(134) bari-gu-d d-ac’-ib-le …
sun-sub-npl npl-thaw.pfv-pret-cvb
‘(after having put the worms into a bottle of vodka) (they) dissolved in the sun,
…’

The sub-series has some more lexicalized (135) and metaphorical uses (136), (137).

(135) kari-gu-b b-uc’-a-di dešːa Sanži-d d-el-le

oven-sub-n n-bake.ipfv-hab-1 ancient Sanzhi-1/2pl 1/2pl-remain.pfv-cvb
‘In ancient times when we were in Sanzhi we (usually) baked (bread) in the
community oven (kari).’
(136) “heχ xːunul-la ʁaj-li-gu aq-ib-le qili
dem woman-gen word-obl-sub go.through.pfv-pret-cvb home
arg-ul=de=w?” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w hana
go.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m now
‘He says, “Do you go home following the words of your wife?”’
(137) heštːu-r=ra hetː-a-la bunah-li-gu r-ič-ib=da hel durħuˁ-la
here-f=add those-obl-gen sin-obl-sub f-occur.pfv-pret=1 that boy-gen
xːunul-la
woman-gen
‘Here also (i.e. in this case) I am guilty in front of my daughter-in-law.’ (lit. ‘I
occurred under their sins, of that son’s wife’)

74
 3.4 Case

There is a spatial preverb that has the same form and the same meaning as the case
marker (§11.6.1) and is often used in clauses that contain nouns bearing the spatial case
suffix (138). There is also a formally and semantically identical spatial postposition/
adverbial that recurrently appears after the spatial case marker (139), (140).

(138) qajqaj-li-gu nuˁq-be=ra gu-ha-d-uc-ib-le

jaw-obl-sub hand-pl=add sub-up-npl-catch.pfv-pret-cvb
ka-∅-jž-ib ca-w
down-m-remain-pret cop-m
‘He is sitting with his hands holding his head (lit. ‘catching the hands under the
jaw’).’
(139) ču-la d-urkː-ar iχ-tːi ganza-l-gu-d gu-d
refl.pl-gen npl-find.ipfv-prs dem.down-pl ground-obl-sub-npl under-npl
daˁʡle ca-d
like cop.npl
‘Their, these (vegetables) are probably like (growing) under the ground.’
(140) Ulučaj b-ik’-ul erk’ʷ ca-b ka-b-ax-an nišːa-la
Uluchaj hpl-say.ipfv-icvb river cop-n down-n-go.ipfv-ptcp 1pl-gen
šːi-l-gu-r gu-b-a
village-obl-sub-abl down-n-dir
‘The river with the name Uluchaj is passing by down from our village.’

3.4.2.6 ante-lative -sa, ante-essive -sa-b, and ante-ablative -sa-r

The broad meaning of the ante-series is location in front of a reference point or on flat
surfaces. It can be translated into English with ‘in front, by, at’, but also with ‘on’. In
the latter meaning it is functionally equivalent to the loc-series and the in-series. Thus,
instead of baˁʡ-li-sa-b in example (142) it is possible to use baˁʡ-le-b (93) or baˁʡ-li-cːe-b
(114). Similarly, a more common alternative to xːun-ni-sa-b (143) is xːun-ne-b (way-loc-
n), but xːun-cːe-r (way-in-abl) is also attested, and instead of burma-sa (141) also burma-
cːe-b (threshold-in-b) can be found. I leave the more precise analysis of the semantic
similarities and differences between the three cases for future research.

(141) c’il qal-la burma-sa ka-r-iž-ib-le r-isː-ul

then house-gen threshold-ante down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb f-cry-icvb
r-už-ib ca-r
f-be-pret cop-f
‘Then she sat down at the threshold of the house and was crying.’
(142) tupang=ra le-b baˁʡ-li-sa-b
rifle=add exist-n wall-obl-ante-n
‘There is also a rifle (hanging) on the wall.’

75
3 Nouns

(143) xːun-ni-sa-b suk b-ič-ib ca-b bec’

way-obl-ante-n meet n-occur.pfv-pret cop-n wolf
‘On the way (she) met a wolf.’
(144) hel-tː-a-sa-r sa-r-d-ulq-an zamana suk
that-pl-obl-ante-abl in.front-abl-npl-direct.ipfv-ptcp time meet
b-ič-ib-le ca-b durħuˁ-j χːula qːarqːa
n-occur.pfv-pret-cvb cop-n boy-dat big stone
‘When they ran away from them, the boy came across a large stone.’

The ante-ablative is also used with a number of experiential predicates such as ‘be
afraid, fear’, ‘long for, miss’, ‘be embarrassed’, and ‘be ashamed’, with which it denotes
the source-like stimulus of the experience (145), (146). When an animate noun bearing
the ante-essive or the ante-lative is used together with a verb of movement or a locative
predicate the meaning is ‘herd, pasture; look after, care for’ (147).

(145) “xːunul-li-sa-r uruχ ∅-ik’-ul=de=w?” b-ik’-ul

woman-obl-ante-abl fear m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘They say, “Are you afraid of your wife?”’
(146) dam b-et’-ib ca-b a-sa-r
1sg.dat n-miss.pfv-pret cop-n 2sg-ante-abl
‘I miss you, I long for you.’ (E)
(147) macːa-l-sa w-aš-ib=da
sheep-obl-ante m-go.ipfv-pret=1
‘I (masc.) went after the sheep.’ (i.e. worked as a shepherd)

3.4.2.7 post-lative -hara, post-essive -hara-b, and post-ablative -hara-r

The meaning of the post-series is location behind (148), (149) and next to a reference
point (150), (151), although this is not always reflected in the English translation. Some-
times it occurs together with the postposition hitːi that roughly has the same meaning
(149), (151), see §8.1.4.

(148) c’il kːurtːa-l bec’-li-hara dacːi hitːi d-arq’-ib ca-d

then fox-erg wolf-obl-post urine behind npl-do.pfv-pret cop-npl
‘Then the fox peed behind the wolf.’
(149) nik’a durħ-ne nušːa hel-i-hara hitːi d-uq-un-ne, …
small boy-pl 1pl that-obl-post behind 1/2pl-go.pfv-pret-cvb
‘When we small children ran behind it (i.e. a pig), …’
(150) heχ ust’ul-li-hara-b ka-b-iž-ib-le heχ-tːu-b, …
dem.down table-obl-post-hpl down-hpl-be-pret-cvb dem.down-loc-n
‘They are sitting at the table there …’

76
 3.5 Derivation of nouns

(151) rursːi-la kulpat lak’ či-r-ka-b-arq’-ib-le

girl-gen family throw spr-abl-down-hpl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
heχ-i-la sub-li r-alt-u=w di-hara hitːi-r?
dem.down-obl-gen husband-erg f-let.ipfv-prs=q 1sg-post behind-f
‘Will her husband allow her (i.e. my daughter) to throw away the family and
(sit) with me?’

3.4.2.8 Directional -b-a

There is a further directional suffix containing a gender/number agreement marker,
namely -gm-a. This suffix is almost exclusively used with spatial adverbs (85), (140) (see
§7.1 for more examples). But it can occasionally be used with nouns (152), (153).

(152) il=ra χːula b-irʁ-an ca-b hel qal-la

that=add big n-come.ipfv-ptcp cop-n that house-gen
baˁʡ-li-cːe-r-b-a
façade-obl-in-abl-n-dir
‘That is also growing along the façade of the house.’
(153) paˁχ.paˁχ-la heχtːu-d-a ag-ur-re hej χːuˁrba-la
pakh.pakh-gen there.down-npl-dir go.pfv-pret-cvb this graveyard-gen
šːal-le-r žaˁr-ra qːatːa-d-a
side-loc-abl lime-gen canyon.loc-npl-dir
‘They went in the direction of pakh-pakh (microtoponym), across the side of the
graveyard, through the lime canyon.’

3.5 Derivation of nouns

3.5.1 Agent nouns with -či
This suffix is found in a great number of East Caucasian languages and originates from
Turkic. It productively derives agent nouns from nouns denoting objects or places. The
base nouns are partially loans from Turkic or Arabic, but also include more recent loans
from Russian and native words. The derived nouns can refer to men as well as to women
and form the plural with -be.

(154) a. masqar(an)-či ‘jester, jokester’ < masqaran ‘joke’

b. bajraq-či ‘standard bearer’ < bajraq ‘flag, standard’
c. tuken-či ‘shop assistant’ < tuken ‘shop’
d. isklad-či ‘person responsible for the community storehouse’
< iskald ‘storehouse’
e. anq-či ‘gardener’ < anq ‘garden’
f. qːalaj-či ‘s.o. who solders, brazes’ < qːalaj ‘tin, tin-solder’

77
3 Nouns

3.5.2 Agent nouns with and -kar, -q’aˁ, and -uˁq’

These suffixes, which are not productive, derive agent nouns from other nouns, infini-
tives, short adjectives, parts of compound verbs and one postposition. The suffix -kar,
which also exists in Standard Dargwa, is predominantly attested with borrowed nouns
(155). Nouns with -q’aˁ mostly form their plural with -ne (after deletion of the stem-final
vowel) (156); nouns with -uˁq’ use -e as plural marker (157) and nouns with -kar employ
-te or -ne.

(155) a. ʡaˁjib-kar ‘convict, guilty person’ < ʡaˁjib ‘guilt, blame’

b. bunah-kar ‘sinner’ < bunah ‘sin’
c. ʡaˁmal-kar ‘trickster’ < ʡaˁmal ‘talent, trick’
d. ʡaˁsi-kar ‘mean, evil person’ < ʡaˁsi ‘evil’
e. pitne-kar ‘intriguer, gossiper’ < pitne ‘gossip’
(156) a. aršːi-q’aˁ ‘mower, hay-maker’ < aršːi ‘mature crops’
b. ajar-q’aˁ ‘hunter’ < ajar ‘hunt’
c. utːi-q’aˁ ‘mower, hay-maker’ < utː-ij ‘mow’ (ipfv)
d. mušlu-q’aˁ ‘wrestler’ < mušlu w-iħ-ij ‘wrestle, fight’
(ipfv)
e. sːiħru-q’aˁ ‘witch, sorceress’ < sːiħru ‘hypnosis’
f. walli-q’aˁ ‘best man’, ralli-q’aˁ ‘maid of honor’
< b-alli ‘together’
(157) a. sːunk-uˁq’ ‘liar’ < sːunk ‘lie’
b. tːamr-uˁq’ ‘drummer’ < tːam (plural tːamre) ‘drum’
c. gapn-uˁq’ ‘show-off, braggart’ < gap b-arq’-ij ‘praise’ (pfv)

3.5.3 Abstract nouns with -dex

This very productive suffix derives abstract nouns from open class words (verbs, ad-
jectives, nouns, adverbs, bound stems). The nouns derived by means of the suffix -dex
control either neuter singular (160) or occasionally neuter plural agreement. Some of
the derived nouns can form the plural, usually by means of gemination of the last seg-
ment plus suffixation of -e, e.g. ʁʷabzadexːe ‘heroism, bravery, courage’. Thus, it is also
possible to analyze the underlying form of this suffix as containing a geminate as final
consonant that is degeminated in the singular because of the impossibility of having
geminate consonants in syllable-final position. A similar analysis regarding geminate
stem-final consonants in singular vs. plural forms of other nouns that take the plural
suffix -e has been suggested in §3.2.1.
Base adjectives are mostly underived short adjectives, i.e. bare roots (158). The numeral
ca ‘one’, but no other numeral, can also serve as base:

78
 3.5 Derivation of nouns

(158) a. kːuš-dex ‘hunger’ < kːuš ‘hungry’

b. gʷana-dex ‘warmth’ < gʷana ‘warm’
c. ʡaˁsi-dex ‘anger’ < ʡaˁsi ‘angry’
d. ca-dex ‘unity’ < ca ‘one’

Base nouns either denote people or abstract items. The derived nouns refer to abstract
items or properties associated with the thing or the person that the base noun denotes.

(159) a. ʁʷabza-dex ‘heroism, bravery, courage’

< ʁʷabza ‘dzhigit, hero’
b. ʡaˁχːuˁl-dex ‘hospitality’
< ʡaˁχːuˁl ‘kunak, guest, host’
c. dajark’a-dex ‘duties of a milkmaid’
< dajark’a ‘milkmaid’
d. uruχ-dex ‘fearfulness, anxiousness’
< uruχ b-iχʷ-ij ‘get afraid’
e. saniʡaˁt-dex ‘skillfulness’
< saniʡaˁt ‘skill’

With verbs only the preterite (predominantly from perfective stems) and the -an par-
ticiple (usually from imperfective stems) can function as base for the derivation of -dex-
nouns (160). The only regular exceptions are forms of the copula verbs, which have de-
fective paradigms (161).

(160) ca ha-b-erχː-ur-dex a-b-irχʷ-i

one up-hpl-apologize.pfv-pret-nmlz neg-n-become.ipfv-hab.pst
‘They did not forgive (each other).’
(161) di-la li<b>il=ra le-b-dex
1sg-gen all<n>=add exist-n-nmlz
‘all my existing (things)’

The following example shows a compound noun derived with -dex. There is no inde-
pendent base noun urk’i hitːi and the complex can also not be regarded as a postposi-
tional phrase because hitːi requires the dependent noun to be marked with the genitive.
When -dex is added the complex functions as a nominal that controls agreement on the
clause-final verb, and the reciprocal pronoun preceding it functions as a modifier of it
(or of the noun urk’i).

(162) ca-lla ca-lla urk’i hitːi-dex b-akː-u

one-gen one-gen heart behind-nmlz n-cop.neg-prs
‘There is no pity between them (one for the other).’

79
3 Nouns

The nominalized verbs retain their arguments, but since they are nominalized they
occur in argument position and can be modified, e.g. by personal pronouns (163). Thus,
the subject-like arguments can either occur as preserved arguments of the nominalized
verb (164), (165) or they can occur as possessors (163).

(163) di-la w-aš-ij erχʷ-an-dex-li-j

1sg-gen m-go.ipfv-inf be.able.ipfv.neg.m-ptcp-nmlz-obl-dat
‘because of my inability to walk’
(164) nušːa uruc d-iχ-ub-dex-li-j,
1pl embarrassed 1/2pl-become.pfv-pret-nmlz-obl-dat
učitil-li-sa-rka uruχ d-iχ-ub-dex-li-j
teacher-obl-ante-abl fear 1/2pl-become.pfv-pret-nmlz-obl-dat
‘because of our embarrassment, because of our fear of the teacher’

Many of the derived abstract nouns, especially those derived from verbs, have the
semantic role of cause or reason and therefore bear the dative suffix. Thus, deverbal
nominals occur as nominalized adverbial clauses with the meaning ‘because of X’. When
inflected for the dative more words are admissible as base for the derivation than would
be possible without the case suffix. For instance, there is no noun itːu-r-dex, but if this
word is inflected for the dative, it can occur as an adverbial denoting the cause (165).

(165) u itːu-r-dex-li-j dam wahi-l ca-d

2sg there-f-nmlz-obl-dat 1sg.dat bad-advz cop-npl
‘Because you (fem.) are there I feel bad.’ (E)

3.5.4 Action nouns/event nouns and tools with -ala

The suffix -ala is used for the formation of nouns that denote tools and of action or
event-denoting nouns with the meaning ‘way of V-ing’ from verbal stems. It is morpho-
logically productive and rather resembles inflectional suffixes such as the masdar, but
it is not commonly used in texts. The resulting nouns keep their arguments. They can
be marked for plural (suffixes -e or -me) and control neuter singular agreement. Those
nouns that have been derived from transitive verbs with a gender agreement prefix have
a frozen gender prefix b- (e.g. biχala ‘lace, shoelace’, bušːukala ‘broom’). However, the
verb given in (166i) originates from an extended intransitive verb that agrees with the
human agent in gender. As (167) shows, this noun has variable gender depending on the
gender of the referent and thus behaves like a small number of underived nouns with
gender exponents (1).

(166) a. biχ-ala ‘lace, shoelace’ < b-iχ-ij ‘tie, bind, fasten’ (pfv)
b. bušːuk-ala ‘broom’ < (b-ušk- ‘sweep up’ (pfv))8
c. icː-ala ‘illness, disease, pain’ < icː-ij ‘hurt, ache’ (ipfv)
8
Synchronically, this verb is no longer used in Sanzhi Dargwa and has been replaced by a compound verb
qʷaˁrš b-arq’-ij ‘wipe, sweep, stroke’. However, it is attested, e.g., in the South Dargwa variety Tanti. Thus,
I suggest that Sanzhi lost the verb, but kept the noun. An alternative explanation suggested by my main
language assistant is that Sanzhi borrowed the noun from Standard Dargwa.
80
 3.5 Derivation of nouns

d. berkʷ-ala ‘dish, food’ < b-erkʷ-ij ‘eat’ (pfv)

e. irʁ-ala ‘understanding’ < irʁ-ij ‘understand’ (ipfv)
f. kaxʷ-ala ‘way of killing’ < kaxʷ-ij ‘kill’ (pfv)
g. haʔ-ala ‘proverb, saying’ < haʔ-ij ‘say’ (pfv)
h. bet’-ala ‘boredom’ < b-et’-ij ‘be bored, long for’ (pfv)
i. dalaj r-ikʷ-ala ‘way of singing songs’
< dalaj r-ikʷ-ij ‘sing songs’

(167) iχ rursːi-la qːuʁa-l kʷi

dem.down girl-gen beautiful-advz in.the.hands
sa-b-uc-ala=le nik’a-ce
hither-n-keep.pfv-nmlz=emph small-dd.sg
‘(Look at) the beautiful way of the girl’s holding the child in her hands!’9

3.5.5 Action and event nouns with -utːi and -a

The suffixes -utːi and -a (allomorph -aˁ) derive action nouns from verbs, whereby they
are almost exclusively added to the perfective stem (168), (170). They are not productive.
Most of the nouns can be marked for plural, normally with the suffix -ne (e.g. bebk’-ne
‘funerals’). They control either neuter singular (169) or occasionally neuter plural (170c),
(170d) or masculine singular (170e) agreement. The gender prefixes of the deverbal nouns
are petrified.
(168) a. belč’-utːi ‘study’ < b-elč’-ij ‘read, learn, study’ (pfv)
b. berkː-utːi ‘eating’ < b-erkːʷ-ij ‘eat’ (pfv)
c. berc-utːi ‘rescue, salvation’ < b-erc-ij ‘save, rescue’ (pfv)
d. barq’-utːi, birq’-utːi ‘work, deed, action’
< b-arq’-ij (pfv), b-irq’-ij (ipfv) ‘do, make’
(169) b-arq’-utːi iž-i-la
n-do.pfv-nmlz this-obl-gen
‘her/his acting’
(170) a. bebk’-a ‘death, funeral’ < b-ebk’-ij ‘die’ (pfv)
b. buq-a ‘societal, community help’
< b-uq-ij ‘go’ (pfv)
c. dikː-a ‘love’ < b-ikː-ij ‘want, like, love’
d. daˁq-a ‘wound’ < b-aˁq-ij ‘wound, hit, strike’ (pfv)
e. arχː-aˁ ‘deed’ < b-arχː-ij ‘be engaged in’
f. baˁħ-aˁ berʁʷ-a ‘wet-dry’ (name of a game)
< b-aˁħ-ij ‘get wet’, b-erʁʷ-ij ‘dry’
9
The agreement prefix in this example is neuter singular, expressing the gender of the nominalized verb
form itself. The noun rursːi-la is a genitive modifier of the nominalized verb.

81
3 Nouns

3.5.6 Other derived nouns

There are four nouns that are formed by means of reduplication of the first syllable and
the suffix -aj. For most of them the base is bound and unclear, i.e. it does not exist as an
independent word. The last three of the four words are toys and/or names of games.

(171) a. rugrugaj ‘small circles’ < rugrug ‘round’

b. diʁdiʁaj ‘spinning top’ < ? (*diʁdiʁ)
c. muqluqaj ‘spinning top’ < ? (*muqluq)
d. cicinaj-te ‘retractor, name of a game’
< ? (*cicinaj)

There are a fair number of Sanzhi words that end in -aj (172), (173) and it seems reason-
able to suggest that the language once had a similar derivational suffix. This has been
suggested for Standard Dargwa (Abdullaev et al. 2014: 90). Around half of the words are
clearly morphologically complex. Two of them are only used in child-directed speech,
and five of the words refer to human beings, more particularly, kinship relations or so-
cial roles (173).

(172) a. ʁudurmaj ‘confusion, mess’ < ʁudur ‘mixed’

b. aqanaj ‘top, summit’ < aq ‘tall, high, loud’
c. zanʁaraj ‘beanbag, rattle’ < zanʁ ‘ringing’
d. pːapːaj ‘bread’ (child-directed speech)
e. maˁmmaj ‘scary’ (child-directed speech)
f. tːapːaraj ‘zany, moony, erratic’
g. sːurkːupːaj ‘swing’ (i.e. hanging seat)
h. dalaj ‘song’

(173) a. wanaħaˁj ‘mama’s boy, lazy person’

b. kʼukʼaj ‘gossiper’
c. χːabaj ‘grandmother’ < χːula ‘big’ + aba ‘mother’
d. χːatːaj ‘grandfather’ < χːula ‘big’ + atːa ‘father’
e. w-ikː-an-aj ‘beloved’ < b-ikː- ‘love, like, want’ + modal
participle -an

There are three kinship terms with the suffix -q’ar (174).

(174) a. ucːi-q’ar ‘male cousin’ < ucːi ‘brother’

b. rucːi-q’ar ‘female cousin’ < rucːi ‘sister’
c. k’uni-q’ar ‘nephew’ < ?

82
 3.6 Reduplication and compounding

A few words are derived by means of the spatial case -gu plus a further suffix -(l)la,
which is formally identical to the genitive (175), and with the postposition sala ‘in front’
or the spatial case suffix -sa (ante) (176).

(175) a. qajqaj-li-gu-la ‘chin’ < jaw-obl-sub-nmlz

b. ʡaˁmi-gu-la ‘window-sill’ < window-sub-nmlz
c. šːal-li-gu-la ‘lateral upper part of the body’
< side-obl-sub-nmlz
(176) a. kːuma-sala ‘the village square in Sanzhi’
< kuma-in.front
(kuma = place name)
b. ul-be-sala-nte ‘glasses’ < eye-pl-in.front-pl
c. qaˁb-li-sa kajqan ‘necklace’ < neck-obl-ante + hang.pfv.ptcp

Place names are derived from verbs by means of the locative participle -an (see
§18.1.2.4). Names for ethnic groups, inhabitants, etc. are derived by adding the suffix
-(a)n to a root that might be the place name or some other root related to it (see §10).

3.6 Reduplication and compounding

Neither compounding nor reduplication are productive or frequent ways of forming new
nominals in Sanzhi. In this section, I list the majority of reduplicated and compound
nouns that I have been able to identify so far.

3.6.1 Reduplication
A number of nouns have the structure CV.CV(V) or CVC.CVC(V) and are composed of
two (almost) identical segments following each other. Some of the nouns are clearly
onomatopoetic (177), others are not (178).

(177) k’urk’ur ‘turkey cock’ qːut’qːut’i ‘woodpecker’

t’at’ar ‘fly’ baˁtbaˁt ‘duck’
čaˁχčaˁχ ‘waterfall’ ħaˁħaˁ ‘laughter’
qːuqːu ‘thunder’ xʷixʷit’ ‘pipe’
(178) qːaˁqːaˁs ‘hook’ gumgum ‘small metal pitcher’
majmaj ‘condemnation’ gʷagʷa ‘flower’
ʁaˁʁaˁ ‘pebble, gravel’

83
3 Nouns

3.6.2 N + N compounds
Sanzhi has a few noun plus noun compounds. Occasionally, the origin of one of the
compound members is unclear. Because Sanzhi has also nominal apposition it is not
always easy to differentiate between juxtaposed nouns in an apposition construction
that syntactically form a phrase (§21.1) and compounds that function as one word. There
are several criteria that need to be applied in order to identify compounds. First, a few
words show a greater phonological cohesion (e.g. ababa ‘grandmother’) or make use of
word forms that differ from the base stems or inflected forms (e.g. kːalkːa ‘tree’in kːalkːa
zize ‘strawberry’).

(179) a. ababa10 ‘grandmother’ (on mother’s side)

< aba-la aba ‘mother-gen mother’
b. atːaba ‘grandmother’ (on father’s side)
< atːa-la aba ‘father-gen mother’
c. kːalkːa zize ‘raspberry’ < kːalkːi ‘tree’ + zize ‘strawberry’
d. waqːa ʡaˁt’a, waqːaˁt’a ‘turtle’
< waqːa ‘skull’ + ʡaˁt’a ‘frog’

Second, a few compounds are of the dvandva type. This means that they are coordina-
tive compounds, but in contrast to noun phrase coordination (§26.1) dvandva compounds
do not make use of the additive enclitic and function morphosyntactically as one word,
i.e., they take only one inflectional suffix.

(180) a. atːa aba ‘parents’ < atːa ‘father’ + aba ‘mother’

b. urk’i muqer ‘lungs’ < urk’i ‘heart’ +muqer ‘breast’
c. qːuqːu laˁmc’ ‘thunderstorm, tempest’
< qːuqːu ‘thunder’ + laˁmc’ ‘lightning’

Two more nouns are classified as noun + noun compounds because they are seman-
tically not transparent. They are neither coordinative compounds nor do they have
an identifiable head noun such that they cannot be analyzed as appositions (i.e. noun
phrases). The second noun in (181b) seems to have been formed by reduplication.

(181) a. dučːi laˁmc’ ‘firefly’ < dučːi ‘night’ + laˁmc’ ‘lightning’

b. t’ama hama ‘gossip, hub-hub’
< t’ama ‘sound, noice, voice’ + ?

10
My main language assistant G. Gadzhimuradov said that this and the following word in (179b) are used by
the younger generations, but not by elderly speakers, and may have been borrowed from other Dargwa
varieties.

84
 3.6 Reduplication and compounding

3.6.3 Other compounds

There are a few more X + noun combinations that have been lexicalized as compound
nouns and show phonological and morphological cohesion. The first part X can be an
adjective (including numerals) or a verb (182). The order of both parts corresponds to
the usual order of phrases (modifier + noun) or clauses (object + verb).

(182) a. χːulaba ‘mother-in-law’ < χːula ‘big, old’ + aba ‘mother’

b. χːulatːa ‘father-in-law’ < χːula ‘big, old’ + atːa ‘father’
c. dumbat ‘food’ < dum ‘edge’ + ? b-at-ij ‘leave, let’ (pfv)

The compound nouns that contain numerals as their first part can be divided into two
groups. The first group in (183) has nouns as the second part and additionally what looks
like unproductive derivational suffixes (-lan, -ar, -an).11 The base nouns are usually in the
plural, which indicates that these are compound nouns and not phrases. In noun phrases
with numerals, nouns normally occur in the singular. Furthermore, the numerals appear
in their basic stem form that cannot be used independently, but only as the basis for
other word formation processes.

(183) a. azirt’uˁlan/azirtʼuˁmar ‘centipede’

< azir ‘thousand’ + t’uˁ-m-ar (leg-pl-nmlz)
b. azirkumran/azirk’apran ‘abomasum’
< azir ‘thousand’ + kam-r-an (layer-pl-nmlz)/kʼap-r-an
(leaf-pl-nmlz)
c. ʡaˁbk’apːrar q’ar ‘clover’
< ʡaˁb-k’apːr-ar (three-leaf-pl-nmlz) + q’ar ‘herbs’
d. ʡaˁbqigar ‘three bundles of grain bound together’
< ʡaˁb ‘three’ + ?
e. ʡaˁbt’uˁmar ‘tripod’
< ʡaˁb ‘three’ + tʼuˁ-m-ar (leg-pl-nmlz)

The second group of compound nouns with numerals has only two members (184)
that denote offspring born in a multiple birth. The first part is again the basic stem form
of the numeral whereas the second part looks like a noun derived from a verb by means
of an otherwise unattested suffix -i.

(184) a. k’ʷidarq’i ‘twins’ < k’ʷi ‘two’ + d-arq’-i (npl-make.pfv-?)

b. ʡaˁbdarq’i ‘triplet’ < ʡaˁb ‘three’ + d-arq’-i (npl-make.pfv-?)

11
The suffixes -ar and -an both contain the same vowel a, which is identical to the vowel in oblique plural
forms of nouns (e.g. tʼuˁ-m-a-lla leg-pl-obl-gen) such that one could perhaps suggest that the vowel is
actually not part of the suffix. However, oblique stem forms of nouns are normally only used for case for-
mation and we would need an additional motivation for using the oblique form as the basis of derivational
processes. Both suffixes are also used for the derivation of adjectives, see §5.3.

85
3 Nouns

3.7 Phrasal compounds

Sanzhi has a very productive way of forming short noun phrases that have the structure
of short participial clauses of the form (noun) + verb and semantically strongly resem-
ble derived action nouns (§3.5.4, §3.5.5). In the minimal case a verb alone to which the
modal/future participle -an is suffixed is enough. If the verb is transitive, it is often accom-
panied by a patientive argument. Morphosyntactically, these combinations are headless
relative clauses with a transparent semantics (§23.4), but the phrases are lexicalized and
perceived as complex nouns by the speakers. They denote agents, professions or tools.

(185) a. umzan ‘sieve, colander’ < umz-an filter-ptcp

b. sarruˁrqaˁn ‘kidnapper’
< sa-r-r-uˁrq-aˁn ante-abl-f-drag.ipfv-ptcp
c. paltar durχan ‘tailor’
< paltar ‘clothes’ + d-urχ-an npl-sew.ipfv-ptcp
d. qʼʷaˁl icːan ‘milkmaid’
< qʼʷaˁl ‘cow’ + icː-an milk.ipfv-ptcp
e. ʡuˁnze sarirtʼan ‘handkerchief’
< ʡuˁnze ‘snot, slime’ + sa-r-irtʼ-an ante-abl-take.away.ipfv-ptcp
f. sːurrat heltʼan ‘photographer, camera’
< sːurrat ‘picture’ + ha-eltʼ-an up-take.out.ipfv-ptcp
g. ʁaj hadulqʼan ‘intriguer’
< ʁaj ‘word, language’ + ha-d-ulqʼ-an up-npl-lock.ipfv-ptcp
h. kːʷiš iʁan ‘dough scraper’
< ?kːʷiš ‘dough’12 + iʁ-an chase.ipfv-ptcp
i. pal kerxʷan ‘fortune-teller’
< pal ‘prediction’13 + ka-erxʷ-an down-pour.ipfv-ptcp

There is a range modifier + noun combinations that have idiomatic meanings that
are not transparently predictable from the meanings of the parts, but syntactically are
rather phrases and not compound nouns. The modifiers used are nouns in the genitive
case (186) or adjectives (187). Sometimes the origin of nouns used as modifiers in these
combinations is unclear. Most examples denote animals or plants. In fact, sometimes
names for herbs, healing plants or other edible plants seem to be made up on the spot
and are rather descriptive.

(186) a. ħaˁž-i-la žatːa ‘swallow’ < Hajj-?-gen + swallow

b. jarma-la č’imi ‘squirrel’ < ear?-gen + tail
c. alax-la q’ʷaˁl ‘ladybird’ < Allah?-gen + cow

12
The word kːʷiš is not the regular word for ‘dough’ in Sanzhi, but it exists in the derived noun kːʷiš-a
‘wooden board for making dough’.
13
The word pal does not seem to be used in Sanzhi, but it is part of the derived noun pal-či ‘fortune-teller’

86
 3.7 Phrasal compounds

d. kːaˁta-la maˁmre ‘blackberry’ < cat-gen + female breast

e. kːaˁta-la q’ar ‘valeriana’ < cat-gen + herbs
f. šajt’an-na q’ap’a ‘mushroom’ < devil-gen + hat
g. ħaˁž-la qːara ‘bean’ < Hajj-gen + pea
h. birikːa-lla ʁut’ ‘cow-parsnip’ < cow-parsnip-gen + edible root
i. čaˁj-la q’ar ‘Saint John’s wort’ < tea-gen + herbs
j. daˁqaˁ-lla q’ar ‘plantain’ < wound-gen + herbs
k. p’aˁlc’ik’ʷ-la q’ar ‘linen’ < nut butter-gen + herbs (urbech)
l. ca-t’uˁ-la xːun ‘path’ < one-leg-gen + way
m. ul-la hin ‘healing spring’ < eye-gen + water
n. suʁat-la hin ‘mortar, whitewash’
< lime-gen + water

(187) a. bicːi mura ‘nut grass’ < bicːi ‘tasty’ + mura ‘grass, hay’
b. buχːari qati ‘papakha’ < buχːar ‘cold’ +qati ‘hat’
c. k’ant’i nisːe ‘cottage cheese’ < k’ant’i ‘soft’ + nisːe ‘cheese’
d. χːula barne ‘holiday at the end of Ramadan’
< χːula ‘big, old’ + barne ‘days’

87
4 Pronouns
Sanzhi Dargwa has the following types of pronouns:

• personal pronouns (§4.1)

• demonstrative pronouns (§4.2)

• reflexive pronouns (§4.3)

• reciprocal pronouns (§4.4)
• interrogative pronouns (§4.5)

• various types of indefinite pronouns (§4.6 and §4.7)

This chapter also includes a subsection on quantifiers such as ‘some’, ‘every’ and ‘all’
(§4.7).
Pronouns express the typical features of nominals, namely case, number, and to a
very limited extent gender (only reflexive pronouns in the absolutive case, one type of
reciprocal pronoun, essive-case forms of pronouns, e.g. of the pronoun ‘where’). Case
marking of pronouns is almost fully regular and identical to the case marking of nouns
(and nominalized adjectives, verbs, etc.). As for number marking, only the demonstra-
tive pronouns and the interrogative ‘who’ form the plural by means of special suffixes;
personal and reflexive pronouns use suppletive stems and indefinite pronouns mostly do
not have plural forms. The gender exponents are the usual markers that are used across
all parts of speech that express gender.

4.1 Personal pronouns

Sanzhi has personal pronouns for the first and for the second person. For the third per-
son demonstrative pronouns are used (§4.2). Table 4.1 displays a partial paradigm of the
personal pronouns.
It is possible to make a few generalizations about the morphophonological structure
of the personal pronouns. The absolutive and the ergative make use of the same root.
Most other cases are formed from a distinct oblique root that is formed via ablaut from
the absolutive root (the first root vowel changes u > i for the first person, u > a for the
second person; the second root vowel of the plural pronouns changes a > i). The only
exceptional forms are the dative forms of the singular pronouns that do not contain
segments that could be identified as dative case exponents, and the genitive forms of the
4 Pronouns

plural pronouns that are a mixture of absolutive and oblique stem. Note, furthermore,
that the plural pronouns have -lla as the genitive suffix. The same allomorph of the
genitive case suffixe is optionally used for plural nouns §3.4).

Table 4.1: Personal pronouns

1sg 2sg 1pl 2pl

absolutive du u nušːa ušːa
ergative du-l u-l nušːa-l ušːa-l
dative dam at nišːi-j ašːi-j
genitive di-la a-la nišːa-lla ašːa-lla
comitative di-cːella a-cːella nišːi-cːella ašːi-cːella
ad-lative di-šːu a-šːu nišːi-šːu ašːi-šːu
in-lative di-cːe a-cːe nišːi-cːe ašːi-cːe
loc-lative di-ja a-ja nišːi-ja ašːi-ja
sub-lative di-gu a-gu nišːi-gu ašːi-gu
ante-lative di-sa a-sa nišːi-sa ašːi-sa
oblique root di- a- nišːi- ašːi-

4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from

them
Sanzhi Dargwa has a rich system of demonstratives whose stems express number and
case, but not gender. These demonstratives fulfill a variety of deictic and non-deictic
functions. Their deictic uses can be exophoric (e.g. gestural) or discourse deictic when
demonstratives refer to a chunk of discourse (She said this). Non-deictic uses of Sanzhi
demonstratives can be anaphoric or cataphoric. The demonstratives are organized along
several formal and semantic dimensions:

• number (singular vs. plural)

• form class (i.e. usage as adnominal modifier vs. independent pronoun vs. adverbial)
• proximity to speech act participants
• elevation
• visibility, aformentionedness, familiarity, etc.

Table 4.2 displays the demonstratives that serve pronominal and adnominal functions.
In the table, they are divided into three series in the columns in both the singular (iC, heC,
hiC) and the plural (i(C)tːi, he(C)tːi, hi(C)tːi). The series in the columns are distinguished
by the root-initial segments (§4.2.1). There are six series of pronouns in the lines of the

90
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

table that differentiated by their last root consonant (before the plural suffix in case of
the plural pronouns), i.e. ž (š) vs. j vs. l vs. t vs. k’ (x) vs.χ (§4.2.2). The series with j as the
last root consonant is defective because it exists only for singular absolutive pronouns;
singular oblique forms as well as any plural forms are unattested.

Table 4.2: Basic (i.e. absolutive case) forms of nominal demonstratives

singular plural
iC heC hiC i(C)tːi he(C)tːi hi(C)tːi
iž hež hiž ištːi heštːi hištːi ‘this’/‘these’; close to the speaker (deictic
center)
ij hej hij — — — ‘this’/‘these’; close to the speaker (deictic
center)
il hel hil iltːi heltːi hiltːi ‘that’/‘those’; away from speaker;
can be close to the hearer
it het hit itːi hetːi hitːi ‘that’/‘those’; not close to speaker
or hearer, undifferentiated
ik’ hek’ hik’ ixtːi hextːi hixtːi above the deictic center
iχ heχ hiχ iχtːi heχtːi hiχtːi below the deictic center

The plural pronouns are mostly based on the singular pronouns by adding the plural
suffix -tːi to the singular stem and some minor phonological adjustments. The oblique
stems of the singular pronouns are formed by adding the suffix -i to the stem (Table 4.3) to
which in turn case suffixes are attached. These two suffixes are not used for the inflection
of nouns, but only with demonstrative pronouns. Partial paradigms of inflected pronouns
are provided in Table 4.4. For the oblique stem of the plural pronouns the stem-final
vowel i is replaced by -a, a suffix generally used for the formation of oblique plural
stems of nouns (§3.4).

Table 4.3: Oblique stem formation of demonstrative pronouns

singular plural
iC heC i(C)tːi he(C)tːi
abs obl abs obl abs obl abs obl
iž iž-i- hež hež-i- ištːi ištː-a- heštːi heštː-a-
ij — hej — — — — —
il il-i- hel hel-i- iltːi iltː-a- heltːi heltː-a-
it it-i- het het-i- itːi itː-a- hetːi hetː-a-
ik’ ik’-i- hek’ hek’-i- ixtːi ixtː-a- hextːi hextː-a-
iχ iχ-i- heχ heχ-i- iχtːi iχtː-a- heχtːi heχtː-a-

91
4 Pronouns

Table 4.4: Partial paradigms of some demonstrative pronouns

‘that’ ‘that’ ‘this’ ‘that’ ‘those’ ‘those’

abs. il it iž hel iltːi heltːi
erg. il-i-l it-i-l iž-i-l hel-i-l iltː-a- heltː-a-l
gen. il-i-la it-i-la iž-i-la hel-i-la iltː-a-lla heltː-a-lla
dat. il-i-j it-i-j iž-i-j hel-i-j iltː-a-j heltː-a-j
comit. il-i-cːella it-i-cːella iž-i-cːella hel-i-cːella iltː-a-cːella heltː-a-cːella
ad-lat. il-i-šːu it-i-šːu iž-i-šːu hel-i-šːu iltː-a-šːu heltː-a-šːu
in-lat. il-i-cːe it-i-cːe iž-i-cːe hel-i-cːe iltː-a-cːe heltː-a-cːe
loc-lat. ile/il-i-ja it-i-ja iž-i-ja hele/ iltː-a-ja heltː-a-ja
hel-i-ja

The deictic meaning of the demonstratives is participant-oriented. Three semantic

dimensions along the scale ‘proximity/distance to speech act participants’ are distin-
guished: (i) near hearer (root-final consonants ž/š and j), (ii) near addressee (l), and (iii)
undifferentiated or not close to speaker or addressee (t).
Another aspect of the deictic semantics is elevation (or height), namely higher (up) or
lower (down) location than the deictic center which is most commonly the speaker. Ele-
vation distinctions in demonstratives are widespread in Dagestanian languages (Schulze
2003; Forker 2019a), and the Sanzhi Dargwa system represent a typical instance.

4.2.1 The demonstrative series in the columns: iC vs. heC vs. hiC and
i(C)tːi vs. he(C)tːi vs. hi(C)tːi
There is a pronounced difference in frequency between the three series. The he- series is
by far the most commonly used and the hi- series is only very rarely used. Speakers are
aware of the three different series but do not seem to notice a difference in semantics.
The phonetic difference between the hi-series and the i-series is rather small and hard
to hear. Thus, one of the reasons why the latter is so rare in the corpus might be that
some of the tokens might incorrectly have been transcribed as i-. In the following, I will
only discuss the heC and the iC series.
When looking into natural texts it is not difficult to find tendencies hinting at the func-
tional difference between the heC-pronouns and the iC-pronouns. The heC-pronouns
preferably refer to items or persons that are or have been:

• in the immediate deictic sphere of speaker (and addressee) and/or part of the
knowledge sphere or social world of the speaker
• aforementioned or are assumed to be part of the ongoing conversation
• common knowledge

92
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

First of all, heC- pronouns are used for denoting visible referents, for instance in point-
ing events. For example, after (1) has been uttered the speaker stresses the fact that the
person in the narrative was only pointing at the man, but not saying anything:

(1) [Three men were standing there like this.]

“kutːi” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar hetːa-cːe-r “Asijat-la ucːi?” “heχ”
which m-say.ipfv-prs those.obl-in-abl Asiyat-gen brother dem.down
‘“Who,” he says to them, “is Asiyat’s brother?” “This one.”’
(2) [The speaker pointed at a similar bottle.]
heχ=ʁuna šuša kʷi-b-ičː-ib r-at k-aʁ-ib=da
dem.down=eq bottle in.hands-n-give.pfv-pret f-send down-do-pret=1
‘He gave me such a bottle and sent me (fem.) away.’
(3) [referring to a boy that turned up unexpectedly during the conversation]
aman! het ceqːel ha-∅-jʁ-ib=e?
oh that when up-m-come.pfv-pret=q
‘Oh! When did he come?’

The heC-pronouns are used for referents within the personal social sphere of the
speaker such as her/his close relatives and other people well-known to the speaker (4),
body parts of the speaker (5), etc. These items or persons can be assumed to be implicitly
present in the discourse and can be identified via their close relationship to the speaker.

(4) Baršlikːent-le Maˁħaˁmmarasul-li-šːu hex-tːi a-la

Barshlikent-loc Mahammarasul-obl-ad dem.up-pl 2sg-gen
b-alχ-an-t-a-šːu r-ik-an=da
hpl-know.ipfv-ptcp-pl-obl-ad f-lead.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘To Bashlikent, to Mahammarasul, to the ones that you know we will bring you
(fem.).’
(5) hana heš-tːi k’unt’-be d-emtː-un-ne ʁaj r-ik’ʷ-ij wahi-l
now this-pl lip-pl npl-swell.pfv-pret-cvb word f-say.ipfv-inf bad-advz
ca-b
cop-n
‘Now the (i.e. my) lips are swollen, it is difficult to talk.’

Second, the heC-pronouns refer to referents that have been introduced in the preced-
ing discourse, either in the immediately preceding sentence such that they establish a
kind of topic continuity or when referring back to something said some time ago. Thus,
sentence (6a) brings up a new topic, the mill forest. The speaker is then constantly re-
ferring back to the forest with the pronouns hek’, het and hej (6b), (6c). The first clause
of (7) introduces a new referent, the sticks, and the following clause refers to them by
means of a heC-pronoun.

93
4 Pronouns

(6) a. urχːab-la wac’a b-ik’-ul, ganza te-b u-l

mill-gen forest hpl-say.ipfv-icvb ground exist-n 2sg-erg
b-alχ-atːe prjama hek’ ...
n-know.ipfv-cond.2 directly dem.up
‘The forest that is called the mill’s forest, there is the ground, if you know it
directly ...’
b. hej=ʁuna wac’a k’e-b, urχːab-la wac’a b-ik’ʷ-ar
this=eq forest exist.up-n mill-gen forest hpl-say.ipfv-prs
hek’-i-j
dem.up-obl-dat
‘A forest like this exists there, the mill’s forest it is called’
c. hextːu hek’ wac’a-cːe-b cik’al ka-b-irčː-an akːu
there dem.up forest-in-n nothing down-n-cut.ipfv-ptcp cop.neg
‘There in the forest nothing should be cut’
(7) [When we were little we had a game.]
dirx-me d-umkːa d-arq’-ib-le, ganza-l-cːe d-urq-aˁ-di
stick-pl npl-sharp npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb ground-obl-in npl-hit.ipfv-hab-1
hel-tːi
that-pl
‘We made sticks and hit them into the ground.’
While speakers performed the Family Problems Picture Task (San Roque et al. 2012),
they constantly needed to refer to the people and objects depicted on the pictures. Fre-
quently they first used an iC-pronoun to establish a new referent, and then, in a kind
of afterthought following the clause, repeated the reference again by employing a heC-
pronoun (8), (9). The first demonstrative pronouns in such clauses can be interpreted
as deictic, whereas the second demonstratives in the same examples represent the an-
aphoric use. In the following two examples the relevant demonstratives are given in
boldface.
(8) iž uže w-erč-ib-le hež
this already m-lead.pfv-pret-cvb this
‘They already carried him away.’
(9) a iš-tːi qːalpuz-e=jal, aχːu, heš-tːi
and this-pl watermelon-pl=indq not.know this-pl
‘and these are watermelons, I don’t know, these.’
This function is reflected in the meaning of the adverb hel-i-j (that-obl-dat) ‘therefore’
and the phrases hel bahandan ‘for this reason’ and hel zamana ‘that time’, which link
causally or temporally connected passages in a stretch of discourse.
Third, the heC-pronouns denote objects and persons that the speaker assumes to be
familiar for the hearer, i.e. that are common knowledge such as certain places, famous
people, etc.:

94
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

(10) hej Mažalis-la pawarut’e-le w-iteʁ-ib=qːella, …

this Mazhalis-gen crossover-loc m-reach.pfv-pret=when
‘when (I) reached the crossover of Mazhalis, …’

The use of the iC-pronouns diverges from the use of the heC-pronouns. The iC-pro-
nouns preferably occur when new topics and referents are introduced into the discourse
(11) or when topics switch (12), (13).

(11) iž Arsen b-ik’-ul iž=ra le-w=de iž Usːan

this Arsen hpl-say.ipfv-icvb this=add exist-m=pst this Usisha.person
xːunul-li-cːe-r
woman-obl-in-abl
‘And this man called Arsen, he was also there, with his wife from Usisha.’
(12) [switching back the topic of the conversation to a person known to both speaker
and hearer]
c’il it ʡaˁbdulχaliq’ acːi-la atːa-l ce=jal
then that Abdulkhalik uncle-gen father-erg what=indef
∅-ik’ʷ-a-tːe=q’al u
m-say.ipfv-hab.pst-2sg=mod 2sg
‘What did you say about uncle Abdulkhalik’s father?’1
(13) [Then when they had gathered all these pears, they put them again on the bike.]
il durħuˁ arg-ul=de bahla-l, itːi ʡaˁbal durħ-ne
that boy go.ipfv-icvb=pst slow-advz dem.pl three boy-pl
arg-ul=de het sa-∅-jʁ-ib musːa-r het
go.ipfv-icvb=pst that hither-m-come.pfv-pret place.loc-abl that
xːun-ni-cːe-r
road-obl-in-abl
‘And the boy went slowly away, and the three boys went there to that place, on
that road.’

The iC-pronouns are also used when the referent or the topic of the conversation
has been introduced into the discourse, but the speaker considers them to be out of
his/her personal sphere. For instance, in (14) and (15) the speaker continues to talk about
acquaintances of hers who are not close friends or relatives of herself:

(14) [In Urkarakh there is this son of my friend.]

ik’-i-l har cik’al di-la=ra d-irq’-u
dem.up-obl-erg every something 1sg-gen=add npl-do.ipfv-prs
‘He does all my things. (i.e. does everything)’
1
The noun ‘father’ bears the ergative case because the speaker intended to ask for something that Abdulkha-
lik’s father had done, without explicitly saying so in his utterance.

95
4 Pronouns

(15) it-i-l b-alχ-an b-akːu=q’al r-ik’ʷ-ar

that-obl-erg n-know.ipfv-ptcp n-cop.neg=mod f-say.ipfv-prs
‘She does not know anything, (my daughter) says.’

In example (16) the speaker is talking about a person who is present but does not
belong to the Sanzhi community, and who does not understand Sanzhi (later the speaker
switches to hel when referring to the same person):

(16) iž-i-l d-alc’-un q’ar le-d=de

this-obl-erg npl-gather.pfv-pret plant exist-pl=pst
‘There were plants that she gathered.’

In (17) the speaker is contradicting and correcting the addressee (who is his wife) and
perhaps distancing himself a bit form the referent (his sister-in-law):

(17) [Prepare (the groceries), when your little sister comes, for her to take them.]
iž-i-l d-uqː-ij a-r-irχ-u itːi
this-obl-erg npl-carry.pfv-inf neg-f-be.able.ipfv-prs dem.pl
‘She cannot carry them.’

However, these are only tendencies, not strict rules. Speakers play around with the
pronouns, use different pronouns for one and the same referent or correct themselves.
Thus, in (18) and (19) the same objects (the pills) and person (the friend) are first referred
to by means of a heC-pronoun and then immediately later by an iC-pronoun. This is
the opposite order of what I found in the data from the Family Problems Picture Task
presented above in (8), (9).

(18) wallah k’ʷel darman hila d-uq-un=qːel, urk’i xul-le

by.God two medicine behind npl-go.pfv-pret=when heart wish-advz
hel-tːi=ra d-erčː-ib=da hix-tːi=ra
that-pl=add npl-drink.pfv-pret=1 dem.up-pl=add
‘By God, when two pills (i.e. medicines) were left behind, (I) also wanted them,
and I also drank them.’
(19) [He is like this, he is always busy, has many friends, etc.]
c’il ca-w ʡaˁħ juldaš ca<w>i nišːa-la nu heχ q’ʷila q’ʷila
then refl-m good friend cop<m> 1pl-gen well dem.down a.little a.little
iχ-i-cːe-b χasijat χe-b-il ca-b
dem.down-obl-in-n habit exist.down-n-ref cop-n
‘He is our good friend, but he has a bit of this habit.’

In the following sections, I will discuss the differences between the horizontal series
(i.e. the pronouns in the six different lines of Table 4.2) and largely ignore the differences
between the columns.

96
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

4.2.2 Proximity, distance, and elevation

4.2.2.1 ž-pronouns: iž, hež, hiž, ištːi, heštːi, hištːi; and j-pronouns: ij, hej, hij
These pronouns express proximity and normally denote referents close to the speaker.
The ž-pronouns are preferably used as independent pronouns (16), (17), (23), (24), where-
as the j-pronouns predominantly occur as deictic modifiers of nouns and definite mark-
ers similar to articles (20), (21), (22), but again these are tendencies, not strict rules. The
j-pronouns have only singular absolutive forms, lacking entirely singular oblique and all
plural forms.
All following examples are from the Family Problems Picture Task when speakers
where referring to pictures and people on the pictures that were lying close to them
on the table.

(20) hej sːurrat, ce sːurrat=e iž?

this picture what picture=q this
‘This picture, what picture is it/this?’
(21) sa-∅-jʁ-ib-il=de=q’al, iž hij bah hila b-ax-an
hither-m-come.pfv-pret-ref=pst=mod this this most behind n-go.ipfv-ptcp
ca-b abuχar
cop-n then
‘This is when he came back; this (iž) then needs to be the (hij) very last.’
(22) ij sud ca-b iž
this trial cop-n this
‘This (iž) is the (ij) trial.’
(23) heštːi razi-te heštːu b-iqː-a!
these happy-dd.pl here hpl-take.out.ipfv-imp
‘These happy ones (=happy people on a picture) give them here!’
(24) iš-tː-a-la ca akːʷ-ar durħuˁ, w-akːu=w?
this-pl-obl-gen one cop.neg-prs boy m-cop.neg=q
‘They have only one son, right?’

4.2.2.2 l-pronouns: il, hel, hil, iltːi, heltːi, hiltːi

These pronouns denote objects or persons that are not in the proximity of the speaker,
but close to the addressee (25).

(25) [The addressee starts talking to the picture in front of her. The other speaker says
to her:]
u il-tː-a-cːe ʁaj ma-r-ik’-ut!
2sg that-pl-obl-in word proh-f-say.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not talk to them!’ (i.e. to the pictures)

97
4 Pronouns

They are also employed when talking about absent referents or items located further
away, not necessarily in the proximity of the hearer (26), (27). Finally, they are the default
pronouns in fiction such as traditional narratives, legends, etc. (28).

(26) [talking about the colors used for the rock paintings; the conversation takes place
far away from the painting]
il kraska atletit b-iχ-ub-le akːu, il-i-j cik’al
that color fly.away n-be.pfv-pret-cvb cop.neg that-obl-dat nothing
ag-ur-re=kːu
go.pfv-pret-cvb=cop.neg
‘The color does not fly off, nothing happened to it.’
(27) [I went to my house.]
hel-tːi kelg-un heltːu-b di-la k’ʷel=ra durħuˁ=ra, hel-tːi
that-pl remain.pfv-pret there-hpl 1sg-gen two=add boy=add that-pl
k’ʷel=ra zunra admi=ra
two=add neighbor person=add
‘They remained there, my two sons and those two neighbors.’
(28) aždaha ag-ur ca-r hel-i-cːe-r
monster go.pfv-pret cop-f that-obl-in-abl
‘She turned into a monster.’

4.2.2.3 t-pronouns: it, het, hit, itːi, hetːi, hitːi

These pronouns refer to persons or objects whose location is undifferentiated, irrelevant,
or impossible to determine or that are not close to the speaker or the hearer. They are
used, for instance, when talking about people that are not present, or about unknown
referents, of which it is not important where they are located (29), (30). They are also
very frequently used in elicitation.

(29) ča=de it di-cːe ∅-ik’ʷ-an?

who=pst that 1sg-in m-say.ipfv-ptcp
‘Who was that (masc.) who told me that?’
(30) [talking about the former lovers of the husband of the speaker]
it r-ax r-at-ur, het-i-šːu w-ax-ul, it r-ax r-at-ur
that f-let f-let.pfv-pret that-obl-ad m-go.ipfv-icvb that f-let f-let.pfv-pret
hetilil-li-šːu w-ax-ul
other-obl-ad m-go.ipfv-icvb
‘He left her and went to that one; he left her and went to the next one.’

98
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

(31) [talking about a stone fence that the speaker is building; both speaker and hearer
are located somewhere away from the fence]
c’il=ra het šːal-le-b lac či-b-irq’-an=uw?
then=add that side-loc-n fence spr-n-do.ipfv-ptcp=q
‘Then you also have to build the fence from that side?’

With (32) the speaker refers back to former times and (33) is the typical final statement
of a traditional story that ends with the wedding of the protagonist:

(32) ij naˁq hit=qːel b-ucː-ul b-el=de

this hand that=when n-work-icvb n-remain.pfv=pst
‘At that time this hand (of mine) was still working.’
(33) du=ra het meq-le-w kelg-un=da
1sg=add that wedding-loc-m remain.pfv-pret=1
‘I have been to this wedding as well.’

4.2.2.4 k’-/x-pronouns: ik’, hek’, hik’, ixtːi, hextːi, hixtːi

These pronouns are used when referring to items or people located above the level of
the deictic center (which is most commonly the speaker), e.g. in the mountains as in (34),
(35) or higher than some other point of reference (36). For instance, in examples (34), (37),
the deictic center is the speaker, but it can also be another location. See Forker (2019a)
for more information on the deictic category of elevation in Sanzhi Dargwa.

(34) [talking about rock paintings located in the mountains, higher up than Sanzhi]
intersna=de ix-tːi
interesting=pst dem.up-pl
‘They were interesting.’
(35) [referring to the inhabitants of a legendary village that is supposed to have
existed on the mountains above Sanzhi]
islam prinimat b-irq’-an zamana hex-tː-a-l prinimat
Islam accept hpl-do.ipfv-ptcp time dem.up-pl-obl-erg accept
b-arq’-ib-le a-b-určː-i
n-do.pfv-pret-cvb neg-hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst
‘At the time when we became Muslims, they did not become Muslims.’
(36) [In one place there are trees.]
warilla.wari u ix-tː-a-j er či-ma-hark’-utːa!
no.way 2sg dem.up-pl-obl-dat look spr-proh-look.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Whatever may happen, do not look at them (=trees)!’

99
4 Pronouns

The factual elevation with respect to the deictic center can be minimal as long as
speakers perceive a difference in height. For instance, the village of Druzhba where most
Sanzhi speakers live is located on the flat land around 5 km from the Caspian sea coast. It
stretches from the highway that runs parallel to the coast and to a point approximately
one kilometer before the slops of some hills. If there is any difference in elevation be-
tween the two ends of the village it is minimal and not visible, but the part of the village
closer to the sea is conceptualized as ‘lower’ whereas the part closer to the hills is re-
garded as ‘higher’. Example (37) originates from a conversation about a woman who
lives in the ‘higher’ part of the village and the speaker uses hek’ with reference to that
woman. Thus, it is not necessarily the location at the time of speaking that is relevant,
but the usual location of the referent in relation to the deictic center can be decisive for
the use of demonstratives.

(37) [talking about a woman who lives in the ‘upper part’ of the village]
hana hek’ hek-ka ka-r-eʁ-ij=al gargar gargar
now dem.up dem.up-down down-f-go.pfv-inf=indq trembling trembling
r-ik’-ud du
f-say.ipfv-1.prs 1sg
‘If now she comes from over there I am trembling.’

Sentence (38) has been uttered during a Family Problems Picture Task discussion. The
picture shows the arrest of the protagonist by the police. His wife is sitting on the ground
and he is carried away by two policemen. In the picture, he is depicted higher than the
woman. Example (39) is also part of a Family Problems Picture Task discussion. The two
demonstrative pronouns refer to the main protagonists who are depicted in little bubbles
above the main scene of the picture.

(38) ili ik’-i-l r-it-ib-le=w iχ?

or dem.up-obl-erg f-beat.up-pret-cvb=q dem.down
‘Or did he beat her up?’
(39) bahsar ix-tːi qːuʁa-l er b-irχ-ul b-už-ib ca-b;
first dem.up-pl beautiful-advz life hpl-be.ipfv-icvb hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl
hex-tːi er r-erč’-e k’ʷel=ra canille!
dem.up-pl look f-look.pfv-imp two=add together
‘It turns out that they lived well in the beginning. Look at them both together!’

4.2.2.5 χ-pronouns: iχ, heχ, hiχ, iχtːi, heχtːi, hiχtːi

These pronouns denote referents located below the deictic center. For instance, example
(40) originates from a conversation about a woman who lives in the part of the village
closer to the sea and the speaker continuously uses iχ with reference to that woman.
Examples (41) and (42) refer to people and items on pictures. The people are sitting down
and the pumpkins (referred to as watermelons) on the picture are lying on the ground.

100
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

(40) ce ag-ur-re=l iχ-i-j?

what go.pfv-pret-cvb=indq dem.down-obl-dat
‘What happened to her?’
(41) heχ=ra heχ-tːi heχ-tːi=ra ču-la juldašː-e
dem.down=add dem.down-pl dem.down-pl=add refl.pl-gen friend-pl
ca-b guči<b>ič-ib-le ka-b-iž-ib-le
cop-hpl meet<hpl>.pfv-pret-cvb down-hpl-be-pret-cvb
‘He and they, his friends also meet and sit together.’
(42) b-iʡ-uˁn ca-b heχ, ce ca-b=el, heχ,
n-steal.pfv-pret cop-n dem.down what cop-n=indq dem.down
heχ-tː-a-la qːalpuz-e=w
dem.down-pl-obl-gen watermelon-pl=q
‘(They) stole it, whatever it is, this, their watermelons.’

In the discourse deictic function, mostly the χ-pronouns occur (43), but the k’-/x-
pronouns can also occasionally be found.

(43) taman ca-b heχ

end cop-n dem.down
‘This is the end (of the story).’

Yet elevation cannot be the only criterion that governs the use of the χ-pronouns vs.
the k’-/x-pronouns. For instance, in (44) the first demonstrative pronoun denotes people
who the speaker has seen on TV. They are described as being located lower than some
unknown point of reference. At the same time the sentence is a good example for the
contrast between iC-pronouns and heC-pronouns as discussed in §4.2.1.

(44) du ∅-ik’-ul=da, iχ-tː-a-la ij=ʁuna but’a ca-b, di-la

1sg m-say.ipfv-icvb=1 dem.down-pl-obl-gen this=eq piece cop-n 1sg-gen
hej=ʁuna=qːel
this=eq=when
‘I (masc.) say, they have a (little) piece (of a diamond) like that, while I have one
like that.’

For a more thorough discussion of the elevational meaning in Sanzhi demonstratives

and examples see the detailed account in Forker (2019a).

101
4 Pronouns

4.2.3 Pronouns and adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns

There are a few pro-forms derived from the demonstrative pronouns such as hetilil (30),
itilil (45) ‘other, next’, itil-ižili ‘one thing and another’, and it-heχ ‘this and that, various’.
(45) [He pointed with his finger on his forehead and said to the other man, Well here
is the horsefly.]
itilil-li ix-ub-le tupang antːa-l-cːe zija=ra
other-erg throw.pfv-pret-cvb weapon forehead-obl-in horsefly=add
kax-ub ca-b il admi=ra
kill.pfv-pret cop-n that person=add
‘The other shot at the forehead and killed the horsefly and the man.’
The temporal/clausal adverb helij ‘therefore’ is diachronically the dative case form of
the pronoun hel ‘that’.
There is a series of manner adverbs with the meaning ‘like this/like that’ that is formed
by adding the suffix -itːe to the singular demonstrative pronouns (except for the j- pro-
nouns, since they are mostly used in the noun-modifying function, see Table 4.5). Their
meaning is based on the meanings of the demonstrative pronouns as described in the
preceding sections. Some examples can be found in (46), (47) (see also §7.3 for more
examples).
Table 4.5: Manner adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns

iC heC hiC
iž-itːe hež-itːe hiž-itːe ‘like this, like something close to the speaker’
il-itːe hel-itːe hil-itːe ‘like that, like something away from the speaker and/or close
to the hearer’
it-itːe het-itːe hit-itːe ‘like that, like something away from speaker and hearer or
undifferentiated’
ik’-itːe hek’-itːe hik’-itːe ‘like this/that above the deictic center’
iχ-itːe heχ-itːe hiχ-itːe ‘like this/that below deictic center’

(46) iž hež-itːe b-irq’-an ca-b

this this-advz n-do.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘It must be done like this.’
(47) hana=q’ar il-itːe a-haʔ-ib=de
now=mod that-advz neg-say.pfv-pret=2sg
‘But now you did not say this.’ (i.e. you did not tell the stories that you told the
other time)
There is another group of four manner adverbs with a similar meaning as the adverbs
ending in -itːe, namely itwaj, hetwaj, hitwaj, and ižwaj ‘like that, and so’. Their usage is
illustrated in (48–50).

102
 4.2 Demonstrative pronouns and adverbials derived from them

(48) itːi itwaj=ra ʡuˁrusː-e ʁunab-te ca-b hana=ra

those like.that=add Russian-pl eq-dd.pl cop-hpl now=add
‘They are also like this, like Russians, even now.’
(49) di-la χatːaj ca-w, ala itwaj χatːaj ca-w
1sg-gen grandfather cop-m 2sg.gen like.that grandfather cop-m
‘(He) is my (real) grandfather. For you he is only an old man.’ (lit. ‘he is like a
grandfather of yours’)
(50) ha itwaj ka-b-iž-ib-te=kːu
uh like.that down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-dd.pl=cop.neg
‘Uh, and so they did not marry.’
Spatial adverbs with the basic meaning ‘here, there’ are derived by adding the suffix
-tːu to the pronominal stems (Table 4.6). The meaning of the spatial adverbs is transpar-
ently derived from the meaning of the demonstratives. As can be seen in the table, there
are two series of spatial adverbs with the meaning ‘there above’ because both the sin-
gular as well as the plural pronominal stem can serve as the base for the derivation, but
the adverbs with x are far more common than the adverbs with k’. The adverbs with k’
are very rarely used and might even be switches to another dialect of Dargwa.
Table 4.6: Spatial adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns

i(C)tːu he(C)tːu hi(C)tːu

iš-tːu heš-tːu hiš-tːu ‘here, close to the speaker’
il-tːu hel-tːu hil-tːu ‘there, away from the speaker and/or close to the hearer’
i-tːu he-tːu hi-tːu ‘there, further away, unspecific distance’
ik’-tːu hek’-tːu hik’-tːu ‘here/there above the deictic center’
ix-tːu hex-tːu hix-tːu ‘here/there above the deictic center’
iχ-tːu heχ-tːu hiχ-tːu ‘here/there below the deictic center’

Since the adverbs have inherent spatial semantics, locational cases cannot be added,
but only directional suffixes just as with other spatial adverbials or nominals. The lative
is zero-marked, the essive is expressed through gender/number agreement, the ablative
by means of the suffix -r(ka) and the directive through the suffix -gm-a including a gen-
der/number agreement marker, e.g. lative heš-tːu, essive heš-tːu-b, ablative heš-tːu-r(ka),
directive heš-tːu-b-a. Examples can be found in ex:We crossed the border between Shurli
and our (Sanzhi area), and up there we found a stoneex:Do they really allow people from
here (to enter) the hospital. More examples are given in §7.1.1.
(51) šuˁrʡli-la=ra nišːa-la=ra dazu-la hetːu-r tːura
Shurli-gen=add 1pl-gen=add border-gen there-abl outside
d-ituq-un-ne hek’tːu-b b-arčː-ib-il=de ca qːarqːa
1/2pl-cross.pfv-pret-cvb there.up-n n-find.pfv-pret-ref=pst one stone
‘We crossed the border between Shurli and our (Sanzhi area), and up there we
found a stone.’

103
4 Pronouns

(52) macːa d-irχʷ-i=w ixtːu-d?

sheep npl-be.ipfv-hab.pst=q there.up-npl
‘Were there sheep up there?’
(53) iš-tːi xːune-r hitːu-b-a arg-ul akːu=w iš-tːi?
this-pl road.spr-abl there-hpl-dir go.ipfv-icvb cop.neg=q this-pl
‘Are they walking on (along) the road there, right, these?’
(54) balnicːa-le b-i-b-aš-aq-u=w ištːu-rka ag-ur χalq’
hospital-loc hpl-in-hpl-go.ipfv-caus-prs=q here-abl go.pfv-pret people
‘Do they really allow people from here (to enter) the hospital?!’

Another series of spatial adverbs denoting the source can be derived by means of the
suffix -ka (which is probably a cognate of the second part of the complex ablative suffix
-r-ka), e.g. hež-ka ‘from here’, hel-ka ‘from there’, etc. (§3.4.2). These adverbs can also
have a temporal interpretation (‘from time X on’). Moreover, there is a series of spatial
adverbs with the meaning ‘from X to X’ containing the suffix -k-itːu-b-a, e.g. hež-kitːu-
b-a ‘from here to there’ (57). This suffix is a combination of the ablative -ka (shortened
to -k), the locational suffix -tːu and the directive -gm-a. Both series are available from all
three stem types of demonstratives (heC, iC, and hiC), but only the adverbs based on heC
are commonly used in my corpus. See §7.1.1 for Tables displaying all adverbs and more
examples.

(55) qːalmaqːar ag-ur-te hej-ka ca-d

scandal go.pfv-pret-dd.pl this-abl cop-npl
‘From here the scandal happened.’
(56) nu, ik-ka nušːa qari-rka ag-ur=da
well dem.up-abl 1pl up-abl go.pfv-pret=1
‘Well we went from up there along the upper side.’
(57) hana hetkitːu-b-a b-ibšː-ib
now from.there.to.there-n-dir n-escape-pret
‘(The dog) ran away to that side (from there to there).’

The equative enclitic =ʁuna ‘like, similar’ and the temporal enclitic =qːel ‘when’ can also
be attached to the demonstrative pronouns leading to pro-forms used when comparing
referents (2), (6b) and temporal adverbs with the meaning ‘then, at this/that time’ (32).

4.3 Reflexive pronouns

Sanzhi Dargwa has simple reflexive pronouns (Table 4.7) and two types of complex re-
flexive pronouns (Table 4.8). In reflexive constructions, the reflexive pronouns refer only
to third persons. For first and second person reflexivization personal pronouns are used.
Reflexive pronouns are marked for gender (in the absolutive only), for number and for

104
 4.3 Reflexive pronouns

case. The absolutive case of the reflexive pronoun is identical to the copula and might
be diachronically related to it. For all other cases the pronoun has two stems (singular
and plural).

Table 4.7: Simple reflexive pronouns

singular plural
absolutive ca-w /-r /-b ca-b /-d
ergative cin-ni ču-l
genitive cin-na ču-la
dative cini-j ču-j
comitative cini-cːella ču-cːella
ad-lative cini-šːu ču-šːu
in-lative cini-cːe ču-cːe
loc-lative ci-ne ču-ja

Table 4.8: Complex reflexive pronouns

singular plural
case copyinga genitive refl. case copyinga genitive refl.
abs cinni ca-w /-r /-b cinna ca-w /-r /-b čul ca-b /-d čula ca-b /-d
erg — cinna cin-ni — čula čul
gen cinni cin-na — čul čula —
dat cinni cini-j cinna cini-j čul ču-j čula ču-j
comit cinni cini-cːella cinna cini-cːella čul ču-cːella čula ču-cːella

a
with ergative controller

The simple reflexive pronouns occur in local and non-local reflexivization (including
logophoric contexts across clausal boundaries, whereas the complex reflexive pronouns
can only be bound within the clause. Both types of complex reflexive pronouns consist
of a reduplicated form of the simple reflexive (Table 4.7). For the first variant of the
complex reflexive pronouns, one part of the reflexive undergoes case-copying from the
controller (in Table 4.8 exemplified with an ergative controller), and the second part takes
the appropriate case-marking. In the second variant, the first part is invariably genitive.
The second variant, the complex genitive reflexive, lacks a form for the genitive case,
so it can never occur as possessor. Other functions in addition to local and non-local
reflexivization are: emphatic reflexivization, comitative constructions and pause fillers.
All types of reflexive constructions are analyzed in more detail in §29.1 and in Forker
(2014). The genitive singular and plural reflexive pronouns cinna and čula are used as
pause fillers (§9.5). The absolutive reflexive pronouns occur in comitative constructions
that have the formal structure of coordinated noun phrases (§30.3).

105
4 Pronouns

None of these additional functions are available for complex reflexive pronouns, which
occur only in local reflexivization, emphatic reflexivization and reciprocal constructions
(only plural reflexive pronouns).

4.4 Reciprocal pronouns

Reciprocal pronouns are very similar to complex reflexive pronouns in form as well as in
morphosyntactic behavior. They consist of a reduplicated form of the numeral ca ‘one’.
Sanzhi Dargwa has three types of reciprocal pronouns. Two of these pronouns always
consist of the reduplicated numeral ca ‘one’. Except for the genitive they fully inflect for
case, but do not distinguish gender. One type of reciprocal pronouns is the equivalent of
the genitive reflexive because its first part is always in the genitive. The second reciprocal
has always one part in the absolutive. The third variant, ca-b-a, is also based on ca ‘one’,
to which a plural suffix that exhibits gender/number agreement is added. It can also be
reduplicated (this is not shown in the Table) and inflects for all cases. All reciprocals are
shown in the partial paradigm in Table 4.9. In addition, the language also makes use of
plural reflexive pronouns (Table 4.8) for the expression of reciprocity.
Syntactically, reciprocal pronouns behave similarly to complex reflexives because they
are always locally bound. More information on reciprocalization can be found in §29.2
and in Forker (2014).

Table 4.9: Reciprocal pronouns

‘each other’ ‘each other’ ‘each other’

(genitive variant) (absolutive variant)
absolutive calla ca calli ca ca-b-a
ergative calla ca-l-li calli ca ca-b-a-li
genitive calla calla ca-l-la ca ca-b-a-la
dative calla ca-l-li-j ca-l-li-j ca ca-b-a-li-j
comitative calla ca-l-li-cːella ca-l-li-cːella ca ca-b-a-li-cːella
ad-lative calla ca-l-li-šːu ca-l-li-šːu ca ca-b-a-li-šːu
in-lative calla ca-l-li-cːe ca-l-li-cːe ca ca-b-a-li-cːe
loc-lative calla ca-l-le ca-l-le ca ca-b-a-l-le

4.5 Interrogative pronouns

The interrogative pronouns of Sanzhi are given in Table 4.10. Some of the pronouns are
morphologically complex, consisting of the root ce ‘what’ to which other morphemes
are added:

106
 4.5 Interrogative pronouns

• ce + t’le: the second part might contain the adverbializer -le

• ce + ʁuna: the second part is the equative enclitic =ʁuna ‘like, as’ (§30.2)
• ce + li-j: the second part is the inflection for dative case (§3.4.1.4)

• ce + l: the second part is the inflection for ergative case (§3.4.1.2)

• ce + qːel: the second part is the temporal enclitic =qːel ‘when, while, at that time’
(§18.2.1)

Table 4.10: Interrogative pronouns

ča ‘who’ ceʁuna ‘which’ ceqːel ‘when’

ce ‘what’ kutːi ‘which’ čujna ‘how many times’
čina ‘where’ cel ‘why’ kusa ‘how much’
cet’le ‘how’ celij ‘why’ čum ‘how many’

The pronouns čujna and čum are also complex. They seem to contain the same root ču-.
In order to arrive at ču-jna the derivational suffix -na (allomorph -jna after vowels) has
been added. This suffix is also used to form multiplicative numerals (§6.5). The pronoun
kutːi seems to be composed of a root ku- and an ending -tːi, the latter also found with
plural demonstrative pronouns (§4.2).
In the following, all pronouns are described and illustrated with examples. More in-
formation on interrogative clauses can be found in Chapter 28. Embedded interrogatives
are treated in §28.4.

4.5.1 ča ‘who’ and ce ‘what’

Partial inflectional paradigms of the pronouns ča ‘who’ and ce ‘what’ are shown in Ta-
ble 4.11. The pronoun ča has a suppletive stem hi- for all cases except for the absolutive
(60). The pronoun ča can be used as a modifier to a nominal with human reference and
translates then as ‘which, what kind of’ (58). It can be marked for plural by means of the
associative plural suffix -qal (59) (§3.2.4).

(58) ča χamis? Sut’aj-la rucːi

who Khamis Sutaj-gen sister
‘Which Khamis? Sutaj’s sister.’
(59) “čakːʷa-l, ča-qal=de?” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w het ʡuˁrus
handsome-advz who-assoc=pst m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m that Russian
xːunul-li-cːe
woman-obl-in
‘“Nice, who were they?” he asks the Russian woman.’

107
4 Pronouns

Table 4.11: Interrogative pronouns ča ‘who’ and ce ‘what’

‘who’ ‘what’
absolutive ča ce
ergative hi-l ce-l-li
genitive hi-la ce-lla
dative hi-j ce-lli-j
comitative hi-cːella ce-lli-cːella
ad-lative hi-šːu ce-lli-šːu
in-lative hi-cːe ce-lli-cːe
loc-lative hi-ja ce-l-le

(60) il hi-la q’am-la=de?

that who-gen kin-gen=pst
‘From whose clan was he?’

The pronoun ce ‘what’ (61) can also be used with the meanings ‘how’ (62), ‘where’ (63)
and, when functioning as a nominal modifier, ‘which, what kind of’. The dative case of
this pronoun celij translates as ‘why’ (§4.5.2.4).

(61) ce ∅-ik’-ul=de u?
what m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg 2sg
‘What do you (masc.) say?’
(62) ce b-alχ-ul=de ča-qal=el?
what hpl-know.ipfv-icvb=2sg who-assoc=indq
‘How do you know who they are?’
(63) sa-r-b-ulq-an ce b-iχ-ub=e?
ante-abl-hpl-direct.ipfv-ptcp what n-be.pfv-pret=q
‘(The picture on which the people) run away, where is it?’

4.5.2 Other interrogative words

4.5.2.1 čina ‘where’
This pronoun has an inherent spatial meaning and can be further inflected for the direc-
tional cases just like other nominals or adverbials with spatial meaning, see §3.4.2. Thus,
we obtain:

• the zero-marked lative čina for directed motion (64)

• the essive čina-b for location (with the gender/number agreement suffix) (65)
• the ablative čina-r-(ka) for movement from a source or through/along a reference
point or with the meaning ‘how’ (lit. ‘from where’) (66)

108
 4.5 Interrogative pronouns

(64) čina ag-ur-re ∅-ik’-ul=de u?

where go.pfv-pret-cvb m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg 2sg
‘Are you (masc.) asking where he went?’
(65) čina-w=de it?
where-m=pst that
‘Where was he?’
(66) at čina-r d-aχ-ur=de hel-tːi?
2sg.dat where-abl npl-know.pfv-pret=pst that-pl
‘How did you get to know them (= the medical plants)?’

It can also take the genitive suffix, then denoting origin in the sense of ethnic descent
(67):

(67) čina-la admi=ja iž? gurži-le-r / gurži-la ca-w

where-gen person=q this Georgia.obl-loc-abl / Georgia.obl-gen cop-m
‘Where is this person from? (He) is from Georgia (i.e. he is Georgian).’ (E)

4.5.2.2 cet’le ‘how’

The pronoun cet’le refers to the manner of action.

(68) marka cet’le či-b-irʁ-ul=e ixtːu? neqːe-d d-i-d=q’al

rain how spr-n-come.ipfv-icvb=q there.up cave.loc-npl npl-in-npl=prt
itːi
those
‘How can rain fall there? They are inside a cave.’
(69) cet’le il r-uč’-unne? iž ʡaˁħ-le r-uč’-un ca-r
how this f-learn.ipfv-icvb this good-advz f-learn.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘How is she studying? She is studying well.’ (E)

4.5.2.3 kutːi and ceʁuna ‘which’

The pronoun kutːi asks for the indication of a specific item among a group of items.
For instance, the first speaker in (70) wants to indicate to his interlocutor a picture that
does not fit into a picture story. The second speaker does not understand to which of
the pictures the first speaker is referring, and asks for clarification. It can be used as an
indefinite pronoun and then be inflected for various cases (72).

(70) hež sːurrat heštːu b-al b-ič-ib-le akːu. kutːi?

this picture here n-fit n-occur.pfv-pret-cvb .cop.neg which
‘This picture does not fit here. Which?’

109
4 Pronouns

(71) kutːi arg-ul=el kutːi-l-li hara hitːi, kutːi arg-ul=el

which go.ipfv-icvb=indq which-obl-erg behind after which go.ipfv-icvb=indq
kutːi sala-b=el, kutːi hila-b=el, er d-irq’-aj!
which front-n=indq which behind-n=indq look npl-do.ipfv-imp.pl
‘Which (picture) goes behind which, which goes in front, which goes behind,
take a look!’
(72) murgl-a-j a-b-alχ-i=q’al kutːi-la ce
man-obl.pl-dat neg-n-know.ipfv-hab.pst=mod which-gen what
ca-d=el
cop-npl=indq
‘The men did not know which was whose (lit. of which) milk.’

The pronoun ceʁuna literally means ‘like what, similar to what’ and requests the
hearer to provide more information about the manner or the type as in (73). In exam-
ple (74), the indefinite pronoun modifies the following noun.

(73) ceʁuna=ja ala mašin? ʡaˁħ-ce=w?

which=q 2sg.gen car good-dd=q
‘How is your car? Is it good?’ (E)
(74) či-d-ag-a du-l ceʁuna qːuʁa-te eč-ne
spr-npl-see.pfv-imp 1sg-erg which beautiful-dd.pl she.goat-pl
asː-ib=da=jal
buy.pfv-pret=1=indq
‘Look what beautiful goats I bought.’

4.5.2.4 cel and celij ‘why’

These pronouns are case-inflected forms of ce ‘what’, more specifically ergative cel and
dative celij, and the semantics of the case suffixes together with the base pronoun trans-
parently explains the meaning ‘why’ (< ‘what for’). The ergative is used to express agents
and instruments, and the dative for the expression of causes.

(75) χalq’-li-j il cel a-∅-jčː-aq-ul=de? cellij

people-obl-dat that why neg-m-want.ipfv-caus-icvb=pst why
kax-ub=e il xːun-r-a-l?
kill.pfv-pret=q that woman-pl-obl-erg
‘Why did the people not love him? Why did the women kill him?’

4.5.2.5 ceqːel ‘when’

This interrogative adverb is used when asking for time points. It can occur in the genitive
case without a change in meaning (77).

110
 4.5 Interrogative pronouns

(76) het ceqːel ha-∅-jʁ-ib=e?

that when up-m-come.pfv-pret=q
‘When did he come?’

(77) ceqːel-la / ceqːel nušːa teatir-le d-ax-an=da?

when-gen / when 1pl theater-loc 1/2pl-go-ptcp=1
‘When will we go to the theater?’ (E)

4.5.2.6 čujna ‘how many times’

This interrogative adverb refers to the frequency with which a situation occurs. To the
same adverb the suffixes can be added that can also be added to multiplicative numerals
when they are used for the formation of expressions referring to time points (79) (§6.5).
(78) čujna debʁalla b-irq’-itːe? xu-jna b-irq’-id
how.often prayer n-do.ipfv-2sg five-time n-do.ipfv-1.prs
‘How many times do you pray (every day)? I pray five times.’ (E)

(79) čujna-lla u ag-ur-il=de? k’ʷi-jna-lla ag-ur-il=de

how.often-temp 2sg go.pfv-pret-ref=pst two-time-temp go.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘At which time did you go? I went at the second time.’ (E)

4.5.2.7 čum ‘how many’

The pronoun čum ‘how many’ is only used as a modifier to count nouns. It can be in-
flected with the dative yielding čum-li-j if no head noun is following (81). This form is
used when asking for prices. Instead of directly adding the dative to the interrogative
pronoun it can also be added to the head noun, e.g. čum q’uruš-li-j? (how many ruble-
obl-dat) ‘for how many rubles?’.
(80) bac-li-j čum azir lukː-unne?
moon-obl-dat how.many thousand give.ipfv-icvb
‘How many thousand (of rubles) does (the government) give per month (as child
allowance)?’
(81) čum-li-j b-ik’-ul=e kursːi?
how.many-obl-dat n-say.ipfv-icvb=q chair
‘How much does the chair cost?’ (E)
The forms čum-ib and čum-ibil ask for ordinal numbers (§6.2):
(82) daže hel-tː-a-j d-alχ-ul akːu hel-tːi čum-ib
even that-pl-obl-dat npl-know.ipfv-icvb cop.neg that-pl how.many-ord
dusːi-cːe-d d-elk’-un-ne=l hel-tːi
year.obl-in-npl npl-write.pfv-pret-cvb=prt that-pl
‘Even they do not remember in which year (the pictures) were drawn.’

111
4 Pronouns

4.5.2.8 kusa ‘how much, how many’

The pronoun kusa can be used together with count nouns or mass nouns (83) and without
any head nouns (84–86). It also has the more specific temporal meaning ‘(for) how long’
(85).

(83) kusa bet’u d-el=e?

how.much flour npl-remain.pfv=q
‘How much flour remained?’ (E)
(84) kusa-lli-j asː-ib=de?
how.much-obl-dat buy.pfv-pret=pst
‘For how many (rubles) did you buy it?’
(85) il-tːi kusa tːura-b kelg-un=el b-alχ-an
that-pl how.much outside-hpl remain.pfv-pret=indq n-know.ipfv-ptcp
a-haq-ib
neg-manage.pfv-pret
‘No one is able to know for how long they were away.’
(86) kusa ixʷle ag-ur-re?
how.much early go.pfv-pret-cvb
‘How (much) early did he go?’

4.5.3 Interrogative pronouns used as indefinites

Occasionally plain interrogative pronouns are used as indefinite pronouns as in the fol-
lowing example (87).

(87) nuˁq-be ʡaˁbħ-ib ca<d>i ∅-ik’-ul ca-w ij, “ce

arm-pl get.tired.pfv-pret cop<npl> m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m this what
d-irq’-ul=da”
npl-do.ipfv-icvb=1
‘He says, “My hands got tired, I do something.”’

4.6 Indefinite pronouns

Sanzhi Dargwa has a rather wide range of indefinite pronouns that are regularly formed
on the basis of the interrogative pronouns. Most of these pronouns make use of encl-
itics that are also otherwise used in the grammar as complementizers (=jal/=el, =del),
emphatic particle (=k’u) or additive enclitic (=ra). The pronominal stems are normally
inflected just like the interrogative pronouns, and then the derivational markers are at-
tached.

112
 4.6 Indefinite pronouns

• =jal/=el: specific indefinite (§4.6.1)

• =k’u: specific indefinite (§4.6.1)
• =del: non-specific indefinite (§4.6.2)

• -k’a: free-choice indefinite (§4.6.2)

• -k’al: negative indefinite, specific indefinite, free-choice indefinite (§4.6.4)
• =č’u: negative indefinite, free-choice indefinite (§4.6.4)

• =ra: negative indefinite, universal indefinite, free-choice indefinite (§4.6.4)

For the formation of universal indefinites the quantifier har ‘every’ or more rarely
li<b>il ‘all’ is used (§4.7).

4.6.1 Specific indefinite pronouns

Specific indefinite pronouns (Table 4.12) are formed by means of the complementizer =jal
(after vowels)/=el (after consonants), which is otherwise used in embedded questions (see
§28.4) and certain epistemic modal constructions that have developed out of embedded
questions and can be labeled “insubordination” (§28.4).

Table 4.12: Specific indefinite pronouns

ča=jal ‘somebody’ čina-b=el ‘somewhere’ čum=el ‘some’

ce=jal ‘something’ cet’le=jal ‘somehow’ kutːi=jal ‘some’
čina=jal ‘to somewhere’ celij=jal ‘for some reason’ ceqːel=el ‘sometimes’

Exemplary case forms of ča=jal and ce=jal are:

• ‘somebody’: ergative hi-l=el, genitive hi-la=jal, dative hi-j=jal, comitative hi-cːe=jal

• ‘something’: ergative ce-l-li=jal, genitive ce-l-la=jal, dative ce-li-j=jal

(88) ik’ gu gu-r-asː-ib ca-b, b-ik’ʷ-ar,

dem.up under sub-abl-buy.pfv-pret cop-n hpl-say.ipfv-prs
hi-l=el
who.obl-erg=indef
‘Someone bought it down (= the area around the village of Sanzhi), they say.’
(89) heχ ce-lla=jal banka χe-b
dem.down what-gen=indef can exist.down-n
‘Down there is a can of something.’

113
4 Pronouns

(90) qːarka hetːu-b b-už-ib čum=el bari

Karka there-n hpl-be-pret how.many=indef day
‘In Karka the bandits stayed for some days.’

There is a second series of specific indefinite pronouns with the emphatic enclitic
=k’u (§9.4.5) that is used when the speaker does not remember a name of a person or
thing and instead uses the indefinite as a kind of filler word. Of these pronouns ce=k’u
(what-indef) is especially frequent and can be translated as ‘whatchamacallit’.

(91) hel-tːi tusnaq-la ce=k’u ca-d

that-pl prison-gen what=indef cop-npl
‘These are the prison’s whatchamacallits.’
(92) ča=k’u-la rucːi heχ ħaˁsan χe-w=q’al
who=indef-gen sister dem.down Hasan exist.down-m=mod
‘This one his sister, that Hasan who lives down there.’
(93) ik’ ča=k’u=q’ar b-ik’ʷ-ar ik’ mic’ir-re w-el
dem.up who=indef=mod hpl-say.ipfv-prs dem.up alive-advz m-remain
‘This one, what is he called, he is still alive.’
(94) hi-l=k’u-cːe “jaʁari, du-l ic-an=da” ∅-ik’ʷ-a-di
who.obl-obl=indef-in prt 1sg-erg wash.ipfv-ptcp=1 m-say.ipfv-hab-1
‘To someone I (masc.) said, “Well, I will wash him.”’

4.6.2 Non-specific indefinite pronouns

Non-specific indefinite pronouns are formed by adding =del to the interrogative base.
This suffix is morphologically complex consisting of =de and =(e)l. The first part might
originate from the past enclitic =de. The second part represents the enclitic used for
embedded questions (§28.4) and also for the formation of specific indefinite pronouns
(§4.6.1). The following examples illustrate reference to non-specific indefinite persons
(95), (96) and places (97), (98).

(95) ʡaˁbdulq’adir b-ik’ʷ=el aχːu ča=del na zu ʡaˁħ-le

Abdulkadir n-say.ipfv=indq not.know who=indef now name good-advz
han d-il akːu hel
remember npl-remain cop.neg that
‘He was called Abdukhaliq or something (lit. somebody), I don’t know, I don’t
remember the name well.’
(96) hek’ di-la ucːiq’ar ca-w, χːula Q’urban, buna.χat’a
dem.up 1sg-gen cousin cop-m big Kurban sin
gu-r-ka-d-uc, hek’-i-la k-aqː-ib-le
sub-abl-down-npl-catch.pfv dem.upobl-gen down-carry-pret-cvb

114
 4.6 Indefinite pronouns

hi-j=del b-ičː-ij
who.obl-dat=indef n-give.pfv-inf
‘My cousin, Old Kurban, may his sins be relieved, brought them for me to give
them to someone.’
(97) ka-b-iž-ib-il ka-b-išː-ib=da heltːu čina=del
down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-ref down-n-put.pfv-pret=1 there where=indef
‘I put (the picture) somewhere.’
(98) čina-w=del le-w=de=q’al
where-m=indef exist-m=pst=mod
‘He was somewhere.’

4.6.3 Free-choice indefinite pronouns

Free-choice indefinite pronouns of the ‘any’ or ‘WH-ever’ type are formed by means
of the suffix -k’a that does not serve any other function. In the majority of the cases
the pronoun is followed by the verb form b-iχʷ-ar=ra (n-be.pfv-cond.3=add) that has a
concessive meaning that can approximately be translated with ‘even if it is’ (§16.3). The
verb form b-iχʷ-ar=ra mostly has the neuter singular prefix b- (suspended agreement),
but it can also agree with the absolutive argument or even some other salient argument
(see §20.2.4 for examples). In natural speech the suffix -k’a is also added to the Russian
free-choice indefinite pronoun lubuj-cːella-k’a-li-j (any-comit-indef-obl-dat) ‘for any-
thing’. The following example (99) contains not only a Sanzhi free-choice indefinite, but
also the Russian free-choice indefinite kagda-nibud ‘whenever’.

(99) ceqːel-k’a b-iχʷ-ar=ra b-arq’-ille, haʔ-ib=da

when-indef n-be.pfv-cond.3=add n-do.pfv-cond.1 say.pfv-pret=1
kagda.nibud ka-b-iqː-an=da
whenever down-n-carry.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘Whenever I make it, I will bring it, I said.’
(100) daˁʡaˁna w-irx-ul hi-la-k’a b-iχʷ-ar=ra qili
secret m-become.ipfv-icvb who-gen-indef n-be.pfv-cond.3=add home
‘He was hiding himself at the house of whomever.’ (i.e. at any house).
(101) wec’-nu xu-ra azir tuχtur-t-a-j=ra lukː-an-te
ten-ten five-num thousand doctor-pl-obl-dat=add give.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl
ca-d i har bari-j hel-tːi=ra čum-k’a bar
cop-npl and every day-dat that-pl=add how.many-indef day
kelg-an=ra
remain.pfv-ptcp=add
‘15,000 needs to be given to the doctors and every day these (i.e. this amount of
money), however many days you stay.’

115
4 Pronouns

(102) du-l at ce-k’a b-ikː-ul haq-itːe=ra

1sg-erg 2sg.dat what-indef n-want.ipfv-icvb be.enough.pfv-2sg=add
lukː-an=da=n
give.ipfv-ptcp=1=prt
‘I will give you whatever you may want.’

4.6.4 Negative indefinite pronouns

In general, the negative indefinite function of indefinite pronouns is only available in
clauses with negation. In affirmative clauses none of the pronouns described in this sec-
tion has a negative indefinite reading, but readings such as free-choice indefinite or uni-
versal indefinite.
The suffix -k’al is used for the formation of indefinite pronouns that have the nega-
tive indefinite reading if they occur in a clause with negative polarity (103), (104). This
suffix can be analyzed as consisting of -k’a, which forms free-choice indefinite pronouns
(§4.6.3) and the enclitic used for embedded questions (§28.4) and also for the formation
of specific and non-specific indefinite pronouns (Sections §4.6.1, §4.6.2).

(103) šuša akːʷ-ar musːa χe-b-akːu čina-b-k’al

bottle cop.neg-prs place exist.down-n-cop.neg where-n-indef
‘There is no place where there are no bottles.’
(104) na=q’ar du hi-l-k’al-li a-w-irʡ-aˁn=da
now=mod 1sg who.obl-obl-indef-erg neg-m-betray-ptcp=1
‘Now nobody will betray me anymore.’

Other meanings of pronouns with -k’al are free-choice indefiniteness if they are used
in a conditional clause (105), (106) or non-specific indefinite if simply used in an affirma-
tive clause (107–110).

(105) ča-k’al sa-∅-jʁ-ardel, “ci-k’al b-arq’-a, ʡaˁči

who-indef hither-m-come.pfv-cond.pst what-indef n-do.pfv-imp work
b-arq’-a!” ∅-ik’-ul, li<d>il ʡaˁči d-irq’-i atːa-l
n-do.pfv-imp m-say.ipfv-icvb all<npl> work npl-do.ipfv-hab.pst father-erg
‘No matter who came saying, “Do something, do this work!” father did all
works.’
(106) itwaj=ra qːulluqː-e a-ha-d-urχː-u, it wečna čina-k’al
like.this=add matter-pl neg-up-npl-finish.ipfv-prs that forever where-indef
tːura-w-q-utːel
out-m-go.pfv-cond.pst
‘And like this also (Isakadi’s) issues, things do not finish, forever, no matter
where he went.’

116
 4.6 Indefinite pronouns

(107) abuχar hež či-r-b-iqː-an b-urkː-ar čina-k’al

then this spr-abl-n-carry.ipfv-ptcp n-find.ipfv-prs where-indef
‘Then this needs to be positioned somewhere (else) probably.’
(108) ča-k’al kax-ub=de=w?
who-indef kill.pfv-pret=2sg=q
‘Did you kill anyone?’
(109) durħuˁ=ra ca-b=ra arg-ul ca-b heštːi čina-k’al
boy=add refl-hpl=add go.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl these where-indef
tːura-ka-b-ig-ar-aj
out-down-n-be-prs-subj.3
‘And together with the son they are going to sit outside anywhere.’
(110) har ce-lla-k’al-li-j čaˁʡir=ra d-al d-irč-iri
every what-gen-indef-obl-dat wine=add npl-match npl-occur.ipfv-hab.pst
‘Wine fitted well with any of these (types of food).’

Note that the word cik’al (from ce ‘what’ plus -k’al) has been lexicalized as a noun with
the meaning ‘thing’. At the same time it is still used as an indefinite pronoun with the
meanings ‘nothing’ (in negative clauses) and ‘something, anything’ in positive clauses
(105). It can also precede nouns as negative quantifier with the meaning ‘no’.
Furthermore, the additive enclitic =ra (§9.4.1) is used for the formation of indefinite
pronouns. If these pronouns occur in clauses with positive polarity the reading is univer-
sal indefinite (111), if they occur in clauses with negative polarity the reading is universal
negative (112), and if they occur in concessive clauses the reading is free choice indefinite
(113).

(111) ceqːel=ra w-aš-ib=da dubur-t-a-cːe

when=add m-go.ipfv-pret=1 mountain-pl-obl-in
‘I always went through the mountains.’
(112) čujna=ra a-ag-ur=da
how.often=add neg-go.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not go even once.’
(113) cet’le=ra du-l itːi daˁʡaˁna d-arq’-ib-le=xːar, amma
how=add 1sg-erg those secret npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb=conc but
d-urkː-ul ca-d
npl-find.ipfv-icvb cop-npl
‘No matter how I hide them, (they always) find them.’ (E)

However, in practice such indefinite pronouns are (almost) never attested in natural
texts. Instead, the enclitic =ra is usually preceded by -k’al (114) or occasionally -k’a (115)
for the negative indefinite meaning.

117
4 Pronouns

(114) ča-k’al=č’u=ra qili-w w-akːu

who-indef=emph=add home-m m-cop.neg
‘Nobody is at home.’
(115) dam ci-k’a=ʁuna=ra kur či-a-b-až-ib=da
1sg.dat what-indef=eq=add pit spr-neg-n-see.pfv-pret=1
‘I do not see any pit.’
Similarly, the emphatic enclitic =č’u can form negative indefinite pronouns when it is
attached to the usual base (interrogative pronoun or numeral ‘one’) and used in clauses
with negative polarity. As with the additive enclitic, in almost all examples that contain
the enclitic it follows -k’al (and frequently =č’u is followed by the additive enclitic) (116),
(117).
(116) ci-k’al=č’u=ra a-b-irχ-u
what-indef=emph=add neg-n-become.ipfv-prs.3
‘Nothing bad will happen.’ (lit. ‘There will be nothing.’)
(117) [So they did not marry.]
akːu, ca=č’u=ra akːu, ca=č’u akːu Ašura
cop.neg one=emph=add cop.neg one=emph cop.neg Ashura
ka-r-iž-ib
down-f-sit.pfv-pret
‘No, there was no one, except for Ashura he did not marry anyone.’
There are only two examples of pronouns with =č’u in clauses that do not have neg-
ative polarity such that the pronouns display their free-choice indefinite meaning. The
first example in (118) illustrates the use of the pronoun in combination with the conces-
sive auxiliary b-iχʷ-ar=ra as it has already been described for other free-choice indefi-
nite pronouns (§4.6.3). The second example in (119) contains two pronouns with =č’u, of
which the first has the free-choice indefinite reading whereas the second is a negative
indefinite pronoun because of the negated verb.
(118) ca=ra ci-k’al=č’u b-iχʷ-ar=ra b-uk-an-ne,
one=add what-indef=prt n-be.pfv-cond.3=add hpl-eat.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
b-ik’-ul …
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘saying that they will also eat no matter what’ (lit. ‘whatever it might be’)
(119) heštːi deč-li b-učː-an-t-a-l ci-k’al=č’u
these drinking-erg hpl-drink.ipfv-ptcp-pl-obl-erg what-indef=prt
ʡaˁħ-dex, iš-tː-a-l ce b-irq’-u=ja? ci-k’al=č’u
good-nmlz this-pl-obl-erg what n-do.ipfv-prs=q what-indef=prt
a-b-irq’-u
neg-n-do.ipfv-prs
‘The ones who are drinking anything good, what do they do? They do not do
anything (good).’

118
 4.7 Universal indefinites and other quantifiers

Other negative indefinite pronouns are caʔarra ‘no one’ and cajnara ‘never, not once’
(ca-jna=ra one-time=add). The first pronoun consists of (ca-ʔar=ra one-?=add) and
seems to be related the focus-sensitive particle arrah ‘at least’ (§9.4.5)

(120) caʔarra kːuš ∅-iχ-ub-il akː-i

no.one hungry m-be.pfv-pret-ref cop.neg-hab.pst
‘No one was hungry.’

4.7 Universal indefinites and other quantifiers

Universal indefinites are normally not formed from interrogative pronouns, but by
means of the quantifier har ‘every’ (or li<b>il ‘all’) plus a following noun:

• har admi ‘everyone’ (every man)

• har/li<d>il cik’al ‘everything’
• har/li<b>il musːa/musne ‘everywhere’ (lit. every place/all places)

• har zamana ‘always’ (lit. every time)

Other quantifiers are sukːil, li<b>il ‘all, whole, complete’, har, haril, harki, harkil ‘ev-
ery’, b-aqil, ʡaˁbra, ʡaˁbra-b-al ‘much, many’, and kam ‘little, few’. The quantifiers treated
in this section have most morphosyntactic properties that adjectives have and, as adjec-
tives, normally occur before teh noun when they function as nominal modifiers. But just
like adjectives and some other nominal modifiers they can also follow the noun under
certain circumstances. See §21.1.3 for quantifier floating.
The quantifiers sukːil and li<b>il can both be used as attributes and they can be nomi-
nalized. When they are used as attributes of nouns in the plural they mean ‘all’; with
singular nouns they translate as ‘whole, complete’. The quantifier li<b>il has a gen-
der/number agreement slot and follows the agreement rules for adjectives and other
nominal modifiers, i.e. agreement with the head noun.

(121) a. li<b>il rurs-be ‘all girls’ vs. li<r>il rursːi ‘the whole girl’
b. sukːil qulbe ‘all houses’ vs. sukːil qal ‘the complete house’
(122) sukːil d-ut’-ib ca daˁʡle
all npl-divide-pret one as
‘He divided all (the bread) like one (i.e. everyone got the same amount).’
(123) di-la li<d>il daluj-te
1sg-gen all<npl> song-pl
‘all my songs’

119
4 Pronouns

From the quantifiers listed above, har can only be used attributively. All other quan-
tifiers can also be nominalized. The head noun is in the singular, but mass nouns that
trigger plural agreement are also possible if an interpretation referring to a specific quan-
tity is available.

(124) li<b>il χalq’ b-ibšː-ib ca-b har šːal

all<hpl> people hpl-escape-pret cop-hpl every side
‘All people escaped in every direction.’
(125) “t’ult’ s-aqː-a,” b-ik’-ul “haril-li-cːe-rka!”
bread hither-carry-imp.sg hpl-say.ipfv-icvb every-obl-in-abl
‘“Bring bread from everyone!” they said.’
(126) het harkil-la qːup-re či-d-ičː-ib-le čar
that every-gen sack-pl spr-npl-give.pfv-pret-cvb back
ha-r-iχ-ub=da
up-f-become.pfv-pret=1
‘I (fem.) gave everyone’s sack back and came back.’

The quantifiers b-aqil, ʡaˁbra, ʡaˁbra-b-al ‘much, many’ also show gender/number
agreement with the head noun in case there is any. Otherwise they express the gender
and number of the item they are referring to.

(127) d-aqil ʁaj-li-cːe w-ič-ib ca-w

npl-much word-obl-in m-occur.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He took part in many arguments.’ (i.e. he had many problems)
(128) ʡaˁbra ʁut’-e d-irχʷ-ar
much edible.roots-pl npl-become.ipfv-prs
‘There are many edible roots.’

The quantifier kam ‘little, few, less’ can modify nouns, it can be nominalized (by
adding the cross-categorical suffix -ce; plural -te ) and it occurs in compound verbs with
the meaning ‘decrease, diminish, become less’ (129).

(129) qːalmaqːar-te kam d-irχ-ul akːu

scandal-pl little npl-be.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
‘The scandals (i.e. fights) did not diminish.’

120
5 Adjectives
5.1 Introduction
Adjectives in Sanzhi can clearly be distinguished from nouns or verbs since they are not
lexically specified for gender, and they cannot take tense suffixes or other inflectional
morphology reserved for verbs. They are formally rather heterogeneous (§5.2). Sanzhi
adjectives cover the typical semantic domains of this word class (1–12).

(1) dimension
qːant’ ‘short’ χːula ‘big, old’
nik’a ‘small’ aq ‘high, tall’
(2) age
b-uqna ‘old’ jangi ‘new’
žahil ‘young’
(3) evaluation:
wahi ‘bad, evil’ ʡaˁħ ‘good’
ʡaˁziz ‘beloved, dear’ durqa ‘dear, expensive’
durha ‘cheap’ ʡaˁžib ‘surprising’
(4) colour
c’utːar ‘black’ c’ub ‘white’
it’in ‘red’ xanc’ ‘blue’
b-uqu ‘yellow’ šiniš ‘green’
(5) physical property (humans and non-humans)
b-arx ‘direct, straight, right’ dirq’ ‘plain’
qːuʁa ‘beautiful’ čakːʷal ‘handsome’
c’aˁb ‘dark’ kuk ‘light’ (i.e. not heavy)
dek’ʷ ‘heavy’ gʷana ‘warm’
buχːar ‘cold’ jazuq; usal ‘weak’
q’amc’ ‘sour’ mizi ‘sweet’
bicːi ‘tasty, aromatic’ b-uqen ‘long’
b-uˁc ‘thick, dense’ b-aˁršu ‘thick’ (only inanimate referents)
b-uk’ul ‘thin’ ʁʷirc’ ‘thin’ (only with inanimate referents)
mic’ir ‘alive’ c’aq’ ‘strong, mighty’
debga ‘tight’ laˁʁun ‘smooth’
b-ac’ ‘empty’ k’ant’i ‘soft’
duc’ ‘hot’ dibaˁʁ ‘ugly’
ač ‘open’ sːuqːur ‘blind’
5 Adjectives

(6) human characteristics

razi ‘happy’ duˁʡ ‘wild, unrestricted’
baˁħ ‘crazy’ q’irq’ir ‘greedy’
basrak ‘greedy’ ʡaˁsi ‘angry’
duχːu ‘clever’ ʁaj adalχan ‘mute’
taliħči-b ‘lucky, happy’ dawlači-b ‘rich’
pašman ‘sad’ tašmiš ‘sad’
sark ‘open-hearted’
(7) speed
bahla ‘slow, quiet’ halak ‘fast’
(8) difficulty
qːihin ‘difficult’ raˁħaˁt ‘easy’
(9) similarity
miši ‘similar’ dik’ar ‘separate, different’
(10) quantification
har ‘every’ li<b>il ‘all’
cara ‘other’ ʡaˁbra ‘much, many’
kam ‘little, few’ imc’a ‘additional, superfluous’
b-aq ‘much, many’
(11) position
guq ‘low’ xːar ‘low’
hek ‘near’ qar ‘upper’
haraq ‘far’
(12) other
busan ‘rainy’ urra ‘foreign’
A few underived adjectives have agreement markers as can be see from the examples
above. In addition, all derived adjectives containing the essive case plus -il, -či-b and -b-
azi-b and all constructions with b-ah (§5.3) also agree. Adjectives agree with the head
noun in gender and number (13), (27a), and (35). More information on gender/number
agreement rules is provided in §20.2.
(13) či-r-ix-ub ca-b halak-le ca b-uqen q’aˁli
spr-abl-take.off.pfv-pret cop-n fast-advz one n-long branch
‘He immediately broke one long branch (off a tree).’
Adjectives can be modified by adverbs, most commonly by degree adverbs that pre-
cede the adjectives, for example c’aq’le (14), ħaˁq’le ‘very’, arindan ‘too, too much’ (15),
b-aq ‘much’, bah ‘most’ (39), χːʷalle ‘largely’, q’ʷila, bara, kamle ‘little, few, a bit’ (16).
(14) c’aq’-le χːʷal-le ʡaˁħ ∅-iχ-ub ca-w
very-advz big-advz good m-be.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He was very, very good.’

122
 5.2 Adjectives and the cross-categorical suffixes -ce and -il

(15) hetːi hinc-be arindan durqa-te ca<d>i

those apple-pl too expensive-dd.pl cop<npl>
‘The apples are too expensive.’
(16) di-la q’ʷila b-uqen kːurtːi=de
1sg-gen a.little n-long dress=pst
‘My shirt was a bit long.’
There is no derivational means of forming negative adjectives. Only participles used
like adjectives can have a negative variant if the verbal negation prefix a- is added, e.g.
a-b-ucː-an (neg-n-work-ptcp) ‘inoperative, spoiled, not working’. Otherwise negation is
expressed on the verb that heads the clause containing the adjective (see, e.g. §22.2 on
copula clauses).
Adjectives usually precede the head noun, but the reverse order is also possible. Mod-
ifying adverbs, in turn, precede the adjective. §21.1.3 provides information about con-
stituent order in the noun phrase.

5.2 Adjectives and the cross-categorical suffixes -ce and

-il
As is characteristic for Dargwa varieties, adjectives occur in the form of bare roots when
they are used as attributes to nominals (13), (17). Many but not all of the adjectives in
(1–12) belong to the class of adjectival roots. Some of these adjectives are also used in
compounding, especially for the formation of compound verbs (§12.2.3), e.g. aq b-ik’ʷ-ij
‘increase, enlarge, elevate, rise’ (high n-aux.ipfv-inf).
(17) wahi admi už-ib ca-w a-b-iχʷ-ar
evil person be-pret cop-m neg-n-be.pfv-prs
‘Probably he was a bad person.’
The adjectival roots cannot be used substantively or predicatively. They must take the
suffix -ce and can then fulfill all three functions: attribution (18), predication (15), (19) and
reference (20). In the plural, -ce is replaced by -te (20).
(18) wahi-ce xːun b-irχ-i nišːa-la
bad-dd.sg way n-be.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-gen
‘We had a bad road.’ (or ‘There was a bad road in our (area).’)
(19) χabacːi dik’ar wahi-ce akːʷ-i
Khabaci too bad-dd.sg cop.neg-hab.pst
‘Khabaci (= personal name) was also not bad.’
(20) c’il wahi-te a-d-arq’-ij daˁʡle …
then evil-dd.pl neg-npl-do.pfv-inf as
‘then like in order not to do bad (things) …’

123
5 Adjectives

When occurring in the canonical position before the head noun, adjectival roots and
adjectives with the suffix -ce do not differ in their morphosyntactic or semantic prop-
erties. For example, both types of adjectives can modify coordinated noun phrases (21).
This behavior differentiates Sanzhi Dargwa from other Dargwa varieties such as Tanti
Dargwa or Standard (Akusha) Dargwa, for which syntactic differences between adjecti-
val roots and the so-called “long” adjectives have been attested (van den Berg 2001: 26,
Abdullaev et al. 2014: 207–208, Lander 2014).

(21) Sanijat-la kːalas-le-b ʡaˁħ(-te) [durħ-ne=ra rurs-be=ra] χe-b

Sanijat-gen class-loc-hpl good-dd.pl boy-pl=add girl-pl=add exist.down-hpl
‘In Sanijat’s class there are good [boys and girls].’ (E)

When nominalized, case suffixes are directly added to -ce if the nominalized adjective
occurs in the singular (22). In the plural, the suffix -t-a (instead of -t-e) is used when case
suffixes follow.

(22) nik’a-ce-li-j darman lukː-unne=w?

small-dd.sg-obl-dat medicine give.ipfv-icvb=q
‘Does he give medicine to the little one?’

The suffix -ce attaches not only to adjectival roots, but also to other parts of speech
such as inflected nouns or verbs. Thus, its use is not restricted to adjectives, but it applies
across a range of lexical categories. Generally speaking, it forms definite descriptions
that function as referential attributes, and syntactically behave like nominals. A detailed
description of the functions of -ce is given in §9.6.1.
Apart from the suffix -ce Sanzhi has another suffix -il for the formation of referential
attributes that have similar morphosyntactic properties like items with -ce, but its appli-
cation is far more restricted. Only two quantitative adjectives need the suffix -il in order
to be used not only attributively, but also substantively or predicatively: har-il ‘every’
and b-aq-il ‘much, many’. Furthermore, it is arguably a part of the quantifier li<b>il ‘all’,
and when added to the preterite participle of the verb ʔ- ‘say’, the resulting verb form is
used as a marker for ordinal numerals (§6.2), which are also adjectival in nature. More
information on -il can be found in §9.6.2.

5.3 Formation of adjectival attributes

Sanzhi does not have very productive means of forming new adjectives, but there are
a few suffixes that take nouns as base and derive adjectives. Other ways of extending
the lexicon is by means of genitive attributes and a special construction with the noun
‘owner’ (see below). Furthermore, participles are used and nowadays Russian adjectives
also occur occasionally.
Sanzhi has a number of adjectives that are derived from nouns denoting body parts and
personal qualities. These adjectives express the possession of this body part. The base
noun is marked for plural and then the suffix -ar is added whereby the final vowel of the

124
 5.3 Formation of adjectival attributes

plural suffix undergoes deletion (23). This suffix might be a cognate of the participle suffix
of the copula -ar (§16.1). The adjectives form the plural by mean of the most common
plural suffix -te. Two examples are provided in (24a) and (24b).

(23) a. ʁiz-b-ar ‘hairy’ < ʁizbe ‘hairs’

b. qi-m-ar ‘horned’ < qime ‘horns’
c. supen-t-ar ‘whiskered, mustached’ < supente ‘mustache’
d. laˁpː-ar ‘big-eared, having ears’ < laˁpːe ‘ears’
e. cul-b-ar ‘having (big) teeth’ < culbe ‘teeth’
f. ul-b-ar ‘having big eyes’ < ulbe ‘eyes’
g. k’ult’-n-ar ‘pregnant’ < k’ult’ne ‘bellies’
h. piš-n-ar ‘naughty boy, scamp’ < pišne ‘habits, tricks’
i. ʡaˁmul-t-ar ‘talented’ < ʡaˁmulte ‘skills, talents’
(24) a. het kːaˁta ʁiz-b-ar ca-b
that cat hair-pl-adjvz cop-n
‘The cat is hairy.’ (E)
b. ʁiz-b-ar-te kːaˁt-ne
hair-pl-adjvz-pl cat-pl
‘hairy cats’ (E)

There are a few adjectives involving compounding with numerals and mostly plural
nouns and the suffix -(a)n. As with the adjectives given in (25), the nouns occur in the
plural. It might be the case that this suffix is a cognate of the modal/future participle -an
(§18.1.2.2), the locative participle -an (§18.1.2.4) and/or the suffix -an that is used for the
derivation of terms denoting inhabitants of particular villages and other places (§10).

(25) a. aʁmuzan ‘quadratic’ < aʁʷ ‘four’ + muza-n corner-adjvz

b. ʡaˁbmuzan ‘triangular’ < ʡaˁb ‘three’ + muza-n corner-adjvz
c. ʡaˁbkumran ‘three-layered’ < ʡaˁb ‘three’ + kam-r-an layer-pl-adjvz
d. ʡaˁbdusːan ‘three-year’ < ʡaˁb ‘three’ + dusː-an year-pl-adjvz

Another type of derived adjectival attributes can be formed from adjectives denoting
relational qualities. To the base adjectives the suffix -gm-azi-gm is added and the result-
ing adjectives denote an extreme quality. As can be seen in (26), the base can already
be a derived adjective. The resulting adjectives occur in attributive, predicative and sub-
stantive function (27a–27d). In the predicative function the suffix -ce (-te) is required
(27b).

(26) a. b-aq-b-azi-b, b-aq-il-b-azi-b ‘very much, very many’

< b-aq ‘much, many’
b. kam-b-azi-b ‘very few, very little’ < kam ‘few, little’

125
5 Adjectives

c. ʡaˁħ-b-azi-b ‘very good, excellent’ < ʡaˁħ ‘good’

d. qːuʁa-b-azi-b ‘very beautiful’ < qːuʁa ‘beautiful’
e. ʁezbar-b-azib ‘very hairy’ < ʁezbar ‘hairy’
f. ʡaˁbra-b-azi-b ‘very much, very many, plenty’
< ʡaˁbra ‘much, many’

(27) a. dam ʡaˁħ-b-azi-b χalq’ b-alχ-ad

1sg.dat good-hpl-adjvz-hpl people hpl-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I know good people.’ (E)
b. hetːi χalq’ ʡaˁħ-b-azi-b-te ca-b
those people good-hpl-adjvz-hpl-dd.pl cop-hpl
‘Those people are good.’ (E)
c. ʡaˁbra-d-azi-d han d-irk-ur
much-npl-adjvz-npl remember npl-occur.ipfv-pret
‘I remember very well.’
d. cara-te inžener-te=ra meχanekːa-be=ra cara-te
other-dd.pl engineer-pl=add mechanic-pl=add other-dd.pl
šːan-te k’e-b ʡaˁbra-b-azi-b hextːu-b=ra
fellow.villager-pl exist.up-hpl much-hpl-adjvz-hpl there.up-hpl=add
‘There are other (experts like) engineers, mechanics, among the villagers,
there are plenty.’

I found three adjectives with the suffix -či followed by a gender/number agreement
marker (28). The base nouns are all loans. When the adjectives occur in predicative or
nominal function they need one of the cross-categorical suffixes -ce or -il (29), (30).

(28) a. dawla-či-b ‘rich’ < dawla ‘wealth’

b. taliħ-či-b ‘lucky, happy’ < taliħ ‘happiness, luck’
c. ʡaˁq’lu-či-b ‘intelligent’ < ʡaˁq’lu ‘intellect, mind’
(29) it dawla-či-r-il ca-r
that wealth-adjvz-f-ref cop-f
‘She is rich.’ (E)
(30) žaniwar-t-a-lla χʷal-le jaˁħ=ra, namus=ra b-už-ib ca-b,
animal-pl-obl-gen big-advz conscience=add conscience=add n-be-pret cop-n
nišːa-lla dawla-či-b-t-a-lla-ja-r
1pl-gen wealth-adjvz-hpl-pl-obl-gen-loc-abl
‘The animals had apparently more consciences than our rich (people).’

For Standard Dargwa, Abdullaev et al. 2014: 212 have claimed that -či is a cognate of the
spatial postposition či ‘on, above’ . However, for Sanzhi this cannot be true because the

126
 5.4 Comparative constructions with adjectives

postposition či can be used with both native and loan words and it governs the loc-series
or, alternatively, the genitive case (§8.1.7). The adjectivizer -či can also not be equated
with the Turkic loan suffix -či (§3.5.1), which derives agent nouns because nouns do not
inflect for gender and the agent nouns do not need any further suffixes in order to be
used in argument position or as predicates. Furthermore, in Standard Dargwa the form
of the adjectivizer is -če, but the form of the borrowed nominalizer is -či throughout all
Dagestanian languages.
Nouns denoting materials and other properties or adverbs and nouns with temporal
semantics can be inflected for the genitive and then yield the meaning of relational ad-
jectives (31) (see also §3.4.1.3 for more examples).
(31) murhe-la ‘golden’ ižal-la ‘today’s’
urcu-la ‘wooden’ haniša-la ‘summer’ (adjective)
dešːa-la ‘ancient’ < dešːa ‘antiquity, old times’
ʡaˁb-bac-la ‘three-month’ < ʡaˁb ‘three’ + bac-la ‘month’s’
It is possible to express attribution with a possessive construction consisting of a noun
in the genitive denoting the possessed and the noun b-ah ‘owner’.1 This construction
represents a standard genitive phrase. The noun agrees with the head noun in gender
and number. These constructions can occur as predicates (33) and as attributes (34).
(32) a. muc’ur-ra w-ah ‘bearded’ (pl muc’ur-ra b-ah-inte)
b. č’imi-la b-ah ‘having a tail’
c. abrazovanie-la w-ah ‘educated’ (from Russian obrazovanie ‘education’)

(33) umc’-un ca-b ča ca-w=el ʡaˁjb-la w-ah

search.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl who cop-m=indq guilt-gen m-owner
hel-tː-a-cːe-rka
that-pl-obl-in-abl
‘They are searching for who among them is guilty.’
(34) er w-ik’-ul ca-w. ca ul-la b-ah šajt’an
look m-look.at.ipfv-icvb cop-m one eye-gen n-owner devil
ka-b-isː-un-ne
down-n-sleep.pfv-pret-cvb
‘He is looking around. The devil with one eye is asleep.’

5.4 Comparative constructions with adjectives

Comparative constructions can express (i) equality or similarity, (ii) comparative, and
(iii) superlative. Similarity or equality can be expressed by means of the adverbs daˁʡle
‘like, as’ (35), mišil ‘similar’ or the enclitic =ʁuna (36) as well as through manner adverbs
with the meaning ‘like this, like that’ (37).
1
This is one of the very few nouns that has a gender marker. See §3.1 for more information.

127
5 Adjectives

(35) heχ xːunul bulan r-uqna-ce daˁʡle či-r-ig-ul ca-r

dem.down woman even f-old-dd.sg as spr-f-see.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘There is even a woman who looks old.’
(36) hež-i-la xːunul, di-la pikri ħaˁsible, χʷe ʁuna wahi-ce ca-r
this-obl-gen woman 1sg-gen thought following dog eq bad-dd.sg cop-f
‘His wife, in my mind, is bad like a dog.’
(37) hel-itːe ʡaˁħ juldašː-e b-už-ib-te ca-b il-tːi
that-advz good friend-pl hpl-be-pret-dd.pl cop-hpl that-pl
‘They were such good friends.’

Adjectives do not have a special comparative form. Instead, the standard of compari-
son takes the loc-ablative suffix (38).

(38) atːa-ja-r χːula-te=ra b-irχ-i

father-loc-abl big-dd.pl=add hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst
‘There were (brothers) older than grandfather.’ (lit. father)

The superlative is formed by means of the degree adverb bah ‘most’ (emphatic variant
bahlalla) that occurs before the adjective (39) (for other degree adverbs see §5.1 and §7.4).

(39) bah χːula-ce w-irχ-i=w χatːaj ču-la

most big-dd.sg m-be.ipfv-hab.pst=q grandfather refl.pl-gen
ucː-b-a-cːe-r
brother-pl-obl-in-abl
‘Was (our) grandfather the oldest among his brothers?’

More details and additional examples of comparative constructions can be found in

§30.1.

128
6 Numerals
Sanzhi has (i) cardinal numerals (§6.1), (ii) ordinal numerals (§6.2), (iii) distributive nu-
merals (§6.3), (iv) group numerals (§6.4), (v) multiplicative numerals (§6.5), and (vi) col-
lective numerals (§6.6).
Most of the numerals have the morphosyntactic properties of adjectives or occasion-
ally adverbs. Generally, numerals can be used as nominal modifiers with a following
noun in the singular. For verbal agreement the noun phrase is nevertheless treated as
plural §21.1.3. In this chapter, I also treat some other numeral expressions and basic ways
of counting (§6.7). Quantifiers such as ‘all’ are treated in §4.7 together with indefinite
pronouns.

6.1 Cardinal numerals

The cardinal numerals 1–101 are given in Table 6.1. All numerals except for ca ‘one’ are
morphologically complex, containing a root and a derivational suffix. The numerals 2 to
10, 20, as well as 100 are formed by means of the suffix -al (allomorph -jal after vowels).
The decimal numerals 10 and 30–90 are built by adding the suffix -c’al to the roots. When
decimals and the numerals 1–9 are combined, both the decimals and the numerals 1–9
take suffixes. On the decimals -al is replaced by -nu/-anu, e.g. wec’-al ‘10’ and wec’-nu,
wer-c’-al ‘70’ and wer-c’-anu. To the numerals 1–9 the suffix -ra is added.
The cardinal numerals for hundreds and thousands are provided in Table 6.2. Complex
numerals containing hundreds need the derivational suffix -lim added to darš ‘1000’. For
the higher cardinal numerals (millions, billions, etc.) the Russian terms are used.
Cardinal numerals are used in counting and as modifiers of nouns in noun phrases. In
the latter function the noun appears in the singular form, but it controls plural agreement
on the verb (3), (4). Examples of cardinal numerals in use are (1–4).

(1) ʁajal dus w-iχ-ub-le, …

twenty year m-be.pfv-pret-cvb
‘when (I) was 20 years old, …’
(2) arc lukː-adi du-l kːaʔal azir akːu=n, kːaʔ-c’al
money give.ipfv-cond.1 1sg-erg eight thousand cop.neg=prt eight-ten
azir
thousand
‘I would have given him money, not just 8,000, but 80,000.’
6 Numerals

Table 6.1: Cardinal numerals 1–101

1 ca 11 wec’-nu ca-ra 21 ʁa-nu ca-ra

2 k’ʷel (k’ʷi-) 12 wec’-nu k’ʷi-ra 22 ʁa-nu k’ʷi-ra
3 ʡaˤb-al 13 wec’-nu ʡaˤb-ra 23 ʁa-nu ʡaˤb-ra
4 aʁʷ-al 14 wec’-nu aʁʷ-ra 24 ʁa-nu ʡaˤb-ra
5 xu-jal 15 wec’-nu xu-ra 25 ʁa-nu xu-ra
6 urekː-al 16 wec’-nu urekː-ra 26 ʁa-nu urekː-ra
7 wer-al 17 wec’-nu wer-ra 27 ʁa-nu wer-ra
8 kːaʔ-al 18 wec’-nu kːaʔ-ra 28 ʁa-nu kːaʔ-ra
9 urč’em-al 19 wec’-nu urč’em-ra 29 ʁa-nu urč’em-ra
10 wec’-al 20 ʁa-jal

30 ʡaˤb-c’al 31 ʡaˤb-c’anu ca-ra

40 aʁʷ-c’al 41 aʁʷ-c’anu ca-ra
50 xu-c’al 51 xu-c’anu ca-ra
60 urek-c’al 61 urek-c’anu ca-ra
70 wer-c’al 71 wer-c’anu ca-ra
80 kːaʔ-c’al 81 kːaʔ-c’anu ca-ra
90 urč’em-c’al 91 urč’em-c’anu ca-ra
100 daršː-al 101 darš-lim ca

Table 6.2: Cardinal numerals 100–20,000

100 daršː-al 101 darš-lim ca

200 k’ʷi-darš 201 k’ʷi-darš-lim ca
300 ʡaˤb-darš 301 ʡaˤb-darš-lim ca
400 aʁʷ-darš 401 aʁʷ-darš-lim ca
500 xu-darš 501 xu-darš-lim ca
600 urek-darš 601 urek-darš-lim ca
700 wer-darš 701 wer-darš-lim ca
800 kːaʔ-darš 801 kːaʔ-darš-lim ca
900 urč’em-darš 901 urč’em-darš-lim ca
1,000 azir 2,000 k’ʷel azir
10,000 wec’al azir 20,000 ʁa-jal azir

123 darš-lim ʁa-nu ʡaˤb-ra

1,234 azir-lim k’ʷi-darš-lim ʡaˤb-c’anu aʁʷ-ra

130
 6.2 Ordinal numerals

(3) durħ-ne le-b kːaʔal, xujal rursːi ca<b>i, ʡaˤbal durħuˤ

boy-pl exist-hpl eight five girl cop<hpl> three boy
‘I have 8 children (lit. there are 8), five daughters and three sons.’
(4) du-l urč’em-c’anu urč’em-ra juldaš b-arčː-ib=da
1sg-erg nine-ten nine-num friend hpl-find.pfv-pret=1
‘I found 99 friends.’

Cardinal numerals can be nominalized. Case endings are directly added to numerals
ending with a consonant. With numerals ending in a vowel an oblique marker -l some-
times precedes the case suffixes; see Table 6.3. Examples are given in (5–6).

Table 6.3: Inflectional paradigms of selected cardinal numerals

‘1’ ‘2’ ‘24’

absolutive ca k’ʷel ʁanu aʁʷra
ergative ca-(l)-li k’ʷel-li ʁanu aʁʷra-(l)-li
genitive ca-(l)-la k’ʷel-la ʁanu aʁʷra-l-la
dative ca-(l)-li-j k’ʷel-li-j ʁanu aʁʷra-l-li-j
in-lative ca-l-li-cːe k’ʷel-li-cːe ʁanu aʁʷra-li-cːe
‘100’ ‘1,000’
absolutive dˈaršːal ˈazir
ergative dˈaršːal-li ˈazir-li
genitive dˈaršːal-la ˈazir-la
dative dˈaršːal-li-j ˈazir-li-j
in-lative dˈaršːal-li-cːe ˈazir-li-cːe

(5) urek-darš-li-j wahi-l akːu

six-hundred-obl-dat bad-advz cop.neg
‘(To buy flour) for 600 (rubles per sack) is not bad.’
(6) aχʷ-darš qːuruš čar d-arq’-ib azar-li-cːe-r
four-hundred ruble back npl-do.pfv-pret thousand-obl-in-abl
‘From the 1,000 rubles he returned 400.’

6.2 Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the suffix -ʔib-il (allomorph -ʔubil with the stem
of the numeral ‘four’, which contains a labialized consonant) or its short variant -ʔib.
The first part of this suffix originates from the root of the verb ‘say’, which is -ʔ- plus
the preterite suffix -ib. The second part -il in the long variant is the cross-categorical

131
6 Numerals

suffix -il, §9.6.2). Similar ways of forming ordinal numerals have been reported for other
Dagestanian languages (e.g.Lezgian, see Haspelmath 1993: 233; Akusha Dargwa, see van
den Berg 2001: 30 fn.10; Hinuq, see Forker 2013a: 401–403).

Table 6.4: Ordinal numerals

1st ca-ʔibil 11th wec’nu cara-ʔibil

2nd k’ʷi-ʔibil 20nd ʁa-ʔibil
3rd ʡaˤb-ʔibil 30th ʡaˤb-c’al-ʔibil
4th aʁ-ʔubil 41st aʁʷ-c’anu ca-ra-ʔibil
5th xu-ʔibil 52nd xu-c’anu k’ʷi-ra-ʔibil
6th urek-ʔibil 100th daršal-ʔibil
7th wer-ʔibil 1,000th azir-ʔibil
8th kːaʔ-ʔibil
9th urč’em-ʔibil
10th wec’-ʔibil 10,000th wec’al azir-ʔibil

123rd daršlim ʁanu ʡaˤbra-ʔibil

1,234th azir-lim k’ʷi-darš-lim ʡaˤb-c’anu aʁʷ-ra-ʔibil

Ordinal numerals are inflected just like any other nominal, e.g. caʔibil ‘first’, ergative
caʔibil-li, genitive caʔibil-la, dative caʔibil-li-j, in-lative caʔibil-li-cːe, and so on.
(7) heštːu pereselica d-iχ-ub=da urek-c’anu kːaʔ-ra-ʔib
here move 1/2pl-be.pfv-pret=1 six-ten eight-num-ord
dusːi-cːe-d
year.obl-in-1/2pl
‘We moved here in (19)68.’
(8) “Uc’ari aʁ-ʔubil-li-cːe r-aš!” b-ik’-ul
Icari four-ord-obl-in f-go.ipfv.imp hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘They (were) saying, “Go to Icari to grade four!”’
(9) či-sa-Ø-jʁ-ib wec’-nu ca-ra-ʔibil meχ-li-šːu
spr-hither-m-come.pfv-pret ten-num one-num-ord iron-obl-ad
‘He came to the 11th lock.’
Ordinal numerals can also form the plural. In this case, the final -il part is omitted
because this suffix is not compatible with plural referents (§9.6.2). Example of plural
ordinal numerals are ca-ʔib-te ‘the first ones’, k’ʷi-ʔib-te ‘the second ones’, ʡaˤb-ʔib ‘the
third ones’, etc. The oblique plural is formed according to the regular pattern of plural
nominals with the suffix -te, i.e., by using -ta, e.g. the ergative form of ‘the first ones’ is
ca-ʔib-t-a-l.

132
 6.3 Distributive numerals

6.3 Distributive numerals

Distributive numerals are formed by reduplicating the root. Optionally the suffix -l(e)
follows the reduplicated numeral; see Table 6.5. The suffix -l(e) seems to be the adver-
bializer (cf.§9.6.3). Note that with distributive numerals the modified noun bears overt
plural marking (11).
Table 6.5: Distributive numerals

ca-ca(l) ‘one each’

k’ʷi-k’ʷi(l) ‘two each’
ʡaˤb-ʡaˤb(le) ‘three each’
aʁʷ-aʁʷ(le) ‘four each’
xu-xu(l) ‘five each’

(10) h-asː-ib ʡaˤbal qaˤr haril-li-j ca-ca

up-take.pfv-pret three pear every-obl-dat one-one
‘(He) took three pears, one each for everyone.’
(11) har durħuˤ-la k’ʷi-k’ʷi durħ-ne=ra le-b
every boy-gen two-two boy-pl=add exist-hpl
‘Every son also has two sons each.’
(12) xu-xu-l ka-d-ixː-a!
five-five-advz down-npl-put.pfv-imp
‘Put them down five each!’ (E)

6.4 Group numerals

Group numerals are formed by adding the suffix -gm-a to the root; see Table 6.6. The
gender marker shows only plural agreement (-b or -d). The suffix can also be added to
the quantifier b-aq ‘many, much’.
Group numerals denote groups or pairs of items. In my corpus, only the group numeral
of ca ‘one’ is used with human plural agreement (ca-b-a) and its meaning is very similar
to the indefinite pronoun ‘some(one), somebody’. The human plural form ca-b-a is also
used as reciprocal pronoun (see §4.4 for the case paradigm and §29.2 for one example).
All other group numerals carry the neuter plural suffix -d (13–15). Group numerals can
be attributes of nouns, which normally occur in the plural (13). Group numerals can be
inflected by adding case suffixes to the suffix -gm-a (16). They can also take the attributive
plural suffix -te (oblique form -t-a-) as in the same example.
(13) wec’-d-a ʡaˤčkːa-be=ra sa-d-uc-ib
ten-npl-group glass-pl=add ante-npl-keep.pfv-pret
‘(The doctor) tried (with me) ten pairs of glasses.’

133
6 Numerals

Table 6.6: Some group numerals

1 ca-b-a, ca-d-a
2 k’ʷi-b-a, k’ʷi-d-a
3 ʡaˤb-d-a
4 aʁʷ-d-a
5 xu-d-a
10 wec’-d-a
20 ʁa-d-a
1000 azir-d-a

(14) u či-r-až-ib-la, wer-d-a hak’-ub-le pikru-me

2sg spr-f-see.pfv-pret-post seven-npl-group appear.pfv-pret-cvb thought-pl
le-d
exist-npl
‘After I saw you, many (lit. seven groups of) thoughts arose.’
(15) kax-ub-le ca-b-a-te ca-b-a-te
kill.pfv-pret-cvb one-hpl-group-dd.pl one-hpl-group-dd.pl
b-aˤq-ib-le t’ut’u.q’aˤt’ b-arq’-ib-le hel-tːi
hpl-wound.pfv-pret-cvb drive.away hpl-do.pfv-pret-cvb that-pl
‘Killing some, wounding others, he drove them away.’
(16) ca-b-a-l q’ig-me, ca-d-a-l beret-me
one-hpl-group-erg pitchfork-pl one-npl-group-erg ax-pl
cara-t-a-l kːalk-me kʷi sa-b-eʁ-ib-il ħaˤsible
other-pl-obl-erg tree-pl in.the.hands hither-n-go.pfv-pret-ref according.to
ca-l-li b-alli b-erqː-ib ca-b unc-a-la duk’
one-obl-erg n-together n-carry.pfv-pret cop-n ox-obl-gen yoke
‘Some (people) took pitchforks, some axes, whatever was at hand, one carried
with himself the yoke of an ox.’

6.5 Multiplicative numerals

Multiplicative numerals are formed by means of the suffix -na (-jna after vowels) that is
added to the root; see Table 6.7 and (17). This suffix can also be added to the interrogative
pronoun čum ‘how much, how many’ plus the suffix -ra, and then leads to the indefinite
pronoun ‘how often ever, many times’ (§4.5.2.6).
(17) ʡaˤj-na ag-ur-ce=de, ij dam a-ag-ur caj-na
three-time go.pfv-pret-dd.sg=pst this 1sg.dat neg-go.pfv-pret one-time
arrah
at.least
‘He went three times (to the Hajj), to me this happened not even once.’

134
 6.6 Collective numerals

Table 6.7: Some multiplicative numerals

ca-jna ‘once’
k’ʷi-jna ‘twice’
ʡaˤ-jna ‘three times’
aʁʷ-na ‘four times’
wec’-na ‘ten times’
ʁa-jna ‘20 times’
darš-na ‘100 times’
azir-na ‘1,000 times’

From the multiplicative numerals expressions referring to time points can be formed
by means of various derivational and inflectional suffixes. The words in (18) all mean
‘(at) the second time’.1 Examples from texts are presented in (19–20).

(18) k’ʷi-jna-l k’ʷi-jna-lla

k’ʷi-jna-l-li k’ʷi-jna-lla-li-j
k’ʷi-jna-le
(19) k’ʷi-jna tːura w-erč-ib il nišːa-la qili-rka
two-time outside m-lead.pfv-pret that 1pl-gen home-abl
ʡaˤj-na-la-li-j tːura w-erč-ib
three-time-?-obl-dat outside m-lead.pfv-pret
‘Two times (he) send him away, our (guy), out of the room, the third time (he)
sent him away.’
(20) k’ʷi-jna-le ħaˤžitːaj=de, “w-alli ka-Ø-jž-e,” Ø-ik’ʷ-ar,
two-time-loc Hazhittaj=pst m-together down-m-remain-imp m-say.ipfv-prs
“hež-i-cːella w-alli!”
this-obl-comit m-together
‘The second time there was Hazhittaj saying, “Sit together, with him together (in
the back of the car)!”’

6.6 Collective numerals

Collective numerals are formed by adding the additive enclitic =ra to the cardinal numer-
als; see (21). They can function as attributes of nouns (22) or they can be nominalized
and then occur on their own (23) or be modified by demonstrative pronouns (24).

1
In (18), although the suffix -lla in two of the given words strongly resembles the genitive, it is, at least
synchronically, distinct from the case marker, since it is possible to add the genitive to an adverb with -lla,
e.g. k’ʷi-jna-lla-la ‘of the second time’.

135
6 Numerals

(21) k’ʷel=ra ‘both, all two’ ʡaˤb-al=ra ‘all three’

wec’-al=ra ‘all ten’ daršal=ra ‘all 100’
azir=ra ‘all 1,000’
(22) heχ-tːi ʡaˤbal=ra durħuˤ-l aʁʷal=ra ʡaˤmal b-arq’-ib
dem.down-pl three=add boy-erg four=add trick n-do.pfv-pret
‘The (my) three children all played tricks on me (i.e.caused trouble).’
(23) wec’al=ra ʡaˤħ-le ha-b-iq’-un-te=de
ten=add good-advz up-hpl-bring.up-pret-dd.pl=pst
‘All ten (children) were brought up well.’
(24) c’il heba=ra na can b-ič-ib ca-b bazar-re-b
then then=add now meet hpl-occur.pfv-pret cop-hpl market-loc-hpl
Kubači-b il-tːi k’ʷel=ra
Kubachi-hpl that-pl two=add
‘Then these two also met on the market in Kubachi.’

6.7 Other numeral expressions and compounds involving

numerals
Expressions for fractions are given in (25) and (26–27); but’a translates as ‘piece, part’
into English. The word b-abq’i ‘half’ agrees in gender and number with its head noun if
it occurs in attributive function (26), (27).

(25) b-abq’i ‘(one) half’ aʁubil but’a ‘one fourth’

ʡaˤbibil but’a ‘one third’ aʁʷallicːer ʡaˤbal (but’a) ‘three fourth’
(26) c’il d-ax-ul d-ax-ul d-abq’i xːun aq-ib
then nhpl-go.ipfv-icvb nhpl-go.ipfv-icvb nhpl-half way go.through.pfv-pret
zamana, …
time
‘Then they went and went, and when they went half of the way, …’
(27) ʡaˤbal=ra b-abq’i dus ʡaˤrmija-cːe-w kelg-un
three=add n-half year army-in-m remain.pfv-pret
‘He spent three and a half years in the army.’

The Sanzhi terms for the school grades are formed by adding -la (-lla after vowels) to
the root of the numerals 1–5 (with 5 being the best grade and 1 the worst): calla ‘one’,
k’ʷilla ‘two’, ʡaˤbla ‘three’, aʁʷla ‘four’, xulla ‘five’ (28).

(28) ce b-ič-ib=e at? dam b-ič-ib xulla

what n-get.pfv-pret=q 2sg.dat 1sg.dat n-get.pfv-pret five
‘What did you get (i.e.which grade)? I got a five.’ (E)

136
 6.7 Other numeral expressions and compounds involving numerals

Other words that are derived from numerals are the terms k’ʷidarq’i ‘twins’ and ʡaˤb-
darq’i ‘triplets’ (from the numerals ‘two’ and ‘three’ and the verb b-arq’-ij ‘do, make’).
Then there are terms for traditional events and rituals that occur after the death of a
person, namely,

(29) ʡaˤbil-la ‘three days’ aʁʷc’al-la ‘40 days’

xuc’anu k’ʷira-la ‘52 days’ dusːi-la ‘one year’
(30) ʡaˤbilla-li-j=ra arc lukː-an ca-d,
three.days-obl-dat=add money give.ipfv-ptcp cop-npl
aʁʷc’alla-li-j=ra arc lukː-un ca-d, dusːi-la aʁʷal
forty.days-obl-dat=add money give.ipfv-pret cop-npl year.obl-gen four
zikru
dhikr
‘After three days (people) give (alms), after 40 days, after one year, four dhikrs.’

Compound nouns and adjectives can contain numerals, e.g., k’ʷi-dusː-an k’ašːa ‘two-
year old bull’, ʡaˤb-daˤrχ-la qul-be (three-floor-gen house-pl) ‘three-floor houses’ (see
§3.6.3 and §5.3 for more examples).
Counting is exemplified in (31) and (32).
(31) k’ʷel-le ʡaˤbal či-ka-b-ix-ar b-irχʷ-u arg-u
two-loc three spr-down-n-throw.pfv-cond n-become.ipfv-prs go.ipfv-prs
xujal
five
‘Two plus three equals five.’ (lit. if you throw three onto two five happens)
(32) weral-li-cːe-r gu-r-h-asː-ar či-r-h-asː-ar ca
seven-obl-in-abl sub-abl-up-take.pfv-prs spr-abl-up-take.pfv-prs one
arg-u urekːal
go.ipfv-prs six
‘Seven minus one equals six.’ (if you take away one from seven it goes six)

137
7 Adverbs
In this chapter, spatial §7.1, temporal §7.2, manner §7.3, and degree adverbs §7.4 are de-
scribed as well as the productive formation of mostly manner adverbials by means of
the suffix -le §7.5. Adverbs form a rather heterogeneous group in Sanzhi and only cer-
tain subclasses of spatial adverbs and manner adverbs have been derived by specialized
adverbializing suffixes.

7.1 Spatial adverbs

7.1.1 Spatial adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns
Several series of spatial adverbs can productively be derived from demonstrative pro-
nouns. The major derivation pattern is the suffixation of -tːu to the stem of the pronouns
(Table 7.1). The full list of the respective base pronouns is given in §4.2. The meanings of
the spatial adverbs are plainly based on the meaning of the base pronouns, showing that
their semantics is organized along the meaning components of demonstrative pronouns
(§4.2.1, §4.2.2):

• proximity to deictic center (i.e. speech act participants)

• elevation in relation to deictic center

• visibility, aformentionedness, familiarity, etc.

As for proximity, there is a three way distinction (see the adverbs in the first three lines
of Table 7.1). Elevation distinguishes three meanings, of which ‘above’ and ‘below’ are
expressed by dedicated stems (see the last three lines in Table 7.1) whereas all remaining
adverbs are used when the meaning ‘level’ is intended. The third meaning component is
expressed via the distinction of the word-initial syllable (the three columns i(C)- vs. he(C)-
vs. hi(C)- in Table 7.1). The adverbs of the type he(C)tːu given in the second column of the
table are predominantly used when referring to the immediate geographical surround-
ings of the speaker (and addressee), when the conversation is about spatial reference
points that have been mentioned before, are assumed to be known by the participants or
are part of the personal sphere of the speaker (1), (2). In contrast, the i(C)tːu adverbs in
the first column are commonly used when new spatial reference points are introduced
or when talking about reference points whose location is unknown or irrelevant (3), (4).
The adverbs of the hi(C)tːu type given in the third column occur only seldom in my cor-
pus so that I am not able to make any generalizations about their meaning. Note also that
7 Adverbs

there are two series of adverbs with the identical meaning, being formally differentiated
only by the stem consonant (x vs. k’). The adverbs containing x are far more frequently
used than the adverbs with k’, which might even represent code switching to another
Dargwa dialect.

Table 7.1: Spatial adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns

i(C)tːu he(C)tːu hi(C)tːu translation

iš-tːu heš-tːu hiš-tːu ‘here, close to the speaker’
il-tːu hel-tːu hil-tːu ‘there, away from the speaker and/or close to the hearer’
i-tːu he-tːu hi-tːu ‘there, further away, unspecific distance’
ik’-tːu hek’-tːu hik’-tːu ‘here/there above the deictic center’
ix-tːu hex-tːu hix-tːu ‘here/there above the deictic center’
iχ-tːu heχ-tːu hiχ-tːu ‘here/there below the deictic center’

(1) [talking about a gasoline station]

ag-ur-re heltːu-rka, badra salaˁrk’a-la k-aqː-ib=da
go.pfv-pret-cvb there-abl bucket fuel-gen down-carry-pret=1
‘I went away from there carrying a bucket of fuel.’
(2) [referring to a dog that is visible to the participants of the conversation]
heχ-tːu-b χe-b=de χʷe
dem.down-loc-n exist.down-n=pst dog
‘The dog was there.’
(3) itːu=ra ištːu=ra lubuj musːa r-at-iʁ-ul ca-r
there=add here=add any place f-send-come.pfv-icvb cop-f
‘There, here (her husband) sends her everywhere.’
(4) [referring to people depicted on cards]
deč kʷi-d akːʷ-ar ča-k’al χe-w-akːu
drinking in.the.hands-npl cop.neg-prs.3 who-indef exist.down-m-cop.neg
iχ-tːu-w
dem.down-loc-m
‘There is nobody there without a drink in the hands.’

A second series of spatial adverbs denoting the source is derived by means of the suffix
-ka (5) (Table 7.2). This suffix is probably a cognate of the second part of the complex
ablative suffix -r-ka (§3.4). These adverbs can also have a temporal interpretation ‘from
time X on, after time X’ in addition to the spatial meaning (6). As can be seen in the table,
the adverbs in the first two lines have the same meaning because the base pronouns are
synonyms.

140
 7.1 Spatial adverbs

Table 7.2: Spatial adverbs denoting the source

base meaning heC-ka iC-ka hiC-ka translation

close to the speaker hež-ka iž-ka hiž-ka ‘from here’
close to the speaker hej-ka ij-ka hij-ka ‘from here’
there, away from the speaker and/ hel-ka il-ka hil-ka ‘from there’
or close to the hearer
further away, unspecific distance het-ka it-ka hit-ka ‘from there’
above the deictic center hek-ka ik-ka hik-ka ‘from above’
below the deictic center heχ-ka iχ-ka hiχ-ka ‘from below’

(5) kat=q’ar ka-r-ilsː-a-di ij-ka=ra kːancːupːe hej-ka=ra

down=mod down-f-lay.ipfv-hab.pst-1 this-abl=add ladder this-abl=add
kːancːupːe iχ-ka=ra
ladder dem.down-abl=add
‘As for lying, I lay, but (there are) stairs from here, stairs from here, and also from
there.’ (The speaker complains that staying in the hospital is difficult for her
because in order to go to the toilet she has to take the stairs)
(6) hej-ka ʡaˁħaˁd=ra suk ∅-ič-ib ca-w qːačaʁ-la qal-sa-w
this-abl Ahad=add meet m-occur.pfv-pret cop-m bandit-gen house-ante-m
di-la durħuˁ=ra
1sg-gen boy=add
‘After this Ahad also met my son in front of the house of Kachar (lit. ‘bandit’)).’
(Kachar is the nickname of a man)

Both series of adverbs can be inflected for the directional cases in the same way as
nominals are inflected, but since the adverbs denoting source already express movement,
they cannot take the essive case (Table 7.3). The ablative of the pronouns in this table
can also express temporal meaning, for instance heltːu-rka (there-abl) ‘then’.

Table 7.3: Inflectional paradigms of two spatial adverbs

‘here’ ‘from here’

essive heštːu-b —
lative heštːu helka
ablative heštːu-r(ka) helka-r(ka)
directional heštːu-b-a helka-b-a

A third series of spatial adverbs has the meaning ‘from X to X’. It is formed by means
of the complex suffix -k-itːu-b-a (7). The suffix is a combination of the ablative -ka (short-
ened to -k), the locational suffix -tːu and the directional marker -gm-a (§3.4.2.8). The last

141
7 Adverbs

suffix is, in principle, optional, although there are no examples without it in my cor-
pus. According to Sanzhi speakers, the resulting complex adverbs are actually a short
variant of combining the adverbs in Table 7.2 with the adverbs in Table 7.1, for example
hetka + hetːuba > hetkitːuba. However, the suffix as a whole can also be added to other
nominal bases such as personal pronouns, common nouns or personal names if they are
inflected for the loc-ablative case first, such as nušːa-le-r-kitːu-b-a (1pl-loc-abl-advz-n-
dir) ‘from us further away’, uškul-le-r-kitːu-b-a (school-loc-abl-advz-n-dir) ‘from the
school further away’. The series is also available from the other two pronominal stems iC
and hiC, but in my corpus there are only examples of the adverbs from the heC-pronouns
given in (7–8), (9), (14).

(7) heC-kitːu-gm-a (directional)

a. hež-kitːu-b-a ‘from here (= place of speaker) to there’
b. hej-kitːu-b-a ‘from here (= place of speaker) to there’
c. hel-kitːu-b-a ‘from there (= place of the addressee) to there’
d. het-kitːu-b-a ‘from there (= unspecific place) to there’
e. hek-kitːu-b-a ‘from above to there’
f. heχ-kitːu-b-a ‘from down to there’
(8) heC-kitːu-rka (ablative)
a. hež-kitːu-rka ‘from here to there, past, by’
b. hej-kitːu-rka ‘from here to there, past, by’
c. hel-kitːu-rka ‘from there to there, past, by’
d. het-kitːu-rka ‘from there to there, past, by’
e. hek-kitːu-rka ‘from above to there, past, by’
f. heχ-kitːu-rka ‘from down to there, past, by’
(9) nišːa-la durħ-ne hejkitːu-b-a Nižnekamsk-le
1pl-gen boy-pl from.here.to.there-hpl-dir Nizhnekamensk-loc
b-uq’-aˁn-ne, …
hpl-go-ptcp-prs.3
‘if our sons go from here to there to Nizhnekamensk, …’

Finally, there is a spatial adverb itille ‘further, to the side, sideways’ that seems to be
the pronoun it inflected for the locational suffix -le (10).

(10) nišːa-la šːi-la itille-b musːa te-b

1pl-gen village-gen further-n place exist-n
‘At that side of the village there is a place.’

142
 7.1 Spatial adverbs

7.1.2 Spatial adverbs related to postpositions

All spatial postpositions discussed in §8.1 can also be used adverbially without a depen-
dent noun phrase (11). Some of them have not only spatial, but also temporal semantics.
They can inflect for all spatial cases expressing direction/movement (essive, lative, abla-
tive, directional). A few examples are provided in (12), (13).

(11) hitːi ‘after, behind’ sar ‘in front, before, in earlier times’
hila ‘behind, after’ sala ‘in front, before, forward’
gu ‘down, low, before’ xːar(i) ‘to the bottom, down(wards)’
či ‘up, above’ qari ‘at/on the top’
b-i ‘inside’ urkːa ‘within, in the middle’
tːura ‘outside’ šːule ‘at side, to the side, next to, sidelong’
(12) “u sala ka-b-iž-e,” bec’-li-cːe “du hila ka-b-irg-an=da!”
2sg front down-n-be.pfv-imp wolf-obl-in 1sg behind down-n-be.ipfv-ptcp=1
b-ik’-ul ca-b kːurtːa
n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n fox
‘“Now,” the fox says to the wolf, “you sit down in front, and I behind!”’
(13) ank’luʁi-la šːi ʡaˁħ-le qari-b=q’al
Anklukh-gen village good-advz up-n=mod
‘The village of Anklukh is pretty high up.’

There are four spatial adverbs that have been derived from spatial postpositions by
means of suffixing -tːi to the root: gu-tːi ‘along downside, at the lower side’ (< gu ‘down,
under’), či-tːi ‘along upside, at the upper side’ (<či ‘on’), sa-tːi ‘at/along the front, as soon
as’ (< sa ‘in front, ago’), and b-i-tːi ‘inside, through’ (< b-i ‘in, inside’) (14).

(14) di-la qu-la hetkitːu-w-a, čitːi gutːi

1sg-gen garden-gen from.there.to.there-m-dir along.up along.downside
∅-iχ-ub-le w-erč-ib ca-w Izbir-re
m-be.pfv-pret-cvb m-lead.pfv-pret cop-m Izberbash-loc
‘Through my garden, up, down, they brought him to Izberbash.’

There are few more adverbs based on the adverbs/postpositions, namely hitːille ‘on the
back, later’ (< hitːi), b-atːura ‘from inside’ (< tːura), and qaršːa ‘upper side (of the village)’
(< qar ‘at/on the top’ plus the loc-form of the noun šːi ‘village’, which is šːa).

7.1.3 Other spatial adverbs

Sanzhi has some more spatial adverbs of which the most important ones are given in (15).
A few of them are formed by means of the adverbializing suffix -le (§9.6.3). For spatial
adverbs that have the meaning of indefinite pro-forms see §4.6.

143
7 Adverbs

(15) kat’ ‘down’ bet ‘there’

šːulum ‘by, past’ (< šːal ‘side’) sat ‘here’
alaw ‘around, in a circle’ bet-sat ‘here and there’
qili ‘at home’ (< qal ‘house’) guq-le ‘low’
haraq-le ‘far’ hek-le ‘close, near’
b-arx-le ‘directly, straight’ kʷi ‘in the hands’

7.2 Temporal adverbs

Many of the spatial adverbs/postpositions listed in (11) also express temporal meaning.
The adverb/postposition gu has the somewhat unexpected meaning ‘before, in earlier
times’ when suffixed with the frozen neuter plural agreement suffix -d (16).

(16) heχ-tːi ala gu-d či-d-ig-an ʡaˁčkːa-b-a-l

dem.down-pl 2sg.gen down-npl spr-npl-see.ipfv-ptcp glasses-pl-obl-erg
‘with these glasses of yours with which you were seeing before’

Adverbs for times of the day are given in (17). Deictic temporal adverbs expressing
relative time in days and years can be found in (18), (19), and seasonal adverbs in (20).
Some of the adverbs in (17) and (20) are formed by adding the genitive case suffix to a
base noun.

(17) a. čːaˁʡaˁlla ‘in the morning’ (< čːaˁʡaˁl ‘morning, tomorrow’)

b. arilla ‘at midday, at lunch time’ (< ari ‘daytime’)
c. nisnalla ‘after lunch, afternoon’
d. ʁerilla ‘early evening, at sunset’ (< ʁeri ‘sunlight’)
e. daˁrχːaˁlla ‘in the evening’ (< daˁrχːaˁ ‘evening’)
f. dučːilla ‘at night’ (< dučːi ‘night’)
(18) a. xujal bar sar ‘five days ago’ (< xujal ‘five’ + bar ‘day’ + sa-r ago-abl)
b. hati sar bar ‘three days ago’ (< hati ‘more’ + sa-r + bar)
c. sar bar ‘two days ago’ (< sa-r + bar)
d. sːa ‘yesterday’
e. ižal ‘today’ (< iž ‘this’)
f. čːaˁʡaˁl ‘tomorrow, morning’
g. carabal ‘day after tomorrow’ (< ca-ra ‘one=add, other + ?)
h. xujal bar hitːille ‘in five days’ (< xujal + bar + hitːi-lle after-advz)
(19) a. ʡaˁbc’al sar dus ‘thirty years ago’ (< ʡaˁbc’al ‘30’ + sa-r + dus ‘year’)
b. hati sar dus ‘two years ago’ (? < hati + sa-r + dus)
c. sar dus, irig, gur dus, hit dus ‘last year’ (< gur ‘away’, hit ‘that’)

144
 7.3 Manner adverbs

d. hež dus ‘this year’ (< hež ‘this’)

e. c’il dus, saˁq’an dus, hilabil dus ‘the following year, next year’ (< c’il ‘then’,
saˁ-q’-an in.front-go-ptcp, hila-b-il back.side-n-ref)
(20) a. ebla ‘in spring’ (< eb ‘spring’)
b. hanišalla ‘in summer’ (< haniša ‘summer’)
c. ibxnella ‘in autumn’ (< ebx ‘autumn’)
d. ganilla ‘in winter’ (< ga ‘winter’)
Some more temporal adverbs are provided in (21). For temporal adverbs that have the
meaning of indefinite pro-forms see §4.6. For the expression of dates and the time see
the descriptions of the various spatial cases that fulfill these functions in §3.4.
(21) a. salar(ka) ‘formerly’ (< sala-r-ka before-abl-abl)
b. barežij ‘the whole day’ (< bar ‘day’ + ?)
c. ixʷle ‘early, fast’
d. ixʷbel ‘long ago’ (< ixʷ ‘early’ + ?b-el n-remain)
e. q’anne ‘late’ (< q’an-ne late-advz)
f. ha ‘now, already’
g. na ‘now, already’
h. hana ‘now, then’ (< ha + na)
i. c’il(i) ‘then’
j. heba ‘then, later’ (?< he-b-a that-n-dir)
k. cacajnaqːel ‘sometimes’ (< ca-ca-jna=qːel one-one-time=when)
l. cacaqːella ‘sometimes’ (< ca-ca=qːella one-one=when)
m. urkːa-urkːab ‘sometimes’ (< urkːa-urkːa-b middle-middle-n)
n. mah-mahle, raχ-raχle ‘sometimes, rarely’ (< raχle ‘if’)

7.3 Manner adverbs

Sanzhi has a productive way of deriving adverbs of manner from demonstrative pro-
nouns. These adverbs have the meaning ‘like this/like that’. They are formed by adding
the suffix -itːe to the demonstrative pronouns in the singular (Table 7.4). Their meaning
is again transparently built on the semantics of the demonstrative pronouns as described
in detail in §4.2 and summarized in §7.1.1 above.
Since these adverbs are used when an action or event is compared to another event,
the adverbs based on the heC-series in the second column are far more common than
those from the other two series given in the first and in the third column. The most
frequent forms in my corpus are hel-itːe ‘like that, away from the speaker and/or close
to the hearer’ and to a lesser extent hež-itːe ‘like this, like something close to the speaker’
(22), but other forms such as het-itːe ‘like that, like something further away, unspecific
distance’, hek’-itːe ‘like this/that above’ and heχ-itːe ‘like this/that below’ as well as very
few occurrence of ižitːe (23), hilitːe (24), and ilitːe are also attested.

145
7 Adverbs

Table 7.4: Manner adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns

iC heC hiC translation

iž-itːe hež-itːe hiž-itːe ‘like this, like something close to the speaker’
il-itːe hel-itːe hil-itːe ‘like that, away from the speaker and/or close to the
hearer’
it-itːe het-itːe hit-itːe ‘like that, like something further away, unspecific
distance’
ik’-itːe hek’-itːe hik’-itːe ‘like this/that above, higher’
iχ-itːe heχ-itːe hiχ-itːe ‘like this/that below, lower’

(22) hež-itːe b-uqen-ne ka-b-išː-ib kilijumk’a hež-itːe

this-advz n-long-advz down-n-put.pfv-pret oil.cloth this-advz
‘Like this alongside (he) put the oil cloth.’
(23) na ca-b=el iž-itːe akːu=jal, a-b-alχ-ul=da
now cop-n=indq this-advz cop.neg=indq neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I do not know whether it was like this or not.’
(24) hil-tːu ka-r-icː-ur-re hil-itːe han le-b ...
that-loc down-f-stand.pfv-pret-cvb that-advz remember exist-n
‘I (fem.) remember like I was standing there like that ...’

There is another rather small group of four manner adverbs with a similar meaning
that are also derived from demonstrative pronouns: itwaj, hetwaj, hitwaj, and ižwaj ‘like
that, and so’. Their usage is illustrated in (25), (26).

(25) itːi itwaj=ra ʡuˁrusː-e ʁunab-te ca-b hana=ra

those like.that=add Russian-pl eq-dd.pl cop-hpl now=add
‘They are also like this, like Russians, even now.’
(26) di-la χatːaj ca-w, ala itwaj χatːaj ca-w
1sg-gen grandfather cop-m 2sg.gen like.that grandfather cop-m
‘(He) is my (real) grandfather. For you he is only an old man.’ (lit. ‘He is like a
grandfather of yours.’)

Other manner adverbs are usually formed by suffixing -le to a root, for example bahla-
l ‘slowly’, halak-le ‘fast’, χʷal-le ‘greatly, much, a lot’, imanne ‘patiently’, ʡaˁħ-le ‘well’,
and so on. This is described in the next section (see also §9.6.3).

7.4 Degree adverbs

Adverbs of degree express the degree of a quality and modify adjectives or other adverbs.
They precede the modified item (28). From the formal perspective, degree adverbs are a

146
 7.5 Formation of adverbials with the suffix -le

heterogeneous group of items. Some are simple stems (arindan, bara), but most of them
contain the adverbializing suffix -le also used to derive manner adverbs (27) (§7.5); for
comparative constructions involving degree adverbs see §30.1.

(27) c’aq’-le ‘very, strongly’ ħaˁq’-le ‘very’

arindan ‘too, too much’ b-aq ‘much’
χːʷal-le ‘largely’ q’ʷila, bara, kam-le ‘little, few, a bit’
(28) nišːi-j b-aq ʡaˁħ ka-b-icː-ur ca-b dig sːika-la
1pl-dat n-much good down-n-stand.pfv-pret cop-n meat bear-gen
‘We liked the meat of the bear very much.’

7.5 Formation of adverbials with the suffix -le

Manner adverbs and some other adverbs are easily derived by means of the suffix -le
(allomorphs -l after vowels, -re after r, -ne after n, and occasionally -lle). This suffix is
attached to the underived short adjectives (13), (22), (29) (§5.2) and to nouns in the abso-
lutive or in spatial cases (30) as well as to spatial adverbs bearing the essive case (§9.6.3).
The same suffix is added to verbs (usually bearing the preterite or the imperfective con-
verb suffix) in order to form simple converbs (§18.1.1). More examples of its use can be
found in §9.6.3.

(29) deadjectival adverbs

a. sark ‘open’ > sark-le ‘openly’
b. b-arx ‘direct,right’ > b-arx-le ‘correctly, directly, straight’
c. ʡaˁħ ‘good’ > ʡaˁħ-le ‘well’
d. kːuš ‘hungry’ > kːuš-le ‘hungrily’
e. ħaˁdur ‘ready’ > ħaˁdur-re ‘readily’
f. c’aq’ ‘strong, mighty’ > c’aq’-le ‘strongly, very’
g. pašman ‘sad’ > pašman-ne ‘sadly’
(30) denominal adverbs
a. uruχ ‘fear’ > uruχ-le ‘fearfully, anxiously’
b. ʡaˁžat ‘need’ > ʡaˁžat-le ‘needed, necessarily’
c. ʡaˁjb ‘guilt, blame’ > ʡaˁjb-le ‘guilty’
d. ħisab ‘account’ > ħisab-le ‘accordingly’
e. jatin ‘orphan’ > jatin-ne ‘as an orphan,
while being an orphan’
f. mar ‘truth’ > mar-le ‘truly’
(31) other adverbs
xurc-le ‘barefoot’ (*xurc; xurχ b-iχʷ-ij ‘become barefoot’)

147
8 Postpositions
Sanzhi has spatial and non-spatial postpositions. Some of the spatial postpositions also
have temporal readings. The majority of the spatial postpositions are widely used as ad-
verbs and then occur without a dependent noun phrase (§7.1.2). Thus, the distinction be-
tween postpositions and adverbs is rather blurred. The distinction between postpositions
and spatial cases is, by contrast, relatively clear-cut with respect to the morphosyntax, al-
though there are no clear intonational and often also no clear semantic differences. Most
postpositions govern the genitive case; otherwise two spatial cases or the absolutive case
are used (Table 8.1). This is in contrast to spatial cases, which are suffixed directly to the
nominal stem or to the oblique/ergative suffix. Furthermore, only the postposition sa has
a clear cognate form used as spatial case (§3.4.2.6). The postposition sa is shown in (1a);
examples with the cognate spatial case are given in (1b) and (1c).
(1) a. qal-la sa-b
house-gen in.front-n
‘in front of the house’ (E)
b. cin-na qal-li-sa-b musːa=ra ʡaˁħ-ce ca-b
refl.sg-gen house-obl-ante-n place=add good-dd.sg cop-n
∅-ik’ʷ-ar
m-say.ipfv-prs
‘In front of his house there is also a good area, he says.’
c. it ca-w=ra hel-i-sa sa-ka-jsː-un-ne
that refl-m=add that-obl-ante ante-down-lay.m.pfv-pret-cvb
‘he himself also slept in front of it (a horse, in order to watch over it)’
There is another class of morphemes with which postpositions formally and seman-
tically overlap, namely spatial preverbs. The postpositions sa, hitːi, či, b-i and tːura also
occur as location preverbs (§11.6.1) that can be combined with the postposition or case
marker or occur on their own. In example (1c) both the spatial case -sa and the preverb
sa- are used.
This chapter explores spatial postpositions (including those with temporal meanings)
(§8.1) and non-spatial postpositions (§8.2).

8.1 Spatial postpositions

Table 8.1 displays the spatial postpositions and the cases they govern (in the last column).
Most postpositions govern the genitive case, which is typical for Dargwa varieties. Post-
positions can be inflected for directional cases. The inflected postpositions in brackets
can be elicited, but are not commonly used.
8 Postpositions

Table 8.1: Spatial postpositions

lative essive ablative directional case

‘in front’ sala sala-b sala-r(-ka) sala-b-a gen
‘in front, ago’ sa sa-b sa-r(-ka) — gen/abs
‘behind, after’ hila hila-b hila-r(-ka) hila-b-a gen
‘after, behind’ hitːi hitːi-b hitːi-r(-ka) (hitːi-b-a) gen
‘at the bottom, down, under’ xːari xːari-b xːari-r(-ka) xːari-b-a gen
‘at the top, above, on, about’ qari qari-b qari-r(-ka) qari-b-a gen
‘on’ či či-b či-r(-ka) či-b-a gen/loc
‘between, in the middle’ urkːa urkːa-b urkːa-r(-ka) urkːa-b-a gen/abs
‘in(side)’ b-i b-i-b b-i-r(-ka) b-i-b-a loc/in/gen
‘aside, next to’ šːule šːule-b šːule-r(-ka) (šːule-b-a) gen
‘outside’ tːura tːura-b tːura-r(-ka) tːura-b-a gen

8.1.1 sala ‘in front of’

The postposition sala has only spatial meaning, but the cognate adverb has spatial and
temporal readings (e.g. salar(ka) ‘formerly, in former times’). It governs the genitive.

(2) a. hež-i-la sala ka-b-iž-aq-a, hej=ra!

this-obl-gen in.front down-n-be.pfv-caus-imp this=add
‘Put (it) before of this, and this also!’
b. χːuˁrba-la sala-b pirma te-b=uw?
tomb.obl.pl-gen in.front-n farm exist-n=q
‘Is there a farm in front of the graveyard?’

8.1.2 sa ‘in front, ago’

The postposition sa is a cognate of sala. When having a spatial reading it governs the
genitive (3a). With the temporal meaning ‘ago it governs’ the absolutive (3b). The abla-
tive sar(ka) is more commonly used as temporal adverb with the meaning ‘before, earlier,
until’ (§7.2).

(3) a. uc-ib-le qːačuʁ-a-l susm-a-la sa-w

catch.pfv.m-pret-cvb bandit-obl.pl-erg throat-obl-gen in.front-m
‘the bandits caught (him) by the throat’
b. χatːaj-la xːunul r-ebč’-ib-il=de ʡaˁb-c’al dus sa-r
grandfather-gen woman f-die.pfv-pret-ref=pst three-ten year ago-abl
‘Grandfather’s wife died 30 years ago.’

150
 8.1 Spatial postpositions

8.1.3 hila ‘behind, after’

The postposition hila, which governs the genitive, has spatial and occasionally temporal
uses. It is sometimes followed by hitːi and it is widely used as a spatial and temporal
adverb (§7.1.2).

(4) a. b-erqː-ib-le qal-la hila, ʡuˁrʡ-aˁ-j

n-carry.pfv-pret-cvb house-gen behind chicken-obl.pl-dat
s-ix-ub=da
ante-throw.pfv-pret=1
‘I carried (the cheese) behind the house and fed it to the chicken.’
b. tum-la hila-b srazu majdan ʁuna k’e-b
hill-gen behind-n immediately field eq exist.up-n
‘There behind the hill there is immediately something like a field.’
c. marka-la hila-b cuχaˁb
rain-gen behind-n rainbow
‘a rainbow after the rain’ (E)

8.1.4 hitːi ‘after, behind’

This postposition has spatial and temporal semantics. There are examples that allow for
both readings, e.g. (5b) is a sentence from the Family Problems Picture Task (San Roque
et al. 2012) and it can refer to the spatial ordering of the pictures on the table or to the
temporal ordering of the events that the pictures are illustrating. There are two examples
with spatial meaning: in both examples hitːi is preceded by hila and thus it might be hila
that, in fact, provides for the spatial interpretation (5c). It governs the genitive and mostly
occurs with a preceding demonstrative pronoun and the meaning ‘after this/that’, e.g.
hežila hitːi. There are also lexicalized variants of such phrases, e.g. helila hitːi > helilitːi.

(5) a. caj-na marka-la hitːi če-r-uq-un ca-r qar qal-sa qʷaˁrš

one-time rain-gen after spr.up-f-go.pfv-pret cop-f up house-ante sweep
b-arq’-ij
n-do.pfv-inf
‘Once after the rain (she) went up to sweep in front of the house.’
b. het-i-la hitːi ka-d-irxː-an-te ca-d heštːi
that-obl-gen after down-npl-put.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl cop.npl these
d-ilʡ-aˁn-te
npl-steal.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl
‘After this (one) must put these, these where they steal.’
c. urči-la žilixʷa-la hila hitːi b-iχ-un
horse-gen saddle-gen behind behind n-tie.pfv-pret
‘(He) tied it behind the saddle.’

151
8 Postpositions

In addition, hitːi is widely used as a temporal adverb (§7.2), including temporal ad-
verbial clauses (§18.2.5), and the short encliticized version =itːi occurs within compound
verbs (§12.2.2, example 20).

8.1.5 xːar(i) ‘down, at the bottom, under’

This postposition has exclusively spatial meaning ‘to the bottom, down, under’ and gov-
erns the genitive (6a–6c). It is semantically close to the spatial case -gu (§3.4.2.5) and
the spatial case marker can be suffixed to the postposition in which case the meaning is
solely ‘under’.
(6) a. ust’u-la xːari pihala ka-b-irx-ul=da
table-gen down cup down-n-put.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I put the cup under the table/to the bottom of the table.’ (E)
b. w-ag-la xːar w-aˁħ-un-ni=de
m-waist-gen down m-get.wet.pfv-pret-msd=pst
‘From the waist down I (masc.) was wet.’
c. heχ urx-m-a-la xːari balnicːa-b-a-j r-ax-ul
dem.down sea-pl-obl-gen down hospital-pl-obl-dat f-go.ipfv-icvb
‘I was going to the hospital down at the sea ...’

8.1.6 qari ‘at the top, above, on, about’

This postposition, which governs the genitive, means ‘at/on the top, above’ and is the
counterpart to xːar(i) (7a–7c).
(7) a. hel zamana šːi-la qari-b cara šːi k’e-b
that time village-gen at.top-n other village exist.up-n
‘In those times upwards from our village there was another village.’
b. il zamana kac’i či-ka-b-iħ-ib ca-b taˁħ
that time puppy spr-down-n-begin.pfv-pret cop-n jump
b-ax-araj kːalkːi-la qari
n-go.ipfv-subj.3 tree-gen at.top
‘At that time the puppy began to jump to climb up the tree’s top.’
c. lampːučkːa ust’u-la qari-b kemq-un ca-b
lamp table-gen above-n hang-pret cop-n
‘The lamp hangs above the table.’ (E)
In combination with the postposition či (§8.1.7) it is also used to express the topic of a
conversation or the contents of thoughts (8a), (8b).
(8) a. ʡaˁrz r-ik’-ul ca-r iχ-i-la qari=či-r
complain f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f dem.down-obl-gen at.top=on-f
‘She is complaining about him.’

152
 8.1 Spatial postpositions

b. cinna d-iχ-ub-t-a-la qari=či-d b-urs-ij

pause.filler npl-be.pfv-pret-pl-obl-gen at.top=on-npl n-tell.pfv-inf
‘to talk about what had happened’

8.1.7 či ‘on, above’

This postposition, which is often pronounced together with the complement nominal as
an enclitic, normally governs a spatial case, the loc-series (9a), (9b) (§3.4.2.2), but it can,
in principle, also be used with the dependent noun bearing the genitive (9c). When the
loc-series is used, then the direction markers of the case and of the postposition need to
coincide, i.e. both are marked for the essive (9a), lative, or ablative (9b). The postposition
can be encliticized to qari when referring to the content of conversations or thoughts
(8a), (8b).
(9) a. berkʷijce b-irq’-ul ca-b iχ-tː-a-l gaz-le-b či-b
food n-do.ipfv-icvb cop-n dem.down-pl-obl-erg gas-loc-n on-n
‘They are making food on a gas cooker.’
b. urči-le-r či-r ka-jč-ib-le,
horse-loc-abl on-abl down-occur.m.pfv-pret-cvb
w-i-ka-ag-ur ca-w kur kur-ri-cːe
m-in-down-go.pfv-pret cop-m deep pit-obl-in
‘He fell down from the horse into a deep pit.’
c. dubur-ra či-b dirixʷ k’e-b
mountain-gen on-n fog exist.up-n
‘There is fog on/above the mountain.’ (E)
Since Sanzhi also has a preverb či- with a very similar if not identical meaning (§11.6.1)
it is sometimes not easy to decide whether an occurrence of či functions as postposition/
adverbial or as preverb. Thus, instead of (9b) with či-r as postposition, we can also write
it together with the verb and interpret it as preverb (10). But we can also manipulate
the constituent order in (9b) and place the verb before the postpositional phrase (11) or
have both the postposition and the preverb (12). In (11) and (12), či-r is unambiguously a
postposition.
(10) urči-le-r či-r-ka-jč-ib
horse-loc-abl spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)
(11) ka-jč-ib urči-le-r či-r
down-occur.pfv.m-pret horse-loc-abl on-abl
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)
(12) urči-le-r či-r či-r-ka-jč-ib
horse-loc-abl on-abl spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)

153
8 Postpositions

8.1.8 urkːa ‘between, among, within, in the middle’

The postposition urkːa has spatial and temporal meanings. For the spatial reading only
genitive marking on the dependent noun is admissible. When used with nouns and noun
phrases denoting a plurality it means ‘between, among’ (13a–14a).

(13) a. ca-b qːirma-la urkːa-rka tːura sa-b-uq-un

refl-n black.clouds-gen between-abl outside hither-n-go-pret
‘(The sun) itself came out of the middle of the clouds.’
b. k’ʷel=ra qič’-m-a-la urkːa hek’ qːarqːa b-uc-ib-il
two=add rock-pl-obl-gen between dem.up stone n-keep.pfv-pret-ref
ʁuna musːa k’e-b=q’al
eq place exist.up-n=mod
‘A stone kept between two rocks or the like is up there.’
c. na xːun-re ču-la urkːa-b qit.qit b-ik’-ul
now woman-pl refl.pl-gen between-hpl whisper hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
ca-b
cop-hpl
‘Now the women are whispering among themselves.’

However, it can also occur with singular nouns and the meaning ‘in’. The following
minimal pair illustrates the difference:

(14) a. qul-b-a-la urkːa-w=da

house-pl-obl-gen between-m=1
‘I am between the houses.’ (E)
b. qal-la urkːa-w=da
house-gen between-m=1
‘I am in the house.’ (E)

With the temporal reading the postposition governs the genitive (15a) or the absolutive
(15b). When reduplicated the postposition can be used as an adverb with the meaning
urkːa urkːa-b ‘from time to time, sometimes’.

(15) a. žumaˁʡ-la urkːa-r

week-gen between-abl
‘within one week’
b. k’ʷel bac urkːa-r d-irq’-ul ...
two month between-abl npl-do.ipfv-icvb
‘After two months they were doing (the medical treatment) ...’

154
 8.1 Spatial postpositions

8.1.9 b-i ‘in, inside’

The postposition b-i, which only has spatial meanings, contains a gender/number prefix
agreeing with the absolutive argument of the clause to which the postpositional phrase
belongs. In all examples from natural texts the postposition governs the in-series or
the loc-series (depending on the noun employed, see §3.4.2.4 and §3.4.2.2) (16a), (16b).
However, in elicitation the genitive is also available (16c).
(16) a. lak’ w-arq’-ib ca-w duˁrħuˁ=ra χːʷe=ra hin-ni-cːe b-i
throw m-do.pfv-pret refl-m boy=add dog=add water-obl-in hpl-in
‘(It) threw the boy and the dog into the water.’
b. du ala sunduq’-le-w w-i-w le-w=da
1sg 2sg.gen box-loc-m m-in-m exist-m=1
‘I (masc.) am inside your box.’
c. qal-la r-i-r=da
house-gen f-in-f=1
‘I (fem.) am inside the house.’ (E)

8.1.10 šːule ‘at side, next to, near’

This postposition exclusively expresses spatial meanings. It requires the dependent noun
to appear in the genitive case. Examples (17a–17c) show the postposition inflected for the
essive case. In (17d), the postposition bears the ablative case suffix.
(17) a. šːi-la šːule-d qič’a-la baˁʡ-li-gu-d k’e-d nišːa-la
village-gen at.side-npl rock-gen wall-obl-sub-npl exist.up-npl 1pl-gen
χːuˁrbe
tomb.pl
‘Next/near to the village down at a stone wall, there is our graveyard.’
b. tup di-la t’uˁ-ma-lla šːule-b=de
ball 1sg-gen leg-pl-obl-gen at.side-n=pst
‘The ball was at my feet.’ (E)
c. χːaˁb muza-la šːule-b b-už-ib ca-b
grave top-gen at.side-n n-be-pret cop-n
‘The grave was near the top.’ (E)
d. c’il hetːi duˁrħ-ne ag-ur hel-i-la atːa-la šːule-r
then those boy-pl go.pfv-pret that-obl-gen father-gen at.side-abl
‘Then these boys passed by from his, the father’s, side.’
This postposition probably originates from the noun šːal ‘side’. Although it looks like
it could be the loc-case of this noun, this is synchronically not the case, since the loc-
lative of the noun is šːal-le and not šːu(l)le (18). Nevertheless the origin from a spatial
noun explains why the postposition governs only the genitive.

155
8 Postpositions

(18) a du rjadom Isaq’adi-la šːal-li-cːe-w hej b-aʔ-le-w=da

but 1sg next.to Isakadi-gen side-obl-in-m this n-edge-loc-m=1
‘And I am at the side of Isakadi, at this end.’

8.1.11 tːura ‘out, outside’

This postposition governs the genitive (19a–19c). However, it more frequently occurs
as an adverb and as a spatial preverb with preceding nouns in the in-ablative or loc-
ablative (§7.1.2, §11.6.1).

(19) a. kːuš-le duˁʡ-le=de nušːa šːi-la tːura ag-ur=da

hungry-advz wild-advz=pst 1pl village-gen outside go.pfv-pret=1
‘Hungry and wild, we went out of the village.’
b. qːapu-la tːura-r wahi ʁaˁʁ-la t’ama ha-d-eʁ-ib ca-d
gate-gen outside-abl evil scream-gen sound up-npl-do-pret cop-npl
‘From outside the gates an evil scream was made.’
c. heχtːu šːi-la tːura-b-te χalq’ li<b>il=ra
there.down village-gen outside-hpl-dd.pl people all<hpl>=add
‘also all people outside of the village’

The postposition tːura also expresses the non-spatial meaning ‘apart from, except for’.
In this case the governed nominal can be not only in the genitive (20a), but also in the loc-
ablative (20b), (20c). For instance, if a demonstrative pronoun precedes the postposition
the whole phrase reads as ‘besides, and what is more, moreover’.

(20) a. il-i-la tːura-b a-cːe du-l b-urs-ille ...

that-obl-gen outside-n 2sg-in 1sg-erg n-tell.pfv-cond.1
‘If I can tell you now (something else) apart from this, …’ (E)
b. ile-rka tːura ʁaj či-∅-ik’-ul, b-ikː-ul ca-b il
that.loc-abl outside word spr-m-say.ipfv-icvb n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n that
qaˁb-la w-aˁq-ij
neck-gen m-hit.pfv-inf
‘Moreover, he defamed (him) and wanted (him) to be beheaded.’
c. Rasul-la / Rasul-le-rka tːura cara=ra sa-č-ib=da
Rasul-gen / Rasul-loc-abl outside other=add hither-lead.pfv-pret=1
‘Apart from Rasul I also brought another one.’ (E)

156
 8.2 Non-spatial postpositions

8.2 Non-spatial postpositions

8.2.1 b-alli ‘together, with’
This postposition, which seems to be a cognate of the preverb b-al ‘matching, together, in
unison’, governs the comitative (21a), and with young speakers the in-ablative case (21b).
It has a gender/number prefix and agreement is controlled by the absolutive argument
of the clause to which the postposition belongs. Both nominals, i.e. the governed one
marked for comitative or in-ablative and the noun in the absolutive, can be absent.

(21) a. či-haˁ-∅-q’-uˁn-ne=kːu=n ka-∅-jž-ib ca-w

spr-up-m-go-pret-cvb=cop.neg=prt down-m-remain-pret cop-m
hel-tː-a-cːella w-alli
that-pl-obl-comit m-together
‘He is sitting together with them.’
b. w-arcː-ur-le, ag-ur ca-w ka-∅-jsː-ij
m-get.tired.pfv-pret-cvb go.pfv-pret cop-m down-m-sleep.pfv-inf
χːʷe-cːe-r w-alli
dog-in-abl m-together
‘He got tired and went to sleep together with the dog.’

If the governed noun phrase is overt it mostly precedes the postposition (21a), (21b),
although it can also follow it (22a) or occur in another non-adjacent position (22b). If the
governed noun is absent, the noun in the absolutive frequently takes its position right
before the postposition (22c).

(22) a. c’il ka-b-ič-ib ca-b b-alli hel-tː-a-cːe-r

then down-hpl-occur.pfv-pret cop-hpl hpl-together that-pl-obl-in-abl
‘Then they ran together with them.’
b. w-alli, di-la hej juldaš w-alli le-w=de di-cːella
m-together 1sg-gen this friend m-together exist-m=pst 1sg-comit
‘Together, my friend was together with me.’
c. ulbasne d-alli ha-d-iqː-a-di=q’al
glasses npl-together up-npl-carry.ipfv-hab-1=mod
‘[If I had known that I will look at pictures], I would have brought my
glasses.’

Because of the general closeness of adverbs and postpositions, examples such as (22a),
(22b), in which b-alli and the case-marked noun occur in the reverse order and/or not
immediately following each other can be treated as adverbial uses. Similarly, in (22c) a
full postpositional phrase would be ‘glasses with me’, but the governed nominal is absent
from the clause and thus the example rather represents the adverbial use.

157
8 Postpositions

8.2.2 canille ‘together, with’

This postposition, which probably originates from the numeral ca ‘one’, can also gov-
ern the comitative case (23). However, more frequently it is used as an adverb with the
meaning ‘together’ (24).
(23) qal k’e-b=q’al paˁχ.paˁχ-li-cːella canille
house exist.up-n=mod pakh.pakh-obl-comit together
‘There is a house together with the pakh-pakh.’ (i.e. next to the pakh-pakh,
which is a place in Sanzhi)
(24) xːun-re=ra murgl-e=ra canille b-učː-ul
woman-pl=add man-pl=add together hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb
ka-b-iž-ib ca-b
down-hpl-be.pfv-pret cop-hpl
‘Men and women are sitting together and drinking.’

8.2.3 bahanne/bahandan ‘because of’

This postposition originates from the noun bahana ‘reason’. It governs the absolutive.
(25) a. qili-b ruc-be b-iħ-ib-le b-už-ib ca-b hel
home-hpl sister-pl hpl-wrestle.ipfv-pret-cvb hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl that
qix bahanne
nut because.of
‘At home the sisters were apparently arguing because of the nut.’
b. ušːa bahanne caj-na ka-∅-jž-ib=da
2pl because.of one-time down-m-remain-pret=1
‘Because of you I sat in prison once.’
c. “Allah bahandan w-at-abaj!” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
Allah because.of m-let.pfv-opt.3 m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘“For God’s sake, let me!” he says.’

8.2.4 akːʷar ‘without, except, apart’

The participle form of the negative copula with the meaning ‘not being’ is used in con-
structions that have a meaning similar to adpositions like ‘except, without’. The cross-
categorical suffixes -ce or -il can be added to it without changing the meaning (26b–26d).
The governed nominal is in the absolutive because of the verbal origin of akːʷar as a cop-
ula that governs the absolutive case.
(26) a. e, hel ʡaˁlibatir akːʷ-ar, di-la pikri ħisab-le, han
yes that Alibatir cop.neg-ptcp 1sg-gen thought account-advz remember
w-akːu dam
m-cop.neg 1sg.dat
‘Yes, except Alibatir, in my mind, I do not remember.’

158
 8.2 Non-spatial postpositions

b. nik’a-t-a-la χːula-t-a-la dind-be d-irq’-id

small-pl-obl-gen big-pl-obl-gen stocking-pl npl-do.ipfv-1.prs
naˁq’iš-la naˁq’iš akːʷ-ar-te
drawing-gen drawing cop.neg-ptcp-dd.pl
‘For children, for adults we make stockings, those with a drawing, those
without a drawing.’
c. barkat akːʷ-ar-ce ca-w
patience cop.neg-ptcp-dd.sg cop-m
‘(He) lacks patience.’
d. c’il ∅-ik’-ul ca-w “hin akːʷ-ar-il-le-b urχːab
then m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m water cop.neg-ptcp-ref-loc-n mill
a-b-irχʷ-ni=q’al”
neg-n-be.able.ipfv-msd=mod
‘He said, “Where there is no water a mill cannot be.”’

8.2.5 q’atːin(na) ‘for the sake of, because of’

This postposition governs the absolutive. There are no examples of this postposition in
my corpus, but (27a–27c) show three elicited sentences.

(27) a. u q’atːin kast’um isː-ul=da

2sg for.sb’s.sake suit buy.ipfv-icvb=1
‘Because of you I bought a suit.’ (E)
b. du q’atːin ma-w-ax-utːa!
1sg for.sb’s.sake proh-m-go.ipfv-proh.sg
‘For my sake do not go.’ (E)
c. ħaˁžimurad q’atːin Muslimat heštːu sa-r-eʁ-ib
Hazhimurad for.sb’s.sake Muslimat here hither-f-go.pfv-pret
‘For the sake of Hazhimurad, Muslimat came here.’ (E)

8.2.6 ħaˁsible ‘according to’

This postposition is almost exclusively used in the phrase dila pikri ħaˁsible ‘in my mind’
(26a), (28a), but it can also be used with other nouns that always occur in the absolu-
tive (28b). It was originally borrowed from Arabic ħaːsib ‘counting’, which has a similar
meaning.

(28) a. di-la pikri ħaˁsible hel-tː-a-la ʡaˁbal litru-la balun čaˁʁir-la

1sg-gen thought following that-pl-obl-gen three liter-gen can wine-gen
le-b=de
exist-n=pst
‘In my mind there was their 3-liter can with wine.’

159
8 Postpositions

b. a iš-tːi juldašː-e, ce b-ik’-ul=el, tolko hel sːurrat ħaˁsible

but this-pl friend-pl what n-say.ipfv-icvb=indq only that picture following
b-aχ-ij a-w-irχʷ-ar, w-irχʷ-an-ne=w?
n-know.pfv-inf neg-m-be.able.ipfv-prs m-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3=q
‘And these friends, what they are saying, only by means of the picture, (one)
cannot know, can one?’

160
9 Predicative particles and other
particles, conjunctions, and
cross-categorical suffixes
This chapter discusses the morphosyntactic properties as well as the semantic and prag-
matic functions of predicative particles, conjunctions, temporal enclitics, pragmatic par-
ticles, and cross-categorical suffixes. They do not form a part of speech or a homoge-
neous category, although they can be subgrouped into relatively coherent classes:

• predicative particles (§9.1)

• conjunctions (§9.2)
• temporal enclitics (§9.3)

• discourse and modal enclitics (§9.4)

• pause fillers, address particles, exclamatives, interjections, and other particles
(§9.5)
• cross-categorical derivational suffixes: attributive suffixes and the adverbializing
suffix (§9.6).

They are mainly treated together in one chapter because they either do not fit into
any of the previous chapters or because they have a special relevance for the grammar
of Sanzhi such that a separate treatment is legitimate.

9.1 Predicative particles

In recent studies of Dargwa varieties researchers have introduced the term “predicative
particles” to refer to a closed class of grammatical elements that fulfill the functions
of copula-like auxiliaries (e.g. Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003; Kalinina & Sumbatova 2007;
Sumbatova & Lander 2014). This means that they function as heads of nominal predicate
clauses and similar clauses that do not contain other verbs, and that they are used in
analytic verb forms together with non-finite verb forms in order to form full main clauses.
In other words, they are responsible for the finiteness of certain clauses, and their use
depends on the clause type and the TAM form. In the following, I discuss these particles
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

for Sanzhi. I employ the label “predicative particles”, but my analysis diverges from the
analysis put forward by Sumbatova and colleagues.
Table 9.1 presents the predicative particles of Sanzhi. They are enclitics because they
cannot form their own phonological word. They always need a host to which they attach,
but unlike suffixes they can be added to various parts of speech or phrase types, that is,
to verbs, but also to nominals (noun phrases), adjectives, or adverbs.

Table 9.1: Predicative particles in Sanzhi

particle gloss short description

=da 1, 2pl person enclitic for first person singular and plural and for
second person plural (see §20.3 on agreement)
=de 2sg person enclitic for second person singular
=de pst past tense marker
=q’al mod modal particle (§9.4.2)
=e/=ja q marker for content questions (§28.2)
=w/=uw/=ew q marker for polar questions (§28.1)
=l /=jal/=el indq marker for embedded questions (§28.4)

Due to this freedom in host selection they can be used in term focus constructions
(§27.3.2). However, most commonly they occur in the position in which auxiliary verbs
(e.g. auxiliaries expressing aspect or modality) occur, namely following the lexical verb.
In copula clauses they are normally attached to the head of the predicate (§22.2). They
partially express verbal categories such as person or tense, but they are not verbs them-
selves.
Sumbatova & Mutalov (2003: 138–140) and Sumbatova & Lander (2014: 153–163) in-
clude in their list of predicative particles three more items: the standard copula, the
negative copula, and locational/existential copulas. For Sanzhi these are the copula ca-b
(§16.1), the locational copulas le-b, te-b, k’e-b, and χe-b (§16.2), and the negative copula
(b-)akːʷ- in its present tense and past tense forms. However, I consider these copulas to
be verbs with defective paradigms that overlap in their functions with the predicative
particles because they also occur in copula clauses and analytic verb forms, but they
diverge from the enclitics in Table 9.1 in a number of ways.
First, they are not genuine enclitics; they can occur on their own without a host and
can form their own clause, though some of them may also be used in the form of enclitics.
Second, they express far more verbal categories than the predicative particles. The neg-
ative copula shares a great number of inflectional forms with standard verbs (e.g. it can
inflect for habitual present and habitual past, masdar, etc.). The copula and the locational
copulas have the same gender/number agreement affix as other verbs (even though all
other verbs have gender/number prefixes and not suffixes). They convey present time
reference, third person agreement, and are specified for affirmative polarity. Third, the
predicative particles can be attached to the copula and to the locational copulas, includ-
ing those particles that express verbal categories (i.e. the person enclitics and the past

162
 9.1 Predicative particles

tense enclitic), so that all copulas can express first and second person agreement or past
tense (5), but the person enclitics and the past tense enclitic strictly exclude each other.
The predicative particles can be divided into two groups. The first consists of the
enclitics that express categories, which are most commonly marked on the verb (person
enclitics =da and =de and the past tense enclitic =de), and the second group are the
pragmatic markers (modal particle, interrogative particles). The two groups differ in their
properties:

Verby predicative particles (person enclitics, past enclitic)

• are regularly used for the formation of analytic verb forms such as the com-
pound present and past, preterite, perfect, etc. (§14) and certain clause types
(e.g. declarative copula clauses)
• cannot occur in clauses with verb forms that have person suffixes (e.g. habitual
present, habitual past, conditional forms, imperative, optative, etc.)
• can never occur in most types of subordinate clauses such as adverbial clauses,
relative clauses, conditional clauses and many complement clauses
• are in complementary distribution with each other, i.e. person enclitics and the
past enclitic exclude each other
Pragmatic predicative particles (modal particle, interrogative particles)
• are normally not used as heads of copula clauses or for the formation of ana-
lytic verb forms, though such a usage is possible for third person subject-like
arguments
• can occur in clauses with verb forms that have person suffixes
• their use is never obligatory and they cannot replace verby predicative particles
in certain verb forms and certain clause types in which the verby particles are
obligatory
• can occur in most types of subordinate clauses; only embedded questions are
excluded
• are in complementary distribution with each other, i.e., the modal particle can-
not co-occur with any of the interrogative particles

Predicative particles of the two groups can co-occur with each other (1), (2); the verby
particles always precede the pragmatic particles, and (most) other discourse particles.
This means that the interrogative markers and the modal enclitic normally occur to-
gether with a person enclitic, the past enclitic or some kind of copula, and their function
is primarily pragmatic (e.g. to convey a certain modal meaning or interrogative illocu-
tionary force) and syntactic (for the interrogative markers).

(1) itːu a-r-ax-an=da=q’al, sːa ag-ur=da ʁubza

there neg-f-go-ptcp=1=mod yesterday go.pfv-pret=1 emph
‘I will not go there, I went yesterday.’

163
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(2) hel-i-la ʁaj-li-j qili arg-ul=de=w u?

that-obl-gen word-obl-dat home go.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q 2sg
‘Are you going home because of what she said?’ (lit. ‘because of her word’)

There are two types of clauses that may require the use of a predicative particle instead
of a copula or another type of auxiliary verb. The first type is copula clauses (§22.2) and
the second type is main clauses with analytic tense forms (Chapter 14). Thus, person
enclitics and the past enclitic in the sentences in (3–5) cannot be replaced by copulas
or other auxiliary verbs without changing the semantics of the clause or verb form or
even making the sentence ungrammatical. The copula can be added to the clauses (3a),
(3b) without noticeably altering the semantics or pragmatics of the sentences, but not to
(4a), (4b). An example is provided in (5). This means that in the analytic verb forms the
copula can never co-occur with the person markers or with the past tense enclitic.

First and second person or past time reference

(3) copula clauses

a. du ustːa=da
1sg master=1
‘I am a master.’ (E)
b. du ustːa=de
1sg master=pst
‘I was a master.’ (E)
c. u ustːa=de=w?
2sg master=2sg=q
‘Are you a master?’ (E)
(4) analytic verb forms
a. du ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul=da
1sg laugh f-say.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I am laughing.’ (E)
b. du ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul=de
1sg laugh f-say.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I was laughing.’ (E)
c. u ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul=de=w?
2sg laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q
‘Are you laughing?’ (E)
(5) [In the year 1971 you were in the army, right?]
ca-w=de
cop-m=pst
‘Yes, I (masc.) was.’

164
 9.1 Predicative particles

In clauses with third person agreement controllers the copula is normally used (6),
(9). However, it can be omitted when the pragmatic predicative particles are used if the
concomitant pragmatic meaning needs to be conveyed (7a), (7b) or if the speaker wants
to utter a question (7c), (7d).

Third person non-past time reference

(6) iž ustːa ca-w

this master cop-m
‘He is a master.’
(7) copula clauses without a copula
a. ij badra-cːe-d d-i-d hin=q’al
this bucket-in-npl npl-in-npl water=mod
‘In this bucket there is water.’
b. di-la arc=el hel-tːi
1sg-gen money=indq that-pl
‘That is probably my money.’ (E)
c. it ustːa=w?
that master=q
‘Is s/he a master?’ (E)
d. ij, ča=ja iž?
this who=q this
‘This, who is it?’
(8) analytic verb forms without a copula
a. ij ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul=q’al
this laugh f-say.ipfv-icvb=mod
‘She is laughing.’
b. it ce r-ik’-ul=e?
that what f-say.ipfv-icvb=q
‘What is she saying?’
c. heš-tː-a-l sud b-irq’-ul=el
this-pl-obl-erg trial n-do.ipfv-icvb=indq
‘They are probably making a trial.’

It is always possible to add the copula. Thus, the following two examples show copula
clauses and analytic verb forms with copulas and additional predicative particles. In (10)
the negative copula together with the modal particle and the affirmative copula with the
indirecet question marker encliticized to it are used.

165
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(9) heχ ča ca-r=e?

dem.down who cop-f=q
‘Who is she?’
(10) na hel rursːi-li-j=ra b-alχ-ul akːu=q’al, il urχːab ce
now that girl-obl-dat=add n-know.ipfv-icvb cop.neg=mod that mill what
ca-b=el
cop-n=indq
‘The girl also does not know if that is a mill or not.’

Without the predicative particles (or a copula or another type of suitable auxiliary)
the copula clauses would be ungrammatical:

(11) * du ustːa
1sg master
(Intended meaning: ‘I am a master.’) (E)
(12) * u ustːa=w?
2sg master
(Intended meaning: ‘Are you a master?’) (E)
(13) * ij, ča iž?
this who this
(Intended meaning: ‘This, who is it?’) (E)

Clauses with analytic verb forms are not ungrammatical, but they can only be used as
subordinate clauses because of the non-finite verb forms (14).

(14) u ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul, ka-r-iž-ib-le=de

2sg laugh f-say.ipfv-icvb down-f-sit.pfv-pret-cvb=2sg
‘You (fem.) are sitting and laughing.’ (E)

9.2 Conjunctions
Sanzhi does not have native conjunctions, and this is typical for East Caucasian lan-
guages. The main way of conjoining phrases is the use of the additive enclitic (§9.4.1),
and at the clause level converbs are employed (§25.1). However, there are a number of
borrowed conjunctions whose use varies.
The monosyndetic conjunction wa ‘and’ occurs only in translated texts. The disjunc-
tive particle ja … ja ‘or’, ‘and’, ‘either … or’, ‘neither … nor’ mostly occurs in the dis-
junction of clauses (15) or more rarely of phrases (16). Usually both disjunctions are in-
troduced by ja. However, sometimes there is only one clearly identifiable disjunction
member in which ja occurs, and in such examples ja can also function as a conjunction
(17). The complex form ja=ra (or=add) is used as well (16). See §26.1 and §26.2.4 for more
information on the disjunction of phrases and clauses and their syntactic properties.

166
 9.2 Conjunctions

(15) ħurija ja ca-r ha-r-ax-ul akːu, ja du r-ax-ul akːʷa-di

Hurija or refl-f up-f-go-icvb cop.neg or 1sg f-go-icvb cop.neg-1
‘Neither Hurija herself comes nor do I go.’
(16) e, ču-la hel=ʁuna qːabuʁ-e ja=ra qːalpuz-e ču-la
yes refl.pl-gen that=eq pumpkin-pl or=add watermelon-pl refl.pl-gen
d-urkː-ar
npl-find.ipfv-prs
‘These are probably their pumpkins or watermelons.’
(17) ha-b-eʁ-ib-le, ja il kaxʷ-ij a-b-iχ-ub
up-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb and that kill.pfv-inf neg-hpl-be.able.pfv-pret
‘They went and they could not kill him.’

The conjunction amma ‘but’ introduces adversative clauses. Usually these clauses re-
fer to situations that are contrasted with earlier mentioned events and the conjunction
occurs in clause-initial position rather than between two clauses (20), but it can also be
used like a normal clause conjunction between two main clauses (18) or very rarely at
the end of the clause (19).

(18) “b-učː-an=da, b-uk-an=da” b-ik’-ul ca-b, “amma

n-drink.ipfv-ptcp=1 n-eat.ipfv-ptcp=1 hpl-say.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl but
kep a-d-irχʷ-an=da”
drinking neg-1/2pl-become.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘They say, “‘We will drink and eat, but not get drunk.”’ (a kind of saying, used by
people who want to drink)
(19) tusnaq-li-j miši-l akːu amma
prison-obl-dat similar-advz cop.neg but
‘But isn’t this similar to a prison.’

Moreover, it is employed to mark a switch of the topic of a conversation (20), just as

Russian a is used (see examples (23), (24) below).

(20) [topic switch to back to the previous topic, namely the price of flour]
amma urek darš-li-j, urek darš-li-j wahi-l akːu
but six hundred-obl-dat six hundred-obl-dat bad-advz cop.neg
garam=ra
gram=add
‘But for 600, for 600, that is not bad at all.’

The subordinating conjunction raχle ‘if’ is a native item with the morphological struc-
ture of an adverbial derived by means of the adverbializing suffix -le (compare raχ-raχle
‘sometimes’). It introduces conditional clauses (21). Because Sanzhi has specialized con-
ditionals for this function, raχle always co-occurs with one of the conditional forms

167
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(Chapter 18.3). The use of raχle is optional, whereas the conditional forms are manda-
tory. There is another borrowed conjunction with a similar meaning, egena (< Persian
eger ‘if’), which occurs only in translated or elicited clauses.

(21) raχle tusnaq-le-r tːura uq-ulle, cik’al a-b-iχʷ-ar,

if prison-loc-abl outside go.m.pfv-cond.1 something neg-n-be.pfv-cond.3
ʡaˁħ-le saʁ-le ...
good-advz healthy-advz
‘If I leave prison well, healthy, if nothing happens to me, [I will probably become
a dentist].’

Sanzhi also has a couple of conjunctions borrowed from Russian: i ‘and’, a ‘and, but’,
no ‘but’, and ili ‘or’ (see Forker (2018c) for code switching between Sanzhi and Russian).
Among them, i and a are very frequently used by speakers of all ages in various types
of texts, most often to conjoin stretches of discourse (not necessarily sentences) in the
case of i. The conjunction a is used to mark a switch of the discourse topic (23), (24). In
addition, they coordinate clauses, but do not conjoin phrases, since in this function =ra
is used (§26.1).

(22) Pat’ima-l h-asː-ib-le qːap=ra, ag-ur ca-r wac’a-cːe i

Patima-erg up-take.pfv-pret-cvb sack=add go.pfv-pret cop-f forest-in and
xun-ni-sa-b suk b-ič-ib ca-b bec’
road-obl-ante-n meet n-occur.pfv-pret cop-n wolf
‘Patima took a sack and went into the forest and on the way she met a wolf.’
(23) a il ʡaˁlibatir=ra χabar b-urs-ib=de=q’al u-l
but that Alibatir=add story n-tell-pret=2sg=mod 2sg-erg
‘and/but you also already told the story of Alibatir.’
(24) a Nuriška čina-r=e?
but Nurishka where-f=q
‘And Nurishka, where is she?’

The Russian disjunction ili ‘or’ conjoins disjunctive clauses (see §26.2.4 for examples).
Furthermore, it is employed in clause-initial or clause-final position when expressing
uncertainty together with the indirect question marker (25) or an interrogative particle
(26).

(25) sub xːunul=el ili?

husband woman=indq or
‘Or this is a married couple?’
(26) ili ik’-i-l r-it-ib-le=w iχ?
or dem.up-obl-erg f-beat.up-pret-cvb=q dem.down
‘Or did he beat her?’

168
 9.3 Temporal enclitics

9.3 Temporal enclitics

Temporal enclitics, i.e. enclitics used in specialized converbal clauses and for the expres-
sion of other adverbial phrases, are a group of two particles that are encliticized to verbs
and nominals. Their meanings are rather adverbial (27) but because they are phonolog-
ically dependent on a host and can be hosted by a variety of parts of speech (verbs,
pronouns, nouns, adjectives) I do not categorize them as genuine adverbials but treat
them separately. They most commonly occur with non-finite verb forms (participles
and infinitive/subjunctive) in adverbial clauses, a usage which corresponds to temporal
and non-temporal specialized converbs. This function is only briefly illustrated in the
current section, and more information and examples can be found in §18.2.1 for =qːel(la)
and §18.2.3 for =sat/=satːin/=satːinna.

(27) a. =qːel(la) ‘when, while, because’ (simultaneity, anteriority, causality)

b. =sat/=satːin/=satːinna ‘until, before, as much as, as long as’
(posteriority, manner)

The enclitics are not subordinating conjunctions even if their meaning corresponds to
subordinating conjunctions in other languages, because they do not fulfill the function
of syntactic subordination as genuine subordinating conjunctions or complementizers
would. From a morphosyntactic point of view, they can occur in subordinate clauses
because they are added to non-finite verb forms that are used to function as heads of
subordinate clauses due to their non-finiteness. The enclitics themselves only contribute
to the semantics of those clauses, not to their syntactic properties.
One might argue that the enclitics resemble case markers or postpositions, but in con-
trast to the former they are not added to oblique stem forms, and in contrast to the latter
they do not govern any cases. They have phrases in their scope and they are normally
encliticized to the head of the phrase that they scope over, e.g., to the noun in a noun
phrase (35), (36), (97). They share this property with the focus-sensitive particles such as
the additive and the modal particles (§9.4). In the following, I will describe the functions
of the two enclitics in more detail, concentrating on the uses with non-verbal hosts.
The particle =qːel(la), of which the short form is used more often than the long form, is
encliticized to the preterite and modal participle and to the negative copula (usually in its
participial form), and expresses temporal simultaneity (28) and occasionally anteriority
or causality.

(28) w-ebč’-ib χatːaj wer-c’a nu wer-ra dus

m-die.pfv-pret grandfather seven-ten well seven-num year
∅-iχ-ub=qːel
m-be.pfv-pret=when
‘Grandfather died when he was 77 years old.’

Temporal simultaneity is also expressed when it is hosted by nominals such as demon-

strative pronouns, nouns, numerals or adjectives and by adverbs. In the first place, the

169
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

enclitic is attached to demonstrative pronouns yielding the deictic meaning ‘at that time,
then’, which transparently derives from the meaning of the demonstrative and the mean-
ing of the enclitic (29). As can be seen in example (30), the enclitic can be preceded by the
additive, which indicates that it is not a derivational suffix that forms temporal adver-
bials, but rather a syntactically independent item that scopes over the entire combination
of demonstrative and additive.
(29) socijalizma=de het=qːella, het=qːella het=qːella het=ʁuna parjadok
socialism=pst that=when that=when that=when that=eq order
le-b=de hetːu-b
exist-n=pst there-n
‘Socialism was at that time, order (tidiness) like this was at that time there.’
(30) it=ra=qːel ca ʁuna=w?
that=add=when one eq=q
‘(Is it) that time also one and the same (shirt)?’
More rarely the enclitic appears on nominals with and without additional case mark-
ers (31), and also yields the meaning ‘when’. For instance, a noun denoting a profession
to which =qːella is added is interpreted as ‘when performing the relevant profession’; a
noun denoting a location plus =qːella leads to the meaning ‘when being in that location’
(31). Furthermore, the interrogative adverb ceqːel ‘when’ can diachronically be analyzed
as ce ‘what’ and =qːel, and the indefinite pronouns ca=qːel and ca-ca=qːel ‘sometimes,
from time to time’ as ca ‘one’ plus =qːel.
(31) cellij akːu=n tusnaq-le-w=qːella qihin-ne ca-b
why cop.neg=prt prison-loc-m=when difficult-advz cop-n
‘Because when (you are) in prison it is difficult.’
(32) guna=qːel ca-b hel-itːe daˁʡle b-arq’-ib qal
warm=when cop-n that-advz as n-do.pfv-pret house
‘When it is warm (i.e. in warm places) the houses are built like this.’
The enclitic =sat/=satːin/=satːinna occurs in three different variants that are function-
ally equivalent, but differ in their frequency of use. It originates from the postposition
sa ‘in front, ago’. When it is used with the infinitive/subjunctive the meaning is ‘before,
until’ (33), i.e. temporal posteriority, which corresponds to the meaning of the postpo-
sition from which it is derived. When the enclitic occurs with the modal participle the
meaning is ‘as much as, as long as’ (34). More examples can be found in §18.2.3.
(33) du sa-jʁ-ij=satːinna, r-ebč’-ib-le=de aba
1sg hither-come.m.pfv-inf=until f-die.pfv-pret-cvb=pst mother
‘Until (before) I came my mother died.’
(34) uf b-ik’-ul b-aʔ-axː-ib b-irχ-an=satːinna
blow n-say.ipfv-icvb n-begin-put.pfv-pret n-be.able.ipfv-ptcp=as.much
‘(The wind) began to blow as strong as it could’

170
 9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics

The latter meaning is also attested when the enclitic follows nouns (35), (36). As both
examples prove, the enclitic is directly attached to the stem (after plural suffixes) without
additional case marking and therefore does not qualify as a spatial case. Furthermore, it
has the entire noun phrase in its scope.
(35) [gde.to wer darš]=sat sːurrat ha-jt’-un=da, hana
somewhere seven hundred=as.much picture up-take.away.pfv-pret=1 now
ag-ur=qːel
go.pfv-pret=when
‘Around as many as 700 pictures I made when we went (there) now.’
(36) du ħaˁsrat-le b-at-ur-te, [nuˁq-b-a-lla
1sg passion-advz hpl-let.pfv-pret-dd.pl hand-pl-obl-gen
t’upː-e]=sat=de
finger-pl=as.much=pst
‘The ones that I left in passion (i.e. that fell in love with me), (they) were as much
as the hand’s fingers.’
Finally, the enclitic can be added to demonstrative pronouns and forms manner
demonstrative pronouns that are used in comparison ‘like this, like that, such’:
(37) hel=sat χːula r-eʁ-ib-le r-už-ib-le hel rucːi
that=as.much big f-go.pfv-pret-cvb f-be-pret-cvb that sister
‘(From her small finger he pulled out his parents), so big was his sister.’

9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics

9.4.1 The additive enclitic
The additive enclitic =ra covers all of the functions typical for additives in East Caucasian
languages and other language families:

1. simple bisyndetic and emphatic conjunction of phrases, usually noun phrases (but
not of clauses) (see §26.1 on noun phrase coordination).

(38) Q’ampaj=ra du=ra ag-ur=da Sanži

Kampaj=add 1sg=add go.pfv-pret=1 Sanzhi
‘Kampaj and I went to Sanzhi.’

2. additive and scalar additive function (comparable to English ‘also’, ‘too’, ‘as well’,
and ‘even’), that is, used as focus-sensitive particle that associates with an element
of the proposition in which it occurs and indicates that what is said about this
element also holds for an alternative (39). In Sanzhi, the scalar additive function is
particularly frequent in negative clauses, and when the additive is encliticized to
hati ‘more’ (40).

171
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(39) [Was grandfather the oldest son?]

atːa-ja-r χːula-te=ra b-irχ-i
father-loc-abl big-dd.pl=add hpl-be.ipfv-pst.hab
‘There were also ones older than grandfather.’
(40) c’il=ra r-ik’-ul ca-r hati=ra ʡaˁsi r-iχ-ub-le,
then=add f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f more=add angry f-be.pfv-pret-cvb
“čina-w=de=kːʷa u b-urs-a!”
where-m=2sg=prt 2sg n-say-imp
‘And then (the witch) said, even more angry, “Say where you are!”’

3. in contrastive topicalization (41) and topic switch constructions: when sentence

topics are switched in a narrative, such topic switches are often accompanied by
adding =ra to the switched topics (41). Sentence (42) is from a narrative in which
the speaker talks about people from the neighboring village and says that earlier
they were like Russians when they were still living in the mountains and that this
has not changed, but that Sanzhi people were always and are still different from
them.

(41) [The fox said to Patimat: Do such and such!]

“ʡaˁħ-le,” r-ik’-ul ca-r. Pat’ima=ra razi r-iχ-ub ca-r
good-advz f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f Patima=add agree f-be.pfv-pret cop-f
‘And Patima agreed, saying, “Good.”’
(42) itːi itwaj=ra ʡuˁrusː-e ʁunab-te ca-b hana=ra
those like.this=add Russian-pl like-dd.pl cop-hpl now=add
‘And now also they are like Russians.’

4. adverbial conjunction ‘and then’: the additive introduces a clause that is part of a
stretch of connected discourse.

(43) c’il=ra hel-tːi bahla.bahlal ʁaj=ra d-aχ-ur-re,

then=add that-pl slowly language=add npl-know-pret-cvb
bahla.bahlal islužba=ra b-iqː-ul, …
slowly service=add n-carry.ipfv-icvb
‘And then slowly I got to know this language, and I did my (military)
service ...’

Furthermore, the additive is used in the formation of concessive clauses by adding it

to conditional markers (§18.3.6). It also has derivational uses, namely the derivation of
indefinite pronouns (§4.6), collective numerals (§6.6), and direct cardinal numerals from
eleven up (§6.1). For an account of additive pronouns by means of the semantic map
method see Forker (2016c).

172
 9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics

9.4.2 The enclitic =q’al

The enclitic =q’al is a frequently occurring focus-sensitive modal particle that in its fre-
quency of occurrence is only outstripped by the additive (273 occurrences of the modal
particle vs. around 1,700 occurrences of the additive in a corpus with 46,000 tokens). It
belongs to the class of predicative particles, that is, when it is used together with cer-
tain non-finite verb forms such as the imperfective converb it turns the clause into an
independent main clause (44) (§9.1). The particle cannot occur in utterances that are of a
sentence type other than assertions and exclamations in the optative mood. Commands
or questions are thus excluded. It occurs in main clauses (45) and in subordinate clauses
(47) and is usually hosted by the verb, but in verbless predications by the predicate (48).
It co-occurs with other predicative particles and follows them (e.g. person markers, past
tense marker, embedded question marker), but not together with the interrogative en-
clitics (including the marker of embedded questions). It can be used in term focus con-
structions when it is encliticized to the item that is in focus.
The function of =q’al is to mark an utterance as presupposed, and thus as, in principle,
known to the hearer (and the speaker), but potentially in need of being activated and
brought to the conscious attention of the addressee, similar to English ‘you know’ or
Russian že (which is used for the translation of =q’al into Russian) (44–47).

(44) a-ka-d-urc-ul=q’al iš-tːi

neg-down-npl-keep.ipfv-icvb=mod this-pl.abs
‘These (pictures) do not fit (on the table or in that order).’
[presupposition: we both can see this, you should agree with me on this point]
(45) biriz-la kːalkːi-la b-urs-ib=da=q’al χabar sːa
birch-gen tree-gen n-tell-pret=1=mod story yesterday
‘Yesterday I already told the story about the birch tree.’
[presupposition: you should know and remember since you were present]
(46) ʡaˁħ-te d-iχʷ-ardel, heχ-i-l
good-dd.pl npl-be.pfv-cond.pst dem.down-obl-erg
d-učː-an=de=q’al
npl-drink.ipfv-ptcp=pst=mod
‘If (the drinks) were, he would drink them.’
[presupposition: you know that men never refuse good drinks]

Example (47) was uttered when the speaker was talking about an event in which
Hamid was involved and supposes that the addressee knows Hamid, which is the case.

(47) ħaˁmid w-alχ-atːe=q’al at, ...

Hamid m-know.ipfv-cond.2=mod 2sg.dat
‘Hamid, if you know him ...’

The addressee is sometimes implicitly or explicitly asked to agree with the speaker
(48). In (49) the speaker criticizes the use of the Russian verb sabrat ‘gather, collect’
instead of a native term and invites the hearer to agree with her and to remember the
Sanzhi word.
173
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(48) ij badra-cːe-d d-i-d hin=q’al, akːu=w?

this bucket-in-npl npl-in-npl water=mod cop.neg=q
‘In this bucket is water, right?’
(49) sabrat d-arq’-ib, herʔ-an akːu=q’al
gather npl-do.pfv-pret say.ipfv-ptcp cop.neg=mod
‘“sabrat” did, (we/you) don’t say so.’
[presupposition: we both know that we have our own Sanzhi word for this]
It is also used in questions with a strong presupposition that the addressee knows the
answer (50).
(50) hej q’ar ce=jal b-ik’-u=q’al nišːa-la?
this herbs what=indef hpl-say.ipfv-prs.3=mod 1pl-gen
‘These herbs here, how are they called in our (language)?’
Another common usage is existential clauses with the locational copula le-b, confirm-
ing the existence of a referent that is going to be the topic of the following discourse
(51). They seem to correspond to the Russian phrase X est’ že, a typical Dagestanian
expression that is almost never used by speakers of Standard Russian.
(51) a-rurg-an le-b=q’al it, birikːalla.ʁut’ le-b=q’al het
neg-burn-ptcp exist-n=mod that cow.parsnip exist-n=mod that
‘There is the one that does not burn, the cow-parsnip.’
If the information is new, it is still treated as presupposition that requires immediate
accommodation. For instance, in (52) the speaker is talking about how his grandfather
for the first time brought iron parts for ploughs to Sanzhi which were unknown in Sanzhi
and the addressee does not necessarily know this fact, but it is marked as presupposed
by means of =q’al.
(52) Sanži-d d-a-d-už-ib-le=q’al hel-tːi
Sanzhi-npl npl-neg-npl-be-pret-cvb=mod that-pl.abs
‘In Sanzhi, they did not have them (the iron item that you use on wooden
ploughs).’
The enclitic =q’al widely occurs in other Dargwa varieties. In Standard (Akusha)
Dargwa, there is q’alli, which van den Berg (2001: 748–75) analyzes as a focus particle.
Tatevosov (2001) analyzes Icari Dargwa =q’al as a mirative marker. Sumbatova (2009) in
her account of questions in Icari calls it a focus-marking clitic translated with ‘but’ in
the glosses and described as marking the proposition “as known to both communicants”.
In the Icari grammar as well as in Kalinina & Sumbatova (2007) the same enclitic is also
glossed with ‘but’ and described as “actualization particle”. Sumbatova & Lander (2014:
338–339) treat Tanti Dargwa =q’ale as an actualizing marker with a functional range
very similar to the Sanzhi particle. For a detailed analysis of the morphosyntactic and
semanto-pragmatic properties of =q’al in Sanzhi see Forker (Accepted).

174
 9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics

9.4.3 The enclitic =q’ar

The enclitic =q’ar is a modal particle that partially overlaps in its uses with =q’al (§9.4.2)
and =n(u) (§9.4.4). Like =q’al it cannot be used in questions together with the interrog-
ative particles. However, it does not belong to the class of predicative particles. It bears
some resemblances to German doch and Russian že.
The enclitic is used when correcting utterances (53) or contradicting expectations.
Thus, the speaker of (54) expected her children to inform her about the death of her son,
but in order to preserve the mother from the very devastating news they did not tell her
everything, but discussed the issue only among themselves.

(53) kartuška-la qːup-re=q’ar akːu, ∅-ik’-ul=da, χalq’ ca-b,

potato-gen sack-pl=mod cop.neg m-say.ipfv-icvb=1 people cop-hpl
∅-ik’-ul=da, heχ-tːi
m-say.ipfv-icvb=1 dem.down-pl
‘These are not potato sacks, I say, they are people.’
(54) hel-tː-a-l, b-aχ-ur-re b-už-ib ca-b hel-tː-a-j,
that-pl-obl-erg n-know.pfv-pret-cvb n-stay-pret cop-n that-pl-obl-dat
di-cːe=q’ar a-b-urs-ib
1sg-in=mod neg-n-tell.pfv-pret
‘Apparently they knew it and they did not tell it to me.’

More generally, =q’ar signals contrast between the utterance in which it occurs and
some other utterance or previously discussed issues, i.e., it marks contrastive topical-
ization (‘and as for X, P’). For example, in (55) the speaker contrasts the behavior of a
person after he had been in prison with his behavior before he went to prison, when he
never refused a drink with his friends. Similarly, (56) exemplifies a parallel structure of
two clauses that immediately follow each other and contain contrasting propositions.

(55) heχ sa-jʁ-ib hitːi, čar ∅-iχ-ub zamana=q’ar,

dem.down hither-come.m.pfv-pret after back m-be.pfv-pret time=mod
ʡaˁħ-le qːuʁa-l atkaz ∅-iχ-ub ca-w
good-advz beautiful-advz refusal m-be.pfv-pret cop-m
‘After he came back, he refused very well.’
(56) “dam=q’ar,” b-ik’-ul ca-b, “nekʷ-la buruš b-arq’-ib, a
1sg.dat=mod n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n straw-gen mattress n-do.pfv-pret but
ču-la baˁmbag-la b-urkː-ar”
refl.pl-gen cotton.wool-gen n-find.ipfv-prs
‘The (fox) says, “For me they made a bed from herbs and grass, and for
themselves they took probably cotton wool.”’

Similarly to =q’al as described above, the enclitic =q’ar is also used as an actualizing
modal particle that relates the utterance to the argumentative background and in this

175
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

way indicates what is assumed to be common ground. In other words, it signals what
the speaker assumes to be known by the hearer. For instance, (57) is from a narrative
about some people who stole money during the absence of the main character and his
wife. The speaker stresses the fact that it is clear to everyone that the people knew the
times of the day when nobody was at home and when the wife was supposed to come
home again. And (58) describes the place close to Sanzhi where there are old paintings
on rocks that are still visible, although they are assumed to have been made thousands
of years ago, and what the speaker says is a fact known to every Sanzhi person.

(57) ʡaˁči-le-r sa-q’-aˁn zamana sːaˁʡaˁt-e=q’ar d-alχ-ul

work-loc-abl hither-go-ptcp time hour-pl=mod npl-know.ipfv-icvb
ca-d hex-tː-a-j
cop-npl dem.up-pl-obl-dat
‘They know the time when (the wife) comes back from work.’
(58) ixtːu=q’ar marka či-ikː-ul akːu
there.up=mod rain on-get.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
‘The rain does not reach there.’

9.4.4 The enclitic =n(u)

The enclitic =nu (allomorph =n after vowels) is used when the speaker wants to attract
the attention of the addressee. It is mostly encliticized to verbs. Its meaning can be para-
phrased as ‘watch out, pay attention, something is happening or is going to happen in
the near future that is of relevance and important for you’. There are several contexts
in which it usually occurs. For example, =n(u) often occurs in clauses with first person
subject-like arguments when the speaker wants to stress the fact that s/he is already
performing an action or is in a certain state or is about to perform an action in the near
future (59).

(59) hana t’aš r-icː-e! r-ax-ul=da=n

now stop f-stand.pfv-imp f-go-icvb=1=prt
‘Now wait, I (fem.) am coming.’

Such clauses can also have second or third person subjects, but again they warn that
soon something will happen that is of importance for the addressee (60).

(60) u=ra ukː-an=de=n, maˁ-q’-aˁtːa!

2sg=add eat.m.ipfv-ptcp=2sg=prt proh-go-proh.sg
‘[Your sister turned into a monster, she ate people], and she will eat you (masc.),
don’t go!’

The enclitic is part of the phrase celij akːu=n (why cop.neg=prt) with the meaning
‘because’. It introduces clauses that deliver an important explanation that the speaker
wants the addressee to pay attention to (61).

176
 9.4 Discourse and modal enclitics

(61) cellij akːu=n tusnaq-le-w=qːella qihin-ne ca-b

why cop.neg=prt prison-loc-m=when difficult-advz cop-n
‘Because when you are in prison it is difficult.’
The second context is the use with imperatives and optatives, because they also occur
in utterances that are of special importance and relevance for the addressee who, for
instance, has been ordered to do something (62).
(62) nu b-ikː-aχː-at, nišːa-la heχtːu d-uk-a=n,
well n-want.ipfv-cond-cond.2 1pl-gen there.down npl-gather.ipfv-imp=prt
d-ac’ d-arq’-a=nu, uq’-aˁ=nu!
npl-empty npl-do.pfv-imp=prt go.m-imp=prt
‘If you want, take the (stuff) and empty it there in our place, go!’
The third context is contrastive focus constructions that are used to correct wrong
assumptions, assertions or beliefs. The enclitic occurs in the clause that rejects the asser-
tion and is followed by the correction:
(63) qili akːu=nu, witrezwitel-le uqː-ul ca-w
home cop.neg=prt sobering.up-loc carry.m.pfv-icvb cop-m
‘No, not home, they take him to the sobering-up station.’
(64) či-haˁ-q’-uˁn-ne=kːu=n ka-jž-ib ca-w
spr-up-go-pret-cvb=cop.neg=prt down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m
hel-tː-a-cːella w-alli
that-pl-obl-comit m-together
‘No, he is not going towards them, but sitting together with them.’
It is not necessary that the rejecting clause contain a negation; it can also be an af-
firmative clause that functions as a correction. For instance, people tried to destroy a
mill by hitting the turning mill stone. They did not immediately succeed although they
tried hard and thus (65) contradicts the expectation that they had already finished their
destruction.
(65) urk’i b-el=nu, b-aˁq-aˁjaˁ! urk’i b-el=nu,
heart n-remain.pfv=prt n-hit.pfv-imp.pl heart n-remain.pfv=prt
b-aˁq-aˁjaˁ!
n-hit.pfv-imp.pl
‘The heart remained, hit it! The heart remained, hit it!’

9.4.5 Other enclitics that manipulate information structure

Sanzhi has further focus-sensitive enclitics with a more specific semantics: =cun ‘only’
(66), =gina ‘alone, only’ (67), malle ‘even’ (68), and arrah ‘at least’ (69). Note that in (67)
the enclitic =gina is followed by a person enclitic; the reverse order would be ungram-
matical. See also §27.5 for more information on the position and use of focus-sensitive
particles.

177
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(66) ca bac darman-t-a-lla=cun lečenie b-arq’-ib=da, ʡaˁb-c’al bari

one month medicine-pl-obl-gen=only cure n-do.pfv-pret=1 three-ten day
‘For one month I was cured only with pills, for 30 days.’
(67) du=gina=da qili arg-an, u akːʷa-tːe
1sg=only=1 home go.ipfv-ptcp 2sg cop.neg-2sg
‘Only I/I alone will go home, not you.’ (E)
(68) rucːi-la rursːi hel malle t’ut’u r-arq’-ib-le čum=el dus
sister-gen girl that even throw.out f-do.pfv-pret-cvb how.many=indq year
hitːille
later
‘Even his sister’s daughter did he throw out, after some years.’

The particle arrah ‘at least’ is used in commands (69), irrealis conditional clauses, and
negative clauses together with the quantifier ca ‘on’ with a scalar additive meaning (70).
It mostly occurs following nominals and then has scope over the nominals, but it can
also scope over verbal predicates. In the latter case, it is possible to insert the particle
between the locational and the deixis/gravitation preverbs. For instance, in (71) the verb
is prefixed with the locational preverb či- and the particle follows it. This preverb is
a lexicalized part of the verb ‘see’ because the root almost never occurs without the
preverb, and thus the particle is inserted into a verbal stem.

(69) kːul-be arrah d-iqː-a dam

skin-pl at.least npl-carry.ipfv-imp 1sg.dat
‘Give me at least the skin back!’
(70) “nišːa-la ca arrah admi,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w,
1pl-gen one at.least person m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
“a-ka-jč-ib”
neg-down-occur.m.pfv-pret
‘“Of our (people) not even one man fell down,” he says.’
(71) w-aš-e a-ag-ur-il ∅-iχ-utːe, či=arrah-b-až-ij
m-go-imp neg-go.pfv-pret-ref m-be.pfv-cond.2sg spr=at.least-n-see.pfv-inf
‘Let’s go if you did not go there, at least to see.’

There is an emphatic enclitic =le, which, however, occurs only twice in the corpus, and
speakers do not have clear intuitions about its meaning, making it difficult to analyze in
detail. These are the two examples:

(72) c’elt-m-a-cːe-w q’ar-ri-cːe-w hi-l urkː-u=le

gravestone-pl-obl-in-m herbs-obl-in-m who.obl-erg find.m.ipfv-prs=emph
dučːi-la itːu
night-gen there
‘Among the graves, in the grass, who finds (him), at night.’

178
 9.5 Pause fillers, address particles, exclamatives, and interjections

(73) iχ rursːi-la qːuʁa-l kʷi-sa-b-uc-ala=le

dem.down girl-gen beautiful-advz in.hands-hither-n-keep.pfv-nmlz=emph
nik’a-ce
small-dd.sg
‘(Look at) the way the girl is holding the child in her hands.’

And there is another enclitic =k’u that is also roughly described as emphatic or modal.
Like the two modal enclitics =q’al and =q’ar it is usually translated by že or ved’ into
Russian. The enclitic is also used for the formation of specific indefinite pronouns (§4.6.1).
In the corpus, there are three occurrences of the emphatic/modal use, of which two are
given here:

(74) “u=k’u ik’ʷ-a-tːe,” haʔ-ib=da,

2sg=emph say.ipfv.m-hab.pst-2sg say.pfv-pret=1
“w-arčː-ib-le=kːu”
m-find.pfv-pret-cvb=cop.neg
‘I said, “You said that they did not find him.”’
(75) ca dus=k’u, ašːi-j b-aχ-ij d-urkː-a-tːa čina
one year=emph 2pl-dat n-know.pfv-inf npl-find.ipfv-hab.pst-2pl where
musːa-t=te=l, Maˁħaˁmmad
place-pl=pst=indq Mahammad
‘One year, you should know it, where the places were, Mahammad.’

Interrogative markers for polar questions (§28.1), content questions (§28.2), and em-
bedded questions (§28.4) also play a role in the information structure of utterances and
are analyzed in separate sections.

9.5 Pause fillers, address particles, exclamatives, and

interjections
Sanzhi has two politeness particles that are used in imperatives and prohibitives in order
to soften the command, =kːʷa and the rarely used =ri. The first enclitic is also used in
polite questions (79). In my corpus there are 31 occurrences of =kːʷa (and just one of =ri),
and two thirds of them were uttered by female speakers. Thus, it might be the case that
the use of =kːʷa is more common among female speakers.

(76) r-už-e=ri!
f-be-imp=prt
‘Calm down!’
(77) hel-itːe ma-b-urc-itːa=kːʷa paʔuk!
that-advz proh-n-keep.ipfv-proh.sg=prt spider
‘Do not keep the spider like this!’

179
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(78) c’il heba Sanijat-li-cːe, “ma, ha, ma=kːʷa” haʔ-ib=da, “at heštːi!”
then then Sanijat-obl-in take uh take=prt say.pfv-pret=1 2sg.dat these
‘Then I said to Sanijat, “Hey, take, these are for you!”’
(79) ha ce=de=kːʷa?
uh what=pst=prt
‘Uh, what was it (that I wanted to say)?’

The genitive reflexive pronouns cinna (singular) and čula function as pause fillers.
The same has been reported for the neighboring Dargwa variety Icari (Sumbatova &
Mutalov 2003: 187, fn. 107). It seems that the singular pronoun occurs when the subject-
like argument is singular (80), (81), and the plural pronoun when it is plural (82). The
full paradigms of the reflexive pronouns are listed in §4.3 and their use in reflexive con-
structions is analyzed in §29.1.

(80) heχ cinna c’aq’-le w-artaq-ib admi ca-w

dem.down pause.filler very-advz m-enjoy.oneself.pfv-pret person cop-m
‘He is a person that is very extroverted.’
(81) nu hež dejstwitelno pikri ∅-ik’-ul ka-jž-ib ca-w
well this really thought m-say.ipfv-icvb down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m
cinna tusnaq-le ka-jž-ib-il-li-j miši-l ca-w
pause.filler prison-loc down-be.m.pfv-pret-ref-obl-dat similar-advz cop-m
iž
this
‘He is really thinking (or worrying), and sitting, because it is like he is in prison.’
(82) čula d-urkː-ar iχ-tːi ganza-l-gu-d gu-d
pause.filler npl-find.ipfv-cond.3 dem.down-pl ground-obl-sub-npl down-npl
daˁʡle ca-d
as cop-npl
‘Well, probably they are like under the ground (growing).’

It is not always easy to identify the pause fillers because often the reflexive pronouns
can be interpreted as possessive pronouns with an omitted head noun. For instance,
example (82) refers to a picture showing plants or roots that grow in the earth and the
reflexive čula could serve as a pronoun in a phrase like ‘their (plants)’.
Common address particles are (83). Some examples are given in (84–86).

(83) a. ja, wa ‘ey, hey’

b. haj ‘hi, oh’ (informal answer to greeting and astonishment)
c. ej ‘eh’
d. ulkːa(s) ‘hey’
e. žan ‘beloved’

180
 9.5 Pause fillers, address particles, exclamatives, and interjections

(84) ha-jʁ-ib, r-ik’ʷ-ar, “wa Iljas.” “haj”

up-come.m.pfv-pret f-say.ipfv-prs hey Ilyas hi
‘He came, and she said (to him), “Hey Ilyas.” (He said), “Hi.”’
The particle ulkːa(s) is used as an address term when trying to prompt the reaction of
the addressee, for instance when asking him to answer a question (85), but it also seems
to be a pause filler.
(85) ulkːas, ħaˁsanʡaˁli, b-arx-le b-urs-a=kːʷa!
hey Hassanali n-direct-advz n-tell.pfv-imp=prt
‘Hey, Hasanali, tell the truth!’
The particle žan ‘beloved’ is a loan from Persian with the meaning ‘life, soul, spirit’
that is used as an address particle before names or kinship terms when expressing en-
dearment and affection towards the addressed person. It is also used as a noun with the
meaning ‘body, vital essence’.
(86) ellelej, žan durħuˁ, haʔ-ib=da ča=de=l
prt beloved boy say.pfv-pret=1 who=2sg=q
‘Ooh, my dear boy, I thought, who are you?’
There are two particles ma ‘take’ and hara ‘come, go, look, here is, here you are’ that
are used in commands when requesting the addressee to take something or to come to the
speaker. These particles thus function like verbs inflected for the imperative. Therefore,
they can also attach the suffix -(j)a (87), which is used in commands and other kinds of
non-indicative utterances when the addressee is plural and most often co-occurs with
the imperative, the prohibitive, and the optative.
(87) heχ-tːi satːi arg-an durħ-n-a-cːe “ma=ja!” b-ik’-ul
dem.down-pl in.front go.ipfv-ptcp boy-pl-obl-in take!=pl hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
ca-b
cop-hpl
‘They say to the guys passing by, “Take (a drink)!”’
(88) “hara, ala durħuˁ,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “haˁ-q’-uˁn-ne”
come 2sg.gen boy m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m up-go-pret-cvb
‘“Come, your son has come,” he says.’
Interjections expressing astonishment or excitement are huja, waħ ‘wow’, ellelej(-q’u)
‘oh, oh, oh’ (astonishment, slightly negative evaluation) (86), and ʁubza ‘oh man’ (95).
The latter originates from the noun ʁʷabza ‘dzhigit, true man’.
Sanzhi has no real words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’, instead the copula ca-b is used or the
respective verb forms is repeated when affirming what has been said or agreeing with
the addressee. For rejection or disaffirmation the negated verb is used. However, the
exclamations e ‘yes, agreed’ and aʔa ‘no’ can also be employed in these functions. For
more examples of question-answer pairs, see §28.1.

181
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(89) “rurger” qːanaw=aw il ce ca-b=e? e, e, hik’ hin d-ax-an

gutter channel=q that what cop-n=q yes yes dem.up water npl-go-ptcp
musːa
place
‘“Gutter,” this is a channel or what is it? Yes, the place where the water runs (to
the water mill).’
(90) ca-w qːumuqlan=de=w? aʔa, darkːʷan=de
refl-m Kumyk=pst=q no Dargwa=pst
‘Was he himself Kumyk? No, he was Dargwa.’
Other particles and exclamations are presented in (91).
(91) a. inardi ‘believe me, think yourself’
b. jaʁari(b) ‘listen, my dear’
c. hu ‘well, now, right, come on’
d. wari ‘no, no way’ (emphatic warning)
e. ixʷixʷle ‘of course’ (to express irony and when the speaker does not believe
the addressee)
(92) “jaʁarib,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “c’aq’-ce admi už-ib-le=q’al,”
prt m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m strong-dd.sg person be.m-pret-cvb=mod
∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “ik’ sunglan”
m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m dem.up Sanzhi
‘“Oh, it turned out that the Sanzhi person is such a strong man,” he says.’
(93) hu=kːʷa, sa-d-irʁ-an-ne
well=prt hither-npl-come.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘Well, they will come (another day).’
There are a couple of exclamative phrases and words from Arabic that are common
in the Muslim world and are also used by Sanzhi speakers (94), (95).
(94) a. aj Allah, ja Allah ‘oh God’
b. ʡaˁlħaˁmdullilah ‘Praise be to God!’
c. inša-Allah ‘if Allah wills’
d. aman ‘alas, mercy, pity, oh, ah!’ (lit. security, safety, peacefulness)
e. wallah, wallahi tallahi, billah, wallah tallah ‘(I promise, I swear) by God’
f. mašaʔallah ‘God has willed it’ (appreciation, joy, praise or thankfulness for an
event or person that was just mentioned)
(95) [You do not believe me and don’t think that this has happened to me!?]
billah=ra, wallah ʁubza ca-b=de
by.God=add by.God emph cop-n=pst
‘I swear by God it happened.’

182
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

Nowadays, speakers also employ Russian words or phrases as interjections or pause

fillers (96).

(96) a. kiljanus ‘I swear’

b. karoče ‘in short’ (pause filler)
c. značit ‘thus, this means’ (pause filler)
d. wat’ ‘well, here is’
e. tak ‘like this, so, well’
f. že (modal particle)
g. dawaj ‘let’s go, come’ (invitations and requests)

The greeting phrase used among men is the traditional Arabic phrase as-salam ʡaˁlay-
kum. Other greetings are given in (97), (98). The first is used for greeting women, for
example when they are sitting in front of their house because with women the Arabic
phrase or its shorter form salam is not used. The phrase in (98) is uttered at night when
leaving or going to bed, but not when greeting people at night.

(97) ka-d-iž-ib-le=da=w
down-1/2pl-sit.pfv-pret=cvb=1=q
‘Hello!’ (lit. ‘Are you (pl.) sitting?’)
(98) dučːi ʡaˁħ d-iχʷ-ab!
night good npl-be.pfv-opt.3
‘Good night!’

With outsiders, especially when they are female, Russian salutations are used (e.g.
zdrastvujte ‘hello’, dobryj den’ ‘good day’).

9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

These suffixes can be viewed as cross-categorical derivational suffixes that attach to a
number of parts of speech (adjectives, verbs, adverbs, postpositions, nominals) and form
referential attributes/definite descriptions with nominal properties (suffixes -ce and -il)
or adverbials (adverbializing suffix).

9.6.1 The suffix -ce

9.6.1.1 Function and distribution of the suffix -ce
The semantic, syntactic and distributional properties of the suffix -ce are quite complex.
Its syntactic impact overlaps with that of the suffix -il described below, but the distribu-
tions of both suffixes are rather complementary (see the end of §9.6.2 for a comparison).
The suffix -te, which is, in fact, one of the most productive nominal plural suffixes (§3.2.1)
is used as the plural form of -ce and for the sake of simplicity will be treated as such in

183
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

this section. However, there are small functional differences between both suffixes -ce
and -te that will be pointed out whenever relevant.
The suffix -ce is added to:
• adjectives (99–104)
• various verb forms occurring in certain types of complement clauses (e.g. infinitive,
participles, copulas) and relative clauses (preterite or modal participle) and very
rarely to the negative copula when it is used as expressing the meaning ‘without’;
this includes the ‘experiential’ verb forms (105–113)
• nominals inflected for the genitive case (noun, pronouns etc.) (114)
• expressions with spatial meaning that are inflected for the essive case, in particular
adverbials, postpositions, nouns, pronouns (115), (116)
The core function of the suffix can be described as forming definite descriptions that
describe the referent via its location, its qualities, or its possessor:
• reference through location: the one that is located in/at/under/... X (when used on
spatial expressions)
• reference through qualities and more general characteristics: the one that is X/the
one that lacks X (when used on adjectives and relative clauses)
• reference through possessors: the one that belongs to X (when used on genitives)
When the referent is in the singular, -ce is used; when it is plural, -te is used. The
descriptions can be used as referring expressions that function as phrasal or clausal ar-
guments, predicates or detached topicalized items, etc. Based on the core function, the
use of the suffix has further extended such that it is also optionally found on attributes
such as adjectives and relative clauses that modify nominals. In the following, I will ex-
plain my approach by going systematically through the parts of speech listed above and
the contexts of use.
First and foremost the suffix -ce is found on adjectives. In my corpus, this usage ex-
ceeds all other uses. The suffix can optionally be added to adjectives in attributive func-
tion without leading to any noticeable semantic difference (99). As the same example
shows, it can be added to adjectives with gender agreement prefixes and those lacking
gender agreement prefixes. If the head noun is preceded by more than one adjective, all
adjectives preceding it can but not need bear the attributive suffix.
(99) b-uqen t’alim / b-uqen-ce t’alim
n-long rope / n-long-dd.sg rope
‘a long rope’ (E)
(100) žahil qːuʁa rursːi
young beautiful girl
‘a young, beautiful girl’ (E)

184
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

(101) a. žahil-ce qːuʁa rursːi

b. žahil qːuʁa-ce rursːi
c. žahil-ce qːuʁa-ce rursːi

In order for adjectives to be used as predicates (102) or nominals (104) the suffix is
obligatorily added, and this rule includes Russian loan words as well (103). Adjectives
that bear the suffix -ce are referential nominals and thus can occur in a position detached
from the noun even if they semantically rather seem to function as nominal modifiers
(103). Examples such as (103) do not represent discontinuous noun phrases. The adjective
is rather an independent referential constituent that occurs to the right of the clause as
an afterthought. This will be analyzed in more detail in §9.6.1.2 below.

(102) χabacːi dik’ar wahi-ce akːʷ-i

Khabaci too bad-dd.sg cop.neg-hab.pst
‘Khabaci (name) was also not bad.’
(103) il-tː-a-la d-aqil χabur-te k’e-d=de ca-d, interesni-te
that-pl-obl-gen npl-much story-pl exist.up-pl=pst cop-npl interesting-dd.pl
‘About them there were, are many stories, interesting (ones).’

Adjectives (and other items) bearing the suffix can take case suffixes after the oblique
stem suffix -li has been added (104). In the plural, -te is replaced by -ta when cases are
added (in the same way as for nouns that make use of the plural suffix -te).

(104) χːula-ce-li-j ʡaˁħ-le ʡaˁq’lu b-alχ-u=w?

big-dd.sg-obl-dat good-advz mind n-know.ipfv-prs=q
‘Does an older (person) know it better?’

Second, the suffix appears on participles (modal and preterite participle) that form
relative clauses. Its use is optional and relatively rare for relative clauses in the canonical
prenominal position and seems to be preferred for head nouns in the plural and mass
nouns that control plural agreement (in which case -te instead of -ce is used) (106), (107).
For head nouns in the singular, the use of the suffix -il is more common than -ce (§9.6.2).
Example (105) is part of a translation of the famous fable ‘The North Wind and the Sun’.
Example (106) comes from the translation of a Standard Dargwa folktale.

(105) “či-b-ig-ul=de=w?” b-ik’ʷ-ar bari [q’uc’ b-iχ-ub-ce]

spr-n-see.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q n-say.ipfv-prs sun offence n-be.pfv-pret-dd.sg
č’an-ni-cːe
wind-obl-in
‘“Do you see?” said the sun to the offended wind.’
(106) [juldašː-a-l cin-i-j sa-qː-ib-te] xunul-be
friend-obl.pl-erg refl.sg-obl-dat hither-carry-pret-dd.pl gift-pl
‘the gifts that the friends had brought to him’

185
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(107) [ʁanu xu-ra dus či-a-d-až-ib-te] dalga=ra

twenty five-num year spr-neg-npl-see.pfv-pret-dd.pl detail=add
či-d-až-ib=da
spr-npl-see.pfv-pret=1
‘I also saw the details that I did not see for 25 years.’

The use of -ce becomes obligatory when relative clauses with the preterite participle
occur in a position after or detached from the noun that they semantically belong to (108)
or when they are used without a head (109), (110). In other words, relative clauses that
do not function as attributes but as nominals are marked by -ce.

(108) uc-be [čar b-iχ-ub-te d-ac’ nuˁq-b-a-cːella]

brother-pl back hpl-be.pfv-pret-dd.pl npl-empty hand-pl-obl-comit
‘the brothers who came back with empty hands’
(109) bari=da=nu [r-uq-un-ce]
sun=1=prt f-go.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I am the sun that shines (lit. goes).’
(110) cet’le [nik’a durħ-n-a-l d-arq’-ib-te] ʁunab-te, sala-lla
how small boy-pl-obl-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl eq-dd.pl before-gen
zamana, intersna=de ix-tːi
time interesting=pst dem.up-pl
‘Like the ones made by little children, from the old times, they were interesting.’

In the function of marking relative clauses the suffix in principle competes with -il
(§9.6.2 below), but we find a clear distribution. The suffix -ce can only be used with
singular referents (105), (109), but its use is relatively rare and -il is normally used instead.
By contrast, in the plural -il cannot be used and only -te is available (106), (108), and (110).
Relative clauses are not the only types of clauses that can be turned into referential
definite descriptions by means of -ce. Factual complement clauses with matrix verbs
denoting emotions, cognition as well as evaluative predicates can also be marked by the
preterite participle and -ce (as an alternative to, e.g., the masdar suffix) (§24.2.3). This use
is straightforward: a fact is expressed as a proposition by means of -ce, i.e., as a definite
description, and can then be used in argument position. In this function, the use of -te is
not allowed.

(111) [w-ebč’-ib-ce] b-aχ-ur-re b-už-ib-le ...

m-die.pfv-pret-dd.sg n-know.pfv-pret-cvb n-be-pret-cvb
‘She apparently got to know that he had died, ... .’
(112) du razi-l=da [u sa-r-eʁ-ib-ce]
1sg happy-advz=1 2sg hither-f-go.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I am happy that you came.’ (E)

186
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

Similarly, -ce (but not -te) can be added to the infinitive and used as the complement of
the copula in existential clauses (113). The infinitive + -ce combinations of the verbs ‘eat’
and ‘drink’ have been lexicalized as nouns, e.g. b-erkʷ-ij-ce ‘food’ (n-eat.pfv-inf-dd.sg).

(113) cara cik’al b-urs-ij-ce b-akːu

other something n-tell-inf-dd.sg n-cop.neg-prs
‘There is nothing more to tell.’

There is one more context in which the suffix is used on verbs, namely for the forma-
tion of the analytic verb forms called “experiential” in this grammar. These verb forms
consist of the preterite participle plus -ce (or -il) and a copula, and have perfect-like se-
mantics. They are predominantly used when speakers talk about their own experiences
and about situations they were personally involved in (§14.2.6 and §14.2.7). The semantic
contribution of the suffix -ce to these verb forms is unclear to me, but their syntactic im-
pact is obvious. The experiential tenses are close to forming a clause union or biclausal
structure, i.e., the participle with -ce functions like a headless relative clause.
Third, the suffix can be added to nominals that are marked for the genitive case (114)
or for the essive case (115) and also to spatial adverbs and postpositions that are inflected
for the essive case (116). Thus, in (116) the suffix has the entire postpositional phrase in
its scope. As with the adjectives and the relative clauses, the so-formed constituents are
definite descriptions that function as attributes of nouns or are referentially independent.

(114) di-la-ce qːarči b-ič-ib-le χajri b-irχʷ-u

1sg-gen-dd.sg meet n-occur.pfv-pret-cvb benefit n-become.ipfv-prs.3
heχ-tːu-b dam
dem.down-loc-n 1sg.dat
‘It happens to me that I come across my (milk) there.’
(115) ij qili-w-ce iž-itːe c’aq’-le a-učː-i
this home-m-dd.sg this-advz strong-advz neg-drink.ipfv-hab.pst
‘The other one (son) who was at home did not drink that much.’
(116) bahsar ca qaˁr h-asː-ib ∅-ikː-ul=de,
first one pear up-take.pfv-pret m-want.ipfv-icvb=pst
či-w-až-ib-le admi kːalkːi-cːe-w či-w-ce
spr-m-see.pfv-pret-cvb person tree-in-m on-m-dd.sg
‘First he wanted to take one pear, when he saw the man who was in the tree.’

The difference between modifiers or adjuncts bearing -ce and those not bearing -ce can
be illustrated by the following minimal pair. The first sentence has two interpretations,
one in which the noun with the spatial case suffix modifies the whole clause, and another
one in which it modifies only the following noun phrase. By contrast, if the suffix -ce is
added to the noun with the spatial case, only the second interpretation is available.

187
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(117) azbar-re-b mašin ic-an ca-b

yard-loc-n car wash.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘The car has to be washed in the yard.’ OR ‘The car that is in the yard has to be
washed.’ (E)
(118) azbar-re-b-ce mašin ic-an ca-b
yard-loc-n-dd.sg car wash.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘The car that is in the yard has to be washed.’ (E)

9.6.1.2 Analyzing the suffix -ce and its cognates in other Dargwa languages
Cognates of Sanzhi -ce are found in most if not all Dargwa languages (e.g. -ci in Standard
Dargwa and Icari Dargwa, -se in Tanti Dargwa, -ze in Chirag Dargwa). In the literature,
they have mostly been analyzed with respect to their occurrence on adjectives. Thus, ad-
jectives have been divided into ‘short adjectives’ without the suffix and ‘long adjectives’
that bear the suffix.
In grammars of Standard Dargwa, the short adjectives are said to be more archaic
and basically only used in poetry and other types of fictional literature as expressive
means to describe emotions and feelings (van den Berg 2001: 26); (Abdullaev et al. 2014:
207–208). According to the latter grammar, adjectives with gender prefixes do not have
a short form. This is in plain contrast to Sanzhi Dargwa, where they have a short form,
e.g. ca b-uqen q’aˁli (one n-long branch) ‘one long branch’. Furthermore, in Sanzhi short
adjectives are at least as common as adjectives with the attributive suffix, if not more
common.
Lander (2014) (see also Sumbatova & Lander 2014) describes short adjectives in Tanti
Dargwa as formally and functionally marked and opposed to the unmarked long adjec-
tives bearing the suffix -se (the cognate of Sanzhi -ce) because the former are rarely used
and are restricted in their distribution. By contrast, the long adjectives allow for a large
range of constructions. Lander (2014) analyzes them as basically equivalent to relative
clauses. He rejects an analysis of -se as a nominalizer because adjectives to which -se is
suffixed differ in some properties from standard nouns. First, they cannot be modified by
short adjectives. Second, they can modify personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and
reflexive pronouns. Third, when case-marked, long adjectives cannot follow the noun as
would be expected for a noun in an appositive construction.
For Sanzhi Dargwa the question of markedness is not fully clear, but if we can apply
this label at all, it is modifiers having the attributive suffix (e.g. ‘long adjectives’) that are
marked, rather than the other way around. First, they are clearly formally marked by the
suffix. Second, they seem to be slightly less common than short adjectives, can occur in
positions that most nominal modifiers cannot occur in, and occasionally have marked,
contrastive semantics that is absent from unmarked modifiers (see the discussion below).
Furthermore, when occurring outside of their canonical position, they are syntactically
not part of the noun phrase to which they semantically belong. This becomes apparent
when the head noun of the noun phrase appears in a case other than the unmarked

188
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

absolutive. In such a case, the full adjective can only follow a noun when it is also case-
marked and interpreted as forming its own phrase. In other words, it is nominalized
and takes an argument or adjunct position in the clause (119), (120). A similar behavior
is observed with floating quantifiers, which are also syntactically not part of the noun
phrase (see §21.1.3).

(119) * it sa-jʁ-ib tuχtur-ri-šːu ʡaˁħ-ce, wahi-ce-lli-šːu

that hither-come.m.pfv-pret doctor-obl-ad good-dd.sg bad-dd.sg-obl-ad
a-ag-ur
neg-go.pfv-pret
(Intended meaning: ‘He went to a good doctor, he did not go to a bad one.’) (E)
(120) it sa-jʁ-ib tuχtur-ri-šːu ʡaˁħ-ce-lli-šːu,
that hither-come.m.pfv-pret doctor-obl-ad good-dd.sg-obl-ad
wahi-ce-lli-šːu a-ag-ur
bad-dd.sg-obl-ad neg-go.pfv-pret
‘He went to a doctor who is good; he did not go to a bad one.’ (E)

Furthermore, modifiers with attributive suffixes can also be modified by modifiers

without attributive suffixes, even in those cases where the former are used as nominals
(121), though it would preferable to use attributive suffixes on both adjectives in this
example (i.e. b-iq’-ur-ce it’in-ce).

(121) asː-a b-iq’-ur it’in-ce!

buy.pfv-imp n-ripen-pret red-dd.sg
‘Buy a ripe red one!’ (E)

This behavior points again towards an analysis of the attributive suffix as a nominal-
ization marker. If nouns bearing attributive suffixes are nominalized, we can opt for an
analysis in terms of appositional constructions. In appositional constructions, the head
noun is modified by one (or occasionally more than one) noun preceding it. Case mark-
ing occurs only once, namely on the head noun (122). It cannot occur on the modifier,
be it a full adjective or an appositive noun.

(122) it sa-jʁ-ib ʡaˁħ-ce tuχtur-ri-šːu

that hither-come.m.pfv-pret good-dd.sg doctor-obl-ad
‘He went to a good doctor.’ (E)
(123) * it sa-jʁ-ib ʡaˁħ-ce-li-šu tuχtur-ri-šːu /
that hither-come.m.pfv-pret good-dd.sg-obl-ad doctor-obl-ad /
ʡaˁħ-ce-li-šu tuχtur
good-dd.sg-obl-ad doctor
(Intended meaning: ‘He went to a good doctor.’) (E)

189
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

A similar analysis has been proposed in the Icari Dargwa grammar: adjectives and
other words bearing -ci/-ti are analyzed as free attributes alongside cardinal numerals,
other derived adjectives and some other words. Sumbatova & Mutalov (2003: 48, 129)
claim that “free attributes and nouns could probably be considered to form a single syn-
tactic class (nouns). The main difference is that free attributes are much more common
in the attributive position than nouns.” Furthermore, free attributes “usually stress the
restrictive character of the attribute or even imply contrastive emphasis on the attribute.”
This characterization fits well the Sanzhi data. Modifiers bearing the attributive suffixes
can have a contrastive reading, but this reading is normally due to their position (e.g.
after the noun) and is not part of the meaning of the suffixes. The suffix just makes it
morphosyntactically possible for the modifier to follow the head. For instance, the follow-
ing elicited example refers to a situation in which large and small plates are contrasted,
but the translation of the sentence contains only one occurrence of the attributive suffix
on the second adjective, because it occurs without a head noun. This means that the use
of the attributive suffix has a purely morphosyntactic explanation.
(124) h-asː-a χːula waq, kʷi-r ka-b-ix-a
up-take.pfv-imp big plate in.the.hands-abl down-n-throw.pfv-imp
nik’a-ce!
small-dd.sg
‘Take the large plate, put away the small one!’ (E)
Modifiers with -ce can precede pronouns and occur on non-restrictive relative clauses
(125), which also demonstrates that they do not convey contrastive or restrictive seman-
tics. For example, (126) does not imply that the speaker has another mother who is not
old.
(125) [uniwersitet ha-b-erχː-aq-ur-ce] at ʡaˁħ ʡaˁči
university up-n-fulfill.pfv-caus-pret-dd.sg 2sg.dat good work
b-irk-u
n-occur.ipfv-prs
‘You who has finished the university will get a good job.’ (E)
(126) di-la r-uqna-ce aba na ixʷbel=ra qili-r tːura
1sg-gen f-old-dd.sg mother already long.ago=add home-abl outside
a-r-ax-u
neg-f-go-prs
‘My old mother already since long ago does not leave the house.’ (E)
However, if they modify personal names the interpretation is normally contrastive.
For instance, the use of a noun phrase such as (127) implies that there is another person
called Murad who is not good.
(127) ʡaˁħ-ce Murad
good-dd.sg Murad
‘the good Murad’ OR ‘the Murad who is good’ (E)

190
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

I finish this section with a final comment. During a guest lecture at the University of
Potsdam the audience suggested that -ce bears some similarity to quantifiers. It might
serve to express number similar to what we observe in English the red one, and resembles
indefinite pronouns such as some. In fact, -ce is homophonous with the interrogative pro-
noun ce ‘what’, which can also be used as an indefinite pronoun meaning ‘something’.
The similarity is also attested in other Dargwa languages, e.g. Tanti (-se and se ‘what’).
As already mentioned, the plural marker -te is identical to one of the normal plural suf-
fixes for nouns, and becomes -ta when further case suffixes are added. This suggests that,
in contrast to -ce, the suffix -te is morphologically complex, and -ce and -te are not di-
achronically related, but go back to different sources. From this it naturally follows that
-ce and -te do not have to have identical distributions. Following this suggestion, items
bearing -ce could be analyzed as quantificational expressions rather than as referring ex-
pressions. However, further research is needed in order to test this and other proposals
and to reach a full account of -ce, -te (and -il).

9.6.2 The suffix -il

The cross-categorical suffix -il is functionally very close to the suffix -ce (§9.6.1), but
shows a different morphosyntactic distribution. It is added to

• verbs, more specifically to the preterite or interrogative clauses, to copulas (in-

cluding negative and existential/locational copulas), and to the morphologically
defective verb b-el ‘remain’
• expressions with spatial meaning that are inflected for the essive case, namely
adverbials, postpositions, nouns, pronouns, etc.
As illustrated in examples (128), (129) below, the second usage is roughly identical to
the employment of -ce.
The suffix -il is used for the formation of referential attributes, i.e., lexemes with at-
tributival meaning that are used as referring expressions and can make up their own
phrase, but can also occur in apposition to a noun that they modify. In the latter case
they occur in the position before the noun just like other nominal modifiers (adjectives,
genitives, relative clauses). With non-verbal base words (i.e. expressions marked with the
essive case) the suffix is required in order to turn the spatial expression into an attribute
of the noun. Without the suffix the spatial expression would function as a modifier at
the event level (the same was shown for -ce in §9.6.1.1 above). For instance, if we omit
the suffix -il in (128), the meaning of the sentence would change to ‘The calf fell down
before him.’ because now the spatial expression would function as adverb and modify
the action expressed by the verb.

(128) a [cin-na sala-b-il] qːačːa k-ag-ur

and refl-gen front-n-ref calf down-go.pfv-pret
‘And the calf before him fell down.’

191
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(129) q’ʷani-l-cːe-w-il durħuˁ ʁaˁʁ ∅-ik’ʷ-ij w-aʔ-išː-ib ca-w

box-obl-in-m-ref boy scream m-say.ipfv-inf m-begin-put.pfv-pret cop-m
‘The boy in the box started to scream.’
When added to verbs the resulting construction is a relative clause that can be re-
strictive or non-restrictive (see Chapter 23 for examples of both types). The use of -il in
relative clauses is not obligatory when the relative clause occurs in its canonical posi-
tion before the noun and there are only very few examples in my corpus (130). But in
elicitation of relative clauses the use of -il is common.
(130) [du hak’-ub-il] di-la šːi
1sg appear.pfv-pret-ref 1sg-gen village
‘the village where I was born’
When relative clauses occur in a position detached from the head noun, e.g. following
it, the use of -il becomes obligatory. This happens because noun phrases are head-final
and modifiers can never follow the noun they modify (e.g. demonstrative pronouns).
However, a relative clause with the suffix -il forms its own phrase and can thus directly
follow the noun as in (131) or even occur after the finite verb as in (132), a position that
is commonly used to express afterthoughts (see §21.1.3 for the constituent order of the
noun phrase and §27.1.3 for a discussion of extraposed modifiers).
(131) dam b-ičː-ib iž maˁlʡuˁn-ni [ca kur-re ka-b-iž-ib-il
1sg.dat n-give.pfv-pret this snake-erg one pit-loc down-n-be.pfv-pret-ref
dawla.či-w Ismaˁʔil-li-cːella]
rich-m Ismail-obl-comit
‘The snake who sat in a pit together with the rich Ismail gave it to me.’
(132) iž=ra het=ra, het ʡaˁχːuˁl ∅-iχʷ-ij [xːunul-la qajqaj-li-cːe
this=add that=add that guest m-be.pfv-inf woman-gen jaw-obl-in
b-aˁq-ib-il]
n-hit.pfv-pret-ref
‘This also and this also is probably the man who hit the woman on the jaw.’
Constituents bearing -il are referential and can therefore occur without a head noun.
This includes headless relative clauses (for headless relative clauses formed with the
preterite participle the use of -il or -ce is obligatory), but also all other constituents. For
instance, without the suffix the word in (133) would not be referential.
(133) paket-le-b-il?
parcel-loc-n-ref
‘The (thing) in the parcel?’ NOT ‘Is it in the parcel?’
Therefore, the suffix is often found in topicalization constructions in which the top-
icalized constituent occurs to the left of the clause in (134) or in right-dislocated af-
terthoughts that provide more information on the referent such that its identification

192
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

is facilitated for the hearer (135). The referential attributes are often co-referenced by
nominals in the clause, as in the following two examples:

(134) iž-i-cːe-b-il, ce ca-b=el iž?

this-obl-in-n-ref what cop-n=indq this
‘The (one) in it (i.e. in his hand), what is it?’
(135) het, ča ca-w=e, het [gaˁraˁž-la hetːu-w-il]?
that who cop-m=q that garage-gen there-m-ref
‘He, who is it, the one of the garage there?’

In the next example (136) the referential attributes form topicalized noun phrases that
are preceding the clause and are not co-referenced in the clause.

(136) c’il di-la qu-ja-b-il, di-la b-ax-un-il, di-la c’idex,

then 1sg-gen garden-loc-n-ref 1sg-gen n-sow.pfv-pret-ref 1sg-gen fruit
itil.ižili, agarud-le ag-ur-re, kumek=ra
one.thing.and.another garden-loc go.pfv-pret-cvb help=add
b-arčː-ib-le, di-la r-iχ-ub-il=ra b-arq’-ib-le,
n-find.pfv-pret-cvb 1sg-gen f-be.able.pfv-pret-ref=add n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
du=ra ka-r-iž-ib-le=da
1sg=add down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=1
‘Then, the (things) in my garden, my sown (fields), my fruits, all the stuff, I went
to the garden, I found help, my things that I was able to do I did, and then I was
sitting (relaxing).’

The verb forms to which -il is added are able to take case markers (preceded by the
oblique suffix -li) and then they function as referring expressions like nominals, i.e., as
headless relative clauses (137–139) (see also §18.1.2.3 and §23.4). The other items that take
-il, i.e. the spatial expressions in the essive case, are not further inflected. For example, the
form χe-w-il-la in (137) functions as possessor marked by the genitive, and the possessum
is the clause-initial noun kep-dex.

(137) kep-dex či-r-ag-ur ca-d, hej admi-la, heštːu-w

drinking-nmlz spr-abl-go.pfv-pret cop-npl this person-gen here-m
χe-w-il-la
exist.down-m-ref-gen
‘The drunkenness passed, of this person who is here down (in the picture).’
(138) [b-ikː-an-il-li] aq či-ha-d-arq’-ib-le,
n-want.ipfv-ptcp-ref-erg high spr-up-npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
d-učː-i heχ-tːi
npl-drink.ipfv-hab.pst dem.down-pl
‘The one who wanted (milk) lifted (the cans) up and drank.’

193
9 Predicative particles and other particles, conjunctions, and cross-categorical suffixes

(139) [nišːa-lla ʁʷab-ne d-erqː-ib-il-la] duˁrħuˁ

1pl-gen plowshare-pl npl-take.pfv-pret-ref-gen boy
‘the son of (the one) who took away our plowshare’
(140) c’il uruc ∅-iχ-ub=da [du-l b-arq’-ib-il-li-j], du
then embarrassed m-be.pfv-pret=1 1sg-erg n-do.pfv-pret-ref-obl-dat 1sg
c’aχ ka-b-icː-ur dam
shame down-n-stand.pfv-pret 1sg.dat
‘Then I was embarrassed because of what I had done; I felt ashamed.’
There are three more uses/meanings of this suffix that have not been discussed so
far. First of all, -il is used for the formation of experiential forms in the same way as
it was mentioned for the suffix -ce in §9.6.1.1. Second, the suffix -il can be added to the
locational/existential copulas when they are followed by the standard copula, such that
the result looks like an analytic verb form. In this case, the use of the suffix restricts
the meaning of the locational/existential copula to the existential meaning, excluding
the locational meaning. Thus, the sentence in (141) cannot be translated by ‘The son of
Khalirbihin is (located) down there.’.
(141) heχ χalirbihin-na durħuˁ χe-w-il ca-w
dem.down Khalirbihin-gen boy exist.down-m-ref cop-m
‘The son of Khalirbihin exists (i.e. is still alive).’ (E)
Third, when added to the preterite participle of the verb ʔ- ‘say’, the resulting verb
form is used as a marker for ordinal numerals (§6.2). It is also part of the quantifiers
li<b>il ‘all’, har-il ‘every’, and b-aq-il ‘much, many’. With the first quantifier the use of
-il is obligatory, i.e. *lib. To the other two quantifiers -il is only attached when they are
used referentially (i.e. as predicates or arguments).
The constituents marked with -il occasionally have a flavor of contrastiveness, but this
is a pragmatic implicature from the context, not part of the meaning of -il. Furthermore,
many example sentences with -il do not have a contrastive meaning. For instance, in
(129) the boy in the box is not contrasted with any other boy. Similarly, the fruits of the
gardens and fields in (136) are not contrasted with other items.
Finally I will briefly compare -ce, -te and -il. The suffix -ce has a larger range of applica-
tions because it is added to a greater variety of base words. Almost all morphosyntactic
contexts that allow for -il also allow for -ce, but not vice versa (which might be partially
explained by the fact that -ce starts with a consonant, and can therefore follow conso-
nants and vowels, but -il can only be added after consonants):
• The suffix -ce can only be used with singular referents. It occurs on adjectives, to a
restricted extent on relative clauses (where it competes with -il), nominals marked
for genitive and essive case and in complement clauses of the fact type.
• The suffix -te can only be used with plural referents and largely mirrors -ce. It
occurs on adjectives, relative clauses and nominals in the genitive or essive case,
but not in complement clauses.

194
 9.6 Cross-categorical suffixes

• The suffix -il shares with -ce the restriction to singular referents and thus partially
competes with it. It is primarily used in relative clauses where its use is preferred
over -ce, but also with nominals bearing the essive case. It cannot be used with
adjectives (except for three quantifiers and the formation of ordinal numerals),
nor can it occur in complement clauses.

All three suffixes are used in experiential verb forms.

9.6.3 The adverbializer -le

The adverbializer -le (which has the variant -lle and the predictable allomorphs -ne and
-re) forms (manner) adverbs from short adjectives and nouns (§7.5). It is also used for
the formation of the simple converbs, i.e., the imperfective and the perfective converb,
which are also widely used in analytic tenses (§18.1.1), and it can follow items bearing
spatial cases such as adverbs (142) or nouns (143) that then also function like manner
adverbials. As example (144) illustrates, it can also be used with nouns in the absolutive
case. This sentence shows a copula construction in which the copula complement of the
first clause has been turned into an adverbial by means of -le.

(142) hel-i-l nik’a-ce kʷi-w-le, xːunul-li-j

that-obl-erg small-dd.sg in.the.hands-m-advz woman-obl-dat
b-aˁq-ib ca-b hel-i-l
n-hit.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-erg
‘While she (had) the child in her arms, he hit his wife.’
(143) prosto qːaq-sa-lle, či-w-ig-ul akːʷa-di du-l heχ
just back-ante-advz spr-m-see.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-1 1sg-erg dem.down
admi
person
‘Just with the back (turned to me), I do not see this person.’
(144) du ʡaˁħ sub-le, u xːunul wahi-ce=de
1sg good husband-advz 2sg woman bad-dd.sg=2sg
‘While I am a good husband, you are a bad wife.’ (E)

195
10 Place names and microtoponyms
Tables 10.1 and 10.2 show names for the villages, towns, and districts that are relevant to
the Sanzhi people. The tables first provide the citation form of the place name followed
by the essive case, i.e. the word form that needs to be used when answering the question
Where are you? The last two place names, Druzhba and Makahchkala, morphosyntac-
tically differ from all the others because they represent recent borrowings. In order to
form the essive case they need to employ the locational case suffix -le (§3.4.2.2). The
other place names do not need such an additional spatial case because the place names
have by themselves spatial meaning just like spatial adverbials because this is their de-
fault use. With these older place names it might diachronically be possible to identify
a root morpheme that represents the place name followed by a spatial case suffix, but
synchronically Sanzhi has no spatial cases that consist of a vowel i (the most frequent
word-final segment of the place names in Table 10.1). Other Dargwa varieties such as
Chirag (Ganenkov Submitted), however, have a spatial case expressed by a suffix -i that
functionally resemble the Sanzhi locational case.
The third column contains referential-attributive terms that are semantically related
to the respective places. These terms are formed by adding -(a)n to a root that can be the
place name or some other root related to it. This suffix might be a cognate of the loca-
tive participle suffix -an (§18.1.2.4) and/or the interrogative clauses -an §18.1.2.2. Another
possible cognate is the adjectivizer -(a)n, which is used for the formation of a few adjec-
tives involving compounding with numerals and mostly plural nouns (§5.3). The same
suffix seems to occur in the derivation of the adjective b-urkːa-l-an ‘middle’ from the
postposition b-urkːa ‘between’. In the default case, these terms refer to the inhabitants
of the respective places as the term the English can refer to English people. They are also
used as attributes of head nouns that do not refer to human beings but to their language,
customs, clothes, etc., just like the use of English in the phrase the English language.
Syntactically, the referential attributes in the third column function like other refer-
ential attributes formed by means of the two cross-categorical suffixes -ce and -il (§9.6.1
and §9.6.2). This means that they largely possess the syntactic properties of nouns. They
are used in argument position (6) or as predicates (9). They can also modify nouns as
the last column ‘language’ shows. The constructions in the last column, which resemble
compound nouns a bit (§3.6.3), can probably be analyzed as nominal appositions similar
to the combination of proper names and kinship terms (§21.1.2). Just like with referen-
tial attributes that are marked with -ce, plural formation occurs by means of the most
common plural suffix -te (6).
The fourth column contains terms referring to the ethnic group. These terms are a
kind of mass nouns that trigger human plural agreement like the word χalq’ ‘people’.
The last column contains the terms for the language. Language names contain the word
ʁaj ‘language’, which is preceded by either (i) the singular term for the inhabitants, (ii)
the genitive of the term for the ethnic group, or (iii) the genitive of the place name.
10 Place names and microtoponyms

Table 10.1: Names for villages, towns, and districts, and their inhabitants

place essive referential ethnic

name case attribute group language
Sanzhi sːanži sːanži-b sːunglan(te) sːungul sːunglan /
sːunglila,
sːungulla ʁaj
Itsari uc’ari uc’ari-b uc’ran(te) — uc’ran /
uc’rila ʁaj
Chakhri čːiħri čːiħri-b čːuˁħrugan(te) čːuˁħrug čːuˁħrugan,
čːuˁħrugla ʁaj
Kubachi ʡuˁrbuži ʡuˁrbuži-b ʡuˁrbugan(te), ʡuˁrbug ʡuˁrbugan /
ʡuˁrbuglan(te) ʡuˁrbugla /
ʡuˁrbužila ʁaj
Shari šurgli šurgli-b šurglan(te) — šurglan /
šurglila ʁaj
Sursar- sursarbač’i sursarbač’i-b sursbuk’an(te) sursbuk’ sursbuk’an /
Bachi sursbuč’ila ʁaj
Sanakari sanaqari sanaqari-b sunqlugan(te) sunqlug sunqlugan /
sunqlužila ʁaj
Khuduts xuduc’a xudec’a-b xudec’an(te) — xudec’an ʁaj
Ashty eštːa eštːa-b eštːan(te) — eštːan ʁaj
Ankluk ank’luʁ ank’luʁ-a-b ank’luʁan(te) ank’luʁi ank’luʁila /
ank’luʁan ʁaj
Urkarakh urkuq(i) urkuqi-b, urkuqan(te) urkuq urkuqla /
urkaraqari-b, urkuqan /
urkaraq-le-b urkuqila ʁaj
Kala- urc’mucːi urc’mucːi-b urc’mucːan(te) urc’muc urc’mucːan /
Kureysh urc’mucːila ʁaj
Sirga sarħaˁ sarħaˁ-b sarħaˁn(te) — sarħaˁntala /
(district) sarħaˁla ʁaj
Druzhba družba družba-le-b družbala šːante / — —
družbalan(te)
Makhach- maˁħaˁč- maˁħaˁč- maˁħaˁč- — —
-kala -qːala -qːala-le-b -qːalan(te)

As can be seen in Table 10.2, the noun qːatːa forms the essive case by changing the pitch
accent to the final vowel (this is an irregular way to form the locational case; it is also
found with a few other nouns). The noun šːi ‘village’ also has an irregular locational case
form, whereas dubur is regularly inflected for either the loc-series (suffix -le, assimilated
to -re) or the in-series (suffix -cːe). If not specified otherwise, šːi ‘village’ refers to the
village of Sanzhi.
The place names only inflect for directional cases (essive, lative, ablative). As can be
seen when comparing the two columns in Table 10.1, the place names mostly have direc-
tional meaning, i.e. the lative is identical to the place names themselves. Examples are

198
 Table 10.2: Generic locations and their inhabitants

place referential
name essive attribute language
canyon qːátːa qːatːá-b qːatːigan(te) —
mountain dubur dubur-t-a-cːe-b / duburlan(te) duburla ʁaj
dubur-re-b
village šːi šːa-b, šːan(te) šːila ʁaj
šːi-l-cːe-b

given in (1–3). In the speech of a few younger speakers (age 30 or younger) I noticed
the use of the loc-series marker with the word sːanži, i.e., they used the explicit mark-
ing sːanži-le instead of sːanži when talking about going to the village (12). This might
be due to Russian influence because Russian place names do not have inherent locative
meaning, but require explicit case marking (in Sanzhi and Russian) as the last two lines
in Tables 10.1 show.
(1) du priziw-li ka-∅-ač’-ib=da urkaraqari
1sg call-erg down-m-come.pfv-pret=1 Urkarakh
‘I (masc.) came to Urkarakh by call.’ (i.e. ‘I was called to Urkarakh.’)
(2) aba čːiħri-r=de cin-na ucːi-li-šːu-r
mother Chakhri-f=pst refl.sg-gen brother-obl-ad-f
‘My mother was in Chakhri, at her brother’s place.’
(3) [There were four ways leading to our village,]
ca ce či-b-il bek’-le-rka, ca uc’ari-rka, ca χudec’a-rka, ca
one what on-n-adjvz head-loc-abl one Itsari-abl one Khuduc-abl one
šaˁrʡaˁ-rka
Shari-abl
‘one through the peak on which there is something, one from Itsari, one from
Khuduc, and one from Shari.’
The referential attributive terms and the terms for the ethnic groups (fourth and fifth
column) inflect like standard nouns, for example sungul ‘Sanzhi people’, ergative sungul-
li, genitive sungul-la/sungli-la, dative sungul-li-j, and sunglante ‘Sanzhi villagers’, erga-
tive sunglan-t-a-l, genitive sunglan-t-a-la, and so on.
(4) tːura ka-b-uq-un-ne li<b>il=ra sungul
outside down-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb all<hpl>=add Sanzhi.people
‘All Sanzhi people came out (of their houses).’
(5) er d-ik’-ul=da: uc’ri-la šːi
look 1/2pl-look.at.ipfv-icvb=1 Itsari-gen village
‘We are looking: the village of Itsari.’

199
10 Place names and microtoponyms

(6) ʡaˁrz w-arq’-ib-le, tusnaq w-arq’-ib

complain m-do.pfv-pret-cvb prison m-do.pfv-pret
urkuqan-t-a-l
Urkarakh.person-pl-obl-erg
‘The Urkarakh people complained and put him into prison.’
Table 10.3 displays terms for referential attributes that mostly denotate ethnic groups
of the Caucasus and the names of the respective languages. Many of the referential at-
tributes are also formed by means of the suffix -an. Some examples illustrating the usage
are given in (7–9). As example (7) shows, the terms that contain genitive suffixes can also
be used without head nouns (e.g. ʁaj ‘language’ in this examples) if the reference is clear
from context.
Table 10.3: Ethnic groups

ethnic group attributes (sg, pl) language

Avar k’araqan(te) k’araqan/k’araqala ʁaj
Lak belekːʷan(te) belekːʷan/belekːʷala ʁaj
(< belekːʷa ‘Lakia’)
Lezgian lezgi(be) lezgi ʁaj
Tabasaran tabasran(te) tabasran ʁaj
Dargwa darkːʷan(te) darkːʷan/darkːʷala ʁaj
Kumyk žaˁndar(te), žaˁndar /
qːumuq(ːte), qːumuqlan(te) qːumuq/qːumuqlan
Jewish žuhut’(e) žuhut’ ʁaj
Aghul aʁul(te) aʁul ʁaj
Russian ʡuˁrus, ʡuˁrusːe ʡuˁrus ʁaj
Nogai nuʁaj(te) nuʁaj(tala) ʁaj
Chechen čaˁčaˁn(te), čaˁčaˁn /
mičiχičlan(te) mičiχičlan ʁaj
Dagestanian daʁistan(te) daʁistanna ʁaj
Georgian gurži(be) gurži(la) ʁaj
German nemec, nemcːabe nemcːabala ʁaj

(7) zapowednik b-ik’-u ʡuˁrusː-a-la

nature.reserve hpl-say.ipfv-prs Russian-obl-gen
‘This is called ‘nature reserve’ in the Russian (language).’
(8) nu uže žuhut’-li-j ʡaˁħ-le ag-ur
well already Jew-obl-dat good-advz go.pfv-pret
‘Well, the Jew already felt better.’
(9) ca-w qːumuqlan=de=w? aʔa, darkːʷan=de
refl-m Kumyk=pst=q no Dargwa=pst
‘Was he Kumyk? No, (he) was Dargwa.’

200
 Some microtoponyms can be found in Table 10.4. The first column provides the cita-
tion form of the name and the second column the essive case form (all other spatial cases
are formed accordingly). The second column shows that the essive forms are sometimes
transparently built from the loc-series (-le) and in one case from the ad-series (-šːu)
(10). All terms for microtoponyms do not contain morphemes that synchronically can be
identified as spatial case suffixes (11). The third column provides explanations for those
place names for which I was able to find one. Unfortunately not all place names are still
remembered after more than 50 years since Sanzhi people resettled from their original
village to the lowlands.
Table 10.4: Microtoponyms

microtoponym essive explanation

zejnuq’ zejnuq’-le-b
iqanna iqanna-b
χːula sukri χːula sukri-b around 500 meters from Sanzhi to the west,
an area about of the length of about one
kilometer; location of some terraced fields
kuzu kuzu-le-b
šːik’e šːik’e-b
paˁχ-paˁχ paˁχ-paˁχ-le-b main spring on the other side of the river in
front of the village from where the Sanzhi
people used to fetch their water
c’aˁl darkːʷi c’aˁl darkːʷi-le-b an Itsari farm located on the main road to
Itsari; Sanzhi people used to work there
ħaˁpraqu ħaˁpraqu-le-b
irč’milla baˁʡ irč’milla baˁʡ-li-šːu-b
kʷasːala kʷasːala qalsa-b
qal(li)sa
sana sana-b sunny site of the mountain valley
ʡaˁragu ʡaˁragu-b
qirabaj qirabaj-le-b
χaˁnhara χaˁnhara-b
čibk’ila bek’ čibik’ila bek’-le-b elevation above the village, on the northern
side

(10) šaˁrʡaˁ d-at aˁʁ-ib-le ca kilametru k’e-b b-urkː-ar

Shari 1/2pl-free do.pfv-pret-cvb one kilometer exist.up-n n-find.ipfv-prs
hextːu-b ʁʷaž-le-r či-d-a, muʁar-la bek’-le-r
there.up-n Ghwazh-loc-abl on-1/2pl-dir Mughar-gen head-loc-abl
‘They sent us to Shari, it is probably one kilometer, through the hill Ghwazh,
through the top Mughar.’
(11) han b-irk-u ix-tːi šːik’e-b
remember hpl-occur.ipfv-prs dem.up-pl Shike-hpl
‘As I remember, they were in Shike.’

201
 Part III

Verbal morphology
11 General remarks on verbal
morphology
The morphosyntactic categories of verbs in Sanzhi are person, gender, number, polarity,
tense, mood, aspect, evidentiality, and voice. This chapter provides an overview of the
formal make-up of simple verb stems (§11.2) and the general morpheme template of verbs
in Sanzhi (§11.5), the formal means of expressing gender/number and person agreement
(§11.3, §11.4), spatial preverbs and their meanings (§11.6), and polarity (§11.7) since these
categories are largely independent of the TAME forms and voice. It concludes with an
overview of the morphophonological processes that affect the formation and inflection
of verbs (§11.8).

11.1 Overview of the general morphological structure of

verbs
Based on their morphological make-up, verbs can be divided into the following morpho-
logical classes:

• underived stems
• derived verbs (using spatial preverbs, causativization)
• compound verbs

There are comparably few simple verbal stems that can be used and are actually used
without having undergone additional derivational or compositional operations. Most of
the verbs are morphologically complex, either making use of one or more derivational
affixes, and/or being compounds.
Examples of simple underived stems (including gender prefixes) are:
(1) a. b-isː- (ipfv)/b-asː- (pfv) ‘take, buy’
b. b-uq’- (ipfv)/b-elq’- (pfv) ‘grind, mill’
c. b-isː- ‘cry’
d. b-ilʡ- (ipfv)/b-iʡ- (pfv) ‘steal’
e. b-alχ- (ipfv)/b-aχ- (pfv) ‘know’
The derived verbs contain spatial preverbs (§11.6) and/or the causative suffix (§12.1).
The compound verbs are of various types:
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

• light verb compounds with intransitive auxiliaries such as, e.g. b-ik’ʷ- ‘say, move’
and b-iχʷ-/b-irχʷ- ‘be, become, can’, and transitive auxiliaries such as b-irq’-/b-arq’-
‘do, make’ and aʁ- ‘do’ (§12.2)

• compound verbs containing an invariant bound morpheme from a closed class (i.e.
non-spatial preverbs) (§12.2.5)
• compound verbs that have the morphosyntactic behavior of phrases (§12.2.2)

This chapter includes only information on spatial preverbs §11.6, because they form a
closed class and mostly are in a particularly tight connection with the verbal root, which
clearly differentiates them from non-spatial preverbs and other items used in verbal com-
pounding. Causativization and compounding are treated in a separate chapter on verb
formation (Chapter 12).

11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems

Simple underived verbs have the structure (C1 )V(C2 )C3 (ː). The only consonants and semi-
vowels that can occur in the C1 slot are the two resonants r, l, the glottal stop, which
obligatorily occurs before vowel-initial roots and which is not indicated in the spelling,
and the pharyngeal stop, which usually occurs before pharyngealized vowels and is in-
dicated in the spelling because it cannot be predicated. If we include also the verbs with
gender agreement slots before the root and spatial preverbs, which are obligatorily used
with some verbal roots, we have to add the exponents of gender agreement (b-, r-, d-,
w-) and the consonants of deixis/elevation preverbs (h, k, s) as possible in the position
of C1 . No other consonants are allowed. This clearly differentiates verbs from nouns or
adjectives, which do not have similar restrictions (see §2.3 for the general syllable and
word structure of Sanzhi). In the position of C2 only sonorants (r, l, m) and b are permit-
ted, which conforms to a general requirement of the Sanzhi syllable structure (in nouns
also n and j are allowed). If we include complex stems with deixis/elevation preverbs
and with the stem vowel i, then we have to add j to the list. The slot C1 allows for a far
greater variety of consonants than the other two consonantal slots because only a few
consonants are excluded (p, p’, b, l, m, n, r, and the semivowels w and j). All vowels that
Sanzhi has can occur as root vowel of verbs (including all pharyngealized vowels).
In Sanzhi, just like in all other Dargwa varieties, simple underived stems come in
pairs that express the aspectual opposition between perfective and imperfective. This
opposition is found in most TAM forms and is also preserved in non-finite verb forms
such as participles and converbs. A very small number of finite and non-finite verb forms
are available for perfective as well as for imperfective verb stems; most TAM forms can
be built either only from imperfective or only from perfective stems. Here I will only
describe the formal side of the aspectual opposition. Its meaning is treated in the sections
on the respective inflectional verb forms.
The formal expression of the aspectual pairs is largely lexicalized and cannot be pre-
dicted. However, verbs can be divided into groups that follow the same patterns. The

206
 11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems

two different aspectual stems are cognates that seem to be derived one from the other,
but there is no unique direction of derivation. They can be distinguished on the basis of
stem vowels, infix-like segments from a closed class of phonemes (only r and l), and the
presence or absence of a gender agreement prefix.
In the following, I will briefly describe all patterns that can be identified and provide
examples for them. Since there are verbs that are only used together with preverbs or
other bound morphemes, the verbs given as examples will be morphologically simple
and complex. The structure of complex verbs is indicated by dots and - for morpheme
boundaries, and the verbs are given with the gender agreement prefix b- (except for the
verbs that have a fixed agreement prefix).

11.2.1 Differences in gender agreement

The structure of the verbs in Table 11.1 is completely identical. The only difference is the
potential for gender agreement in their prefixal form only present in perfective stems.

Table 11.1: Differences in the gender agreement

ipfv pfv preterite translation

iC vs. b-iC
it- b-it- -ib ‘beat up’
iršː- b-iršː- -ib ‘mow’
ikː- b-ikːʷ- -ub ‘burn’

11.2.2 Differences in the stem vowel

The structure of the verbs in Table 11.2 is V(C1 )C2 (ː) with C1 being r, b, or m. The vowel
distinctions attested are i vs. a, u vs. a, and u vs. e.

11.2.3 Insertion of r in the imperfective stem

The pattern in Table 11.3 occurs without and in combination with ablaut of the stem
vowel. The structure of the verbal root is always VrC(ː) for the imperfective and VC(ː) for
the perfective aspect. Many of these verbs have the same root vowel in the imperfective
as well as the perfective stem, with the majority of verbs having i. Then there are a
number of verbs that have diverging root vowels. Among them there are a few that occur
only with a spatial preverb (ka- or ha-). Since there are regular morphophonological
process of a + i > e and a + a > a(ː) we can assume that the root vowel of these verbs is i
for the imperfective stem and a for the perfective stem.

207
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

Table 11.2: Differences in the stem vowel

ipfv pfv preterite translation

i vs. a/aˁ (with or without gender agreement prefix)
isː- asː- -ib ‘take, buy’
irʁ- arʁ- -ib ‘understand’
ibχ- abχ- -ib ‘comb’
b-ig- (g > ž) b-ag- (g > ž) -ib ‘see’
b-ic’- b-ac’- -ib ‘thaw’
b-it.iq- b-it.aq- -ib ‘disappear’
b-irq’- b-arq’- -ib ‘do, make’
b-irʡ- b-aˁrʡ- -ib ‘freeze, get/become cold’
b-ik- (k > č) b-ak- (k > č) -ib ‘smear, spread’
b-it.ik’- (k’ > č’) b-it.ak’- (k’ > č’) -ib ‘shove in’
b-it’.ik’- (k’ > č’) b-it’.ak’- (k’ > č’) -ib ‘pull’
gu-b-ibkː- (kː > čː) gu-b-abkː- (kː > čː) -ib ‘yoke’
ka-b-ibχː- ka-b-aˁbχː- -ib ‘thresh’
u vs. a/aˁ (with or without gender agreement prefix)
b-urχ- b-arχ- -ur ‘sew’
b-urcː- b-arcː- -ur ‘get tired’
b-urkː- (kː > čː) b-arkː- (kː > čː) -ib ‘find’
ha-b-urk’- (k’ > č’) ha-b-ark’- (k’ > č’) -ib ‘throw upwards’
ʡuˁmč’- ʡaˁmč’- -un ‘become bald, lose hair, scrape clean’
u vs. e (with or without gender agreement prefix)
qum.urt-a qum.ert- -ur ‘forget’
urg- ergʷ- -ur ‘sieve’
urč- erč- -ur ‘saw’
b-umtː- b-emtː- -un ‘swell’
b-urh- b-erh- -ib ‘knock, strike, bang’
b-uč’- b-elč’- -un ‘read, learn’

a
(qum.a.art- when negated)

208
 11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems

Table 11.3: Insertion of r in the imperfective stem

ipfv pfv preterite translation

VrC vs. VC (with or without gender agreement prefix)
tːura irt’- tːura it’- -ib ‘spill out’
irxʷ- ixʷ- -ub ‘throw, shoot’
arg(ʷ)- (g > ž) ag- (g > ž) -ur ‘go’
b-irk- (k > č) b-ik- (k > č) -ib ‘occur, happen’ (auxiliary)
b-irc’- b-ic’- -ib ‘fill’
b-irc- b-ic- -ib ‘sell’
(ka-)b-irg- (g > ž) (ka-)b-ig- (g > ž) -ib ‘sit, be’ (auxiliary)
gu.r.b-irxː- (xː > šː) gu.r.b-ixː- (xː > šː) -ib ‘hide’ (intr., tr.)
ka-b-irxː- (xː > šː) ka-b-ixː- (xː > šː) -ib ‘put’
b-urc- b-uc- -ib ‘catch, keep’
b-urt’- b-ut’- -ib ‘distribute’
sa-b-irʁ- sa-b-eʁ- (sa-jʁ-) -ib ‘come’
ka-b-irčː- ka-b-ičː- -ib ‘cut up’
či-r-b-irxʷ- či-r-b-ixʷ- -ub ‘take off, take away’ (e.g. clothes)
b-irχʷ- b-iχʷ- -ub ‘be, become, be able’ (auxiliary)
b-ircː- b-icː- -ur ‘stand’
b-erg- (g > ž) b-eg- (g > ž) -ur ‘enter’
prv-irC vs. prv-aC (preverb, no gender agreement prefix)
k.ert’- ka.t’- -ib ‘pour’
h.erʔ- ha.ʔ- -ib ‘say’
k.erxʷ- ka.xʷ- -ub ‘kill’
k.erxʷ-/h.erxʷ- ka.xʷ-/ha.xʷ- -ub ‘pour, add’
urC vs. aC (with gender agreement prefix)
b-uˁrq- b-aˁq- -ib ‘strike, hit, wound’
tu d-uˁrq- tu d-aˁq- -ib ‘spit’

209
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

11.2.4 Insertion of l in the imperfective stem

Apart from two exceptions, the verbs in Table 11.4 are all of the structure VlC(ː) for the
imperfective and VC(ː) for the perfective aspect, with identical vowels for both verbs.

Table 11.4: Insertion of l in the imperfective stem

ipfv pfv preterite translation

VlC(ː) vs. VC(ː) (with or without gender agreement prefix)
k.alt’- k.at’- -un ‘stick, pin, attach’
ʡaˁlħ- ʡaˁħ- -un ‘fly’
icːalχː- icːaχː- -un ‘start aching, start hurting’
b-alχː- b-aχː- -un ‘feet’
b-alxʷ- b-axʷ- -un ‘sow’
b-alsː- b-asː- -un ‘glue’
b-alš- b-aš- -un ‘knead’
b-alc- b-ac- -un ‘plough’
ha-b-ilq’- ha-b-iq’- -un ‘bring up’
ka-b-ilsː- ka-b-isː- -un ‘lay down, lie’
b-ilʡ- b-iʡ- -uˁn ‘steal’
b-ilχ- b-iχ- -un ‘tie, fasten’
či-b-b-ilš- či-b-b-iš- -un ‘go out, die out’
(ha)-b-ulq- b-uq- -un ‘go, run (away),
(ha-lqʷ-) (ha-w-q-) move, direct’
či-r-b-ulg- či-r-b-ug- -un ‘cancel, delete’
b-alχ- b-aχ- -ur ‘know’
b-alt- b-at- -ur ‘let, leave’

11.2.5 Insertion of r in the perfective stem

The verbs in Table 11.5 have the root structure VC(ː) for the imperfective and VrC(ː) for
the perfective aspect. Vowels can either be identical or diverge. There are a number of
verbs in this group that lack gender agreement prefixes for imperfective stems.

11.2.6 Insertion of l in the perfective stem (and usually l-initial

imperfective stem)
The last group of verbs has l in the perfective stem, see Table 11.6. Most of these verbs
have divergent stem vowels. The morphological make-up of the perfective verbs belong-
ing to this group is always VlC(ː). The structure of the imperfective verbs is either VC(ː)
(only with very few verbs) or lVC(ː) (majority of verbs). In the latter case the verbs do
not have a slot for a gender agreement within the root.

210
 11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems

Table 11.5: Insertion of r in the perfective stem

ipfv pfv preterite translation

VC(ː) vs. VrC(ː) (gender agreement prefixes only with perfective stems)
icː- b-ircː- -ib ‘milk’
isː- b-irsː- -ib ‘shave’
ic- b-irc- -ib ‘wash’
iq- b-irq- -ib ‘chop’
uqː- b-urqː- -ib ‘dig’
uC(ː) vs. erC(ː) (with or without gender agreement prefix with imperfective stems)
ruxː- b-erxː- -ur ‘color, paint’
ruˁqː- b-aˁrqː- -ib ‘educate’
utː- b-ertː- -ib ‘tear, burst, cut off, mow’
d-uz- b-erz- -ib ‘spin’
b-uc’- b-erc’- -ib ‘bake, fry, roast’
b-uqː- b-erqː- -ib ‘carry, take’
b-učː- b-erčː- -ib ‘drink, consume, smoke’
b-uʔ- b-erʔ- -ib ‘rot’
b-uq- b-erq- -ib ‘suck, feed’
er-b-urk’- (k’ > č’) er-b-erk’- (k’ > č’) -ib ‘look at’
b-uk- b-erkʷ- -un ‘eat’

Table 11.6: Insertion of l in the perfective stem

ipfv pfv preterite translation

uC/iC vs. elC/ulC (with gender agreement prefix)
b-uq’- b-elq’- -un ‘turn, whirl, grind, mill’
luC vs. alC/elC/iC (gender agreement prefixes only with perfective stems)
luχ- b-elχʷ- -un ‘slaughter, cut’
luk’- b-elk’ʷ- -un ‘write’
lug- d-elgʷ- -un ‘count’
luq’- b-elq’ʷ- -un ‘break into pieces, wreck, destroy’
lux- b-elxʷ- -un ‘cook, boil’ (intr.)
luʁ- b-alʁ- -un ‘shear, cut (hair)’
luc’- b-alc’- -un ‘gather, collect’
lug- b-alg- -un ‘furnish, equip’ (e.g. the house for newlyweds)
luqː- b-elqː- -un ‘eat one’s fill’
lusː- b-elsː- -un ‘snarl, braid, get tangled up’
luk- b-elk- -un ‘rub away, wear off’
luk’- b-alk’- -un ‘bend’
lukː- b-ikː- (kː > čː) -ib ‘give’

211
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

11.2.7 Verbs with only one aspectual stem and other morphologically
exceptional verbs
There are a number of defective verbs that lack the second member of the aspectual pair
and only have one stem (Table 11.7). This single stem inflects for the verb forms that are
normally only or at least predominantly formed from the imperfective stem (e.g. imper-
fective converb, modal participle, prohibitive) as well as for verb forms that are normally
only or at least predominantly formed from the perfective stem (e.g. preterite, perfective
converb, imperative). In the following, I will simply call these verb forms perfective and
imperfective TAM forms.
There are a few exceptional verbs that have restricted possibilities for inflection. These
verbs are:

b-ikː- ‘want, love, like’ Inflectional forms available are the imperfective converb (b-ikː-ul),
the modal participle (b-ikː-an), the habitual present in the third person used with
third-person experiencers (b-ikː-u), another habitual present form that formally
corresponds to a third person but can only be used with first person experiencers
in assertions and second person experiencers in questions (b-ikː-ar), another word
form that contains the suffix of the habitual past (b-ikː-i) but has the same mean-
ing and distribution as the form just described, and one word form that formally
corresponds to the habitual past, but expresses irrealis modality and is only used
with first person experiencers (b-ikː-adi) (§13.2). Only the derived causative of this
verb (b-ičː-aq-) can regularly be inflected for TAM forms such as the preterite (per-
fective converb), the imperative, and the infinitive that otherwise predominantly
occur with perfective verb forms.
Inflectional forms available are the perfective converb (určː-ib), the imper-
určː- ‘fit, suit’
ative (určː-e!), the prohibitive (ma-určː-ut!), but no other verb forms, e.g., no infini-
tive, no imperfective converb, no modal participle.

b-uˁq’- ‘go’ Inflectional forms available are the infinitive (b-uˁq’-ij), the imperative (e.g.
the form used for feminine singular addressees r-uˁq’-en or r-uˁq’-aˁn! with no
difference in meaning; masculine singular uˁq’-en/uˁq’-aˁn!, etc.), the prohibitive,
(maˁ-q’-aˁt (sg), maˁ-q’aˁtːaja! (pl)), the masdar (b-uˁq’-ni), and the modal inter-
rogative (r-uˁq’-ide(l)), whereby the prohibitive form omits the gender prefix. The
verb can take the three deictic preverbs sa-, ha, and ka-, in which case the gen-
der agreement prefix is left out. The resulting verb forms saˁq’-, haˁq’-, and kaˁq’-
only inflect for the prohibitive (e.g. sa-maˁ-q’-aˁt in the singular, sa-maˁ-q’-aˁtːaja
in the plural), the imperfective converb (e.g. saˁq’-uˁnne) and the modal participle
(saˁq’-aˁn).

212
 11.2 The structure of underived verbal stems

Table 11.7: Stems inflecting for all TAM forms (imperfective and perfective)

preterite,
verb translation imperfective converb
b-ax- (x > š) ‘go’ b-aš-ib, b-ax-ul
b-ibxː- (xː > šː) ‘escape’ b-ibšː-ib, b-ibxː-ul
b-irʡ- ‘betray’ b-irʡ-ib, b-irʡ-uˁl
b-isː- ‘cry’ b-isː-ib, b-isː-ul
b-iχː- ‘guard, beware, care for’ b-iχː-ib, b-iχː-uˁl
b-iχː- ‘believe’ b-iχː-ib, d-iχː-uˁl
b-ucː- ‘work’ b-uc-ib, b-uc-ul
b-ug- (g > ž) ‘remain, stay, be’ b-už-ib, b-ug-ul
b-uk- (k > č) ‘lead, gather’ (people or animals, b-uč-ib, b-uk-ul
not objects)
b-uk’- ‘leak, flow out’ b-uk’-un, b-uk’-unne
b-ukː- ‘itch’ b-ukː-un, b-ukː-unne
b-ulkː- ‘beg, plead’ b-ulkː-un, b-ulkː-unne
b-umʡ- ‘romp around, frolic, have fun, b-umʡ-uˁn, b-umʡ-uˁnne
play around’
b-urʁ- ‘throw oneself, rush, attack’ b-urʁ-ib, b-urʁ-ul
b-urs- ‘tell’ b-urs-ib, b-urs-ul
b-urž- ‘strain oneself’ b-urž-ib, b-urž-ul
bus- ‘rain, snow’ bus-ib, bus-ul
či-karχʷ- ‘(en)wrap, cover, coat’ či-karχ-ur, či-karχ-ul
(gu-)lik’- ‘listen’ (gu-)lik’-un, (gu-)lik’-unne
halkʷ- ‘light up, catch fire’ halk-un, halk-unne
ibkː- (kː > čː) ‘steal, snaffle’ ibčː-ib, ibkː-ul
icː- ‘ache, hurt’ icː-ib, icː-ul
ka-b-urχː- ‘beg’ ka-b-urχː-ib, ka-b-urχː-ul
kemq- ‘hang’ (intr.) kemqun, kemq-unne
lik’- ‘worry, suffer, endure’ lik’-un, lik’-unne
rurc’- ‘itch, burn, twitch’ rurc’-ib, rurc’-ul
ruˁrčː- ‘tremble, shake, boil’ ruˁrčː-ib, ruˁrčː-ul
rurg- ‘burn the skin’ rurg-ib, rurg-ul
ruˁrq- ‘boil’ ruˁrq-ib, ruˁrq-uˁl
umc’- ‘search’ umc’-un, umc’-ul
umc- ‘measure’ umc-un, umc-unne
uχː- ‘shine, sparkle, glitter’ uχː-ib, uχː-ul

213
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

11.3 Gender agreement in verb stems

Gender agreement is an important grammatical category of East Caucasian languages,
and also present in Sanzhi. Most of the vowel-initial verbal stems and the two preverbs
b-i- ‘in(side)’ and b-it- ‘thither’ have gender agreement prefixes. Furthermore, the lo-
cational/existential copulas (§16.2) and the copula-auxiliary ca-b have a slot for gender
agreement suffixes (or infix in the variant ca<b>i, see §16.1). The agreement affixes are
displayed in Table 11.8.

Table 11.8: Gender agreement affixes in Sanzhi

sg 1/2pl 3pl
masculine w/∅ d b
feminine r d b
neuter b d

The agreement affix for masculine singular is always used when it occurs as a suffix.
It is regularly omitted when it occurs as a prefix to a verbal root beginning with u, for
example ukː-unne=da (masc.) vs. r-ukː-unne=da (fem.) (eat.ipfv-icvb=1) ‘I will eat’. It is
optionally omitted when the root starts with i, for example (w-)ik’-ul (masc.) vs. r-ik’-ul
(f-say.ipfv-icvb) ‘saying’.
The agreement prefixes disappear when the preverb b-it- is attached, which contains
its own gender prefix (see §11.6.2 for examples). However, if the preverb is preceded by
a negation prefix, then the gender agreement can be completely omitted, but such an
omission is optional. Thus, the verb b-it-eʁ-ij (n-thither-go.pfv-inf) ‘go there’ has the
neutral negative form a-jt-eʁ-, which is not specified for gender, alongside with the forms
preserving the gender prefixes a-b-it-eʁ-, a-w-it-eʁ-, a-r-it-eʁ-, and a-d-it-eʁ-.
Verbal gender agreement has the clause as its domain, and in the majority of cases
it is controlled by the absolutive argument of the agreeing verb. The syntax of gender
agreement is treated in detail in §20.2.

11.4 Person agreement and stem augment vowels

Person agreement is rather reduced, with a clear opposition of speech act participants
(first and second person) vs. third person. Formally it shows up as suffixes and as enclitics.
The form of the agreement exponent varies depending on the TAM form, and not all TAM
forms have person agreement markers. The following verb forms distinguish person
agreement:

suffixal person agreement: habitual present and habitual past; conditional forms; opta-
tive, imperative and prohibitive
enclitical person agreement: compound present and compound past, perfect, preterite,
future, etc.

214
 11.5 The morpheme template of Sanzhi verbs

In the habitual present, the realis conditional and the past conditional; the person suffix
for first and second persons is preceded by a stem augment vowel (i, u, or occasionally a)
that indicates the valency of the verb (monovalent vs. bivalent or trivalent). Throughout
this grammar, the stem augment vowel is not glossed separately, but together with the
following TAM suffix. For full lists of the agreement exponents and the distribution of
stem augment vowels see §20.3.
Person agreement has the clause as its domain, and the rules are rather complex and
subject to variation. With monovalent predicates, it is the single argument that functions
as agreement controller. With predicates that require more than one argument, only
subject-like arguments (agents or experiencers) or object-like arguments (patients or
stimuli) control person agreement. Person agreement follows the person hierarchy 1, 2
> 3. In the case of two speech act participants, it is often the second person that triggers
the agreement, but first person subject-like arguments are also able to control agreement.
The syntax of gender agreement is treated in detail in §20.3.

11.5 The morpheme template of Sanzhi verbs and the

structure of morphologically complex verb forms
The morphological structure of verbal predicates in Sanzhi is fairly complex. There are
up to five morphemes that can precede the root and up to five that can follow it. These
morphemes can be prefixes, and suffixes, but also enclitics and lexical stems functioning
as first parts of compound verbs. Before the root, there are only prefixes in the form of
spatial preverbs, gender/number prefixes and negation prefixes and lexical stems used
in compounds. After the root, suffixes and enclitics follow. There are restrictions on the
combinability of markers in the various slots, for instance TAM forms requiring person
suffixes exclude the use of enclitic person or tense markers.
Table 11.9 provides a template for Sanzhi verbs. The slots are, from left to right:

5- first part of a compound verb (there are a few preverbs and stems used in compound-
ing that have gender prefixes as one example in the table shows) (see §12.2 on compound-
ing);

4- location preverb, optionally followed by a direction suffix that can only occur together
with a preverb; the preverb b-i- ‘in, inside’ has an additional gender marker (§11.6.1)
3- negation (§11.7)
2- deixis/elevation preverb (§11.6.2)

1- gender agreement prefix (§11.3)

0 root
-1 causative suffix (§12.1)
-2 first TAM slot

215
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

-3 second TAM slot

-4 person and tense enclitics (§11.4)

There are two slots ([5-] and [4-]) that contain items that can have gender prefixes such
that the structure can even be a bit more complicated. Since only very few items in both
slots are marked for gender, I did not add two additional slots for gender to the template.
The slots and respective morphemes are treated in various sections of this grammar.

Table 11.9: Verb affixation order template

5- 4- 3- 2- 1- 0 -1 -2 -3 -4
či- a- d- ig -ul =de
spr- neg- nhpl- see.ipfv -icvb =pst
‘they were not seen’
a- ka- d- irxː -an =da
neg- down- nhpl- put.ipfv -ptcp =1
‘I will not put them down’
či-r- sa- b- ertː -ij
spr-abl- hither- n- take.pfv -inf
‘to take it off’
d-al- hitːi- d- irč -aq -ad
1/2pl- behind- hpl- occur.ipfv -caus -1.prs
together
‘we will support’
debga b- arq’ -ib -le
hidden n- do.pfv -pret -cvb
‘hid it’
kːač ma- b- irq’ -itːa -ja
touch neg- n- do.ipfv -proh -pl
‘Do not touch it!’
umc’ -e
search.ipfv -imp
‘Search!’

In principle, only the verbal root is obligatory because there is a variant of the optative
that does not make use of any suffixes. There are a number of verbal roots that are bound
and can only be used in combination with spatial preverbs, for example kerxʷ- (ipfv)/
kaxʷ- (pfv) ‘kill’, and kert’- (ipfv)/kat’- (pfv) ‘pour’.

216
 11.6 Spatial preverbs

11.6 Spatial preverbs

Sanzhi Dargwa has the typical Dargwa system of preverbs, which in their original spatial
meaning express location, direction, and deixis/elevation (see van den Berg 2003c for a
useful overview of preverbs in Akusha Dargwa). Preverbs are generally optional, because
verbs can occur without preverbs, but there are bound verbal roots for which the prefixed
preverbs are obligatory.
There is a tight connection between spatial preverbs and the verbal stem, and normally
they form one phonological word. The order of the preverbs is given in (2). Between the
complex location/direction and the deictic preverbs, only negation prefixes and some
enclitics (e.g. the additive =ra and arrah ‘at least’) can intervene.

(2) [(location)-(direction)]-(deixis/elevation)-root

Preverbs do not express aspectual differences, but occur with imperfective and perfec-
tive stems. The Sanzhi Dargwa system of preverbs can be characterized as being some-
where in-between regular, productive, and semantically transparent systems, like the
ones found in Agul, Tabasaran, and Rutul, and non-regular systems as, for instance in
Budukh, Kryz, Tsakhur, and Lezgian (Tatevosov 2000; Nichols 2003; Ganenkov 2007). It
is at least partially formally compositional, in the sense that all theoretically possible
combinations of location/direction and deictic preverbs are attested (§11.6.3). However,
not every verbal stem takes all available preverbs or logically possible combination of
preverbs. With verbs of movement and posture, the semantic contribution of the pre-
verbs is relatively straightforward and compositional (see Table 11.11 for an example),
but with most other verbs there is no real semantic transparency and the spatial mean-
ing of the preverb is lost.
Preverbs have probably developed from spatial postpositions/adverbs, but not all spa-
tial postpositions/adverbs are used as preverbs. For instance, ilda ‘on the side, sideways’
and spatial adverbs derived from demonstrative pronouns do not occur as preverbs. The
directional markers are identical to the directional markers used for the formation of
spatial cases.

11.6.1 Location preverbs and spatial cases expressing direction

Location preverbs, just like the spatial cases, express location and direction. All preverbs
in Table 11.10 except for the last one are identical to spatial postpositions (§8.1), though
there are more spatial postpositions that are not used as preverbs. They express the
location of an item with respect to a reference point. The directional affixes can be added
to the preverbs (-r for the ablative, the gender marker for the essive, no affix for the
lative), which are the same used with nominals or spatial adverbs (§3.4). The directional
affixes are suffixes to the location preverbs, not prefixes to the verbal stem, because they
cannot occur without location preverbs and semantically modify the meaning of the
location preverbs. Thus, location preverbs and directional suffixes form a tight union.

217
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

Table 11.10: Location preverbs and directional cases

meaning lative ablative essive origin

‘on’ či- či-r- či-gm- postposition/adverb
‘under, down’ gu- gu-r- gu-gm- spatial case and
postposition/adverb
‘in front of’ sa- sa-r- sa-gm- spatial case and
postposition/adverb
‘in, inside’ gm-i- gm-i-r- gm-i-gm- postposition/adverb
‘behind, after’ hitːi- hitːi-r- hitːi-gm- postposition/adverb
‘out, outside’ tːura- tːura-r- tːura-gm- postposition/adverb
‘in(to)/to, in(to) the hands’a kʷi- kʷi-r- kʷi-gm- adverb

a
This preverb can also be used with respect to locations that do not have hands (e.g. animals, etc.). Thus, the
meaning is not literally ‘into the hands’ anymore, and speakers do not translate it with ‘into the hands’.

Examples of the preverbs with and without markers for directed motion are provided
in (3–7).
(3) hitːi-b-uq-un=xːar, hitːi-a-jt-eʁ-ib
behind-n-go.pfv-pret=conc behind-neg-thither-go.pfv-pret
‘Even though (the hare) run after (the turtle), it did not reach it.’
(4) šːatːir tːura-b-uq-un ca-b hex-tːi
walk out-hpl-go.pfv-pret cop-hpl dem.up-pl
‘They went out for a walk.’
(5) na cara kʷi-b-ikː-a!
now other in.the.hands-n-give.pfv-imp
‘Now give another (picture)!’
(6) sa-r-b-uqː-a il!
ante-abl-n-carry.pfv-imp that
‘Take it away! (from in front)’
(7) itwaj d-aqil d-i-d-ax-ul akːu=q’al hex-tːi
like.this npl-much npl-in-npl-go.ipfv-icvb cop.neg=mod dem-pl
‘Otherwise not much (hay) fits inside.’
For a number of verbs, the spatial semantics has been lost and has developed into a
more metaphorical meaning (8). Furthermore, with verbs that do not denote the position
or the movement of an item, the semantic contribution of the preverbs is synchronically
opaque (9–10).
(8) dam či-d-d-ač’-ib-te
1sg.dat spr-npl-npl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl
‘(It is enough what) I experienced.’

218
 11.6 Spatial preverbs

(9) iχ gu-lik’-un ca-w ħaˁq’-le qːuʁa-l

dem.down sub-listen-pret cop-m very-advz beautiful-advz
‘He is listening carefully to him.’
(10) dam il či-a-b-až-ib=da
1sg.dat that spr-neg-n-see.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not see it.’ (E)

Because preverbs are identical to postpositions and adverbials, it is not always possi-
ble to determine whether a specific item functions as the one or the other. For instance,
či-r in the following example (11) is interpreted as preverb by my main language assis-
tant Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov, although the combination urči-le-r=či-r also exists
as a postpositional phrase ‘from on the horse’. In the example (11) the constituent or-
der can be changed to či-r-ka-jč-ib urči-le-r, which excludes an interpretation of či-r as
postposition and supports the preverb analysis. It is also possible to use both the post-
position/adverbial and the preverb (12). See also §8.1.7 for some more examples in which
či-r rather functions as postposition/adverbial and not as preverb.

(11) urči-le-r či-r-ka-jč-ib

horse-loc-abl spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)
(12) urči-le-r či-r či-r-ka-jč-ib
horse-loc-abl on-abl spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)

For the most part preverbs can not be separated from the verb or follow it (13), but
in certain contexts (that still await clarification) a separation is possible, just like it has
been observed for Tanti Dargwa (Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 107) (14).

(13) * admi ka-jč-ib či-r

person down-occur.pfv.m-pret on-abl
(Intended meaning: ‘The man fell down.’) (E)
(14) a. či-r-ixʷ-a qːatːi!
spr-abl-remove.pfv-imp hat
‘Take off the hat!’ (E)
b. ixʷ-a či-r qːatːi!
‘Take off the hat!’ (E)
c. ixʷ-a qːatːi či-r
‘Take off the hat!’ (E)

219
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

11.6.2 Deixis and elevation preverbs

The participant-oriented and elevation preverbs, which are all deictic, are:

• ha- ‘up, upwards’

• ka- ‘down, downwards’
• sa- ‘to the speaker, hither’
• gm-it- ‘away from the speaker, thither’

These preverbs immediately precede the verbal root, and the only items that can in-
tervene are gender agreement prefixes. However, if the preverb gm-it- is added to verbal
stems possessing a gender prefix, this prefix is omitted, e.g. či-b-uq-ij ‘attack, hit on,
fall upon’ vs. či-b-it-uq-ij ‘go on (something)’, and gu-b-aˁq-ij ‘beat from down’ vs. gu-
b-it-aˁq-ij ‘beat from down’. The deictic/elevation preverbs cannot take the directional
suffixes since they already convey motion.
The preverbs express upwards or downwards motion (elevation) with respect to a
deictic center and motion to the speaker and away from the deictic center, which is
usually the speaker (participant-oriented deixis). Relevant examples are (15–18).
(15) ha-jcː-e!
up-get.up.pfv.m-imp
‘Get up! ’(said to a man)
(16) ka-jž-e!
down-remain.m-imp
‘Sit down!’ (said to a man)
(17) heχ sa-jʁ-ib
dem.down hither-come.pfv.m-pret
‘He came back.’
(18) heχ hin-ni-cːe-r itːu-b-a b-it-erč’-ib=da mašin
dem.down water-obl-in-abl there-n-dir n-thither-drive.pfv-pret=1 car
‘I drove the car down through that water.’
To younger speakers of Sanzhi, the specific meanings of the preverbs ha- and ka- are
not fully clear anymore, and they usually employ only sa- as the default form. Older
speakers differentiate between:

• ha-b-eʁ-ij ‘go, come upwards’, e.g. from Druzhba to Sanzhi, from the sea to
Druzhba;
• ka-b-eʁ-ij ‘go, come downwards’, e.g. from Sanzhi or Bashlikent to Druzhba, from
Druzhba to the sea
• sa-b-eʁ-ij ‘go, come to the speaker’, e.g. from Moscow, Germany, America to
Druzhba

220
 11.6 Spatial preverbs

In contrast, the younger speakers use sa-b-eʁ-ij for all contexts.

Among the participant-oriented deixis and elevation preverbs, the first three preverbs
ha-, ka-, and sa- are far more commonly used than the fourth preverb gm-it-. For instance,
the verb ‘carry’ takes the first three preverbs, but not the fourth, that is haqː-, kaqː-, saqː-,
*b-it-aqː-. It still needs to be clarified whether this is due to formal reasons (presence
vs. absence of gender prefixes or morphophonological restrictions) or can be explained
functionally.
Tatevosov (2000) observes that the meanings of the deictic and elevation preverbs
do not exclude each other, that is a movement can be upwards away from the speaker,
but only one of these meanings can be realized through the use of the relevant preverb.
Which preverb is actually employed seems to be an idiosyncratic lexical property of the
verbal predicate.
The origin of the participant-oriented deixis and elevation preverbs is often opaque.
The preverb ka- is possibly related to the second part of the morphologically complex ab-
lative suffix -r-ka, but the synchronic semantic contribution of -ka in the ablative suffix
is hard to determine. The deictic preverb sa- ‘to the speaker, hither’ is formally identical
to the locational preverb sa- ‘in front’, the spatial case -sa ‘in front’, and the postposi-
tions/adverbs sala ‘in front of’ and sa-b ‘in front, ago’. If this is due to chance or due to
cognacy requires further investigation.
A detailed account of the elevation preverbs in Sanzhi within a general discussion
about the semantic category of ‘elevation’ in Sanzhi can be found in Forker (2019a).

11.6.3 Combinations of preverbs

The two groups of preverbs are independent of each other, in the sense that location can
be expressed without participant-oriented deixis/elevation and vice versa, but they can
also be combined. The order is fixed, with participant-oriented deixis/elevation preverbs
occurring closer to the stem (19), (20). Reverse combinations are ungrammatical.

(19) či-ka-b-ixː-a!
spr-down-n-put.pfv-imp
‘Put (it) down!’
(20) hel=ra b-i-k-ert’-id
that=add n-in-down-pour.ipfv-1.prs
‘I pour that in as well.’

The location preverbs have optional allomorphic variants when followed by the par-
ticipant-oriented deixis/elevation preverb ha- because the initial fricative of the second
preverb is omitted. The preverbs ending in -i change that vowel to -e under omission of
h, for example či- + ha- > če-, kʷi- + ha > kʷe-, hitːi- + ha > hitːe-. The stop in the preverb
gu- becomes labialized, that is gu- + ha- > gʷa- (21).

(21) c’a gʷa-b-iq’-un ca-b

fire from.down.up-n-set.fire.pfv-pret cop-n
‘(Somebody) set up a fire.’

221
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

All location preverbs can be combined with all participant-oriented deixis/elevation

preverbs, and almost all of the logically possible combinations are attested in natural
texts. However, many if not almost all verbal roots allow only for certain preverbs and
combinations of preverbs to be attached. Verbs of motion and position have, of course,
the greatest freedom, since the preverbs have spatial and directional meanings. Combina-
tions with the location preverbs či-, hitːi-, and tːura- and the participant-oriented deictic
preverbs ka- and ha- are significantly more frequent than combinations with the other
preverbs. Combinations with gm-it- are generally very rare in natural texts. Table 11.11
illustrates all combinations with the verb b-eʁ-ij (pfv) ‘go, come’.
The negation prefixes a- and ma- follow the location preverbs and precede the par-
ticipant–oriented deixis/elevation preverbs if there are any (22), (23). It is also possible
to insert three particles that normally occur as enclitics into the same slot following the
location preverbs. These clitics are the additive =ra (23), the emphatic particle =q’ar (24),
and =arrah (see §9.4.5 for an example). If the enclitics occur in that position, they take
scope over the verb.
(22) tːura-ma-ka-lq-ut!
out-proh-down-direct.m-ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not go out (of the car)! (said to a man)’
(23) ca-w w-erc-aq-ur-il-li-j er či=ra-a-w-erč’-ib
refl-m m-save.pfv-caus-pret-ref-obl-dat look spr=add-neg-m-look.pfv-pret
‘He did not even look at his savior.’
(24) gu=q’ar-lik’-unne ca-b
sub=mod-listen-icvb cop-n
‘As for listening, s/he is listening.’

11.7 Negation
Negation can be expressed through prefixes or through the negative copula, depending
on the inflected verb forms. In contrast to some other South Dargwa varieties (e.g. Icari,
Shiri), Sanzhi Dargwa does not express negation through reduplication of the verbal
stem. There are two negative prefixes a- and ma- that occur right before participant-
oriented deixis/elevation preverbs and root-initial gender markers if there are any. The
prefix a- is occasionally preceded by an additional gender agreement prefix.
The functional distribution of the negation prefixes is as follows: the prefix a- is used
in the imperfect/preterite, resultative, pluperfect, experiential past, and sometimes also
with the perfect and with non-finite verb forms. The prefix ma- is only used in the pro-
hibitive and the negative optative. For all other verb forms the negative copula is em-
ployed. The negative copula has the root akːʷ-1 (allomorphs akʷ-, akː-), of which the
1
The negative copla has prefixal gender agreement when it is used with locational or existential mean-
ing, but this is impossible when it is used for the formation of analytic verb forms. See §16.1 for more
information.

222
 11.7 Negation

Table 11.11: Location preverbs with b-eʁ-ij (pfv) ‘go, come’

verb form possible contexts of use

preverb ha-: the movement is always upwards
či-ha-b-eʁ-ij from the sea to Sanzhi, from down onto something
gu-ha-b-eʁ-ij under something, e.g. a mouse goes along under a cupboard
sa-ha-b-eʁ-ij towards from below to Sanzhi
b-i-ha-b-eʁ-ij inside, e.g. enter a house
hitːi-ha-b-eʁ-ij after something or someone, e.g. go or come after the daughter
kʷi-ha-b-eʁ-ij into the hands, e.g. a fish jumping into the hands
tːura-ha-b-eʁ-ij out of, e.g. a mouse exiting a hole, come out of the house
preverb ka-: the movement is always downwards
či-ka-b-eʁ-ij from Sanzhi to Druzhba, from Druzhba to the sea
gu-ka-b-eʁ-ij under something downwards
sa-ka-b-eʁ-ij towards, e.g. encounter somebody who comes from Sanzhi to Druzhba
b-i-ka-b-eʁ-ij into, e.g. down into the cellar of the house (from above)
hitːi-ka-b-eʁ-ij reach, go after somebody downwards
kʷi-ka-b-eʁ-ij into the hands, e.g. a child falling from a tree into the hands of the father
tːura-ka-b-eʁ-ij out of, e.g. a bird exiting a nest, going out of the house
preverb sa-: the movement is always to the speaker
či-sa-b-eʁ-ij reach something close to the speaker
gu-sa-b-eʁ-ij go under something, e.g. the cat climbed under my fur
sa-sa-b-eʁ-ij towards the speaker, e.g. my friend met me, came towards me
b-i-sa-b-eʁ-ij enter, e.g. the guests entered our house
hitːi-sa-b-eʁ-ij go after somebody, to get somebody or something
kʷi-sa-b-eʁ-ij into the hands, e.g. the cat jumped into my hands
tːura-sa-b-eʁ-ij exit, leave, go out, e.g. the bear came out of its den
preverb b-it-: the movement is always away from the speaker
či-b-it-eʁ-ij reach something away from the speaker, e.g. reach Moscow
gu-b-it-eʁ-ij go under, e.g. the rope reached under the cupboard away from the speaker
sa-b-it-eʁ-ij go towards somebody away from the speaker
b-i-b-it-eʁ-ij into something, enter something further away
hitːi-b-it-eʁ-ij go after somebody further away, e.g. the dog chased the cat
kʷi-b-it-eʁ-ij into the hands, e.g. the cat came into the hands of somebody away from the
speaker
tːura-b-it-eʁ-ij out of, e.g. the horse came out of the river on the other side of the river
bank

223
11 General remarks on verbal morphology

initial vowel is dropped when it is encliticized to a preceding predicate, so that we get

=kːu and =kːʷi. The negative copula occurs in four forms: present, past, participial, and
masdar. See the sections on the TAM forms and §16.1 on the copula for examples of
negated predicates.

11.8 Morphophonological processes affecting the

formation and inflection of verbs
There are a number of regular morphophonological processes that occur when verbs are
inflected and that lead to the formation of stem allomorphs. These processes are in part
optional, but occur frequently. See §2.6 for more information about the processes, their
application and alternative variants.

1. Delabialization of consonant: Labialization as a consonantal feature disappears when

the labial vowel u follows, e.g. b-elk’ʷ-ij (n-write.pfv-inf) vs. b-elk-un (n-
write.pfv-cvb). Occasionally, this affects the preceding vowel, in which case both
forms are given, e.g. w-i-h.alqʷ-an=da (m-in-go.ipfv.m.up-ptcp=1) ‘I will/should
go inside’ vs. b-i-ha-b-ulq-an ca-b (n-in-up-n-go.ipfv-ptcp cop-n) ‘it will/should
go inside’.

2. Omission of root vowel:Disappearance of the labial root vowel when the verb is in-
flected for masculine singular by means of an overt prefix w-, e.g. sa-w-q-un
(hither-m-go.pfv-pret) ‘he came’ vs. sa-b-uq-un (hither-hpl-go.pfv-pret) ‘they
went away’.
3. Omission of glottal fricative between vowels:The glottal fricative disappears when the
deictic preverb ha- is preceded by location preverbs. This process, in turn, affects
the quality of the adjacent vowels, e.g. b-i- + ha- > be- (see §11.6.3 above for more
examples). This process is optional, i.e., the pronunciation bi-ha- is also possible
and attested, in particular in slow speech.
4. Vowel lowering: Lowering of the root vowel i when a spatial preverb (ka-, ha-, sa-) or
the negation prefixes (a-, ma-) are added: a + i > e. This occurs when verbs show
agreement for masculine singular and the overt agreement prefix is omitted or
with verbs that lack an agreement prefix, e.g. ka-r-ircː-u (down-f-stand.ipfv-prs)
‘she stands’ vs. k-ercː-u (down-stand.ipfv.m-prs) ‘he stands’.
5. Diphthongization: The root vowel i changes into a diphthong when a spatial preverb
(ka-, ha-, sa-) or a negation prefix (a-, ma-) is added before the verbal root: a +
i > aj. This occurs when verbs show agreement for masculine singular and the
overt agreement prefix is omitted or with verbs that lack an agreement prefix,
e.g. ma-jk’-utːa (neg-say.ipfv.m-proh.sg) ‘Do not talk!’ vs. ma-r-ik’-utːa (neg-f-
say.ipfv-proh.sg) ‘Do not talk!’

224
 11.8 Morphophonological processes affecting verb formation and inflection

6. Palatalization of velar consonants: When the front vowel i, the causative suffix -aq, or
occasionally when the masdar suffix -ni follows velar consonants undergo palatal-
ization, i.e. x > š, xː > šː, g > ž, k > č, kː > čː, k’ > č’. For instance, či-ka-b-ixː-a
(spr-down-n-put.pfv-imp.sg) ‘Put it on!’ vs. či-ka-b-išː-ij (spr-down-n-put.pfv-
inf) ‘to put it on’; b-ikː-ar (n-want.ipfv-3.prs) vs. b-ičː-aq-ar (n-want.ipfv-caus-
3.prs); b-ebč’-ni (n-die.pfv-msd) < b-ebk’- (n-die.pfv), b-arč-ni (n-find.pfv-msd) <
b-arkː- (n-find.pfv-). There is also degemination in the last example. When the
masdar suffix is added, palatalization is optional, at least with some verbs, and
downright ungrammatical with others, e.g. ubč’-ni/ubk’-ni (die.m.ipfv-msd) < b-
ubk’- (n-die.ipfv-); er-b-ik’ʷ-ni (look-n-say.ipfv-msd).

7. Gemination and devoicing of voiced stops: The gender affixes b- and d- become de-
voiced geminates when preceded or followed by another stop b or d/t respectively,
e.g. letːe (< le-d=de, exist-npl=pst) vs. le-r=de (exist-f=pst).

225
12 Verb formation
There are three types of operations that allow for the formation of complex verbal lex-
emes from base verbs:

• spatial preverbs (treated in §11.6)

• valency-changing derivation, i.e., causativization (§12.1)
• compounding (§12.2)

In this section, causativization and compounding are discussed.

12.1 Formation of causative verbs

Causativization is a productive means of deriving causative verbs from base verbs. It can
be applied to most if not all verbs, including intransitive, transitive and affective verbs of
imperfective and perfective aspect. The causative suffix -aq is added directly to the stem
prior to TAM suffixes and it does not have any impact on the aspectual value of the verb
or on the choice of certain inflectional suffixes (e.g. which suffix is used for the preterite).
It has a pharyngealized allomorph -aˁq. Furthermore, suffixation of the causative marker
triggers palatalization of velar consonants in the verbal root. Examples of causativized
verbs and their meanings are given in (1).

(1) a. b-ič-ib ‘occurred, happend’ (intr.) (n-occur.pfv-pret)

> b-ič-aq-ib ‘make occur, hit, strike’ (tr.)
b. b-ikː-ul ‘wanting, liking, loving’ (aff.) (n-want.ipfv-icvb)
> b-ičː-aq-ul ‘make wanting, liking, loving’ (tr.)

In the majority of cases, causativization adds one argument to the valency frame of the
base verb, i.e. intransitive verbs become transitive and transitive verbs become ditransi-
tive. Causativization normally applies only once to the verbal stem, but in elicitation the
causative suffix can also be added twice to a small number of verbs. However, due to the
scarcity of examples the syntax and semantic properties of verbs that underwent double
causativization could not be clarified. With the verb exemplified in (2) the meaning seems
to be more emphatic, and the valency frame is transitive (as after single causativization).

(2) b-iħ-ib ‘(they) fought’ (hpl-fight.pfv-pret)

> b-iħ-aˁq-ib ‘made fight’ (tr.)
> b-iħ-aˁq-aˁq-ib ‘made fight’ (tr.)
12 Verb formation

In addition to morphological causativization, there are other formal means for mak-
ing causative constructions such as light verb change and suppletion. This operation is
applied to compound verbs. Intransitive compound verbs make use of the light verbs
b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, can’ (3). For causativization these light verbs are
replaced by b-irq’- (ipfv)/b-arq’- (pfv) ‘do, make’ (4). A full list of available light verbs is
given in §12.2.1.

(3) hel zamana hati=ra ač d-iχ-ub heχ-tːi

that time more=add open npl-be.pfv-pret dem.down-pl
d-el-te=ra uže
npl-remain.pfv-dd.pl=add already
‘At that time they (the trousers) opened even more including the remaining parts
(that had been closed up to now).’
(4) hel hel-tː-a-cːella canille taχna ač b-arq’-ib
that that-pl-obl-comit together room open n-do.pfv-pret
‘He opened the room together with them.’

See §19.2.2 for more information on the syntactic properties of causativization and
more examples of causativized verbs.

12.2 Compound verbs

Verbal compounds consist of two parts, the first of which can be a noun, short adjective,
ideophone, bound lexical stem, or, very rarely, another verbal stem. It can be a native
lexical item or a loan word. Thus, compounding is a convenient way of extending the
verbal lexicon. The second part is a light verb from a closed class of verbs. It is only
the light verb that is inflected and that determines all morphosyntactic properties of
the compound. All light verbs used in compounding are given at the beginning of this
Section in §12.2.1 with both the imperfective and the perfective stems.

12.2.1 Light verbs used in compounding and general remarks on

compounds
There are a fair number of light verbs occurring in compounding. The most frequent
ones are b-iχʷ-ij ‘be, become, can’, b-ik’ʷ-ij ‘say’ and b-arq’-ij ‘do’. The verb b-ik’ʷ-ij
is widely used in compounds that denote verbs of speech and the production of other
sounds, but also in many verbs of movement. Since it means ‘say’ when used on its own,
I stick to this as an overall gloss. The two tables below display intransitive (Table 12.1)
and transitive (Table 12.2) light verbs.
The verb-forming processes listed in the following sections of this Chapter are rel-
atively freely combinable. If a specific combination is available depends largely on the
semantics of the resulting verb. Thus, compound verbs can contain spatial preverbs (5–7)
and causativized verb stems.

228
 12.2 Compound verbs

Table 12.1: Intransitive light verbs

ipfv/pfv translation example verbs

b-irχʷ-/b-iχʷ- ‘be, become, can’ razi b-iχʷ- ‘be happy, agree’,
halak b-iχʷ- ‘hurry, be fast’,
uruχ b-iχʷ- ‘get afraid’,
uruc b-iχʷ- ‘get embarrassed, ashamed’
b-irk-/b-ik- ‘occur, get, receive’ ʡaˁʁni b-ik- ‘need’,
šak b-ik- ‘feel, suppose’,
suk b-ik- ‘meet’,
han b-ik- ‘remember’
b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘say’ uf b-ik’ʷ- ‘blow’,
ʁumku b-ik’ʷ- ‘swear’,
zuruq sa-b-ik’ʷ- ‘wriggle’,
iχtilat b-ik’ʷ- ‘chat’,
qus b-ik’ʷ- ‘slide’,
zuq’-sa-b-ik’ʷ- ‘swinging back and forth’
b-ulq-/b-uq- ‘go’ čːal b-uq- ‘argue’,
duc’ b-uq- ‘run’,
ʡuˁt’ b-uq- ‘fall into pieces’
b-irg-/b-ig- ‘be’ ʡuˁt’ ka-b-ig- ‘fall apart, be destroyed’,
qus ka-b-ig- ‘slip (off), slide down’
b-ircː-/b-icː- ‘stand, get up’ t’aš b-icː- ‘stop’ (intr.),
ʡaˁħ ka-b-icː- ‘like, be pleased by’,
hitːi ka-b-icː- ‘back, stand behind,
be committed to, support’
argʷ-/ag- ‘go’ b-iχči ag- ‘believe’,
xadi ag- ‘marry’ (woman marries a man)

(5) ħaˁħaˁ=tːi ka-jk’-ul …

laughter=after down-say.ipfv.m-icvb
‘laughing about (me) …’
(6) li<b>il šːan-te aq či-ha-b-arq’-ib-le …
all<hpl> villager-pl high spr-up-hpl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘all villagers were mobilized, …’
(7) ix-tː-a-j er či-ma-ha-rk’-utːa!
dem.up-pl-obl-dat look spr-proh-up-look.ipfv.m-proh.sg
‘Do not look at them (the trees)!’ (said to a man)

Compounding is possible with loans. Some of the nouns listed in §12.2.2 and adjectives
listed in §12.2.3 have been borrowed from other languages such as Arabic, Persian or Tur-
kic. In the last 50 years mainly Russian borrowings entered the language. Two examples

229
12 Verb formation

Table 12.2: Transitive light verbs

ipfv/pfv translation example verbs

b-irq’-/b-arq’- ‘do’ ħuˁrmat b-arq’- ‘respect’,
jangi či-b-arq’- ‘renovate, renew’,
k’ap (ka-)b-arq’- ‘wrap’,
bursːi b-arq’- ‘teach’,
t’int’ b-arq’- ‘spread’,
q’aˁq’ b-arq’- ‘squint’,
qaˁm b-arq’- ‘grab’,
ʁina ʁina b-arq’- ‘spoil’
iʁ-/aʁ- ‘do’ qaˁš kaʁ- ‘cut into pieces’,
t’aš aʁ- ‘stop’,
xurt’ aʁ- ‘swallow’,
taˁħ aʁ- ‘cut, chop’,
b-aˁʡči aʁ- ‘direct’,
b-at-čir aʁ- ‘release, set free’,
b-at aʁ- ‘send’,
ʡuˁt’ aʁ- ‘destroy’
b-uˁrq-/b-aˁq- ‘hit, strike, wound’ guči b-aˁq- ‘gather, collect’,
ink b-aˁq- ‘assemble, gather’,
xʷit’ d-aˁq- ‘whistle’,
tilipun d-aˁq- ‘call on the phone’
b-irxː-/b-ixː ‘put’ daˁʡaˁna b-ixː- ‘hide’ (intr.),
can ka-b-ixː- ‘put together’

with Russian loans are given in (8). The first compound verb contains the infinitive of a
Russian verb and the second an adverb.

(8) a. kupatsa b-ik’ʷ- ‘bathe, take a bath’

b. žalka ag- ‘feel sorry for’

12.2.2 Compounds with nouns

Many compound verbs contain a noun. These nouns are often loan words. The nouns
in the compounds are non-specific indefinite and can normally not be modified or re-
ferred to by anaphoric pronouns. They occur in the absolutive case, or occasionally in
the genitive or are marked by spatial postpositions.
The compound verbs can be intransitive or transitive. For intransitive verbs, the noun
that is part of the compound verb cannot control the agreement (Table 12.3) (9). By con-
trast, the noun that serves as the subject-like argument and occurs in the absolutive con-
trols the gender agreement on the verb. Some of the compound verbs can take clausal
complements (10).

230
 12.2 Compound verbs

Table 12.3: Examples of intransitive compound verbs

noun light verb translation of compound verb

abdal ‘fool’ b-iχʷ- (hpl-be.pfv-) ‘be a fool’
er ‘life’ b-iχʷ- (hpl-be.pfv-) ‘live’
taman ‘end’ b-iχʷ- (n-be.pfv-) ‘end, finish’
tiladi ‘request’ b-ik’ʷ- (hpl-say.ipfv-) ‘request, ask, beg’
tilipun ‘telephone’ b-ik’ʷ- (hpl-say.ipfv-) ‘talk on the phone’
pikri ‘thought’ b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-)/ ‘think’
b-ik’ʷ- (hpl-say.ipfv-)
čːal ‘argument, quarrel’ b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-)/ ‘argue, quarrel’
b-ik’ʷ- (hpl-say.ipfv-)
dum ‘edge’ b-uc- (hpl-keep.pfv-) ‘fast’
b-aʔ ‘edge, begin’ b-ač’- (hpl-come.pfv-) ‘begin, start’
b-aʔ ‘edge, begin’ b-axː- (hpl-put.pfv-) ‘begin, start’
waˁw ‘cry, call’ b-ik’ʷ- (hpl-say.ipfv-) ‘cry, shout, call’
gap ‘praise’ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘praise’

Table 12.4: Examples of transitive compound verbs

noun light verb translation of compound verb

er ‘look’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘take a look’
gap ‘praise’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘praise’
jašaw ‘being, existence’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘make a living’
jašaw ‘being, existence’ b-ucː-aq- ‘make a living’
(n-work-caus-)
kumek ‘help’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘help’
mar ‘truth’ ka-b-icː-aq- (down-n- ‘prove’
stand.pfv-caus-)
pikri ‘thought’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘think, give thought to’
sːalam ‘greeting’ b-ikː- (n-give.pfv-) ‘greet’
taman ‘end’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) / ‘finish’
aʁ- (do.pfv-)
tiladi ‘request’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘request’
tilipun ‘telephone’ d-arq’- (npl-do.pfv-) / ‘call on the phone’
d-aˁq- (npl-hit.pfv-)
ul ‘eye’ b-ixː- (n-put.pfv-) ‘blink’
ʡaˁjib ‘blame’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘take offence, feel hurt’

231
12 Verb formation

(9) nišːa-la dum b-urc-ul=q’al hana daˁʡle

1pl-gen edge hpl-keep.ipfv-icvb=mod now as
‘Our (people) were fasting like nowadays.’
(10) ca zamana bari=ra wahi-ce č’an=ra čːal d-uq-un [kutːi
one time sun=add evil-dd.sg wind=add argument npl-go.pfv-pret which
ču-cːe-rka c’aq’-ce=de=l]
refl.pl-in-abl mighty-dd.sg=pst=indq
‘Once the sun and the evil wind argued about who is stronger.’

For transitive verbs the subject-like argument is in the ergative and the gender agree-
ment is almost always controlled by the noun that is part of the compound. This means
that the gender agreement is fixed, mostly for neuter singular. Additional arguments
fulfill the semantic functions of addressees, recipients or beneficiaries and occur in the
cases that are used to express these semantic roles, e.g. dative or in-lative. Examples are
provided in Table 12.4 and (11).

(11) cara adim-t-a-cːe […] heχ tiladi b-arq’-ib-le …

other person-pl-obl-in dem.down request n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘when (we) asked other people, …’

However, there is at least one transitive compound verb containing a noun in the
absolutive case for which not the subject-like argument, but the noun that serves as the
direct object triggers the gender agreement, namely taman ‘end’ + b-arq’- (hpl-do.pfv-)
‘finish (off), terminate’ (12). And in the example in (13) the agreement prefix on the light
verb does not agree with any overt noun. The first part of the compound, the noun tilipun
‘telephone’ belongs to the neuter gender. If it functioned as the object of the light verb
it would trigger the prefix b-.

(12) antːa-le ix-ub-le, taman w-arq’-ib le-w musːa-w

forehead-loc throw.pfv-pret-cvb end m-do.pfv-pret exist-m place.loc-m
‘(They) shot him in the forehead and finished (i.e. killed) him on the spot where
he was.’
(13) cin-na ucːi-li-j tilipun d-arq’-ib-le …
refl.sg-gen brother-obl-dat telephone npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘when (they) called the brother on the phone, …’

There are some nouns that are particularly productive for the formation of compounds
verbs and can combine with a variety of light verbs. One is the noun ʁaj ‘word, talk,
language’, that occurs in the following compounds:

(14) intransitive compound verbs (with subject in the absolutive)

a. ʁaj (ka-)b-ik’ʷ-ij (down-hpl-say.ipfv-inf) ‘say, tell’
b. ʁaj (ka-)b-uq-ij (down-hpl-go.pfv-inf) ‘chat, talk, communicate, converse’
c. ʁaj ha-b-iž-ij (up-hpl-be.pfv-inf) ‘chat’

232
 12.2 Compound verbs

(15) transitive (with subject in the ergative)

a. ʁaj d-arq’-ij (npl-do.pfv-inf) ‘say, tell’
b. ʁaj d-urs-ij (npl-tell.pfv-inf) ‘say, tell’
c. ʁaj b-ičː-ij (n-give.pfv-inf) ‘promise’

In addition to the noun+verb compounds there are constructions that resemble those
compounds but contain nouns in the genitive. The verbs used are b-arq’- ‘do, make’
and b-iχʷ- ‘be, become’ and a few other intransitive and transitive verbs (16), (17). The
nouns in the genitive case do not serve any argument functions in the clause, but form
compounds together with the verb and thus contribute to the semantics of the predicate.
In the predicates in (16h) and (16i) the genitive-marked nouns resemble instruments,
but this cannot be said about the other predicates. Note that the last two examples in
(16) differ from the others because in both cases the genitive can be explained by the
morphosyntactic properties of the construction. The postposition hitːi in (16j) generally
requires the genitive case and thus ʁaj-la hitːi d-urs-ij consists of a postpositional phrase
followed by a verb. In (16k) the genitive functions as the modifier of the following noun
such that we have a genitive phrase together with a verb. However, semantically both
constructions function as compound predicates analogously to the other constructions
with genitive-marked nouns. All compound predicates derive their transitivity from the
transitivity of the base verb. If the base verb is intransitive the compound verb is also
intransitive (16a); if the base verb is transitive, then the compound is also transitive (17).
Some more examples sentences can be found in §3.4.1.3 and in §19.1.2.

(16) genitive case

a. qal-la b-iχʷ-ij/qal-la ka-b-iž-ij (house-gen hpl-be.pfv-inf/house-gen down-
hpl-be.pfv-inf) ‘get married’
b. waˁʡda-la b-iχʷ-ij (contract-gen hpl-be.pfv-inf) ‘negotiate, conspire’
c. abdal-la b-arq’-ij (fool-gen hpl-do.pfv-inf) ‘take for a fool’
d. qaˁb-la b-arq’-ij/qaˁb-la + b-aˁq-ij (neck-gen hpl-do.pfv-inf/neck-gen hpl-
strike.pfv-inf) ‘behead’
e. qal-la r-arq’-ij/qal-la ka-r-at-ij (house-gen f-do.pfv-inf/house-gen down-f-
let.pfv-inf) ‘marry off’
f. χːaˁb-la b-arq’-ij (grave-gen hpl-do.pfv-inf) ‘bury’
g. dawla-lla b-arq’-ij (wealth-gen hpl-do.pfv-inf) ‘congratulate, bless’
h. itul-la b-arq’-ij (iron-gen n-do.pfv-inf) ‘iron with an iron’
i. qːupi-lla b-arq’-ij (hoe-gen n-do.pfv-inf) ‘weed’
j. ʁaj-la hitːi d-urs-ij ‘gossip’ (word-gen after nhpl-tell.pfv-inf)
k. ʡaˁjib-la (w-ah) w-arq’-ij (blame-gen hpl-owner hpl-do.pfv-inf) ‘consider to
be guilty’1

1
The noun w-ah ‘owner’ can be omitted in this construction.

233
12 Verb formation

(17) abdalla + b-arq’-ij ‘take for a fool’

abdal-la w-arq’-ib=q’al itːa-l it
fool-gen m-do.pfv-pret=mod those.obl-erg that
‘They took him for a fool.’ (E)

There is also one compound verb, which contains a noun marked with a spatial case
(18).

(18) loc-lative case

(cin-na) ʁaj-le či-ka-b-icː-ij ‘to be true to one’s word’
(refl.sg-gen word-loc spr-down-hpl-stand.pfv-inf)

Finally, there are compound verbs that contain nouns with the encliticized postposi-
tions =či ‘on’ and =(i)tːi ‘after’. These postpositions govern the genitive or spatial cases
(§8.1.4, §8.1.7), but when they are used in verbal compounding, they are directly added
to the nouns without case marking:

(19) spatial postposition/adverb =či

a. ʁaj=či b-uq-ij (word=on hpl-go.pfv-inf) ‘instruct, advice, blame’
b. majmaj=či b-uq-ij (quarrel=on hpl-go.pfv-inf) ‘educate, swear at, abuse, con-
demn’
c. b-aˁʡ=ci aʁ-ij (n-side=on do.pfv-inf) ‘direct’
(20) spatial postposition/adverb =(i)tːi (< hitːi)
a. er=itːi sa-b-erč’-ij (look=after ante-hpl-look.pfv-inf) ‘look around, check, in-
spect’
b. er=itːi b-ik’ʷ-ij (look=after hpl-say.ipfv-inf) ‘look (at)’
c. qus=itːi b-aˁq-ij (slip=after n-drag.pfv-inf) ‘pull, drag along, after oneself’
d. dukal=tːi ka-b-iħ-ij (smile=after down-hpl-aux.pfv-inf) ‘smile about some-
body’
e. ħaˁħaˁ=tːi b-ik’ʷ-ij (laughter=after hpl-say.ipfv-inf) ‘laugh at/about someone’

12.2.3 Compounds with short adjectives

The short adjectival stems (§5.2) can easily occur in compound verbs together with the
light verbs b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, can’ (21), b-ik- (pfv) ‘occur’ (22), and b-arq’- (pfv)
‘do, make’ (23). These verbs occur in pairs of intransitive verbs that normally have an
inchoative meaning and transitive verbs (24–25).

(21) intransitive compounds with the light verb b-iχʷ- (n-become.pfv-)

a. ʡaˁħ ‘good’ > ‘be, become good, get healthy’
b. durha ‘cheap’ > ‘become, get cheap’
c. ħaˁdur ‘ready’ > ‘prepare oneself’
d. ač ‘open’ > ‘to open’

234
 12.2 Compound verbs

(22) intransitive compounds with the light verb b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-)

a. dik’ar ‘separate, different’ > ‘separate, divorce, disjoin’
b. tašmiš ‘sad’ > ‘get sad’
(23) transitive compounds with the light verb b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
a. ʡaˁħ ‘good’ > ‘improve, correct’
b. durha ‘cheap’ > ‘make cheap’
c. ħaˁdur ‘ready’ > ‘prepare’
d. ač ‘open’ > ‘to open’
e. dik’ar ‘separate, different’ > ‘separate, choose’
f. tašmiš ‘sad’ > ‘make miserable, sadden’

(24) Nursijat ʡaˁħ r-iχ-ub-le, …

Nursijat good f-be.pfv-pret-cvb
‘when Nursijat gets better (healthy), …’
(25) hel-tːi du-l ʡaˁħ d-irq’-id
that-pl 1sg-erg good npl-do.ipfv-1.prs
‘I will repair them.’
Occasionally, other light verbs are used, which leads to more idiosyncratic meanings
(26):
(26) qːuʁa-ce, ʡaˁħ ka-b-icː-ur musːa het ca-b
beautiful-dd.sg good down-n-stand.pfv-pret place that cop-n
‘This is a beautiful, pleasant place.’

12.2.4 Compounds with ideophones

Sanzhi has a fair number of ideophones that combine not only with verbs of speech, but
also with other light verbs and auxiliaries (Table 12.5). The resulting compound verbs de-
note the production of various sounds as well as verbs of movement and other activities
that are accompanied by typical sounds (27–29).
(27) amma ʁaˁʁ r-ik’-ul ca-r ik’
but scream f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f dem.up
‘But she is screaming.’
(28) paˁq ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
strike m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘(He) is beating.’
(29) li<b>il xurt’ aʁ-ib ca-b hel-i-la ruc-be
all<hpl> swallow do.pfv-pret cop-hpl that-obl-gen sister-pl
‘(The wolf) swallowed all her sisters.’

235
12 Verb formation

Table 12.5: Examples of compound verbs with ideophones

ideophone light verb translation of compound verb

č’aˁm b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘chew’
čaˁχ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘pour’
c’ip či-r-aʁ- (spr-abl-do.pfv-) ‘chop off, cut off’
č’uˁp b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘suck’ (intr.)/(tr.)
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
laˁħ, lap’ (ha-)b-arq’- (up-n-do.pfv-) ‘flap, wave’
paˁq (či-ka-)b-ik’ʷ- ‘strike, hit on, beat’
(spr-down-n-say.ipfv-)
paˁqaˁr, p’aq’ b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) ‘shake off’
pas b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘scatter’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
pirχ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘light up’
qːeh b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘cough’
q’ac’ b-ikː- (n-bite.pfv-) / ‘gnaw, bit’
b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) /
b-ax- (n-go-)
qaˁč’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘push, shove’
qaˁš k-aʁ- (down-do.pfv-) ‘cut off, cut into pieces’
qit b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘whisper’
ʁaˁʁ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘scream’
ʁuˁč’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘squeeze, press down, compress’
ʁʷaˁr, qamš b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘scratch’
sːul d-aˁq- (npl-hit.pfv-) ‘die out, be extinguished, fade’
sːurk’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘press’
sːurk’ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘rub, polish’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
tːarʁar b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘shake’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
tːartːar, tːamqːar b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) / ‘stagger’
b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-)
t’aˁq’ b-ertː- (n-burst.pfv-) ‘crack, split’
tu b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘spit’
xurt’ aʁ- (do.pfv-) ‘swallow’
zuz b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘stretch’
χuˁrχ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) ‘snore’
χʷaˁrt b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) ‘flinch, cringe, wince’
xʷit’ d-ik’ʷ- (npl-say.ipfv-) / ‘whistle’
d-aˁq- (npl-hit.pfv-)

236
 12.2 Compound verbs

12.2.5 Compounds with bound lexical stems

There is a closed class of bound lexemes that occur only in compound verbs and of which
thus the meaning out of the context of a compound verb is impossible to determine.
These items do not belong to any of the lexical categories that Sanzhi has. Some of the
bound stems are flexible with respect to the light verbs with which they combine leading
to a variety of different compound verbs containing the same bound stem (Table 12.6).
For instance, the bound stem taˁħ occurs together with verbs of movement or pos-
ture to yield the meaning ‘jump’, but it also combines with other verbs. The resulting
compounds always denote movement away from a source (30–32).

(30) ca taˁħ b-uq-un ca-b

one jump n-go.pfv-pret cop-n
‘One (boar) jumped (down).’
(31) šišːim-te taˁħ či-r-d-irg-an=de, b-arx=ew?
suffering-pl jump spr-abl-npl-be.ipfv-ptcp=pst n-right=q
‘I would distract from the sorrows, right?’
(32) taˁħ aʁ-ib-le hel-tːi urcul, …
cut do.pfv-pret-cvb that-pl firewood
‘when (they) cut off the wood, …’

Other bound stems combine only with one or two light verbs (Table 12.7, Table 12.8).
Among them the verbs b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-), b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) and b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-)
are particularly frequent.
As with the compound verbs containing short adjectives (§12.2.3), there are often pairs
of intransitive and transitive verbs. They can be divided into groups depending on the
intransitive verbs that they make use of. Firstly, there are bound stems that are combined
with b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, can’ and b-arq’- (pfv) ‘do, make’ to form intransitive and
transitive verbs, see, for instance, the examples in (33). Other light verbs cannot be used
together with these stems.

(33) a. haj b-iχʷ-/haj b-arq’- ‘move, drive’

b. b-ars b-iχʷ-/b-ars b-arq’- ‘change’

And secondly, there are bound stems that are combined with b-ik- (pfv) ‘occur’ and
b-arq’- (pfv) ‘do, make’ to form intransitive and transitive verbs:

(34) a. can b-ik-/can b-arq’- ‘mix, unite, meet’

b. suk b-ik-/suk b-arq’- ‘meet, gather’
c. šak b-ik-/šak b-arq’- ‘guess, suspect, feel’

237
12 Verb formation

Table 12.6: Compound verbs with bound lexical stems (Part 1)

bound stem light verb translation of compound verb

kːač b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘touch’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) /
b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-)
can ka-b-ixː- (down-n-put.pfv-) / ‘mix, unite, meet’
ka-b-ig- (down-n-be.pfv-) /
b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) /
b-ič-aq- (n-occur.pfv-caus-) /
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
taˁħ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘jump’
b-uq- (n-go.pfv-) /
b-ax- (hpl-go.ipfv-) /
(či-r)-b-ig- ((spr-abl)-n-be.pfv-)
taˁħ aʁ- (do.pfv-) ‘cut off; make jump’
b-at, b-atčir (k-)aʁ- ((down-)do.pfv-) / ‘send, free, set out for’
b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) /
ka-b-ixː- (down-n-put.pfv-)
t’ut’u; b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘drive out, throw out,
t’ut’u-q’aˁt’ b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) / leave, separate, distribute’
b-ig- (n-be.pfv-) /
b-iχʷ- (n-become.pfv-)
lus ‘around’ b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) / ‘turn around’
b-ig- (n-be.pfv-) /
b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) /
b-ik’-aq- (n-say.ipfv-caus-) /
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
han b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘seem, remember’
b-ič-aq (n-occur.pfv-) /
k.elg- (down.remain.pfv-) /
le-b (exist-n)
čar b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) / ‘return’
b-iχʷ- (n-become.pfv-) /
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
t’a, t’aš b-icː- (hpl-stand.pfv-) / ‘stop’
aʁ- (do.pfv-) /
b-icː-aq- (hpl-stand.pfv-caus-)
qus ‘slip’ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘slip, slide, drag’
b-ig- (n-be.pfv-) /
b-aˁq- (n-hit.pfv-)
er ‘look’ (či-)b-ik’ʷ- ((spr-)n-say.ipfv-), ‘look’
(či-)b-erk’- ((spr)-hpl-look.pfv-)

238
 12.2 Compound verbs

Table 12.7: Compound verbs with bound lexical stems (Part 2)

bound stem light verb translation of compound verb

akːa b-aˁq- (n-hit.pfv-), ‘leave in a huff,
aq- (go.through.pfv-) withdraw offended’
b-al ‘in order, fit, matching’
b-iχči(t)/ ag- (go.pfv-) ‘believe’
b-iχ-b-it-
bursːi b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘teach’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
b-uz b-it’- (n-tear.pfv-) / ‘stretch, lengthen’
b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-)
duc’ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘run’
b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-)
guči b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘gather, collect, unite’
b-aˁq- (n-hit.pfv-)
hak’ar b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘swing, shake’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
ħaˁsib b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘test, check, pay attention’
ink b-aˁq- (n-hit.pfv-) ‘meet, gather’
k’ap b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘wrap’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
k’ʷah b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) ‘silent’
kʷir ka-b-ig- (down-n-be.pfv-) / ‘stop, lie down, sleep’
ka-b-isː- (down-n-lie.pfv-)
lak’ b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘throw, fling oneself’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
laˁk’ b-ig- (n-be.pfv-) / ‘leave, drive away’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
lakːa b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-) ‘throw hurl, fling’
mucːa b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) ‘search’
qːaˁp b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘pull’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
qːuc b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘touch, dip into, prick,
b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / stick into’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
qaˁm b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) / ‘grab’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
q’aˁq’ či-b-ig- (spr-n-see.pfv-) / ‘stare, peer at’
(či-)aʁ- ((spr)-do.pfv-)
qum (k)ert- ((down).forget.pfv-) ‘forget’

239
12 Verb formation

Table 12.8: Compound verbs with bound lexical stems (Part 3)

bound stem light verb translation of compound verb

ʁina ʁina b-iχʷ- (n-become.pfv-) / ‘spoil’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
šak b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) ‘guess, suspect, feel’
šiq’ b-ig- (n-be.pfv-) / ‘sway, rock, shake’
b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-)
suk b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) ‘meet, gather’
t’int’ b-ik- (n-occur.pfv-) / ‘spread out’
b-arq’- (n-do.pfv-)
urk’ b-uq- (hpl-go.pfv-) ‘wonder, fright’
xar b-eʁ- (n-go.pfv-) ‘ask’
ʡuˁt’ aʁ- (do.pfv-) ‘destroy’

Occasionally, stems can be combined with more than one intransitive auxiliary, e.g.
(35).
(35) a. ʁudur ‘mix’ + b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, can’ and b-ik- (pfv) ‘occur’
b. qus ‘slip’ + b-ik’ʷ- (n-say.ipfv-) and b-ig- (n-be.pfv-)
There are a couple of compound verbs in which the first part synchronically seems
to be a verb or diachronically to originate from a verb (36). However, the compounds
express verbal aspect only via the stem alternation of the second verb; the first part
is invariable and not inflected except for the gender/number prefixes, which agree in
exactly the same way as the prefixes, which belong to the inflecting verb (37–40).
(36) a. b-ax-b-at- (pfv)/b-ax-b-alt- (ipfv) ‘leave, let’
< b-ax- (hpl-go.ipfv?) + b-at- (pfv) (hpl-let)
b. icːaχː- (pfv)/icːalχː (ipfv) ‘start to hurt’
< icː- (ipfv) ‘hurt, ache’ + ?
c. b-it’-b-ak’- (pfv)/b-it’-b-ik’- ‘pull, draw, move’
< b-it’- (pfv) ‘lure out of, from’ + b-ak’- ‘grow’?
d. us.kelg- (pfv)/us.kalg- (ipfv) ‘go to sleep, fall asleep’
< usː- ‘lie’ (pfv) + kelg- (pfv) ‘remain, stay’
e. b-iχ-(b)-it-ag- (pfv)/b-iχ-(b)-it-arg- (ipfv) ‘believe’
< b-iχː- ‘believe’ + preverb b-it- ‘thither’ + ag- (pfv) ‘go’
f. b-iχ-čeg- (pfv)/b-iχ-čerg- (ipfv) ‘believe’
< b-iχː- ‘believe’ + či-ag- (pfv) (spr-go)

(37) it r-ax-r-at-ur
that f-go-f-let.pfv-pret
‘(They/She/He) left her (at home).’

240
 12.2 Compound verbs

(38) w-it’-k-ač’-e heštːu!

m-pull-down-grow?.pfv-imp here
‘Move here!’ (E)
(39) mašin b-it’-a-jk’-aχː-an raχle?
car n-pull-neg-grow(?).ipfv-cond-prs.3 if
‘(What) if the car does not move?’
(40) it us-kalg-an ca-w
that lie-remain.ipfv-ptcp cop-m
‘He will/should go to sleep.’

241
13 Indicative synthetic verb forms
Sanzhi Dargwa has only two indicative synthetic verb forms that head independent
clauses, the habitual present (§13.1) and the habitual past (§13.2). They are formed by
adding stem augmentation vowels and person agreement markers to verbal stems that
have imperfective aspect. The stem augmentation vowels occur only with first and sec-
ond person forms and are also used in conditional clauses with synthetic verb forms
(Chapter 18.3). They are u for intransitive verbs and i for transitive verbs in the habit-
ual present, and a for all verbs in the habitual past (with the exception of the verb b-aχ-
(pfv)/b-alχ- (ipfv) ‘know’, which also has a as the stem augmentation in the habitual
present). The stem augmentation vowels are not separately glossed in the examples, but
given together with the person/tense suffixes.

13.1 Habitual present

The habitual present is formed by adding person suffixes to the augmented stem of im-
perfective verbs (Table 13.1). The third person has always the suffix -u, which can thus
be interpreted as a person marker, although it most probably originates from the stem
augmentation vowel for intransitive verbs. Alternatively there is the suffix -ar for the
third person (see below for a discussion). Table 13.2 shows paradigms of three verbs. The
intransitive verb ‘say’ is given in the female form for singular persons.

Table 13.1: Person suffixes for the habitual present (without stem augmentation
vowels)

singular plural
1 -d
2 -tːe -tːa
3 -u/-ar

Table 13.2: Some illustrative paradigms of the habitual present

‘say’ ‘do’ ‘know’

singular plural singular plural singular plural
1 r-ik’-u-d d-ik’-u-d b-irq’-i-d b-irq’-i-d b-alχ-a-d b-alχ-a-d
2 r-ik’-u-tːe d-ik’-u-tːa b-irq’-i-tːe b-irq’-i-tːa b-alχ-a-tːe b-alχ-a-tːa
3 r-ik’-u b-ik’-u b-irq’-u b-irq’-u b-alχ-u b-alχ-u
13 Indicative synthetic verb forms

Semantic domains
1. habitual: used in time-less utterances that state general characteristics (of people,
situations, etc.), in procedural texts, and for the description of (traditional) habits:

(1) duq-n-a-lla χːink’-e d-irq’-id, wec’al duqu

egg-pl-obl-gen khinkal-pl npl-do.ipfv-1.prs ten egg
k-ert’-id, c’il nejg k-ert’-id
down-pour.ipfv-1.prs then milk down-pour.ipfv-1.prs
‘We make egg khinkal. We pour ten eggs; then we pour milk.’
(2) dam qum.a.art-id cik’al
1sg.dat forget.ipfv.neg-1.prs anything
‘I don’t forget anything.’
(3) u-l b-arq’-ij w-irχ-utːe=w?
2sg-erg n-do.pfv-inf m-be.able.ipfv-2sg.prs=q
‘Can you do this?’

2. future and potential future: ‘will’/‘could’/‘should’, including the apodosis of condi-

tionals:

(4) [Tell your head of administration to wait one more day.]

c’il du hextːu-w w-irχʷ-ud hek’-i-la kabinet-le-w
then 1sg there.up-m m-be.ipfv-1.prs dem.up-obl-gen office-loc-m
‘Then I will/could be there in his office.’
(5) di-la šišːim-la dalaj b-elč’-id=aw a-b-elč’-id=aw?
1sg-gen suffering-gen song n-read.ipfv-1.prs=q neg-n-read.ipfv-1.prs=q
‘Should/will I sing my sad song or not?’ (a more literal translation is: ‘To
sing or not to sing the song about my sufferings?’)

The habitual/future polysemy is common for Dagestanian languages (Tatevosov 2005)

and also cross-linguistically well-attested (Haspelmath 1998). The future reading has de-
veloped from the habitual reading, but it is only available for predicates that express
transitory and accidental properties (4), (6). Predicates that denote temporally stable and
essential properties that characterize their referents only express the habitual meaning
(7), (8).

(6) hel prosto, “dam a-b-ikː-ar”, ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “ašːi-cːella

that simply 1sg.dat neg-n-want.ipfv-3.prs m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m 2pl-comit
ka-jž-ij w-elqː-un-ne=da” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
down-remain.pfv-inf m-sate.pfv-pret-cvb=1 m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘He simply says, “I do not want to sit with you, I had enough of you,” he says.’

244
 13.1 Habitual present

(7) ca cik’al a-b-alχ-ad

one something neg-n-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I don’t know anything.’ (NOT: ‘I will/should not know anything.’)
(8) Madina-j du w-ičː-aq-id
Madina-dat 1sg m-want.ipfv-caus-1.prs
‘Madina loves me (masc.).’ (NOT: ‘Madina will/should love me.’) (E)

As can be seen in Table 13.1, the third person has two suffixes, -u and -ar. The latter
suffix is less frequently attested in the corpus. It is homophonous with the third person
realis conditional suffix -ar (§18.3.1), and therefore not always easy to identify in texts.
It seems that there is a slight semantic difference such that -u can refer to single events
whereas -ar refers to habitually occurring events, but this difference is hard to detect
and not always clear. For instance, (9) means ‘remember from time to time, think of’,
whereas han b-irk-u would just mean ‘remember (once)’. Similarly, bek’ icː-u means ‘the
head aches (now)’, whereas bek’ icː-ar means that the head aches again and again, like
when people have migraine. By contrast, example (10) shows an utterance, in which
w-irχʷ-ar could be replaced by w-irχ-u without any change in meaning.
(9) at han a-r-irk-ar=uw, Baˁħaˁmma?
2sg.dat remember neg-f-occur.ipfv-3.prs=q Bahamma
‘Don’t you remember her, Bahamma?’
(10) c’il w-irχʷ-ar=uw hati ħaˁmid-li cin-na ul-b-a-cːe lak’
then m-be.able.ipfv-3.prs=q really Hamid-erg refl.sg-gen eye-pl-obl-in throw
d-arq’-ij il-tːi ʡaˁnčːi?
npl-do.pfv-inf that-pl clay
‘Can Hamid really throw clay into his eyes?’
The verb b-ik’ʷ-ij ‘say’ is the most frequently used verb with -ar, and it is frequently
but not always translated as past tense (i.e. ‘said’) without any habitual seamntics when
it bears this suffix. I do not have an explanation for why the verb form (r/b-/d-)-ik’ʷ-
ar conveys non-habitual past time semantics. Example (11) illustrates the use of both
suffixes -u and -ar with this verb in one sentence.

(11) “žaˁbraˁʔil-qal r-aš a-b-ik’-u=w?” haʔ-ib=da.

Zhabrail-assoc f-go neg-n-say.ipfv-3.prs=q say.pfv-pret=1
“a-b-ik’-u”, r-ik’ʷ-ar
neg-n-say.ipfv-3.prs f-say.ipfv-3.prs
‘I said, “Zhabrail and his family do not invite you?” She said, “They don’t invite
me.”’ (lit. ‘Don’t they say “Come!”’)

Negation is expressed through the prefix a- (9). Some affective verbs allow for the
ergative construction (in addition to the dative construction) with the habitual present
(this phenomenon requires future research, but see §19.1.8 for some more examples).

245
13 Indicative synthetic verb forms

13.2 Habitual past

The habitual past is the past-tense counterpart of the habitual present. It is only formed
from the imperfective stem by means of a suffix -a that is followed by person markers
(first and second person). The person markers for second person are identical to the per-
son markers used for the habitual present such that b-aχ- (pfv)/b-alχ- (ipfv) ‘know’ has
identical forms for the habitual present and past in the second person (compare Table 13.2
and Table 13.4). In the third person, -a is absent. Instead, the suffix -i or alternatively the
longer variants -iri or, rarely, -ini are used (Table 13.3). As an alternative to -a plus per-
son suffix, -i(ri) can also be used with first and second person without any difference in
meaning.
Table 13.3: Person suffixes for the habitual past

singular plural
1 -di/-i(ri)
2 -tːe/-i(ri) -tːa/-i(ri)
3 -i(ri)/-ini

Table 13.4: Some illustrative paradigms of the habitual past

‘say’ ‘do’ ‘know’

singular plural singular plural singular plural
1 r-ik’ʷ-a-di d-ik’ʷ-a-di b-irq’-a-di b-irq’-a-di b-alχ-a-di b-alχ-a-di
2 r-ik’ʷ-a-tːe d-ik’ʷ-a-tːa b-irq’-a-tːe b-irq’-a-tːa b-alχ-a-tːe b-alχ-a-tːa
3 r-ik’ʷ-i(ri) b-ik’ʷ-i(ri) b-irq’-i(ri) b-irq’-i(ri) b-alχ-i(ri) b-alχ-i(ri)

The semantic domain is habitual situations with past time reference. The verb form
is used to express habitually occurring actions in the past (12), employed in characteriz-
ing persons (13), when referring to occupations, and so on. The functional range of the
habitual past also includes the expression of future-in-the-past in the protasis of past
conditionals and irrealis conditionals (14). As with the habitual present, negation is ex-
pressed through the prefix a- (14) and some affective verbs additionally allow for the
ergative construction with the habitual past (for more information see §19.1.8).
(12) har zamana herʔ-i nišːi-cːe, Sanži-le w-ax-an=da
every time say.ipfv-hab.pst.3 1pl-in Sanzhi-loc m-go.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘He always told us, “I will go to Sanzhi.” ’
(13) uc’ran-t-a-l b-uk-i, nušːa-l kːač a-b-irq’-a-di
Icari-pl-obl-erg n-eat.ipfv-hab.pst.3 1pl-erg touch neg-n-do.ipfv-hab.pst-1
‘Icari people ate it (the meat of boars), we did not touch it.’

246
 13.2 Habitual past

(14) di-la aba-la ucːi-l du čaˁčaˁn-t-a-cːe

1sg-gen mother-gen brother-erg 1sg Chechen-pl-obl-in
a-r-uk-utːel r-ubk’-a-di
neg-f-lead.ipfv-cond.pst f-die.ipfv-hab.pst-1
‘If my mother’s brother would not have brought me to Chechnya, I would have
died.’

The verb b-ik’ʷ-ij ‘say’, which was mentioned in the previous section as expressing
past time reference by means of the third person habitual present suffix for reasons that
still await clarification is regularly inflected for the habitual past. However, the meaning
is not always clearly habitual but seems also to be just a perfective past (15).

(15) a presedatel ča ca-w=de ∅-ik’ʷ-a-tːe?

but head who cop-m=pst m-say.ipfv-hab.pst-2sg
‘Who (masc.) did you (masc.) say was the head (of the kolkhoz)?’

The verb b-ikː- (ipfv) ‘want, like, love’, which lacks a perfective stem, shows excep-
tional behavior with the habitual forms. The only available forms of the habitual present
are dam b-ikː-i ‘I want’ and nišːij b-ikː-i ‘we want’ and for questions at b-ikː-i=w? ‘Do you
(sg) want?’ and ašːij b-ikː-i=w? ‘Do you (pl) want?’. There are no forms for third person
and the second person forms cannot be used in assertions. Furthermore, the habitual past
expresses irealis modality with the first person, that is, dam/nišːij b-ikː-a-di translates as
‘I/we would like, I/we would want’. It is not used with other persons apart from the first
person.

247
14 Analytic verb forms
All verb forms consisting of a lexical verb bearing a participial or converbal suffix (and
possible other suffixes) followed by a person enclitic, the past enclitic, the copula ca-b,
or the suffix -ne are called “analytic verb forms” and described in this chapter. When the
standard copula is replaced by locational copulas or other auxiliaries, the resulting verb
forms will be called “periphrastic”, and they are separately treated in Chapter 15. The
division between analytic and periphrastic verb forms is mainly based on differences
in morphology, semantics, and frequency of use. Among the morphologically complex
verb forms, analytic verb forms are the core verb forms because they are basic in terms
of the semantics and pragmatics of the inflectional element that accompanies the lexical
verb. This element (person enclitic, past enclitic, standard copula, suffix -ne) expresses
basic verbal categories such as tense, person, number, and gender.1 The lexical verb con-
veys aspectual and modal meaning. By contrast, in periphrastic verb forms the accompa-
nying auxiliary has additional modal, locational, evidential or aspectual meanings that
contribute to the meaning of the complex predicate, which is therefore more specific.
Furthermore, the accompanying auxiliary verbs of periphrastic verb forms are also used
as full lexical verbs, but not as semantically empty copulas in copula clauses. The latter
use is only attested for person enclitics, the past enclitic and the standard copula. Be-
cause of their more general meaning most analytic verb forms occur far more frequently
in texts than the periphrastic verb forms with their more specific meaning.
The analytic verb forms can be divided into two main groups: forms based on the
imperfective stem (§14.1) and forms based on the preterite (§14.2). The former convey
mainly present time or future time reference (and an imperfective past), whereas the
latter almost exclusively convey past time reference.

14.1 Forms based on the imperfective stem

The TAM forms that can be obtained from the imperfective stem can be divided into two
groups, depending on whether the lexical verb bears the imperfective converb suffix or
the modal participle -an (Table 14.1). The second group has a modal meaning due to the
semantics of the participle. All forms make use of person enclitics/copula ca-b for present
or future time reference and the past enclitic =de for past time reference. The following
subsections treat all analytic verb forms based on the imperfective stem according to the
order in the table.

1
Agreement rules and agreement exponents, i.e., gender affixes, person suffixes and person enclitics, are
separately treated in Chapter 20 and therefore not discussed in this chapter.
14 Analytic verb forms

Table 14.1: Analytic verb forms based on the imperfective stem

label of TAM form lexical verb inflection

non-modal forms that employ the imperfective converb
compound present imperfective + person enclitics/copula
compound past converb + past enclitic =de
modal forms that employ the participle -an
future + person enclitics/-ne
future in the past participle -an + past enclitic =de
obligative + copula
obligative present participle -an + person enclitics/copula
obligative past + -ce/-te + past =de

14.1.1 Compound present

The compound present is obtained by adding the imperfective converb -ul/-un(ne) to the
verbal stem,2 which is in turn followed by the person enclitics (first and second person)
or by the copula ca-b (third person).

Table 14.2: Some exemplary paradigms of the compound present

‘eat’ ‘do’
singular plural singular plural
1 b-uk-un=da b-uk-un=da b-irq’-ul=da b-irq’-ul=da
2 b-uk-un=de b-uk-un=da b-irq’-ul=de b-irq’-ul=da
3 b-uk-un ca-b b-uk-un ca-b b-irq’-ul ca-b b-irq’-ul ca-b

The compound present is the default tense for conveying present time reference. It
covers various imperfective meanings such as progressive, habitual, or continuative.

1. Progressive: actions and events that are happening at the moment of speech. In
this function, it can also be used with stative verbs.

(1) hana du-l b-urs-ul=da χabar

now 1sg-erg n-tell-icvb=1 story
‘Now I am telling a story.’

2
The imperfective converb is, at least diachronically, related to the cross-categorical adverbializer -le (§9.6.3),
and thus also to the perfective converb. However, in order to facilitate understanding I treat the converbs
and the adverbializer as separate items.

250
 14.1 Forms based on the imperfective stem

(2) na il-tːi bahla-bahla d-aqil cik’al han d-irk-ul

now that-pl slow-slow npl-much thing remember npl-occur.ipfv-icvb
ca-d na
cop-npl now
‘Now these (games), many things are slowly occurring (to my mind).’

2. Habitual: describing general characteristic actions or what people do over an ex-

tended period of time, descriptions of games, etc. This use of the compound present
strongly resembles the habitual present (§13.1).

(3) cara-te daˁʡaˁn b-irxː-ul ca-b

other-dd.pl secret hpl-put.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘The others hide.’ (in a game of hide-and-seek)
(4) ʡuˁrus ʁaj-la ce=jal b-ik’-ul ca-b it-i-j,
Russian language-gen what=indq hpl-say.ipfv-icvb be-hpl that-obl-dat
dam qum.urt-ul ca-b
1sg.dat forget.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘What do they call it in Russian, I forget it.’

3. Historical present: continuative actions in narrations about the past.

(5) šːi-l-cːe-w er ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, ča-k’al caʔarrah

village-obl-in-m look m-look.at.ipfv-icvb cop-m who-indef not.one
admi w-akːu
person m-cop.neg
‘He is looking around in the village, nobody is there.’

Negation can be expressed either through the negative prefix a- or by means of the
negative auxiliary. In the former case, which represents the rarer variant, the negation
suffix is simply added to the lexical verb (6). In the latter case, which is far more common,
the negative copula akːʷa- ‘be not’ (cop.neg) is used (7); it is inflected for person, but not
for gender (see §16.1 for the paradigm of the negative copula).

(6) ce b-arq’-idel a-b-alχ-ul=da

what n-do.pfv-modq neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I do not know what to do.’
(7) di-la ʁaj b-urs-ul akːʷa-tːe u-l
1sg-gen word n-tell.pfv-icvb cop.neg-2sg 2sg-erg
‘You tell only my words.’

In questions with a third-person agreement controller, the copula is replaced by the

respective interrogative enclitic (8). In such contexts, the interrogative enclitic acts as a
predicative particle and takes over the role of the copula (§9.1).

251
14 Analytic verb forms

(8) hež-i-l ce b-irq’-ul=e?

this-obl-erg what n-do.ipfv-icvb=q
‘What is he doing?’

The compound present can also be formed by means of existential copulas instead of
the normal copula, which leads to a slight change in the meaning (§16.2).

14.1.2 Compound past

The compound past is formed by encliticizing the past marker =de to the imperfective
stem that bears the imperfective converb suffix. Its semantics corresponds to the seman-
tics of the compound present, but now we have past time reference.

1. Progressive/continuative: ongoing actions and states that continuously obtained

in the past, situations of long duration of which the endpoint (and the beginning)
is not important.

(9) dubur-t-a-cːe-b ca admi-l quˁr-be luc’-unne=de

mountain-pl-obl-in-n one person-erg pear-pl gather.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘In the mountains there was a man gathering pears.’

2. Habitual: general characteristics of situations and habits of people.

(10) χalq’-li-j kumek b-irq’-ul=de

people-obl-dat help n-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘He helped the people.’ (character trait of the grandfather)
(11) [description of a game]
urcul-la hež-itːe ka-b-irxː-ul=de ca krug
wood-gen this-advz down-n-put.ipfv-icvb=pst one circle
b-irq’-ul=de
n-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘(We) put wooden (sticks?) like this, we made a circle.’
(12) b-ucː-ul b-el=de, luk’-unne=de
n-work-icvb n-remain.pfv=pst write.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘(In contrast to now, at that time my hand) worked, I wrote.’

For the negation there are again two options: prefixation of a- (13) and use of the
negative copula inflected for the past tense, with the latter option being more frequent
(14).

(13) c’il qːačuʁ-e χːuˁrba-cːe b-uˁq’-ij a-b-irχ-ul=de=w?

then bandit-pl graveyard-in hpl-go-inf neg-hpl-be.able.ipfv-icvb=pst=q
‘Couldn’t the bandits go to the graveyard?’

252
 14.1 Forms based on the imperfective stem

(14) hak’ b-ulq-unne akːʷ-i mašina

shake n-direct.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-hab.pst car
‘The car did not shake.’

14.1.3 Future
The future is formed by adding the person enclitics to the lexical verb that bears the
participle -an. In the third person, the suffix -ne is used (Table 14.3).

Table 14.3: Some exemplary paradigms of the future

‘eat’ ‘do’
singular plural singular plural
1 b-uk-an=da b-uk-an=da b-irq’-an=da b-irq’-an=da
2 b-uk-an=de b-uk-an=da b-irq’-an=de b-irq’-an=da
3 b-uk-an-ne b-uk-an-ne b-irq’-an-ne b-irq’-an-ne

Its semantic range is:

1. Future: future time reference, predictions of future situations, potential situations.

(15) aʁʷc’alla d-arq’-ij d-irχ-an=da ušːa-l

forty.days 1/2.pl-do.pfv-inf 1/2.pl-be.able.ipfv-oblg=2pl 2pl-erg
‘You (pl.) will be able to spend the 40 days (without me).’
(16) hana u=ra ∅-ukː-an=de
now 2sg=add m-eat.ipfv-ptcp=2sg
‘Now (she) will eat you (masc.), too.’

2. Modal meaning: expression of obligation.

(17) hel-tːi ħaˁjwan-qːačːa-la akːʷ-ar, cara ce ʡaˁči

that-pl.abs animal-calf-gen cop.neg-prs other what work
b-irχʷ-an-ne hextːu-b b-i-b?
n-be.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 there.up-n n-in-n
‘If there was not the work with the animals, what work would/should
there be? ’
(18) cara ce ∅-ik’ʷ-an-ne?
other what m-say.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘What else should be said?’

253
14 Analytic verb forms

(19) heχ u-l dirxːa gu-r-b-uqː-ij=sat,

dem.down 2sg-erg stick sub-abl-n-take.out.ipfv-inf=as.much
k-ercː-an=de heštːu
down-stand.ipfv-ptcp=2sg here
‘Until you take the stick out, you have to stand here.’

Negation is expressed by means of the prefix a-:

(20) a-d-irc-an=da haʔ-ib=da

neg-npl-sell.ipfv-ptcp=1 say.pfv-pret=1
‘I will not sell them, I said.’

14.1.4 Future in the past

The future in the past is formed by adding the past enclitic =de to the participle -an. It
expresses irrealis modality, referring to situations and actions that should have taken
place or performed in the past (21–23). It is also used in the counterfactual apodosis of
irrealis conditional clauses (24) (§25.2). The negative prefix is used for negation (23).

(21) wat’ hek’-i-la istorija luk’-an=de

well dem.up-obl-gen story write.ipfv-ptcp=pst
‘Her story (i.e. autobiography) should have been written down.’
(22) ču-l b-irq’-an=de dam kːakːjuta
refl.pl-erg n-do.ipfv-ptcp=pst 1sg.dat something
‘They would/should have done something for me.’
(23) žan-ni-cːe-r a-r-ulq-an=de, ka-d-icː-ar=ra
body-obl-in-abl neg-f-direct.ipfv-ptcp=pst down-npl-stand.pfv-cond.3=add
q’ijama
end.of.world
‘You (fem.) should not have left your body, even if the end of the world comes.’
(24) du-l kiniga b-uč’-an=de, raχle či-d-ig-ul
1sg-erg book n-read.ipfv-ptcp=pst if spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb
∅-iχ-utːel
m-be.pfv-cond.pst
‘I would have read the book if I (masc.) had seen it.’ (E)

14.1.5 Obligative
The obligative is formally and functionally closely related to the future, but it makes use
of the copula for all third persons instead of person enclitics. The meaning is usually
modal referring to needs and obligations, close to deontic necessity. For negation the
copula ca-b is replaced by the negative copula akːu (27), (28).

254
 14.1 Forms based on the imperfective stem

(25) “wat”, ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “heχ b-irq’-an ca-b”

well m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m dem.down n-do.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘“Well,” he says, “this needs to be done.”’
(26) c’aq’ darman-na b-irχʷ-an ca-b
strong medicine-gen n-become.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘It must be a strong medicine.’
(27) du-l t’ult’ b-uk-an ca-b / akː-u
1sg-erg bread n-eat.ipfv-ptcp cop-n / cop.neg-prs
‘I have/do not have to eat bread.’ (E)
(28) χːula acːi k-erʁ-an ca-w, nik’a azi ka-r-irʁ-an
big uncle down-come-ptcp cop-m small aunt down-f-come.ipfv-ptcp
akː-u
cop.neg-prs
‘The elder uncle has to go; the younger aunt should not go.’

14.1.6 Obligative present

The obligative present strongly resembles the future and the obligative. With both forms
it shares the meaning, this means that, the obligative present expresses future and/or
obligation. The only formal difference is the additional use of the cross-categorical suffixe
-ce (plural -te), which is added to the participle before the person marker is encliticized.
(29) “čina d-ax-an-te=da=jal,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
where 1/2pl-go.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=2=indq m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘“Where will you (pl.) go?” he says.’
(30) du w-ax-an-ce=da
1sg m-go.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg=1
‘I (masc.) will go/have to go.’ (E)
Note that in (30), although the singular form -an-ce is available in elicitation, it is
not attested in the corpus and it seems that for the singular the future (§14.1.3) (or the
obligative, §14.1.5) is preferred. All corpus examples contain the plural suffix -te. The
reason for this might be the general distribution of the cross-categorical suffixes -ce /-
te and -il. For plural referents only -te is available (29). In the singular, in principle -ce
and -il compete, but in natural texts the use of -il is clearly preferred and only a few
examples of -ce can be found in the corpus (see §9.6.1 and §9.6.2 for detailed analyses of
the suffixes). The obligative present (and the obligative past) cannot be formed by means
of the suffix -il for reasons that are not clear to me. Therefore, the more natural way of
forming a singular from a (29) is to use the future form du w-ax-an=da instead of (30).
In the third person the copula is used (31). However, the copula can also be employed
with first and second person, in which case the meaning of obligation is dominant (32),
(33). Negation is expressed by means of the negative copula (34).

255
14 Analytic verb forms

(31) it w-ax-an-ce ca-w

dem m-go.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg cop-m
‘He will go/have to go.’ (E)
(32) c’il u-l b-urkː-an-te ca-b hel-tːi
then 2sg-erg hpl-find.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl cop-hpl that-pl
‘Then you have to find them.’
(33) nišːa-la bet’u luq’-an-te ca-d ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
1pl-gen flour grind.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl cop-npl m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Our flour we should/(will) grind, he says.’ OR ‘Our flour should be ground, he
says.’
(34) kulpat-li-j heχ-tːi bala
family-obl-dat dem.down-pl misfortune
či-ka-jʁ-an-te=kːu
spr-down-come.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=neg
‘To a family such misfortune should not happen.’

14.1.7 Obligative past

The obligative past is formed by replacing the person enclitic or copula of the obligative
present with the past enclitic. It refers to obligations that obtained in the past and that
were or were not fulfilled (35–37).

(35) c’il uc’ari čar d-irχʷ-an-te=de nušːa

then Icari back 1/2pl-become.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=pst 1pl
‘Then we had to be back in Icari.’
(36) hel-tːi ala pikri=ra herʔ-an-te=de
that-pl 2sg.gen thought=add say.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=pst
‘(You) should have told your thoughts.’
(37) heštːi padrjad sa-d-aš-aq-an-te=de
these in.order hither-npl-go.ipfv-caus-ptcp-dd.pl=pst
‘These (pictures) should have been come in the right order.’

The obligative present and past forms can also have a non-modal and non-future read-
ing when they are instead interpreted like headless relative clauses and the person en-
clitic, copula or past marker makes up its own copula clause (38). Thus, in the first part
of this sentence the participle has been nominalized by means of the cross-categorical
suffix -te, which corresponds to a headless relative clause (‘the drinking ones’). This nom-
inalized clause functions as subject in an an existential copula in which the encliticized
past marker =de serves as an existential copula. The nominalized clause does not have
modal or future semantics. The second part has a similar meaning, but the copula is
missing such that we have only the nominalized clause, which is more complex. It also

256
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

contains a demonstrative pronoun and an adjunct in the ergative that serves as direct
object because the nominalized clause is an antipassive construction (§19.2.1).

(38) itːu-b b-učː-an-te=de; iš-tːi ʡaˁči-l

there-hpl hpl-drink.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=pst this-pl work-erg
b-irq’-an-te ...
hpl-do.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl
‘There were the drinking ones; these working ones ...’

14.2 Forms based on the preterite

The preterite is the most important verbal suffix in Sanzhi not just because it is extremely
common in terms of token frequency and used as the base for a wide range of TAM forms
(Table 14.4), but also because it is the major indicator for verbal inflection classes.
Sanzhi has the standard Dargwa inventory of preterite suffixes: -ib, -ub, -un, and -ur.
The suffix -ib is the most frequently used preterite suffix and thus sometimes treated as
the default variant (e.g. Daniel 2015), and -ub is analyzed as a phonologically predictable
allomorph that is in complementary distribution with -ib and occurs only with labialized
stems (Belyaev In Preparation). The latter is, in fact, the case in Sanzhi, but the comple-
mentary distribution still needs further investigation (see §11.2 for lists of verbs and their
preterite suffixes). The suffix -un is the second most frequent suffix after -ib. It occurs
with verbs that have l in the perfective stem and/or an imperfective stem with initial
l, labialized root consonants, or l in the imperfective stem. The suffix -ur is the least
frequent one (though probably more common than -ub), and its occurrence cannot be
predicted.
In principle, many verbs can inflect the imperfective as well as the perfective stem for
the preterite, but not all verbs have this possibility (e.g. b-alχ- ‘n-know.ipfv’ cannot take
any of the preterite suffixes). There are only very few corpus examples of imperfective
verb stems bearing the preterite suffix, all occurring in the preterite. All other forms can
be elicited, but speakers do not seem to have clear intuitions about the meanings and
context of use of these forms and translations suggest that the forms are not truly part
of verbal paradigms. For instance, experiential forms are normally translated with cleft
constructions, suggesting a biclausal structure. Therefore, almost all verb forms based
on the imperfective stem have been given in parenthesis in Table 14.4 and Table 14.5.
They will not be further discussed here.
Table 14.4 displays the verb forms that can be obtained from the preterite and Ta-
ble 14.5 provides one exemplary verb. The paradigm shows a clear symmetrical struc-
ture. All verb forms make use of one of the three available means for obtaining regular
analytic verb forms: person enclitics, the copula ca-b or the past enclitic. The preterite
is the base form and the preterite resultative is a kind of minor variant derived from it.
From the preterite, three types of verb forms are built. Each of them follows the same
pattern: the lexical verb occurs in the preterite form and takes one of three further suf-
fixes. These suffixes are the perfective converb suffix, or one of the two cross-categorical

257
14 Analytic verb forms

suffixes -ce and -il. The suffixes are followed by person enclitics (first and second person)
or the copula (third person), which yields one type of forms. The temporal reference of
this type of verb forms can be further shifted to the past by means of the past enclitic
=de.
At least diachronically all three suffixes used after the preterite belong to the same
class of cross-categorical suffixes that are added to words of different lexical classes and
form either referential attributes with the syntactic properties of nouns (-ce and -il) or
adverbials (§9.6.3). Thus, the perfective converb suffix is identical with the adverbializer
-le. But for the sake of clarity and readability of the grammar I will gloss it as perfective
converb suffix and treat it as a separate item (the same was done for the imperfective
converb). The syntactic properties of the cross-categorical suffixes are preserved in the
verb forms containing them: the perfective converb is functionally equivalent to adver-
bials when it is used without the person enclitics, past enclitic or copula; the verb forms
with the suffixes -ce and -il (experiential and experiential past forms) are functionally
equivalent to nominalized participles that form relative clauses.

Table 14.4: Forms based on the preterite

imperfective stem perfective stem

preterite preterite + person preterite + person
enclitic/zero enclitic/zero
resultative (only 3rd person) preterite + copula preterite + copula
preterite + perfective converb -le + X
perfect (preterite + converb -le preterite + converb -le
+ person enclitics/copula) + person enclitics/copula
past perfect (pluperfect) (preterite + converb -le preterite + converb -le
+ past enclitic =de) + past enclitic =de
preterite + cross-categorical suffix -ce/-te + X
experiential I (preterite + -ce/-te preterite + -ce/-te
+ person enclitics/copula) + person enclitics/copula
experiential past I (preterite + -ce/-te + past) preterite + -ce/-te + past
preterite + cross-categorical suffix -il + X
experiential II (preterite + -il preterite + -il
+ person enclitics/copula) + person enclitics/copula
experiential past II (preterite + -il + past) preterite + -il + past

258
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

Table 14.5: Exemplary paradigms based on the preterite for the verb ‘do, make’

imperfective stem perfective stem

preterite b-irq’-ib/=da/=de b-arq’-ib/=da/=de
resultative (only 3rd person) b-irq’-ib ca-b b-arq’-ib ca-b
preterite + perfective converb -le + X
perfect (b-irq’-ib-le=da/=de/ca-b) b-arq’-ib-le=da/=de/ca-b
past perfect (pluperfect) (b-irq’-ib-le=de) b-arq’-ib-le=de
preterite + cross-categorical suffix -ce/-te + X
experiential I (b-irq’-ib-ce=da/=de/ca-b) b-arq’-ib-ce=da/=de/ca-b
experiential past I (b-irq’-ib-ce=de) b-arq’-ib-ce=de
preterite + cross-categorical suffix -il + X
experiential II (b-irq’-ib-il=da/=de/ca-b) b-arq’-ib-il=da/=de/ca-b
experiential past II (b-irq’-ib-il=de) b-arq’-ib-il=de

14.2.1 The imperfective preterite and imperfective preterite

resultative
The imperfective preterite is formed from the preterite stem of imperfective verbs to
which person enclitics for first and second persons are added; for the third person no
markers are used. In addition to the ergative and the affective construction, the imper-
fect also allows for the antipassive construction (41). The imperfective preterite expresses
past time reference in combination with imperfective aspect. It can be negated by means
of the prefix a-. The imperfective preterite is barely attested in the Sanzhi corpus (42);
examples (39–41) have been elicited. The imperfective preterite resultative, which is re-
stricted to third person agreement controllers, has been obtained only through elicitation
(43).

(39) dam u balnic’a-la ʡaˁme-r či-w-iž-ib=da

1sg.dat 2sg hospital-gen window.loc-abl spr-m-see.ipfv-pret=1
‘I saw you (repeatedly) from the window of the hospital.’ (E)
(40) hinc-be d-irc-ib it-i-l
apple-pl npl-sell.ipfv-pret that-obl-erg
‘S/he traded with apples.’ OR ‘S/he sold apples.’ (E)
(41) agarad-m-a-ja-d ʡaˁči-l d-irq’-ib=da nušːa
garden-pl-obl-loc-1/2.pl work-erg 1/2.pl-do.ipfv-pret=1 1pl
‘We (repeatedly) worked in the garden.’ (E)

259
14 Analytic verb forms

(42) čaˁkʷa-la ʁunab-te ʁaj d-urs-ib=xːar,

bird-gen eq-dd.pl word npl-tell.pfv-pret=conc
a-jrʁ-ib=de at
neg-understand.ipfv-pret=2sg 2sg.dat
‘Although I said words like a bird, you did not understand them.’ (modified
corpus example)
(43) di-la χatːaj-li qul-be d-irq’-ib ca-d
1sg-gen grandfather-erg house-pl npl-do.ipfv-pret cop-npl
‘My grandfather (apparently) built houses.’ (E)

Examples (44) and (45) are from the corpus and show antipassive constructions. In
(44), the demoted agent is expressed (clause-final pronoun). The demoted patients, which
would have been in the ergative case, are left unexpressed in both examples. See §19.2.1
for antipassive constructions.

(44) ha, bahsar-ka heštːu-w učː-ib ca-w iž

uh first-abl here-m drink.ipfv.m-pret cop-m this
‘Uh, first he drank here.’
(45) w-elqː-ij=sat uk-un ca-w
m-sate.pfv-inf=until eat.ipfv.m-pret cop-m
‘He ate until he was full.’ OR ‘He ate until he is full.’

14.2.2 The preterite

The preterite is the default past tense with respect to form and function. It is formed
from the perfective stem by adding the preterite suffix and for first and second persons
the person enclitics; the third person does not have additional marking. It conveys past
time reference and is very frequent in the Sanzhi corpus, especially in autobiographical
narratives (46) and in daily conversations when speakers report about past events (49).
However, it can also occur in traditional narratives (47), (48) and in other narratives
about the past that are not related to the personal experience of the speaker (50).

(46) ʡaˁbal dus kelg-un=da, du gaupaχt-le

three year remain.pfv-pret=1 1sg guardhouse-loc
a-ka-jč-ib=da ca sːaˁʡaˁt
neg-down-occur.pfv-pret=1 one hour
‘Three years I remained, I was not one single hour at the guardhouse.’
(47) du-l kumek b-arq’-ib=da, tːura-h-aqː-ib=da
1sg-erg help n-do.pfv-pret=1 out-up-take.out.pfv-pret=1
‘I helped. I pulled him out.’

260
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

(48) ca zamana bari=ra wahi-ce č’an=ra čːal d-uq-un

one time sun=add evil-dd wind=add argument npl-go.pfv-pret
‘Once upon a time the sun and the evil wind argued.’
Negation is expressed through the prefix a-:
(49) q’ar Sːanži-d a-d-ertː-ib=da
plant Sanzhi-npl neg-npl-take.pfv-pret=1
‘We did not gather plants in Sanzhi.’
(50) ce kraska=de-l=ra a-b-aχ-ur
what color=pst=indq=add neg-n-know.pfv-pret
‘Nobody found out what color this is.’

14.2.3 The (perfective) resultative

The perfective resultative consists of the preterite and the copula. This verb form cannot
be used with the first or second person agreement controllers. The presence of the copula
conveys perfectivity/resultativity, i.e. the focus is on the result of a situation (51–53).
This form is usually not used in personal narratives, but it is very frequent in other texts
such as traditional narratives and other third-person perspective narrations. Negation is
expressed through the prefix a- (53).
(51) b-ark-le b-i-b kelg-un ca-b
n-inside-loc n-in-n remain.pfv-pret cop-n
‘(The color) has remained inside.’
(52) nuˁq-be aq d-arq’-ib ca-d ik’-i-l=ra
arm-pl high npl-do.pfv-pret cop-npl dem.up-obl-erg=add
‘He has also raised his hands.’
(53) dučːilla=q’al il ja c’a či-b-ig-an b-a-b-už-ib ca-b, ja insan
at.night=mod that or fire spr-n-see.ipfv-ptcp n-neg-n-be-pret cop-n or person
w-akːu, c’il čar ∅-iχ-ub-le ag-ur ca-w il
m-cop.neg then back m-be.pfv-pret-cvb go.pfv-pret cop-m that
‘It was at night, there was no fire visible, nobody is there, then he turned and
came back.’
Sentence (54) is a corpus example with a first person pronoun in the dative. The pred-
icate in this example is an affective verb which requires a dative experiencer and an
absolutive stimulus. In contrast to almost all other bivalent affective verbs the experi-
encer does not obligatorily control person agreement on the predicate, but the predicate
can be used with the copula (i.e. third person). See §19.1.8 for more information
(54) qum.ert-ur ca-d na hetːi mus-ne dam
forget.pfv-pret cop-npl now those place-pl 1sg.dat
‘Now I have forgotten those places.’

261
14 Analytic verb forms

The focus that the perfective resultative puts on the resulting state can lead to an
inferential interpretation that becomes particularly obvious to speakers when they are
asked to compare the preterite to the perfective resultative. For example, the following
sentence could be uttered in a situation in which Sanzhiat must wash the dishes, she
goes to the kitchen and sees that somebody has already washed the dishes (55). This
means that she concludes from the result that someone must have washed them.

(55) uže t’alaˁħ-ne d-irc-ib ca-d

already dishes-pl npl-wash.pfv-pret cop-npl
‘The dishes have already been washed.’ (E)

If she then asks hil dircibe? ‘Who washed (them)?’, an appropriate answer of somebody
who attended the event could be (56), that is, now the agent is at stake, not the result of
the action.

(56) Sanžijat-li d-irc-ib

Sanzhiat-erg npl-wash.pfv-pret
‘Sanzhiat washed (them).’ (E)

Similarly, when looking out of the window the speaker sees a wet road and concludes
from this (57).

(57) marka-l b-us-ib ca-b

rain-erg n-rain-pret cop-n
‘It has rained.’ (E)

However, the inferential interpretation can be canceled by a following utterance with-

out leading to a special interpretation (58).

(58) Sanijat-li t’alaˁħ-ne d-irc-ib ca-d. dam=q’ar il

Sanijat-erg dishes-pl npl-wash.pfv-pret cop-npl 1sg.dat=prt that
či-b-až-ib=da
spr-n-see.pfv-pret=1
‘Sanijat has washed the dishes. I saw it myself.’ (E)

14.2.4 The perfect

The perfect is formed by adding the perfective converb suffix to the preterite, followed
by the person enclitics for first and second person and the copula ca-b for third person.
When the perfective converb is suffixed to the preterite regular assimilation processes
take place after the suffixes that end in a sonorant, such that the following allopmorphs
result: -ib-le, -ub-le, -ur-le/-ur-re, -un-ne. Though it can be elicited with imperfective
stems, there are no such instances in the corpus and I will therefore restrict myself to
the discussion of perfect forms built with perfective stems.

262
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

The perfect is not particularly frequent in narratives, but there are enough examples
to describe its meaning. Its semantic range primarily covers resulting states; it mostly
occurs with verbs such as ‘sit’, ‘lay down’, ‘die’, ‘get/become hungry’, etc. that denote a
change of state and the perfect expresses the resulting state:
(59) ka-r-isː-un-ne=da na ʡaˁbal bari
down-f-lay.pfv-pret-cvb=1 now three day
‘I have been lying (in the hospital) for three days.’
(60) qili-w ča-k’al w-aːkːu, aba r-ebč’-ib-le ca-r
home-m who-indef m-cop.neg mother f-die.pfv-pret-cvb cop-f
‘There is nobody at home, my mother has died.’
(61) Naħ idbag-la zamana hak’-ub-le=da du
Noah prophet-gen time appear.pfv-pret-cvb=1 1sg
‘I was born at the time of the prophet Noah.’
This includes transitive verbs of which the agent is then often omitted because the
focus is on the resulting state (62).
(62) ik’-i-la bek’ b-aˁq-ib-le ca-b hek’
dem.up-obl-gen head n-wound.pfv-pret-cvb cop-n dem.up
‘Her head has been wounded.’
The following example illustrates one of the traditional greetings for women, used by
men and women when the female addressee is seated, for example in front of the house,
and the speaker is passing by (63). Example (64) shows a minimal pair illustrating the
difference between the preterite and the perfect that formally differ only in the absence
vs. presence of the perfective converb. The preterite conveys past time reference with
verbs that express changes of state whereas the perfect refers to the state that obtains at
the present moment. (64b) is the standard answer to (63).
(63) ka-r-iž-ib-le=de=w?
down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=2sg=q
‘Are you sitting (seated)?’
(64) a. ka-r-iž-ib=da
down-f-be.pfv-pret=1
‘I sat down.’ (E)
b. ka-r-iž-ib-le=da
down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=1
‘I am sitting.’
As can be seen in (65), the agent can be overtly expressed and the ergative construction
is allowed when the perfect is used in Sanzhi, in contrast to the closely related Icari
Dargwa variety, which prohibits the perfect with overtly expressed agents inflected for
the ergative case.

263
14 Analytic verb forms

(65) nu hel priblizitelno nušːa-l b-urs-ib-le=da=q’al

well that approximately 1pl-erg n-tell-pret-cvb=1=mod
‘Well, approximately we already said it.’

And in contrast to other Dargwa varieties such as Shiri (Belyaev In Preparation), the
Sanzhi perfect can also be used with verbs that do not imply a change of state in the
agent (66) even though normally the preterite is preferred in such contexts.

(66) ag-ur-re ca-b sːika-la mergʷ-li-šːu

go.pfv-pret-cvb cop-hpl bear-gen lair-obl-ad
‘They have gone to the cave of the bear.’

In the right context, the perfect can imply inferentiality/indirect evidentiality simi-
lar to the perfective resultative. Example (67) and originates from a narrative about the
history of the village of Sanzhi, and the speaker draws a conclusion about the present sit-
uation of the village based on past events that he did not witness himself. Similarly, (68)
and (69) are inferences about past events that the speakers draw from observed results.

(67) heχ šːi imc’a b-iχʷ-ij b-at-ur-re=kːu

dem.down village additional n-be.pfv-inf n-let.pfv-pret-cvb=neg
hel-tː-a-li
that-pl-obl-erg
‘(They) have not allowed the village to grow.’
(68) sa-jʁ-ib-le Gudermec-le, ix-tːi tːura
hither-come.pfv.m-pret-cvb Gudermets-loc dem.up-pl outside
aʁ-ib-il b-aχ-ur-re=kːu
do.pfv-pret-ref n-know.pfv-pret-cvb=neg
‘When he came to Gudermets he did not know that they had been thrown out (of
the village).’
(69) berkʷijce-li-j=ra qːuc ∅-ič-ib-le=kːu b-erk-un-ne=kːu
food-obl-dat=add touch m-occur.pfv-pret-cvb=neg n-eat.pfv-pret-cvb=neg
‘(He also has not touched the food, he has not eaten.’

Negation of verb forms with first and second person agreement controllers is ex-
pressed by means of the prefix a-, but there are no corpus examples. For the third person
the negative copula akːu occurred in its shortened form as an enclitic to the verb (67–69).

14.2.5 The past perfect (pluperfect)

The past perfect is formed by attaching the past enclitic =de to the perfective converb. In
elicitation, the past perfect is available for perfective and imperfective stems, but there
are no corpus examples of the latter. In addition, there is a variant of the past perfect
that makes use of the locative copulas to which =de is encliticized (see §15.1).

264
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

The past perfect has the typical pluperfect meaning and also past resultative meaning.
It refers to an event (or the resultative state of an event) that occurred before a definite
point in past time. In (70) the preceding event is mentioned in the first clause of the utter-
ance. In the other examples (71) and (72) the reference point in the past was mentioned
in the preceding context.

(70) atːa či-r-ka-w-q-un-ne na kːancːupːa-la šːule

father spr-abl-down-m-go.pfv-pret-cvb already ladder-gen at.side
ka-jcː-ur-re=de
down-get.up.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘After the father came down he stood next to the ladder.’
(71) heχ-itːe ∅-uc-ib-le=de
dem.down-advz m-catch.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘Like this (he) had caught (me).’
(72) ʁajal b-ičː-ib-le=de nušːa-l uže
twenty n-give.pfv-pret-cvb=pst 1pl-erg already
‘We had already given twenty.’

Negation is expressed by means of the negative prefix a- (73) or the negative past tense
copula akːʷi (74).

(73) ca ʡaˁbal dus w-iχ-ub-le=de ca dus taman

one three year m-become.pfv-pret-cvb=pst one year end
a-jχ-ub-le=de durħuˁ
neg-become.m.pfv-pret-cvb=pst boy
‘One boy had turned three, the other was not even one year old.’
(74) ʁajal b-ičː-ib-le=de=kːʷ-adi nušːa-l
twenty n-give.pfv-pret-cvb=pst=cop.neg-hab.pst1 1pl-erg
‘We had not given twenty.’ (E)

The past perfect also expresses inferentiality. This means that the speaker concludes
from an observed result that an event has taken place. Thus, (75) was uttered in a sit-
uation when the speaker found out only afterwards when reading the article that the
journalist to whom he had talked had written a wrong name. Example (76) is from a
narrative about past events that were not witnessed by the speaker himself (namely the
grabbing that happened at night). But he inferred from the result and from his knowl-
edge of the general circumstances that the people he is talking about in (76) were the
robbers.

(75) Tawlu žaˁndaruwič b-elk’-un-ne=de

Tawlu Zhandaruvich n-write.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘(He) had (apparently) written Tawlu Zhandaruvich.’

265
14 Analytic verb forms

(76) šara ag-ur itːa-la qul-be qaˁm d-arq’-ib-le=de

S. go.pfv-pret those.obl-gen house-pl grab npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘They went to Shara and had grabbed their houses.’

The past resultative meaning can co-occur with the inferential meaning. For instance,
in (77) the speaker refers to a state (= the death of his mother) that was obtained before
another moment in the past (= his return to the village). At the same time the speaker
was not present at the relevant event (= the dying of his mother) such that there is an
inferential component.

(77) du sa-jʁ-ij=satːina r-ebč’-ib-le=de aba

1sg hither-come.pfv-inf=until f-die.pfv-pret-cvb=pst mother
‘Before I came (home) my mother had already died.’

When speakers are presented with past perfect sentences out of context that contain
predicates that do not denote a change of state the inferential meaning is salient and
therefore there is a first-person effect with core arguments that denote first persons.
This means that (78) can only be uttered if the referent of the first person pronoun did
not consciously participate in the situation and therefore did really see Arsen because
he did not recognize him.

(78) dam Arsen či-w-až-ib-le=de

1sg.dat Arsen spr-m-see.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘I (apparently) saw Arsen.’ (as it seems, e.g. I did not recognize him) (E)

14.2.6 Experiential I and experiential II

There are two variants of the experiential. They both involve the preterite to which
the cross-categorical suffixes are added (-ce and -il). The cross-categorical suffixes are
generally used to form referential attributes from various parts of speech, including verbs
(§9.6.1 and §9.6.2). The resulting word forms largely have the syntactic properties of
nominals (e.g. they can be inflected for case, they can take over argument positions, etc.),
and this leads to very particular syntactic properties of all experiental and experiental
past forms that are discussed below.
The first variant, the experiential I, is obtained by suffixing -ce (plural -te) to the
preterite participle, followed by the person enclitics or the copula ca-b. The second vari-
ant, the experiential II, is formed by adding the suffix -il to the preterite, again followed
by the person enclitics or the copula. The use of the two different suffixes -ce and -il does
not lead to any semantic differences with respect to the experiential verb forms. Their
distribution rather depends on number (this was already explained for the obligative
verb forms in §14.1.5). For argument controllers in the singular -il is almost exclusively
used, although -ce is also grammatical. For argument controllers in the plural only -te is
allowed. The experiential can also be formed with the locative copulas (see §15.1 for an
example).

266
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

The experiential I and II have perfect-like semantics, but are predominantly used when
speakers talk about their own experiences and about situations they were personally
involved in, so most of the examples contain first person core arguments:

(79) hetːi li<b>il=ra čːuˁħrug ka-b-eʁ-ib=qːel,

those all<hpl>=add Chakhri.people down-hpl-go.pfv-pret=when
ka-d-eʁ-ib-te=da
down-npl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1
‘When all Chakhri people moved to the lowlands, we (also) moved.’
(80) “jaʁari”, ∅-ik’ʷ-ar “ušːa ʡaˁlħaˁm-le ha-d-ač’-ib-te=da=w”,
prt m-say.ipfv-prs 2pl condolence-loc up-npl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1=q
∅-ik’ʷ-ar “heštːu, dalaj d-ik’ʷ-ij
m-say.ipfv-prs here song npl-say.ipfv-inf
ha-d-ač’-ib-te=da=w?”
up-npl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1=q
‘Then (Abdulkhalik) says, “Have you come here for condolences or for singing
songs?”’
(81) w-arq’-ib-il=da du azir-lim urč’em darš-lim ʡaˁb-c’anu
m-do.pfv-pret-ref=1 1sg thousand-num nine hundred-num three-ten
xu-ra-ibil
five-num-ord
‘I (masc.) was born in 1935.’

Somewhat more rarely one finds third person examples that, however, usually relate to
the personal sphere of the speaker or, more generally, to the sphere of the Sanzhi people
(82), (83). For instance, (82) is from a procedural text in which the speaker explained
how Sanzhi women used to make carpets. There are only few examples that are not
immediately related to personal experience, mostly occurring in texts from the Family
Problems Picture Task (San Roque et al. 2012) (84).

(82) a tak nuˁq-b-a-cːella hel-tːi=ra d-arq’-ib-te ca-d

and so hand-pl-obl-comit that-pl=add npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop-npl
‘And like this with the hands (they) also made them.’
(83) sːema-la χaˁχaˁ, nišːa-la atːa=ra k-ag-ur-il ca-w
pebble.stone-gen Xaxa 1pl-gen father=add down-go.pfv-pret-ref cop-m
heχtːu-w
there.down-m
‘Semalla Xaxa (place name). Our father also fell down there.’
(84) it tusnaq-le-r sa-jʁ-ib-il ca-w
that prison-loc-abl hither-come.pfv-pret-ref cop-m
‘He came back from prison.’

267
14 Analytic verb forms

From a morphosyntactic point of view, the experiential and the experiential past are
somewhere between a monoclausal and a biclausal structure, which is due to the impact
of the cross-categorical suffixes, because the suffixes form words with largely nominal
morphosyntactic features. This means that clauses with experiential verb forms resemble
clefts with a main copula clause that contains only the person enclitics or the copula and
a subordinate relative clause. Thus, instead of person agreement enclitics one finds the
copula despite a first or second person agent. For example, the first person agent in (85)
is not expressed, but clear from the context of the autobiographical narrative. In the
elicited example (86a), the use of a person marker instead of the copula is impossible
(86b).

(85) julʁan-ni-gu-b b-arq’-ib-te ca-b

blanket-obl-sub-hpl hpl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop-hpl
‘(I) gave birth to (my children) under a blanket.’

(86) a. itːi qːamuš dul ka-d-ičː-ib-te ca-d

those reed 1sg.erg down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop-npl
‘I cut that reed.’ (E)
b. * dul itːi qːamuš ka-d-ičː-ib-te=da
1sg.erg those reed down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1
(Intended meaning: ‘I cut that reed.’) (E)

This suggests that the structure of (86a) is as displayed in (87). In fact, when trans-
lating experiential clauses speakers sometimes produce relative clauses in the Russian
translation. Thus, a more literary translation that is closer to the structure of (86a) would
be ‘It is such that the reed was cut by me.’

(87) [itːi qːamuš dul ka-d-ičː-ib-te] ca-d

those reed 1sg.erg down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop-npl
‘I cut that reed.’ (E)

The almost biclausal structure becomes especially salient in term focus constructions
when the person enclitic or the copula is not following the verbal complex but an ar-
gument or adjunct that is focused (88). In this context, the use of the person marker is
allowed, but optional (89). Thus, in the last example we can either employ the person
enclitic after the pronoun or the copula, but not both.

(88) itːi qːamuš ca-d [dul ka-d-ičː-ib-te]

those reed cop-npl 1sg.erg down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl
‘It is the reed that I cut.’ (E)
(89) itːi qːamuš du-l=da / du-l ca-d ka-d-ičː-ib-te
those reed 1sg-erg=1 / 1sg.erg cop-npl down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl
‘It is me who cut the reed.’ (E)

268
 14.2 Forms based on the preterite

The biclausal-like structure is also apparent in negation because here always the nega-
tive copula akːu is used and person agreement is suppressed (90–92). A detailed account
of the syntactic structure (i.e. whether it is monoclausal or biclausal or should be ana-
lyzed as something else) must be left to future research.

(90) dam či-b-až-ib-te=kːu, at akːu itːi

1sg.dat spr-hpl-see.pfv-pret-dd.pl=neg 2sg.dat cop.neg those
‘I did not see them, you also (did not see them).’
(91) parʁat b-arq’-ib-te=kːu hel sːika-l durħuˁ čar b-arq’-ij=sat
quiet n-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl=neg that bear-erg boy back n-do.pfv-inf=until
‘The bear was not quiet before they gave it its cub back.’
(92) itːa-la=ʁuna amzu-dex du-l nalla či-b-až-ib-il
those.obl-gen=eq clean-nmlz 1sg-erg until.then spr-n-see.pfv-pret-ref
akːu
cop.neg
‘A cleanliness like theirs I have seen nowhere.’

14.2.7 Experiential past I and experiential past II

Corresponding to the experiential I and II, there are also two variants of the experiential
past in which the past enclitic =de is used instead of the person enclitics/copula. The
lexical verbs appear in the same forms as in the experiential I and II. The experiential past
forms are normally used for the narration of personal experiences or of situations that
lie within the personal knowledge sphere of the speaker even if s/he did not personally
attend it:

(93) bah hila-r šːi-l-cːe-r nušːa gu-r-ag-ur-te=de

most last-abl village-obl-in-abl 1pl sub-abl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=pst
‘As the very last we moved away from the village.’
(94) hek’tːu-b b-arčː-ib-il=de ca qːarqːa
there.up-n n-find.pfv-pret-ref=pst one stone
‘Up there (we) found a stone.’

These tense forms are often employed in summary-like utterances that do not move
forward the main storyline (95) or when providing for background information (96), (97).

(95) hel=ʁuna cik’al čujna=ra d-arq’-ib-te=de nušːa-l,

this=eq something how.often=add 1/2.pl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl=pst 1pl-erg
čujna=ra
how.often=add
‘Things like this, how often did we do them, how often.’

269
14 Analytic verb forms

(96) libil durħ-ne wec’al durħuˁ xːunul akːʷ-ar

all<hpl> boy-pl ten boy woman cop.neg-prs
ha-b-iq’-un-te=de c’il
up-hpl-bring.up-pret-dd.pl=pst then
‘All children, ten children (he) rose without his wife then.’
(97) cin-na zu ʡaˁjšat=de=q’al, xːun-r-a-la
refl.sg-gen name Ajshat=pst=prt woman-pl-obl-gen
či-ka-r-at-ur-il=de
spr-down-f-let.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘Her name was Ajshat, she was sent there as the (leader) of the women.’

In negated clauses the negative past copula akːʷi is used (98). It can be shortened to
the enclitic =kːʷi (99) or inflected for person (100). The latter is insofar remarkable as
the negative predicate in this case expresses more verbal categories than the affirma-
tive, since person cannot be marked on the predicate in the affirmative because the past
enclitic does not encode person. For example, in (100) the person suffix on the copula
expresses the first person. By contrast, in affirmative clauses with the same verb form
person cannot be expressed (93), (95).

(98) Maħaˁmmadħaˁži acːi učitil-li kelg-un-il=akːʷ-i=w

Mahammadhazhi uncle teacher-erg remain.pfv-pret-ref=cop.neg-hab.pst=q
ce=ja ixtːu?
what=q there.up
‘Mahammadhazhi was not perhaps working as a teacher there (in Sanzhi)?’
(99) itwaj kelg-un-te=kːʷi
like.this remain.pfv-pret-dd.pl=neg.pst
‘It was not like this.’
(100) b-ik’-ul ca-b “uškul-le w-aš-ib-il akːʷ-adi du”
n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n school-loc m-go-pret-ref cop.neg-hab.pst.1 1sg
‘(The wolf) said, “I did not go to school.”’

270
15 Periphrastic verb forms
Periphrastic verb forms are morphologically complex in the same manner as analytic
verb forms (Chapter 14) and make use of the same range of non-finite inflectional forms
(perfective and imperfective converb, and occasionally participles), but employ different
auxiliaries that have, by themselves, particular semantic values. Therefore, the resulting
verb forms differ in their meaning from the analytic verb forms. The auxiliaries employed
are:

• locational copulas (§15.1)

• kelg- ‘remain’ (§15.2)

• b-el ‘remain, stay’ (§15.3)

• b-iχʷ- ‘be, become, be able’ (§15.4)
• b-urkː- ‘find’ (§15.5)
• b-už- ‘be, be at, stay, remain’ (§15.6)

Some of the resulting verb forms have similar meanings although the auxiliaries differ.
However, I will take a form-to-function approach and treat all formally distinct combi-
nations of lexical verbs and auxiliaries separately.
There is a very large number of morphologically complex verb forms that can, in the-
ory, be produced and can thus be obtained in elicitation, because various auxiliaries can
be employed and partially combined. But since it is impossible to gain an understanding
of verb forms if one has only one or two elicited examples, I restrict myself to the ex-
amination of commonly attested periphrastic forms and describe the meaning of these
forms based on their occurrences in natural texts.
The auxiliaries are inflected according to their morphological possibilities (i.e. the
existential copulas have reduced paradigms, see §15.1). Consequently, the auxiliaries can
themselves be inflected for verb forms heading subordinate clauses, that is, there are also
periphrastic verb forms that occur in subordinate clauses.

15.1 Verb forms with locational copulas

Sanzhi has four locational copulas that are morphologically defective in a way similar
to the standard copula. They have locational and existential meaning that includes el-
evation (§16.2). The use of locational copulas (instead of the standard copula) for the
15 Periphrastic verb forms

formation of periphrastic verb forms is not extremely frequent, but it is repeatedly at-
tested. The most widely used locational copula verb is le-b ‘be located/exist close to the
speaker and the hearer’, because its semantics is somewhat less specific in comparison
to the other three locational copula verbs, and because of its meaning of proximity. The
other three locational copulas are te-b ‘be located/exist away from the speaker’, k’e-b
‘be located/exist above the deictic center’, and χe-b ‘be located/exist below the deictic
center’. The semantics of the locational copulas partially determine the meaning of the
periphrastic verb forms. For example, the use of le-w in (1) implies that the situation took
place close to the speaker, and that the speaker consequently saw the event with her own
eyes. If ca-w had been used instead, then there would be no such implication. Similarly,
if te-b is used, the situation takes place or took place (far) away from the speaker who did
not participate and did not witness the event himself/herself. For instance, the utterance
in (2) comes from a report about a woman who was in a hospital in Makhachkala and
whom the speaker did not visit there.

(1) Iljas arg-ul le-w […] kat’

Ilyas go.ipfv-icvb exist-m down
‘Ilyas is going downwards.’
(2) c’il hel-itːe wahi-l šiq’ r-uq-an-aj a-r-irχ-ul
then that-advz bad-advz stir f-go.pfv-ptcp-subj.3 neg-f-be.able.ipfv-icvb
te-r
exist.away-f
‘Then, badly like this, she is not able to move.’

The copula χe-b refers to events occurring in an area lower than the deictic center,
which is often the speaker or a default reference point (3). This example and also (4) were
produced during the Family Problems Picture Task (San Roque et al. 2012) and the deictic
center for (3) is not the speaker who uttered this sentence (his location is irrelevant) but
the people on the picture.

(3) ka-d-ič-ib-le=q’ar χe-d heχtːu-d šuš-ne

down-npl-occur.pf=pret-cvb=mod exist.down-npl there.down-pl bottle-pl
‘There bottles have fallen down.’

The copula k’e-b refers to events occurring in an area higher than the deictic center
(4). Example (4) is a description of pictures arranged on a table in front of the speaker
that were put higher than some other pictures on the same table.

(4) c’il hek’-tːi, heχtːu-d sːurrat-le-d či-d-iž-aq-ul

then dem.up-pl there.down-npl picture-loc-npl spr-npl-see.ipfv-caus-icvb
k’e-d maˁjk’a=ra koftːa=ra tːapri=ra cin-na
exist.up-npl T-shirt=add jacket=add shoe=add refl.sg-gen
‘Then those, there on the picture, it shows that there are his T-shirt, jacket, and
shoes.’

272
 15.1 Verb forms with locational copulas

If the lexical verb takes the imperfective converb suffix, the resulting verb form corre-
sponds to the compound present (§14.1.1) and has a comparable semantic range covering
progressive/continuative (5) and habitual (2).
(5) ca zamana b-erčː-ib-le saˁ-q’-uˁnne le-w hel
one time n-drink.pfv-pret-cvb hither-go-icvb exist-m that
‘One time he is coming home drunk.’
When the perfective converb (i.e. preterite plus suffix -le) is employed, the perfect
or other forms are obtained. As the normal perfect (§14.2.4), the perfect with locational
copulas mostly expresses states that obtain after a preceding event (3), (6–8).
(6) ka-d-iž-ib-le le-d=da hana
down-1/2pl-be.pfv-pret-cvb exist-1/2pl=1 now
‘(Then I relaxed) and we lived normally.’ (lit. ‘We have sat down.’)
(7) ca qal-la baˁʔ ka-b-uc-ib-le k’e-b
one house-gen façade down-n-catch.pfv-pret-cvb exist.up-n
‘(The plant) has covered one wall of the house (by growing upwards).’
(8) ca Kubači-lan, ca aʁul-an gu-b-aˁʁ-ib-le k’e-b
one Kubachi-nmlz one Agul-nmlz sub-hpl-release.pfv-pret-cvb exist.up-hpl
‘One Kubachi person, one Agul person are buried (in Sanzhi).’
The locational copulas can be followed by the past enclitic =de, so that we get a variant
of the past perfect or pluperfect (§14.2.5), usually referring to states that obtained in the
past as the result of preceding situations (9), but also occasionally in reference to actions
and events that happened before a reference point in the past. Thus, example (10) was
uttered when the speaker compared the life of the family before and after an important
event that served as a temporal anchoring point in the past.
(9) qːap b-ic’-ib-le χe-b=de
sack n-fill.pfv-pret-cvb exist.down-n=pst
‘The sack was full (filled).’
(10) ca ʡaˁħ-le b-aʔ b-išː-ib-le le-b=de iš-tːi χalq’
one good-advz n-begin n-put.pfv-pret-cvb exist-n=pst this-pl people
‘The people started off well.’
Another possible periphrastic verb form corresponds to the experiential II (§14.2.6) for
which the lexical verb takes the suffixes of the preterite plus the cross-categorical suffix
-il:
(11) nu hej=ʁuna ka-jž-ib-il te-w ∅-urkː-ar
well this=eq down-remain.m.pfv-pret-ref exist.away-m m-find.ipfv-cond.3
het šːal-le-w=ra
that side-loc-m=add
‘Well, he is like sitting, probably, at the side (of the road).’

273
15 Periphrastic verb forms

As can be seen from the examples in this section, many of the lexical verbs that are
used in periphrastic verb forms with locational copulas are position verbs or verbs of
movement (3), (5), (6), but other verbs are also allowed (4), (9), (10).
Finally, the use of le-b and other locational copulas in periphrasis is more common
in other Dargwa varieties such as Mehweb (Daniel 2015), Ashti (Belyaev 2012) and Shiri
(Belyaev In Preparation).

15.2 Verb forms with kelgʷ- ‘remain’

The verb kelgʷ- (pfv) ‘remain, stay, be’ is used as an auxiliary in constructions conveying
continuous, enduring and sometimes habitually occurring situations and actions in the
past. The auxiliary verb is either inflected for the preterite (kelg-un) or some other verb
form derived from the preterite. The imperfective stem kalg- is not used in the auxiliary
function. This means that the resulting clauses always have past time reference. The
periphrastic verb form can be used with verbs of various valency classes, e.g. intransitive
verbs (17), transitive verbs (12), or affective verbs (14).
When the lexical verb bears the imperfective converb suffix, the resulting verb forms
have habitual or continuative/progressive semantics (12–14). Note that the verb ‘see’ in
(14) has the literary meaning and thus the sentence refers to a continuous situation of
seeing.

(12) it-i-l ca sːaˁʡaˁt kaʁar luk’-unne kelg-un

that-obl-erg one hour letter write.ipfv-icvb remain.pfv-pret
‘He wrote the letter in one hour.’ (E)
(13) cet’-le cin-ni xːunul it-ul kelg-un-ce=de=l
how-advz refl.sg-erg woman beat.up-icvb remain.pfv-pret-dd.sg=pst=indq
‘[When the man was in prison he remembered a lot], how he constantly beat up
his wife.’
(14) it-i-j rurs-be či-b-ig-ul kelg-un
that-obl-dat girl-pl spr-hpl-see.ipfv-icvb remain.pfv-pret
‘He was watching at (lit. seeing) the girls.’ (E)

Periphrasis with kelgʷ- is frequently used when talking about, for example, profes-
sions and more generally about the kind of work someone is/was doing (15).

(15) Maħaˁmmadħaˁži acːi-l ce ʡaˁči b-irq’-ul

Mahammadhazhi uncle-erg what work n-do.ipfv-icvb
kelg-un-il=de?
remain.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘Which work was uncle Mahammadhazhi doing?’

274
 15.3 Verb forms with b-el ‘remain, stay’

With perfective converbs the construction is used for the expression of enduring states
that obtain during a longer stretch of time (16–18). The verbs in (17) and (18) refer to the
actions of getting up and lying down, but when they are used with the perfective con-
verbs they denote the states that obtain after having carried out the respective actions.

(16) a-b-ebč’-ib-le kelg-un hel qːačːa

neg-n-die.pfv-pret-cvb remain.pfv-pret that calf
‘The calf stayed alive.’ (lit. ‘not died’)
(17) di-la ka-b-icː-ur-re kelg-un-ne …
1sg-gen down-n-stand.pfv-pret-cvb remain.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Mine (i.e. my stick) remained upright standing, …’
(18) čːaˁʡaˁl-la sːaˁʡaˁt wec’-nu ca-ra d-ik-ar-aj
morning-gen hour ten-ten one-num npl-occur.pfv-prs-subj.3
∅-usː-un-ne kelg-un=da du
m-sleep.pfv-pret-cvb remain.pfv-pret=1 1sg
‘In the morning, I (masc.) slept until eleven.’ (lit. ‘I remained lying’)

However, the use with perfective verb stems is restricted and it is possible that (16) is
rather a biclausal sentence that consists of an adverbial clause with the perfective con-
verb (‘not having died’) followed by a main clause (‘the calf remained’). Thus, in (14) the
use of the perfective verb stem would lead to ungrammaticality (19). The precise condi-
tions for this periphrastic verb form when it is used with verbs of different aktionsart
classes remains open to future research.

(19) * it-i-j rurs-be či-b-až-ib-le kelg-un

that-obl-dat girl-pl spr-hpl-see.pfv-pret-cvb remain.pfv-pret
(Intended meaning: ‘He was watching at the girls.’) (E)

15.3 Verb forms with b-el ‘remain, stay’

The defective verb b-el ‘remain, stay’, which refers to enduring states that obtained in
the past and still obtain at the moment of speech, is occasionally used in periphrastic
constructions that express the continuation of a state similar to periphrasis with kelgʷ-
described above in §15.2. The verb b-el is almost exclusively used with lexical verbs
inflected for the imperfective converb. When the bare stem b-el is used the construc-
tion conveys present time reference, referring to an ongoing event (20) or existing state.
When the past enclitic is added to the verb, the periphrastic verb form denotes a past
state or an ongoing situation in the past (21), (22).

(20) ištːu-w w-isː-ul w-el iž

here-m m-cry-icvb m-remain this
‘Here he is crying.’ (i.e. he continues to cry).

275
15 Periphrastic verb forms

(21) hin-ni ∅-uqː-ul w-el=de

water-erg m-carry-icvb m-remain=pst
‘He was taken away by the water.’ (lit. ‘He remained being carried away by the
water.’)
(22) hana a-b-ucː-an=xːar, ij b-ucː-ul b-el=de
now neg-n-work-ptcp=conc this n-work-icvb n-remain=pst
‘Even though now (my hand) does not work, (at that time) it worked.’
As mentioned above, the forms with b-el and kelgʷ- show similarities in their seman-
tics, especially when they bear the past enclitic =de. For instance, we can replace kelg-un
in (14) with b-el=de and the meaning does not noticeably change (23). As with the pe-
riphrastic verb form with kelgʷ-, the use of the perfective verb stem is not allowed in
this sentence (24).
(23) it-i-j rurs-be či-b-ig-ul b-el=de
that-obl-dat girl-pl spr-hpl-see.ipfv-icvb hpl-remain=pst
‘He was watching at (lit. seeing) the girls.’ (E)
(24) * it-i-j rurs-be či-b-až-ib-le b-el
that-obl-dat girl-pl spr-hpl-see.pfv-pret-cvb hpl-remain
(Intended meaning: ‘He is watching at the girls.’) (E)
Semantic differences are only perceptible when b-el without the past enclitc is com-
pared to kelg-un, because the former has present time reference whereas the latter has
past time reference. Thus, if we use kelg-un instead of w-el in (20), the resulting sentence
conveys past time reference (25).
(25) ištːu-w w-isː-ul kelg-un iž
here-m m-cry-icvb remain.pfv-pret this
‘Here he remained crying.’ (E)
The example in (16) with kelg-un can be used in a context in which the calf was about
to die, but stayed alive (in fact, it fell down a slope but survived). The sentence in (26),
which is a modified version of (16), simply means that the calf is alive and has not died.
The semantics indicates that the sentence is actually biclausal and the verb ‘die’ and b-el
do not form a verbal complex. Periphrastic constructions with b-el are only marginally
acceptable if the lexical verb has perfective aspect and carries the perfective converb
suffix. Combinations of a perfective converb followed by b-el are interpreted as separate
clauses. Similarly, (27) is a complex clause expressing two situations: the situation that
the rye had not been taken away to the neighboring village of Icari and the situation
that the rye had remained in the village of Sanzhi.
(26) a-b-ebč’-ib-le, b-el hel qːačːa
neg-n-die.pfv-pret-cvb n-remain that calf
‘The calf, not having died, is alive.’ (E)

276
 15.4 Verb forms with the auxiliary b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ- (pfv)

(27) sːusːul gu-r-a-d-erqː-ib-le, d-el=de

rye sub-abl-neg-npl-take.pfv-pret-cvb npl-remain=pst
‘The rye was still not taken (to Icari) and had remained (in Sanzhi).’

More frequent than the use of b-el in finite periphrastic constructions as discussed in
this section is the use in periphrastic constructions that function as heads of temporal
adverbial clauses (§18.2.7).

15.4 Verb forms with the auxiliary b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ-

(pfv) ‘be, become, be able’
15.4.1 Periphrastic conditionals
The auxiliary b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, be able’ is used in periphrastic condi-
tional constructions, where it is inflected for various conditional forms such as the realis
conditional (28) or the past conditional (29) (see §18.3.1 and §18.3.2 for more examples
and §25.2 for the syntax of conditional clauses). The periphrastic conditionals are func-
tional equivalents of the simple conditionals and according to Sanzhi speakers there is
no semantic difference between them. Thus, in (28) b-ikː-ul ∅-iχ-utːe could be replaced
by b-ikː-aχː-at(te), and in (29) b-alχ-ul r-iχ-utːel could be substituted by b-alχ-aχː-at(te)
without any change in the meaning of the sentences.

(28) at χabar b-ikː-ul ∅-iχ-utːe, hel=ʁuna atːa

2sg.dat story n-want.ipfv-icvb m-be.pfv-cond.2sg that=eq father
∅-irχʷ-i hel-i-la
m-be.ipfv-hab.pst that-obl-gen
‘If you want stories, (here is one), she had such a father (and these were the
stories about him).’
(29) d-ikː-an-ce b-alχ-ul r-iχ-utːel, wallah,
npl-want.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg n-know.ipfv-icvb f-be.pfv-cond.pst by.God
ce-k’a b-iχʷ-ar=ra herʔ-adi du=ra cek’u
what-indef n-be.pfv-cond.3=add say.ipfv-hab.pst.1 1sg=add whatchamacallit
‘If I had known what you want, by God, I would also have said something.’

15.4.2 Epistemic modal constructions

The same auxiliary is widely used in epistemic modal clauses to convey the meaning
‘probably, possibly, presumably’. In such constructions it is mostly inflected for the in-
finitive (suffix -ij) (30) or the modal interrogative (-ide) (34), and very rarely also for
the realis conditional (-ar) (35). Since these are suffixes that are predominantly or exclu-
sively used with perfective stems, it is mostly the perfective stem b-iχʷ- that occurs in
the epistemic modal constructions. However, it is also possible to use the future in the
past, in which case the imperfective stem of the auxiliary must be employed (33). The

277
15 Periphrastic verb forms

auxiliary agrees in gender and number with the absolutive argument, just like the lexi-
cal verb. It does not assign case to the arguments; case assignment is determined by the
lexical verb. Thus, it behaves just like any other auxiliary. There is, however, one impor-
tant difference. In normal analytic verb forms and other periphrastic constructions, the
auxiliary cannot occur in the form of an infinitive or conditional, since these suffixes
are only used in subordinate clauses such as complement or conditional clauses. By con-
trast, in epistemic modal constructions, such a use is possible. For instance, example (30)
contains a lexical verb bearing the imperfective converb suffix and the auxiliary b-iχʷ-,
to which the infinitive is suffixed. The resulting clause is nevertheless a grammatical
independent main clause. The lexical verb appears in a finite or non-finite verb form. A
similar construction is attested in Icari Dargwa (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003: 110).
(30) heštːi k’ʷel=ra b-učː-ul b-iχʷ-ij
these two=add hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb hpl-be.pfv-inf
‘These two are probably drinking.’
(31) χːula dard χe-b b-iχʷ-ij
big sorrow exist.down-n n-be.pfv-inf
‘(He) probably has big sorrows.’
The auxiliary can be used as the only verb of the clause. It occurs in the form of the
infinitive but nevertheless functions as the head of an independent clause (32).
(32) ik’ admi ∅-iχʷ-ij
this.up person m-be.pvf-inf
‘This is probably a man.’
As mentioned above, the auxiliary can also be inflected for future in the past, which
itself already has epistemic modal semantics (§14.1.4) (33). Alternatively, the modal in-
terrogative form is attested (34); this form is otherwise only used in questions with first
person subjects and epistemic and deontic modality (§17.4). Very occasionally the auxil-
iary appears in the form of the realis conditional (35).
(33) ʁaj r-ik’-ul r-irχʷ-an=de heχ
word f-say.ipfv-icvb f-become.ipfv-ptcp=pst dem.down
‘She must have been scolding/she was probably scolding.’
(34) b-urs-ib-le b-iχʷ-ide murgl-a-l
n-tell-pret-cvb n-be.pfv-modq man-obl-erg
‘Probably the men had already told it.’
(35) d-ertː-ib-te a-d-iχʷ-ar
npl-mow.pfv-pret-dd.pl neg-npl-be.pfv-cond.3
‘This is probably mowed (grass).’ OR ‘If this is not mowed grass.’
Together with the infinitive, only third person controllers of person agreement (which
are nevertheless suppressed, since the auxiliary is in the infinitive) are allowed. The use
of the modal interrogative also permits first and second person subject-like arguments:

278
 15.4 Verb forms with the auxiliary b-irχʷ- (ipfv)/b-iχʷ- (pfv)

(36) it / du r-arx-le r-iχʷ-ide

dem / 1sg f-right-advz f-be.pfv-modq
‘She/I was probably right.’ (E)

Negation can be expressed on the auxiliary (37) or on the lexical verb (38). In each
case it has scope over the entire clause.

(37) nuˁq-be aq d-arq’-ib ca-d ik’-i-l=ra. b-ikː-ul

arm-pl high npl-do.pfv-pret cop-npl dem.up-obl-erg=add n-want.ipfv-icvb
a-b-iχʷ-ij
neg-n-be.pfv-inf
‘He also raised his arms. He probably does not want to (be taken away).’
(38) a. ʁaj a-r-ik’-ul r-irχʷ-an=de heχ
word neg-f-say.ipfv-icvb f-become.ipfv-ptcp=pst dem.down
‘Probably she was not scolding.’ (E)
b. ʁaj r-ik’-ul a-r-irχʷ-an=de heχ
word f-say.ipfv-icvb neg-f-become.ipfv-ptcp=pst dem.down
‘Probably she was not scolding.’ (E)

The use of the future in the past and the modal interrogative in a construction express-
ing epistemic modality is not particularly surprising, since (i) these forms have meanings
that are similar to epistemic modality, and (ii) they are finite, that is, they can function as
heads of main clauses. The use of the realis conditional and the infinitive, however, de-
serves further explanation. A plausible path of development is conventionalized ellipses
of the main clause similar to examples of insubordination that have been investigated
by Evans (2007) and Evans & Watanabe (2016). Full conditional constructions consist
of an apodosis with the conditional form and a protasis, in which the verb can choose
from a rich array of possible morphosyntactic forms (Chapter 18.3). In periphrastic con-
ditionals, Sanzhi makes use of b-iχʷ, as was shown above in §15.4.1. If in a periphrastic
conditional such as (39) the protasis is omitted, we are left with a clause expressing a
likely condition for an unspecified situation (‘if X obtains’). The conditional force has
been lost and instead the proposition is judged as probable or possible, i.e. ‘if X obtains’
> ‘X probably obtains’ (35). In fact, even if there is a protasis, it is nevertheless possible
to have two readings for some apodosis clauses, namely a conditional reading and an
epistemic modal reading.

(39) a. heštːi Ašura-l d-ertː-ib-te q’ar d-iχʷ-ar …

these Ashura-erg npl-mow-pret-dd.pl grass npl-be.pfv-cond.3
‘If Ashura has mowed this grass, …’
b. heštːi Ašura-l d-ertː-ib-te q’ar a-d-iχʷ-ar
these Ashura-erg npl-mow.pfv-pret-dd.pl grass neg-npl-be.pfv-cond.3
‘If Ashura has not mowed this grass, …’ > ‘Ashura has probably mowed this
grass.’

279
15 Periphrastic verb forms

A similar development might also be posited for the epistemic modals that are formed
with the infinitive of b-iχʷ-. They possibly go back to epistemic and perhaps also deontic
modal constructions with main predicates such as belki ‘be possible’ or ʡaˁʁunil ‘neces-
sary, needed, must, should’ that take infinitival complements (40). If the main clause is
omitted, only the clause with the infinitive remains, which in examples such as (42) has
undergone a re-interpretation from deontic to epistemic modality: ‘X should obtain’ (41)
> ‘X probably obtains’ (43).

(40) iχ-tːi d-arx-le a-d-iχʷ-ij belki

dem.down-pl 1/2pl-direct-advz neg-npl-be.pfv-inf it.is.possible
‘Maybe they (= my thoughts) are not right.’
(41) ʡaˁħ-ce admi ∅-iχʷ-ij ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-w
good-dd.sg person m-be.pfv-inf needed-advz cop-m
‘He must be a good man./He should be a good man.’
(42) iχ-tːi d-arx-le a-d-iχʷ-ij
dem.down-pl 1/2pl-direct-advz neg-npl-be.pfv-inf
‘They (= my thoughts) are probably not right.’ (E)
(43) ʡaˁħ-ce admi ∅-iχʷ-ij
good-dd.sg person m-be.pfv-inf
‘He is probably a good man.’

15.5 Epistemic modality with the auxiliary b-urkː- ‘find’

In addition to the epistemic modal construction described in §15.4.2, there is another
construction, which makes use of the verb b-urkː- ‘find’. The perfective stem of this
verb (b-arkː-) is only used as an affective verb with the meaning ‘find’, which means
that it requires an experiencer in the dative and a stimulus in the absolutive case. The
imperfective stem b-urkː- is used both with the meaning ‘find’ and as an auxiliary with
the epistemic meaning ‘probably, be possible’.
The b-urkː- constructions bears a strong similarity to the other epistemic modal con-
struction because the lexical verb can be finite or non-finite. The default position of
b-urkː- is the default position for auxiliaries, namely following the lexical verb. It can be
the only verb in the clause and still have the epistemic meaning. The auxiliary can be
negated, then behaving like any other auxiliary: it expresses the negation of the predi-
cation, that is, it has scope over the lexical verb (44). But negation can also be expressed
on the lexical verb with the same semantic effect (45).

(44) vmešiwatsa iχʷ-ij b-ikː-ul a-b-urkː-ar

mingle be.pfv-inf n-want.ipfv-icvb neg-n-find.ipfv-prs
‘(He) probably does not want to get involved.’

280
 15.5 Epistemic modality with the auxiliary b-urkː- ‘find’

(45) c’il a-b-irq’-an-ne ∅-urkː-ar

then neg-n-do.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 m-find.ipfv-prs
‘Then he will probably not do (this again).’

The gender/number agreement can follow the ergative pattern and thus be with the
absolutive argument (46), or it can follow the accusative pattern. In the latter case it
is controlled by the subject-like argument, which can be in the ergative or dative case
(‘deviant gender agreement’) (47). Such behavior is not attested for all auxiliaries, but
the copula allows for it (§20.2.4).

(46) iχ-i-j b-alχ-ul b-urkː-ar ču-la t’ama.hama

dem.down-obl-dat n-know.ipfv-icvb n-find.ipfv-prs refl.pl-gen scandal
‘He probably knows their scandal.’
(47) b-erčː-ib-le ∅-urkː-ar hel-i-l=ra
n-drink.pfv-pret-cvb m-find.ipfv-prs that-obl-erg=add
‘He also drank, probably.’ [gender agreement with the ergative]

In all examples discussed so far, the auxiliary is inflected with the suffix -ar (44–47).
The lexical verb (if there is any) is responsible for the temporal reference. The suffix
-ar is also used in the epistemic modal construction with b-iχʷ- (§15.4.2), and it looks
like the realis conditional suffix for the third person. However, the realis conditional
is normally only formed from perfective stems (§18.3.1) and the form (b)-urkː-ar never
expresses conditional semantics. Therefore, although we can suppose that there is a di-
achronic relationship with the conditional, synchronically the form cannot be analyzed
as conditional, but is glossed with prs. Instead of the suffix -ar, it is also possible to in-
flect the auxiliary regularly for the habitual present (48) or the habitual past, resulting
in regular person agreement (49), (50).

(48) šːalme, sala-r=ra d-urs-ib d-urkː-ud

mint front-abl=add npl-tell-pret npl-find.ipfv-1.prs
‘(It is made from) mint; I probably also told it (= how to make it) the last time.’
(49) har zamana b-ax-ul a-b-určː-i=q’al
every time hpl-go-icvb neg-hpl-find.ipfv-hab.pst=prt
‘Probably they did not always go (to drink milk).’
(50) ašːi-j b-alχ-ul d-urkː-a-tːa čina
2pl-dat n-know.ipfv-icvb npl-find.ipfv-hab.pst-2pl where
musːa-d=de=l
place.loc-npl=pst=indq
‘You should know/you probably know, where (in which place) they (the berries)
were.’

281
15 Periphrastic verb forms

It is possible that the construction goes back to a complement construction with b-urkː-
as matrix predicate; it is currently grammaticalizing and therefore one finds variation
between those sub-constructions that show person agreement and those that do not,
and between the locus of negation and the expression of temporal reference (i.e. whether
the auxiliary or the main verb conveys the temporal reference). Similar epistemic modal
constructions involving a verb ‘find’ are attested in many other Dagestanian languages
including other Dargwa varieties, Hinuq and other Tsezic languages, Avar, and Archi
(Forker 2018a,b).
In summary, the epistemic modal constructions with b-iχʷ- ‘be, become, be able’ and
b-urkː- ‘find’ have approximately the same range of meanings, and further research is
needed to clarify if it is possible to establish semantic differences between them. The only
difference observed so far pertains to morphosyntax. The verb b-iχʷ- is most commonly
used in the form of the infinitive, which only allows for third person subject-like argu-
ments, as the corpus examples in §15.4.2 illustrate. By contrast, b-urkː- is also attested in
inflected forms that have first or second person agreement controllers (48), (50).

15.6 Indirect evidentiality with the auxiliary b-ug- ‘be, be

at, stay, remain’
The verb b-ug- ‘be, be at, stay, remain’, in addition to its use as the only predicate of a
main clause, occurs as an auxiliary with evidential/inferential meaning. The auxiliary
predominantly has the form of the resultative (preterite + copula), but the perfect or plu-
perfect are also attested. In other words, it is inflected for verb forms that by themselves
express resultativity. The lexical verb appears in the form of the imperfective or perfec-
tive converb. The alignment of the auxiliary is identical to that of the lexical verb, that
is, it agrees in gender with the absolutive argument.
The use of this auxiliary for conveying indirect evidentiality is a common strategy
in many (if not all) Dargwa varieties, especially in traditional stories. For instance, the
introductory formula for tales in Sanzhi is b-už-ib ca-b b-už-ib-le=kːu (n-be-pret cop-n
n-be-pret-cvb=cop.neg) ‘once upon a time’, with the second occurrence of b-už- being
optional.
The construction expresses non-firsthand evidentiality, in particular propositions
based on inferences from traces or results (51), (52) or reasoning (57c). For instance, ex-
ample (51) occured in a fairy tale in which the villain ate all the people of a village. After
she was killed and her belly was opened, the people could be rescued because they were
still alive.

(51) il-i-l č’aˁm b-irq’-ul b-už-ib-le=kːu, qurt’

that-obl-erg chew hpl-do.ipfv-icvb hpl-be-pret-cvb=neg swallow
iʁ-ul b-už-ib ca-b χalq’
do.pfv-icvb hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl people
‘(It turned out that) she did not chew the people, but swallowed them.’

282
 15.6 Indirect evidentiality with the auxiliary b-ug- ‘be, be at, stay, remain’

(52) c’il il-i-la šljaˁp’a kelg-un-ne b-už-ib-le=de

then that-obl-gen hat remain.pfv-pret-cvb n-stay-pret-cvb=pst
‘Then (apparently) his hat remained there.’

Negation is expressed on the auxiliary, but negated lexical verb forms that have scope
over the auxiliary are also possible. Thus, in elicitation, both ways of negating can be
obtained, although with a slight semantic difference that becomes apparent if both verbs
are negated (55). In the latter case we can see that the scope of the negation prefix is the
evidential auxiliary together with the whole clause if the auxiliary bears the prefix (53),
(55). By contrast, the scope is the lexical verb together with its arguments, but excluding
the evidential auxiliary, if the prefix appears on the lexical verb (54).

(53) c’il il-i-la šljaˁp’a kelg-un-ne a-b-už-ib-le=de

then that-obl-gen hat remain.pfv-pret-cvb neg-n-stay-pret-cvb=pst
‘Then (apparently) his hat did not remain there. ’ (= it did not turn out that his
hat remained there) (E)
(54) c’il il-i-la šljaˁp’a a-kelg-un-ne b-už-ib-le=de
then that-obl-gen hat neg-remain.pfv-pret-cvb n-stay-pret-cvb=pst
‘Then (apparently) his hat did not remain there.’ (= it turned out that his hat did
not remain there) (E)
(55) [context: we were betrayed by some other people who wanted to make us
believe that his hat was not there anymore, but we found out the truth]
c’il il-i-la šljaˁp’a a-kelg-un-ne a-b-už-ib-le=de;
then that-obl-gen hat neg-remain.pfv-pret-cvb neg-n-stay-pret-cvb=pst
nušːa-l b-arčː-ib=da
1pl-erg n-find.pfv-pret=1
‘Then it did not turn out that his hat did not remain there, (but by contrast) we
found it (there).’

Indirect evidentiality can also include surprise about the inference if it contradicts the
expectations of the speaker (56).

(56) ix-tːi bahsar, ix-tːi qːuʁa-l er b-irχ-ul

dem.up-pl first dem.up-pl beautiful-advz life hpl-be.ipfv-icvb
b-už-ib ca-b hex-tːi, er r-erč’-e!
hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl dem.up-pl look f-look.pfv-imp
‘(It turned out) they lived well first, look!’ (said to a woman)

Sometimes only evidential meaning is expressed, for example in narrations about past
events of which no traces remained. In other cases, the speakers acquired their knowl-
edge from the narrations of other people including their ancestors, such that the auxil-
iary expresses hearsay evidentiality. For example, (57) is part of a longer account about
the history of the Sanzhi people, and the speaker speculates about other people who are

283
15 Periphrastic verb forms

said to have lived close to Sanzhi, and others who are said to have come to Sanzhi and
destroyed the village. There are no visible results of these events. Instead, the speaker,
based on his knowledge of the topography of Sanzhi and of stories about assaults on the
village, hypothesizes from where enemies could have reached Sanzhi.

(57) a. hel-tː-a-j kapur-te b-ik’-ul b-už-ib ca-b

that-pl-obl-dat pagan-pl hpl-say.ipfv-icvb n-stay-pret cop-n
‘They were (apparently) called pagans.’
b. kerx-ul b-už-ib ca-b nišːa-lla
kill.ipfv-icvb hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl 1pl-gen
‘They apparently killed our (people).’
c. het šaˁrʡaˁ-rka sa-b-ax-ul b-už-ib ca<b>i
that Shari-abl hither-hpl-go.ipfv-icvb hpl-stay-pret cop<hpl>
‘They came from Shari (to us).’

In general, the use of b-už- can be considered to represent a stylistic device for tra-
ditional narratives and other traditional stories about the past, including funny and fic-
tional anecdotes that Sanzhi people recite about their ancestors (58).

(58) il-tːa-lla kʷiriž, il-tːa-lla beretːa cik’al b-a-b-už-ib;

that-obl.pl-gen machete that-obl.pl-gen ax something n-neg-n-be-pret
a-b-alχ-ul b-už-ib ca-b
neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb n-stay-pret cop-n
‘They had no machete nor ax; they did not know (these tools).’

When the auxiliary is used with the first person we get the reading that the speaker
does not consider himself as an active, conscious participant in the event, and was rather
informed about its true properties and implications afterwards, in other words, we obtain
the first-person effect (59).

(59) [When I was a small child my father took me to Moscow to a meeting of the
Party.]
dam Stalin či-w-až-ib-le už-ib-le=de
1sg.dat Stalin spr-m-see.pfv-pret-cvb stay.m-pret-cvb=pst
‘(It turned out, that) I (masc.) had seen Stalin.’ (E)

284
16 The copula and other auxiliaries
The copula function in copula clauses as well as the formation of periphrastic verb forms
is fulfilled by predicative particles (enclitics), a copula verb (§16.1) and other auxiliaries
(§16.3). In addition, Sanzhi has a number of specialized copulas for locational and exis-
tential clauses (§16.2). The syntactic properties of copula clauses with examples of pred-
icative particles and verbs in the copula function are treated in §22.2.
Predicative enclitics are =da (first person singular and plural, second person plural),
=de (second person singular), =de (past time reference), =q’al (modal particle), =e/=ja
(marker for content questions), =w/=uw/=ew (marker for polar questions) and =l/=jal/=el
(marker for embedded questions). They are not verbs and are therefore treated separately
in §9.1.

16.1 The copula

The affirmative copula is ca-b or ca<b>i with a gender/number agreement affix (the
longer variant is much less used than the shorter one). The variant ca-b is homophonous
with the singular reflexive pronoun in the absolutive case, and they seem to be cognates.
The copula is morphologically defective, as it cannot be inflected like other verbs. The
only verbal category it expresses on its own is gender/number agreement; and it can be
inflected for the masdar (ca<b>ni). If no further predicative particles are encliticized it
conveys present tense reference with third person arguments and affirmative polarity.
It has the same functions as the predicative particles, i.e. it heads copula clauses (1) and
it is used in analytic tenses of main clauses (2), but only when the person agreement
controller is third person. In copula clauses the agreement is always controlled by the
subject (see example (7) in §22.2).

(1) hej urcul-la ustːa ca-w

this wood-gen master cop-m
‘He is a carpenter.’ (E)
(2) hež ka-jž-ib ca-w
this down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He is sitting.’

Predicative particles such as the person markers, the past marker, the modal particle
or the interrogative markers can be added to the copula (3). When person markers are
used together with the copula they are obligatorily attached to it as in (3) and can never
be encliticized to another constituent (4). Furthermore, first and second person subjects
require the use of the person marker (5). The use of the copula as in (3) is optional and
cannot replace the person marker (6).
16 The copula and other auxiliaries

(3) at du=ra daršːal-ibil juldaš ca-w=da

2sg.dat 1sg=add hundred-ord friend cop-m=1
‘I am your 100th friend.’
(4) * du ala rucːi=da ca-r
1sg 2sg.gen sister=1 cop-f
(Intended meaning: ‘I am your sister.’) (E)
(5) du ala rucːi=da
1sg 2sg.gen sister=1
‘I am your sister.’ (E)
(6) * du ala rucːi ca-r
1sg 2sg.gen sister cop-f
(Intended meaning: ‘I am your sister.’) (E)
The past tense enclitic can also be used with (7) or without the copula (8) without any
difference in the semantics. The use of the copula alone conveys present time (1), so it is
the past enclitic that expresses the past time reference.
(7) cet’-le atːa ʡaˁč-le-r s-ax-an=qːel durħuˁ razi-l
how-advz father work-loc-abl hither-go-ptcp=when boy happy-advz
ca-w=de
cop-m=pst
‘When the father came back from work, the boy was happy.’
(8) durħuˁ razi-l=de
boy happy-advz=pst
‘The boy was happy.’ (E)
The copula has a masdar form built with the normal masdar suffix -ni. As with other
verbs, the masdar occurs in complement clauses:
(9) di-la juldašːe [urk’i ač-te ca-b-ni] gu-r-b-uq-un
1sg-gen friend.pl heart open-dd.pl cop-hpl-msd down-abl-hpl-go.pfv-pret
‘My friends turned out to be open-hearted.’
For all other functions that verbs fulfill when heading independent or dependent
clauses, e.g. the use as participles in relative clauses or as infinitive in complement
clauses, the auxiliaries described in §16.3 below are used.
The copula is also used as an auxiliary for a number of analytic verb forms with third
person arguments that control the agreement (compound present, obligative present,
resultative, perfect, experiential I & II) (12). It can never be used in such verb forms
with first or second person agreement controllers, not even when person markers are
encliticized (10); in such clauses the person markers on their own must be used (11).
However, it is possible to encliticize the past marker =de to the standard copula and then
use it in clauses with subjects of all persons, although this has only been attested in
elicitation (13). In general, the past enclitic =de is incompatible with the person enclitics,
but not with the copula (§9.1).

286
 16.1 The copula

(10) * du ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul ca-r=da

1sg laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f=1
(Intended meaning: ‘I am laughing.’) (E)
(11) du ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul=da
1sg laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I am laughing.’ (E)
(12) it ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul ca-r
that laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She is laughing.’ (E)
(13) du / it ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul ca-r=de
1sg / that laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f=pst
‘I was/She was laughing.’ (E)

The stem of the negative copula is (b-)akːʷ-. It occurs in the following forms:

• simple present: (b-)akːʷ-a- + person suffix/(b-)akː-u (short form =kːu)

• simple past: (b-)akːʷ-i- + person marker
• participle: (b-)akːʷ-ar

• masdar: (b-)akʷ-ri/akʷ-ni

The full paradigms of the negative copula in the present and the past tense are given
in Table 16.1 and Table 16.2. The present tense has a short variant that appears as an
enclitic =kːu and the past tense has the enclitic =kːʷi. The enclitic variants are only used
for third person. Examples are found in Chapter 14.

Table 16.1: The negative copula in the present tense

singular plural
1 (b-)akːʷa-di (b-)akːʷa-di
2 (b-)akːʷa-tːe (b-)akːʷa-tːa
3 (b-)akːu (b-)akːu

Table 16.2: The negative copula in the past tense

singular plural
1 (b-)akːʷa-di/(b-)akːʷi (b-)akːʷa-di/(b-)akːʷi
2 (b-)akːʷa-tːe/(b-)akːʷi (b-)akːʷa-tːa/(b-)akːʷi
3 (b-)akːʷi (b-)akːʷi

287
16 The copula and other auxiliaries

As can be seen from Table 16.1 and Table 16.2, as well as from the examples, there are
two complications. The first is the syncretism of the present and the past tense in the first
and second person forms, which is due to the general syncretism of the simple present
and past. The third person form of the simple past can, however, also be used for the first
and second person, so that in this tense person marking can be avoided and confusion
with the simple present circumvented (Table 16.2). The second complication concerns the
gender prefix. In principle, the verb can agree, but an agreeing negative copula can only
have an existential or locational interpretation; it never has the normal copula meaning.
Thus, in (14–16) gender agreement is prohibited because the clauses have identificational
semantics, close to the equals sign (=). For instance, in (14) the unexpressed copula subject
is female, but the copula does not exhibit feminine agreement. Similarly, in (16) the copula
subject is male, but the copula does not show agreement (and copula predicates never
control agreement).

(14) ʡuˁnc-le akːʷa-di

deaf-adv cop.neg-1
‘I am not deaf.’ (said by a woman)
(15) zad akːʷ-ar=q’ar paˁq ∅-ik’ʷ-an admi akːu
nothing cop.neg-prs=mod strike m-say.ipfv-ptcp person cop.neg
‘He is not the person who beats without anything (i.e. without a reason).’
(16) il nišːa-la akːʷ-i, uc’ran=de, pirsidatil
that 1pl-gen cop.neg-hab.pst Icari=pst head
‘He was not one of us, he was Icari, the head (of the kolkhoz).’

As mentioned above, when the negative copula is used with a gender agreement pre-
fix the meaning is existence or location. For this type of meaning the use of the prefix
is obligatory. For instance, in (17) the subject is female and the gender prefix is the one
for the feminine gender; in (19), by contrast, the agreement controller is male. In prin-
ciple, the negative copula with gender prefixes can be treated as a separate word that
is functionally analogous to the negated forms of the locational copulas described in
§16.2, which consist of the negative copula with the gender prefix and the roots of the
locational copulas (32).

(17) insan w-akːu

person m-cop.neg
‘Nobody is there.’
(18) ca zamana uže heštːu-r du r-akːʷa-di
one time already here-f 1sg f-cop.neg-1
‘At one time I (fem.) was already not here anymore.’
(19) šːi-l-cːe-w murgul admi w-akːʷ-i
village-obl-in-m man person m-cop.neg-hab.pst
‘In the village there was no man.’

288
 16.1 The copula

When the copula functions as auxiliary gender agreement is prohibited (20), (21).1 In
tag questions, the negative copula is always used without the gender agreement prefix
(22). This is what one would expect, since in affirmative tag questions also only the
standard copula and not a location copula is used (see §28.3 on tag questions).

(20) ʡaˁħ-le či-d-ig-ul akːʷa-di dam

good-adv spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-1 1sg.dat
‘I do not see well.’ (said by a woman)
(21) arg-ul akːu
go.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
‘He is not going (with his friends).’
(22) qili-b b-i-b ca-b, akːu=w, iš-tːi?
home hpl-in-hpl cop-hpl cop.neg=q this-pl
‘They are inside the house, aren’t they?’

The participle of the negative copula is (b-)akːʷ-ar(re). It translates as ‘not having,

without’ (23), (24) and fulfills the function of a postposition (§8.2.4). It can take further
suffixes such as the cross-categorical suffixes -te/-ce and -il, the concessive marker =xːar
(25), the suffix -dex that derives abstracts nouns, and others. Again gender agreement is,
in principle, possible, but very rare in texts (25) and the semantic differences between
the omission of agreement prefixes and their occurrence are identical to what was said
before: no gender agreement prefix means copula function; gender agreement prefix
means locational and/or existential function (25).

(23) šuša akːʷ-ar musːa χe-b-akːu čina-b-k’al

bottle cop.neg-ptcp place exist.down-n-cop.neg where-n-indef
‘There is no place without bottles.’
(24) χabar akːʷ-arre sa-jʁ-ib-il daˁʡle, e χabar
story cop.neg-ptcp hither-come.m.pfv-pret-ref as yes story
akːʷ-ar ...
cop.neg-ptcp
‘as if his arrival (was) unexpected (lit. without news), yes unexpected ...’
(25) hel-itːe, du w-akːʷ-ar=xːar aʁʷc’alla d-arq’-ij
that-advz 1sg m-cop.neg-ptcp=conc 40.days 1/2pl-do.pfv-inf
d-irχ-an=da ušːa-l nawerna
1/2pl-be.able.ipfv-ptcp=2pl 2pl-erg probably
‘Like that, even me not being there, you should be able to do the 40 days,
probably.’ (i.e. the religious ceremony held 40 days after the death of a person)

1
The only exception are the occasional use of affirmative locational copulas, which have gender prefixes, as
auxiliaries in periphrastic verb forms (§15.1).

289
16 The copula and other auxiliaries

The masdar of the negative copula is (b-)akʷ-ri/akʷ-ni. The latter form does not have
an agreement prefix (not even when it encodes existential or locational meaning as in
(26)). It mainly occurs in complement clauses:

(26) “hana b-aχ-ur=da,” w-ik’ʷ-ar ʡaˁli, [mar-ce juldaš

now n-know.pfv-pret=1 m-say.ipfv-prs Ali truth-dd.sg friend
le-w-il-le-r taliħ-či-w-il admi akʷ-ni]”
exist-m-ref-loc-abl happiness-adjvz-m-ref person cop.neg-msd
‘“Now I know,” says Ali, “that there is no happier man than the one who has a
true friend.”’
(27) [di-la macːa b-akʷ-ri] q’an-ne šak ∅-ič-ib=da
1sg-gen sheep n-cop.neg-msd late-adv feel m-occur.pfv-pret=1
‘I guessed late that my sheep were not there.’ (E)

16.2 Locational copulas

There are four locational copulas that share a consonant bearing a deictic meaning with
the demonstrative pronouns (§4.2). However, in the case of the copulas this is the initial
consonant, whereas with the demonstratives it is the stem-final consonant. Furthermore,
the copulas agree in gender/number, whereas the demonstratives lack agreement. Except
for the first copula (le-b)/pronoun (hel) the semantics of the verbs perfectly match the
semantics of the pronouns (Table 16.3).

Table 16.3: Locational copulas and demonstrative pronouns

loc. copula meaning dem. pro. meaning

le-b ‘close to the speaker (deictic hel ‘that/those; away from speaker,
center)’ can be close to the hearer’
te-b ‘away from the speaker (deictic het ‘that/those; not close to speaker
center) or undifferentiated’ or hearer, undifferentiated’
k’e-b ‘above the deictic center’ hek’ ‘above the deictic center’
χe-b ‘below the deictic center’ heχ ‘below the deictic center’

The copulas can attach further suffixes (e.g. participles, temporal markers such as
=qːella or =er, cross-categorical suffixes, the masdar -ni) (28) and predicative enclitics
(past marker, person marker) (29–31), just like the copula. But – like the copula – they
are defective in comparison to standard lexical verbs because most of the verbal suffixes
cannot be added (e.g. suffixes for the habitual present and habitual past, conditional
suffixes, the infinitive, etc.). The most frequent copula is le-b, which fulfills a kind of
default function.

290
 16.2 Locational copulas

(28) il-tːu arc le-b-te b-ax-u značit

that-loc money exist-n-dd.pl hpl-go.ipfv-prs thus
‘This means that (people) go where the money is.’2
(29) hextːu-b hin-na k’arant’ k’e-b=de
there.up-n water-gen spring exist.up-n=pst
‘There was a spring up there.’
(30) xːunul ca-r heχ durħuˁ kʷi ∅-uc-ib-le
woman cop-f dem.down boy in.the.hands m-catch.pfv-pret-cvb
χe-r=de=q’al
exist.down-f=pst=mod
‘That is the woman, the one who was keeping the boy in her hands.’
(31) χadižat, čina-r=de u? du Sanži-r=da / Sanži-r le-r=da
Khadizhat where-f=2sg 2sg 1sg Sanzhi.loc-f=1 / Sanzhi.loc-f exist-f=1
‘Khadizhat, where are you? I am in Sanzhi.’ (E)

All locational copulas except le-b can be negated by suffixing the negative copula, and
the gender agreement follows the standard rules (which means that it is controlled by
the subject), i.e. te-b-akːu, k’e-b-akːu, and χe-bakːu (23) in the present tense and te-b-akːʷi,
k’e-b-akːʷi, and χe-b-akːʷi in the past tense (32).

(32) urq’l-e te-d-akːʷ-i hitːu-d

board-pl exist.away-npl-cop.neg-hab.pst there-npl
‘There were no boards there.’

The existential copulas, in particular le-b due to its less specific meaning, are occasion-
ally used as auxiliaries in periphrastic verb forms together with lexical verbs that bear
the perfective or the imperfective converb suffixes (33), (34) (§15.1).

(33) [Talking about how a particular plant grows.]

di-la Asijat-la ca qal-la baˁʡ ka-b-uc-ib-le
1sg-gen Asiyat-gen one house-gen fassade down-n-catch.pfv-pret-cvb
k’e-b
exist.up-n
‘[It can become large], at my Asiyat’s place it covered one wall of the house.’
(34) du b-ax-ul le-b=de
1sg n-go.ipfv-icvb exist-n=pst
‘(At the time when the fox was born), I was walking around (said the wolf).’

2
Regarding le-b-te: the agreement on the locational copula should better be le-d-te because arc ‘money’
normally controls neuter plural agreement, but neuter singular is also possible.

291
16 The copula and other auxiliaries

16.3 Other verbs used in copula-functions and as

auxiliaries
There is another copula-like verb b-el with the meaning ‘stay, remain’. It conveys past
time reference, although it does not carry any overt marking (35), (36). The verb is defec-
tive and has a reduced inflectional paradigm. In main clauses usually only the bare stem
is used. It is the most frequently used base verb in the compound ‘remember’ (36).
(35) hana busːaˁʡaˁt=ra b-el hel urχːab
now this.time=add n-remain.fv that mill
‘Even nowadays that mill remained (i.e. is still there).’
(36) hel han b-el dam
that remember n-remain.pfv 1sg.dat
‘I remember this (i.e. it remained in my memory).’
It is possible to add person markers (37) or the past enclitic (38), but it cannot be
combined with the copula (e.g. *b-el ca-b). The use of person markers with first and
second agreement controlling arguments is obligatory, i.e. in (37) the person enclitic =da
cannot be omitted.
(37) xːunul-li-cːella hana ižal busːaˁʡaˁt=ra canille w-el=da, c’aq’
woman-obl-comit now today this.time=add together m-remain.pfv=1 strong
xːunul
woman
‘I stayed together with my wife even until today; a good (strong) woman.’
(38) žaˁbraˁʔil=ra w-el=de
Zhabrail=add m-remain.pfv=pst
‘Zhabrail remained (i.e. stayed alive).’
It can be negated in a way that strongly resembles the locative copulas (namely by
employing the negative copula), but with a small change in the stem vowel, i.e. b-il akːu
and b-il-akːʷi (39), (*b-el akːu). When the verb b-el bears the perfective converb suffix -le
the stem vowel remains unchanged under negation (40).
(39) erk’ʷ-li gu-r-b-erqː-ib-le, xːun-be=ra
river-erg sub-abl-n-carry.pfv-pret-cvb road-pl=add
d-il-akːʷ-i, qːanaw-te le-d=de, χːula qːanaw-te
npl-remain-cop.neg-hab.pst ditch-pl exist-npl=pst big ditch-pl
‘The river carried them away, roads had not remained, and big ditches were
there.’
(40) nu hana han d-el-le=kːu čum=de=l
well now remember npl-remain.pfv-cvb=cop.neg how.many=pst=indq
‘Now I don’t remember how many (rubles) it was.’ (modified corpus example)

292
 16.3 Other verbs used in copula-functions and as auxiliaries

It can be inflected for some verb forms that occur in subordinate clauses, namely for
the perfective converb (41), the referential attributive form with -ce/-te (e.g. d-el-te), the
referential attributive form with -il (42), the temporal enclitic =qːella (b-el=qːella) and the
masdar (b-el-ni).
(41) šamχal acːi žahil-le w-el-le, w-ebč’-ib=q’al
Shamkhal uncle young-advz m-remain.pfv-cvb m-die.pfv-pret=mod
‘Uncle Shamkhal died when he was young.’
(42) a-jteʁ-ib musːa b-el-il akːu
neg-reach.m.pfv-pret place n-remain.pfv-ref cop.neg
‘No place is left where I (masc.) did not go.’
In conditional clauses it must occur in a periphrastic verb form together with b-iχʷ-
since it cannot itself be inflected for any conditional form (43).
(43) hu šalakbluk-me=ra d-el d-iχʷ-ar, …
well concrete.block-pl=add npl-remain.pfv npl-be.pfv-cond.3
‘If the concrete blocks remained (are left over), …’
It can serve as an auxiliary in periphrastic verb forms that head main clauses (§15.3)
or, more commonly, temporal adverbial clauses (§18.2.7). The latter function is, alongside
with the use in main clauses as illustrated in the examples above, the most frequently
attested use of this verb.
For all tenses or subordinate clause types, in which the predicative enclitics/negative
copula cannot be used, the verb b-irχʷ-/b-iχʷ- ‘be, become, occur, can’ is employed. This
verb has the full inflectional paradigm including conditional forms (44) and future forms
(45) and is negated like any other lexical verb. In addition to its use as a copula, as a
normal lexical verb and in compound verbs (§12.2), it also occurs as an auxiliary in epis-
temic modal constructions (46) (§15.4.2) and in realis conditional and irrealis conditional
clauses (§15.4.1).
(44) b-iχʷ-ardel, intersna b-irχʷ-an=de
n-be.pfv-cond.pst interesting n-be.ipfv-ptcp=pst
‘If it would be like this, it would be interesting.’
(45) c’aq’ darman-na b-irχʷ-an ca-b
strong medicine-gen n-be.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘It will be a strong medicine.’
(46) ʁaj r-ik’-ul r-irχʷ-an=de heχ
word f-say.ipfv-icvb f-be.ipfv-ptcp=pst dem.down
‘She must have been quarreling.’
There are four more verbs that are also used in copula function and as auxiliaries.
The verb b-irk-/b-ik- ‘be, occur, become, get, receive’ is used in copula constructions (47),
especially with predicates that are marked with the in-essive, and in many compound
verbs (48).

293
16 The copula and other auxiliaries

(47) deč-li-cːe w-ič-ib ca-w iž

drinking-obl-in m-occur.pfv-pret cop-m this
‘He became a drinker.’
(48) k’ʷah r-ič-e!
silent f-occur.pfv-imp
‘Be silent!’ (said to a woman)

The imperfective verb b-urkː- ‘find’ is regularly used in epistemic modal construc-
tions similar to those formed with the verb b-irχʷ-/b-iχʷ- ‘be, become, occur, can’ just
mentioned (§15.5). In this function it can be used together with a lexical verb or as the
only verb in a copula clause:

(49) kulpat b-urkː-ar heχ-tːi

family hpl-find.ipfv-prs.3 dem.down-pl
‘They are probably a family.’

The verb b-už- (pfv) ‘be, stay, remain’ is used in copula clauses with evidential seman-
tics (50) and, more generally, as an auxiliary in evidential constructions (§15.6). It is not
used in compounding and not for analytic verb forms.

(50) ha ʡaˁrʡaˁ b-už-ib ca-b

uh chicken n-stay-pret cop-n
‘Ah, it turned out to be a chicken.’

The verb k.elgʷ- (pfv) ‘remain, stay, be’ is used in copula clauses and as an auxiliary
conveying habitual or continuative/progressive meaning (51). It is also not used in com-
pound verbs (see §12.2.5 for more examples).

(51) d-aqe čːal d-ik’-ul kelg-un

npl-long argument npl-say.ipfv-icvb remain.pfv-pret
‘They were arguing for a long time.’

294
17 Non-indicative verb forms
Non-indicative (or non-declarative) verb forms occurring in Sanzhi are imperative (§17.1),
prohibitive (§17.2), optative (§17.3) and the modal interrogative (§17.4). The imperative,
the prohibitive, and the modal interrogative are restricted in their use to the second
person for the first two forms and the first person for the last form. The imperative and
the prohibitive share the (partial) distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs
expressed through the use of dedicated stem-augment vowels in the suffixes. The same
distinction and the same formal means of expressing it are found with synthetic verb
forms and conditionals (§11.4).

17.1 Imperative
The form of the imperative depends on the inflectional class and on the transitivity of
the verb. The suffixes are given in Table 17.1. Verbs that have the preterite suffix -un
have the suffixes -en and -ene(ja) for singular and plural imperatives respectively, inde-
pendently of their transitivity. The other three verb classes distinguish (almost) always
between intransitive and transitive verbs in the formation of the singular imperative:
intransitive verbs employ the suffix -e; transitive verbs make use of -a. The distinction is
absent in the plural imperative, which has the suffixes-ene(ja) and -aj(a) (and -ere as an
alternative that is not frequently used).1 The suffix -(j)a, which is optionally found with
all plural imperatives as well as the plural forms of the prohibitive and the second person
plural optative, can be analyzed as a plural addressee marker following the suggestion
by Sumbatova & Lander (2014: 163–165). See §9.5 for some other contexts of its use.
For those verbs that have an imperfective and a perfective stem, the imperative is
mostly formed from the perfective stem. Regular exceptions to this rule are the imper-
fective stems of the verbs ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ that often behave differently from other imper-
fective verbs. They have the following imperatives: for the imperfective stem r-učː-e (sg,
f)/d-učː-aja (pl) ‘drink (several times)’ and perfective b-erčː-a (sg)/b-erčː-aja (pl) ‘drink
(once)’; imperfective stem r-uk-en (sg, f)/d-uk-ene(ja) (pl) ‘eat (several times)’ and per-
fective stem b-erkʷ-en (sg)/b-erkʷ-en(ja) (pl) ‘eat (once)’. Other verbs that allow for the
imperfective and the perfective stem to serve as the basis for the imperative are, for
example, k.alž- (ipfv)/k.elg- (pfv) ‘remain, stay’. Not all morphosyntactically affective
verbs allow for an imperative, but some do, such as b-aχ-e (n-know.pfv-imp) (3). Simi-
larly, the verb in (2) has experiental/affective semantics (though its subject appears in
the dative) and allows for the imperative. With those types of verbs the imperative has
rather the meaning of a wish of the speaker or a deontic flavor similar to ‘you should’.
1
There is one verb with the meaning ‘go, leave’ that is exceptional because it also allows for the suffixes
-aˁn and -aˁne, cf. the last two lines of Table 17.1.
17 Non-indicative verb forms

Table 17.1: The imperative suffixes

singular plural preterite examples (singular, plural)

-e -aj(a)/-ere -ib ka-r-iž-e, ka-d-ig-aj(a) ‘sit down’
w-aš-(e), d-ax-aj(a) ‘go’
k’ʷah r-ič-e, d-ik-aj(a) ‘be silent’
-ub čar r-iχʷ-e, čar d-iχʷ-aj(a) ‘come back’
-ur ha-r-icː-e, ha-d-icː-aj(a) ‘get/stand up’
b-aχ-e, b-aχ-ere/b-aχ-aj(a) ‘know’
b-at-e, b-at-ere/b-at-eja ‘leave, let’
-a (-aˁ) -aj(a) -ib b-uc-a, b-uc-aj(a) ‘catch’
b-aˁq-aˁ ‘wound, hit, strike’
b-arq’-a, b-arq’-aj(a) ‘do’
-ub b-ikː-aq-a ‘burn’
ixʷ-a ‘throw’
kaxʷ-a, kaxʷ-aj(a) ‘kill’
-ur ergʷ-a ‘sieve’
b-aχ-aq-a ‘tell, make know’
ka-b-arkː-a ‘wrap (in)’
-en -ene(ja) -un r-usː-en, d-usː-ene(ja) ‘sleep’
b-elč’-en, b-elč’-ene(ja) ‘read’
r-uˁq’-aˁn/r-uˁq’-en, d-uˁq’-aˁne/d-uˁq’-ene ‘go, leave’

Sentences (1–3) illustrate the use of the imperative. Though it is not particularly com-
mon, imperative clauses can contain the second person pronoun referring to the ad-
dressee, which can be an argument in the absolutive (2), in the ergative (15), or in the
dative.

(1) hel ceʁuna b-urs-a! χabar b-urs-aχː-atːe hitːi

that which n-tell.pfv-imp story n-tell.pfv-cond-cond.2sg behind
ka-jž-e!
down-remain.pfv-imp
‘Tell it like this! Sit down if you (sg) narrate the story!’
(2) d-iχ-d-it-ag-aj ušːa!
1/2pl-believe-1/2pl-thither-go.pfv-imp.pl 2pl
‘You (pl) believe (me)!’
(3) ala ca-w=da du, b-aχ-e!
2sg.gen cop-m=1 1sg n-know.pfv-imp
‘I am yours, (you) know!’

As in some other Dargwa varieties (e.g. Icari, Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003: 98, Shiri,
Belyaev In Preparation), the imperative cannot be used when the P argument of a tran-
sitive verb is first person. In this case, the optative is used instead (4). With second and
third person P arguments the imperative is allowed, cf. (6) below.

296
 17.1 Imperative

(4) w-at-ab-aja du!

m-let.pfv-opt-2pl 1sg
‘Leave me!’
The imperative can be used in combination with the antipassive construction, in which
case the verb is intransitive and takes the suffix -e if the addressee is singular:
(5) χabur-t-a-l ∅-ux-e / r-ux-e!
story-pl-obl-erg m-tell.ipfv-imp / f-tell.ipfv-imp
‘Tell stories!’ (E)
With labile verbs the use of -e and -a in the imperative singular is possible, where -e
indicates that the verb is used intransitively and -a that it is used transitively (6–7).
(6) ust’ul b-it’kak’-a!
chair n-move.pfv-imp
‘Move the chair!’ (E)
(7) w-it’kač’-e!
m-move.pfv-imp
‘Move (yourself)! (said to a man)’ (E)
The imperative of the verb b-ax- (n-go-) is exceptional because it can be formally
zero (i.e. waš instead of waše), and functionally it can be used as a cohortative, i.e. to
encourage or discourage to perform an action together with the speaker. Thus, in (8)
w-aš-e is not meant as a command to the addressee to perform the action alone, but is
intended as an invitation to go together and have a look at the shop. Morphosyntactically,
however, the utterance is addressed to a man because the verb agrees in gender with the
addressee (masculine singular) but not with whole group. Similarly, in (9) the verb ‘go’ is
used in the function of a cohortative. However, syntactically the periphrastic cohortative
constructions are either asyndetic conjunctions of two independent main clauses as in
(8) (‘Go!’ and ‘We will look.’) or complex clause constructions consisting of a main clause
in the imperative followed by a purpose clause in the infinitive or subjunctive as in (9)
(‘Go in order to eat!’).
(8) “w-aš-e=kːʷa!” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar, “ce k’e-b-il er d-urk’-an=da”,
m-go-imp=prt m-say.ipfv-prs what exist.up-n-ref look 1/2pl-look.ipfv-ptcp=1
∅-ik’ʷ-ar, “tuken-ne-b”
m-say.ipfv-prs shop-loc-n
‘“Let’s go (together) and look what is there in the shop!”, he says.’
(9) xːunr-a-l waˁw haʔ-ib, “d-ax-aj” b-ik’ʷ-ar,
woman.pl-obl-erg shout say.pfv-pret 1/2pl-go-imp.pl hpl-say.ipfv-prs
“d-uk-ij, d-uk-utːaj!”
1/2pl-eat.ipfv-inf 1/2pl-eat.ipfv-subj.2
‘The women shouted, “Let’s go eating!”’

297
17 Non-indicative verb forms

17.2 Prohibitive
The prohibitive is formally independent of the imperative. It consists of the prefix ma-
and a suffix. The prefix is positioned between the orientation and the deixis/gravitation
preverbs if there are any. The suffixes are similar to the habitual present (§13.1) because
they make use of the same stem augment, which depends on the transitivity of the verb.
Intransitive verbs take u; transitive verbs take i, and one verb behaves exceptionally
(§20.3.1). In the singular the suffixes are -ut/-utːa, -it/-itːa, and -aˁt/-aˁtːa; in the plural
they are -utːaj(a), -itːaj(a), and -aˁtːaj(a). The short and long variants in the singular and
plural seem to be in free variation. The prohibitive is only formed from the imperfective
stem in case a verb has both stems. Exemplary verbs in the prohibitive singular are
shown in the last column of Table 17.2.
Table 17.2: The prohibitive suffixes

singular plural examples

-ut/-utːa -utːaj(a) ma-k-erg-ut ‘sit down’
ma-r-ik’-ut ‘say’
tːura ma-ka-lq-ut ‘go outside’
ma-r-uk-utːa ‘eat’ (intr.)
er-či-ma-ha-rk’-utːa ‘look up’
-it/-itːa -itːaj(a) ma-d-učː-it ‘drink’
ma-b-irq’-it ‘do’
ma-b-urs-it ‘tell’
ma-lukː-it ‘give’
ma-b-urh-itːa ‘strike’
-at/-atːa -atːaj(a) maˁ-q’-aˁtːa ‘go’

As with the imperative, the prohibitive is only used with second persons. The second
person pronoun functioning as the addressee is mostly omitted, but it can be overtly
expressed. Examples (10) and (11) show intransitive verbs. Sentences (12), (13) illustrate
transitive verbs. In addition, affective verbs with dative addressees (experiencers) are
allowed (14).

(10) warilla.wari u iχ-tː-a-j er či-ma-ha-rk’-utːa!

no.way 2sg dem.down-pl-obl-dat look spr-proh-up-look.ipfv-proh.sg
‘No way you look at them (i.e. the trees)!’
(11) ma-d-isː-utːaj, ma-d-irħ-utːaj!
proh-1/2.pl-cry-proh.pl proh-1/2.pl-wrestle.ipfv-proh.pl
‘Do not cry, do not wrestle!’

298
 17.3 Optative

(12) naˁq aq ma-b-irq’-it xːunul-li-j!

hand high proh-n-do.ipfv-proh.sg woman-obl-dat
‘Do not raise your hand against your wife! (i.e. do not beat your wife)’
(13) dirxːa ma-b-urh-itːa=n!
stick proh-n-strike.ipfv-proh.sg=prt
‘Do not hit with a stick!’
(14) at ma-b-alχ-itːa!
2sg.dat proh-n-know.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not know this!’ (E)
As mentioned above for the imperative, with first person P arguments the prohibitive
cannot be employed. Instead, the negative optative must be used (15).
(15) ma-jt-aba du! u-l u w-it-a!
proh-beat.up.m-opt.1 1sg 2sg-erg 2sg m-beat.up-imp
‘Do not thrash me (masc.)! Thrash yourself (masc.)!’ (E)
When the ergative construction or the antipassive construction occur together with
the prohibitive, the difference in transitivity is reflected in the different stem augment
vowels, that is, the antipassive construction requires u (16a), whereas the ergative con-
struction requires i (16b).
(16) a. Antipassive construction
hin-ni ma-d-učː-utːaja!
water-erg proh-1/2pl-drink.ipfv-proh.pl
‘Do not drink water (regularly)!’
b. Ergative construction
hin ma-d-učː-itːaja!
water proh-npl-drink.ipfv-proh.pl
‘Do not drink the water!’

17.3 Optative
The optative is formed from perfective verbal stems by means of suffixes (Table 17.3).
The suffixes are complex, and -ab can be identified as the optative marker to which
markers that express person agreement are added. The optative seems to obey the same
rules of person agreement that obtain in indicative clauses (§20.3.2). The paradigm has
a structure that is similar to other person paradigms, that is, syncretism of first singular
and plural with the second plural and zero marking in the third person (§20.3). There is
an optional variant -arte when the agreement controller is plural. The optative is negated
by means of the prefix ma-, which is also used for the prohibitive (§17.2).

299
17 Non-indicative verb forms

Table 17.3: The optative

singular plural
1 -ab-a
2 -ab-e -ab-a /
-ab-aj /
-ab-aja /
-arte
3 -ab -ab/-arte

The functions of the optative cover:

1. Wishes, blessings, curses, e.g. in greetings and other idiomatic phrases. For in-
stance, (17) is a typical greeting, and (19) is a phrase used when pronouncing the
name of a deceased. Note that the gender agreement in (17) is frozen. For reasons
unclear to me it is impossible to use the neuter singular prefix here, although this
would be expected from the structure of the clause (see §20.2.1 for more informa-
tion on default gender agreement and frozen agreement affixes).

(17) ašːi-j / at bari ʡaˁħ d-iχʷ-ab!

2pl-dat / 2sg.dat day good npl-be.pfv-opt.3
‘A good day to you!’ (lit. ‘May the day be good for you/to you.’)
(18) Maˁħaˁmmad-la šːal-li-cːe-r d-iχʷ-ab ašːi-j salam-te!
Mahammad-gen side-obl-in-abl npl-be.pfv-opt.3 2pl-dat greeting-pl
‘May there be greetings to you from the side of Mahammad!’
(19) ʡaˁpa b-arq’-ab cin-na
commemoration n-do.pfv-opt.3 refl.sg-gen
‘May God bless him/her!’
(20) du daˁʡle ma-ka-jsː-ab, ja Allah!
1sg as proh-down-sleep.pfv.m-opt.3 oh Allah
‘May (nobody) lay down (sleep) like me, oh Allah.’ (i.e. with so many
sorrows)

2. Indifference, when the speaker does not care about a situation or event (21–23).
Note that in (22) the agreement on the verb is neuter plural because nouns refer-
ring to liquids normally control neuter plural agreement (§3.3).

(21) hik’ bari ruˁħ b-uq-ij=sat ma-kelg-ab-a

dem.up sun disappear n-go.pfv-inf=as.much proh-remain.pfv-opt-1sg
du
1sg
‘May I not remain until the sunset.’ (i.e. May I die before the sunset, I don’t
mind.)

300
 17.3 Optative

(22) limonad d-iχʷ-ab

lemonade npl-be.pfv-opt.3
‘Let it be lemonade.’ (i.e. The bottle on the picture could be lemonade or
something else, I don’t care.)
(23) “r-ebč’-aq-ab-a!” r-ik’-ul “r-isː-an=xːar, ʡaˁħ-dex
f-die.pfv-caus-opt-1sg f-say.ipfv-icvb f-cry-ptcp=conc good-nmlz
b-akːu”
n-cop.neg
‘“May I be killed/may they kill me!”, I say, “even if I cry it will not be
better.”’

3. Indirect commands

(24) Maˁħaˁmmad-li at macːa b-ikː-ab!

Mahammad-erg 2sg.dat sheep n-give.pfv-opt.3
‘May Mahammad give you the sheep!’ (E)

4. Commands (i.e. imperative and prohibitive function) with first person P argu-
ments:

(25) “dam kumek b-arq’-aja!” ∅-ik’-ul, “w-erc-aq-ab-aja!”

1sg.dat help n-do.pfv-imp.pl m-say.ipfv-icvb m-save.pfv-caus-opt-2pl
‘“Help me, save me!” he says.’

Especially the first and second functions are used in situations where the speaker does
not have control over what is going to happen.
The suffix -arte can only be used when the agreement controller is plural (26). In (27)
the addressee is a not further specified group of people of whom the speaker wishes that
one beloved (masculine) person may die, that is, one man2 per addressee. Thus, there is
a group of people for whom the speaker wishes that they would die, which explains the
use of -arte and the plural demonstrative pronoun. The addressee is also plural (reflected
in the plural possessive pronoun). If the speaker had wished that more than one beloved
one should die, the verbs would change to b-ikː-an-te b-ebk’-arte.

(26) Allah-li ʡaˁħ-le d-at-arte!

Allah-erg good-advz 1/2pl-let.pfv-opt.pl
‘May Allah leave you (plural) well!’
(27) hiš-tːi ču-la w-ikː-an w-ebk’-arte!
this-pl refl.pl-gen m-want.ipfv-ptcp m-die.pfv-opt.pl
‘May their beloved ones die!’
2
This explains the masculine singular agreement on the two verbs.

301
17 Non-indicative verb forms

There is also the possibility of using the bare verbal stem in the optative function
(28–30) with singular and plural addressee. There is no observable semantic difference
between the use of the bare stem and the use of the optative when expressed by the
suffixes given in Table 17.3.
(28) ala w-ikː-an w-at!
2sg.gen m-want.ipfv-ptcp m-let.pfv
‘May your beloved (son) be left (in peace, alive)!’
(29) ala urk’i b-erc’!
2sg.gen heart n-fry.pfv
‘May your heart fry!’
(30) ašːa-la žan d-at!
2pl-gen organism npl-let.pfv
‘May your bodies and souls remain!’ (i.e. ‘May you be healthy!’) [modified corpus
example]
The bare optative can even be used like a noun and inflected without the need of
adding any derivational morphology. Thus, in (31) the complete optative phrase urk’i
b-ac’ (heart n-thaw.pfv) ‘May your/his/her/their heart thaw’ has been nominalized and
then the dative suffix has been added because the nominal functions as the addressee of
the verb ‘telephone’. The phrase is used with the idiomatic meaning ‘idiot’.
(31) ucːi-li-j tilipun d-arq’-ib-le urk’i b-ac’-li-j
brother-obl-dat telephone npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb heart n-thaw.pfv-obl-dat
k-ač’-e d-arq’-ib-le, …
down-come.pfv-imp npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘When they called the brother, this idiot, if he had told me to come, …’

17.4 Modal interrogative

Sanzhi has a suffix -ide (with the allomorph -ida), which is only used in content questions
with first person subject-like arguments of verbs of all valency classes. These questions
have a modal meaning covering possibility, deontic modality and future (similar to En-
glish can, should, will). The questions are sometimes more like rhetorical questions to
which an answer is not expected (32), but they can also have real interrogative illocu-
tionary force as questions that are uttered to solicit answers (34).
(32) sːanži-la šːi-la isturija cet’le b-aχ-ide dam?
Sanzhi-gen village-gen history how n-know.pfv-modq 1sg.dat
‘How can I know about the history of Sanzhi?’
(33) na ce d-ik’ʷ-ide?
now what 1/2pl-say.ipfv-modq
‘Now what can we say?’

302
 17.4 Modal interrogative

(34) “mašin čina b-ič-ide, rucːi?” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w

car where n-lead.ipfv-modq sister m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘“Where should I bring the car, sister?” he is asking’

The suffix can be added to perfective as well as to imperfective stems with the usual
difference in meaning: habitual/iterative/generic if the verb is imperfective (35) vs. spe-
cific singular event if the verb is perfective (36).

(35) [talking about the present times and how they have changed]
ce b-irq’-ide?
what n-do.ipfv-modq
‘What should/can we do?’ or ‘What should/can be done (in general)?’
(36) c’il cet’le b-arq’-ide?
then how n-do.pfv-modq
‘Then how should I make (the plough)?’

The suffix is also obligatorily used when a second person absolutive argument of a
transitive verb occurs (37). This deviates from the general rule about person agreement
because normally in clauses with two speech-act participants both arguments can con-
trol person agreement (§20.3.2). Thus, in an indicative clause we could and often would
have a second person controlling agreement, as the answer in (37) shows. This is impos-
sible for the modal interrogative. From this we can conclude that the modal interrogative
marker is not a person agreement marker, although its use is restricted by person.

(37) u čina r-uč-ide, rucːi? du-l u r-uk-ul=de qːala qːurejš-le

2sg where f-lead-modq sister 1sg-erg 2sg f-lead-icvb=2sg fortress Kurejsh-loc
‘Where should I bring you, sister? I will bring you to Kala-Kurejsh (place name).’
(E)

Occasionally, -idel instead of -ide is used (the l at the end is the embedded question
marker/complementizer =l, §28.4). It seems that there is a slight difference in meaning
between -ide and -idel, which reflects the fact that -idel is a kind of insubordination, i.e. a
use of an originally subordinate form in a main clause. In the Russian translations this is
reflected by the use of an additional adverb interesno ‘interesting’, which seems to stand
for an omitted matrix clause ‘it would be interesting to know’.

(38) cet’-le du-l qum.ert-idel ala čarχ bek’ durqa-te?

how-advz 1sg-erg forget.pfv-modq 2sg.gen figure head dear-dd.pl
‘How can I forget your dear figure?’ (lit. figure-head)
(39) na ce d-ik’ʷ-idel?
now what 1/2pl-say.ipfv-modq
‘Now what can we say?’ [modified corpus example]

303
17 Non-indicative verb forms

However, the form -idel is far more common in real embedded questions (40) (see
§28.4 for more examples).

(40) iž ceqːel=el iž-itːe pikri ∅-ik’-ul=el [d-iʡ-ij

this when=indq this-advz thought m-say.ipfv-icvb=indq npl-steal.pfv-inf
∅-uˁq’-idel a-w-uˁq’-idel] ∅-ik’-ul le-w
m-go.pfv-modq neg-m-go.pfv-modq m-say.ipfv-icvb exist-m
‘This is when he is probably thinking, should I steal or not.’

The modal interrogative of the verb b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, be able’ is also used in
epistemic modal constructions (§15.4.2).

304
18 Non-finite verb forms
There are three types of verb forms that function as heads of subordinate clauses:

• plain non-finite verb forms (§18.1)

• verb forms functioning as specialized converbs (§18.2)
• conditional and concessive verb forms (§18.3)

Plain non-finite verb forms are simple converbs, participles, the infinitive, the subjunc-
tive, and the masdar. The specialized converbs convey more specific temporal and causal
relationships. Plain non-finite verb forms (except for the subjunctive) and constructions
with specialized converbs lack person agreement. Only the plain non-finite verb forms
are part of the inflectional paradigm of the verb and thus formed by suffixes. Some of
them are also used for the formation of analytic TAM forms. By contrast, verb forms
functioning as specialized converbs mostly employ enclitics, which can also be added to
other parts of speech than verbs. Conditional and concessive clauses have person agree-
ment expressed by suffixes that strongly resemble the suffixes used in synthetic verb
forms of main clauses. They are treated here as non-finite verb forms because their basic
use is restricted to dependent clauses that cannot syntactically function as main clauses.
All non-finite verb forms are normally negated by adding the negative prefix a-.
Conditional and concessive forms as well as specialized converbs and some of the
plain non-finite verb forms occur in adverbial clauses (Chapter 25). Complement clauses
(Chapter 24) are mostly headed by plain non-finite forms such as the infinitive and the
masdar, and relative clauses are formed with participles (Chapter 23).

18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

The following verb forms are considered to be plain non-finite verb forms:

• simple converbs (imperfective and perfective) (§18.1.1.1 and §18.1.1.2)

• participles (preterite, modal and functionally related forms with -il and -ce/-te, and
the locative participle) (§18.1.2)
• infinitive (§18.1.3)
• subjunctive, i.e., agreeing infinitive (§18.1.4)
• masdar (§18.1.5)
18 Non-finite verb forms

18.1.1 Simple converbs

Like all Dargwa languages, Sanzhi has two simple converbs, an imperfective converb
(§18.1.1.1) and a perfective converb (§18.1.1.2). For the syntax of adverbial clauses in which
these converbs occur see Chapter 25.

18.1.1.1 The imperfective converb

The imperfective converb has the suffix -ul (occasionally also -ule) or with a few verbs,
which have -un as the suffix for the perfective converb, -un(ne). For other Dargwa va-
rieties -ul has been analyzed as diachronically composed of -u (the stem augment that
is used for the habitual present) and a converb suffix -l (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003;
Belyaev In Preparation), and it is probable that this analysis can be applied to Sanzhi
Dargwa as well. The suffix -unne is also diachronically complex, consisting of -un-ne.
The second part -ne is an allomorph of the converb suffix -le that is also used for the
formation of the perfective converb (§18.1.1.2) and, more generally, as an adverbializer
(§9.6.3). However, synchronically the imperfective converb is not complex anymore and
I will therefore gloss it as one single morpheme.
The imperfective converb can only be formed from imperfective stems and from stems
of which the aspect is not specified. The functional range of the imperfective converb is
as follows:

1. formation of the compound present by adding the person enclitics (1) or the copula
(§14.1.1) and formation of the compound past by adding the past enclitic (§14.1.2). In
interrogative clauses the enclitics and copulas can be omitted under certain circum-
stances and only the interrogative enclitics occur (2) (§9.1). There are also a number
of other auxiliaries that co-occur with imperfective converbs in periphrastic verb
forms (Chapter 15).

(1) žimiška d-ic-ij arg-ul=da

sunflower.seeds npl-sell.pfv-inf go.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I am going to sell sunflower seeds.’
(2) ala xːunul ce r-ik’-ul=e? saˁ-q’-unne=kːu=w?
2sg.gen woman what f-say.ipfv-icvb=q hither-go-icvb=neg=q
‘What is your wife saying? Is she not coming?’

2. formation of adverbial clauses expressing temporal simultaneity or precedence of

the event in the adverbial clause with the event expressed in the main clause (3),
(4). This use is very frequent in texts and includes the use in manner clauses that
denote the way in which an event is occurring or the manner in which an action
is carried out (5).

306
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

(3) [q’aca-la neqːe hextːu arg-ul],

he.goat-gen canyon.loc there.up go.ipfv-icvb
či-a-ha-d-eʁ-ib=da
spr-neg-up-1/2pl-go.pfv-pret=1
‘We were going there to the goat canyon, but did not arrive there.’
(4) guž ʡaˁči a-b-arq’-ib=da, [w-ax-ul], [raboči
difficult work neg-n-do.pfv-pret=1 m-go-icvb workers
b-ik-ul] [sa-b-ik-ul]
hpl-lead.ipfv-icvb hither-hpl-lead.ipfv-icvb
‘I did not do difficult work, driving, bringing the workers (to the wine
factory) and bringing them back.’
(5) c’il hel-ka [duc’ r-ik’-ul] tːura-r-ič-ib ca-r
then that-abl run f-move.ipfv-icvb out-f-occur.pfv-pret cop-f
Pat’ima
Patima
‘Then Patima appeared outside running. (i.e. ran outside)’

There are plenty of examples in which it is not easy or even impossible to un-
ambiguously identify the main clause to which the converbal clause belongs such
that it may seem that the converb can head independent main clauses. In fact, such
usages have been reported for Mehweb Dargwa (Kustova (2015); see also Mithun
(2008) for a more general account of how and why non-finite verb forms develop
into finite verb forms and the use of dependent clauses as independent sentences).
However, in elicitation converb clauses are always judged as dependent clauses
that need to be related to a superordinate clause in order to form a grammatical
sentence. Thus, converb clauses that seem to occur on their own in independent
utterances can probably be treated as a feature of colloquial language. In (6) only
the first clause is morphosyntactically unambiguously an independent main clause
followed by two expressions that indicate the lack of knowledge of the speaker (ce
ca-d=de=l, aχːu) and two clauses with imperfective converbs without accompany-
ing main clauses.
For instance, the utterance in (7) is part of a characterization of a person, but there
is no preceding or following main clause that could serve as a syntactic anchor for
the adverbial clause.

(6) ca ca t’ult’=de=w? ce ca-d=de=l, aχːu, [ču-la

one one bread=pst=q what cop-npl=pst=prt not.know refl.pl-gen
le-b-il sa-b-iqː-ul] [lukː-unne]
exist-n-ref hither-n-carry.ipfv-icvb give.ipfv-icvb
‘There was one bread for everyone? Whatever, I don’t know, what they
had they were bringing (to the soldiers) and giving it to them.’

307
18 Non-finite verb forms

(7) [paˁq ∅-ik’-ul q’isːa-l-cːella] [ʁina.ʁina b-irq’-ul],

strike m-say.ipfv-icvb crook-obl-comit spoil hpl-do.ipfv-icvb
[it-ul], …
beat.up-icvb
‘hitting with the crook, disturbing, beating up, …’

3. formation of certain complement clauses, for instance with the verb ‘begin’
(§24.2.8), i.e. the verbal head in the complement clause bears the imperfective con-
verb suffix.
4. The imperfective converb of the verb b-ik’ʷ- ‘say’ is used as a quotation marker
and, more generally, as a marker of certain complement clauses (§24.2.2).

18.1.1.2 The perfective converb

The perfective converb is formed by adding the suffix -le to the preterite participle. The
resulting complex suffixes are -ib-le, -ub-le, -un-ne, and -ur-re (or -ur-le), and their distri-
bution is lexicalized (see the tables in §11.2 for many example verbs). The suffix -le is a
cross-categorical suffix that forms adverbials from various parts of speech (§9.6.3). The
perfective converb is mainly built from perfective verb stems. Thus, what is treated in
this grammar under the label “perfective converb” is a conflation of several components
that come with their own properties. It is therefore not ideal to gloss only the suffix -le
as perfective converb (cvb) because this suffix only contributes to the morphosyntax,
but not to the semantics. The meaning of the perfective converb originates from the
combination of a (usually) perfective verb stem with the preterite suffix.
The functions of the perfective converb are:

1. Formation of analytic verb forms: resultative (§14.2.3), perfect (§14.2.4) and past
perfect (§14.2.5). Furthermore, there are periphrastic verb forms with other auxil-
iaries that make use of the perfective converb (Chapter 15).
2. Formation of temporal adverbial clauses: The adverbial clauses refer to situations
that take place before the situation expressed in the main clause or simultaneously
with it (8), (9). Occasionally, the latter type of converb clauses, which express si-
multaneously occurring events, are semantically manner clauses (10). It is common
to have sequences of adverbial clauses containing perfective converbs that denote
a sequence of events (8). As with the imperfective converb, it is not always easy
to find an adjacent main clause that is the syntactic anchor for perfective converb
clauses. For instance, in (11) the copula clause at the end refers to the same stretch
of events that the preceding converbal clauses refer to, namely the building of a
house. However, the converb clauses and the copula clauses do not share any ar-
guments. The sharing of arguments is not a syntactic requirement for the use of
perfective converbs, but as the preceding examples (8–10) show it is very common
(see also §25.1.3 for more information about the syntactic properties of converbal
clauses with respect to argument sharing).

308
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

(8) [razi ∅-iχ-ub-le], [b-uc-ib-le ʡaˁt’a=ra ca-w=ra],

happy m-be.pfv-pret-cvb n-catch.pfv-pret-cvb frog=add refl-m=add
∅-uq’-ij b-ikː-ul ca-b qili
m-go-inf n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n home
‘He got happy, caught his frog, and wants to go home.’
(9) [iž ag-ur-re] ʡaˁrz w-arq’-ib ca-w
this go.pfv-pret-cvb complain m-do.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He went away and complained.’
(10) ca-w duc’ ∅-uq-un-ne ag-ur hel
refl-m run m-go.pfv-pret-cvb go.pfv-pret that
‘He himself run away.’
(11) [či-d-aˁq-aˁq-ib-le qul-be] [abujta-la
spr-npl-hit.pfv-caus-pret-cvb house-pl wall.paper-gen
d-asː-aq-un-ne] [ʡaˁm-re
npl-glue.pfv-caus-pret-cvb window-pl
sa-ka-d-icː-ur-re] iltːi urq’l-e ħaˁdur-re
ante-down-npl-stand.pfv-pret-cvb these board-pl ready-advz
le-d=de
exist-npl=pst
‘We plastered the house, hung the wallpaper, put the windows; the boards
were already prepared.’

3. Formation of complement clauses: the perfective converb occurs in a range of

complement clauses of the fact and of the activity type with cognition, evaluation
and emotion predicates and with the verb ‘finish’ in the matrix clause (12) (§24.2.5).

(12) [ca-w urči-j murtːa-l ha-jʁ-ib-le] han le-w

refl-m horse-dat rider-advz up-come.m.pfv-pret-cvb remember exist-m
‘(I) remember that he came riding on a horse.’

18.1.2 Participles
Participles and functionally related forms occur in relative clauses and partially also in
other constructions. Sanzhi has three participle: (i) the preterite participle (§18.1.2.1), (ii)
the modal participle (§18.1.2.2), and (iii) the locative participle (§18.1.2.4). To the first two
participles the cross-cateogorical suffixes -ce and -il can be added (§18.1.2.3). For the
syntactic properties of relative clauses see Chapter 23.

18.1.2.1 The preterite participle

The preterite is used for a range of verb forms with past time reference that are used
in main clauses. This includes the preterite itself (§14.2.2) but also many more analytic

309
18 Non-finite verb forms

(§14.2) and periphrastic verb forms based on it (Chapter 15). The preterite is also em-
ployed in relative clauses (Chapter 23). Formally we deal with one and the same suffix,
and I will therefore use only one single gloss for it (pret), although functionally and
with respect to morphosyntactic properties the finite verb form ‘preterite’ differs from
the participle. The finite verb form is used together with person enclitics, the past en-
clitic or the copula, which, by contrast, is impossible for the participle in a relative clause.
The participle, in turn, attaches further nominalizing suffixes (16) and can then be case
marked (§23.4). Relative clauses that are formed with the preterite participle obligatorily
have a nominal head (13), (14).

(13) hex-tːi [sa-r-ha-aq-ib] paltar ca-d

dem.up-pl ante-abl-up-hang.pfv-pret clothes cop-npl
‘These are clothes that have been hung up there.’
(14) han d-irč-aq-ul ca-d cin-na
remember npl-occur.ipfv-caus-icvb cop-npl refl.sg-gen
[b-it-ag-ur], [ag-ur] ʡuˁnru
n-thither-go.pfv-pret go.pfv-pret life
‘He is remembering his gone by, past life.’

The preterite participle cannot directly take case suffixes or similar grammatical mark-
ers used with nominals (15). In order to nominalize the preterite participle, one of the
cross-categorical participles -il (16) or -ce needs to be added (see §18.1.2.3 below for more
details).

(15) * dam b-iqː-a sa-r-ha-aq-ib!

1sg.dat n-take.ipfv-imp ante-abl-up-hang.pfv-pret
(Intended meaning: ‘Give me the one that is hanging!’)
(16) dam b-iqː-a sa-r-ha-aq-ib-il!
1sg.dat n-take.ipfv-imp ante-abl-up-hang.pfv-pret-ref
‘Give me the one that is hanging!’ (E)

The preterite participle also attaches a number of temporal enclitics, suffixes and other
subordinating enclitics such as -er ‘when’, -la ‘since, after’ (17), =qːel(la) ‘when, because’
and =xːar ‘although’ and is then used in adverbial clauses with various specialized con-
verbs (§18.2).

(17) il ag-ur-ra hitːi=ra ʡaˁχuˁl-dex taman a-b-iχ-ub

that go.pfv-pret-post after=add guest-nmlz end neg-b-happen.pfv-pret
‘After that had happened their friendship did not finish.’

310
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

18.1.2.2 The modal participle -an

The modal participle -an is only added to imperfective stems. Its semantics covers modal-
ity (obligation, deontic necessity) and future time reference. However, in relative clauses
the modal meaning is often absent. The modal participle is used for the formation of a
range of finite analytic verb forms, namely future (§14.1.3), future in the past (§14.1.4),
obligative (§14.1.5), obligative present (§14.1.6), and obligative past (§14.1.7). The second
functional domain of the modal participle is the formation of relative clauses. They
mostly have habitual semantics and refer to stable properties of the referent of the head
noun (18–23). Thus, there are some participles that have been lexicalized into adjectives
expressing characteristic properties, e.g. b-uz b-ik’ʷ-an barcːik’ʷ (n-tear n-aux.ipfv-ptcp
chudu) ‘chudu filled with cheese that can be expanded and stretched when it is melted’,
dircan ‘trader, seller’ (21).
(18) nušːa χalq’, [ʡaˁči-l d-irq’-an] χalq’=de=q’al
1pl people work-erg 1/2pl-do.ipfv-ptcp people=pst=mod
‘We are people, people who work.’ (i.e. we are worth to be respected)
(19) hel [Maħaˁmmadħaˁži b-ik’ʷ-an] durħuˁ
that Mahammadhazhi hpl-say.ipfv-ptcp boy
‘the boy called Mahammadhazhi’
(20) bazar-re hej ka-jž-ib-le [w-irc-an] admi ca-w
market-loc this down-be.m.pfv-pret-cvb m-sell.ipfv-ptcp person cop-m
‘On the market a trader is sitting.’ (lit. a person who sells)
The relative clauses with the participle -an can be headless (21–23). The participle can
take further case suffixes (23).
(21) c’il hež ka-jž-ib-il d-irc-an ∅-iχʷ-ij
then this down-remain.m.pfv-pret-ref npl-sell.ipfv-ptcp m-be.pfv-inf
‘The one who is seated is probably selling (stuff).’
(22) hel-tːi ʁunab-te ca-d, di-la w-ikː-an
that-pl eq-dd.pl cop-npl 1sg-gen m-want.ipfv-ptcp
‘It is like this, my beloved one.’
(23) il ʁaj ∅-ik’ʷ-ij b-ikː-an-ni-j=ra har zamana
that word m-say.ipfv-inf n-want.ipfv-ptcp-obl-dat=add every time
hana=ra dune le-b
now=add world exist-n
‘For the one who wants to quarrel there is always an option.’ (lit. ‘a/the world’)
When the modal participle is followed by the cross-categorical suffix -ce it also occurs
in complement clauses (24) (§24.2.3), in addition to the possible use in headless rela-
tive clauses (§23.4). The second cross-categorical suffix -il also often co-occurs with the
modal participle in various relative clauses.

311
18 Non-finite verb forms

(24) dam b-alχ-a-d [it s-erʁ-an-ce]

1sg.dat n-know.ipfv-hab.pst-1 that hither-come.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg
‘I know that he will come.’ (E)

Finally, a number of temporal enclitics and other subordinating enclitics such as -er
‘when’ (25), =qːel(la) ‘when, because’ and =xːar ‘although’ attach to the modal participle
yielding adverbial clauses (§18.2).

(25) c’il di-la sub=ra du=ra ag-ur-re

then 1sg-gen husband=add 1sg=add go.pfv-pret-cvb
ka-d-iž-ib-le, d-uk-an-er, suk
down-1/2pl-be.pfv-pret-cvb 1/2pl-eat.ipfv-ptcp-when meet
b-ič-ib aʁʷal admi
hpl-occur.pfv-pret four person
‘Then my husband and I were sitting and when we were eating we met four men.’

18.1.2.3 The cross-categorical suffixes -il and -ce/-te in combination with the
participles
The preterite and the modal participle can combine with both types of cross-categorical
suffixes, -il and -ce (-te in the plural). The general function of these suffixes can be de-
scribed as the formation of referential attributes or definite descriptions that have the
morphosyntactic properties of nominals (§9.6.1 and §9.6.2). When the suffixes are added
to the participles we can form relative clause with heads and headless relative clauses.
Two participles and two types of cross-categorical suffixes yield four possible combina-
tions that are not all equally common. There seem to be no semantic differences between
the two cross-categorical suffixes when occurring in headless relative clauses. But there
is a morphosyntactic difference: the suffix -il is only used with referents that are not
morphologically overtly marked for plural, i.e., the relative clause needs to refer to a
singular object or a mass noun such as χalq’ ‘people’ or sungul ‘the community of the
Sanzhi people’ (even though both nouns control human plural agreement) or something
similar as in (28). The referent can be overtly expressed (relative clause with a head) or
not (headless relative clause). For overtly marked plural referents or for headless relative
clauses denoting a plurality of referents only -te can be used (26–28).

(26) b-učː-ul *ka-b-iž-ib-il /

hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-ref /
ka-b-iž-ib-te sunglan-te
down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-dd.pl Sanzhi.person-pl
‘the Sanzhi people who are sitting and drinking’ (E)
(27) ʡaˁči-l b-irq’-an-te / *b-irq’-an-il
work-erg hpl-do.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl / hpl-do.ipfv-ptcp-ref
‘the ones who are working’ (E)

312
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

(28) il-tːi [di-cːella b-alli b-ax-an-te] b-abq’i

that-pl 1sg-comit hpl-together hpl-go-ptcp-dd.pl hpl-half
‘the half (of the people) who were going with me’
By far most common in the Sanzhi corpus are headless relative clauses in which the
verb bears the preterite participle suffix plus the suffix -il (29). When the dative case is
used, the meaning of the nominalized relative clause can be causal (due to the semantics
of the dative case) such that these clauses rather function as adverbial clauses expressing
cause or reason (30).
(29) [b-učː-ul ka-b-iž-ib-il] ka-b-išː-ib=da heltːu
hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-ref down-n-put.pfv-pret=1 there
čina=del
where=indef
‘The one where they are sitting and drinking, I put this (picture) somewhere.’

(30) hej pašman ∅-iχ-ub ca-w ʡaˁħ-le hel b-arq’-ib-il-li-j

this sad m-be.pfv-pret cop-m good-advz that n-do.pfv-pret-ref-obl-dat
‘He got very (lit. well) sad, because of what he had done.’
The preterite participle of the verb ‘say’ to which -il is added and which is used with-
out the spatial preverb ha- (i.e. ʔ-ib-il, also written as ibil 1 ) functions as marker for ordinal
numerals (31) (§6.2).
(31) xu-c’anu urč’em-ra ibil dusːi-cːe-w
five-ten nine-num ord year.obl-in-m
‘in the year (19)59’
The co-occurrence of both participles (preterite and modal) with -ce/-te is also com-
mon and it is easy to find examples with (32) and without case suffixes (33). There is
a clear difference in meaning due to the participles and the aspectual properties of the
verb stems. In (32) the preterite participle is used to refer to people who accomplished
an action in the past (i.e. they gathered). The modal participle in (33) refers to the Sanzhi
people by means of a stative characterization as the ones who eat three times at night
and stay hungry during the day, i.e., fulfilling the duties of Muslims during the month
of Ramadan.
(32) d-erč-ib-t-a-l ču-j d-ut’-ib
npl-collect.pfv-pret-pl-obl-erg refl.pl-dat npl-divide-pret
d-urkː-ar
npl-find.ipfv-prs
‘The ones that gathered (the food) probably divided it among themselves.’
1
The usual participial form of this verb is haʔ-ib-il with the spatial preverb.

313
18 Non-finite verb forms

(33) “abdal sungul, baˁħ sungul, dučːe ʡaˁj-na

fool Sanzhi.people crazy Sanzhi.people at.night three-time
b-uk-an-te, ari kːuš-le b-ug-an-te”
hpl-eat.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl during.day hungry-adv hpl-stay.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl
b-ik’-ul
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘“Foolish Sanzhi people, crazy Sаnzhi people, at night they eat three times, and
during day they stay hungry,” they said.’

The combination of the modal participle with -il is not particularly frequent; it occurs
mostly together with case suffixes as in (34).

(34) hana cek’u r-irq’-an-il-li-j xujal azir xu-c’al

now whatchamacallit f-do.ipfv-ptcp-ref-obl-dat five thousand five-ten
azir
thousand
‘now for the one who operates her 5000, 50000 rubles (need to be given)’

Finally, the suffix -il can also be added to the existential copulas, which do not inflect
for any of the participles, in order to form headed and headless relative clauses (6). In
(35) the existential copula with its suffix -il is inflected for a spatial case.

(35) durqa-ce, u le-r-il-le taliħ-la marka b-arq’-ab

dear-dd.sg 2sg exist-f-ref-loc happiness-gen rain n-do.pfv-opt.3
‘(My) dear, may onto the place where you (fem.) are rain the rain of happiness.’

18.1.2.4 The locative participle -na

The locative participle has the suffix -an. It is only available for imperfective verb stems.
It has a spatial meaning that corresponds to the semantics of the lative case (§3.4.2).
Similar to spatial adverbs it can take further spatial case suffixes, i.e. the essive and the
ablative. It most commonly functions as the head of spatial relative clauses (36), (37), but
it is also possible to add a head noun (38).

(36) ∅-uq’-ij b-ikː-ul=de il-i-j [cin-na w-ax-na]

m-go-inf n-want.ipfv-icvb=pst that-obl-dat refl.sg-gen m-go-ptcp.loc
‘He wanted to go his way.’ (lit. where he goes)
(37) het [χalq’ b-ax-na-r] a-ag-ur-re, c’il tum-la hetːu-r
that people hpl-go-ptcp.loc-abl neg-go.pfv-pret-cvb then hill-gen there-abl
ag-ur=da
go.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not go through where the people (normally) go, but through where the hill
is.’

314
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

(38) durħ-ne ag-ur [q’ʷal luχ-na] musːa

boy-pl go.pfv-pret cow cut.ipfv-ptcp.loc place.loc
‘The boys went to the place where cows are slaughtered.’ (this refers to a specific
place in Sanzhi)

In addition, the locative participle can be fully case marked. In order to add case suf-
fixes (other than the suffixes for the essive and the ablative) the participle appears in its
oblique forms, just like any other nominal. After suffixing the oblique marker -l (which
is identical to the ergative), case suffixes follow (39). But as (37) and the second variant
in (39) show, it is also allowed to directly suffix markers that express the spatial cases es-
sive, lative and ablative, because the locative participle has inherent spatial meaning. In
elicitation, the suffixation of other than spatial cases leads to a broader variety of relative
clauses (40). The case-marked participle also occurs in adverbial clauses with causative
semantics (103).

(39) [Napisat ka-r-ils-na-l-le-b /

Napisat down-f-sleep.ipfv-ptcp.loc-obl-loc-n /
ka-r-ils-na-b] te-b=de maˁlʡuˁn
down-f-sleep.ipfv-ptcp.loc-n exist.away-n=pst snake
‘Where Napisat was sleeping there was a snake.’ (E)
(40) [Maˁʡaˁ ka-r-ils-na-l-la] χabar le-b=de
Maja down-f-sleep.ipfv-ptcp.loc-obl-gen story exist-n=pst
‘There was the gossip that Maja was lying (in the hospital).’ (E)

18.1.3 The infinitive

The suffix for the infinitive is -ij. It is very likely that the final j diachronically goes back
to the dative case, and the formal identity of infinite and dative case is also attested in
other Dargwa languages (e.g. Tanti, Icari) and other East Caucasian languages such as
Hinuq. In principle, the infinitive can be formed from imperfective and perfective stems
(41) but in natural texts it is almost exclusively used with perfective stems. There are
a number of imperfective verbs for which the infinitive is at least very marginal if not
ungrammatical (see the last two examples in (41)).

(41) a. ha-b-ilq’-ij (ipfv) / habiq’ij (pfv) ‘raise, keep up’

b. lukː-ij (ipfv) / b-ičː-ij (pfv) ‘give’
c. či-b-iž-ij (ipfv) / či-b-až-ij (pfv) ‘see’
d. b-alχ-ij (ipfv) / b-aχ-ij (pfv) ‘know’
e. ?b-irc-ij (ipfv) / b-ic-ij (pfv) ‘sell’
f. #b-ubč’-ij (ipfv) / b-ebč’-ij (pfv) ‘die’

315
18 Non-finite verb forms

The functions of the bare infinitive are:

1. formation of purpose clauses

(42) hel sa-ka-b-iršː-id b-erkʷ-ij

that hither-down-n-put.ipfv-1.prs n-eat.pfv-inf
‘We put it (on the table) to eat.’

2. formation of complement clauses with different types of complement-taking pred-

icates (volitional, modal, phasal, manipulative, etc.). The complement clauses have
potential or activity meaning (§24.2.6). In (44) the infinitival complement clause is
embedded into a headless relative clause formed with the modal participle -an.

(43) [hak’ d-arq’-ij] a-r-iχ-ub=da

shake npl-do.pfv-inf neg-f-be.able.pfv-pret=1
‘I (fem.) was not able to move (lit. shake) (my legs).’
(44) le-b=q’al [dam [b-urs-ij] b-ikː-an]
exist-n=prt 1sg.dat n-say.pfv-inf n-want.ipfv-ptcp
‘There exists what I want to say.’

In addition, the infinitive can take a number of suffixes and enclitics:

(i) the cross-categorical suffix -ce/-te for the formation of complement clauses with
potential meaning and purpose clauses (45). Note that in this function the suffix
can also be omitted without any change in meaning (i.e. compare with (42)).

(45) na d-erčː-ij-te d-erkʷ-ij-te li<d>il cik’al

now npl-drink.pfv-inf-dd.pl npl-eat.pfv-inf-dd.pl all<pl> something
le-d
exist-npl
‘There is something to eat and to drink.’

(ii) the complementizer/embedded question marker =al for the formation of embed-
ded polar and content questions (46) and very occasionally for rhetoric questions
for which the speaker does not expect an answer (47). The latter use is due to
the ongoing grammaticalization of the embedded question enclitic as a marker of
epistemic modality (§28.4).

(46) it-i-j aχːu han b-el akːu [ce

that-obl-dat not.know remember n-remain.pfv cop.neg what
b-ik’ʷ-ij=al]
n-say.ipfv-inf=indq
‘I do not remember how to call it.’

316
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

(47) cet’-le b-iχʷ-ij=al, aʁʷal itːi=ra nušːa=ra

how-advz hpl-be.pfv-inf=indq four those=add 1pl=add
mašin-ni-cːella
car-obl-comit
‘How is this possible, they four and we also in one car.’

(iii) subordinating enclitics for the formation of adverbial clauses, e.g. =sat/=satːin/=
satːinna ‘until’, =sar ‘before, until’ and bahandan ‘because of’ (§18.2)
(iv) the suffix -li-j (-obl-dat): the dative is generally used to express causes (§3.4.1.4),
and it is the only case that the infinitive can be inflected for (48). In the causative
function the dative is also suffixed to other deverbal nominals such as abstracts
nouns with the suffix -dex and the masdar (§18.1.5).

(48) “u-l b-urs-a!” haʔ-ib=da qːant’-le caj-na cara daˁʡaˁn-ne

2sg-erg n-tell-imp say.pfv-pret=1 short-advz one-time other secret-advz
[Q’urban-ni t’am a-d-aq’-ij-li-j heχ-itːe]
Kurban-erg sound neg-npl-hear.pfv-inf-obl-dat dem.down-advz
‘“You tell him!” I said briefly once more such that Kurban could not hear it.’

18.1.4 The subjunctive (i.e. agreeing infinitive)

Sanzhi Dargwa has another verb form that is functionally equivalent to the infinitive,
but shows person agreement, and will be called “subjunctive” in this grammar. Person
agreement of the subjunctive is reduced in comparison to other verb forms such as the
habitual present or the habitual past. There is no suffix for the first person and instead
the normal infinitive is used. The suffixes for the second and the third person, which do
not distinguish number, are displayed in Table 18.1. The second person makes use of the
same stem augment vowels (i, u) that occur with other verb forms such as the habitual
present or the prohibitive.2 Diachronically, the suffixes -itːaj/-utːaj consist of the stem
augment, followed by a second person suffix -tː, and the last part -aj, which represents
the actual subjunctive marker. This becomes clear when we compare the subjunctive to
other verb forms (§20.3). However, for the sake of understanding I treat the suffixes as
units and use a single gloss.

Table 18.1: The subjunctive

singular plural
1 — —
2 -itːaj/-utːaj
3 -araj/-anaj

2
The second person subjunctive suffixes are identical in form with variants of the plural prohibitive.

317
18 Non-finite verb forms

There is a strong correlation between the stem augment vowel and transitivity, i.e.
intransitive verbs mostly take -u (49) and transitive and affective verbs usually take -i
(50). Thus, the subjunctive behaves as other verb forms that have person agreement
suffixes (§20.3).

(49) a. r-isː-utːaj ‘cry’

b. r-uk-utːaj (ipfv) ‘eat’
c. r-uq’-uˁtːaj ‘go’
d. ka-r-isː-utːaj (pfv) ‘lie, sleep’
(50) a. b-urs-itːaj ‘tell’
b. či-b-až-itːaj (pfv) ‘see’
c. r-ič-itːaj (pfv) ‘bring, lead’

In the third person, the suffixes -ar-aj and -an-aj are used, which diachronically con-
sist of -ar (homophone to one allomorph of the the habitual present and the realis condi-
tional), or -an (homophone to the modal participle) and -aj. The choice between -araj and
-anaj is mostly lexicalized (51), (52) but there are a few verbs to which in elicitation both
suffixes can be attached, e.g. či-ha-b-uq-anaj/či-ha-b-uq-araj (spr-up-n-go.pfv-subj.3)
‘climb’. In general, -anaj is more common both in terms of types (i.e. verb stems to which
the suffix is added) as well as in terms of token frequency in my corpus.

(51) a. r-isː-araj ‘cry’

b. b-arq’-araj (pfv) ‘do’
c. b-iχʷ-araj (pfv) ‘be, become, can’
d. kaxʷ-araj (pfv) ‘kill’
(52) a. ka-b-isː-anaj (pfv) ‘lie, sleep’
b. b-elk’-anaj (pfv) ‘write’
c. b-uk-anaj (ipfv) ‘eat’
d. ha-b-irq’-anaj (ipfv) ‘support, bring up, make high’

The subjunctive, just like the infinitive, is mainly obtained from perfective stems,
though a number of imperfective stems can also be inflected for it (53).

(53) a. ha-b-ilq’-araj (ipfv) / habiq’-araj (pfv) ‘raise, keep up’

b. lukː-araj (ipfv) / b-ikː-araj (pfv) ‘give’
c. či-b-ig-araj (ipfv) / či-b-ag-araj (pfv) ‘see’
d. b-alχ-araj (ipfv) / b-aχ-arajj (pfv) ‘know’
e. b-irc-araj (ipfv) / b-ic-araj (pfv) ‘sell’
f. b-ubk’-arai (ipfv) / b-ebk’-araj (pfv) ‘die’

318
 18.1 Plain non-finite verb forms

The functions of the subjunctive are identical to the functions of the normal infini-
tive and it is always possible to replace the subjunctive with the infinitive. Thus, the
subjunctive heads purpose and complement clauses:
(54) c’il uškul-la hextːu-b, musːa=ra k’e-b b-iχʷ-ar
then school-gen there.up-n place=add exist.up-n n-be.pfv-cond.3
ka-d-isː-utːaj
down-1/2.pl-sleep.pfv-subj.2
‘Then there at the school, there is a place, if it still exists, for you to sleep.’
(55) d-uq’-ij xːun-be wahi-l d-určː-i=q’al ixtːu
1/2.pl-go.pfv-inf way-pl bad-advz npl-be.ipfv-hab.pst=mod there.up
d-uq’-aˁtːaj
1/2.pl-go.pfv-subj.2
‘The roads to go there were probably bad, for you to go.’
(56) hel rucːi-l r-aʔ r-išː-ib ca-r b-ukː-un-ne kːalkːi
that sister-erg f-begin f-become.pfv-pret cop-f n-eat.ipfv-icvb tree
ka-b-ik-araj
down-n-occur.pfv-subj.3
‘The sister started to eat up the tree so it would come down.’
As with the infinitive it is possible to suffix the cross-categorical suffix -ce to the sub-
junctive (57). In this example, b-arq’-araj-ce could be replaced by b-arq’-ij-ce and the
meaning would not change.
(57) uškul b-arq’-araj-ce balnicːa b-arq’-ib-le b-iχʷ-ardel
school n-do.pfv-subj.3-dd.sg hospital n-do.pfv-pret-cvb n-be.pfv-cond.pst
‘It would be better to build a hospital instead of building a school.’ (E)
Furthermore, subordinating enclitics for the formation of adverbial clauses can be at-
tached, in particular =sat/=satːin/=satːinna ‘until’ (58), =sar ‘before, until’ and bahandan
‘because of’ (§18.2):
(58) k’ʷah ∅-ič-ib-le, ʁera ag-araj=sat a-b-urs-ib
silent m-occur.pfv-pret-cvb dusk go.pfv-subj.3=until neg-n-tell.pfv-pret
‘He remained silent, until it became dark he did not tell.’
It seems that the subjunctive, which is absent from the more innovative north Dargwa
varieties (e.g. from Akusha/Standard Dargwa), is gradually disappearing from south
Dargwa varieties. In Icari, it lacks a cell in the transitive paradigm that is replaced with
-ij (which is not the Icari infinitive, but another suffix.). In Sanzhi, it entirely lacks first
person forms. Verb forms similar to the Sanzhi subjunctive are found in other south
Dargwa varieties such as Qunqi, and Xuduc, but, e.g., not in Tanti (Sumbatova & Lan-
der 2014: 136). Sumbatova & Mutalov (2003: 107) write that the Icari subjunctive (-aj/
-j), which is clearly cognate with the Sanzhi subjunctive, is historically and structurally
related to the Standard Dargwa infinitive -es.

319
18 Non-finite verb forms

18.1.5 The masdar

The suffix for the masdar is -ni. It has an allomorph -ri, which is only used with a handful
of verbs such as the negative form of the copula ((b-)akʷ-ni and akːʷ-ri). The masdar is
available for imperfective and perfective stems as well as for the copula (ca-b-ni), and
the locative copulas, e.g. le-b-ni. The functions of the masdar are:

1. formation of complement clauses, e.g. with matrix predicates such as ‘know’ and
‘understand’ (59)

(59) il at=cun dalaj w-ik’-ud, [w-arc-ni=ra]

this 2sg.dat=only song m-say.ipfv-1.prs m-get.tired.pfv-msd=add
a-b-alχ-ul
neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb
‘Only for you I sing this song, not knowing whether you got tired.’

If the masdar is formed from a stem with imperfective aspect, the temporal ref-
erence of the complement clause is non-past (60), and if it is formed from a stem
with perfective aspect the temporal reference is past time (61).

(60) ubk’-ni dam a-b-alχ-ul=de

die.m.ipfv-msd 1sg.dat neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘I did not know that he dies.’ (E)
(61) w-ebk’-ni dam a-b-alχ-ul=de
m-die.pfv-msd 1sg.dat neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘I did not know that he died.’ (E)

2. formation of deverbal nouns that can be used like other nominals (62), i.e. in the
position of arguments or adjuncts. The masdar can be inflected, e.g. for the da-
tive, which yields the expected causative reading (63), and for the genitive when
it expresses the topic of a speech act (64) or other relations (65).

(62) mig-le-r qus r-ik’ʷ-ni b-irχʷ-i

ice-loc-f slip f-say.ipfv-msd n-be.ipfv-hab.pst
‘There was skating on the ice.’ (referring to a woman skating)
(63) “iš-tːi at ca-d, di-la juldaš, du
this-pl 2sg.dat cop-npl 1sg-gen friend 1sg
b-erc-aq-ni-li-j” b-ik’-ul ca-b
n-save.pfv-caus-msd-obl-dat n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘These (gems) are for you, my friend, because you saved me, said (the bear).’

320
 18.2 Specialized converbs

(64) čina=k’u ʡaˁlħaˁm-le d-uˁq’-ni-la χabar b-urs-idel

where=emph condolence-loc 1/2pl-go-msd-gen story n-tell-modq
aχːu
not.know
‘I don’t know if I should tell you the story about how we went somewhere,
to the condolences.’
(65) značit, ce d-arq’-ij uˁq’-ni-lla ʡaˁči=q’al it
thus what npl-do.pfv-inf go.m-msd-gen work=mod that
‘What to do, this pasturing (lit. the work of going after the animals) is
work.’

18.2 Specialized converbs

Constructions with special converbs occur in adverbial clauses that express temporal or
causal relationships. Formally, they mostly consist of an enclitic or suffix bearing the
specific temporal/causal meaning or of a postposition/adverb used to express temporal
relationships. The converbial marker is attached either to the preterite participle and
the modal participle or to the subjunctive and the infinitive (or follows the respective
verb forms). Other ways of obtaining specialized adverbial clauses involve the locative
participle and the noun zamana ‘time’. Sanzhi possesses the specialized converbs that are
given in (66). There are two enclitics among them (=qːel(la) and =sat/=satːin/=satːinna),
which are not only used with verbs in order to form adverbial clauses, but also with
nominals. Their use with nominals is described in §9.3. The syntax of adverbial clauses
is analyzed in Chapter 25.

(66) a. =qːel(la) ‘when, while, because’ (simultaneity, anteriority, causality)

b. -er ‘when, as’ (simultaneity)
c. =sat/=satːin/=satːinna ‘until, before, as much as, as long as’
(posteriority, manner)
d. sar(ka) ‘until, before’ (posteriority)
e. (h)itːi ‘after, because’ (anteriority, causality)
f. -la ‘since, after’ (anteriority, causality)
g. b-el-le ‘while, as long as, as soon as, until, when’
(simultaneity, immediate anteriority)
h. zamana ‘time’ (simultaneity)
i. =xːar ‘although, even if’ (concession)
j. the locative participle -na (causality)
k. bahanne/bahandan ‘because of’ (causality)

321
18 Non-finite verb forms

18.2.1 The temporal/causal enclitic =qːel(la) ‘when, while, because’

The temporal =qːel(la), which exists in a more commonly used short form and in a less
frequently occurring long form, translates as ‘when, while, because’. As the other two
temporal enclitics it can be hosted by verbs and other parts of speech (§9.3). When used
to form adverbial clauses it is added to the preterite participle (18.1.2.1) or to the modal
participle (18.1.2.2), and also to forms of the negative copula (usually the participle, but
also other forms) (69). It expresses the temporal simultaneity (67), and rarely the tem-
poral anteriority (68) of the situation referred to in the adverbial clause with respect to
the situation described in the main clause. In many cases, this also implies a causal link
between the two events (69).

(67) či-b-a arg-an=qːella debʁul-m-a-l b-irq’-ul

up-hpl-dir go.ipfv-ptcp=when prayer-pl-obl-erg hpl-do.ipfv-icvb
b-už-ib-le=de
hpl-be-pret-cvb=pst
‘When they went up there they were praying.’
(68) hel dučːi a-b-ič-ib=qːella ikarus abt’abuz hila bar
that night neg-n-occur.pfv-pret=when Icarus coach last day
ag-ur-re Rast’aw=uw čina=jal hetːu ag-ur ca-w hetːu
go.pfv-pret-cvb Rostov=q where=indq there go.pfv-pret cop-m there
‘When/after/because in that night there was no Icarus coach, he went to Rostov
or somewhere else the next day, he went there.’
(69) nu busurman-te akːu=qːella, …
well Muslim-pl cop.neg=when
‘Well because (they) were not Muslims, …’

When the enclitic is hosted by nominals (nouns, demonstrative pronouns, adjectives)

it also means ‘when’. Examples are provided in §9.3.

18.2.2 The temporal marker -er ‘when, as’

The temporal meaning of simultaneity is also expressed by -er, which is, just like =qːel(la),
added to the preterite participle or to the modal participle (70–72). This suffix does not
imply any causal relationships. In fact, in some examples there is no relationship what-
soever between the situations expressed in the two clauses (72). The suffix is only added
to verbs, never to nominals or other parts of speech.

(70) Družba-le ka-jʁ-ib-er, Družba-le sowχoz-la ʡaˁči

Druzhba-loc down-come.m.pfv-pret-when Druzhba-loc sovkhoz-gen work
b-irq’-ul=de
n-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘When I moved to Druzhba, I worked in the sovkhoz in Druzhba.’

322
 18.2 Specialized converbs

(71) heχ b-erčː-ib-le haˁ-q’-aˁn-er cinna tːartːar

dem.down n-drink.pfv-pret-cvb up-go-ptcp-when pause.filler shake
uq-un-ne heχ
go.m.pfv-pret-cvb dem.down
‘When he was drunk and went there, he staggered.’
(72) u ∅-ik’ʷ-an-er, šːatːir arg-ul ca-b
2sg m-say.ipfv-ptcp-when walk go.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘As you (masc.) say, they are walking around.’

18.2.3 The temporal enclitic =sat/=satːin/=satːinna ‘until, before as

much/long as’
This enclitic, which also belongs to the category of enclitics that can be used with nom-
inals (§9.3), occurs in three variants of different lengths that can be ordered according
to their increasing frequency as =satːin < =satːinna < =sat. It is a cognate of the spa-
tial/temporal adverb satːi ‘at/along the front, as soon as’, which, however, occurs before
verbs rather than following them. The adverb can be further decomposed into the postpo-
sition sa ‘in front, ago’ and the adverbializer -tːi, which is part of a few spatial adverbials
(§7.1.2).
The enclitic follows the infinitive and the subjunctive and expresses the meaning of
temporal posteriority of the situation denoted by the adverbial clause with respect to
the situation referred to in the main clause, i.e. ‘before, until’:

(73) u-l dirxːa gu-r-b-uqː-ij=sat

2sg-erg stick sub-abl-n-take.out.ipfv-inf=as.much
k-ercː-an=de heštːu
down-stand.ipfv-ptcp=2sg here
‘Until you take your stick out, you have to stand there.’
(74) mus-a-rka abratna čar sa-b-iχʷ-araj=satːin …
place.obl-loc-abl back back hither-n-be.pfv-subj.3=until
‘Before (the turtle) came back from that place, ...’

When the enclitic is attached to the modal participle the meaning is ‘as much as, as
long as’ (75). Two more examples are given in §9.3.

(75) xːunul-li-j r-irχʷ-an=satːin jaˁħ b-irq’-ul=de

woman-obl-dat f-be.able.ipfv-ptcp=as.much patience n-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘The woman was patient as long as she could.’

The same meaning is also attested when the enclitic follows nominals (35), (36). Finally,
the enclitic can be attached to demonstrative pronouns forming manner demonstrative
pronouns that are used in comparison ‘like this, like that, such’ (37).

323
18 Non-finite verb forms

18.2.4 The temporal adverb/postposition sar(ka) ‘until, before’

The temporal adverb/postposition sar(ka) ‘before, until’ (which also has the spatial mean-
ing ‘in front’, §8.1.2 and §7.1.2) follows the infinitive or the subjunctive. The resulting
meaning is purely one of temporal posteriority, i.e. ‘before, until’ (76) and occasionally
more like an apprehensive (77).

(76) q’uˁl-a-la dajark’a ag-ur=da bahsar hel xadi r-uˁq’-ij sarka

cow-obl-gen milkmaid go.pfv-pret=1 first that married f-go.pfv-inf before
‘I was a milkmaid until/before I got married.’
(77) q’isːa bek’-le ka-b-aˁq-ij sar hetːu ka-jcː-e!
crook head-loc down-n-hit.pfv-inf before there down-stand.m.pfv-imp
‘Stand there before/lest/otherwise I hit you with the crook on the head!’

18.2.5 The temporal/causal postposition (h)itːi ‘after, because’

The postposition/adverb hitːi ‘after, behind’ (see §8.1.4 for the use in postpositional
phrases) can occur in temporal adverbial clauses with the meaning ‘when, after’. In the
majority of occurrences the postposition is shortened to its enclitic variant =itːi and di-
rectly attached to the preterite participle (78). However, it is always possible to replace
the enclitic with the full form hitːi.

(78) c’il helka ag-ur=itːi c’il a-ka-r-ač’-ib=da

then from.there go.pfv-pret=after then neg-down-f-come.pfv-pret=1
‘After we left from there, I did not return.’

Occasionally, the temporal relationship also implies a causal relation between the sit-
uation referred to in the adverbial clause and the situation expressed in the main clause:

(79) b-erčː-ib=itːi urk’i b-at b-uq-un-ne, …

n-drink.pfv-pret=after heart n-free n-go.pfv-pret-cvb
‘After drinking the heart opened, (and he molested his wife).’

Instead of using the bare preterite participle it is also possible to suffix another marker
-la to the participle, which is, in turn, followed by the postposition (80), (81). The suffix
-la goes most probably back to the genitive case suffix since hitːi governs the genitive.
The suffix -la undergoes assimilation after the sonorants /n/ and /r/ (> -na, -ra). It can
also be employed on its own without the following postposition hitːi (§18.2.6).

(80) il-tːi daˁwi taman d-iχ-ub-la hitːi xadi ka-r-iž-ib

that-pl war end npl-be.pfv-pret-post after married down-f-sit.pfv-pret
hel
that
‘After the times of the war finished he married her.’

324
 18.2 Specialized converbs

(81) deč-la učː-ul w-aʔ-ač’-ib-la hitːi, …

drinking-gen drink.m.ipfv-icvb m-begin-come.pfv-pret-post after
‘after he started drinking, …’
In elicitation it is possible to place the postposition hitːi after the modal participle -an
to which again -la (in its assimilated allomorphic form -na) can be suffixed (82). In this
construction, however, the meaning diverges and instead of the sequential meaning we
get a causal/conditional meaning. Now the clause containing the postposition expresses
a condition or cause for the situation that the main clause denotes.
(82) it sa-r-irʁ-an-na hitːi du itːu a-ax-an=da
that hither-f-come.ipfv-ptcp-post after 1sg there neg-go.m-ptcp=1
‘If/because she comes, I will not go there.’ (E)
(83) cellij du Maˁħaˁčqːala-le w-ax-an=da=ja, dam Družba-le-b kancert
why 1sg Makhachkala-loc m-go-ptcp=1=q 1sg.dat Druzhba-loc-n concert
či-b-ig-an=itːi?
spr-n-see.ipfv-ptcp=after
‘Why should I go to Makhachkala, if/since I can will see the concert in Druzhba?’
(E)

18.2.6 The temporal marker -la ‘since, after’

This marker is suffixed to the preterite participle. As mentioned in §18.2.5, it goes back to
the genitive and the construction most probably arose as a simplified variant of the use of
the same marker followed by the postposition hitːi. The meaning of both constructions is
very similar expressing temporal posteriortity of the situation that the adverbial clause
refers to with respect to a second situation that is normally expressed by the main clause.
However, the adverbial clauses that contain only -la without a following postposition
mean ‘since then, ever since, from then on, after that’.
(84) Sanži-b b-akːʷ-i, hana ca-b il nušːa
Sanzhi-n n-cop.neg-hab.pst now cop-n that 1pl
ka-d-eʁ-ib-la
down-1/2pl-go.pfv-pret-post
‘In Sanzhi there was no (such plant), now there is, since we moved here.’
The postposition can always be added and this results in a slight change of the mean-
ing. In (85) the speaker uses first the construction with -la and then the construction
containing the encliticized postposition, but lacking -la. Both clauses have similar, but
not completely identical, semantics.
(85) hej sud b-arq’-ib-la, sud b-arq’-ib=itːi, hej
this trial n-do.pfv-pret-post trial n-do.pfv-pret=after this
ka-jž-ib ca-w uže tusnaq-le hež
down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m already prison-loc this
‘Since the trial, after the trial was made, he is already sitting in prison.’

325
18 Non-finite verb forms

To sum up, in certain contexts the three options (only -la, only =itːi, or -la + hitːi) have
very similar or even identical meaning (‘after, when’). In other contexts when -la is used
alone it means rather ‘since’.

18.2.7 The periphrastic adverbial construction with b-el-le ‘while, as

long as, as soon as, until, when’
The defective verb b-el ‘remain, stay’ when inflected as perfective converb heads pe-
riphrastic adverbial clauses. The same type of periphrastic verb form is attested in inde-
pendent clauses (§15.3), but the use in dependent clauses is far more common. The verb
can occur together with a lexical verb that bears either the imperfective or the perfective
converb suffix. It does not assign case to any arguments and therefore shows the same
gender/number agreement as the lexical verbs (86). However, it can also be used in the
invariant form b-el-le (89) in which gender agreement is lost in favor of the petrified
prefix n- (neuter singular).
When b-el co-occurs with a lexical verb inflected for the imperfective converb the
meaning of the adverbial clause is ‘while, until, as long as’ (86). In combination with the
past perfect in the main clause the adverbial clause refers to a situation that obtained at
a reference point in the past (= the situation expressed in the main clause) and continued
to a later point in time at which the other situation had finished (87).

(86) a-w-čː-ul w-el-le […] li<d>il iš-tː-a-la ʡaˁħ-le

neg-m-drink.ipfv-icvb m-remain-cvb all<npl> this-pl-obl-gen good-advz
ca-d
cop-npl
‘While until/as long as he is not drinking, everything is good for them.’
(87) er=či ∅-ik’-ul w-el-le il-i-la
look=on m-look.at.ipfv-icvb m-remain-cvb that-obl-gen
qːuʁa-dex-li-j, iltːi žaniwar-te li<d>il ag-ur-re=de
beautiful-nmlz-obl-dat these animal-pl all<npl> go.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘While/as long as he was looking at its beauty, all animals had already left.’

If the lexical verb appears in the form of the perfective converb, the adverbial clause
expresses immediate anteriority that can be translated with ‘as soon as, immediately
when’. It refers to the point in time when an event is completed or was completed or to
the moment when a state obtains or obtained rather than to an enduring situation. The
relevant state or event immediately precedes the situation denoted by the main clause.

(88) il usta-j qːarqːa či-b-až-ib b-el-le, gargar

that master-dat stone spr-n-see.pfv-pret n-remain-cvb trembling
∅-ik’ʷ-ij ha-jž-ib ca-w
m-move.ipfv-inf up-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m
‘When/as soon as the master saw the stone, he trembled (started to tremble).’

326
 18.2 Specialized converbs

(89) helka tːura ka-w-q-un-ne b-el-le, murtːa

from.there outside down-m-go.pfv-pret-cvb n-remain-cvb rider
∅-iž-ib-le urči-li-j […] gu-r-ag-ur-il ca-w
m-be.pfv-pret-cvb horse-obl-dat sub-abl-go.pfv-pret-ref cop-m
‘When/as soon as he went out from there, he mounted the horse, [singing a song
he pretended to be drunk] and left.’
(90) Aminat-li t’ult’-e d-arq’-ib-le b-el-le, nišːi-j k’ʷel
Aminat-erg bread-pl npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb n-remain-cvb 1pl-dat two
s-aqː-a!
hither-carry.pfv-imp
‘As soon as Aminat makes bread/finishes making bread, bring us two (loaves of
bread)!’ (E)

18.2.8 The concessive enclitic =xːar(e) ‘although, even if’

The concessive enclitic =xːar(e) is attached to the preterite participle (91), (92), to the
modal participle (93), (94), or to the participial form of the negated copula, and expresses
concession ‘even if, although, though, even though’. In the main clause following a con-
cessive clause optionally the particle ja can occur (92), which is probably a cognate of
the disjunctive particle ja.
(91) q’ʷila b-alχ-an, itwaj gramatni ∅-irχʷ-iri,
a.little n-know.ipfv-ptcp like.this educated m-be.ipfv-hab.pst
a-b-elč’-un=xːar
neg-n-learn.pfv-pret=conc
‘Knowledgeable, he was educated even if he did not study.’
(92) r-uk-un=xːar, ja c’erx r-irχ-ul akːu
f-eat.ipfv-icvb=conc or fat f-become.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
‘Although she eats, she does not get fat.’ (E)
(93) b-ikː-an=xːar r-irχʷ-ul akːʷa-di
n-want.ipfv-ptcp=conc f-be.able.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-1
‘Although I want, I (fem.) cannot.’
(94) ištːu-d čibla-li-j lukː-an=xːar=q’al, itːu-d il-i-j
here-npl debt-obl-dat give.ipfv-ptcp=conc=mod there-npl that-obl-dat
čibla-li-j a-lukː-an
debt-obl-dat neg-give.ipfv-ptcp
‘Though here they give (food) for debts, there they do not give him (food) for
debts.’
Note that the last example in (94) is an independent clause with the modal participle
-an suffixed to the verbal head of the main clause. Because of the use of the modal par-
ticiple the sentence has a habitual meaning without any specific temporal reference. If
the suffix -ne were added, we would obtain future tense (§14.1.3) with a modal meaning
and temporal reference to future events.
327
18 Non-finite verb forms

Frequently concessive clauses are copula constructions without a copula item (‘al-
though X is Y’), in which case the temporal reference of the concessive clause depends
on the main clause. For instance, in (95) the main clause refers to the past and therefore
the concessive clause also refers to a past event even though it does not contain any mor-
pheme expressing temporal reference (i.e. no preterite or modal participle). The host of
the enclitic in such concessive phrases is the copula predicate, which can for instance be
an adjective (95), and adverbial, (96), or a noun (97).
(95) ʁaj=či=ra uq-un=da, majmaj=či=ra uq-un=da
word=on=add go.pfv.m-pret=1 condemnation=on=add go.pfv.m-pret=1
hel-tː-a-j, du winawat=xːar
that-pl-obl-dat 1sg guilty=conc
‘I argued, I quarreled with them, though I was guilty (myself).’
(96) urk’i q’aq’a-le=xːare, aq-le dalaj w-ik’-ul=da
heart narrow-advz=conc high-advz song m-say.ipfv-icvb=1
‘Even though the heart is sorrowful (lit. ‘narrowly’), I sing my song loudly.’
(97) har aʁʷal xujal dučːi nik’a qal=xːar kružok b-irχʷ-i di-la
every four five night small house=conc circle n-be.ipfv-hab.pst 1sg-gen
aba-la qili-b
mother-gen home-hpl
‘Every fourth or fifth night there was a circle (of people) in my mother’s house
though it was a small house.’
There is another way of formulating concessive clauses in Sanzhi, namely the use of
conditional forms to which the additive is encliticized (§18.3.6).

18.2.9 Constructions with zamana ‘time’

The noun zamana ‘time’, ultimately an Arabic loan word, is used in temporal adverbial
clauses that are relative clauses from a syntactic point of view (Chapter 23). The noun
zamana is the head, and the relative clause contains a verb in the form of the modal
or the preterite participle. Clauses with the modal participle refer to events that were
ongoing during a reference point in time or a reference period, which is expressed in the
main clause (‘while, when’) (98), (99).
(98) Uc’ari-r haˁ-q’-aˁn zamana, lampučka ca-w=ra dučːi ha-aš-i=q’al
Icari-abl up-go-ptcp time torch refl-m=add night up-go-hab.pst=mod
qili ʡaˁči-le-r
home work-loc-abl
‘While he came from Icari, he went with a torch at night home from work.’
(99) ʡaˁħ-ʡaˁħ-le gulik’-an zamana, t’am b-aq’-ib-le ca-b
good-good-advz listen.ipfv-ptcp time sound n-hear.pfv-pret-cvb cop-n
ʡaˁt’-n-a-lla t’ama
frog-pl-obl-gen sound
‘When he was attentively listening he heard the sound of frogs.’

328
 18.2 Specialized converbs

Clauses with the preterite participle have a comparable meaning of simultaneity:

(100) nuˁq-be sa-ka-d-uc-ib zamana, žaˁpar-ra xːunul

arm-pl ante-down-npl-keep.pfv-pret time Zhapar-gen woman
qili-rka tːura sa-r-uq-un ca-r
home-abl outside hither-f-go.pfv-pret cop-f
‘While he presented the condolences (lit. kept his hands in front), Zhapar’s wife
entered.’
(101) hel gu-r-ha-jcː-ur zamana, di-la ul-be het
that down-abl-up-stand.m.pfv-pret time 1sg-gen eye-pl that
kaš-le-d kelg-un
porridge-loc-npl remain.pfv-pret
‘While I got up, my eyes remained on the porridge.’

The zamana-construction can be combined with the particle bah ‘immediately when’
that occurs in the initial position of the relative clause (102). The precise origin of bah
needs further investigation, but we might suggest that it is related to the superlative
particle bah ‘most’ and to the adverbs bahsala, bahsar ‘first’, which can be decomposed
into bah- and a following postposition. The particle can also co-occur with the enclitic
=qːel(la).

(102) bah hel kːalkːi ka-b-irk-an zamana,

immediately.when that tree down-n-occur.ipfv-ptcp time
či-sa-d-eʁ-ib ca-d χu-de
spr-hither-npl-go.pfv-pret cop-npl dog-pl
‘When this tree already fell down, the dogs were coming.’

18.2.10 Minor ways of forming adverbial clauses

The locative participle and the masdar can occur in adverbial clauses expressing causes
when they take the dative suffix (103), (104), because the expression of causes is one of
the functions of the dative (§3.4.1.4):

(103) [Maˁʡaˁ ka-r-ils-na-lli-j] du uq’-ij

Maja down-f-sleep.ipfv-ptcp.loc-obl-dat 1sg go.m-inf
a-jχ-ub=da
neg-be.able.m.pfv-pret=1
‘Because Maja was sleeping I (masc.) could not come.’ (E)
(104) hež at ca-b, du kur-ri-cːe-r tːura ha-qː-ni-li-j
this 2sg.dat cop-n 1sg pit-obl-in-abl outside up-carry.pfv-msd-obl-dat
‘This is for you, because you helped me out of the pit.’

329
18 Non-finite verb forms

When the postposition bahanne/bahandan ‘because of’ (§8.2.3) follows the masdar, the
resulting clause also expresses causation (105). By contrast, when it follows the infinitive
or the subjunctive we get purpose clauses (106):
(105) ka-b-ičː-ni bahanne b-ebč’-ib
down-n-cut.up.pfv-msd because.of hpl-die.pfv-pret
‘Because they cut it, they died.’
(106) hel-tːi ce hak’ ka-d-arq’-ar-aj bahanne irk-me
that-pl what shake down-npl-do.pfv-prs-subj.3 in.order.to threshing.board-pl
hak’ ka-d-arq’-ij bahanne
shake down-npl-do.pfv-inf in.order.to
‘in order to shake those, in order to shake the threshing boards’

18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses

Conditional and concessive clauses are adverbial clauses that contain specialized verb
forms expressing realis and irrealis conditional and concessive meaning. All verb forms
here are obtained by means of suffixes that are added to a stem augmentation vowel.
The vowel is the same that is used for synthetic verb forms (Chapter 13) and some non-
declarative verb forms (Chapter 17) and not separately glossed in the examples. The
suffixes express conditional meaning and person agreement and bear resemblance to
the suffixes of the synthetic tenses. The following forms are treated in this section:

• realis conditional (§18.3.1)

• past conditional (§18.3.2)
• imperfective realis conditional (§18.3.3)
• imperfective past conditional (§18.3.4)
• periphrastic conditional clauses (§18.3.5)
• concessive conditionals (§18.3.6)

All conditional forms head dependent clauses, thus they are normally followed by a
main clause. The conditional suffixes alone suffice to convey conditional meaning, but
optionally the conjunction raχle ‘if’ can co-occur in conditional clauses (107). However,
the use of the subordinating conjunction is rare.
(107) raχle uc-arre het k-ercː-an ca-w heštːu
if catch.m.pfv-cond.3 that down-stand.ipfv-ptcp cop-m here
‘If (he) caught him, he must stand there.’
For more information on the general syntactic properties of adverbial clauses see
Chapter 25.

330
 18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses

18.3.1 Realis conditional

The realis conditional is formed from perfective verb stems (for those verbs that occur
in pairs of imperfective and perfective stems). To the verbal stem the stem augments
(vowels -u or -i) are added, followed by the conditional suffixes (Table 18.2). In the sec-
ond person singular, there are two variants possible, -tːe and -tːel, but the first is clearly
preferred. In the third person, there is again largely lexically determined allomorphy
between the suffixes -an and -ar. The latter suffix has a longer variant -arre, but the
shorter variant is more common. In negative realis conditional clauses the verb bears
the negative prefix a- (110).
Table 18.2: The realis conditional

singular plural
1 -lle
2 -tːe(l) -tːal
3 -ar(re)/-an

Table 18.3: Some illustrative paradigms of the realis conditional

‘say’ ‘do’ ‘know’

singular plural singular plural singular plural
1 r-ik’-u-lle d-ik’-u-lle b-arq’-i-lle b-arq’-i-lle b-aχ-i-lle b-aχ-i-lle
2 r-ik’-u-tːe(l) d-ik’-u-tːal b-arq’-i-tːe(l) b-arq’-i-tːal b-aχ-i-tːe(l) b-aχ-i-tːal
3 r-ik’ʷ-arre b-ik’ʷ-arre b-arq’-ar(re) b-arq’-ar(re) b-aχ-ar(re) b-aχ-ar(re)

The function of the conditional is the expression of real non-past conditions:

(108) “hana ka-r-iž-ib c’ikuri-li,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “misa
now down-f-sit.pfv-pret bride-erg m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m mouth
či-b-ikː-arre urχːab kʷir ka-b-irg-an-ne”
spr-n-give.pfv-cond.3 mill stop down-n-be.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘“The bride who just married,” says one, “if she kisses the mill it will stop.”’
(109) a-b-elč’-ille, w-ark ∅-utː-ud
neg-n-read.pfv-cond.1 m-inside m-burst.ipfv-1.prs
‘If I do not read (my song), I (masc.) burst inside.’
(110) “a-w-g-utːe, u parʁat ∅-irq’-an=de,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
neg-m-stay-cond.2sg 2sg quiet m-do.ipfv-ptcp=2sg m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
ik’
dem.up
‘“If you (= masc.) do not calm down, I make you calm,” he says.’

331
18 Non-finite verb forms

It also occurs in utterances in which the conditional is not a condition for the apodosis
because there is no conditional connection between the two clauses. This includes the
common idiomatic expression ‘to be honest’ (lit. ‘if I tell correctly’) (112).

(111) celi d-aqil k’e-d, či-d-uˁq’-uˁtːal

whole npl-much exist.up-npl spr-1/2pl-go.pfv-cond.2pl
‘There is much there (i.e. the graveyard is large), if you go there.’
(112) du, b-arx-le b-urs-ille ʡaˁbal dus kelg-un=da
1sg n-direct-advz n-say-cond.1 three year remain.pfv-pret=1
‘I, to be honest, remained for three years.’

As with the two indicative analytic verb forms, the habitual present and the habitual
past, in conditional clauses ergative alignment is, in addition to the dative construction,
possible with some affective verbs.

18.3.2 Past conditional

The past conditional bears strong formal resemblances to the realis conditional and the
second person is almost identical for both conditional forms (Table 18.4). Before the con-
ditional past suffixes the stem augment vowels occur that are the same as for the realis
conditional and for a number of other verb forms such as the subjunctive. In the third
person, the first part of the two allomorphic suffixes -ar-del and -an-del is identical with
the suffixes used in the realis conditional (Table 18.2). The second part probably origi-
nates from the past enclitic =de. Negation is marked with the prefix a-. Only perfective
verb stems can function as the basis for the past conditional.

Table 18.4: The past conditional

singular plural
1 -tːel
2 -tːel -tːal
3 -ar-del/-an-del

The semantic range of the past conditional comprises the expression of realis condi-
tions that were obtained in the past.

(113) raχle q’an d-iχ-utːel, …

if late 1/2pl-be.pfv-cond.1
‘If we were too late, …’

332
 18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses

(114) č’imi b-uc-ib-le, aq b-arq’-ib-le, hak’

tail n-catch.pfv-pret-cvb tall n-do.pfv-pret-cvb shake
ka-b-arq’-itːel, dig-be k-arž-i skelet
down-n-do.pfv-cond.2sg meat-pl down-go.ipfv-hab.pst skeleton
kalž-i
remain-hab.pst
‘If you held the tail (of the fish) and lifted it up and shook it, the meat fell down
and the skeleton remained.’
(115) χːuˁrbe ka-d-ik-ardel, χːuˁrbe ʡaˁħ d-irq’-ul=de
graves down-npl-occur.pfv-cond.pst graves good 1/2.pl-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘When/if graves fell down, (grandfather) put them up again.’ (lit. made them
good)

Furthermore, it conveys irrealis conditional meanings, i.e. conditions with low proba-
bility and counterfactual conditions (116), and those sentences can lack the apodosis (117),
(118). The apodosis of past conditional clauses often contains a verb marked for future
in the past (§14.1.4) or habitual past (§13.2) (114).

(116) cin-ni b-urs-ardel=ra cin-na tːutːu-l …

refl.sg-erg n-tell-cond.pst=add refl.sg-gen beak-erg
‘if he would have said it with his own mouth, …’
(117) b-uˁq’-aˁndel! či-b-b-et’-ib ca-b
hpl-go-cond.pst spr-hpl-hpl-bore.pfv-pret cop-hpl
‘If they would go! They bore (me).’ (E)
(118) sːusːul-la t’ult’ b-erkʷ-itːel=ra, at bahlalla ʡaˁħ-ce
rye-gen bread n-eat.pfv-cond.2sg=add 2sg.dat most.emph good-dd.sg
ca-b žan-ni-j, q’arq’ala-li-j
cop-n body-obl-dat body-obl-dat
‘If (you) would eat bread made of rye, it is the best thing for you, for the body,
the organism.’

18.3.3 Imperfective realis conditional

The imperfective realis conditional is formed from imperfective verb stems (for those
verbs that occur in pairs of imperfective and perfective stems) by means of the suffix
-aχː, followed by the vowel -a that functions as a stem augment without expressing
transitivity, and finally by (almost) the same person suffixes that are used for the re-
alis conditional (§18.3.1). As with all conditional forms treated in this Section, negation
is marked by means of a- (119). Some affective verbs can occur in the dative experiencer
construction and in the ergative construction when inflected for the imperfective realis
conditional.

333
18 Non-finite verb forms

Table 18.5: The imperfective realis conditional

singular plural
1 -aχː-a-lle
2 -aχː-a-t(te) -aχː-a-t(tal)
3 -aχː-a-n(ne)/-aχː-a-r(re)

Table 18.6: Some illustrative paradigms of the imperfective realis conditional

‘say’ ‘do’
singular plural singular plural
1 r-ik’ʷ-aχː-alle d-ik’ʷ-aχː-alle b-irq’-aχː-alle
2 r-ik’ʷ-aχː-at d-ik’ʷ-aχː-t(tal) b-irq’-aχː-at(te) b-irq’-aχː-atːal
3 r-ik’ʷ-an(ne) b-ik’ʷ-an(ne) b-irq’-aχː-an(ne)

The imperfective realis conditional is basically the imperfective counterpart of the re-
alis conditional. According to Sanzhi speakers, it covers the same meanings, with the
only difference being the aspectual value that the stem carries. Thus, we have realis con-
ditional semantics with present and future time reference (119), (120) and occassionally
in utterance in which no genuine conditional semantics is expressed (121).
(119) “hej ha-r-iq’-ij a-r-irχʷ-aχː-alle,” r-ik’ʷ-ar, “dam
this up-f-bring.up-inf neg-f-be.able.ipfv-cond-cond.1 f-say.ipfv-prs 1sg.dat
ʡuˁmru ħaˁžat-le=kːu”
life need-advz=neg
‘“If I cannot educate (i.e. bring up) her (myself),” she said, “then life is of no need
for me.”’
(120) hel-tːi ha-qː-ij a-r-irχʷ-aχː-an il ce
that-pl up-carry.pfv-inf neg-f-be.able.ipfv-cond-cond.3 that what
r-irq’-an=e dam?
f-do.ipfv-ptcp=q 1sg.dat
‘If she is not able to carry those (sacks), of what use is she for me?’ (i.e. a wife
that is unable to carry the sacks of flour is useless)
(121) qus tːura-k-aˁq-ib-le, er ∅-ik’ʷ-aχː-an, il bek’
slip out-down-drag.pfv-pret-cvb look m-look.at.ipfv-cond-cond.3 that head
b-akːu
n-cop.neg
‘After having pulled (him) out, if they look, there is no head.’
The verbs that do not have an aspectual distinction can form the realis conditional
as well as the imperfective realis conditional without any noticeable semantic difference

334
 18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses

between the two forms (122). For verbs with two aspectual stems the semantic difference
is restricted to the aspectual difference between imperfective and perfective aspect; the
conditional meaning is identical for both forms (123).
(122) nušːa d-ax-ulle / d-ax-aχː-alle
1pl npl-go-cond.1 / npl-go-cond-cond.1
‘if we go’ (E)
(123) dam urči či-b-ig-aχː-alle / či-b-až-ille
1sg.dat horse spr-n-see.ipfv-cond-cond.1 / spr-n-see.pfv-cond.1
‘if I see the horse (regularly/once)’ (E)

18.3.4 Imperfective past conditional

There is also a past version of the imperfective conditional formed only from imperfec-
tive verbs. The precise formal make-up is still to be clarified since the form is only very
rarely used. There are no corpus examples and elicitation is hard due to the insecurity
of the speakers. It seems that the suffix -aχː-an-del can be used with all persons. It ex-
presses irrealis conditional (124), (125) and past conditional meaning (126), depending on
the sentence and the further context.
(124) mašin b-ax-aχː-andel urx-n-a-cːe nušːa d-ax-adi
car n-go-cond-cond.pst sea-pl-obl-in 1pl 1/2pl-go-hab.pst.1
‘If a car would go to the sea, we would go.’ (i.e. if somebody would go to the sea
by car, we would go with him.) (E)
(125) dam qːuʁa mašin či-b-ig-aχː-andel, b-ikː-ul
1sg.dat beautiful car spr-n-see.ipfv-cond-cond.pst n-want.ipfv-icvb
hajq-i
be.enough.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘If I would see a nice car, I would want it.’ (E)
(126) dam šahar-ri-cːe-b het=qːel qːuʁa mašin
1sg.dat town-obl-in-n dem=when beautiful car
či-b-ig-aχː-andel, b-ikː-ul hajq-i
spr-n-see.ipfv-cond-cond.pst n-want.ipfv-icvb be.enough.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘At that time when I saw a nice car in the city, I wanted it.’ (But now I do not
care about cars anymore) (E)

18.3.5 Periphrastic conditional clauses

As shown in (127–131), conditional clauses can be periphrastic, i.e., make use of the ad-
ditional auxiliary b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, can’. In such clauses, the lexical verb bears a
converb or occasionally a participial suffix and the auxiliary b-iχʷ- takes one of the condi-
tional forms, e.g. realis conditional (127) or past conditional/irrealis conditional (129–131).
More examples can be found in §15.4.1, which describes all uses of b-iχʷ- as auxiliary.

335
18 Non-finite verb forms

(127) du b-arx-le ∅-ik’-ul a-jχ-ulle raχle u-l ʡaˁħ

1sg n-direct-advz m-say.ipfv-icvb neg-be.pfv-cond.1 if 2sg-erg good
či-b-arq’-a!
spr-n-do.pfv-imp
‘If (masc.) I do not tell it correctly, correct me!’
(128) w-aš-e a-ag-ur-il ∅-iχ-utːe!
m-go.ipfv-imp neg-go.pfv-pret-ref m-be.pfv-cond.2sg
‘Let’s go if you (masc.) did not go there!’
(129) itːu-b adim-te te-b b-irχʷ-an=de. a-b-iχʷ-ardel,
there-hpl person-pl exist-hpl hpl-be.ipfv-ptcp=pst neg-hpl-be.pfv-cond.pst
itːi ʁaj a-d-ik’ʷ-an=de
those word neg-1/2pl-say.ipfv-ptcp=pst
‘There must have been people there. If there were (no people there), you would
not have said so.’
(130) iš-tː-a-j er ∅-ik’ʷ-ni b-alχ-ul ∅-iχ-utːel,
this-pl-obl-dat look m-look.at.ipfv-msd n-know.ipfv-icvb m-be.pfv-cond.1
ulbasne d-alli ha-d-iqː-adi=q’al
glasses npl-together up-npl-carry.ipfv-hab.pst.1=mod
‘If I (masc.) had known that I will look at them, I would have brought my
glasses.’
(131) r-ilʡ-uˁn-ne r-iχʷ-ardel, xːunul
f-steal.ipfv-icvb-cvb f-be.pfv-cond.pst woman
r-i-ka-jʁ-an=de=q’al
f-in-down-drive.pfv-ptcp=pst=mod
‘If the woman had stolen, they would/should have imprisoned her.’

18.3.6 Concessive conditionals

The conditional forms presented in the preceding sections can acquire a concessive con-
ditional meaning (‘even if’) when the additive is encliticized to the conditional suffixes.
For instance, the realis conditional (132) or the past conditional (133) can serve as the
base for concessives.
(132) “ižal r-ebk’-ulle=ra awara b-akːu,” r-ik’ʷ-ar
today f-die.pfv-cond.1=add worries n-cop.neg f-say.ipfv-prs.3
‘“Even if I die today, I am not worried,” she said.’
(133) di-la arc d-iχʷ-ardel=ra du-l mašin
1sg-gen money npl-be.pfv-cond.pst=add 1sg-erg car
a-jsː-adi
neg-buy.pfv-hab.pst.1
‘Even if I had money, I would not buy a car.’ (E)

336
 18.3 Conditional and concessive verb forms and clauses

The third person concessive conditional form of the auxiliary b-iχʷ- (n-be.pfv) used
in combination with interrogative pronouns lexicalized into a universal indefinite free
choice pronoun similar to the English -ever series (134) (§4.6.3). Similarly, the verb b-
ikː- ‘like, want, love’ can function as universal indefinite free choice when it takes a
concessive conditional form and co-occurs with an interrogative pronoun (135).

(134) “u-l b-arq’-ij w-irχ-utːe=w” w-ik’-ul ca-w

2sg-erg n-do.pfv-inf m-be.able.ipfv-prs.2sg=q m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
“ce-k’a b-iχʷ-ar=ra?”
what-indef n-be.pfv-cond.3=add
‘“Are you able to do whatever?” he says.’
(135) čujna ča w-ikː-aχː-at=ra du=da ala q’iblama
how.often who m-want.ipfv-cond-cond.2=add 1sg=1 2sg.gen compass
‘No matter how often or who you love, I am your compass.’

However, conditional forms with an additional additive enclitic do not always express
conditional concessive meaning. For present conditional forms the concessive semantics
can be very weak (136) or even absent, in which case only the conditional meaning is
conveyed. For past conditionals the meaning is irrealis conditional instead of concessive
(118).

(136) hel=de hel pepel p’aq’ ka-b-arq’-itːe=ra, “uberi!”

that=pst that ashes shake.off down-n-do.pfv-cond.2sg=add take.away
b-ik’-ul=de “hetːi”
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb=pst those
‘(Even) if you let the ashes of your cigarette fall down, they said, “Put it away!”’
(i.e. make it clean)

There is another way of forming concessive clauses by means of the enclitic =xːar
(§18.2.8).

337
Part IV

Syntax
19 Valency classes and modification of
valency patterns
19.1 Valency classes
19.1.1 Introduction
Valency classes cross-cut the morphological classes of verbs. This means that the mor-
phological classes (underived verb stems with or without preverbs, derived verbs, com-
pound verbs, see §11.1 and Chapter 12) distribute over the valency classes with probably
a preference for the simple underived verbs to occur in the intransitive, the transitive
and to a somewhat lesser extent the affective valency class.
I will categorize verbs into valency classes according to two main criteria: (i) the num-
ber of arguments and (ii) the case marking of the subject-like argument. By ‘subject-
like argument’ I refer to the argument of the simple clause that has the most subject
properties as opposed to all other arguments (see §22.3 for more details). Subject-like
arguments are marked with one of the three cases absolutive, ergative or dative. I use
the terms “one-place” or “monovalent”, “two-place” or “bivalent”, and “three-place” or
“trivalent” for referring to the number of semantic arguments required by the verbs. The
basic valency classes and the case marking of the subject-like argument are summarized
in Table 19.1.
Table 19.1: Valency classes and case marking of subject-like arguments

subject-like argument
# valency absolutive dative ergative
monovalent intransitive (§19.1.2) monovalent affective one verb (11)
(§19.1.3)
bivalent extended intransitive bivalent affective transitive (§19.1.5)
(§19.1.4) (§19.1.8)
trivalent # # ditransitive (§19.1.6)

The term “extended intransitive” refers to two-place predicates that, in addition to

an argument in the absolutive, have a further argument in the dative or another case;
“extended transitive” verbs are three-place verbs that besides having two arguments bear-
ing the cases that are also used for transitive verbs, have an additional argument marked
with the dative or in some other way Dixon (1994: 122–123). Thus, extended transitive
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

verbs are ditransitive verbs. Furthermore, I use the term “affective predicates” for a clear-
cut class of mostly experiential predicates that express the experiencer argument in the
dative and the stimulus argument, if there is one, in the absolutive. Affective verbs typ-
ically form their own valency class in East Caucasian (see, e.g. Comrie & van den Berg
2006; Ganenkov 2006; Comrie et al. 2018). One might hypothesize that they belong to
the class of extended intransitive verbs. However, if one applies the commonly used test
for subjecthood to the extended intransitive verbs and the affective verbs it immediately
becomes clear that with the former class it is the absolutive argument that exhibits most
subject properties whereas with the latter class it is the dative argument. For more infor-
mation on grammatical relations in Sanzhi see §22.3 and Forker 2019b.
Table 19.2 provides an overview of the major valency classes discussed in this chapter;
some minor classes are not listed, but discussed below. All verbs in the table and in the
following subsections are presented in the order imperfective/perfective if they have two
stems. Otherwise the single stem that is unspecified for aspect is given. In the table and
in this chapter as well as elsewhere in the grammar I will use the following letters as
mnemonics for macro roles (see Bickel 2011 and Bickel et al. 2015):

S = single argument of an intransitive predicate or absolutive argument of an extended

intransitive predicate

A = the argument with the most agentive properties of a bivalent or trivalent predicate
(except for extended intransitive predicates, for which S is used)
P = the argument with the least agentive or most patientive properties of a bivalent
predicate

G = goal-like argument of a trivalent predicate (e.g. recipient)

T = more stationary theme-like argument of a trivalent predicate

Subject-like arguments are of the type S or A. Note that S occurs with monovalent and
bivalent verbs, which might seem slightly unusual. My reason for using the label S in
this way is case marking, because all arguments falling under this label are marked by
the absolutive case, which leads to a range of common morphosyntactic properties. For
more details on grammatical relations see §22.3.
As Table 19.1 shows, monovalent verbs have three possibilities for marking their sin-
gle argument. The majority of the monovalent verbs assign the absolutive case to the
single argument (§19.1.2), though dative or, in case of one verb, ergative are also possible
(§19.1.3).
Table 19.3 summarizes the case-marking patterns available in constructions with biva-
lent predicates, because they are the largest and most heterogeneous group. The columns
represent the possible cases for subject-like arguments, which can be absolutive (S) or
ergative (A), or dative (A). The rows display the possible cases for P arguments (absolu-
tive, dative, genitive, spatial cases, ergative). As the table shows, the absolutive case is
the most versatile case that can be combined with all other cases and encodes S, A or P,
but the ergative is also quite flexible.

342
 19.1 Valency classes

Table 19.2: Major valency classes

case marking number of predicates

patterns arguments and examples
monovalent predicates
intransitive (absolutive)
S-abs 1 b-ubk’-/b-ebk’- ‘die’; či-r-ha-b-ulq-/či-r-ha-b-uq-
‘vomit’ (2), (3)
monovalent affective verbs (dative)
S-dat 1 ʡaˁħ-le ca-b ‘feel good, be well’; c’aχ
ka-b-ircː-/c’aχ ka-b-icː- ‘feel ashamed’ (9), (10)
bivalent predicates
extended intransitive (absolutive + dative/spatial case)
S-abs, P-dat 2 kːač b-irk-/kːač b-ik- ‘touch’, gu-lik’- ‘listen to’
(15)
S-abs, 2 b-ik’ʷ- ‘talk to’; xʷit’ b-ik’ʷ- ‘whistle at’ (17),
P-in-lative/-dat (21)
S-abs, 2 uruχ b-irχʷ-/uruχ b-iχʷ- ‘become/be afraid of’;
P-ante-ablative uruc b-irχʷ-/uruc b-iχʷ- ‘be/become
ashamed/embarrassed of’ (24)
bivalent affective verbs (dative + absolutive/other)
A-dat/erg, P-abs 2 či-b-ig-/či-b-ag- ‘see’; b-irʁ-/b-arʁ- ‘understand’
(56), (60)
A-dat, 2 c’aχ-le ca-b ‘to feel/be ashamed in front of’;
P-ante-ablative b-irt’-/b-et’- ‘long for, miss’ (74)
transitive (ergative + absolutive)
A-erg, P-abs 2 b-irc-/b-ic- ‘sell’; b-urχ-/b-arχ- ‘sew’ (32), (33)
other bivalent verbs (ergative + dative)
A-erg, P-dat 2 b-aˁq-/b-uˁrq- ‘hit’; zaˁnʁ d-aˁq-/zaˁnʁ d-uˁrq-
‘phone’ (49)
trivalent predicates
extended transitive (ergative + absolutive + other)
A𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑟 -erg, T-abs, 3 lukː-/b-ikː- ‘give’; či-b-iž-aq-/či-b-až-aq- ‘show’;
G-dat/-in-lative haʔ-/herʔ- ‘say, tell’; b-urs- ‘say, tell’; xar
b-irʁ-/xar b-eʁ- (36), (39), (44)

343
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

Table 19.3: Case-marking of arguments in constructions with bivalent predi-

cates

absolutive S ergative A dative A

absolutive P y (28), (29) y (transitive) y (affective)
dative P y (extended intr.) y #
genitive P y (30) y #
spatial P y (extended intr.) y y
ergative P y (antipassive) # #

Note that Table 19.3 conflates basic valency classes for bivalent predicates (i.e. ex-
tended intransitive, transitive, affective) with a number of other special constructions,
which are available for some predicates of the basic valency classes (antipassive, con-
structions with absolutive, dative or genitive Ps).
The first row in Table 19.3 lists all constructions that consist of an S argument in the
absolutive and a further P argument. These clauses with extended intransitive predicates,
but also antipassives (§19.2.1), and two minor constructions with absolutive and genitive
P arguments are described in §19.1.4. In all clauses with bivalent verbs and absolutive S
arguments it is the S that controls gender agreement. Gender agreement with any other
arguments is ungrammatical.
The second row in Table 19.3 contains all constructions with ergative A arguments
and P arguments with various cases. First of all, the P argument can have the absolutive
case (standard transitive verbs including causativized intransitive verbs, and, in certain
TAM forms, affective verbs, §19.1.5, §19.1.8, §19.2.2). A few bivalent verbs with an ergative
agent (A) require a goal or beneficiary argument marked with the dative or in-lative, or
even an experiencer in the genitive (51), which represents the P argument. These verbs
commonly have lexicalized direct objects in the absolutive case that are invariable parts
of the compound verb and therefore do not count as arguments (§19.1.7).
Third, bivalent verbs with A arguments taking the dative are, as mentioned above,
mostly affective verbs that have a P (stimulus) in the absolutive.

19.1.2 Intransitive verbs

Intransitive verbs are one-place verbs. The single argument occurs in the absolutive and
controls the gender/number agreement and the person agreement on the verb. Example
verbs are given in (1) and examples sentences in (2–6).

(1) a. ʡaˁlħ-/ʡaˁħ- ‘fly’

b. b-ubk’-/b-ebk’- ‘die’
c. b-ilš-/b-iš- ‘die out, extinguish’
d. ka-b-ilsː-/ka-b-isː- ‘lie down, sleep’
e. ʡiˁbħ-/ʡaˁbħ- ‘get tired’
f. rurt-/b-ert- ‘curdle, solidify’

344
 19.1 Valency classes

g. či-r-ha-b-ulq-/či-r-ha-b-uq- ‘vomit’
h. luqː-/b-elqː- ‘be, become full, fed up’
i. t’aš b-ircː-/t’aš b-icː- ‘stop’
j. uruc b-ik’ʷ-; uruc b-irχʷ-/uruc b-iχʷ- ‘be/become embarrassed, ashamed’
(2) nuˁq-be ʡaˁbħ-ib ca<d>i
arm.obl-pl get.tired.pfv-pret cop<npl>
‘My arms got tired.’
(3) ažal d-iχʷ-ar-del, dawnu r-ubk’-a-di
death npl-be.pfv-prs-cond.pst long.ago f-die.ipfv-hab-1
‘If it was (the time) to die, I (fem.) would have died long ago.’
(4) w-elqː-un-ne=da
m-sate.pfv-pret-cvb=1
‘I (masc.) got fed up.’

There are a variety of intransitive verbs that are compounds and contain a nominal
part (§12.2.2). The nominal part, however, does not function as argument of the verb. It
most frequently appears in the absolutive case (6), but the genitive case is also possible
(7), or the loc-lative or spatial postpositions/adverbials. Note that in (6) the absolutive
argument that controls the agreement has been omitted and only its genitive modifier
appears in the clause.

(5) a. dum b-urc-/dum b-uc- ‘fast’

b. čːal b-ik’ʷ-; čːal b-ulq-/čːal b-uq- ‘argue, quarrel’
c. sːiħ b-ik’ʷ- ‘breath’
d. qal-la b-iχʷ-ij/qal-la ka-b-iž-ij ‘get married’
e. waˁʡda-la b-iχʷ-ij ‘negotiate, conspire’
(6) nišːa-la dum b-urc-ul=q’al hana daˁʡle
1pl-gen fasting hpl-keep.ipfv-icvb=mod now as
‘Our (people) were fasting like nowadays.’
(7) b-arq’-ib-le qal, qal-la ka-jž-ib ca-w
n-make.pfv-pret-cvb house house-gen down-be.pfv.m-pret cop-m
‘He built a house and married.’

19.1.3 Monovalent affective verbs and exceptional monovalent

constructions
Sanzhi Dargwa has a few constructions with monovalent predicates and a single argu-
ment fulfilling the role of a dative-marked experiencer (8). Such constructions can be
copula constructions with adverbs (9) or contain compound verbs (10). Gender/number
agreement is frozen (prefixes b- or occasionally d-) and the person agreement is invari-
ably third person.

345
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(8) a. b-uχːar-(le) ca-b ‘be cold’

b. wahi-l ca-b ‘feel bad’
c. ʡaˁħ-le ca-b ‘feel good, be well’
d. buruš hitːi sa-b-irk-/buruš hitːi sa-b-ik- ‘sleep, fall asleep’
e. beža hitːi d-irk-/beža hitːi d-ik- ‘catch a cold’
(9) dam wahi-l ca-b heχ-tːu-b
1sg.dat bad-advz cop-n dem.down-loc-n
‘I feel bad there.’
(10) dučːi dam buruš hitːi a-sa-b-ič-ib
night 1sg.dat mattress behind neg-hither-n-occur.pfv-pret
‘At night I had no sleep.’ (E)

The affective verbs ‘see’ and ‘hear’ can also be used as monovalent verbs with the
meaning ‘be/become visible, show off’ and ‘be/become audible’ (see §24.5 for two exam-
ple sentences and §19.1.8 below for a discussion).
There is a special predicate denoting weather phenomena that has one single argu-
ment marked with the ergative (11), (12). The verb does not have an aspectual distinction
and always shows neuter gender and third person agreement. The same phenomenon is
observed in the neighboring Icari Dargwa variety (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003: 155), but
apparently not in Standard Dargwa.

(11) a. marka-l b-us- ‘rain’

b. mig-li b-us- ‘hail’
c. duˁħi-l b-us- ‘snow’
(12) marka-l b-us-ul ca-b
rain-erg n-rain-icvb cop-n
‘It is raining.’

19.1.4 Extended intransitive verbs and other constructions with

bivalent predicates and absolutive S arguments
The major class of predicates falling into this category are extended intransitive verbs.
They are bivalent and have one S argument in the absolutive and another argument in
the dative or in a spatial case. Gender/number as well as person agreement on extended
intransitive verbs is always controlled by the absolutive argument.
The largest number of extended intransitive verbs have a goal argument in the dative
(13). Example sentences are provided in (14–19). For the verb xadi ag-/argʷ- ‘marry’ it
is always the nominal referring to the woman that occurs in the absolutive while the
dative argument denotes the man (18). Some of the verbs given in (13) can be used as
one-place verbs with reciprocal meaning, e.g. qaˁb lus b-ilk-/qaˁb lus b-ik- ‘embrace each
other, hug each other’.

346
 19.1 Valency classes

(13) a. q’uc’ b-irχʷ-/q’uc’ b-iχʷ- ‘be offended by’

b. hitːi ka-b-ig- ‘wait for’
c. kːač b-irk-/kːač b-ik- ‘touch’
d. gu-lik’- ‘listen to’
e. xʷit’ b-ik’ʷ- ‘whistle at’
f. waˁw b-ik’ʷ- ‘shout at, call, cry’
g. b-iχči(t) argʷ-/b-iχči(t) ag- ‘believe’
h. xadi argʷ-/xadi-ag-/‘marry’
i. er b-ik’ʷ- ‘look at’
j. paˁq b-ik’ʷ- ‘hit at, strike’
k. b-urʁ- ‘shoot’
l. qaˁb lus b-ilk-/qaˁb lus b-ik- ‘embrace, hug’
(14) il-tːi qːačuʁ-e kːač a-b-ič-ib il-i-j
that-pl bandit-pl touch neg-hpl-occur.pfv-pret that-obl-dat
‘The bandits did not touch him.’
(15) du gu.lik’-unne=da it-i-la dalaj-li-j
1sg listen.ipfv-icvb=1 that-obl-gen song-obl-dat
‘I am listening to her/his song.’ (E)
(16) du at r-iχči a-arg-ud
1sg 2sg.dat f-believe neg-go.ipfv-1.prs
‘I (fem.) do not believe (in) you.’ (E)
(17) durħuˁ w-aʔ.ašː-ib ca-w xʷit’ ∅-ik’-ul, waˁw ∅-ik’ʷ-ij
boy m-begin.pfv-pret cop-m whistle m-say.ipfv-icvb shout m-say.ipfv-inf
šːi-l-cːe-d χu-d-a-j
village-obl-in-npl dog-pl-obl-dat
‘The boy began to whistle and to shout at the dogs in the village.’
(18) c’il qːaq ħuˁsen-ni-j xadi ag-ur-il=de=w Kursum?
then Kak Husen-obl-dat married go.pfv-pret-ref=pst=q Kursum
‘Then did Kursum (fem.) marry Kak (lit. ‘back’) Husen (masc.)?’
(19) itːi χalq’ nišːi-j b-urʁ-ul ca-b
those people 1pl-dat hpl-shoot-icvb cop-hpl
‘The people are shooting at us.’

Verbs of speech and verbs with similar meanings may mark their addressee argument
with the dative (17), but much more common is the use of the in-lative (21), (22). There
is only one extended intransitive verb of speech, b-ik’ʷ- ‘say’, which is, however, also
widely used in compound verbs (20).

347
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(20) a. xʷit’ b-ik’ʷ- ‘whistle at’

b. waˁw b-ik’ʷ- ‘shout at, call, cry’
c. ʁaˁʁ b-ik’ʷ- ‘scream, yell’
d. t’irt’ir b-ik’ʷ- ‘chat’
e. ʁaj (ka-)b-ik’ʷ- ‘quarrel, scold, argue, discuss, talk’
f. paˁq b-ik’ʷ- ‘hit at, strike’
(21) di-cːe waˁw ∅-ik’-ul ca-w hel χatːaj
1sg-in call m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m that grandfather
‘The grandfather is calling me.’
(22) c’il hel-tːi tuχtur-t-a-cːe ʁaj ∅-ik’ʷ-an ∅-irχʷ-iri il
then that-pl doctor-pl-obl-in word m-say.ipfv-ptcp m-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3 that
‘He was the one who was talking to the doctors.’

There are a number of compound verbs and copula constructions with experiential
semantics that belong to the extended intransitive class and mark the second argument
with the ante-ablative (23), (24) or take a clausal complement (25) (see Chapter 24).

(23) a. uruχ-le ca-b, uruχ b-ik’ʷ- ‘be afraid of, fear’

b. uruχ b-irχʷ-/uruχ b-iχʷ- ‘be/become afraid of, fear’
c. uruc ca-b, uruc b-ik’ʷ- ‘be ashamed of, be embarrassed of’
d. uruc b-irχʷ-/uruc b-iχʷ- ‘be/become ashamed of, be/become embarrassed of’
(24) “xːunul-li-sa-r uruχ ∅-ik’-ul=de=w,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w,
woman-obl-ante-abl fear m-aux.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
“u?”
2sg
‘“Are you afraid of your wife?” he says.’
(25) χːʷalle ʁaj d-ik’ʷ-ij=ra uruc d-ik’-ul=de
much word 1/2pl-say.ipfv-inf=add embarrassed 1/2pl-aux.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘We were embarrassed to talk a lot.’

Extended intransitive verbs expressing location, position, or movement combine with

various spatial cases. Which spatial case is used depends on the semantics of the spatial
reference point (i.e. the ground) and on the type of localization or motion (e.g. in or on a
reference point, movement to a goal or from a source). The most common spatial series
employed in these functions are the spr-series (26), the in-series (27), and the ad-series.
Many more examples can be found in §3.4.2 on the spatial cases.

(26) ca-la antːa-le či-ka-b-iž-ib ca-b zija

one-gen forehead-loc spr-down-n-sit.pfv-pret cop-n horsefly
‘A horsefly sat down on the forehead of one (man).’

348
 19.1 Valency classes

(27) il-tːi dubur-t-a-cːe-d er d-irχ-ul d-už-ib

that-pl mountain-pl-obl-in-npl life npl-become.ipfv-icvb npl-be-pret
ca-d
cop-npl
‘(Apparently) they (= the animals) lived in the mountains.’

Other constructions with an absolutive S and a bivalent predicate are instantiated by

verbs that assign absolutive or genitive to the P argument, depending on the meaning
of the construction. The combination absolutive S plus absolutive P is rare (28), (29).
These clauses syntactically strongly resemble copula clauses but make use of verbs that
express meanings other than the simple copula meaning. The verb agrees in person,
number and gender with the subject-like argument, which can be distinguished from
the second argument in the absolutive by reference to prominence properties such as
animacy and person.

(28) χalq’ qːarq-ne arž-i

people stone-pl go.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘The people turned into stones.’
(29) du wer-c’anu xu-ra dus r-irχʷ-an=da
1sg seven-ten five-num year f-be.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘I (fem.) will be 75 years old.’

Example (30) illustrates a clause with two arguments that also resembles copula
clauses. The S argument in the absolutive case functions as subject-like argument (e.g.
it controls agreement on the verb). The nominal bearing the genitive is not a possessor
of an omitted head noun, but an argument of the verb. Note that it is possible to replace
the genitive by the absolutive with no salient change in the meaning of the clause.

(30) gacbe c’aq’ darman-na d-irχʷ-an-te ca-d

hips strong medicine-gen npl-become.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl cop-npl
‘The hips will be a strong medicine.’ (E)

19.1.5 Transitive verbs

Simple transitive verbs have two arguments: one is marked with the ergative and func-
tions in a subject-like manner, and the other one bears the absolutive. Gender/number
agreement is triggered by the absolutive argument. Person agreement can be controlled
by the ergative or the absolutive argument and mostly follows the hierarchy 1,2 > 3 (see
§20.3 on person agreement for more details and examples). Transitive verbs can be sim-
ple underived verbs as the six first verbs in (31) and the examples in (32), (34), verbs
containing various preverbs, compounds containing transitive light verbs (33), (91), or
causativized intransitive verbs (111), (113).

349
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(31) a. b-isː-/b-asː- ‘take, buy’

b. b-irq’-/b-arq’- ‘do, make’
c. b-irc-/b-ic- ‘sell’
d. b-urχ-/b-arχ- ‘sew’
e. b-alš-/b-aš- ‘knead’
f. b-it- ‘beat up’
g. ač b-irq’-/ač b-arq’- ‘open’
h. qaˁš k-aʁ- ‘cut into pieces’
i. aq (či-ha-)b-irq’-/aq (či-ha-)b-arq’- ‘lift up, take up’
j. t’aš b-ircː-aq-/t’aš b-icː-aq-; t’aš-aʁ- ‘stop’
k. bursːi b-arq’-/bursːi b-irq’- ‘teach’
(32) u r-it-ib-il=de=w heštːi χalq’-li?
2sg f-beat.up-pret-ref=2sg=q these people-erg
‘Did these people beat you (fem.) up?’
(33) durħuˁ-l t’aš aʁ-ib it
boy-erg stop do-pret that
‘The boy stopped him.’
(34) du-l a-b-iʡ-uˁn=da qːarqːa. ča-k’al du-l
1sg-erg neg-n-steal.pfv-pret=1 stone who-indef 1sg-erg
a-kax-ub=da
neg-kill.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not steal the stone. I did not kill anyone.’

19.1.6 Extended transitive verbs (i.e. ditransitive verbs)

Extended transitive verbs have three arguments bearing the ergative, the absolutive
and a further case. They follow the same agreement rules as simple transitive verbs.
This means that the absolutive argument triggers the gender/number agreement. Per-
son agreement is controlled by the absolutive or the ergative argument, but never by the
third argument (reciepient, addressee, etc.). It normally follows the person hierarchy 1,
2 > 3. The extended transitive verbs in (35) all have dative arguments in addition to the
ergative and absolutive arguments.
(35) a. lukː-/b-ikː- ‘give’
b. qar b-irq’-/qar b-arq’- ‘charge, entrust with’
c. xadi lukː-/xadi b-ikː- ‘marry off’
d. či-b-iž-aq-/či-b-až-aq- ‘show’
(36) dam b-ičː-ib iž maˁlʡuˁn-ni
1sg.dat n-give.pfv-pret this snake-erg
‘The snake gave it to me.’

350
 19.1 Valency classes

(37) šːan-ni-j xadi r-ičː-ib=da di-la ucːi-l

fellow.villager-obl-dat married f-give.pfv-pret=1 1sg-gen brother-erg
‘My brother married (me) off to a fellow villager.’

To this group belong a number of verbs expressing violent physical contact (38). These
verbs have an absolutive argument denoting the instrument of the action (39). The in-
strument is usually omitted such that we are left with two arguments, the ergative agent
and the goal that takes the dative or the in-lative (40). The valency frame is typical for
this semantic type of verbs and has been described for other East Caucasian languages
(Khalilova 2009: 332–334; Forker 2013a: 476).

(38) a. b-uˁrq-/b-aˁq- ‘beat, hit’

b. b-urh-/b-erh- ‘knock, strike, bang’
c. irx-/ixʷ- ‘throw at, shoot’
(39) xːunul-la qajqaj-t-a-cːe q’uˁš b-aˁq-ib ca-b
woman-gen jaw-pl-obl-in fist n-hit.pfv-pret cop-n
‘He hit with the fist on the jaw of his wife.’
(40) xːunul-li-j b-aˁq-ib ca-b hel-i-l
woman-obl-dat n-hit.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-erg
‘He hit his wife.’
(41) itilil-li ix-ub-le tupang antːa-l-cːe …
other-erg throw.pfv-pret-cvb weapon forehead-obl-in
‘when the other shot into the forehead …’

However, the verb b-erh- (pfv) ‘knock, strike, bang’ takes only instruments in the
ergative or the comitative case that do not control the agreement, such that the resulting
clauses lack absolutive arguments (42). The agreement trigger is not overtly present in
the clause and cannot be retrieved by speakers. The difference in gender agreement goes
hand in hand with a difference in the meaning of the clauses: when the neuter singular
prefix b- is used the event occurred only once; when the neuter plural suffix is used the
knocking-event occurred repeatedly such that the meaning is rather ‘beat off’.

(42) ʡaˁli-l weliχan-ni-j naˁq-li / naˁq-li-cːella b-erh-ib /

Ali-erg giant-obl-dat hand-erg / hand-obl-comit n-strike.pfv-pret /
d-erh-ib
npl-strike.pfv-pret
‘Ali knocked/beat off the giant with the hand.’ (E)

Another group of extended transitive verbs are verbs of speech that take an addressee
argument in the in-lative (43–45). Their absolutive argument is either a clause (44), (45),
or a noun that refers to the speech event such as χabar ‘story’ (108).

351
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(43) a. ha-ʔ-/h-erʔ- ‘say, tell’

b. b-urs-/b-ux- ‘say, tell’
c. xar b-irʁ-/xar b-eʁ- ‘ask’
(44) “il-i-l=ra cellij a-b-urs-ib=el nišːi-cːe hin
that-obl-erg=add why neg-n-tell.pfv-pret=indq 1pl-in water
a-ka-d-ax-u,” haʔ-ib-le ...
neg-down-npl-go.ipfv-prs say.pfv-pret-cvb
‘“Why did he not tell us that the water does not flow,” they said ...’
(45) du-l Isaq’adi-cːe xar.b.eʁ-ib=da, ...
1sg-erg Isakadi-in ask.n.pfv-pret=1
‘I asked Isakadi, ...’

Verbs denoting movement and positioning of objects or animate entities combine with
various spatial cases, e.g. the ad-lative or the loc-lative.

(46) a. b-at-(it)-aʁ- ‘send’

b. sa-b-ik-/s-ak-, h-ak-, k-ak- ‘bring, lead’
c. b-uk-/b-erč- ‘take, collect, bring’
d. (či-)(ka-)b-irxː-/(či-)(ka-)b-ixː- ‘put’
(47) hek’ tuχtur-ri-šːu u-l r-at.aʁ-ib=de
dem.up doctor-obl-ad 2sg-erg f-send.pfv-pret=2sg
‘You sent (me, fem.) to the doctor.’

19.1.7 Bivalent verbs with lexicalized objects and other rare

constructions with bivalent verbs
There are a couple of verbs with ergative subject-like arguments that have fixed, lexi-
calized objects that control the gender/number agreement on the verb, but cannot be
exchanged with other nominals because they are constitutive for the meaning of the
predicate (48). For such verbs, it is impossible to add another nominal in the absolutive,
because the object-like position is already occupied by the lexicalized object. However,
it is not always clear whether the lexicalized object controls the gender agreement on
the verb or whether the gender agreement is frozen. From a semantic point of view,
the verbs can be analyzed as bivalent or trivalent. The bivalent verbs have additional
arguments in the dative (49) or in-essive (50) or occasionally in other cases (51). Verbs
of speech preferably make use of the in-essive whereas other verbs mostly employ the
dative. Some of these verbs take additional complement clauses.

(48) a. zaˁnʁ d-uˁrq-/zaˁnʁ d-aˁq-; telepun d-aˁq-/telepun d-uˁrq- ‘call on the phone’
b. kumek b-irq’-/kumek b-arq’- ‘help’
c. tamaša b-arq’-/tamaša b-irq’- ‘wonder’

352
 19.1 Valency classes

d. urk’ec’i b-irq’-/urk’ec’i b-arq’-; urk’ec’i či-d-uq-/urk’ec’i či-d-ulq- ‘pity, feel sorry

for’
e. ʁaj b-irq’-/ʁaj b-arq’- ‘talk, tell, speak’
f. tiladi b-irq’-/tiladi b-arq’- ‘beg, request’
g. anru lukː-/anru b-ikː- ‘command’
h. ʁaj lukː-/ʁaj b-ikː- ‘promise’
i. qaˁb (sa)-b-urc-/qaˁb (sa)-b-urc- ‘embrace, hug’
(49) ucːi-l at zaˁnʁ d-aˁq-ib
brother-erg 2sg.dat ring npl-hit.pfv-pret
‘Brother called you.’ (E)
(50) xːunul-li tiladi b-arq’-ib ca-b hel-i-cːe, ma-∅-ax-utːa!
woman-erg request n-do.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-in proh-m-go.ipfv-proh.sg
r-ik’-ul
f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘His wife begged him: “Don’t go!”’
(51) du-l ala qaˁb b-urc-ul=da
1sg-erg 2sg.gen neck n-keep.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I am hugging you.’ (E)
(52) du-l at ci-k’al-la ʁaj a-b-ičː-ib=da
1sg-erg 2sg.dat what-indef-gen word neg-n-give.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not promise you anything.’

Some of the frozen objects occur in more than one construction. For instance, urk’ec’i,
when combined with a verb, can occur in the ergative construction with an agentive
experiencer (53), in a construction with a dative experiencer (71), and together with an
experiencer in the genitive (72). The stimulus is always a goal or beneficiary-like argu-
ment and therefore takes the dative.

(53) du-l ʡaˁjib-kar-t-a-j urk’ec’i b-irq’-id

1sg-erg guilt-nmlz-pl-obl-dat pity n-do.ipfv-1.prs
‘I pity the convicted.’ (E)

Note that Sanzhi also has a range of compound verbs with nouns marked by the gen-
itive or by spatial postpositions. However, the nouns used in such constructions are not
lexicalized objects but nominal parts of compound verbs. For examples see §12.2.2.

19.1.8 Bivalent affective verbs

Bivalent affective verbs are a relatively small class of two-place verbs with epxerien-
tial/affective semantics (54). They express unintentional and uncontrollable perception,
emotion, volition, cognitive activities and other non-agentive events and situations.

353
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(54) a. či-b-ig-/či-b-ag- ‘see’

b. t’am b-iq’-/t’am b-aq’- ‘hear’
c. b-ikː- ‘want, like, love’
d. b-irʁ-/b-arʁ- ‘understand’
e. qum urt-/qum ert- ‘forget’
f. b-alχ-/b-aχ- ‘know’
g. b-urkː-/b-arkː- ‘find’
h. han b-irk-/han b-irk- ‘remember, seem’
i. b-ičː-aq- ‘like, love’
j. či-b-b-irt’-/či-b-b-et’- ‘be bored’
k. b-irt’-/b-et’- ‘be bored’

Most bivalent affective verbs have an experiencer argument in the dative and a stim-
ulus argument in the absolutive. They follow the same agreement rules as transitive
verbs, i.e. gender/number agreement with the absolutive argument and person agree-
ment is ruled by the hierarchy 1, 2 > 3 (55), (56), and/or it is the experiencer that controls
the agreement (55), (56), or it is invariably third person (61), (70).

(55) dam qum.a.art-id cik’al

1sg.dat forget.ipfv.neg-hab.pst.1 anything
‘I did not forget anything.’
(56) dam ʡaˁħ musːa b-alχ-ad
1sg.dat good place n-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I know a good place.’

When inflected for some tenses such as the habitual past, the compound present (57)
or the future (58), (59) and in some types of subordinate clauses certain affective predi-
cates allow for the experiencer to bear the ergative instead of the dative case. The erga-
tive alignment pattern is more common in other Dargwa varieties such as Icari Dargwa,
and has been investigated from a diachronic perspective in Ganenkov (2013). In Sanzhi
Dargwa, it is less common and the precise conditions that allow for ergative experiencers
still need further investigation. In any case, it follows the same agreement rules as dative
experiencers, e.g. in (57) person agreement is controlled by the ergative experiencer and
in (58) by the absolutive stimulus.

(57) či-w-ig-ul akːʷa-di du-l heχ admi, xːunul=el

spr-m-see.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-1 1sg-erg dem.down person woman=indq
murgul=el
masculine=indq
‘I do not see this person (on the picture), whether it is female or male.’

354
 19.1 Valency classes

(58) u du-l nikagda qum.a.art-an=de

2sg 1sg-erg never forget.ipfv.neg-ptcp=2sg
‘I will never forget you.’
(59) na it du-l r-alχ-an=q’al het Saliħaˁt
now that 1sg-erg f-know.ipfv-ptcp=prt that Salikhat
‘I know her, that Salihat.’

It is not always possible to determine if a specific examples follows the person hier-
archy or if it is the experiencer, who controls the agreement (which can also be formu-
lated as semantic role hierarchy: experiencer > stimulus). For instance, in (60) the person
agreement enclitic on the verb =da expresses first person singular or plural and second
person plural agreement, such that it could be either the experiencer (in accordance with
the experiencer controlling agreement independently of person) or the stimulus (in ac-
cordance with the hierarchy) that functions as controller. Similarly, in both (55) and (60),
a first person experiencer controls the agreement suffix, which can be explained by the
person hierarchy or by the semantic role hierarchy).

(60) či-d-d-et’-ib-le=da, haʔ-ib=da, ušːa dam

spr-1/2pl-1/2pl-bore.pfv-pret-cvb=1/2pl say.pfv-pret=1 1pl 1sg.dat
‘“You (pl.) bored me,” I said.’

In general, experiencer verbs seem to allow for a higher degree of variation concern-
ing person agreement than transitive verbs. This includes the fact that under certain
circumstances the person agreement is third person although the clause contains a first
or second person dative pronoun in the semantic role of experiencer. For instance, with
the verb ‘forget’ both person agreement enclitics and third person agreement are found
in the Sanzhi corpus, but third person agreement prevails. Thus, in (58) we find second
person singular controlled by the stimulus and (55) the verb agrees with the experiencer
in the dative (first person singular). By contrast, in (61) and (62) the agreement is third
person instead of the expected first person agreement.

(61) qum.ert-ur-re ca-d dam cik’al

forget.pfv-pret-cvb cop-npl 1sg.dat thing
‘I have forgotten everything.’
(62) qum.urt-u dam, han kalg-unne akːu
forget.ipfv-prs.3 1sg.dat remember remain.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
‘I forget (it), I do not remember it.’

As the following minimal pair shows, the variation that the verb ‘forget’ shows be-
tween person agreement and invariably third person does not imply any differences in
meaning and is not tied to certain TAM forms (as it is the case for ergative experiencers,
which are only available for a restricted number of TAM forms, but for all affective verbs).
The variation includes forms with person suffixes and forms with person enclitics alike.

355
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

One and the same tense form can show variation as the following two examples of the
preterite demonstrate. The first sentence (63) shows person agreement with the first per-
son experiencer whereas the second sentence (64) has a verb form that corresponds to
the third person preterite (i.e. no person enclitic, no copula).

(63) dam qum.ert-ur=da w-ah-la šːi

1sg.dat forget.pfv-pret=1 m-owner-gen village
‘I (masc.) forgot my own village.’ (E)
(64) dam qum.ert-ur w-ah-la šːi
1sg.dat forget.pfv-pret m-owner-gen village
‘I (masc.) forgot my own village.’ (E)

Based on the data collected so far I am not able to explain the variation by means of lin-
guistic or extralinguistic factors. Another, more general question concerns the nature of
the third person forms in (61), (62), (64), and other affective verbs below, for which three
different hypotheses could be suggested. First, we can perhaps analyze it as third person
agreement controlled by the absolutive patient that overrules the agreement hierarchies
stated above. It would then follow the ergative pattern analogously to the ergative agree-
ment attested in certain TAM forms and discussed in §20.3.2. Alternatively, we can claim
that we deal with ‘suspended person agreement’ in the sense that the verb shows the
default person agreement form, namely third person, but this form does not underlie
control but shows actually the lack of an agreement controller.
A third alternative would be to suggest that the verbs in (61) and (62) are one-place
verbs and the dative pronouns are not genuine arguments of the verb but something
like adjuncts and can therefore not control the agreement.1 This argumentation could
be supported by the fact that even the verbs ‘see’ and ‘hear’, which are normally used
as two-place affective verbs can be used as one-place bivalent verbs with the meanings
‘be visible’ and ‘be audible’. In that case normally the dative experiencer can be omitted.
Thus, (65) can be used with a dative pronoun, in which case two translations are possible
‘I began to see the mountains.’ or ‘The mountains started to be visible to me.’ If the
pronoun is omitted, then the only translation is ‘The mountains started to be visible.’

(65) (dam) dubur-te či-d-ig-ul d-aʔ ašː-ib

1sg.dat mountain-pl spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb npl-begin begin.pfv-pret
‘I began to see the mountains.’ OR ‘The mountains started to be visible to me.’ (E)

Similarly, the verb ‘remember’ is a compound verb in which the verbal part consists of
the otherwise intransitive light verb b-ik- ‘occur’. I found only third person agreement in
all corpus examples as well as in elicitation, which suggests that the dative experiencer
is syntactically not an argument but an adjunct such as a goal (66).

1
If this approach can be corroborated by further research, then the discussed verbs and examples have to
be classified as monovalent affective verbs. For the sake of the argumentation and because I am unable to
draw a conclusion at the present moment I prefer to leave this part of the section where it is.

356
 19.1 Valency classes

(66) heχ-tːu-b han b-ič-ib dam kulpat=ra

dem.down-loc-hpl remember hpl-occur.pfv-pret 1sg.dat family=add
‘There I also remembered my family.’

There are some more predicates that can be classified as two-place affective predicates
because they come with two semantic roles, an experiencer and a stimulus, but which
differ from the predicates discussed so far in this section. First of all, there are two cop-
ula constructions with adverbials that mean ‘needed’ (67). In these constructions the
absolutive stimulus functions as copula subject and thus person and gender agreement
controller (68), or alternatively complement clauses can be used. The dative can be clas-
sified as copula predicate and its use is optional. The predicates therefore behave in the
same way as what has been said above about ‘see’ and ‘hear’, i.e., they can be used as
monovalent predicates without an experiencer in impersonal constructions or as biva-
lent affective verbs.

(67) a. ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-b ‘need, be necessary’2

b. ħaˁžat-le ca-b ‘need, be necessary’
(68) dam ħaˁžat-le ca-b ala kumek
1sg.dat need-advz cop-n 2sg.gen help
‘I need your help.’ (E)

There are two bivalent affective verbs that do not show person or gender agreement,
but invariable third person forms and the default gender agreement prefix d- (69).3 The
verb simi d-uq-/simi d-ulq- ‘be angry’, already mentioned in §19.1.4, is a one-place verb
that can be changed into a two-place verb with a further experiencer/goal argument in
the dative by adding the spatial preverb či- to it (70). This experiencer/goal argument
can never control person agreement (i.e. first person agreement in the examples below
is ungrammatical) and thus the person agreement is always third person. The identical
lexical verb with the same preverb con also occur in a compound with urk’ec’i ‘pity’ with
exactly the same morphosyntactic properties (71). Note that in (72) the dative pronoun
has been replaced by a genitive possessor that now encodes the semantic role of expe-
riencer. This examples is an indication that the dative pronouns in the other examples
(70) and (71) are not arguments but adjuncts, perhaps comparable to external possessor
that can be expressed in the dative or in the genitive.

(69) a. d-uq-/simi d-ulq- ‘be angry’

b. urk’ec’i d-uq-/urk’ec’i d-ulq- ‘pity’
2
This predicate can also occur with an experiencer argument in the absolutive that takes over the role as
copula subject and controls agreement. See example (33) in §20.2.1.
3
The same lexical item urk’ec’i ‘pity’ is used in another semantically very similar predicate together with the
lexical verb ‘do, make’. In that construction the lexical verb has the agreement prefix b- for neuter singular
(53). Therefore, the agreement prefix d- in (69) cannot be controlled by the items preceding the verbs but
must be a default prefix. In general, both b- and d- function as default agreement exponents in a number
of different constructions (§20.2.1).

357
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(70) dam simi či-d-ulq-u Sanžijat-li-j

1sg.dat anger spr-npl-direct.ipfv-prs Sanzhiat-obl-dat
‘I am angry with Sanzhiat.’ (E)
(71) dam urk’ec’i či-d-ulq-u Madina-la durħ-n-a-j
1sg.dat pity spr-npl-direct.ipfv-prs Madina-gen boy-pl-obl-dat
‘I pity Madina’s sons.’ (E)
(72) di-la urk’ec’i či-d-ulq-u Madina-la durħ-n-a-j
1sg-gen pity spr-npl-direct.ipfv-prs Madina-gen boy-pl-obl-dat
‘I pity Madina’s sons.’ (lit. My pity is directed onto Madina’s son.) (E)

Finally there are a few constructions with dative experiencers and a source-like or
cause-like stimulus arguments that bear the ante-ablative (73). This is the same case
that is used by some monovalent experiential verbs for marking the source/cause-like
arguments (24). In these constructions, there is again invariable third person agreement
and default neuter singular gender agreement that is frozen and not controlled by any
of the constituents (74–76).

(73) a. c’aχ ka-b-ircː-/c’aχ ka-b-icː; c’aχ-le ca-b ‘feel ashamed, be/become embarrassed’
b. c’aχ-le ca-b ‘be ashamed by ’
c. b-irt’-/b-et’- ‘long for’

(74) jaʁari Q’urban, dam a-sa-rka c’aχ-le=ra ca-b=q’al=nu

prt Kurban 1sg.dat 2sg-ante-abl shame-advz=add cop-n=mod=prt
‘Hey, Kurban, I am ashamed because of you.’
(75) dam Keno-sa-rka c’aχ ka-b-ircː-ur
1sg.dat Keno-ante-abl shame down-n-stand.ipfv-pret
‘I got embarrassed in front of Keno.’ (E)
(76) dam a-sa-r b-et’-ib ca-b
1sg.dat 2sg-ante-abl n-long.for.pfv-pret cop-n
‘I miss you.’ (E)

19.1.9 Labile verbs

Sanzhi Dargwa has a number of labile verbs that can be used as intransitive verbs (with
the corresponding morphology) or as transitive verbs. Because in Sanzhi arguments can
be omitted and are often omitted if their reference is clear from the context, at times
it can be difficult to identify labile verbs. Furthermore, occasionally transitive verbs oc-
cur in impersonal constructions without arguments that could syntactically be defined
as subjects or semantically identified as agents (77), (78). Outside of the constructions
shown in (77) and (78), the verb b-irq’- (ipfv)/b-arq’- (pfv) is transitive and I therefore
do not include it in the list of labile verbs.

358
 19.1 Valency classes

(77) χːula-ce duˁħi b-irq’-iri

big-dd.sg snow n-do.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘It used to snow a lot.’
(78) hež-itːe hak’ w-irq’-ul akːʷ-i
this-advz shake m-do.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-hab.pst
‘He was not shaking like this (i.e. he was not able to move).’

Sanzhi Dargwa makes use of different suffixes for the imperative of many intransitive
and transitive verbs, and the stem augment vowels in the prohibitive and the habitual
present also differ according to transitivity. Thus, the verbal morphology provides deci-
sive clues for deciding whether a verb is used intransitively or transitively.
The majority of the labile verbs are S=P-labile, preserving the argument with the pa-
tientive semantic role (79). The first example sentence in (80) shows the intransitive use,
and the second one in (81) illustrates the transitive use.

(79) a. (b-)ikːʷ- ‘burn’ (not specified for aspect)

b. b-elq’- (pfv)/luq’- (ipfv) ‘break, shatter, smash’
c. b-erc’- (pfv)/b-uc’- (ipfv) ‘fry, roast, bake’
d. b-ic’- (pfv)/b-irc’- (ipfv) ‘fill’
e. b-aˁč (pfv)/b-aˁlč (ipfv) ‘squeeze, break, crush, crack, trample’

(80) daˁrqʷ b-ikː-ub

barn n-burn-pret
‘The barn burnt.’ (E)
(81) χalq’-li qal c’a-l b-ikː-ul ca-b
people-erg house fire-erg n-burn-icvb cop-n
‘The people burn the house with fire.’ (E)

The prohibitive of the intransitive clause is given in (82), and the prohibitive of the
transitive can be found in (83).

(82) daˁrqʷ, ma-jkː-ut!

barn proh-burn-proh.sg
‘Barn, do not burn!’ (E)
(83) ej durħuˁ, qal ma-jkːʷ-it!
eh boy house proh-burn-proh.sg
‘Eh boy, do not burn the house!’ (E)

I found a few S=A labile verbs that preserve the subject-like argument, namely:

(84) a. b-elč’- (pfv)/b-uč’- (ipfv) ‘read, learn, study, sing’, (85), (86)
b. b-erkʷ- (pfv)/b-uk- (ipfv) ‘eat’

359
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

c. b-erčː- (pfv)/b-učː- (ipfv) ‘drink, smoke, consume’

d. b-arq’- (pfv)/b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘do, make, be busy’

Translational equivalents of ‘read’ are also labile in a number of other East Cauca-
sian languages (e.g. in Icari Dargwa, Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003: 154–155, and in Hinuq,
Forker 2013a: 492). Note that lability surfaces only with the imperfective aspect of those
verbs that can be used intransitively or transitively. This means that the perfective stems
always occur in transitive constructions.

(85) intransitive construction

a. uč’-un ca-w hež
read.m.ipfv-pret cop-m this
‘He is reading/studying.’ (E)
b. uč’-en / ma-wč’-ut!
learn.m.ipfv-imp / proh-learn.m.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Study!’ OR ‘Read!’/‘Do not study!’ OR ‘Do not read!’ (E)
(86) transitive construction
a. du-l kːazat b-uč’-an=da
1sg-erg newspaper n-read.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘I will read the newspaper.’ (E)
b. kiniga b-elč’-en / kiniga ma-b-uč’-it!
book n-read.pfv-imp / book proh-n-read.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Read the book!/Do not read the book!’ (E)

Furthermore, an optional P argument can be added in the intransitive use. This ar-
gument needs to be semantically plural and indefinite, and is marked with the ergative
case (87). This construction is called “antipassive” in Dargwa languages and treated in
more detail in §19.2.1.

(87) hana Sanijat kiniga-b-a-l r-uč’-unne ca-r

now Sanijat book-pl-obl-erg f-read.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Now Sanijat reads books.’ (E)

19.2 Modification of valency patterns

Sanzhi Dargwa has two major means of modifying the valency patterns of verbs, the
antipassive as a detransitivizing operation (§19.2.1), and the causative as an argument-
increasing operation (§19.2.2). There are no potential constructions, which in other East
Caucasian languages are used to detransitive verbs. There is also no biabsolutive con-
struction, which would allow for the use of two absolutive arguments with a transitive
verb.

360
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

19.2.1 Antipassive
Sanzhi Dargwa has an antipassive that is formed by reversing the case marking of A
and P in a clause with a canonical transitive predicate (88–89). Since both A and P are
obligatorily arguments in the antipassive construction, it is not an argument-decreasing
operation, although the A argument is frequently covert in examples from natural texts.
The verb remains unmarked, but the gender/number agreement on the verb changes.
Due to the lack of formal marking on the verb the antipassive in Sanzhi is not a typical
antipassive from a typological perspective (Polinsky 2005).

(88) ergative construction

it-i-l kːurtːi b-urχ-u
that-obl-erg dress n-sew.ipfv-prs.3
‘S/he sews a dress.’ (E)
(89) antipassive construction
it kurtːi-l r-urχ-u
that dress-erg f-sew.ipfv-prs.3
‘She is a dressmaker.’ OR ‘She habitually sews dresses.’ (E)

Apart from being restricted to only one predicate class, namely canonical transitive
verbs, the antipassive is additionally constrained in other ways:

1. Only the A argument can be omitted. In texts, it is frequently omitted as the exam-
ples in (90) and (91) show. The overt presence of the P argument is obligatory in
order to have an antipassive construction, and it is usually the best indicator of the
antipassive because the gender agreement affixes do not unambiguously indicate
the controller.
2. It is largely (if not fully) restricted to imperfective verb stems and consequently
to those tenses that are available for verbs with imperfective stems such as, for in-
stance, the compound present, the compound past, the habitual present, the habit-
ual past, the future forms and the obligative forms. Other tenses, e.g. the preterite
or the resultative, cannot be used for antipassive constructions because they are ba-
sically formed from the perfective stems. It can also occur in subordinate clauses if
the respective clause types allow for verb forms based on stems with imperfective
aspect. For instance, (90) and (92) show adverbial clauses with antipassive con-
structions, (91) shows a complement clause, and (93) a relative clause. In (90) the
verb in the main clause is intransitive. Due to the antipassive constructions in the
preceding sentences the subject that is shared in all three clauses would be in the
absolutive case if it would occur overtly. At the first glance, one might think that
the antipassive has been used in order to make argument sharing across the three
clauses possible, but this is not the case. There are (almost) no syntactic restric-
tions on co-reference and shared argument between adverbial and main clauses
(90). Therefore, the use of standard transitive constructions with ergative subjects

361
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

would be equally grammatical in the two adverbial clauses. In other words, the an-
tipassive is not needed for pivot modulation. On the contrary, it is used for purely
semantic reasons.

(90) [baliqː-a-l d-ucː-ul hel-itːe] [c’idex-li d-uk-unne]

fish-obl-erg 1/2pl-bake.ipfv-icvb that-dd fruit-erg 1/2pl-eat.ipfv-icvb
d-už-ib=da
1/2.pl-be-pret=1
‘Frying fish, eating fruits we stayed.’
(91) hel-tː-a-l bursːi w-arq’-ib=da [qːama-l učː-ij]
that-pl-obl-erg teach m-do.pfv-pret=1 hemp-erg consume.m.ipfv-inf
‘They taught me to smoke marihuana.’
(92) ħaˁz-t-a-l b-irq’-ib=qːel, ʡaˁt’a-cːe-r durħuˁ=ra
game-pl-obl-erg hpl-do.ipfv-pret=when frog-in-abl boy=add
kac’i=ra b-arcː-ur-re, ka-b-isː-un
puppy=add hpl-get.tired.pfv-pret-cvb down-hpl-sleep.pfv-pret
b-usː-anaj
hpl-sleep.pfv-subj.3
‘When they played with the frog, the boy and his dog got tired and lay
down to sleep.’
(93) [deč-li b-učː-an] juldašː-e
drinking-erg hpl-drink.ipfv-ptcp friend-pl
‘the drinking friends’

3. Not all transitive verbs allow for the antipassive construction. The majority of
antipassive clauses in the Sanzhi corpus contain either of the three verbs b-uk- ‘eat’
(95), b-učː- ‘drink, consume, smoke’ (91), (93), and b-irq’- ‘do, make, be busy’ (92),
(103), but a few more are also attested (101). Typical verbs for which the antipassive
is not available are verbs for which it is unclear what the result of the action that
they denote would be (94b).4

(94) a. ergative construction

Rašid-li mašin qːurt b-irq’-ul ca-b
Rashid-erg car push n-do.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘Rashid is pushing a/the car.’ (E)
b. ergative construction
Rašid mašin-ni qːurt ∅-irq’-ul ca-w
Rashid car-erg push m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘A/the car is pushing Rashid.’ (NOT: ‘Rashid is pushing a/the car.’) (E)
4
An anonymous reviewer pointed out that the unavialability of the antipassive reading in (94b) might also
be due to the fact that the antipassive expresses repeated or habitual situations. This is possible and more
research is needed to give a conclusive answer for why this example cannot be interpreted as antipassive.

362
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

4. The antipassive is not available with first or second person patients. There are no
person restrictions on the agent (95), (97a), but the patient must be third person.

(95) du t’ult’-li r-uk-un-ne=da

1sg bread-erg f-eat.ipfv-pret-cvb=1
‘I (fem.) am eating bread.’ (E)

5. There are animacy restrictions: it is impossible for A and P to be both animate or

both inanimate. The last two constraints are not really syntactic in nature since
the resulting clauses are grammatical. However, the meaning would not be what is
intended. If we switch the case marking of A and P in (96a) the outcome is simply
a normal clause in which the roles of A and P have been reversed (96b).

(96) a. aždaha-l du ∅-ukː-unne=da

monster-erg 1sg m-eat.ipfv-icvb=1
‘The monster is eating me.’ (E)
b. du-l aždaha b-ukː-unne=da
1sg-erg monster n-eat.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I am eating the monster.’ (NOT: ‘The monster is eating me.’) (E)

Syntactically, the antipassive is a detransitivizing operation. The main proof for this
is, of course, that the A argument occurs in the absolutive case and controls the gen-
der agreement, whereas the P argument takes the ergative case. The functional range
of the ergative comprises not only the expression of agents, but also of other semantic
roles with a more peripheral status (adjuncts), most notably instruments (§3.4.1.2). The
ergative P of the antipassive largely fits into this range. Furthermore, the distinction be-
tween suffixes for intransitive and for transitive verbs that is made in the imperative and
in the prohibitive shows that verbs in the antipassive construction are detransitivized.
Thus, the prohibitive suffixes for intransitive verbs are -ut (sg)/-utːaja (pl) with the stem
augment vowel u, whereas the transitive verbs have -it (sg)/-itːaja (pl) with the stem
augment i (§17.2). The antipassive construction requires the same prohibitive suffix as
intransitive verbs (97), which is ungrammatical in the ergative construction (98).

(97) antipassive construction

a. ušːa hin-ni ma-d-učː-utːaja!
2pl water-erg proh-1/2pl-drink.ipfv-proh.pl
‘You do not drink water (regularly)!’ (E)
b. dig-li ma-w-k-ut!
meat-erg proh-m-eat.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not (always) eat meat!’ (said to a man) (E)

363
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(98) ergative construction

a. ušːa-l hin ma-d-učː-itːaja!
2pl-erg water proh-npl-drink.ipfv-proh.pl
‘You do not drink the water!’ (E)
b. dig ma-b-uk-it!
meat proh-n-eat.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not eat the meat!’ (E)

The major problem in the analysis of antipassive constructions concerns the closeness
to S=A labile verbs that can be used intransitively and transitively, thereby preserving
the agent argument (§19.1.9). For instance, the imperfective stem of the verb b-elč’- (pfv)/
b-uč’- (ipfv) ‘read, learn, study, sing’ can be used in an intransitive construction. When
adding the ergative adjunct student-li (student-erg) to (99) the translation is unambigu-
ously ‘she studies (at a university as a student)’. The same verb can be used in a transitive
construction with an ergative agent and an absolutive patient (100).

(99) it r-uč’-unne ca-r

that f-read.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She reads/studies.’ (E)
(100) it-i-l turk-me d-uč’-unne ca-d
that-obl-erg nasheed-pl npl-read.ipfv-icvb cop-npl
‘S/he reads (i.e. sings) nasheeds.’ (E)

In the antipassive construction, to the intransitive clause in (99) a P argument in the

plural marked with the ergative case is added (101). The presence of the P argument is
the only difference between the two sentences (99) and (101). Thus, instead of speaking
of an antipassive construction we can also say that Sanzhi has a number of S=A labile
verbs that are used intransitively with an optional nominal in the ergative that has syn-
tactically rather the status of an adjunct.

(101) it turk-m-a-l r-uč’-unne ca-r

that nasheed-pl-obl-erg f-read.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She reads (i.e. sings) nasheeds.’ (E)

The verb b-irq’- (ipfv)/b-arq’- (pfv) ‘do, make, be busy’ belongs to the verbs that fre-
quently occur in antipassive constructions (92) and can also be used intransitively with-
out any P argument (102). For this verb, there is a further possibility of use in weather
constructions in which there is no A argument (77). The latter construction thus resem-
bles S=P-labile verbs (§19.1.9).

(102) it r-irq’-ul ca-r

that f-do.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She is busy.’ (E)

364
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

In sum, we can divide verbs in Sanzhi into three classes:

1. the class of verbs that do not allow for the antipassive construction at all as exem-
plified by (94) above
2. the class of S=A labile verbs that allow for transitive and intransitive use with
or without a patient such as b-irq’- (ipfv) (pfv) ‘do, make, be busy’ and b-uč’-
(ipfv) ‘read, learn, study, sing’; if an ergative patient is present we can speak of
the antipassive construction (92), (101)
3. the class of verbs that form an antipassive with an obligatory P argument that can
never be omitted; the verb b-ux- (ipfv) ‘tell’ belongs to the latter class since in
clauses such as (109) the patient needs to occur overtly

The use of antipassives is semantically rather than syntactically motivated. It has ha-
bitual semantics, which is typical for antipassives in general and antipassives in East
Caucasian languages in particular (89) (see, e.g., van den Berg 2003a, Tatevosov 2011,
Comrie et al. Forthcoming). Most notably, in all corpus examples the P argument is in-
definite and usually in the plural or it has the meaning of a mass noun. Morphologically
singular P arguments are only allowed if they can have mass noun readings. The P ar-
gument does not refer to a particular, specified object, but is semantically demoted. The
sentences refer to repeatedly or habitually occurring actions. For instance, in (103) the
speaker was talking about the life of her grandfather and how he used to be, which types
of work he used to do.

(103) χatːaj ʡaˁči-l w-irq’-i, …

grandfather work-erg m-do.ipfv-hab.pst
‘Grandfather used to work, [as a builder, as …]’
(104) c’il ag-ur lak […] turk-m-a-l b-uč’-unne hetːi
then go.pfv-pret up nasheed-pl-obl-erg hpl-sing.ipfv-icvb those
ʡaˁrab-la ʁaj-li illallah b-ik’-ul
Arabic-gen word-erg Illallah hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘(The bandits) went upwards […], singing a nasheed in Arabic, “Illallah”’
(105) debʁul-m-a-l b-irq’-ul b-už-ib-le=de
prayer-pl-obl-erg hpl-do.ipfv-icvb hpl-be-pret-cvb=pst
‘They were apparently praying.’
(106) “hel b-ik-ul=da,” ∅-ik’-ul, “heštːu,” nišːi-j kaʁur-t-a-l
that n-lead.ipfv-icvb=1 m-say.ipfv-icvb here 1pl-dat letter-pl-obl-erg
luk’-unne
write.ipfv-icvb
‘Saying “I drive that, here”, he was writing letters to us.’

365
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(107) ʡaˁžib qːuʁa ʡaˁjur-t-a-l b-irq’-ul=de, nišːa-la-te

surprising beautiful dance-pl-obl-erg hpl-do.ipfv-icvb=pst 1pl-gen-dd.pl
daˁʡle akːʷ-ar, χːula xːun-re=ra
as cop.neg-prs.3 big woman-pl=add
‘They were dancing surprisingly beautifully, not like our (women), also the
elderly women.’

By contrast, the P argument in the ergative construction can have a definite inter-
pretation, referring to specific object. Thus, compare (108) in which the subject referent
is telling a specific story5 to (109), which refers to the action of storytelling without
specifying the stories further, but could rather be a characterization of the person as a
story-teller.6

(108) ergative construction

hež-i-l χabar b-urs-ul ca-b
this-obl-erg story n-tell-icvb cop-n
‘He tells the story.’
(109) antipassive construction
hež χabur-t-a-l ux-ul ca-w
this story-pl-obl-erg tell.m.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘He tells stories.’

19.2.2 Causativization
Sanzhi has a very productive derivational process for the formation of causativized pred-
icates by means of the suffix -aq. The derived causativized verbs behave like any other
underived verbs, i.e., there are no differences in the range of verbal forms and construc-
tions in which they may appear. The suffixation of -aq does not have any impact on the
aspectual properties of the verb, such that the differences between imperfective verbs
and perfective verbs are preserved. In addition, there are other formal means for making
causative constructions such as auxiliary change.
Causative constructions are very widespread among the East Caucasian languages,
though not all languages have dedicated derivational suffixes. In Sanzhi Dargwa, causa-
tivization normally applies only once to the verbal stem, but in elicitation it can also be
added twice. When it is added to the verb, usually the number of arguments of the verb
is augmented by one. This means that a monovalent verb becomes bivalent whereby S
changes to P and a second argument, the ergative A in the role of the causer is intro-
duced.
5
This is clear from the context of the example. Without a context the same sentence could also be translated
as ‘He tells a story.’
6
The two verb in the examples represent two distinct lexemes, which are partially in complementary distri-
bution because of their aspectual properties. The verb in (109) is used as the imperfective counterpart of
the verb b-urs-ij, which occurs in (108). It is morphologically defective because it can only be inflected for
the imperfective converb and the modal participle, whereas b-urs-ij can be inflected for all verb forms and
is aspectually neuter. The exact relationship between the two verbs requires further investigation.

366
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

(110) intransitive
heχ urχːab lus b-ik’-u
dem.down mill around n-move.ipfv-prs.3
‘This mill spins around.’ (E)
(111) intransitive
heχ-i-l heχ urχːab lus b-ik’-aq-u
dem.down-obl-erg dem.down mill around n-move.ipfv-caus-prs.3
‘This makes the mill spin around.’
(112) transitive
Sanži-b b-ik’-u=w ij=ʁuna?
Sanzhi-n n-grow.ipfv-prs.3=q this=eq
‘Does something like this grows in Sanzhi?’
(113) transitive
Marijam-li χijal-te d-ač’-aq-ib
Marijam-erg cucumber-pl npl-grow.pfv-caus-pret
‘Marijam was growing cucumbers.’ (E)

Similarly, after causativization the S argument of bivalent extended intransitive pred-

icates (114) becomes P and thus does not change its case marking, the second argument
also remains unchanged and a third argument, the causer in the form of an ergative A
is added (115).

(114) extended intransitive

χalq’ qːarq-ne arž-i
people stone-pl go.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘The people turned into stones.’ (E)
(115) extended transitive
hek’ ħaˁšukː-a-d rurčː-an χːink’-e ʡaˁt’-ne arž-aq-i
dem.up pot-loc-npl boil-ptcp khinkal-pl frog-pl go.ipfv-caus-hab.pst.3
heχ Irbihin-ni
dem.down Irbihin-erg
‘Irbihin turned the khinkal that was boiling in the pot into frogs.’ (E)

Bivalent transitive predicates become trivalent extended transitive predicates when

they are causativized, and the former As become Gs whereas Ps are unaffected (116).
The G argument, that is, the causee, must be marked with the in-lative case. This case
is frequently used in valency patterns of various predicates for semantic roles such as
addressee, goal or beneficiary, which explains its use in causative constructions. The
causee has semantic properties close to these roles since it is the argument, at which the
action is directed and that might profit from it.

367
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

(116) a. transitive
Madina-l kaš b-uk-unne=de
Madina-erg porridge n-eat.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘Madina was eating porridge.’ (E)
b. extended transitive
aba-l Madina-cːe kaš b-erk-aq-un
mother-erg Madina-in porridge n-eat.pfv-caus-pret
‘Mother made Madina eat porridge.’ (E)

In the Sanzhi corpus, causativized transitive verbs are rather rare. Sentences (117) and
(118) show two instances. Many corpus examples of causative constructions have intran-
sitive base verbs such as (111) and (113) above, but causativized affective verbs also occur
frequently (122).

(117) heχ cara zapisat b-irq’-aq-an=da du-l il-i-cːe

dem.down other record n-do.ipfv-caus-ptcp=1 1sg-erg that-obl-in
‘If it is like this, I will also make him record that other (story).’
(118) heχ-tːi durħ-n-a-cːe b-erčː-aq-araj
dem.down-pl boy-pl-obl-in n-drink.pfv-caus-subj.3
‘to make the boys drink’

With bivalent experiential predicates there are two possibilities: either one argument
is added or the number of arguments is preserved. In the first case, the experiencer (the
former A) becomes G without changing its case marking, but an additional A is added
to the clause because the derived verb is trivalent (119b).

(119) a. Madina-j jangi kːurtːi či-b-až-ib

Madina-dat new dress spr-n-see.pfv-pret
‘Madina saw a new dress.’ (E)
b. Pat’ima-l Madina-j jangi kːurtːi či-b-iž-aq-ib
Patima-erg Madina-dat new dress spr-n-see.ipfv-caus-pret
‘Patima showed Madina a new dress.’ (E)

The same option is available for the causative of ‘know’, which translates as ‘tell, in-
form, make know’ (120). It is also possible for the experiencer argument to change its case
marking from dative to in-lative because the latter case is regularly used for addressees
with verbs of speech, but also for causees of causativized transitive and extended transi-
tive verbs (121), (122).

(120) il-i-l bari-li-j barkalla b-aχ-aq-ur

that-obl-erg sun-obl-dat thanks n-know.pfv-caus-pret
‘He thanked the sun.’

368
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

(121) [ce ag-ur=el], Allah, b-aχ-aq-a=kːʷa di-cːe!

what go.pfv-pret=indq Allah n-know.pfv-caus-imp=prt 1sg-in
‘Allah, tell me what happened.’
(122) tuχtur Maˁħaˁmmad-li χalq’-li-cːe w-arčː-aq-ij
doctor Mahammad-erg people-obl-in m-find.pfv-caus-inf
‘(that) doctor Mahammad makes the people find (him)’

The second option for affective verbs is not to have any change in the argument struc-
ture of the predicate such that both grammatical relations (A and P) as well as semantic
roles remain unaltered. Only the semantics of the predicate slightly changes when the
verb is causativized (123a–123b) and acquires a more agentive reading. This becomes es-
pecially obvious when the ergative instead of the dative is used to encode the experiencer
of a causativized affective predicate. Verbs that choose this strategy are b-ikː- ‘want, like’,
b- arkː- (pfv) ‘find’, and han d-irk- (ipfv) ‘remember’ (>han d-irč-aq-).

(123) a. aba-j durħuˁ w-ikː-u

mother-dat boy m-want.ipfv-prs.3
‘Mother likes/wants her son.’ (E)
b. Murad-li-j Madina r-ičː-aq-ib
Murad-obl-dat Madina f-want.ipfv-caus-pret
‘Murad loved Madina.’ (E)
(124) d-aq ħaˁkim-dex d-ičː-aq-u di-la ucːiq’ar-li-j
npl-much official-nmlz npl-want.ipfv-caus-prs.3 1sg-gen cousin-obl-dat
‘My cousin loves official appointments very much.’

If trivalent predicates are causativized, then A becomes the causee with the appropri-
ate case suffix (in-lative) and a new causer in the ergative is added to the clause (125).
Since the verb b-ikː- (pfv)/lukː- (ipfv) ‘give’ assigns not only the dative case to the recip-
ient, but alternatively also the in-lative, it is possible to have two arguments with the
same case marking in a clause with the causativized verb ‘give’ (126). Due to the identical
case marking such clauses are ambiguous.

(125) atːa-l it-i-cːe dam xːun či-b-až-aq-aq-ib

father-erg that-obl-in 1sg.dat way spr-n-see.pfv-caus-caus-pret
‘Father made him show me the way.’ (E)
(126) atːa-l di-cːe it-i-cːe kiniga b-ičː-aq-ib
father-erg 1sg-in that-obl-in book n-give.pfv-caus-pret
‘Father made me give him the book.’ OR ‘Father made him give me the book.’ (E)

In sum, if an additional argument is added by means of causativization, it is always a

causer marked with the ergative, independently of the valency class of the base predicate.
Because the causer takes the subject position, the original subject (S or A) is demoted

369
19 Valency classes and modification of valency patterns

into a non-subject position (S > P, A > G), taking over the highest free position on the
hierarchy of grammatical relations. For S this is the direct object position (P); for A this is
the indirect object position (G) since the direct object position (P/T) is already occupied.
It is never P or T that is affected when bivalent or trivalent predicates are causativized
such that causativization can perhaps be taken as a weak indicator of an accusative pivot
(see the discussion of grammatical roles in §22.3).
Double causativization seems to be possible, as (125) shows, and can lead to the addi-
tion of two arguments (i.e. the two-place verb ‘see’ becomes a four place verb). However,
it can also be used for emphasis only such that the second causativization does not result
in the addition of a second argument (129). In the corpus I found only one example of this
(130). The precise properties of double causative constructions are hard to determine be-
cause speakers have divergent intuitions about the acceptability and meaning of elicited
examples and the only corpus example (130) is difficult to understand and to judge, even
within its context.

(127) χːu-de d-iħ-ib

dog-pl npl-wrestle.pfv-pret
‘The dogs fought.’ (E)
(128) ʡaˁli-l χːu-de d-iħ-aˁq-ib
Ali-erg dog-pl npl-wrestle.pfv-caus-pret
‘Ali made the dogs fight.’ (E)
(129) ʡaˁli-l χːu-de d-iħ-aˁq-aˁq-ib
Ali-erg dog-pl npl-wrestle.pfv-caus-caus-pret
‘Ali made the dogs fight.’ (E)
(130) hek’-i-l b-aˁq-ib-le, d-iħ-aˁq-aˁq-ib=da
dem.up-obl-erg n-strike.pfv-pret-cvb 1/2pl-wrestle.pfv-caus-caus-pret=1
∅-ik’-ul
m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘He hit her, and “(we) were made to fight”, he says.’

The meaning of causative constructions can be described as the expression of “a causal

relation between two events, one of which is believed by the speaker to be caused by the
other” (Kulikov 2011). Depending on the semantics of the predicate and on the context,
the meaning of the causative construction can be close to force (‘make do X’, ‘cause to X’),
but it can also be ‘soft causation’, i.e., asking, requesting or begging (131), or sometimes
even quite idiosyncratic and unpredictable. Thus, the meaning of the causativized intran-
sitive verb b-ucː- ‘work’ is ‘support, sustain’ (134) in addition to the expected causative
meaning of ‘make work’.

(131) χabar b-urs-aq-an=da

story n-tell-caus-ptcp=1
‘We will ask for a story to be told.’

370
 19.2 Modification of valency patterns

(132) d-ikː-an-il-li-j asː-aq-ij iχ-tːi=ra

npl-want.ipfv-ref-ptcp-obl-dat buy.pfv-caus-inf dem.down-pl=add
χe-d
exist.down-npl
‘They are also for those who want to buy them.’ (lit. ‘They are to make buy
those who want them.’)
(133) b-irq’-ul k’ʷel ʡaˁbal bar b-ucː-ib-le
n-do.ipfv-icvb two three day hpl-work-pret-cvb
‘(they were) building, working for three days’
(134) hel-i-l cin-na kulpat b-ucː-aq-ul ca-b
that-obl-erg refl.sg-gen family hpl-work-caus-icvb cop-hpl
‘He feeds his family (he sustains his family working).’ OR ‘He makes his family
work.’

Another way of forming causative constructions is by means of transitive light verbs.

This operation is applied with compound verbs that contain intransitive light verbs
(§12.1).

371
20 Agreement
Sanzhi Dargwa has gender, number and person agreement. Formally, there are several
systems of agreement exponents that act completely independently from each other and
are therefore treated separately. We can distinguish between pure number agreement,
combined gender/number agreement and person agreement. Pure number agreement
occurs noun-phrase internally and at the clausal level with a restricted number of TAM
forms (§20.1). Combined gender and number agreement is attested for the vast majority
of East Caucasian languages, including Sanzhi Dargwa (§20.2). It is often found within
the noun phrase and at the clausal level with all TAM forms, including verb forms such as
converbs and participles. Person agreement is rather rare for East Caucasian languages.
Among the languages that have it are Dargwa languages such as Sanzhi (§20.3), Lak,
Tabasaran, Batsbi (Tsova-Tush), Udi, and to a lesser extend Hunzib, Akhvakh, and some
Avar varieties (see Helmbrecht 1996; van den Berg 1999; Schulze 2011). It only occurs at
the level of the clause.
I will use the terms “agreement”, “target”, and “controller” in the sense of Corbett 2006
to describe the properties of the three types of agreement in Sanzhi.

20.1 Pure number agreement

Pure number agreement is found in the noun phrase and at the clausal level. Within the
noun phrase, demonstrative pronouns (§4.2) and definite descriptions formed by means
of the cross-categorical suffix -ce (§9.6.1) agree with the head noun in number. If the
head noun is in the plural the demonstrative pronoun must occur in the plural and the
cross-categorical suffix must change to -te (or be omitted) (1), (2).
(1) hin-na χːula-ce šuˁra
water-gen big-dd.sg puddle
‘a big puddle of water’
(2) χːula-te q’asta-ne le-d
big-dd.pl target-pl exist-npl
‘There are big targets.’
Noun phrases modified by numerals other than ca ‘one’ are semantically plural and
thus require demonstratives to appear in the plural and prohibit the use of the singular
cross-categorical suffix1 although no overt plural marking on the noun occurs (3). Some
mass nouns also require plural agreement even though they are not overtly marked for
plural, e.g. terms for ethnic groups of inhabitants of villages (6).
1
The suffix can also be omitted because the adjectives in attributive function can generally occur with or
without it.
20 Agreement

(3) hel-tːi ʡaˁbal d-uqna(-te) q’ʷal

that-pl three npl-old-dd.pl cow
‘those three old cows’ (E)

At the clausal level pure number agreement is expressed by means of the special plu-
ral suffix of the optative, -ar-te, which is only used for plural addressees (4) (§17.3), and
through the cross-categorical suffixes -ce (plural -te) and -il in those periphrastic verb
forms, which make use of the suffixes (experiential I, experiential II, obligative present).
Singular agreement controllers require -ce (5) or -il (7); plural agreement controllers re-
quire -te (6), (8). This type of agreement follows ergative alignment. For one-place verbs
and extended intransitive verbs the number agreement controller is the single argument
in the absolutive (5), (6); with transitive verbs and affective verbs the number agree-
ment controller is the absolutive patient or stimulus (7), (8). More examples are given in
§20.3.2.

(4) Allah-li ʡaˁħ-le d-at-arte!

Allah-erg good-advz 1/2pl-let.pfv-opt.pl
‘May Allah leave you (plural) well!’
(5) du w-ax-an-ce=da
1sg m-go.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg=1
‘I (masc.) will go/have to go.’ (E)
(6) hetːi li<b>il=ra čːuˁħrug ka-b-eʁ-ib=qːel,
those all<hpl>=add Chakhri.people down-hpl-go.pfv-pret=when
ka-d-eʁ-ib-te=da
down-1/2pl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1
‘When all Chakhri people moved to the lowlands, we (also) moved.’
(7) du-l julʁan-ni-gu-w w-arq’-ib-il ca-w
1sg-erg blanket-obl-sub-m m-do.pfv-pret-dd.sg cop-m
‘I gave birth to (my son) under a blanket.’ [modified corpus example]
(8) [The others are hiding.]
c’il u-l b-urkː-an-te ca-b hel-tːi
then 2sg-erg hpl-find.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl cop-hpl that-pl
‘Then you have to find them.’ [modified corpus example]

20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

20.2.1 General remarks on gender/number agreement
Combined gender/number agreement is a pervasive feature of East Caucasian languages
including Sanzhi Dargwa. It is possible that within one clause three, four, or even more
linguistic items agree with one and the same agreement controller. Sanzhi has three

374
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

genders that have a transparent semantic basis: masculine, feminine, and neuter (§3.1).
Agreement targets for gender/number agreement can be divided according to the same
two agreement domains that have been mentioned for pure number agreement in the pre-
vious section, i.e. (i) the clausal domain (§22.1), and (ii) domain of the noun phrase (§21.1).
Within the domains the various targets can co-occur, depending on the morphosyntac-
tic context (i.e. a noun in the essive case can but need not to be accompanied by an
agreeing postposition). Example (9) illustrates agreement within a clause. Four targets
(lexical verb, copula, noun and postposition) agree with the agreement controller (a nom-
inal with a masculine singular referent), which is not overtly expressed. The noun phrase
in (10) contains two agreeing modifiers, a quantifier and an adjective.

Clausal domain
• most vowel-initial verbs (§11.3)
• a few compound verbs with bound lexical stems (e.g. b-al ‘together’, b-at ‘set
free, let’), the spatial preverbs b-i- ‘in, inside’ and b-it- ‘thither’ (§11.6)
• the standard copula (§16.1) as well as the locative copulas (§16.2) (including the
negative locative/existential copula b-akːu)
• the postpositions/adverbs b-i ‘in’, b-alli ‘together’, b-arxle ‘directly, straight’
• all items that can be inflected for the essive case, e.g. nouns, pronouns, spatial ad-
verbs, postpositions, and all items that inflect for the directional case, i.e. mostly
spatial adverbs (§3.4)

(9) na w-isː-ul ca-w tusnaq-le-w w-i-w

now m-cry-icvb cop-m prison-loc-m m-in-m
‘Now he is crying in prison.’

Domain of the noun phrase

• a handful of adjectives (§5.1)
• the quantifier li<b>il ‘all’ and group numerals (§6.4)
• the derivational suffixes -či-b and -azi-b, which derive adjectives (§5.3)
• nouns, which function as modifiers in noun phrases and are inflected for the
essive case (§3.4)

(10) li<d>il d-ac’ šuš-ne

all<npl> npl-empty bottle-pl
‘all empty bottles’ (E)

Furthermore, a small number of nouns (e.g. b-ah ‘owner, master’) (§3.1) and reflex-
ive pronouns in the absolutive (§4.3) and one reciprocal pronoun (§4.4) contain gender
exponents that express the gender of the referent.

375
20 Agreement

The agreement affixes are given in Table 20.1. (Almost) all forms can occur as prefixes,
suffixes, and infixes.2 The only exception to this rule is the zero marking for mascu-
line singular agreement, which is only possible in the prefixal position (see below for
examples). Verbs (except for copulas) and adjectives have prefixes; the other agreement
targets have suffixes or infixes. The agreement slots for prefixes, suffixes, and infixes are
obligatorily filled for all targets that have them (i.e. all agreement targets with agreement
slots always exhibit agreement).

Table 20.1: Agreement affixes in Sanzhi

sg 1/2pl 3pl
masculine w/∅ d b
feminine r d b
neuter b d

As Table 20.1 shows, there are fewer distinctions in the plural than in the singular, be-
cause masculine and feminine are united in human plural agreement. In addition, human
plural is conditioned by person: first and second person plural agreement controllers are
marked with d, third person with b. This phenomenon is also found in other Dargwa va-
rieties, Archi, Ingush, and Chechen (see, e.g. Chumakina et al. 2007 and Corbett 2012:
239–251 for analyses of Archi) (25).
The prefix for masculine singular is w-, but it is (optionally) deleted when it occurs
between vowels or in initial position when followed by the vowels /i/ or /u/. Deletion of
/w/ between two vowels leads to vowel lengthening when the two vowels have the same
quality, e.g. a-w-ax-an=da (neg-m-go-ptcp=1) > aːxanda ‘I will not go’ (vs. a-r-ax-an=da
for female speakers), or the vowel quality changes according to the standard sandhi rules.
For instance, a-w-irχ-ud (neg-m-be.able.ipfv-1.prs) > a-irχud > erχud ‘I cannot’ (vs. a-r-
irχ-ud for female speakers) (see §2.6 for morphophonological rules). When occurring
in initial position before i the prefix w- is optionally omitted, e.g. ∅-ik’-ud/w-ik’-ud (m-
say.ipfv-1.prs) vs. r-ik’-ud (f-say.ipfv-1.prs) ‘I say’. Before u the deletion is obligatory,
e.g. ∅-uq-un/*w-uq-un (m-go.pfv-pret) vs. r-uq-un (f-go.pfv-pret) ‘I went’.
There are two agreement domains for gender agreement, the noun phrase and the
clause, which follow two different rules. Within the noun phrase, modifiers agree with
the head in gender and number independently of the case marking on the head (11)- (14)
(see §21.1 for the syntax of noun phrases).

(11) a. ∅-uqna admi ‘old person’ b-uqna adimte ‘old people’

b. r-uqna xːunul ‘old woman’ b-uqna xːunre ‘old women’
c. b-uqna χːʷe ‘old dog’ d-uqna χːude ‘old dogs’
2
There are only two agreement targets that have infixes, namely the quantifier li<b>il ‘all’ (10) and a variant
of the standard copula ca<b>i. The form ca<b>i is used by a few speakers of Sanzhi in free variation with
the much more common form ca-b. The quantifier li-b-il is diachronically complex and the gender marker
is rather a suffix added to a stem li- and followed by the referential attributive suffix -il.

376
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

(12) di-la ∅-uqna χatːaj

1sg-gen m-old grandfather
‘my old grandfather’
(13) r-uqna aba le-r=de di-la
f-old mother exist-f=pst 1sg-gen
‘My old mother was alive.’ (i.e. existed).
(14) b-arx xːun-ne k-ercː-an=da
n-straight way-loc down-stand.ipfv.m-ptcp=1
‘I will be on the straight road.’ (i.e. I will not behave badly)

Note that within the noun phrase as well as within the clause, gender agreement with
a noun modified by a numeral other than ca ‘one’ is semantically based, i.e. it is plural, al-
though the noun itself does not bear an overt plural suffix. See §20.2.2 below for another
example and §21.1.2 for number marking and agreement within the noun phrase.
Within the clause, the agreement controller is most commonly the argument in the
absolutive, though it is not necessarily overtly present in the clause. This rule applies in-
dependently of polarity, TAM features, and clause types, i.e. it is found with all finite and
non-finite verb forms including various nominalized verb forms (participles, masdars).
Examples (15–18) illustrate monovalent predicates agreeing with the S argument.

(15) it paˁħ-le r-itaq-ib

that steam-advz f-disappear.pfv-pret
‘She disappeared like steam.’
(16) hel-tːi a-b-ebč’-ib
that-pl neg-hpl-die.pfv-pret
‘They (human) did not die.’
(17) li<d>il=ra ka-d-ič-ib xːun-be
all<pl>=add down-npl-occur.pfv-pret way-pl
‘All roads broke.’
(18) nušːa a-d-ebč’-ib=da
1pl neg-1/2pl-die.pfv-pret=1
‘We did not die.’

In (19–22) bivalent predicates are presented. Example (19) contains a canonical transi-
tive predicate. The agreement on the verb is controlled by the P argument. Other pred-
icates behaving the same as canonical transitive verbs with respect to agreement are
affective predicates with experiencers arguments in the dative or ergative and stimulus
arguments in the absolutive case (20) (see also §19.1.8 for more information on bivalent
affective predicates). Sentence (21) illustrates an extended intransitive predicate whose
argument in the absolutive is the agreement controller. In (22) a ditransitive predicate is
given that agrees with its T argument.

377
20 Agreement

(19) it-i-l t’ult’ b-erkʷ-un

that-obl-erg bread n-eat.pfv-pret
‘S/he ate bread.’
(20) na it du-l r-alχ-an=q’al
now that 1sg-erg f-know.ipfv-ptcp=mod
‘Well, I must know her.’
(21) it dam kːač a-r-ič-ib
that 1sg.dat touch neg-f-occur.pfv-pret
‘She did not touch me.’
(22) it-i-l quˁr-be=ra d-ičː-ib hel-tːi durħ-n-aˁ-j
that-obl-erg pear-pl=add npl-give.pfv-pret that-pl boy-pl-obl-dat
‘He gave pears to the boys.’

In the antipassive construction, agreement is also controlled by the absolutive, which

is now the agent (23) (see §19.2.1 for a detailed account).

(23) it χabur-t-a-l r-ux-ul ca-r

that story-pl-obl-erg f-tell.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She is telling stories.’

Gender agreement with other than absolutive arguments is also attested. It is not very
common, but corpus examples can be found. The non-absolutive arguments controlling
the agreement are either ergative agents or experiencers in the dative. This phenomenon
is discussed in detail in §20.2.4.
In complement constructions in which the complement clause functions as the abso-
lutive argument of the matrix predicate the agreement affix b is used in case of local
agreement of the matrix predicate with the complement clause (24). This can be inter-
preted as default agreement, because in Sanzhi predicates that do not govern any argu-
ment in the absolutive case and therefore do not have a syntactic agreement controller
predominantly take the agreement marker b (see below). Alternatively, we can say that
the matrix verb agrees with the nominalized complement clause. Nominalization of any
linguistic items results in nominals belonging to the neuter gender and therefore the
matrix predicate must take b-.

(24) [nišːa-la baliqː-e le-d-ni nišːa-la erk’ʷ-li-cːe-d] b-alχ-ul=de

1pl-gen fish-pl exist-npl-msd 1pl.obl-gen river-obl-in-npl n-know-icvb=pst
‘(S/he/they) knew that there were our fish in our river.’

Sanzhi Dargwa, like many other Dagestanian languages, also has the option for long-
distance agreement where the gender/number agreement on the matrix verb is con-
trolled by the absolutive argument of the complement clause. Long-distance agreement
occurs rather infrequently in the Sanzhi corpus because there are only few agreeing

378
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

matrix predicates and the respective complement constructions are not very often used.
Therefore, the precise rules specifying its distribution still need to be studied. In (25)
the complement clause contains an intransitive predicate whose single argument is sup-
pressed due to co-reference with the overt argument of the main clause. Nevertheless, it
controls agreement on both predicates. More examples of long-distance agreement and
references to the literature on East Caucasian languages can be found in §24.4.

(25) nišːij d-ikː-ul=de [d-isː-ij]

1pl.dat 1/2pl-want.ipfv-icvb=pst 1/2pl-cry-inf
‘We wanted to cry.’ (E)

If the clause does not contain an agreement controller because it is lacking an argu-
ment in the absolutive, then mostly the default affix b is used:

(26) dam a-sa-r b-et’-ib ca-b

1sg.dat 2sg-ante-abl n-long.for.pfv-pret cop-n
‘I miss you.’ (E)
(27) at b-uχːar(-re) ca-b
2sg.dat n-cold(-advz) cop-n
‘You are cold.’ (E)

The same happens with the verb b-us- denoting precipitation phenomena (e.g. rain,
snow). This predicate governs one single argument marked with the ergative (28). The
identical phenomenon is observed in the neighboring Icari Dargwa variety (Sumbatova
& Mutalov 2003: 155), but apparently not in Standard Dargwa.

(28) marka-l b-us-ul ca-b

rain-erg n-rain.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘It is raining.’

Occasionally, not b- but d- is used as default agreement exponent. This mainly con-
cerns some compound verbal predicates that consist of a bound stem that is not a nomi-
nal, and a light verb (§19.1.7). For instance, in (29) the verb is a compound consisting of
the verbal part b-ulq- with the meaning ‘direct’ and a first part simi, and the agreement
is always d-. Another example is the phrase with which one wishes a good day (17).

(29) dam simi d-ulq-u

1sg.dat anger npl-direct.ipfv-prs.3
‘I am angry.’

In addition to verbs also items bearing the essive case and the directional are agree-
ment targets within the clausal domain. All essive cases in Sanzhi Dargwa as well as in
other Dargwa varieties are expressed by adding a gender/number suffix to one of the
spatial suffixes (§3.4). Thus, in the verbless sentence in (30), the noun bearing the spa-
tial case suffix -cːe in the second clause agrees with the omitted absolutive argument

379
20 Agreement

that is identical to the argument in the preceding clause. Both clauses represent copula
constructions with an adverbial predicate (first clause) and a nominal predicate (second
clause) respectively. Similarly, (31) shows two spatial adverbs agreeing with the absent
absolutive argument.

(30) χalq’ kːuš-le=de, daˁw-i-la dus-m-a-cːe-b=de

people hungry-advz=pst war-obl-gen year-pl-obl-in-hpl=pst
‘The people were hungry, during the years of war.’
(31) hila-d-a hekka gu-d-a ag-ur=da šːa
behind-1/2pl-dir from.there down-1/2pl-dir go.pfv-pret=1 village.loc
‘Back (reversing) from there we went down to the village.’

However, it is possible and occasionally attested in the corpus that gender markers
of spatial adverbials show default agreement rather than agreement controlled by the
absolutive. For instance, in (32) the omitted absolutive argument is female, as can be seen
from the agreement on the verb, but the directional adverbial exhibits default agreement.
Similarly, in (33) the agreement controller is the masculine singular noun phrase at the
end of the clause, but the adverb in clause-initial position has the neuter singular suffix.

(32) hel-itːe-b-a r-uˁq’-aˁn!

that-advz-n-dir f-go-imp
‘Go like that (i.e. in that direction)!’ (E)
(33) ixtːu-b čːaˁʡaˁl-li-j sːaˁʡaˁt kːaʔal-li-j w-iχʷ-ij ʡaˁʁuni-l
there.up-n morning-obl-dat hour eight-obl-dat m-be.pfv-inf needed-advz
ca-w hel admi
cop-m that person
‘That person needs to be there in the morning at 8 o’clock.’

Another agreement target is the concessive converb of b-iχʷ- (pfv) ‘be, become, be
able, can’, which is used in concessive clauses and, when the verb follows interrogative
pronouns, for the formation of free-choice indefinite pronouns (see §4.6.3). Since b-iχʷ-
is a verb with an agreement slot, the indefinite pronouns can, in principle, agree. Mostly
they have default agreement, but they can also deviate from this pattern, for instance by
being controlled by the absolutive argument. Thus in (34), biχʷarra could be replaced by
∅-iχʷarra which would represent agreement controlled by the omitted absolutive subject.
At the present moment I do not have enough data to explain this variation.

(34) daˁʡaˁna w-irx-ul hi-la-k’a b-iχʷ-ar=ra qili

secret m-become.ipfv-icvb who.obl-gen-indef n-be.pfv-cond.3=add home
‘(He was) hiding at the house of whomever.’

380
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

20.2.2 Semantic agreement and other peculiarities

Semantic agreement refers to cases in which the morphosyntactic feature values of the
agreement target do not match the formal features of the controller. Instead, the agree-
ment matches some semantic properties of the controller. Many instances of semantic
agreement are number or gender mismatches. In Sanzhi Dargwa, such examples are
found with gender/number agreement exponents on verbs where the agreement con-
troller is an NP containing numerical quantifiers. A noun modified by a numeral nor-
mally does not take a plural suffix, but it requires plural agreement on the verb (35),
(36).
(35) di-la k’ʷel xːunul le-b
1sg-gen two woman exist-hpl
‘I have two wives.’
(36) či-d-až-ib ca-d ʡaˁbal kːalkːi
spr-npl-see.pfv-pret cop-npl three tree
‘(He) saw three trees.’
A further example of semantic agreement occasionally occurs in fairy tales in which
the acting personas are animals. In such cases mostly the inherent gender of the nouns
is used, i.e. neuter, but sometimes the referents are treated as if they were human beings
and thus masculine agreement affixes appear. In (37), the verb of speech has the neuter
singular prefix in accordance with the natural gender of the referent, a wolf. But the
verb in the quote shows masculine singular agreement and thus the referent has been
humanized.
(37) “du”, b-ik’-ul ca-b “uškul-le w-aš-ib-il akːʷ-a-di du”
1sg n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n school-loc m-go-pret-ref cop.neg-hab.pst-1 1sg
‘(The wolf) said, “I did not go to school.”’
Agreement with conjoined noun phrases can partially also be treated as semantic
agreement (§20.2.3).
Another deviation that cannot readily be explained as semantic agreement is repre-
sented by a special construction for words denoting time spans such as dus ‘year’, bac
‘month’, saˁʡaˁt ‘hour’, or minut’ ‘minute’. These words belong to the neuter gender (38)
and all of them except for bac have a plural form. However, when they are used to ex-
press periods of time with the verb b-ič- (pfv) ‘occur, be’, then agreement is neuter plural
(39).
(38) ca dus či-r-b-it-ag-ur
one year spr-abl-n-thither-go.pfv-pret
‘One year finished.’ (e.g. of my studies) (E)
(39) ca dus d-ič-ib ca-d, du sa-jʁ-ib-la
one year npl-occur.pfv-pret cop-npl 1sg hither-come.m.pfv-pret-post
‘One year passed by since I came here.’ (E)

381
20 Agreement

20.2.3 Gender/number agreement with conjoined noun phrases

Agreement with conjoined noun phrases follows two strategies: either the conjoined
noun phrase is treated like a noun marked for plural and thus controls plural agreement
or there is agreement with the closest conjunct.
The first case can be treated as an instance of semantic agreement since the nouns are
not morphologically marked for plural. The rules for this type of agreement with con-
joined noun phrases are as follows: two nouns denoting human beings control human
plural agreement (40), and two nouns denoting animals or objects control neuter plural
agreement (41).3
(40) heba er b-ik’-ul ca-b sa-b-eʁ-ib-le
then look hpl-look.at.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl hither-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb
atːa=ra aba=ra
father=add mother=add
‘Then the mother and the father came and looked.’
(41) χazajn-ni d-erč-ib ca-d urči=ra amχa=ra
owner-erg npl-lead.pfv-pret cop-npl horse=add donkey=add
či-ka-d-išː-ib-le deχ=ra
spr-down-npl-put.pfv-pret-cvb load[npl]=add
‘The owner took the horse and the donkey and put the load on them.’
When the first and second person singular or plural pronouns are conjoined with
nouns the agreement for first and second person plural is used, i.e. d (42), (43).
(42) u=ra du=ra ʁaj d-uq-ij ja zamana a-b-ič-ib
2sg=add 1sg=add word 1/2pl-go.pfv-inf or time neg-n-occur.pfv-pret
‘There was not time for you and me to chat.’ (E)
(43) c’il sa-č-ib-le, nišːa-la zunra=ra nušːa=ra qːuʁa-l
then hither-lead.pfv-pret-cvb 1pl-gen neighbor=add 1pl=add beautiful-advz
ka-d-iž-ib-le, …
down-1/2pl-be.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Then after having invited (them), our neighbors and we sat together, …’
When a noun denoting a human being occurs in conjunction with a noun denoting
an animal or object the agreement is human plural:
(44) zija=ra kax-ub ca-b, χudec’an=ra kax-ub ca-w,
horsefly=add kill.pfv-pret cop-n Khuduc.person=add kill.pfv-pret cop-m
b-ebč’-ib ca-b
hpl-die.pfv-pret cop-hpl
‘(The Sanzhi man shot) and killed the horsefly and he killed the Khuduc man, and
(they both) died.’
3
The same rules apply if one or both of the conjuncts are plural nouns.

382
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

(45) er b-ik’-ul ca-b

look hpl-look.at.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘(The boy and the dog) are looking.’

Plural agreement is sometimes even found in comitative constructions. There are two
ways of expressing comitative roles. One is via the use of the comitative case (46), (48)
and the other is via the use of the reflexive pronoun (47), (49) (§30.3). In both construc-
tions normally the absolutive argument controls the agreement as the following two
sentences show:

(46) hana hež xːunul-li-cːella w-irħ-uˁl ca-w

now this woman-obl-comit m-fight.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Now he is fighting with this wife.’
(47) uže heχ durħuˁ=ra ca-w=ra arg-ul ca-w=nu
already dem.down boy=add refl-m=add go.ipfv-icvb cop-m=prt
‘He is already walking with this son.’

However, there are very few examples in which the comitative phrase is treated as
a plural noun phrase and therefore controls plural agreement. Example (48) illustrates
this for the comitative case, and example (49) shows the comitative construction with a
reflexive pronoun. In the first example, the human plural agreement could be replaced
with masculine singular w-. In the second example, the agreement is first/second person
plural d- since the author of the quote is referring to himself and his wife, thus the
sentence is a quote with an omitted matrix clause.

(48) a hel ʡaˁħ durħuˁ cin-na qːuʁa xːunul-li-cːella er

and that good boy refl.sg-gen beautiful woman-obl-comit life
b-iχ-ub ca-b hana-li-j=sat=ra
hpl-be.pfv-pret cop-hpl now-obl-dat=as.much=add
‘The good boy with this beautiful wife lived until now.’
(49) [he probably thinks]
heχ-itːe xːunul=ra ca-w=ra qːuʁa-l
dem.down-advz woman=add refl-m=add beautiful-advz
ka-d-iž-ib d-iχ-utːel, ʡaˁħ-le
down-1/2pl-be.pfv-pret 1/2pl-be.pfv-cond.pst good-advz
b-určː-i
n-find.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘If he would sit together with his wife well like this, this would be good.’

The alternative to plural agreement in conjoined noun phrases is called “closest con-
junct agreement”. Closest conjunct agreement has been demonstrated to exist in a num-
ber of East Caucasian languages (see e.g. Gagliardi et al. 2009 on Tsez, and Chumakina
2014 on Archi). It is possible with conjoined noun phrases that follow or precede the

383
20 Agreement

verb. In each case, the member of the conjunction that happens to occur closer to the
agreement target controls the agreement instead of agreement with the noun phrase as
a whole:

(50) duˁrħuˁ-la b-už-ib ca-b χːʷe=ra ʡaˁt’a=ra

boy-gen n-stay-pret cop-n dog=add frog=add
‘The boy had a dog and a frog.’

Gagliardi et al. (2009) show that in Tsez, agreement with the closest conjunct is only
possible when the agreement controller is adjacent to the verb. This is not the case in
Sanzhi. Example (51) shows that the noun kulpat ‘family’ controls the agreement on the
preceding verb (hpl) even though the personal pronoun intervenes.

(51) heχ-tːu-b han b-ič-ib dam kulpat=ra,

dem.down-loc-hpl remember hpl-occur.pfv-pret 1sg.dat family=add
li<d>il cik’al hel-tːi=ra …
all<npl> something that-pl=add
‘And there I remembered my family and everything, …’

In the following two examples, the agreement affix b can either be interpreted as
neuter and thus as instantiating closest conjunct agreement or as human plural agree-
ment, i.e. semantic agreement with a noun phrase that is treated as a noun in the plural
(52), (53). More specifically, in example (52), the verb shows closest conjunction agree-
ment with the following noun duˁrħuˁ ‘boy’, and the agreement of the clause-final spatial
adverb b-i ‘into’ is ambiguous. Similarly, in (53), the agreement suffix of the copula ca-b
is also ambiguous and both noun phrases are equally close to the verb in terms of linear
adjacency.

(52) il alen-ni qi-m-a-cːe-r lak’ w-arq’-ib ca-w duˁrħuˁ=ra

that deer-erg horn-pl-obl-in-abl throw m-do.pfv-pret cop-m boy=add
χːʷe=ra hin-ni-cːe b-i
dog=add water-obl-in n/hpl-in
‘The deer threw the boy and the dog into the water on its horns.’
(53) zija=ra kax-ub ca-b il admi=ra
horsefly=add kill.pfv-pret cop-n/hpl that person=add
‘(He) killed the horsefly and the man.’

20.2.4 Gender agreement with arguments in other than the absolutive

case (“Deviant agreement”)
Surprising for East Caucasian languages is the fact that, in Sanzhi Dargwa, under certain
circumstances the agreement in a simple clause can be controlled by arguments not in
the absolutive case, but in the ergative or dative. These arguments can be present or ab-
sent from the clause. In the following, I will refer to this phenomenon as “deviant gender

384
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

agreement” or simply “deviant agreement”. The agreement targets for which agreement
with the ergative or dative is attested are the standard copula (54–57) and the existen-
tial/locational copulas (63) when they are used as auxiliaries in periphrastic verb forms
and also the exponents of the essive case (61). It is mostly found in clauses with a number
of analytic verb forms such as the compound present (54) or the resultative (57).
In my Sanzhi corpus agreement with non-absolutive arguments is not particularly
frequent, but there are a few clear examples. The majority contains verbs of speech or
cognition, in particular b-urs- ‘n-tell’ (54–56), but also a few other verbs (57). In all ex-
amples (54–57) the standard copula ca-b has an agreement suffix that differs from the
agreement prefix of the lexical verb with which the copula forms an analytic verb form.
(54) il sa-sa-jʁ-ib=qːel, χabar b-urs-ul ca-w
that ante-hither-come.m.pfv-pret=when story n-tell-icvb cop-m
il-i-l
that-obl-erg
‘When he came home, he was talking (telling stories).’
(55) it-i-l di-cːe d-urs-ul ca-r
that-obl-erg 1sg-in npl-tell-icvb cop-f
‘She tells (stories) to me.’
(56) b-urs-ul ca-w heχ-i-l cin-i-j
n-tell-icvb cop-m dem.down-obl-erg refl.sg-obl-dat
či-d-ič-ib-t-a-lla qari=či-d
spr-npl-occur.pfv-pret-dd.pl-obl-gen up=on-npl
‘He is telling about what he experienced.’
(57) [The wife came and says, Come home!]
heχ b-ič-aq-ib ca-w qːuˁnq-li-cːe
dem.down n-occur.pfv-caus-pret cop-m nose-obl-in
‘(He) put it on her nose (i.e. he hit her nose).’
There are also a number of examples with dative experiencers that control gender
agreement (58–60).
(58) [The boy is looking at this, right?]
ce=jal il-tːi; h-asː-ij b-ikː-ul ca-w il-i-j
what=indq that-pl up-take.pfv-inf n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-m that-obl-dat
‘Maybe these; he wants to take (it).’
(59) ʡaˁq’lu b-ikː-ar-aj b-ikː-ul ca-w
mind n-give.pfv-prs-subj.3 n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘(He) wants to give him knowledge.’
(60) han b-irk-ul ca-w heχ-i-j
seem n-occur.ipfv-icvb cop-m dem.down-obl-dat
‘He is thinking/imagining.’

385
20 Agreement

There are very few corpus examples in which it is a spatial adjunct in the essive case
that shows deviant agreement with an argument that is not marked for absolutive case. In
example (61) the ergative first person pronoun is omitted, but it controls the masculine
singular agreement on the clause-initial adverbial. More examples can be elicited; in
(62) the lexical verb does not have an agreement prefix, so the agreement mismatch is
not immediately obvious, but the absolutive patient kiniga ‘book’ is neuter singular and
would require the suffix -b on the copula in case of non-deviant agreement.

(61) hež sawχuz-li-cːe-w aʁʷ-c’al dus ʡaˁči b-arq’-ib=da

this sovkhoz-obl-in-m four-ten year work n-do.pfv-pret=1
‘In the sovkhoz (I, masc.) worked for 40 years.’
(62) Isaq’adi-l uškul-le-w kiniga luk’-unne ca-w
Isakadi-erg school-loc-m book write.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Isakadi is writing a book in the school.’ (i.e. sitting in the school). (E)

Deviant agreement with the existential copulas can be elicited:

(63) χabar b-urs-ul le-w/te-w/χe-w/k’e-w il-i-l

story n-tell-icvb exist-m/exist.away-m/exist.down-m/exist.up-m that-obl-erg
‘He is telling a story.’ (E)

Deviant agreement never occurs with agreement exponents that belong to the lexical
part of the predicate (lexical root, preverbs), but only with copula-auxiliaries and clausal
adjuncts. Furthermore, the controller is in the ergative or dative and functions as a agent
or experiencer argument of the predicate. It cannot be in any other case. Ergative agents
and dative experiencer arguments of transitive and affective verbs share many subject
properties with absolutive arguments of intransitive verbs (Forker 2017; 2019b). By con-
trast, arguments that do not function as agents or experiencers and are marked by other
cases lack subject properties and cannot function as agreement controllers.
Deviant agreement is unusual for East Caucasian languages, but has been documented
for a number of Dargwa varieties, most notably Akusha (Standard) Dargwa (van den
Berg 1999; Ganenkov 2018), Tanti Dargwa (Sumbatova & Lander 2014: 450–493) and
Shiri Dargwa (Belyaev 2016; 2017a,b). The different authors have put forward various
explanations and hypotheses concerning the syntactic and semanto-pragmatic proper-
ties of the construction. According to all authors, gender agreement with the ergative
argument (but also with the absolutive or dative) is conditioned by information structure.
In her account, van den Berg (1999) states that deviant agreement with ergative agents
does not require any specific pragmatic conditions whereas agreement with patients in
the absolutive highlights them. She further claims that absolutive patients controlling
agreement are topical (“themes” in her terminology). Sumbatova & Lander (2014) refine
this analysis and claim that topical arguments independently of their case marking con-
trol gender agreement. Sumbatova (2010) and Sumbatova & Lander (2014) write that
deviant agreement with ergative agents is frequent in Tanti Dargwa narratives. They
further show that deviant agreement can also occur in cleft constructions that express
constituent focus.

386
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

When discussing sentences with ergative agreement with Sanzhi speakers and elicit-
ing new examples, an effect on the information structure is noticeable. Absolutive agree-
ment is always possible, so it is the deviation from this pattern that requires an expla-
nation. Absolutive agreement is preferred in answers to constituent questions regarding
the agent or the patient that have narrow focus (64a). By contrast, ergative agreement is
readily available when the question is, for example, about the place in which the agent
is located (64b).

(64) a. [Who is tearing out the carrots?]

Aminat-li žit’a gu-r-ha-b-ilt’-unne ca-b
Aminat-erg carrot sub-abl-up-n-tear.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘Aminat is tearing out a carrot from under the earth.’ (E)
b. [Where is Aminat?]
Aminat-li žit’a gu-r-ha-b-ilt’-unne ca-r
Aminat-erg carrot sub-abl-up-n-tear.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Aminat is tearing out a carrot from under the earth.’ (E)

Constituent order and closeness to the agreement controller also play a role for deviant
agreement. In sentence (65a) the controller occurs in sentence-initial position whereas
the target, the copula, appears clause-finally. With such a constituent order agreement
with a dative (or ergative) controller is highly marginal (although available in elicitation
as (64b) proves). It becomes possible when the controller occurs next to the target, more
specifically when it is following the target (65b). In fact, in all but one instance of agree-
ment with an ergative or dative argument attested in the Sanzhi corpus the controller
immediately follows the copula (58), (60). Furthermore, the controllers are expressed by
pronouns (55), (60), or absent from the clause (57), (59)

(65) a. Rasul-li-j cin-ni d-arq’-ib-te han

Rasul-obl-dat refl-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl remember
d-irčaq-ul ca-d
npl-occur.ipfv-icvb cop-npl
‘Rasul remembers what he had done.’ (E)
b. cin-ni d-arq’-ib-te han d-irčaq-ul ca-w
refl-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl remember npl-occur.ipfv-icvb cop-m
Rasul-li-j
Rasul-obl-dat
‘Rasul remembers what he had done.’ (E)

This seems to point to point to an explanation based on topicality as formulated by

Sumbatova & Lander (2014), i.e., topical items control agreement. And more specifically,
deviant agreement is only possible by topical controllers, because (i) pronouns and zero
arguments are usually topical, and (ii) the position after the predicate is a frequent posi-
tion for topical subjects in Sanzhi, and can also be used for contrastive topics (§27.2).

387
20 Agreement

Yet, this analysis must be rejected. My Sanzhi data are in accordance with Ganenkov
(2018), who notices a number of problems with the “topic controller hypothesis”. Most
importantly, the hypothesis implies that in the majority of transitive clauses the patient
must be topical, because it is far more common for the absolutive patient to control the
gender agreement than for the ergative agent to control it. Such an assumption seems
implausible. Ganenkov further shows that focal arguments or indefinite pronouns that
cannot be topical nevertheless control gender agreement. His arguments can be repli-
cated for Sanzhi Dargwa.
Furthermore, it is not clear for all corpus examples that the controller is really topi-
cal. For instance, in (66) the referent of the omitted ergative argument that controls the
agreement has not been mentioned in the preceding context, apart from the use of the
indefinite pronoun, because the speaker had a specific person in mind, but could not re-
member her name. Thus, the absent agreement controller in this sentence cannot really
be called “topical”.
(66) [To someone (= a woman whose name the speaker forgot) I said, well I will wash
(my legs)]
kʷi-r-sawtː-ul ca-r
in.the.hands-abl-tear.off.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She takes (the jug) out of my hands (and washes my legs).’
Moreover, most topical agents or experiencers do not control gender agreement, as
in (67). This sentence is the first main clause with a transitive predicate in the narrative.
The agent argument, which refers to the protagonist of the story, is the sentence topic
and has been omitted. It does not control agreement. Instead, the agreement in the main
clause is controlled by the newly introduced patient argument, which is not topical under
any account of topicality.
(67) [Once upon a time there was a girl called Patima. She was the oldest within her
family. Once after the rain (she) went up to sweep in front of the house.]
qʷaˁrš b-irq’-an=qːel, b-arčː-ib ca-b qix
sweep n-do.ipfv-ptcp=when n-find.pfv-pret cop-n nut
‘When she was sweeping, she found a walnut.’
Therefore, the topicality hypothesis as formulated by Sumbatova & Lander (2014)
needs to be rejected, and for a final conclusion about the pragmatic functions of deviant
agreement more research is needed.
From a syntactic point of view, the sentences discussed in this section lead to the
question whether they are really counterexamples to the claim that gender agreement
can only be controlled by nouns in the absolutive case. This would not be the case if it
were possible to analyze them as biclausal. This means that the copula is the head of the
superordinate clause and agrees with a non-overt absolutive argument that is coreferent
with the ergative or dative argument in the subordinate clause. Such an analysis would
motivate the pragmatic differences between absolutive and ergative agreement (64a),
(64b), and it would also be consistent with the generalization that the prefixes can only
agree with the absolutive argument.

388
 20.2 Combined Gender/number agreement

This idea has been proposed by Sumbatova (2010) and Ganenkov (2018). Ganenkov
observes that certain characteristics of deviant gender agreement, namely that it is re-
stricted to the copula-auxiliary (as opposed to agreement prefixes of lexical verbs) and
thus found only in periphrastic tenses, resemble biabsolutive constructions. In biabso-
lutive constructions, the agent agrees with the copula-auxiliary and the patient with
the lexical verb (68). They have been described for many East Caucasian languages (see
Forker (2012) and Gagliardi et al. (2014) for recent accounts) including Sanzhi’s neighbor
Icari Sumbatova & Mutalov (2003: 156), but are not attested in Sanzhi. In biabsolutive
constructions, the agent is generally topicalized whereas the patient is pragmatically de-
moted and backgrounded. For biabsolutive constructions a biclausal analysis has been
proposed (Kazenin 1998; Kazenin & Testelets 1999; Kazenin 2001): the agent in the higher
clause controls agreement on the copula-auxiliary just like other intransitive predicates;
the patient is located in the subordinate clause and thus only controls the agreement of
the lexical verb (68).

(68) Icari Dargwa (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003: 156)

Murad [mura d-utː-a-tːi] ca-w
Murad hay npl-mow.ipfv-prog-prog.cvb cop-m
‘As to Murad, he is mowing hay.’

Ganenkov (2018) adopts the biclausal analysis for deviant agreement and poses an un-
expressed absolutive argument higher in the clause that is co-referent with the ergative
(or dative) argument and controls the agreement on the copula auxiliary. In other words,
the initial ergative subject raises to the position of the higher absolutive subject (subject-
to-subject raising) and controls gender agreement. By contrast, the expressed ergative
argument is located in the subordinate clause as schematized in (69).

(69) _i (abs) [Aminat-lii žit’a gu-r-ha-b-ilt’-unne] ca-r

Aminat-erg carrot sub-abl-up-n-tear.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Aminat is tearing out a carrot from under the earth.’

Ganenkov’s proposal goes back to the suggestion by Sumbatova (2010) to analyze

deviant agreement as backward control and thus also as having a bipartite structure.
In backward control constructions, the subject-like argument of a complement-taking
predicate is expressed in the complement clause and thus receives case marking from
the embedded lexical verb. Nevertheless, the matrix verb shows agreement with the em-
bedded controller (see (42) in §24.2.6 and also (116), (117) in §24.5). On the surface this
looks like agreement with an oblique argument, but as Polinsky & Potsdam (2002; 2006)
have shown for Tsez, it can be argued that the matrix verb contains a covert controllee
in the absolutive case.
However, the biclausal approach seems to be problematic. As Forker (2012) demon-
strated, a synchronic biclausal analysis for many biabsolutive constructions is not ten-
able. The same can be said for constructions with deviant agreement. As explained above,
in natural texts the default position of the agreement controller is after the predicate.

389
20 Agreement

Since subordinate clauses cannot be discontinues or split up by constituents from the

main clause, we thus would have to claim that the pronoun in (70) occurs to the right of
the clausal boundary. However, topical pronouns following the predicate are common
and there is no reason to assume that they are extraclausal constituents (e.g. no intona-
tional break). Furthermore, in examples such as (56) not only the subject pronoun but
also the complement would have to be treated as extraclausal.

(70) [χabar b-urs-ul] ca-w il-i-l

story n-tell-icvb cop-m that-obl-erg
‘He was talking (telling stories).’

In sum, neither the functional-pragmatic properties nor the syntactic properties of

deviant agreement are settled. It seems that a synchronic biclausal analysis for deviant
agreement poses problems (though a diachronic analysis may still be possible). Alterna-
tively, we can argue that a binary opposition of monoclausal vs. biclausal constructions
is too limited. We should instead refine our notion of clause by applying the model of
Multivariate Typology (Bickel 2011; 2015). This would mean breaking up the notion of
clause into a sensible number of variables by means of detailed language-specific stud-
ies. In a second step we can then check our data for clusters around potential categories
such as “monoclausal” and “biclausal” constructions and determine whether the Sanzhi
deviant agreement construction fits into one of these.
A typologically-informed account of deviant agreement needs to not only take into
account what we know so far, but also non-verbal agreement controllers, more detailed
information about word order and further aspects that have not been investigated yet.
To the latter belong referential properties of the agreement controller such as animacy
or humanness, since we know that some languages do not allow inanimate agents in
biabsolutive constructions (Forker 2012).

20.3 Person agreement

20.3.1 Introduction
Like all Dargwa varieties, Sanzhi Dargwa has person agreement enclitics and agreement
suffixes. When suffixes are used and when enclitics are used depends on the TAM forms
of the verbs, which means that all verbs can, in principle, be used with person suffixes
and with person enclitics (with the exception of the morphologically defective copula
verbs, which can only attach person enclitics). Suffixes and enclitics follow the same
agreement rules, but differ in their form and morphosyntactic characteristics. The origins
of the Dargwa agreement systems including Sanzhi Dargwa remain opaque. Pronouns
and auxiliaries have been proposed as possible sources but there are no reliable proofs
(Sumbatova 2011: 147–158).
The form of the agreement suffixes varies depending on the TAM form. There are a
number of different sets. They mostly resemble each other because (i) the third person is
either unmarked or differs from the other persons in morphological make-up, (ii) the first

390
 20.3 Person agreement

and third person are not differentiated for number, and (iii) only the second person has
two distinct suffixes for the singular and the plural. Thus the person systems are rather
reduced, with a clear opposition of speech act participants (first and second person) vs.
third person.
The use of the suffixes is restricted to verbs, i.e. only verbs can serve as targets. The
most common sets of person suffixes are given in Table 20.2, Table 20.3, and Table 20.4.
Imperative and prohibitive suffixes are given here because of their resemblance with the
optative paradigm (imperative) and the habitual present, haitual past and conditional
paradigms (prohibitive), which suggests a diachronic relationship.
Person agreement is subject to clause-level conditions because not all verb forms of
main clauses have person agreement markers. Certain forms with past time reference
(e.g. the past progressive, the evidential past, and the evidential pluperfect) make use
of the past enclitic, which is in complementary distribution with the person enclitics.
Another factor is finiteness: almost exclusively verb forms in finite main clauses and in
conditional clauses can be marked for person agreement. Thus, the masdar, converbs,
and participles, when used in subordinate clauses, do not contain agreement markers
(see (116) below for the subjunctive, which represents the exception to this rule).
In the habitual present, the realis conditional, and the past conditional, the person suf-
fix for the first and second person is preceded by a stem augment vowel that is indicated
with V in the Tables above. The vowel is either i or u. The same vowels are also used in
the subjunctive and the prohibitive (116), and the same distinction (though without the
stem augment vowels) is attested in the imperative. For one-place verbs u is the only
vowel that is used. For two-place verbs the following distribution is observed:

• -u with reflexive and reciprocal constructions and agentive third persons

• -i with patientive third persons
• -u or -i in all other cases, i.e. agentive second person with patientive first, and vice
versa agentive first person with patientive second person

This has been summed up in Table 20.5. The stem augment vowels are treated as part
of the suffixes. They are not part of the stem. Therefore, they are not separately glossed,
but written together with the TAM suffixes. As the Table shows, there is variation when
both core arguments are speech act participants (i.e. first and second person). Based on
my corpus data and on elicitation I do not have an explanation for the variation and thus
my analysis is only preliminary and requires further research before a conclusion can
be reached.
In the following, I will briefly illustrate the use of the stem augment vowels. Sentence
(71) shows the habitual present first person of an intransitive verb (see also (75) below
for another intransitive verb with the stem augment vowel u).

(71) ixʷle dawlači-w w-irχ-ud

fast rich-m m-become.ipfv-1.prs
‘I (masc.) become rich fast.’

391
20 Agreement

Table 20.2: Person agreement suffixes in the habitual present and habitual past

habitual present (ipfv) habitual past (ipfv)

singular plural singular plural
1 -V-d -a-di
2 -V-tːe -V-tːa -a-tːe -a-tːa
3 -u/-ar -i(ri)

Table 20.3: Person agreement suffixes in conditional forms

realis cond. (pfv) past cond. (pfv) imperfective cond. (ipfv)

singular plural singular plural singular plural
1 -V-lle -V-tːel -aχː-a-lle
2 -V-tːe(l) -V-tːal -V-tːel -V-tːal -aχː-a-t(te) -aχː-a-t(tal)
3 -ar(re)/-an -ar-del/-an-del -aχː-a-n(ne)/-aχː-a-r(re)

Table 20.4: Person agreement in the optative, imperative, and prohibitive

optative (pfv) imperative (pfv) prohibitive (ipfv)

singular plural singular plural singular plural
1 -ab-a — — — —
2 -ab-e -ab-a/ -a / -aj(a)/ -V-t(ːa) -V-tːaj(a)
-ab-aj/ -e / -ene
-ab-aja -en
3 -ab — — — —

Table 20.5: Stem augment vowels for transitive and two-place affective verbs

1 patient 2 patient 3 patient

1 agent -u -i, -u -i
2 agent -i, -u -u -i
3 agent -u -u -u

392
 20.3 Person agreement

Examples (72) and (73) illustrate the realis conditional with a person marker for second
singular. In the first sentence, the stem augment is u but i would also be possible). In (73)
there is a second person agent acting upon a third person, hence only i is allowed.
(72) u-l du w-it-utːe
2sg-erg 1sg m-beat.up-cond.2sg
‘if you beat me up’ (E)
(73) u-l it w-it-itːe
2sg-erg that m-beat.up-cond.2sg
‘if you beat him up’ (E)
In sentence (74a), the habitual present illustrates a first person experiencer with a third
person stimulus with the stem augment -i and (74b) shows the reversed scenario with
the stem augment vowel u.
(74) a. dam it či-w-iž-id
1sg.dat that spr-m-see.ipfv-1.prs
‘I will see him.’
b. it-i-j du či-w-ig-ud
that-obl-dat 1sg spr-m-see.ipfv-1.prs
‘S/he will see me (masc.)’
Table 20.6 displays the agreement enclitics. As can be seen in this table, only the sec-
ond person singular has a unique marker. For the third person there are no person mark-
ers. Instead, depending on the time reference of the clause and on the context, the third
person is left unmarked, or some other marker appears filling the gap in the paradigm
(e.g. the copula ca-b, which exhibits gender/number agreement or the suffix -ne). Person
agreement enclitics are widely used throughout the verbal paradigm, e.g. in the com-
pound present and past, the perfect, the preterite, the future, etc.

Table 20.6: Person agreement enclitics

singular plural
1 =da
2 =de =da
3 — —

The person enclitics belong to the predicative particles (§9.1). They are normally added
to the predicate, but, just as other predicative particles, can also be used to express term
focus (also called “constituent focus”). In this case, they are encliticized to the item in
focus, which can be an argument or adjunct, such that agreement targets are not only
verbs but can be also nominals, adverbs, or other items (Kalinina & Sumbatova 2007,
Sumbatova 2013, Forker 2016b).

393
20 Agreement

Person suffixes and person enclitics are subject to the same syntactic alignment rules:
S, A, P, and T (i.e. the theme argument of a ditransitive verb) control person agreement.
Person agreement is obligatory and it is freely combinable with gender/number agree-
ment because both agreement systems operate independently of each other. Only one ar-
gument can control the agreement. The alignment patterns for person agreement among
the Dargwa languages vary to a substantial extent (see Sumbatova 2011 and 2013 for
overviews). They are determined by the ranking of absolutive vs. ergative arguments,
and in a number of varieties also by person hierarchies. The person hierarchies found
are either 2 > 1 > 3 (e.g. Icari, Kajtag, Qunqi, and Xuduc) or 1, 2 > 3 (e.g. Akusha and Stan-
dard Dargwa, Chirag). In many varieties the hierarchies are combined with a ranking of
grammatical roles: patient argument (absolutive) > agent argument (ergative) is found
in Akusha and Standard Dargwa, whereas agent argument (ergative) > patient argument
(absolutive) has been documented for Chirag, Kubachi, and Mehweb. In Shiri Dargwa,
in contrast to the above mentioned varieties, there is a considerable amount of variation
within the speech community, and Belyaev (2013) distinguishes three slightly different
alignment systems. A similar conclusion can be drawn for Sanzhi. There is also a certain
degree of intra- and inter-speaker variation.

20.3.2 Person agreement rules

In clauses with monovalent predicates, only the S argument serves as controller. Exam-
ples of first and second person are given in (75–77) for verbal predicates and (78) for a
copula construction.

(75) Habitual present

du ħaˁħaˁ ∅-ik’-ud
1sg laughter i-say.ipfv-1.prs
‘I (masc.) laugh.’
(76) Realis conditional
celij d-aqil k’e-d, či-d-uˁq’-uˁtːal
whole npl-much exist.up-npl spr-1/2pl-go.pfv-cond.2pl
‘There is much there (i.e. the graveyard is large), if you go there.’
(77) Compound present
čina arg-ul=de?
where go.ipfv-icvb=2sg
‘Where are you going?’
(78) du kːuš-le=da
1sg hungry-advz=1
‘I am hungry.’

In the following examples, third person agreement with intransitive predicates is il-
lustrated. The agreement exponent can be a suffix as in the examples of the habitual past

394
 20.3 Person agreement

in (79). Example (88) shows the compound present for which the copula is used for third
person agreement (whereas in the third or second person a person enclitic would occur,
see (77)). Other analytic tenses such as the preterite do not make use of the copula for
the third person (but employ person markers for the first and second person) (80). In
the copula construction in (81) also the copula is used. Finally, verb forms such as the
compound present that in declarative main clauses require a copula for the third person
omit the copula in questions with interrogative enclitics (82). This is possible because the
interrogative enclitics belong to the predicative particles, which fulfill copula-functions,
among other things (§9.1).

(79) Habitual Past

daže hex-tːi dubur-t-a-cːe t’ama ha-d-aš-iri
even dem.up-pl mountain-pl-obl-in sound up-npl-go-hab.pst.3
‘The sound went even to the mountains.’
(80) Preterite
di-la c’a d-iš-aq-un
1sg-gen fire npl-die.out.pfv-caus-pret
‘My fire died out.’
(81) rursːi aba-j miši-l ca-r
girl mother-dat similar-advz cop-f
‘The daughter is similar to her mother.’ (E)
(82) Compound present
čina it arg-ul=e?
where that go.ipfv-icvb=q
‘Where is s/he going?’

The same rule applies to extended intransitive verbs, i.e. verbs that have one argument
in the absolutive and another one marked with the dative or a spatial case. Thus in (83)
and (84), verb forms with first and second person markers occur; in (85), the preterite is
used, which lacks a marker for the third person.

(83) Habitual past, conditional past

tiliwizur-ri-j er r-ik’ʷ-a-di, či-d-ig-ul
television-obl-dat look f-look.at.ipfv-hab.pst-1 spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb
r-iχ-utːel
f-be.able.pfv-cond.1sg
‘I would watch TV if I were able to see.’
(84) Compound present
xːunul-li-sa-r uruχ ∅-ik’-ul=de=w?
woman-obl-ante-abl fear m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q
‘Are you afraid of your wife?’

395
20 Agreement

(85) Preterite
iltːi qːačuʁ-e kːač a-b-ič-ib il-i-j
those bandit-pl touch neg-hpl-occur.pfv-pret that-obl-dat
‘The bandits did not touch him.’

There are a number of monovalent predicates that lack absolutive arguments and have
only dative arguments. In §20.2.1 the consequences for gender agreement were discussed.
These predicates cannot control person agreement, and instead the third person is al-
ways used (86), (87). A number of weather predicates only have ergative arguments, and
likewise they only exhibit third person agreement (88).

(86) dam / at / hel-i-j wahi-l ca-b heχ-tːu-b

1sg.dat / 2sg.dat / that-obl-dat bad-advz cop-n dem.down-loc-n
‘I/you/she/he feel(s) bad there.’ (E)
(87) dam b-uχːar ačː-ib
1sg.dat n-cold get.pfv-pret
‘I got cold.’ (E)
(88) Compound present
duˁħi-l b-us-ul ca-b
snow-erg n-snow.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘It is snowing.’ (E)

There are other monovalent predicates that are compound verbs, and that from a mor-
phological point of view contain petrified nominal arguments which in some cases con-
trol gender agreement and in others do not. These behave just like any other monovalent
predicate, i.e. the single argument controls the person agreement (89); see also (29) above.

(89) Future
dawaj (nušːa) dum d-alt-an=da
let’s (1pl) eating 1/2pl-let.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘Come on, we will eat.’ (modified corpus example)

In clauses with bivalent verbs that are either genuine transitive verbs or affective
verbs both arguments (i.e. agents/experiencers, and patients/stimuli) can control person
agreement, but only one argument at a time.
In clauses with only third person arguments we find the respective agreement markers
for the third person:

(90) Habitual present

it-i-j it či-w-ig-u
that-obl-dat that spr-m-see.ipfv-prs.3
‘S/he sees him.’ (E)

396
 20.3 Person agreement

(91) Resultative
milic’a-b-a-l w-erč-ib ca-w il
police-pl-obl-erg m-lead.pfv-pret cop-m that
‘The police took him.’
(92) Future
na=ra bala q’adar či-sa-d-iqː-an-ne
now=add misfortune destiny spr-hither-npl-carry.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘Now he will also bring trouble.’

If we have one third-person argument and one first or second-person argument the lat-
ter controls the agreement, independently of the grammatical relation, i.e. these clauses
are governed by the person hierarchy 1, 2 > 3.

(93) Realis conditional 1 > 3

di-la w-at k-aʁ-ille ...
1sg-gen m-send down-do.pfv-cond.1
‘If (I) send my (brother) ...’
(94) Realis conditional 2 > 3
wot tak het hetːu-b-a sa-qː-itːel urkːa ...
well so that there-n-dir hither-carry.pfv-cond.2sg between
‘like this, if (you) put this here, in the middle ...’
(95) Habitual present 2 > 3
iž di-la ucːiq’ar χe-w, Mamma-la Q’urban b-ik’-ul,
this 1sg-gen cousin exist.down-m Mamma-gen Kurban hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
ašːi-j w-alχ-atːa
2pl-dat m-know.ipfv-prs.2pl
‘I have a cousin called Mamala Kurban, you know him.’
(96) Habitual past 3 > 1
šːamχal acːi-l r-ik-a-di
Shamxal uncle-erg f-lead.ipfv-hab.pst-1
‘Uncle Shamkhal led me (fem.).’
(97) Preterite 3 > 2
tːura ha-qː-ib=de=w u iž miskin-ni?
outside up-carry.pfv-pret=2sg=q 2sg this poor-erg
‘Did the poor man pull you out?’

In clauses with two speech act participants, in principle either participant can control
agreement independently of its grammatical role. All four logically possible combina-
tions can be obtained in elicitation with male and female Sanzhi speakers of various
ages:

397
20 Agreement

(98) a. 1 > 2, agent controls agreement

du-l u kʷi urc-an=da
1sg-erg 2sg in.the.hands keep.m.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘I will keep you (masc.) in my hands.’ (E)
b. 1 > 2, patient controls agreement
du-l u kʷi urc-an=de
1sg-erg 2sg in.the.hands keep.m.ipfv-ptcp=2sg
‘I will keep you (masc.) in my hands.’ (E)
(99) a. 2 > 1, agent controls agreement
u-l du kʷi urc-an=de
2sg-erg 1sg in.the.hands keep.m.ipfv-ptcp=2sg
‘You will keep me (masc.) in my hands.’ (E)
b. 2 > 1, patient controls agreement
u-l du kʷi urc-an=da
2sg-erg 1sg in.the.hands keep.m.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘You will keep me (masc.) in my hands.’ (E)

There is only one example of such a scenario in my corpus (100), and it shows agree-
ment controlled by a second person agent.

(100) Realis conditional 2 > 1

du w-erc-aq-utːe
1sg m-save.pfv-caus-cond.2sg
‘(I give you a lot of money) if you save me.’

It seems that there is a slight tendency in elicitation for speakers to prefer the exam-
ples in which the second person controls the agreement, be it a second person agent,
patient, experiencer, or stimulus (101). Nevertheless, Sanzhi Dargwa is unlike Icari in
having also first person agreement controllers in clauses with only speech act partic-
ipants (102), (103). The same variation in person alignment has also been attested for
Shiri Dargwa in Belyaev (2013).

(101) Habitual present 2 > 1

at du či-w-ig-utːe
2sg.dat 1sg spr-m-see.ipfv-2sg
‘You see me.’ (E)
(102) Habitual present 1 > 2
dam u či-w-ig-utːe
1sg.dat 2sg spr-m-see.ipfv-2sg
‘I see you.’ (E)

398
 20.3 Person agreement

(103) Habitual present 1 > 2

nušːa-l ušːa d-uˁrq-itːa
1pl-erg 2pl 1/2pl-hit.ipfv-prs.2pl
‘We hit you.’ (E)

To sum up scenarios with two speech act participants functioning as agents and pa-
tients, I can only state that my preliminary analysis did not yield more precise results
and that the variation is an interesting problem, which requires further testing.
The alignment patterns, including the described variation, seems to slightly change
for predicates with three arguments. As said above, recipients, addressees, beneficiaries,
and other arguments that are not agents or patients never control person agreement. In
sentences with first person agent arguments and second person patient arguments, both
agent and patient can control the agreement. This means we either have hierarchical
agreement with 2 > 1 as in the second version of (106), or agreement with the agent
as in the first version of (104) and in (105). If the agent is a second person pronoun,
only this argument can control the agreement (106). Agreement controlled by the first
person patient argument is ungrammatical. This is in contrast to examples with two-
place predicates such as (99b) which has a first person patient argument controlling the
agreement. At the present moment I do not have any explanation for why the agreement
patterns of three-place verbs seem to diverge from those of two-place verbs and the few
examples I was able to elicit do not allow me to draw and further conclusions or to
develop hypotheses, so this topic must be left for future research.

(104) Preterite 1 > 2

du-l u Madina-j či-w-až-aq-ib=da /
1sg-erg 2sg Madina-dat spr-m-see.pfv-caus-pret=1 /
či-w-až-aq-ib=de
spr-m-see.pfv-caus-pret=2sg
‘I showed you to Madina.’ (E)
(105) Future 1 > 2
hek’ kːalkːi či-b-až-aq-an=da
dem.up tree spr-n-see.pfv-caus-ptcp=1
‘(I) will show (you) the tree.’
(106) Future 2 > 1
u-l du Madina-j či-w-iž-aq-an=de=w /
2sg-erg 1sg Madina-dat spr-m-see.ipfv-caus-ptcp=2sg=q /
* či-w-iž-aq-an=da=w?
spr-m-see.ipfv-caus-ptcp=1=q
‘Will you show me to Madina?’ (E)

399
20 Agreement

As soon as a speech act participant co-occurs with a third person agent or patient, it
is the speech act participant that controls the agreement (107), (108). In (108) the verb
also has a gender/number agreement prefix that is controlled by the absolutive argu-
ment. Thus, we can clearly see that person and gender/number agreement function in-
dependently. In clauses with only third person agents and patients we find third person
agreement, even if we have first or second person recipients (109).
(107) Preterite 1 > 3
du-l a-cːe cik’al-la tiladi a-b-arq’-ib=da
1sg-erg 2sg-in thing-gen request neg-n-do.pfv-pret=1
‘I did not ask you anything!’
(108) Realis conditional 2 > 3
hetː-a-la durħuˁ-li-j hej rursːi r-ičː-itːe
those-obl-gen boy-obl-dat this girl f-give.pfv-cond.2sg
‘if you give the girl to their son’
(109) Preterite 3 > 3
sumk’a di-cːe b-ičː-ib
bag 1sg-in n-give.pfv-pret
‘(He) gave me his bag.’
The obligative (§14.1.5), the obligative present (§14.1.6) and the experiential I and II
(§14.2.6) diverge from the TAM forms discussed so far in their agreement rules because
they do not make use of any person hierarchy, but person agreement is always controlled
by the patient (in clauses with two-place verbs). Thus, example (110) shows the experien-
tial I with the third person patient serving as agreement controller. The use of the first
person enclitic is ungrammatical. Sentence (111) from the corpus illustrates the experien-
tial II and does not have an overt agent, but an overt first person patient, which controls
the agreement on the verb. All examples also show that the patient also controls the
gender marking on the lexical verb (and on the copula if there is any), which is expected
and in accordance with the gender agreement rules. Furthermore, the cross-categorical
suffix on the lexical verb agrees in number with the patient: a singular patient requires
the suffix -ce (112) or -il (111), (7); a plural patient requires -te (8), (110), (113).
(110) itːi qːamuš dul ka-d-ičː-ib-te ca-d /
those reed 1sg.erg down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop-npl /
* ka-d-ičː-ib-te=da
down-npl-cut.up.pfv-pret-dd.pl=1
‘I cut those reeds.’ (E)
(111) w-arq’-ib-il=da du azir-lim urč’em darš-lim ʡaˁb-c’anu
m-do.pfv-pret-ref=1 1sg thousand-num nine hundred-num three-ten
xu-ra-ibil
five-num-ord
‘I (masc.) was born in 1935.’

400
 20.3 Person agreement

(112) du-l julʁan-ni-gu-w w-arq’-ib-ce ca-w

1sg-erg blanket-obl-sub-m m-do.pfv-pret-dd.sg cop-m
‘I gave birth to (my son) under a blanket.’ [modified corpus example]
In (113) the modal enclitic =q’al functions as a predicative marker such that the cop-
ula can be omitted (which is accordance with the general rules for the omission of the
copula).
(113) arc lukː-an-te=q’al du-l
money give.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=mod 1sg-erg
‘I have to give the money back.’
The four TAM forms are analytic and make use of either the cross-categorical suffixes
-ce or -il, which, among other things, are used for the formation of referential attributes
that have the morphosyntactic properties of nominals (e.g. headless relative clauses).
These constructions therefore resemble biclausal constructions, but a detailed investiga-
tion is needed before any conclusions can be made.
In sum, person agreement in Sanzhi is conditioned by person, by grammatical rela-
tions, and by TAM forms. Only agent, experiencer and patient arguments control person
agreement, and the relevant hierarchy is 1, 2 > 3. In clauses with two speech act partici-
pants either argument can control agreement, even if it seems that there is a small pref-
erence for second person controllers because in elicitation speakers seem to accept them
more readily. Variation in clauses with speech act participants is also found with respect
to the stem augment vowels (Table 20.5), whereas in all other scenarios no variation is
allowed.
Person agreement does not interact with polarity. However, the form of the verb and
therefore the form of the agreement marker may change, e.g. in a copula clause with a
first or second person subject and present time reference, the person enclitics given in
Table 20.6 are used; if the same clause is negated, the negated forms of the copula to
which person suffixes are added occur (114).
(114) du kːuš-le akːʷa-di
1sg hungry-advz cop.neg-1
‘I am not hungry.’ (E)
As was mentioned above, non-finite verb forms mostly cannot take person markers.
For example, the adverbial clause in (115) headed by a converb lacks an agreement marker.
Only the finite verb in the main clause shows person agreement.
(115) [hel-tːi d-ičː-ib-le] qili sa-ač’-ib=da
that-pl npl-give.pfv-pret-cvb home hither-come.pfv-pret=1
‘(They) gave them (to me) and (I) went home.’
The only exceptions are certain complement clauses exhibiting control. They can be
headed by an infinitive or alternatively by the subjunctive which has the suffix -Vtːaj for
the second person and -anaj/-araj for the third person (see §18.1.4). There is no suffix for
the first person and instead the infinitive is used. Relevant examples are:

401
20 Agreement

(116) a. nišːij b-ikː-ul=de [d-isː-ij]

1pl.dat n-want.ipfv-cvb=pst 1/2pl-cry-inf
‘We wanted to cry.’ (E)
b. ašːij b-ikː-ul=de [d-isː-utːaj / d-isː-ij]
2pl.dat n-want.ipfv-cvb=pst 1/2pl-cry-2subj / 1/2pl-cry-inf
‘You wanted to cry.’ (E)
c. il-tːa-j b-ikː-ul=de [b-isː-araj / b-isː-ij]
that-pl.obl-dat n-want.ipfv-cvb=pst hpl-cry-3subj / hpl-cry-inf
‘They wanted to cry.’ (E)

402
21 Noun phrases and postpositional
phrases
This chapter addresses the properties of noun phrases (§21.1) and postpositional phrases
(§21.2) including their constituent order. Nominal modifiers that occur outside the noun
phrase (i.e. so-called “floating modifiers”) are only briefly discussed (§21.1.4). For a de-
tailed treatment of floating modifiers see §27.1.2 and §27.1.3.

21.1 Noun phrases

21.1.1 Introduction
The noun phrase (NP) with an overt head noun minimally consists of a nominal head
that can be optionally modified. Nominals that occur as heads of NPs are all sorts of
pronouns, common nouns, personal names, or nominalized items. Noun phrases can be
coordinated (§26.1), and it is possible to have noun phrases with nominalized modifiers
instead of head nouns (§21.1.5). Noun phrases are head-final and thus modifiers precede
the head. Usually, nouns are most prone to be modified, but occasionally other nominals
can also take modifiers. Noun phrases admit the following types of modifiers:

• lexical modifiers such as demonstrative and possessive pronouns, adjectives, nu-

merals and other quantifiers, and nouns (appositive nouns, nouns marked by the
genitive)
• spatial modifiers in the essive case (e.g. nouns with spatial case marking or post-
positional phrases)
• relative clauses and purpose clauses

Noun phrases occur in core argument and adjunct position (e.g. as instruments or
temporal adjuncts). They can also be used as predicates in copula clauses (§22.2) and as
complements in postpositional phrases (§21.2).
Within the noun phrase, there is gender and number agreement. Targets for gender/
number agreement are a number of vowel-initial adjectives (1) and adjectival quanti-
fiers that have agreement affixes (8), (36), any items bearing essive cases (5), (9), and
participles of verbs with gender prefixes (20). Number agreement without gender agree-
ment is found with demonstrative pronouns (12), and with modifiers that have the cross-
categorical suffix -ce (singular) (4) vs. -te (plural) (7) (§9.6.1). There is no case agreement
between modifiers and the head noun within the noun phrase, and case suffixes can only
occur on the head noun.
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

(1) ca b-uqen q’aˁli

one n-long branch
‘a/one long branch’

21.1.2 Lexical, phrasal, and clausal modifiers in noun phrases

Sanzhi does not have a special class of articles. Instead, demonstrative pronouns (§4.2)
and the numeral ca ‘one’ can be used in the function of definite and indefinite articles
respectively, but often their interpretation is ambiguous between definite article and
demonstrative pronoun, or indefinite article and numeral (2).

(2) hel-tː-a-lla hel-tːu-w le-w=de ca žahil durħuˁ

that-pl-obl-gen that-loc-m exist-m=pst one young boy
‘There with them was also a/one young boy.’

Nouns frequently occur without the numeral ca or a demonstrative pronoun and re-
ceive an indefinite or definite interpretation from the context. Personal names can take
demonstrative pronouns when they occur as topical noun phrases (3), but normally they
occur without demonstratives.

(3) hila=de il Ražab?

whose=pst that Razhab
‘Whose was that Razhab?’ (i.e. from which family)

There are no special possessive pronouns. Personal pronouns (first and second person),
demonstrative pronouns (third person) or reflexive pronouns (third person) marked by
the genitive are used instead (9), (16). Most adjectives distinguish between a short bare
form and a long form with the suffix -ce (plural -te) (§5.2). The use of the suffix is obliga-
tory for adjectives in predicative function and for attributive adjectives that do not occur
in their canonical prenominal position (see §21.1.3 below). Adjectives used as attributes
to nouns can occur with (4) or without the suffix (5), the omission of the suffix being far
more frequent than its presence.

(4) χːula-ce duˁħi b-irq’-iri

big-dd.sg snow n-do.ipfv-hab.pst
‘It snowed a lot.’
(5) cara welisipjed-li-cːe-r nik’a rursːi
other bike-obl-in-f small girl
‘another little girl on a bike’

Nouns modified by numerals are not marked for plural (as are nouns modified by the
interrogative word čum ‘how many’), although they trigger plural agreement on demon-
strative pronouns (12), adjectives (7), and also within the clause, i.e. on verbs, postposi-
tions or adverbs (6). This means that not only semantically, but also syntactically, the

404
 21.1 Noun phrases

noun phrase is plural. Modifying adjectives in noun phrases can occur in the stem form
or with the cross-categorical suffix, which has a singular form -ce and a plural form -te
(§9.6.1). In noun phrases with numerals as modifiers, the plural form must be used when
the noun has plural reference (7)

(6) il-tːu-b [Q’adiʡaˁšra=ra b-ik’-ul] [Bat’aj=ra b-ik’-ul]

that-loc-hpl Kadiashra=add hpl-say.ipfv-icvb Bataj=add hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
k’ʷel xːunul b-irχ-i il-tːa-lla atrjad-la
two woman hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst that-obl.pl-gen troop-gen
‘There were two women of their troops called Kadiashra and Bataj.’
(7) ʡaˁbal d-uqna(-te) q’ʷal
three npl-old-(dd.pl) cow
‘three old cows’ (E)

Younger speakers occasionally use the plural suffix on the noun in noun phrases with
numerals as it is done in Russian (8). In Sanzhi noun phrases that contain quantifiers
such as b-aqil ‘much, many’ (36), the noun has also to be marked for plural.

(8) ʡaˁbal durħ-ne sa-b-eʁ-ib-le, quˁr-be li<d>il

three boy-pl hither-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb pear-pl all<npl>
d-alc’-un
npl-gather.pfv-pret
‘Three boys came and gathered all the pears.’

Nominal modifiers in NPs can be appositions, nouns bearing the suffixes -il or -ce, and
nouns marked for spatial cases (9) or for the genitive case (6). If plural nouns bear the
genitive they can have a non-specific interpretation, not referring to a specific possessor
but restricting the meaning of the head noun to a certain type (10).

(9) [cin-na qal-li-sa-b] musːa

refl.sg-gen house-obl-ante-n place
‘the place in front of his house’
(10) χːula qːuʁa hinc-b-a-lla kːalkːi
big beautiful apple-pl-obl-gen tree
‘a big beautiful apple tree’

Appositions consist of two (or more) nouns with the same referents immediately
following each other. As indicated by their modifiers and case marking, appositional
phrases behave like a single noun phrase. They most frequently consist of a proper name
and a kinship term, namely acːi ‘uncle’ (11) or azi ‘aunt’ or of nouns denoting different
types of roles such as social roles (e.g. zunra ‘neighbor’, saldat ‘soldier’, tuχtur ‘doctor’,
busurman ‘Muslim’, jatim ‘orphan’) (12) or gender roles (xːunul ‘woman’, murgul ‘man’).
The role-denoting nouns modify more general terms such as admi ‘person, man’, insan

405
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

‘person’ (12), and some other nouns. Appositions not involving proper names resemble
compounds (12) since the meaning of the second nouns is restricted through the meaning
of the preceding noun.
(11) šːamχal acːi-l r-ik-a-di
Shamxal uncle-erg f-lead.ipfv-hab.pst-1
‘Uncle Shamkhal guided me (fem.).’
(12) hel-tːi k’ʷel=ra zunra admi=ra
that-pl two=add neighbor person=add
‘and those two neighbors’
Furthermore, the nominals cannot be separated, their order is rather fixed, and only
the second nominal is marked for case (13)
(13) du tuχtur Maˁħaˁmmad-li-cːe ∅-ik’-ul=da ...
1sg doctor Mahammad-obl-in m-say.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I say to Doctor Mahammad ...’
Other nominals occurring in appositive phrases are reflexive pronouns that function
as emphatic reflexives (§29.1.2) or pronouns with quantifiers, e.g. nušːa lidil ‘we all’.
The noun phrase can contain an equative expression that either contains the adjective
miši, which governs the dative (14), or the particle ʁuna (15), (16) that changes to ʁunab
when the suffix -ce is added.
(14) [admi-li-j miši] dig
person-obl-dat similar meat
‘meat similar to human (flesh)’
(15) ħaˁpra.qu-m-a-ja-r či-b-a ʁuna xːun
Hapra.field-pl-obl-loc-abl on-n-dir eq road
‘a road like through Hapra-field’ (place name)
(16) nišːa-la ʁuna mukːatːa-lla aruš-la napitka-be
1pl-gen eq alcoholic.drink-gen home.brew-gen drink-pl
‘drinks like our alcoholic homebrew’
Phrasal and clausal modifiers of noun phrases are postpositional phrases (15), (17), (18),
relative clauses (20), (22) (see also Chapter 23), purpose clauses (19) and other clauses
(20). Although not obligatory, the suffix -il, which is used to form nominal modifiers
from various parts of speech (§9.6.2), has been added to the postpositional phrase in (17).
The suffix can be omitted as example (15) shows, but then the postpositional phrase can
either function as a modifier of the noun or as a clausal modifier. Sentence (20) illustrates
the use of a commemoration formula that is headed by a verb in the unmarked optative.
The unmarked optative can be nominalized and take further case markers. Therefore,
the optative clause can be interpreted as a clausal modifier to the noun xːunul ‘woman’.
But it can also be interpreted as a parenthesis that is not syntactically related to the noun.
The optative clause is followed by a short relative clause consisting only of a participle.

406
 21.1 Noun phrases

(17) [xːunul-li-cːe-b kʷi-b-il] sumk’a

woman-obl-in-n in.the.hands-n-ref bag
‘the bag in the hands of the woman’
(18) [qič’-me urkːa-b] ašrapi
rock-pl between-n golden.coin
‘the golden coin between the rocks’
(19) [pikri ∅-ik’ʷ-ij] zamana
thought m-say.ipfv-inf time
‘time to think’
(20) it [ʡaˁpa b-arq’ cin-na] [r-ebč’-ib-il] xːunul
that commemoration n-do.pfv refl.sg-gen f-die.pfv-pret-ref woman
‘that dead woman, may she rest in peace’

21.1.3 The structure and order of constituents within the noun phrase
Noun phrases can be complex consisting of several modifiers, but in natural texts three or
more modifiers are not very common. Because the modifiers themselves can be complex,
the actual number of words in noun phrases might easily reach five or more. The usual
order of modifiers is displayed in (21), which shows that the noun occupies the right-most
position in the noun phrase.

(21) demonstrative/genitive
numeral / quantifier
phrase or clause
adjective
demonstrative / genitive / quantifier
appositive noun
head

Testelets (1998a: 654) has proposed for other East Caucasian, particularly Avar-Andic
and Tsezic languages, that the order of modifiers in the noun phrase reflects “the degree
of their contribution to the identification of the NP’s referent.” If this generalization is
taken to express a tendency, rather than a strict rule, it can be applied to the Sanzhi noun
phrase as well. For example, genitive modifiers and demonstrative pronouns demon-
strate this tendency since the former, typically closer to the head noun than the latter
(see (23) above), make a larger contribution to identification of referents, although the
reverse order is possible (29).
The modifiers can be divided into two groups: (i) quantifiers, demonstratives, and gen-
itives, which specify the quantity, definiteness, and referentiality of the noun phrase and
thus anchor it in the discourse, and (ii) adjectives, nominals, phrases, or clauses, which
denote qualities and provide further information about the properties of the referent.
The two groups are not only distinguished by their semantics, but also by their position
within the noun phrase. Members of the first group, i.e. quantifiers, demonstratives, and

407
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

genitives, can occur in two different positions as (21) shows: either in phrase-initial posi-
tion or (almost) immediately before the head noun. Furthermore, they can float off from
the head noun and occur outside the noun phrase. This will be discussed in detail below.
The examples in (22–26) illustrate complex noun phrases. Relative clauses are given in
square brackets. More examples in this chapter illustrate other constellations of nominal
modifiers in complex noun phrases: numeral + adjective (1), demonstrative + numeral
+ noun (12), adjective + adjective + genitive (10), and relative clause + relative clause +
numeral (6).
(22) relative clause + relative clause + genitive pronoun
[debʁalla b-irq’-an] [arilla muza b-ik’-ul] nišːa-lla musːa
prayer n-do.ipfv-ptcp during.day summit hpl-say.ipfv-icvb 1pl-gen place
k’e-b
exist.up-n
‘There is our place, called the midday summit, the praying summit.’
(23) demonstrative + genitive pronoun + genitive noun
iž ala sub-la bek’
this 2sg.gen husband-gen head
‘your husband’s head’
(24) demonstrative + relative clause + genitive pronoun
hel [ʡuˁsban b-ik’ʷ-an] nišːa-lla šːan
that Osban hpl-say.ipfv-ptcp 1pl-gen fellow.villager
‘that fellow villager of ours called Osban’
(25) demonstrative + adjective
heštːi cara durħ-n-a-cːella
these other boy-pl-obl-comit
‘with these other boys’
(26) relative clause + quantifier
[šːatːir sa-b-ač’-ib-te] li<b>il=ra χalq’
visit hither-hpl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl all<hpl>=add people
‘all people who had come for a visit’
Short adjectives are subject to a positional restriction: they can be separated from the
head noun only by other adjectives (short or long ones, which bear the attributive suffix
-ce) (36) or by appositive nouns (27). All other modifiers need to precede short adjectives
(36), every other order being ungrammatical (28).
(27) ʡaˁrkːa tuχtur Maˁħaˁmmad
sick doctor Mahammad
‘the sick doctor Mahammad’
(28) * jangi di-la mašin
new 1sg-gen car
(Intended meaning: ‘my new car’) (E)

408
 21.1 Noun phrases

There are two positions in which genitives, especially genitive pronouns, occur (21).
They are either placed in phrase-initial position (29) or, more frequently, directly preced-
ing the head (22). As mentioned above, the common order of demonstrative pronouns
and genitive pronouns is for the demonstrative to precede the genitive (23), but the re-
verse order is also attested (29).
(29) genitive pronoun + demonstrative
hež-tː-a-la hej χabar
this-pl-obl-gen this story
‘this story of theirs’
There can be scope differences associated with certain constituent orders. For instance,
the genitive pronoun in (30) can scope over the entire noun phrase or it can be restricted
to the immediately following noun. Similarly, the interpretations of (31a) and (31b) differ
slightly.
(30) di-la t’ult’-e d-irc-an rucːi
1sg-gen bread-pl npl-sell.ipfv-ptcp sister
‘my sister who sells bread’ OR ‘the sister who sells my bread’ (E)
(31) a. di-la ʡaˁbal kiniga
1sg-gen three book
‘my three books’ (E)
b. ʡaˁbal di-la kiniga
three 1sg-gen book
‘three books of mine’ (E)
If the genitive is a genuine possessor rather than a genitive which denotes the material
and can be retrieved from the context, the head noun is frequently omitted. The second
genitive in (32) lacks an overt head. Headless genitive-marked nominals can also, just
like other modifiers in noun phrases, be nominalized and take case suffixes (§21.1.5).
(32) šːan-t-a-lla deq’a d-elq’-un ca<d>i; tːura
fellow.villager-pl-obl-gen grain npl-grind.pfv-pret cop<npl> outside
šːan-t-a-lla d-elq’-un ca<d>i
fellow.villager-pl-obl-gen npl-grind.pfv-pret cop<npl>
‘The villagers’ grain has been ground; (The grain) of the people from other
villages has been ground.’
In content interrogative questions with the meaning ‘which other X’, the order is
adjective-first (cara ‘other’), followed by the interrogative pronoun ce ‘what’, which be-
longs to the modifiers of the first group (33):
(33) cara ce χurejg d-irχ-u=ja nišːa-lla?
other what food npl-be.ipfv-prs=q 1pl-gen
‘What other food of ours exists?’

409
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

21.1.4 Floating modifiers

In principle, all modifiers except for demonstrative pronouns can float off to positions
outside the noun phrase (i.e. they can be extraposed). We find genitive pronouns (33) and
genitive nouns (34) as well as quantifiers (38), adjectives (42) and relative clauses (43)
outside the noun phrase. However, the extent to which floating is possible and which
positions in the clause are common or available for floating modifiers depends on the
type of modifier. The greatest freedom is enjoyed by floating genitives because they do
not require any special marking when they are extraposed. Floating quantifiers require
overt case marking, and floating modifiers of the second group (nominals, adjectives,
relative clauses, etc.) need special additional marking (in addition to case).
Floating modifiers are semantic modifiers of nouns, but do not occur within the corre-
sponding noun phrase; they are separated from the noun phrase by other constituents.
In the following, the morphosyntactic properties of different types of floating modifiers
will be discussed in more detail. The information-structural properties are mainly dis-
cussed in §27.1.2 and §27.1.3.
The most common modifier that occurs detached from the noun is the genitive, and
this has been noticed for other East Caucasian languages, the first detailed analysis of
floating genitives being made by Creissels (2013) for Akhvakh. Floating genitives often
follow the noun and occur at the end of the clause after the verb (6), (34), but sometimes
the reverse order is found in which case the genitive precedes a clause-final noun (35).
In the latter example it seems that it is the head noun which has been extraposed while
the two genitives simply remain in their canonical position.

(34) lamusː-e=ra ha-d-erχː-ur ca-d χalq’-la

respect-pl=add up-npl-fulfill.pfv-pret cop-npl people-gen
‘The people’s respect also finished. (i.e. people do not show respect any more.)’
(35) nišːa-lla sunglan-t-a-lla le-b χabar
1pl-gen Sanzhi-pl-obl-gen exist-n story
‘We Sanzhi people have a story.’

Example (36) shows a relatively complex noun phrase that functions as the subject
of the existential copula clause. The genitive pronoun and the quantifier following the
copula are semantically associated with the noun phrase, but have been dislocated to
the right of the copula. A possible explanation for this might be that the noun phrase
would be otherwise quite complex and difficult to interpret. More examples of floating
genitives and a detailed discussion of their information-structural interpretation can be
found in §27.1.2.

(36) [hel kumek-le ha-b-ač’-ib žahil] durħ-ne le-b=de

that help-loc up-hpl-come.pfv-pret young boy-pl exist-hpl=pst
hel-tː-a-lla b-aqil
that-pl-obl-gen hpl-much
‘They had many young boys who had come to help.’

410
 21.1 Noun phrases

Some corpus examples of floating quantifiers can also be found: (8), (36–38). Example
(37) illustrates that postnominal modifiers can be interpreted contrastively, in particular
in elicited, context-free sentences, but as (38) shows, a contrastive reading is not obliga-
tory.
(37) hinci ca ka-b-ixː-a, k’ʷel ma-ka-d-iršː-it!
apple one down-n-put.pfv-imp two proh-down-npl-put.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Put one apple (there), do not put two (apples)!’ (E)
(38) cara-r heχtːu šːi-la tːura-b-te χalq’ li<b>il=ra
other-abl there.down village-gen outside-hpl-dd.pl people all<hpl>=add
‘and all the people from the other villages down there’
Quantifier floating will be illustrated through the use of the quantifier ‘all’, which
contains a gender/number infix agreeing with the noun it modifies. If the modified noun
bears the absolutive, the quantifier can occur in various positions other than the canon-
ical position before the noun (39b–39d).
(39) a. sːa li<b>il rurs-be ag-ur uškul-le
yesterday all<hpl> girl-pl go.pfv-pret school-loc
‘Yesterday all girls went to school.’ (E)
b. sːa rursbe libil agur uškulle
c. sːa rursbe agur libil uškulle
d. sːa rursbe agur uškulle libil
If the modified noun occupies the A function and has non-absolutive case marking,
then the quantifier can, when it bears the same case suffix as the noun it modifies, only
occur in positions other than the canonical position preceding the verb. Otherwise the
sentence becomes ungrammatical (40c). The reason is that in a noun phrase, case mark-
ing can only occur once, namely on the head noun. If the quantifier appears directly
before the noun, it is part of the noun phrase and can not be case-marked.
(40) a. li<b>il rurs-b-a-l t’ams-ne d-irq’-i
all<hpl> girl-pl-obl-erg carpet-pl npl-do.ipfv-hab.pst
‘All girls used to make carpets.’ (E)
b. rurs-b-a-l li<b>il-li t’ams-ne d-irq’-i
girl-pl-obl-erg all<hpl>-erg carpet-pl npl-do.ipfv-hab.pst
‘All girls used to make carpets.’ (E)
c. * libilli rursbal t’amsne dirq’i
For other grammatical relations, the restrictions are more severe. Quantifiers of ad-
dressee arguments floating away from their canonical position are rarely acceptable even
if they bear the same case marking as the noun they modify. Sentences such as (41) are
marginal. It is possible to make a short break before the quantifier, which is then inter-
preted as right dislocated, and the translation is ‘Mother told the stories to the women,
to all (of them).’

411
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

(41) ?? aba-l χabur-te xːun-r-a-cːe li<b>il-li-cːe d-urs-i

mother-erg story-pl woman-pl-obl-in all<hpl>-obl-in npl-tell.pfv-hab.pst
‘Mother told the stories to all women.’
Floating quantifiers are occasionally found in texts, but all examples have head nouns
in the absolutive case (8), (36).
In contrast to genitives and quantifiers, modifiers of the second group, that is, adjec-
tives, postpositional phrases, or relative clauses, need special marking when they occur
in a position outside the noun phrase, either immediately following it or further ex-
traposed to the right. There are only a few corpus examples of floating modifiers in a
position before and at the same time outside a noun phrase (35) (see also §27.1.3).
There are two markers: the suffix -ce (plural -te) (§9.6.1) and the suffix -il (§9.6.2).
These markers optionally occur on modifiers within the noun phrase as (4), (7), (20) and
(26) show, but for extraposed modifiers the use is obligatory. Both markers are cross-
categorical suffixes and are used for the formation of referential attributes, which mor-
phosyntactically behave like nominals. Their use is similar, but -ce and -il can only ex-
press singular referents, whereas -te requires plural referents. The suffix -ce is used with
adjectives (42), spatial modifiers in the essive case (=postpositional phrases), and occa-
sionally relative clauses; the suffix -il is mainly used with relative clauses (43). The same
two markers are employed when no head noun is present in the clause and the items,
which would otherwise be used as modifiers, are nominalized and take over the function
of nouns (§21.1.5). Furthermore, adjectival roots are obligatorily marked with -ce when
they are employed in predicative function (§5.2).
(42) detski šampun le-b durqa-ce
children’s shampoo exist-n expensive-dd.sg
‘There is shampoo for children, expensive.’
(43) iž=ra het=ra, het ʡaˁχːuˁl ∅-iχʷ-ij [xːunul-la qajqaj-li-cːe
this=add that=add that guest m-be.pfv-inf woman-gen jaw-obl-in
b-aˁq-ib-il]
n-hit.pfv-pret-ref
‘This also and this also is probably the man who hit the woman on the jaw.’
As was mentioned for postnominal quantifiers above, all corpus examples of floating
modifiers occur in clauses in which the noun to which they semantically belong appears
in the absolutive case. This means that it does not have overt case marking. If the noun
is case-marked, it is not sufficient to add the special marking in form of the suffix -ce or
-il to the modifier (44), but the modifier must also take case marking identical to the case
of the noun (45).
(44) * it sa-jʁ-ib tuχtur-ri-šːu ʡaˁħ-ce, wahi-ce-lli-šːu
that hither-come.m.pfv-pret doctor-obl-ad good-dd.sg bad-dd.sg-obl-ad
a-ag-ur
neg-go.pfv-pret
(Intended meaning: ‘He went to a good doctor, he did not go to a bad one.’) (E)

412
 21.1 Noun phrases

(45) it sa-jʁ-ib tuχtur-ri-šːu ʡaˁħ-ce-lli-šːu,

that hither-come.m.pfv-pret doctor-obl-ad good-dd.sg-obl-ad
wahi-ce-lli-šːu a-ag-ur
bad-dd.sg-obl-ad neg-go.pfv-pret
‘He went to a doctor who is good; he did not go to a bad one.’ (E)
Case marking of modifiers that occur within the noun phrase is ungrammatical (see
§9.6.1.2 for an example).
Kazenin (2002) analyzes floating modifiers in the East Caucasian language Lak and in
the unrelated languages Circassian and Nogai. He distinguishes between simple splits
in which the nominal modifier is fronted and thus occurs in a position to the left of the
noun phrase, and inverted splits when the modifiers follow the noun phrase. Inverted
splits always require nominalization of the modifier independently of case marking; sim-
ple splits require nominalization whenever the head noun of the noun phrase and the
modifier are overtly case-marked, which concerns all cases except for the absolutive. He
concludes that nominalized modifiers do not form a single constituent with the noun
phrase, which is in line with the analysis adopted in this grammar.
Floating adjectival modifiers have restrictive semantics and imply the existence of an-
other, contrasting referent. For instance, the shampoo in (42) is identified because the
modifying adjective restricts the interpretation to expensive shampoos, which might at
the same time be contrasted with cheap ones although this remains open within the
context of the utterance. However, not every extraposed modifier is contrastive. A dis-
cussion of the pragmatic functions of floating modifiers and more examples can be found
in §27.1.3.

21.1.5 Nominalized modifiers used as head nouns

When the noun is absent, the item occurring in the rightmost position in the noun phrase
undergoes nominalization and functions as the head noun. In principle, all modifiers
listed in §21.1.1 can be nominalized and then used as heads of a noun phrase in argu-
ment position or as adjunct. Depending on their use in the clause, they take further case
suffixes.
Demonstrative pronouns, numerals, and other quantifiers do not require additional
morphology when used as nouns (except for oblique stem marking and case suffixes
if required by their function in the clause). Adjectives (46), pronouns (47), and nouns
marked for the genitive (48) or spatial cases, postpositional phrases, and relative clauses
(49), and other clauses take either the suffix -ce (-te) or the suffix -il. Thus, (47) shows
a nominalized genitive pronoun being suffixed with -ce and thus able to take over the
function of the S argument of the verb b-ič-ij. Contrast this with (32), which illustrated
the genitive whose head noun has been omitted. Nominalized modifiers take case suffixes
and often also oblique stem markers just like any other nominals (46), (48).
(46) χːula-ce-li-j ʡaˁħ-le ʡaˁq’lu b-alχ-u=w?
big-dd.sg-obl-dat good-advz mind n-know.ipfv-prs.3=q
‘Does an older (person) know it better (or a young guy)?’

413
21 Noun phrases and postpositional phrases

(47) ala-ce b-ič-ib-le χajri b-irχ-i

2sg.gen-dd.sg n-occur.pfv-pret-cvb benefit n-be.able.ipfv-hab.pst
‘(I) could profit from yours. (i.e. from your milk)’
(48) nišːa-la-t-a-l=q’ar a-b-at-ij ħaˁžat-le ca-b
1pl-gen-pl-obl-erg=mod neg-n-let.pfv-inf need-advz cop-n
‘It is necessary to not let our (people to sell our land).’
(49) b-ikː-an-il-li pisuk’ či-k-erx-u
n-want.ipfv-ptcp-ref-erg sugar spr-down-pour.ipfv-prs.3
‘The one who wants pours sugar (on the dish).’

However, headless relative clauses in which the verb bears the modal participle suf-
fix -an and that function as absolutive arguments without any further case marking,
frequently occur without -ce or -il (see §23.4 for examples).
Nominalized modifiers can themselves be modified. In (50), a nominalized adjective
is modified by a participle, and in (51) the relative clause, which consists of only one
participle, is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun.

(50) asː-a [b-iq’-ur(-ce)] it’in-ce!

buy.pfv-imp n-ripen-pret(dd.sg) red-dd.sg
‘Buy a/the red one that is ripe!’ (E)
(51) hej ka-jcː-ur-il ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, ...
this down-get.up.m.pfv-pret-ref m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘The one who is standing says, ...”’

21.2 Postpositional phrases

Postpositional phrases consist of a postposition that is preceded by a noun phrase. The
noun phrase can be complex containing modifiers, quantifiers or determiners (52). Post-
positions govern various cases, most notably the genitive and a few spatial cases (52),
(53). Non-spatial postpositions mostly govern the absolutive case. See Chapter 8 for more
examples of postpositions and postpositional phrases.

(52) ca aq dahag-le-b či-b

one high precipice-loc-n on-n
‘on one high precipice’
(53) na w-isː-ul ca-w tusnaq-le-w w-i-w
now m-cry-icvb cop-m prison-loc-m m-in-m
‘Now he is crying in prison.’

Postpositional phrases are always head-final, so it is ungrammatical for a postposition

to precede the noun. However, all spatial postpositions also occur as adverbials and/or

414
 21.2 Postpositional phrases

spatial preverbs without any additional morphology. Thus, it is not always easy to iden-
tify which part of speech a relevant item belongs to. For instance, the postposition b-i-b
‘in, inside’ governs, among other cases, the loc-essive, loc-lative or loc-ablative (§8.1.9),
as shown in (53). However, there is also a spatial preverb b-i and an adverbial b-i with
the same meaning. In example (54), what looks like a stranded postposition w-i(-w) is
instead the spatial adverb. Example (55) illustrates the preverbal use. No case marked
noun phrase is preceding w-i.

(54) w-i-w kelg-un hel tusnaq-le-w

m-in-m remain.pfv-pret that prison-loc-m
‘He stayed in prison.’
(55) du w-i-ha-lqʷ-an=da
1sg m-in-up-direct.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘I will go inside.’

415
22 Simple clauses including copula
clauses and grammatical relations
This chapter addresses the basic structural properties of simple main clauses, includ-
ing declarative, interrogative, imperative and optative clauses that express different il-
locutionary acts, namely assertions, questions and directives. These three clause types
contrast mainly by their morphological marking (verbal suffixes, predicative particles),
rather than by differences in constituent order or intonation. Simple clauses can be di-
vided into simple verbal clauses with verbs other than the copula (§22.1) and copula
clauses (§22.2). This division cross-cuts the division into declarative, interrogative, im-
perative and optative clauses. Grammatical relations and the notion of subjecthood are
analyzed in §22.3. Word order at the clausal level and information-structural properties
of simple clauses and other types of clauses are analyzed in Chapter 27.

22.1 Simple clauses headed by verbs other than copulas

This section discusses simple clauses with verbal predicates, which can be declarative,
interrogative, imperative and optative clauses. The main focus of the section is on declar-
ative clauses. The other clause types will be briefly mentioned at the end of the section.
The constituent order in simple clauses is discussed in §27.2.
Verbal clauses obligatorily consist of a verbal predicate. All other constituents (argu-
ments and adjuncts) can be left out. By contrast, declarative copula clauses can be formed
with non-verbal predicates and without finite verb forms if they contain predicative par-
ticles (§22.2).
In general, the number of arguments, their semantic roles as well as their case-mark-
ing, depend on the valency classes of the verbs and on whether further valency-changing
operations such as antipassive or causativization have been applied. Valency patterns of
predicates can be divided into one-place (monovalent), two-place (bivalent) and three-
place (trivalent) patterns (see §19.1 for a detailed overview). I will follow the macrorole
approach as presented in Bickel (2011) and Bickel et al. (2015) and distinguish between
bivalent predicates between an A argument (the argument with the most agentive prop-
erties) and a P argument (the argument with the least agentive or most patientive prop-
erties). Three-place verbs have, in addition to the A argument, a G argument and a T
argument. The G (goal-like) argument is more stationary than the T (theme-like) argu-
ment, and, in contrast to T, might be receiving an experience or being exposed to an
experience. The label S will be used for the single argument of intransitive verbs and for
absolutive arguments of extended intransitive verbs.
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

Cases used to encode the arguments are absolutive, ergative, dative, and to a lesser
extent, genitive and spatial cases such as the ante-ablative or the in-lative. Gender agree-
ment is controlled in most cases by the absolutive argument of the clause (§20.2). How-
ever, certain verb forms allow the ergative or the dative argument as controller (§20.2.4),
while other clauses lack absolutive arguments and resort to default agreement (§20.2.1).
Person agreement, which works independently of gender agreement, follows the hierar-
chy 1, 2 > 3, whereby only S, A, P, and T arguments can function as controllers. From the
person hierarchy follows that speech act participants control the agreement if the clause
has any speech act participants. In clauses with only first and second person arguments,
either person can control agreement independently of their grammatical role, although
there might be a small tendency for second person arguments to outrank first person
arguments (see §20.3 for more information).
Declarative verbal clauses obligatorily contain finite verb forms, which exhibit the full
range of TAM marking and gender and person agreement. Negation is expressed through
a prefix or, if the verb form includes the copula as auxiliary, by means of the negative
copula (§11.7). Arguments and adjuncts can be pronouns or full noun phrases (4), (5). Ar-
guments that can be interpreted through the context are often omitted (1). Adjuncts can
be instruments, companions or express temporal, spatial or other circumstances (§3.4.1,
§3.4.2). The following examples illustrate simple verbal declarative clauses with verbs
of the major valency classes: intransitive, extended intransitive, affective, transitive, and
extended transitive.
Intransitive verbs (§19.1.2) have one single argument (S) in the absolutive case control-
ling gender, number and person agreement (1).

(1) cellij r-isː-ul=de?

why f-cry-icvb=2sg
‘Why are you (fem.) crying?’

Extended intransitive verbs are bivalent and have an S argument in the absolutive and
a further argument either in the dative, in-lative, ante-ablative, or in other spatial cases
(2) (see §19.1.4 for further examples).

(2) bec’ kːurtːa-j er b-erč’-ib-le, …

wolf fox-dat look n-look.pfv-pret-cvb
‘The wolf looked at the fox, …’

Bivalent affective verbs (§19.1.8) have a dative-marked experiencer (A) and a stimulus
argument in the absolutive case (P) (3).

(3) d-aqil qːihin-dex či-d-ič-ib nik’a ucːi-j

npl-much difficult-nmlz spr-npl-occur.pfv-pret small brother-dat
‘The little brother experienced many difficulties.’

Transitive verbs (§19.1.5) require an agent in the ergative (A) and a patient in the ab-
solutive (P) (4).

418
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

(4) hel-i-l kːurtːa a-kax-ub

that-obl-erg fox neg-kill.pfv-pret
‘He did not kill the fox.’

Extended transitive verbs (§19.1.6) add a further G argument marked by the dative or
by spatial cases to the ergative A and the absolutive T (5).

(5) kːurtːa-l b-ičː-ib hel-i-j cin-na ʁez

fox-erg n-give.pfv-pret that-obl-dat refl.sg-gen hair
‘The fox gave him his hair.’

More detailed information on these and other valency classes can be found in §19.1.
Interrogative clauses are marked by interrogative enclitics, which also belong to the
class of predicative particles. They are often but not always signaled by rising intonation.
They usually contain finite verb forms, but it is also possible to encode interrogative
clauses with certain non-finite verb forms and interrogative enclitics. See Chapter 28 for
more information on their morphosyntactic properties and §27.2.2 for the constituent
order, which is largely identical to the constituent order of declarative clauses (except
for differences that are due to the information structure). Sanzhi has another type of
interrogative clause with modal semantics. This type, which I call the modal interrogative
contrasts to all other interrogative clauses since it makes use of a special verbal suffix.
This suffix exists only for first person subject-like arguments (§17.4) and does not express
tense. The modal interrogative is thus more like imperative and optative clauses than
interrogative clauses.
Imperative, prohibitive and optative clauses contain verbs inflected with suffixes
which do not express tense. Imperative and prohibitive clauses are restricted in their use
to second person subject-like arguments, which can be overtly expressed as in declara-
tive or interrogative clauses (§17.1 and §17.2). The optative does not show person restric-
tions, but cannot be formed from imperfective verb stems and is thus constrained in its
aspectual value (§17.3).

22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

Copula clauses are constructions prototypically containing a copula, a copula predicate
and a copula subject. The copula can, but does not have to be, a verb. Genuine copulas are
considered to be semantically empty (Pustet 2003: 5). According to this definition, Sanzhi
Dargwa ca-b can be considered a copula as well as the person enclitics =da and =de and
the past enclitic =de. In addition, Sanzhi has four locational copulas and a number of
auxiliaries that also head copula clauses. Table 22.1 provides an overview of all items used
in copula constructions with references to the sections in which more information about
the morphology of the items is given. In the following section I will refer to all items in
Table 22.1 as copulas whenever they are used in copula constructions. The items listed in
the last part of the table are auxiliaries that are not entirely “semantically empty”. They
are included in the table and discussed in this section because they are used to express

419
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

TAM forms of copula clauses for which the copulas and predicative particles cannot be
used since they lack those forms. Some of the items in Table 22.1 regularly combine in
copula clauses. (I) The predicative particles can occur as enclitics on the copula ca-b
(see below for examples), but not on the negative copula. They can also occur on the
locational copulas (§22.2.2) and on the other auxiliaries because they are a regular part
of certain TAM forms. (II) The copula ca-b and its negative counterpart are also used
in a few TAM forms and thus can combine with most auxiliaries given in Table 22.1
(30). (III) The same applies to the locational copulas, which are also occasionally used
in certain periphrastic TAM clauses and therefore can combine with the auxiliaries in
copula clauses (§15.1).
Which copula item is chosen depends on the person of the copula subject, on the
meaning of the copula construction, on the temporal reference of the clause, and on
further categories such as mood, epistemic modality, illocutionary force, and clause type.
The copula ca-b, the locational copulas, and the verb b-el are defective, and in the case
of ca-b, also suppletive under negation. This means that they form only a very small set
of verb forms compared with the forms available for regular verbs (including the other
auxiliaries listed in Table 22.1).
Under certain circumstances, one of the three constituents can be absent. Copula
clauses without a subject are, for instance, weather constructions (45) or other imper-
sonal clauses (47) (§22.2.3). The copula predicate is present in most types of copula
clauses, but often lacking in existential copula clauses (34) or when possession is ex-
pressed (41). The copula can only be omitted in copula clauses with third person subjects
and predicative particles (§22.2.4).
The copula subject occurs in the absolutive case and controls agreement. It may be any
kind of noun phrase (common noun, proper name, pronoun, etc.) or nominalized clause.
The copula predicate, which bears the absolutive case or an overt case marker, may be a
noun phrase, but it may also be an adjective, an adverbial, a postpositional phrase, or a
nominalized clause; this partially depends on the copula item. Sentence (6) illustrates a
copula construction with the first person pronoun in the absolutive as copula subject and
a noun with its adjectival modifier as predicate. The past enclitic =de fulfills the copula
function.

(6) nik’a durħuˁ=de du

small boy=pst 1sg
‘I was a little boy.’

The gender/number and person agreement is always controlled by the copula sub-
ject, not by the predicate (7), (12a), (13), (16), but not all copulas have gender agreement
slots, for example the negative copula lacks an agreement prefix. In copula clauses that
lack arguments in the absolutive case, the copula bears the default agreement suffix -b
and there is invariable third person agreement (see §22.2.3 below for more details). This
mainly concerns experiential constructions with affective predicates and experiencers
in the dative case (8). One item used as a copula, the past enclitic =de, does not encode
person (6) (see also §22.1 below for the general structure of simple clauses with other
verbs than the copula).

420
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

Table 22.1: Items functioning as copulas

Copulas (§16.1)
ca-b, ca<b>i third person, present tense, habitual
akː-u third person, negation, present tense, habitual
b-akː-u third person, negation, existence/location
Predicative particles (§9.1)
=da first person (singular and plural), second person
plural; present tense, habitual
=de second person singular; present tense, habitual
=de all persons, past tense
Locational copulas (§16.2)
le-b existence/location close to speaker and hearer or
undifferentiated
te-b existence/location away from the deictic center
(speaker)
k’e-b existence/location above the deictic center
(speaker)
χe-b existence/location below the deictic center
(speaker)
Other auxiliaries used in copula constructions (§16.3)
b-el past tense (‘remain, stay’)
b-irχʷ- (ipfv) / b-ik- (pfv) / b-iχʷ- (pfv) subordinate clauses, future tense, non-indicative
mood (‘be, become, happen, can’)
b-irk- (ipfv) / b-ik- (pfv) future tense, non-indicative mood (‘be, occur, get,
receive’)
b-ug- indirect evidentiality (‘be, stay, remain’)
b-urkː- (ipfv) epistemic modality (‘find’)

(7) het durħuˁ aždaha ca-w / *ca-b

that boy monster cop-m / cop-n
‘That boy is a monster.’ (E)
(8) dam wahi-l ca-b heχ-tːu-b
1sg.dat bad-advz cop-n dem.down-loc-n
‘I feel bad there.’ (E)

In copula clauses, where both the subject and the predicate are in the absolutive and
are identical in gender (12), and in copula clauses, where the copula function is taken over
by an item that does not exhibit agreement (6), it is impossible to determine the copula
subject by means of agreement. But based on general information-structural properties,
we can assume that the topical noun phrase is usually the subject, which in many cases
is a pronoun (6), (18), (19). In a similar fashion, constituent order can be indicative.

421
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

The person enclitics, as well as the past enclitic, can optionally be accompanied by
the copula (ca-b), and in such constructions the copula always serves as the host for the
enclitic (9).

(9) iž-i-la xːunul ca-r=de=w?

this-obl-gen woman cop-f=2sg=q
‘Are you his wife?’

Furthermore, the copula and the person enclitic or past enclitic need to occur on the
same host; they cannot be separated (10). If in the example below the copula at the end
is omitted, the clause becomes grammatical with the meaning given in brackets below.

(10) * du=da ala rucːi ca-r

1sg=1 2sg.gen sister cop-f
(Intended meaning: ‘It is me who is your sister.’) (E)

In contrast to the neighboring Dargwa variety of Icari (Sumbatova & Mutalov 2003:
138), the copula and the interrogative enclitics can co-occur in Sanzhi (11). According to
Nina Sumbatova (p.c.), Icari is the only Dargwa variety found so far where the copula
ca-b excludes all other predicative particles; in contrast, the situation that we have in
Sanzhi Dargwa is common and attested in many other Dargwa varieties (e.g. Akusha).

(11) miši-l ca-w=uw iχ iχ-i-j?

similar-advz cop-m=q dem.down dem.down-obl-dat
‘Is this similar to him?’

In line with other clause types, the copula most frequently occurs in clause-final po-
sition. Subjects predominantly precede the predicate, such that we can assume that the
first absolutive constituent is the copula subject and the second one, which is often the
host of enclitical copula items, functions as the predicate in clauses with two absolutive
constituents (12), (15a), (18). The standard third person copula ca-b is comparably strict
in its requirement to occur in clause-final position in elicited assertions (12), though it
might be followed by additional demonstratives that refer to the same item as the subject,
and in questions from the corpus we also find copula subjects and predicates following
ca-b (11). In principle, ca-b can occur on its own and make up a full clause, such that
phonological dependency is ruled out as an explanation for the ungrammaticality of
(12b).

(12) a. Murad ustːa ca-w

Murad master cop-m
‘Murad is a/the master.’ (E)
b. * ca-w Murad ustːa
c. * Murad ca-w ustːa

422
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

For other copula items, it is easier to find utterances with other than clause-final posi-
tion of the copula, in particular when the predicative particles are used in copula function
(6). Locational copulas can also occur in clause-initial position:
(13) a. ištːu-w Murad le-w
here-m Murad exist-m
‘Murad is here.’ (E)
b. le-w ištːu-w Murad
When used in copula clauses, the predicative particles can only occur on the head of
the phrase that functions as the subject (14) or on the head of the phrase that functions
as the copula predicate (14), (15a). Alternatively, they in case of coordinated constituents
on the leftmost member of the coordination (17). They cannot be encliticized to any
constituent that modifies the head (15b).
(14) [it ʡaˁħ-ce]=de dalaj-či, cara wahi-ce=de
that good-dd.sg=pst song-nmlz other bad-dd.sg=pst
‘The good one was a singer, not the bad one.’ (lit. the other was the bad one) (E)
(15) a. Madina [darkːʷan rursːi]=de
Madina Dargwa girl=pst
‘Madina was a Dargwa girl.’ (E)
b. * Madina [darkːʷan=de rursːi]
The only exception to this rule that I found so far are genitive modifiers: they can
host predicative particles in copula clauses even if they do not occupy the functions
of copula subject or copula predicate. The genitive noun in (16) modifies the following
copula predicate. This is only possible in term focus constructions in which the host of
the enclitic is the focal part of the clause. Furthermore, in term focus constructions, the
predicative particles can, in principle, also be attached to adverbial modifiers such as
spatial adverbials, but the properties of these constructions require further research.
(16) du sawχuz-la=da dajark’a, kalχuz-la akːʷa-di
1sg sovkhoz-gen=1 milkmaid kolkhoz-gen cop.neg-1
‘I am milkmaid of the SOVKHOZ, not of the kolkhoz.’ (E)
In (17), the nominal predicate is a coordinated noun phrase that consists of three mem-
bers, each bearing the additive enclitic as required for nominal coordination (§26.1). The
person enclitic follows the last member of the nominal predicate.
(17) u [sːunkuˁq’=ra, deč-la χʷe=ra, bilʡuˁt’=ra]=de
2sg liar=add drinking-gen dog=add thief=add=2sg
‘You are a liar, a drinking dog, and a thief!’
Copula constructions in Sanzhi can express identity, group membership, attribution,
possession, benefaction, and also location and existence (see, e.g. Curnow 2000, Dixon
2010: 159–188).

423
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

22.2.1 Copula constructions expressing identity, group membership

and attribution
In copula constructions that express identity, group membership, and attribution, all
items displayed in Table 22.1 except for the locational copulas are used. Predicates are
mostly nominals, adjectives, or adverbials. Sentences (18) and (19) show copula construc-
tions expressing identity, including deictic identificational clauses, and group member-
ship.

(18) e, heχ-tːi ca kulpat ca-b

yes dem.down-pl one family cop-hpl
‘Yes, they are one family.’
(19) hež / hej Keno ca-w
this / this Keno cop-m
‘This is Keno.’ (E)

If the subject is first or second person and the temporal reference is present time or
there is no temporal reference because of habituality, then the person enclitics are used
(17), (20). If the clause has past time reference, the past enclitic occurs (21).

(20) busurman atːa.aba-la durħuˁ=de; du busurman insan=da

Muslim father.mother-gen boy=pst 1sg Muslim person=1
‘I was the son of Muslim parents; I am a Muslim.’
(21) ʡaˁbal nušːa daʁistan-na=de, k’ʷel ʡuˁrus duˁrħuˁ=de
three 1pl Dagestan-gen=pst two Russian boy=pst
‘We three were from Dagestan, and there were two Russian guys.’

Adjectives distinguish a short form from a long form. The long form contains the cross-
categorical suffix -ce (plural -te) (§9.6.1). The short form is reserved for the attributive
usage within noun phrases (in addition to compounding) (22); the long form is required
for the predicative use (23).

(22) hel r-uqna xːunul=de hel

that f-old woman=pst that
‘She was an old woman.’
(23) ca r-uqna-ce ʁuna ca-r iχ, ca žahil-ce ʁuna
one f-old-dd.sg eq cop-f dem.down one young-dd.sg eq
‘One (fem.) is like old, one like young.’

Adverbials can also serve as predicates in copula clauses. Example (24) shows a nomi-
nalized participial clause in the subject position and an adverb as predicate of the copula
clause.

424
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

(24) hej značit, hana [nušːa-l ka-b-išː-ib-il] b-arx-le ca-b

this thus now 1pl-erg down-n-put.pfv-pret-ref n-correct-advz cop-n
‘This means, how we put (the pictures) down is correct.’

Often either the adverb or the adjective can be used as predicates in a copula clause.
This leads to a slight difference in meaning that can be illustrated with the following
examples (25) and (26). In case of an adjectival predicate, the copula clause refers to
the quality denoted by the adjective that is ascribed to the referent of the subject (25).
By contrast, if an adverb is used, it is the situation denoted by the copula clause that
is attributed a quality and not the subject referent (26). Furthermore, in (25) the noun
phrase iž dus functions as the subject, whereas in (26) it is a temporal adjunct and there
is no overt subject.

(25) iž dus ʡaˁħ-ce ca<b>i

this year good-dd.sg cop<n>
‘This year is good.’ (E)
(26) iž dus ʡaˁħ-le ca<b>i
this year good-advz cop<n>
‘In/during this year it is good.’ (E)

The predicate can also be any kind of pronoun, for example a personal pronoun in the
genitive (27), a demonstrative pronoun, or a personal pronoun in the absolutive (28), (29).
For instance, example (27) demonstrates a situation in which the referent of the copula
subject does not belong to the referent of the predicate, which is a genitive pronoun. It
is also possible to add the cross-categorical suffix -ce to the genitive pronoun (ala-ce).

(27) iž dune ala akːʷ-i

this world 2sg.gen cop.neg-hab.pst
‘This world was not yours.’
(28) iž akːʷa-di du, it=da du
this cop.neg-1 1sg that=1 1sg
‘This is not me, that is me.’
(29) it du=da
that 1sg=1
‘That is me.’

Negation is expressed by means of the negative copula akːʷ-, which does not have
a gender prefix, but inflects for person and tense (27), (28). As was mentioned in the
introduction (§22.2), the copula ca-b, the person enclitics, and the past enclitic can only
express a restricted range of TAME forms. For instance, the imperfective verb b-urkː- has
the meaning ‘find’, and is also used as an auxiliary with the epistemic meaning ‘prob-
ably, be possible’. The latter use includes copula clauses (30). More examples of copula
constructions with the verbs labeled “other auxiliaries” in Table 22.1 are given in §16.3.

425
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

(30) ču-la qu b-urkː-ar hel

refl.pl-gen field n-aux.ipfv-prs.3 that
‘That is probably their field.’
Note, however, that there are clauses with other auxiliaries that superficially look like
copula clauses, but represent intransitive clauses This is because the auxiliary functions
as an intransitive verb and not as a copula. For instance, the sentence in (31) contains an
S argument in the absolutive case, χalq’ ‘people’. The item following it, mic’ir ‘alive’, is a
short adjectival stem which cannot be used as adjectival predicate in copula clauses. As
mentioned above, short forms of adjectives only occur as attributes within noun phrases
or as part of compound verbs. The complex mic’ir b-irχʷ- has to be treated as one com-
pound predicate with the meaning ‘be/become alive’, and therefore the construction does
not contain a copula verb.
(31) χalq’ mic’ir b-irχʷ-i
people alive hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘The people were alive.’

22.2.2 Location, existence, and possession

Location and existence are generally expressed by specialized locational copulas (32),
(34), (35), and in negative clauses by the negated copula with the gender prefix (33),
which can optionally be preceded by a locational copula (34) (Table 22.1). If the negated
copula does not have the gender prefix, it cannot express location or existence but only
identity, group membership or attribution (27), (28).
(32) xujal duˁrħuˁ le-d=de nušːa
five boy exist-1/2pl=pst 1pl
‘We were five guys.’
(33) c’il čar ∅-iχʷ-ij q’ast b-akː-u
then back m-be.pfv-inf intention n-cop.neg-prs.3
‘There is no intention to go back.’ (i.e. I do not have the intention).
(34) cik’al χe-b-akː-u
something exist.down-n-cop.neg-prs.3
‘There is nothing more.’
Sentences expressing location contain spatial adverbials such as adverbs or nominals
bearing spatial cases, which can precede or follow the locational copulas (35), (36). The
standard copula ca-b can also be used (38), although locational copulas are normally
preferred.
(35) χalil-la ʡuˁmer b-ik’-ul te-w Kaspisk-le-w
Khalil-gen Omar hpl-say.ipfv-icvb exist.away-m Kaspisk-loc-m
‘Omar’s Khalil is in Kaspisk.’

426
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

(36) tut-la kːalkːi-l-gu-b le-b=de hek’ šːal-le-rka

mulberry-gen tree-obl-sub-hpl exist-hpl=pst dem.up side-loc-abl
‘They were under the mulberry tree, from that side.’

The person enclitics (37) and the past enclitic (21) can also be used in locational or
existential clauses. In addition, the location copulas can attach the person enclitics:

(37) χadižat, čina-r=de u? du Sanži-r=da / Sanži-r le-r=da

Khadizhat where-f=2sg 2sg 1sg Sanzhi-f=1 / Sanzhi-f exist-f=1
‘Khadizhat, where are you? I am in Sanzhi.’ (E)

For locational copula clauses the standard copula ca-b can also be used (38), although
locational copulas are normally preferred. The exact distribution of existential/locational
copulas vs. the standard copula ca-b needs to be determined by future research.

(38) hež tusnaq-le-w ca-w

this prison-loc-m cop-m
‘He is in prison.’

The expression of possession implies the existence of the possessed item. This means
that when talking about any types of possession that one has, be it objects or relatives,
the locational copulas are used. In the unmarked case this is le-b (39). The possessor
occurs in the genitive case.

(39) durħ-ne le-b wec’al, weral rursːi ca<b>i ʡaˁbal durħuˁ

boy-pl exist-hpl ten seven girl cop<hpl> three boy
‘(I) have ten children; they are seven girls and three boys.’

The following minimal pair illustrates the difference between the two types of copulas.
The first sentence in (40) requires an identificational interpretation. It can, for instance,
be used when showing and identifying the house. The more literal translation of the
second sentence (41) would be ‘With/at me there is a house.’ or ‘My house exists.’ If the
genitive pronoun is a predicate instead (27) or if other semantic components play a role,
the other copulas are used.

(40) het di-la qal ca-b

that 1sg-gen house cop-n
‘That is my house.’ (E)
(41) di-la qal le-b
1sg-gen house exist-n
‘I have a house.’ (E)

Less common ways of constructing locational and existential copula clauses or cop-
ula clauses expressing possession are available by means of the other auxiliaries given

427
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

in Table 22.1. The example in (42) represents the traditional opening formula for fairy
tales and is thus not a normal existential clause. The verb b-ug- can express indirect evi-
dential semantics, which is often found in fairy tales. The verb b-iχʷ- (pfv)/b-irχʷ- (ipfv)
‘be, become, happen, can’ is used, among other things, to express epistemic modal con-
structions including different subtypes of copula clauses with a modal meaning (43). The
sentence in (44) expresses not only past time reference, but also habituality and therefore
also contains the auxiliary b-irχʷ-, because neither the standard copula ca-b nor the past
enclitic =de can express this specific combination of temporal and aspectual meanings.

(42) b-už-ib ca-b, b-už-ib-le=kːu ʡaˁbal durħuˁ

hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl hpl-be-pret-cvb=cop.neg three boy
‘Once upon a time there were three boys.’ (lit. ‘there were, there were not’)
(43) hež heštːu-b b-irχʷ-an ca-b
this here-n n-be.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘This (picture) must be here.’
(44) a c’il ca ca=ra b-irχʷ-i nišːa-la dubur-ri-cːe-b
and then one one=add n-be.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-gen mountain-obl-in-n
‘We used to have something else in the mountains.’

22.2.3 Copula clauses without a subject

Copula clauses with temporal or spatial adverbials can occur without an overt copula
subject. They only contain a copula predicate:

(45) ganilla c’aq’-le b-uχːar-re b-irχʷ-iri

in.winter strong-advz n-cold-advz n-become.ipfv-hab.pst
‘It used to be very cold in the winter.’
(46) dubur-t-a-cːe-b=de
mountain-pl-obl-in-n=pst
‘It was in the mountains.’ (E)

More generally, copula clauses with predicates expressed by manner adverbs do not
require a subject, but can be impersonal (47), (48). The gender agreement affix in such
clauses is invariably b, since this is the default agreement affix (§20.2). It is possible to
add a dative argument fulfilling the semantic role of experiencer or beneficiary (49).

(47) qihin-ne ca-b, wahi-l ca-b

difficult-advz cop-n bad-advz cop-n
‘It is difficult, it is bad.’
(48) guna=qːel ca-b, hel-itːe daˁʡle b-arq’-ib qal
warm=when cop-n that-advz as n-do.pfv-pret house
‘When it is warm (i.e. in warm places) the houses are built like this.’

428
 22.2 Morphosyntactic properties of copula clauses

(49) dam ʡaˁħ-le ca-b

1sg good-adv cop-n
‘I am well.’

22.2.4 Copula clauses without a copula

Copula clauses obligatorily require a copula item (Table 22.1), otherwise they are un-
grammatical:

(50) * du ustːa
1sg master
‘(Intended meaning: I am a master.)’ (E)
(51) * ij, ča iž?
this who this
‘(Intended meaning: This, who is it?)’ (E)

In copula constructions that have third person subjects and present time reference
or habitual meaning, the copula can be omitted when one of the pragmatic predicative
particles is used. This can be either one of the three interrogative enclitics if the copula
clause is a question (polar question, content question, embedded question) (Chapter 28),
or the modal enclitic =q’al (§9.4.2). This is possible because the modal enclitic and the
interrogative enclitics belong, just like the person enclitics =da and =de and the past
enclitic =de, to the predicative particles that can head finite clauses (§9.1). The following
examples show the use of =q’al (52), a content question (53) and a polar question (54).

(52) ʡuˁrus ʁaj-la=q’al il

Russian word-gen=mod that
‘That is a Russian word.’
(53) čina-b=e ala biq’ru-me?
where-hpl=q 2sg.gen witness-pl
‘Where are your witnesses?’
(54) hež atːa=w iž?
this father=q this
‘Is this the father?’

Similarly, in copula clauses that function as embedded questions or assertions express-

ing epistemic modality (uncertainty), the embedded question marker is used (55) and the
copula is absent. Sentence (56) does not show an embedded question, but an epistemic
uncertainty construction (§28.4).

(55) či-d-až-aq-a hari [ce q’ar=el]!

spr-npl-see.pfv-caus-imp let’s what herbs=indq
‘Show what herbs these are!’

429
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

(56) hana k’ʷel dus=el

now two year=indq
‘Now it is probably two years (that have passed by).’

The sole use of a pragmatic predicative particle is impossible if the copula subject is
first or second person. In such cases, the predicative person marker needs to occur before
the question enclitic and cannot be omitted:

(57) uruχ-le=de=w?
fear-advz=2sg=q
‘Are you afraid?’

When two copula clauses are coordinated, the copula can be omitted in one of the
clauses, usually the second clause (58) (see §26.2 for one more example).

(58) du ʡaˁħ-ce=da, u wahi(=de)

1sg good-dd.sg=1 2sg bad(=2sg)
‘I am good, you (are) bad.’ (E)

22.3 Grammatical relations

There are only a few studies on grammatical relations in Dargwa varieties so far by Nina
Sumbatova (Sumbatova 2014; 2017), but there is a considerable amount of literature on
grammatical relations in other East Caucasian languages, and there are works from a
comparative perspective that include Dargwa (see Forker 2017 for a recent overview).
Case studies of individual languages are often centered on the question whether the
investigated language(s) is only morphologically ergative, or whether it also shows indi-
cations of syntactic ergativity (cf. Nichols 1980, Crisp 1983, Comrie et al. 2013). The major-
ity of scholars state that ergativity is mostly restricted to morphology. Kibrik (1985; 1997;
2003) concludes that East Caucasian languages belong to the so-called “role-dominated”
languages (Foley & Van Valin 1984: 123) in which the marking of arguments is semanti-
cally motivated.
In this section, I will briefly discuss the constructions (or variables) displayed in Ta-
ble 22.2. The section does not present and discuss the data, but contains only cross-
references to the relevant sections in this grammar that contain data for most of the
constructions given in the table. See Forker 2019b for data and analysis of more con-
structions such as complement control or quantifier floating and a detailed account of
grammatical relations in Sanzhi. I will not analyze word order because word order on
the clausal level strongly depends on the information structure and not on grammatical
relations (§27.2).
We can identify three alignment types in Sanzhi Dargwa: ergative alignment, accusa-
tive alignment, and neutral alignment. Additionally, there are a number of constructions
in Sanzhi that are not sensitive to grammatical relations. The most important constraint
is the case-defined predicate class, that is, the distinction between canonical transitive,

430
 22.3 Grammatical relations

Table 22.2: Grammatical relations in Sanzhi Dargwa

Construction Grammatical relations Constraints

Person agreement S=A=P TAM forms, person
hierarchy 1, 2>3
Gender/number S=P vs. A (but mostly only for S case (predominantly
agreement and P in the absolutive) absolutive)
Case S=P vs. A (but this depends on case-defined predicate
the predicate class) class (Table 19.1), clause
type
Imperative S=A vs. Pa semantic predicate class
Complement control S=A vs. P
Reflexivization, S=A=P for experiential verbs and case-defined predicate
Reciprocalization for default transitive verbs with class
complex reflexive/reciprocal
pronouns; S=A otherwise
Conjunction reduction tendency for S=A vs. P no known constraints
Relativization not sensitive to grammatical
relations
Antipassive not sensitive to grammatical case-defined predicate
relations class and verb semantics,
TAM form
Causativization S=A vs. P
Quantifier floating S=P vs. A (§21.1.4) case (only absolutive)

a
But the evidence for affective verbs is inconsistent because imperative formation of affective verbs is often
impossible for semantic reasons.

affective, extended intransitive, and other verbs. These valency classes of verbs are de-
fined on the basis of case assignment patterns to the arguments, and not so much on the
basis of the meaning of the predicates. In other words, cases have a high semantic load
and the choice of one case suffix over the other largely depends on the semantic contri-
bution of the cases. Thus, Sanzhi Dargwa confirms once more the fact that the semantic
impact of cases for East Caucasian languages should not be underestimated.
Ergative alignment, labeled as S=P vs. A in Table 22.2, is basically found in the mor-
phology, namely in the gender agreement and the case marking. There is a large number
of bivalent and trivalent verbs that assign ergative case to their A argument, although
not all bivalent and trivalent verbs belong to this class. Additionally, there are even
more verbs whose S and P arguments trigger gender/number agreement because the
arguments bear the absolutive case. Outside the realm of morphology there are almost
no indications for ergativity, apart perhaps from quantifier floating (§21.1.4) and causa-
tivization (§19.2.2). Instead, accusative alignment (symbolized with S=A vs. P), neutral
alignment (S=A=P) and no alignment (no grammatical roles identifiable) are found. Per-
son agreement and reflexivization/reciprocalization are neutral since S, A, P and T are
not distinguishable. They only behave differently from G, but this is not relevant for

431
22 Simple clauses including copula clauses and grammatical relations

the determination of grammatical roles. All four macroroles S, A, P and T can control
person agreement (§20.3) or reflexive and reciprocal pronouns (Chapter 29) and thus we
have neutral alignment. In contrast, relativization largely depends on pragmatics and
a suitable context and is not sensitive to grammatical relations because a large variety
of positions (S, A, P, G, T, other) can be relativized. Accusativity is found with impera-
tives because both S and A can be subjects in imperative clauses, but not P or any other
position (§17.1). This is not surprising and frequently found in ergative as well as in ac-
cusative languages, and some authors do not consider imperatives to represent suitable
test constructions for establishing grammatical roles, e.g. Dixon (1994: 131). Furthermore,
complement control (§24.5) and conjunction reduction in clauses with the preterite con-
verb show some accusative traits because S and A are always suitable controllers of
arguments in complement clauses or converbal clauses, but P is largely excluded. Simi-
larly, causativization can be analyzed as distinguishing between S/A on the one side and
P on the other side because it is never the P or the T that is affected when bivalent or
trivalent predicates are causativized (§19.2.2). P arguments remain unchanged (because
P and T essentially have the same morphosyntactic properties), whereas S changes to
P, and A changes to G under causativization, such that causativization can perhaps be
taken as a further indicator of an S/A pivot. The antipassive is not a suitable test con-
struction because its application is restricted to the class of transitive verbs, excluding
all other valency classes, such that we cannot check how S would be treated.
To sum up, there is no justification for establishing a category of ergative subject
that would comprise S and P, and thus Sanzhi Dargwa is only morphologically ergative.
This claim is not surprising but supports what has been previously stated for the East
Caucasian languages. The only indications for syntactic accusativity are complement
constructions and causativization, which is not enough for establishing a category of
subject comprising S and A as we know it from European languages. However, simple
reflexive constructions and imperative could be viewed as further, though weaker indi-
cations for singling out S and A in contrast to P. At the basis of textual frequency even
person agreement shows a tendency to occur predominantly with S and A controllers in
natural texts because P arguments that are second person are relatively rare.
In this grammar, I use the term “subject-like” or even sometimes “subject” in order
to refer to S and A arguments, whereas P arguments are called “object-like” or “object”.
This terminology has been chosen for reasons of convenience and familiarity. It has to
be viewed against the background of the discussion of grammatical roles in Sanzhi as
given in this Section.

432
23 Relative clauses
23.1 Introduction
Sanzhi Dargwa uses participles for the formation of relative clauses. Like other modifiers,
relative clauses normally precede the head. There are two simple participles that consist
of a suffix added to the verbal stem, and complex participles that make use of additional
suffixes. The simple participles are the preterite participle (§18.1.2.1), which is identical
in form to the preterite, and the modal participle -an (§18.1.2.2). For verbs whose stems
exhibit the aspectual distinction, the preterite participle is almost exclusively used with
perfective stems, whereas the modal participle occurs only with imperfective stems. The
complex participles consist of the simple participles plus the cross-categorical suffixes
-ce or suffix -il (§18.1.2.3). Furthermore, Sanzhi has a locative participle that is used when
the head of the relative clause denotes a location (§18.1.2.4).
The simple participles and the complex participles derived from them express tempo-
ral relations. The modal participle occurs in relative clauses with non-past time reference
(e.g. present, future, habitual) (1); the preterite participle occurs in relative clauses with
past time reference (2).
(1) [ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’ʷ-an] rursːi di-la rucːi ca-r
laughter f-say.ipfv-ptcp girl 1sg-gen sister cop-f
‘The girl who is laughing is my sister.’ (E)
(2) [ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ub] rursːi di-la rucːi ca-r
laughter f-say.ipfv-pret girl 1sg-gen sister cop-f
‘The girl who was laughing is my sister.’ (E)
Since the preterite participle is identical to the preterite itself, in a number of cases two
interpretations are possible: a main clause that precedes another clause with argument
sharing between the two clauses or a relative clause:
(3) raχːaz b-ertː-ib χːʷe sa-r-b-uq-un
chain n-tear.pfv-pret dog ante-abl-n-go.pfv-pret
‘The dog tore off the chain and left.’ OR ‘The dog who tore off the chain left.’ (E)
The suffixes -ce (plural -te) and -il are used to form attributes that can denote refer-
ents. This means that items that bear these suffixes can be used as modifiers in noun
phrases but also as predicates or as nominals. With respect to relative clauses, they are
used whenever the relative clause occurs in a position that diverges from its canonical
prenominal position. See §23.3 below for a discussion.
23 Relative clauses

Moreover, purpose clauses with nominal heads are structurally similar to relative
clauses, but must contain an infinitive (or subjunctive) and can also be marked with
-ce (4), (5). Participles are not allowed if the clause has a purposive meaning.

(4) [du qili uq’-ij] pikri le-b

1sg home go.m-inf thought exist-n
‘There is the thought to go home.’ (i.e. I have the thought) (E)
(5) sa-ka-b-išː-ib-le, [cini-j b-erkʷ-ij-ce]=ra
ante-down-n-put.pfv-pret-cvb refl.sg.obl-dat n-eat.pfv-inf-dd.sg=add
χe-b ca-w=ra
exist.down-n refl-m=add
‘He is there and (something) to eat for him, which has been placed in front (of
him).’

In the following, I will first show which positions can be relativized (§23.2), then ana-
lyze further semantic and syntactic properties of relative clauses (§23.3), and then briefly
discuss headless relative clauses (§23.4).

23.2 Positions that can be relativized

The following examples illustrate the positions that can be relativized. They are labeled
with the semantic roles and the cases that nominals in that role bear in a main clause.

1. single argument of an intransitive verb (absolutive)

(6) il-tːi [bahla-l ag-ur] durħ-ne

that-pl slow-advz go.pfv-pret boy-pl
‘the boys who went slowly’
(7) [ħaˁšukː-a-r rurq-aˁn] hin-ni-cːe-r il r-ebč’-ib ca-r
pot-loc-f boil-ptcp water-obl-in-f that f-die.pfv-pret cop-f
‘In the water that boiled in the pot, she died.’
(8) sːa hextːu [r-emkː-un] xːunul-la rursːi-šːu
yesterday there.up f-give.birth.pfv-pret woman-gen girl-ad
ag-ur-re=de
go.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘Yesterday I went to the daughter (baby girl) of the woman who gave birth.’

434
 23.2 Positions that can be relativized

2. agent of transitive verb (ergative)

(9) ca ca le-b [xːun-re-ja-r naˁq

one one exist-hpl woman-pl-loc-abl hand
či-r-a-ha-jsː-an] murg-le
spr-abl-neg-up-take.pfv-ptcp man-pl
‘There are those, the men who do not take away their hands from their
wives.’ (i.e. who beat them constantly)
(10) hež [paltar ic-an] mašin
this clothes wash.ipfv-ptcp machine
‘the washing machine’ (lit. the machine that washes clothes)

3. experiencer of bivalent affective verb (dative or ergative)

(11) [du w-alχ-an] rursːi

1sg m-know.ipfv-ptcp girl
‘the girl who knows me (masc.)’ (E)
(12) [ħaˁq’-le qːuʁa-l ca-l-li ca urk’i ha-b-eʁ-ib]
very-advz beautiful-advz one-obl-erg one heart up-n-go.pfv-pret
sub-xːunul-li-j miši-l ca-b heštːi
husband-woman-obl-dat similar-advz cop-hpl these
‘They look like husband and wife who very well understand each other.’
(13) il-tːi [a-jkː-an] admi-li-j
that-pl neg-want.m.ipfv-ptcp person-obl-dat
‘to those people who do not love you (masc.)’

4. agent in the antipassive construction (absolutive)

(14) [ʡaˁči-l b-irq’-an] adim-te ca-b hel-tːi

work-erg hpl-do.ipfv-ptcp person-pl cop-hpl that-pl
‘They are (hard)-working people.’
(15) [deč-li b-učː-an] juldašː-e
drinking-erg hpl-drink.ipfv-ptcp friend-pl
‘the friends who are drinking’

435
23 Relative clauses

5. patient of transitive (absolutive)

(16) [iž-i-l d-alc’-un] q’ar le-d=de

this-obl-erg npl-gather.pfv-pret plant[npl] exist-pl=pst
‘There were plants that she gathered.’
(17) [umqːa-l b-irq’-an] dis
whetstone-erg n-do.pfv-ptcp knife
‘a knife that has been sharpened’ (E)

6. theme of ditransitive verb (absolutive)

(18) [ču-la χu-d-a-j lukː-an] χurejg

refl.pl-gen dog-pl-obl-dat give.ipfv-ptcp food
‘the food that is given to their dogs’

7. stimulus of bivalent affective verb (absolutive)

(19) [a-b-alχ-an] šahar-ri-cːe-w

neg-n-know.ipfv-ptcp town-obl-in-m
‘in a town that (you) do not know’ (E)

8. recipient of ditransitive verb (dative)

(20) [du-l kiniga b-ičː-ib] durħuˁ

1sg-erg book n-give.pfv-pret boy
‘the boy to whom I gave the book’ (E)

9. goal of extended intransitive verb (dative)

(21) [du er=či w-erč’-ib-il] rursːi

1sg look=on m-look.pfv-pret-ref girl
‘the girl at whom I looked’ (E)

10. beneficiary (dative)

(22) [atːa-l qal b-arq’-ib-il] durħuˁ razi ∅-iχ-ub

father-erg house n-do.pfv-pret-ref boy happy m-become.pfv-pret
‘The son for whom father built the house got happy.’ (E)

436
 23.2 Positions that can be relativized

11. spatial location (essive cases)

(23) caj-na arg-ul le-d=da [sːika b-ebč’-ib] qːatːa-r

one-time go.ipfv-icvb exist-1/2pl=1 bear n-die.pfv-pret canyon.loc-abl
či-d-a
on-1/2pl-dir
‘One time we went there through the canyon where the bear had died.’
(24) durħ-ne ag-ur [q’ʷal luχ-na] musːa
boy-pl go.pfv-pret cow cut.ipfv-ptcp.loc place.loc
‘The boys went to the place where cows are slaughtered.’ (this refers to a
specific place in Sanzhi)
(25) [paˁχ.paˁχ-le či-w-ax-an] musːa-r
pakh.pakh-loc spr-m-go-ptcp place.loc-abl
‘across the place where (you) go to the Pakh-Pakh (place name)’

12. spatial goal (lative cases)

(26) [du a-r-it-eʁ-ib] musːa b-a-b-určː-i

1sg neg-f-thither-go.pfv-pret place n-neg-n-find.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘You did not find a place that I (fem.) did not reach.’ (E)

13. spatial source (ablative cases)

(27) [du sa-jʁ-ib] šahar haraq-le ca-b

1sg hither-come.m.pfv-pret town far-advz cop-n
‘the town from which I (masc.) came is far away.’ (E)

14. source of emotion (in-ablative)

(28) [du uruχ ∅-ik’ʷ-an] durħuˁ

1sg fear m-say.ipfv-ptcp boy
‘the boy that I am afraid of’ (E)

15. cause/source (in-ablative)

(29) d-iqː-a dam [χalq’ c’erx a-b-irχʷ-an]

npl-carry.ipfv-imp 1sg.dat people fat neg-hpl-become.ipfv-ptcp
q’ampit’-e!
chocolates-pl
‘Give me the chocolates from which the people do not get fat!’ (E)

437
23 Relative clauses

16. topic of conversation or addressee (in-ablative for addressee or complement of

postposition for topic of conversation)

(30) [Madina-l χabar b-urs-ib-il] xːunul di-la rucːi ca-r

Madina-erg story n-tell-pret-ref woman 1sg-gen sister cop-f
‘The woman about whom Madina talked is my sister.’ OR ‘The woman to
whom Madina talked is my sister.’ (E)
(31) [Aminat ʁaj=či-r ka-r-ik’ʷ-an] xːunul
Aminat word=on-abl down-f-say.ipfv-ptcp woman
‘the woman about Aminat talks (gossips)’ (E)

17. comitative

(32) [du ħaˁz-t-a-l ∅-irq’-an] durħ-ne

1sg game-pl-obl-erg m-do.ipfv-ptcp boy-pl
‘the boys with whom I (masc.) play’ (E)

18. possessor (genitive)1

(33) [sub w-ebč’-ib-il] xːunul r-isː-ul ca-r

husband m-die.pfv-pret-ref woman f-cry-icvb cop-f
‘the woman whose husband died is crying’ (E)

19. instrument (comitative or ergative)

(34) [du-l t’ult’ ka-b-ičː-ib-il] dus qːut’a-l ca-b

1sg-erg bread down-n-cut.up.pfv-pret-ref knife blunt-advz cop-n
‘The knife with which I cut the bread is blunt.’ (E)

Complements of postposition heading relative clauses are not found in the corpus
and somewhat hard to elicit, but (35) shows an example. Another one is (30) above in
the interpretation in which the head of the relative clause is the topic of conversation
(which is normally expressed by a postposition, see §8.1.6).
(35) [durħuˁ sala sa-ka-jcː-ur-il] qal nišːa-lla ca-b
boy front ante-down-stand.m.pfv-pret-ref house 1pl-gen cop-n
‘The house in front of which the boy is standing is ours.’ (E)
More complex constructions are also possible. For instance, the argument of a com-
plement clause can function as the head of a relative clause (36). Similarly, arguments of
adverbial clauses can be extracted in order to serve as heads of relative clauses (37). We
can have multiple relative clauses embedded into each other (38).
1
If in (33) the simple instead of the complex participle is used, the first clause is interpreted as a main clause
preceding another main clause (‘The husband died. The wife is crying.’).

438
 23.3 Other syntactic properties of relative clauses

(36) [du [b-elč’-ij] r-aʔ r-išː-ib-il] kiniga

1sg n-read.pfv-inf f-begin f-put.pfv-pret-ref book
‘the book that I (fem.) started to read’ (E)
(37) [[du-l istikan b-ičː-ib-le] b-elq’-aq-un-il] durħuˁ
1sg-erg glass n-give.pfv-pret-cvb n-break.pfv-caus-pret-ref boy
‘the boy who broke the glass after I gave it to him’ (E)
(38) [[Tarkama-le-r er r-irχʷ-an] rursːi r-alχ-an] durħuˁ
Terkeme-loc-f life f-be.ipfv-ptcp girl f-know.ipfv-ptcp boy
‘the boy who knows the girl who lives in Terkeme’ (E)

It is possible to find examples in which the head noun does not bear any syntactic
relation to the relative clause, i.e., in which it is impossible to argue that the relative
clause contains a gap from the extracted head. This is widespread in case of head nouns
with a very broad semantics such as zamana ‘time’ but there are also sentences with
other head nouns. For instance, (39) illustrates a common construction that explicates the
name of a person. The verb b-ik’ʷ- ‘say, call’, that is used in the relative clause, normally
requires an absolutive argument that denotes its subject. However, in (39) the subject is
absent because it is an impersonal construction, retrievable only from the context and
from the fact that the human plural gender prefix is used. The gender agreement prefix
is frozen and cannot be replaced by any other prefix. Instead of a complement clause,
which is usually used together with the verb b-ik’ʷ- ‘say, call’, the name Maħaˁmmadħaˁži
occurs. The head noun durħuˁ ‘boy’ does not fulfill an argument or adjunct role in the
relative clause. This issue is discussed further in the following §23.3. Example (40) is
similar in that the head noun ħaˁz ‘game’ is also not in a syntactic relationship with the
verb in the relative clause ‘hide’.

(39) [Maħaˁmmadħaˁži b-ik’ʷ-an] durħuˁ=ra

Mahammadhazhi hpl-say.ipfv-ptcp boy=add
‘the boy called Mahammadhazhi’
(40) [daˁʡaˁna b-irx-an] ħaˁz b-irχ-i nišːa-la
secret hpl-become.ipfv-ptcp game n-be.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-gen
‘There was this game of ours, the hide-and-seek.’ (lit. the game where one had to
hide)

23.3 Other syntactic properties of relative clauses

Relative clauses can have a nominal head or be headless (see §23.4 below). The head is
normally a common noun, but it can also be a personal pronoun, an indefinite pronoun,
a demonstrative pronoun, or a personal name. Thus, relative clauses can be restrictive
or non-restrictive without any difference in their morphosyntactic form.

439
23 Relative clauses

1. head is a third person pronoun/demonstrative pronoun

(41) nu [ašːi-j či-b-ig-an] hel b-urs-an ca-b

well 2pl-dat spr-n-see.ipfv-ptcp that n-tell-ptcp cop-n
‘Well, you (pl.) will say what you see.’
(42) heštːi akːu=w heštːi [b-iħ-ib-te]?
these cop.neg=q these hpl-wrestle.pfv-pret-dd.pl
‘Are these not the ones who wrestle?’

2. head is a personal pronoun

(43) [Rassija-le ag-ur-il] du-l arc d-irq’-ul=de

Russia-loc go.pfv-pret-ref 1sg-erg money npl-do.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘I, who went to Russia, made money.’ (i.e. earned money) (E)

3. head is an interrogative pronoun (used as indefinite pronoun)

(44) [t’ut’u b-arq’-ib-te] ča-qal ∅-ik’ʷ-a-tːe?

throw.out hpl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl who-assoc m-say.ipfv-hab.pst-2sg
‘The ones who were thrown out, who did you say this was?’

4. head is an indefinite pronoun (45), including pronouns used as nouns with a light
semantics (49)

(45) du-l [mar haʔ-ib-il] ča-k’al a-jt-an=da

1sg-erg truth say.pfv-pret-ref who-indef neg-beat.up-ptcp=1
‘I will not beat anybody who told the truth.’ (E)

5. head is a personal name

(46) [irig xːunul ka-r-iž-ib-il] di-la ucːi Zamir er

last.year woman down-f-be.pfv-pret-ref 1sg-gen brother Zamir life
∅-irχ-u Agni-le-w
m-be.ipfv-prs Ogni-loc-m
‘My brother Zamir, who married last year, lives in Ogni.’ (E)

The verbal categories expressed in relative clauses are fewer than those expressed
in main clauses. Due to the participles employed, the expression of tense is possible to
a certain degree (1), (2) and negation is available (107), but person agreement and the
marking of illocutionary force are excluded.
Within the noun phrase, to which a relative clause belongs, the relative clauses can
be preceded and followed by other nominal modifiers such as demonstrative pronouns
(42), possessive pronouns (46), quantifiers, adjectives, and others. See §21.1 for further
information on the structure of noun phrases. They can be modified by adverbials just
like adjectives (47).

440
 23.3 Other syntactic properties of relative clauses

(47) [c’aq’-le b-al b-ič-ib] musːa

very-advz n-fit n-occur.pfv-pret place
‘a very fitting (= good) place’

In elicitation, Sanzhi speakers report that there is no difference in the meaning be-
tween a relative clause with a simple participle and a relative clause with a participle to
which one of the the suffixes -ce or -il is added. Relative clauses with complex partici-
ples in the default position preceding the nominal head are relatively rare in the Sanzhi
corpus. The following three sentences (48–50) illustrate the use of both suffixes with
the preterite participle. In (49) the speaker is talking about the tools with which Sanzhi
women used to cook and compares them with new appliances. Example (50) shows that
the cross-categorical suffixes are also added to other parts of speech. In this sentence, -il
appears on the preterite participle which because of the suffix acquires nominal proper-
ties can can function as referent with the meaning ‘the one that has been put down’. The
second appearance on the noun that is inflected for the in-essive case makes a referent
with the meaning ‘the one that is in the hand’ out of a spatial adverbial

(48) ce b-ik’-u=ja nišːa-la ʁaj-la, hež [hitːi kemq-un-il]

what n-say.ipfv-prs=q 1pl-gen language-gen this behind hang-pret-ref
q’ucur=uw?
bag=q
‘How do we call in our language the bag that hangs behind his back? (i.e. a
backpack)’
(49) hana [tːura d-uq-un-te] cara cik’al le-d
now outside npl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl other something exist-npl
‘Now there are other things that appeared (lit. went out).’
(50) iž [ka-b-išː-ib-il] naˁq-li-cːe-b-il=de
this down-n-put.pfv-pret-ref hand-obl-in-n-ref=pst
‘The one had been put down was the one the one in the hand.’

The head noun in the vast majority of corpus examples follows the relative clause, but
other positions are possible, too. Whenever the relative clause occurs after the head or
separated from the head (preceding it or following it), the cross-categorical suffixes or
the modal participle need to be employed and it can be argued that the relative clause is
morphosyntactically not part of the noun phrase anymore. Note that such examples are
not particularly frequent and most of the following examples stem from staged narra-
tions and poems. Sentence (51) comes from the translation of a fairy tale from Standard
Dargwa/Russian. Russian has postnominal relative clauses and the Russian word order
has simply been copied. Similarly, (52) and (53) are translations from Russian. Example
(54) and (55) come from spontaneous narratives, and (56) is part of a poem.

441
23 Relative clauses

1. relative clause following the head noun

(51) dam b-ičː-ib iž maˁlʡuˁn-ni [ca kur-re

1sg.dat n-give.pfv-pret this snake-erg one pit-loc
ka-b-iž-ib-il dawla-či-w Ismaˁʔil-li-cːella]
down-n-be.pfv-pret-ref wealth-adjvz-m Ismail-obl-comit
‘The snake that sat in a pit together with the rich Ismail gave it to me.’

2. relative clause following the head noun

(52) uc-be [čar b-iχ-ub-te d-ac’ nuˁq-b-a-cːella]

brother-pl back hpl-be.pfv-pret-dd.pl npl-empty hand-pl-obl-comit
‘the brothers who came back with empty hands’

3. relative clause following the head noun and separated from it

(53) dam rursːi r-ikː-ul=da [t’ams-ne d-irq’-an]

1sg.dat girl f-want.ipfv-icvb=1 carpet-pl npl-do.ipfv-ptcp
‘I love the girl who makes carpets.’ (E)

4. relative clause following the head noun and separated from it

(54) il c’ikuri r-arčː-ib ca<r>i, [hana xadi

that bride f-find.pfv-pret cop<f> now married
ka-r-iž-ib-il]
down-f-be.pfv-pret-ref
‘They found this bride who had just married’

5. relative clause in canonical positions and relative clause preceding the head noun

(55) [nušːa-l hež b-arq’-ib-il] χabar, [hextːu ag-ur-il] a-cːe

1pl-erg this n-do.pfv-pret-ref story there.up go.pfv-pret-ref 2sg-in
b-urs-ul=da χabar daˁʡle
n-tell-icvb=1 story as
‘We tell you the story like the story that we put together, how we got there.’

6. relative clause preceding the head noun and headless relative clause

(56) [[čum-k’al=ra dus halk-un-te] di-la c’a

how.many-indef=add year catch.fire.pfv-pret-dd.pl 1sg-gen fire
d-iš-aq-un-ce]
npl-die.out.pfv-caus-pret-dd.sg
‘the one that turned out my fire that was burning for so many years’

442
 23.3 Other syntactic properties of relative clauses

Relative clauses are verb-final with very few exceptions, which can be obtained in
elicitation or when translating stories from Russian. This property distinguishes them
from other subordinate clauses that can more easily place the verb in positions other than
the right edge of the clause. For instance, as just mentioned, (52) is part of a fairy tale
that has been translated from Russian into Sanzhi. The relative clause not only follows
the head, since this is the standard constituent order in Russian, but also contains a
comitative phrase after the verb, so that the verb does not end up in the final position.
Within the relative clause the head is usually indicated by a gap. As is typical for
East Caucasian languages, Sanzhi does not have relative pronouns. However, reflexive
pronouns can, in principle, be used to express co-reference between an argument in
the main clause and another argument or adjunct in the relative clause. In the corpus
such sentences are not particularly frequent, but some examples can be found. In (57)
the reflexive pronoun is a goal or experiencer that is coreferent with the omitted agent
of the main clause. The participle in the relative clause is case-marked with the genitive
because it expresses the topic of a conversation. In (58) the reflexive pronoun encodes the
causer, and in (59) the agent. Example (18) above shows a reflexive pronoun functioning
as possessor within the relative clause. In all unambiguous examples these pronouns
are co-referential with the omitted subject argument in the main clause, and the head
functions as an object in that main clause.

(57) [cin-i-j či-d-sa-d-ač’-ib-t-a-lla] χabar

refl.sg-obl-dat spr-npl-hither-npl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl-obl-gen story
b-urs-ul urkː-ar
n-tell-icvb find.m.ipfv-prs
‘He is probably telling the story about what he had experienced.’
(58) [cin-ni-cːe-r ka-d-ič-ib] χat’a
refl.sg-obl-in-abl down-npl-occur.pfv-pret mistake
‘the mistakes that were caused by him’
(59) [cin-ni d-arq’-ib-te] cik’al
refl.sg-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl something
‘the things that he had done’

Examples in which the nominal head itself is expressed by a reflexive in the relative
clause were judged as not very well-formed sentences by Sanzhi speakers:

(60) ? [cin-na kːaˁta b-ebč’-ib-il] rursːi r-isː-ul ca-r

refl.sg-gen cat n-die.pfv-pret-ref girl f-cry-icvb cop-f
‘The girl whose cat died is crying.’ (E)
(61) ?? [du cin-i-cːella sa-jʁ-ib-il] juldaš
1sg refl.sg-obl-comit hither-come.pfv-pret-ref friend
‘the friend with whom I (masc.) came’ (E)

443
23 Relative clauses

Relative clauses with semantically empty or light head nouns can be found, and in
most cases it is the noun zamana, which takes over this function. These clauses have
been grammaticalized into adverbial clauses expressing temporal simultaneity (62), (63)
(§18.2.9). Relative clauses with musːa ‘place’ as head can be interpreted in a similar fash-
ion as adverbial clauses referring to the location of an event (24), (25).

(62) [ʡaˁħ-ʡaˁħ-le gu-lik’-an] zamana

good-good-advz down-listen-ptcp time
‘at the time (when they) were listening carefully’
(63) [ʁaˁni-le-r gu-d-a hin d-at-aʁ-ib] zamana
aperture-loc-abl down-npl-dir water npl-send-do.pfv-pret time
‘at the time (when) you send the water from the aperture’

In general, relative clauses in Sanzhi Dargwa are part of a larger family of construc-
tions that can be classified as ‘noun-modifying clause constructions.’ They include, apart
from genuine relative clauses in which the head has a position in the relative clause, also
constructions with ‘light nouns’ such as zamana ‘time’ (62), (63) and other sentential
complements of nouns. Sentences (39), (40) above already showed that the same formal
means that are employed to formulate relative clauses are also used when there is no
syntactic relationship between the head noun and the preceding noun. In such cases the
hearer is expected to establish the semantic link between the noun and the clause that
modifies the noun on the basis of the context and of general knowledge. The sentences in
(64–67) provide more examples of such sentential modifiers. Such versatility of the rela-
tive clause construction is typical for East Caucasian languages and has been repeatedly
discussed in the literature (Daniel & Lander 2008; 2010; Comrie et al. 2017).

(64) [Malla Nasretːin-ni amχa b-ic-ib] χabar

Mullah Nasredin-erg donkey n-sell.pfv-pret story
‘the story that Mullah Nasredin sold a donkey’ (E)
(65) [qulexa b-irq’-an] usta-dex
bracelet n-do.ipfv-ptcp master-nmlz
‘the mastery of making bracelets’ (E)
(66) [sadaq’a lukː-an / luk-ni-la] ʡaˁdat
alms give.ipfv-ptcp / give.ipfv-msd-gen custom
‘the tradition of giving alms’ (E)
(67) [t’ult’ b-uc’-an] t’em
bread n-bake.ipfv-ptcp smell
‘the smell of baking bread’ (E)

Instead of relative clauses it is also possible to have a nominalized clause with the mas-
dar suffix that is marked for the genitive (65), (68). Such constructions are semantically
equivalent to the noun-modifying construction above (57), (64).

444
 23.4 Headless relative clauses

(68) [čina-k’u ʡaˁlħaˁm-le d-uˁq’-ni-la] χabar

where-indef condolence-loc 1/2pl-go-msd-gen story
‘the story how we went somewhere for condolences’

23.4 Headless relative clauses

Headless relative clauses can be formed in four different ways: (i) with the modal partici-
ple (-an) (69–71), (ii) by using the locative participle (see §18.1.2.4 for further information
and examples), (iii) by attaching the cross-categorical suffixes -il (50), (72) or -ce (plural
-te) to the preterite or the modal participle (56), (75), and (iv) occasionally by means of
the nominalized optative (80). The types differ with respect to their function and mor-
phosyntactic properties. Headless relative clauses with the modal participle can only be
used when the nominalized relative clause takes over the function of an absolutive ar-
gument and therefore does not require further case marking. For instance, in (69) the
relative clause functions as P argument, and in (70) and (71) as copula predicate.

(69) [at b-ikː-an] b-arq’-a!

2sg.dat n-want.ipfv-ptcp n-do.pfv-imp
‘Do what you want!’ (E)
(70) it [r-alχ-an] ca-r, urc’mucːan
that f-know.ipfv-ptcp cop-f Kala-Kureish.person
‘She is the one who (I) know, from Kala-Kureish.’
(71) ja [ʁaj ∅-ik’ʷ-an] w-akːu
even word m-say.ipfv-ptcp m-cop.neg
‘There is not even anybody who is talking. ’

Relative clauses with the locative participle can only express spatial meaning, and the
locative participle can be marked with directional case suffixes (essive, ablative), but not
with any other cases.
The use of the cross-categorical suffixes -il and -ce is a major strategy for the forma-
tion of headless relative clauses. The two suffixes are used in a variety of contexts and
their overall function can be roughly described as forming referential attributes/definite
descriptions. Items marked with the suffixes acquire the morphosyntactic properties of
nouns (see §9.6.1 and §9.6.2 for detailed accounts). There is a functional distribution be-
tween the two suffixes. Both suffixes are used when the headless relative clause denotes
a singular referent and when it is used without any further case marking, i.e., when it
is an argument in the absolutive case in the main clause (56), (72), (73), but the suffix
-il is more common. Note that the headless relative in (73) contains a further adverbial
clause that is embedded into the relative clause. I could find only a handful examples
of headless relative clauses bearing -ce in the corpus. The example in (56) comes from a
poem.

445
23 Relative clauses

(72) hej [ka-jcː-ur-il] ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “ħaˁsan ʡaˁli hel-itːe,”

this down-get.up.pfv-pret-ref m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m Hasan Ali that-advz
∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “uruχ-le=de=w?”
m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m fear-advz=2sg=q
‘The one who is standing says, “Like Hassan Ali,” he says, “Are you afraid?”’
(73) [[b-učː-ul] ka-b-iž-ib-il] ka-b-išː-ib=da heltːu
hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-ref down-n-put.pfv-pret=1 there
čina=del
where=indef
‘The one (picture) where they are sitting and drinking, I put this (picture)
somewhere.’

When the referent of a nominalized relative clause is plural, only the suffix -te is al-
lowed (74), (75).

(74) [kelg-un-te] akːʷ-ar

remain.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop.neg-prs
‘except for the remaining ones’
(75) [hetː-a-li itːa-lla či-ka-b-at-ur-te] le-b=q’al
those-obl-erg those.obl-gen spr-down-hpl-let.pfv-pret-dd.pl exist-hpl=mod
‘There are those that they put there (lit. from above let down their own people).’

When the headless relative clauses take case markers, the suffix -il is used for reference
in the singular and -te (in its oblique stem form -ta) for reference in the plural. Examples
with singular referents are not very common in the corpus (76) (see (139) in §9.6.2 for
one more instance). Example (77), in which the nominalized relative clause functions as
agent, has been elicited. When the dative case is added, the resulting clauses can have
the semantics of adverbial clauses expressing causes (due to the meaning of the dative
case). One example is (30) in §18.1.2.3.

(76) ca-w w-erc-aq-ur-il-li-j er=či=ra a-w-erč’-ib

refl-m m-save.pfv-caus-pret-ref-obl-dat look=on=add neg-m-look.pfv-pret
‘He did not even look at his savior.’
(77) w-iħ-ib-il-li milic’a-j b-aˁq-ib
m-wrestle.pfv-pret-ref-erg police-dat n-hit.pfv-pret
‘The one who was wrestling hit the police officer.’ (E)

Examples of headless relative clauses with plural referents and further case markers
are comparatively frequent in the Sanzhi corpus. As (78), (79) show, the nominalized
relative clauses can occur in various argument and adjunct positions in the main clause.

446
 23.4 Headless relative clauses

(78) heštːi [deč-li b-učː-an-t-a-l] cik’al=č’u ʡaˁħ-dex,

these drinking-erg n-drink.ipfv-ptcp-pl-obl-erg thing=emph good-nmlz
iš-tː-a-l ce b-irq’-u=ja, cik’al=č’u a-b-irq’-u
this-pl-obl-erg what n-do.ipfv-prs.3=q thing=emph neg-n-do.ipfv-prs.3
‘The ones who are drinking, what good things do they do, they do not do
anything (good).’
(79) hel-tːi cinna hetːi [ca-w učː-ib-t-a-cːella]
that-pl pause.filler those refl-m drink.m.ipfv-pret-pl-obl-comit
‘these, hm, with whom (he) himself was drinking’

The suffix -ce (but not -il or -te) is also used as a nominalized verb form taking over
an argument position in a clause with a complement-taking predicate. This means that
-ce functions as a complementizer in complement clauses of the fact-type (see §24.2.3).
In some cases the nominalized clause, which occurs together with a complement-taking
predicate, does not express a proposition, but refers to an entity such as a human being or
an event or to abstract entities such as thoughts, wishes, etc. In that case the nominalized
verb does not function as a complement, but as a headless relative clause (§24.6.2).
In addition to the just discussed types of nominalized relative clauses, Sanzhi has a
nominalized optative that functions like a headless relative clause in the sense that it can
take over arguments or adjunct positions in the clause and can be inflected. It preserves
the semantics of the optative (§17.3). In example (80), the nominalized verb w-ebk’- ‘die’
is inflected for the ergative because it functions as the agent of the verb kax- ‘kill’.

(80) ah, w-ah w-ebk’-ar-t-a-l di-la durħuˁ kax-ub-le

ah m-owner m-die.pfv-opt-pl-obl-erg 1sg-gen boy kill.pfv-pret-cvb
už-ib-le=q’al
be.m-pret-cvb=mod
‘Ah, may the ones die who have (a beloved one), since they apparently killed my
son!’

447
24 Complementation
Complement clauses are subordinate clauses that function as arguments of verbs. Com-
plement taking predicates can be divided into several semantic subgroups (§24.1). Com-
plementation strategies vary according to these subgroups. However, more important
for the choice of the formal marking is the semantics of the complement clause (e.g. po-
tential vs. activity vs. fact type) as well as co-reference and control relations between
the subject of the matrix predicate and the arguments in the complement clause. There-
fore, I will start with a list of complement-taking predicates (§24.1). Then I will discuss
the semantic types of complement clauses and how the formal strategies are distributed
across the semantic types (§24.2). Due to their high overall frequency in the corpus, re-
ported speech constructions will be treated separately in §24.3, although they do not
exhibit many peculiarities that distinguish them from other complement constructions.
In §24.4, I analyze the syntactic properties of complement constructions and in §24.5 I
discuss in more detail complement control.
The chapter closes with a short discussion of constructions that syntactically do not
represent complementation, but semantically resemble complement constructions. Par-
entheticals (§24.6.1), nominalized relative clauses (§24.6.2), and adverbial clauses (§24.6.3)
belong to these constructions.
I use square brackets throughout this chapter in order to indicate the complement.
Note, however, that the complement is not always syntactically a clause, but can also be
a nominalized verb form or an associated clause in case of parenthetical constructions.

24.1 Complement-taking predicates

Not all predicates listed in this section are complement-taking predicates in the strict
sense that they always require a clausal complement (as an alternative to a nominal
argument) in order to build a complete grammatical sentence. Copula constructions with
adverbs are by themselves independent main clauses, but the clauses that can be added
to them formally behave like genuine complement clauses and are therefore included.

24.1.1 Utterance verbs

Sanzhi has the following simple verbs of speech:

(1) a. b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘say, think’

b. haʔ- (pfv)/herʔ- (ipfv) ‘say’
c. b-urs- ‘tell’
d. b-ux- (ipfv) ‘tell’
24 Complementation

More specific verbs are compounds consisting of a first part that can be a noun, an
ideophone, or a bound stem, and a following light verb. There are especially many com-
pounds with the noun ʁaj ‘word, language, talk’ (see §12.2.2 for more examples); and the
simple verbs of speech listed above also occur frequently together with ʁaj. Examples
include:

(2) a. xar b-eʁ- (pfv)/xar b-irʁ- (ipfv) ‘ask’

b. ʁaj (ka-)b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘quarrel, scold, argue, discuss, talk’
c. ʁaj b-arq’- (pfv)/ʁaj b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘say, tell’
d. ʁaj b-ikː- (pfv)/ʁaj lukː- (ipfv) ‘promise’
e. čːal b-uq- (pfv)/čːal b-ulq- (ipfv) ‘argue, quarrel’
f. anru b-ikː- (pfv)/anru lukː- (ipfv) ‘command, order’
g. bursːi b-arq’- (pfv)/bursːi b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘teach’
h. waˁw b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv); waˁw haʔ- (pfv)/waˁw herʔ- (ipfv) ‘call, cry’
i. ʁaˁʁ b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘shout’
j. t’irt’ir b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘chat’

Not all utterance verbs take complement clauses that represent reported speech. Some
rather denote actions that involve speech (e.g. ‘teach’, ‘command, order’) or they denote
specific sounds that imitate speech sounds (e.g. t’irt’ir b-ik’ʷ- ‘chat’). In §24.3, I will only
discuss constructions containing quotes.

24.1.2 Liking and fearing verbs and other verbs denoting emotions
and volition
The following verbs belong to this group:

(3) a. b-ikː- ‘want, like’

b. b-ičː-aq- ‘want, like, love’ (the causativized variant of b-ikː-)
c. razi b-iχʷ- (pfv)/razi b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘be happy, agree’
d. xul b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘dream, wish, hope’
e. urk’ b-uq- (pfv)/urk’ b-ulq- ‘be frightened, astonished, wonder’
f. tamaša b-arq’- (pfv)/tamaša b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘wonder’
g. uruχ b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘get afraid’, uruχle ca-b ‘be afraid’
h. uruc b-iχʷ- (pfv)/uruc b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘get embarrassed, ashamed’, uruc ca-b ‘be
embarrassed, ashamed’
i. c’aχ ka-b-icː- (pfv)/c’aχ ka-b-ircː- (ipfv) ‘be embarrassed, ashamed’
j. pašman b-iχʷ- (pfv)/pašman b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘be sad about, regret’
k. q’as b-arq’- (pfv)/q’as b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘decide’
l. sa-b-ag- (pfv)/sa-b-arg- (ipfv) ‘imagine, envisage, see’

450
 24.1 Complement-taking predicates

Some of these verbs denote emotions that are cognitively based feelings and that are
semantically close to verbs of cognition. Other verbs denoting volition have some se-
mantic overlap with modality.

24.1.3 Cognition predicates

Based on their semantics, I will divide the cognition predicates that take complements
into three groups:
1. verbs of knowledge and acquisition of knowledge
2. propositional attitude predicates
3. other cognition predicates

24.1.3.1 Verbs of knowledge and acquisition of knowledge

Verbs expressing knowing and the acquisition of knowledge include:
(4) a. b-aχ- (pfv)/b-alχ- (ipfv) ‘get to know, know’
b. arʁ- (pfv)/irʁ- (ipfv) ‘understand’ (can be used together with urk’i ‘heart’)
c. b-elč’- (pfv)/b-uč’- (ipfv) ‘read’
In addition, there is a particle aχːu ‘I don’t know, dunno’ that takes complement
clauses, as in (50). It most probably goes back to the verb ‘know’. This particle can be
used with the first person singular dative pronoun dam, but not with any other dative
experiencer and not with nominal stimuli, which indicates its status as a particle (in
contrast to the full verb, which can be used with arguments of all persons and numbers
and also with nominal stimuli arguments). Furthermore, it is also used parenthetically
(§24.6.1).

24.1.3.2 Propositional attitude predicates

These predicates express a kind of propositional attitude toward the truth of the comple-
ment.
(5) a. pikri b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv), pikri b-uq- (pfv), prikri b-arq’- (pfv) ‘think, worry, give
thoughts to’
b. b-iχː- ‘believe’
c. b-iχ-(b)-it-ag- (pfv)/b-iχ-(b)-it-arg- (ipfv) ‘believe’ (compound verb, contain-
ing b-iχː- ‘believe’)
d. b-iχ-či ag- (pfv)/b-iχ-či arg- (ipfv) ‘believe’ (compound verb, containing b-iχː-
‘believe’)
e. šak b-ik- (pfv)/šak b-irk- (ipfv) ‘guess, suspect, feel’
In addition, there is a phrase dila pikri ħaˁsible ‘in my mind’ (1sg.gen thought follow-
ing) that also expresses a propositional attitude, but syntactically represents a parenthet-
ical, not a complement-taking predicate, as in (127) and (128).

451
24 Complementation

24.1.3.3 Other cognition predicates

These predicates are achievement verbs for positive (e.g. ‘remember’) and negative
achievement (e.g. ‘forget’) in the domain of cognition.

(6) a. qum-ert- (pfv)/qum-urt- (ipfv) ‘forget’

b. han b-ik-, b-ičaq- (pfv)/han b-irk-, b-irčaq- (ipfv) ‘remember, seem to, imagine,
think’
c. han b-el, han ca-b ‘remember’
d. urk’i-le sa-b-eʁ- (pfv)/urk’i-le sa-b-irʁ- (ipfv) ‘descend on the heart, remember’
e. urk’i-le-b le-b ‘think, have thoughts’ (lit. ‘be on the heart’)
f. ħaˁsib b-arq’- (pfv)/ħaˁsib b-irq’- ‘test, check’

24.1.4 Manipulative verbs

Manipulative verbs typically have subjects that differ from the subjects in the comple-
ment clause and the semantics of the complement clause is irrealis. Utterance verbs be-
long to this group, such as ‘command, order’ and ‘teach’ and the basic verb of speech
b-ik’ʷ- (ipfv) ‘say’, which is frequently used with a manipulative meaning. Other manip-
ulative verbs are:

(7) a. b-at aʁ- (pfv) ‘send’

b. b-at- (pfv)/b-alt- (ipfv) ‘let, leave’
c. iχtijar b-ikː- (pfv)/iχtijar lukː- (ipfv) ‘give permission, right’
d. χajri a-b-iχʷ- (pfv)/χajri a-b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘forbid’

24.1.5 Phasal verbs

Sanzhi phasal verbs include:

(8) a. b-aʔ.ak’- (pfv)/b-aʔ.ik’- (ipfv) ‘begin, start’

b. b-aʔ b-axː- (pfv)/b-aʔ b-irxː- (ipfv) ‘begin, start’
c. či-ka-b-iħ- (pfv) či-ka-b-irħ- (ipfv) ‘begin, start’
d. taman b-iχʷ- (pfv)/taman b-irχʷ- (ipfv), taman b-arq’- (pfv)/
taman b-irq’- (ipfv) ‘stop, finish’

There are two verbs that can express the meaning ‘continue’, kelgʷ- (pfv) ‘remain, stay,
be’ and the defective verb b-el ‘remain, stay’. Both are used in periphrastic verb forms,
which are not complement constructions (see §15.2 and §15.3).

452
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

24.1.6 Modal predicates

Modality comprises epistemic modality (likelihood, certainty), deontic modality (neces-
sity, obligation, permission), and ability. In Sanzhi, modality is typically not expressed
through modal verbmodal verbs such as English must, should, or may, but instead by
means of analytic and periphrastic verb forms. The obligative tenses denote obligation
in addition to future (§14.1.5–§14.1.7). There are a number of periphrastic epistemic modal
constructions that express likelihood and certainty (§15.4.2, §15.5). In addition, it is pos-
sible to use the embedded question marker together with the optional adverb belki ‘be
possible’ (§9.1). The only complement-taking predicates that express modality convey
the meaning of ability or necessity:

(9) a. b-iχʷ- (pfv)/b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘can, be able’

b. ʡaˁʁunil ca-b ‘be needed, necessary’
c. ħaˁžatle ca-b ‘be needed, necessary’

24.1.7 Evaluation
Evaluation is expressed by adverbs together with a copula or the verb ag- (pfv) ‘go’:

(10) a. ʡaˁħle ca-b, ʡaˁħle ag- (pfv)/ʡaˁħle arg- (ipfv) ‘be good’
b. wahil ca-b, wahil ag- (pfv)/wahil arg- (ipfv) ‘be bad’

24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

The following complementation strategies are available in Sanzhi and will be treated in
this section.

1. major complementation strategies:

• zero strategy (§24.2.1)
• quotative particles bik’ul, haʔible (§24.2.2)
• cross-categorical suffix -ce (§24.2.3)
• masdar -ni (§24.2.4)
• perfective converb -le (§24.2.5)
• infinitive -ij/subjunctive (§24.2.6)
• embedded question marker =el (§24.2.7)
2. minor complementation strategies:
• imperfective converb -ul/-unne (§24.2.8)
• the pretend-construction (§24.2.9)

453
24 Complementation

A number of the grammatical markers listen above also occur in other types of subor-
dinate clauses: the perfective and the imperfective converb head adverbial clauses (§25.1).
The cross-categorical suffix -ce occurs in relative clauses (Chapter 23). Therefore, it is not
always easy to tell apart complement constructions from adverbial or relative clauses.
Based on their semantics, we can distinguish four types of complement clauses (Hen-
geveld 1989: 130; Dik 1997: 93; Dixon 2006):

potential type: refers to the potentiality of the subject of the complement clause becom-
ing involved in an activity
activity type: refers to some ongoing activity, relating to its extension in time
fact type: refers to the fact that something took place
speech act type or direct speech type: refers to a particular speech act

For the linguistic encoding of each semantic type one or more complementation strate-
gies are used (Table 24.1). The strategies will be discussed in detail in the following sec-
tions.
Table 24.1: Complementation strategies and the semantic types of comple-
ments

speech act
potential

activity

fact

zero y
quotative particle (y) y y
cross-categorical suffix y y y
masdar y
perfective converb y y
infinitive/subjunctive y
embedded question marker y y y
imperfective converb y y ?

24.2.1 The zero strategy

No formal marking of the complement clause is a major strategy in reported speech
constructions (§24.3). It is also found, though less commonly, with those emotion and
cognition verbs that denote activities that presuppose or imply speech and that have
therefore a linguistic component that makes them similar in their behavior to verbs
of speech (11–14). The zero strategy can be viewed as an alternative to the use of the
quotative particles since the employment of quotative particles is possible with every
verb that allows for the absence of formal encoding of its complement.

454
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

(11) na dam=ra han b-ič-ib [w-ax-an=da q’ʷila arc

now 1sg.dat=add remember n-occur.pfv-pret m-go-ptcp=1 a.little money
d-irq’-an=da]
npl-do.ipfv-ptcp=1
‘I also thought, I should go to make a little money.’
(12) pikri ∅-ik’-ul ca-w [[hej paltar asː-ij] ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-d]
thought m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m this clothes take.pfv-inf needed-advz cop-npl
‘He thinks, I need to take these clothes.’
(13) urk’ uq-un il miskin [kːurtːa-j χalq’-la ʁaj
fright go.m.pfv-pret that poor fox-dat people-gen word
d-alχ-ul=ew ce=ja?]
npl-know.ipfv-icvb=q what=q
‘The poor boy got frightened: Does the fox know the human language or what?’
(14) [ʡuˁrus ʁaj-la ce=jal b-ik’-ul ca-b it-i-j]
Russian language-gen what=indef hpl-say.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl that-obl-dat
dam qum.urt-ul ca-b
1sg.dat forget.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘It (i.e. the plant) is called something in Russian, I forgot.’

Due to the absence of any formal marking, it is alternatively possible to analyze the
above examples as juxtaposition of two main clauses without a syntactic link between
them, but with a clear semantic relationship, which follows from the meaning of the
emotion and cognition verbs and the interpretation of the clauses in brackets as express-
ing thoughts. In example (14) still another approach suggests itself, namely the analysis
of the cognitive predicate as parenthetical, which means that this is not a complement
construction, but simply an independent sentence followed by another independent sen-
tence that makes a comment on the previous one and functions as a kind of stance marker
to inform the hearer that the speaker is unsure about the validity of some of her utter-
ances about plant names. See §24.6.1 for more information about parentheticals.

24.2.2 The quotative particles

Sanzhi has two quotative particles, bik’ul and haʔible. They are discussed in more de-
tail in §24.3 in reference to reported speech, because they constitute a major encoding
strategy for complements of utterance verbs. Although bik’ul and haʔible have preserved
their verbal properties (e.g. inflectional morphology, gender agreement, position) I will
refer to them as “particles” when they occur in addition to matrix verbs of speech in
order to differentiate them from the matrix verbs that take complement clauses. They
can therefore be called “parentheticals” that do not realize syntactic subordination but
pragmatically mark a clause as a speech report.
The particle haʔible is far less common than bik’ul, and occurs only with verbs of
speech (including cases in which they are used as verbs of cognition) and occasionally
in purposive clauses (21). The particle bik’ul, in contrast, occurs also in complements

455
24 Complementation

of emotion (‘be afraid’ (15), ‘dream’ (16)) and cognition verbs that denote activities that
heavily rely on the (implicit) use of language, most notably verbs meaning ‘think’ (17),
(18). Verbs of knowledge normally do not mark complement clauses with the quotative
particle.
(15) [c’il ca-r it-an=da r-ik’-ul] uruχ-le ca-r ik’
then refl-f beat.up-ptcp=1 f-say.ipfv-icvb fear-advz cop-f dem.up
‘She is afraid that he will then beat her up.’
(16) du xul ∅-ik’-ul=da [dam mašin b-irk-an-ne
1sg wish m-say.ipfv-icvb=1 1sg.dat car n-occur.icvb-ptcp-fut.3
∅-ik’-ul latereja-le-b]
m-say.ipfv-icvb lottery-loc-n
‘I dream of winning a car in the lottery.’ (E)
The particle agrees in gender with the subject or subject-like argument of the ma-
trix clause even in those cases in which the matrix predicate takes other cases than the
absolutive. For instance, in (17) the experiencer in the matrix clause is marked by the
dative, and the predicate that governs this argument shows local agreement with the
complement clause (see §24.4 below on the difference between local and long-distance
agreement in complement clauses). By contrast, the quotative shows feminine singular
agreement because the experiencer has a female referent. Example (18) shows that even
a possessor functioning as experiencer can control gender agreement on the quotative
particle. The obvious reason for this behavior is the valency pattern of the verb b-ik’ʷ-
‘say’, from which the particle originates. It requires an absolutive argument controlling
its gender agreement prefix (in addition to the complement clause).
(17) dam han b-ič-ib [a-b-elk’-un-ne r-ik’-ul]
1sg.dat seem n-occur.pfv-pret neg-n-write.pfv-pret-cvb f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘I (fem.) thought that he did not write.’
(18) atːa-la pikri k’e-b [hex-tːi paltar ic-an-te=jal
father-gen thought exist.up-n dem.up-pl clothes wash.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=indq
∅-ik’-ul]
m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘The father thinks about whether these clothes are to be washed.’
(19) il=ra šak ∅-ič-ib ca-w [itːi χalq’ b-ik’ʷ-an mar
that=add feel m-occur.pfv-pret cop-m those people hpl-say.ipfv-ptcp truth
b-urkː-ar ∅-ik’-ul]
n-find.ipfv-prs.3 m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘He also guessed that the people had probably said the truth.’
It might be combined with the modal interrogative suffix (see §17.4 for more infor-
mation) in the complement clause if the complement represents a question which has
deontic modality and in which the subject is co-referential with the author of the quote
(20).

456
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

(20) [d-iʡ-ij uq’-ide=l a-w-q’-idel ∅-ik’-ul]

npl-steal.pfv-inf go.m.pfv-modq=indq neg-m-go.pfv-modq m-say.ipfv-icvb
pikri ∅-ik’-ul=el
thought m-say.ipfv-icvb=indq
‘(He) is probably thinking, Should I go stealing or should I not go?’

In (21) the particle haʔible is followed by the verb b-ik’ʷ- used with the meaning ‘think’.

(21) [cul-b-a-la tuχtur arg-an=da] haʔ-ib-le ik’-ul

tooth-pl-obl-gen doctor go.ipfv-ptcp=1 say.pfv-pret-cvb neg-find.ipfv-prs.3
a-urkː-ar aχːu
not.know
‘I will become a dentist, he is probably thinking, I do not know.’

24.2.3 The cross-categorical suffix -ce

In complement clauses, the cross-categorical suffix -ce is added to the preterite participle
(22–24) or to the modal participle (131). This suffix is used for the formation of definite
descriptions (see §9.6.1 for detailed accounts of its complex array of functions). When
it is suffixed to verbs the verbs take over the function of attributes (i.e. as participles in
relative clauses) or as nominalized referentially independent clauses. The latter function
is relevant for the occurrence of -ce in complement clauses of the fact type. More specifi-
cally, the proposition in the complement clause, which is marked by -ce, is considered to
be true and treated as a fact by the speaker. Therefore, only certain verbs denoting emo-
tions, cognition verbs, as well as evaluative predicates express their complement clauses
with the attributive marker.

(22) iž-i-l b-aχ-ur ca-b [d-erk-un-ce]

this-obl-erg n-know.pfv-pret cop-n npl-eat.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘He got to know that (they) ate (them).’
(23) il šak r-ič-ib ca-r [bec’-li b-erkː-un-ce]
that feel f-occur.pfv-pret cop-f wolf-erg hpl-eat.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘She suspected that the wolf had eaten (the sisters).’
(24) du razi-l=da [u sa-r-eʁ-ib-le /
1sg happy-advz=1 2sg hither-f-go.pfv-pret-cvb /
sa-r-eʁ-ib-ce]
hither-f-go.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I am happy that you came.’ (E)

The meaning of these complement clauses is very close to complement clauses formed
with the masdar (25) (§24.2.4) and with the perfective converb (24) (§24.2.5) and the
strategies can usually be replaced by each other.

457
24 Complementation

(25) wahi-l=de [Rašid-li ust’ul ʡaˁħ

bad-adv=pst Rashid-erg chair good
a-b-arq’-ib-le/a-b-arq’-ib-ce/a-b-arq’-ni]
neg-n-do.pfv-pret-cvb/neg-n-do.pfv-pret-dd.sg/neg-n-do.pfv-msd
‘It was bad that Rashid did not repair the chair.’ (E)

Note that the suffix -ce also occurs in nominalized relative clauses that semantically
resemble complement clauses of the activity type. These constructions are discussed in
§24.6.2.

24.2.4 The masdar

The masdar is a deverbal noun that is used not only in complement clauses, but also
in other argument and adjunct positions (§18.1.5). Complements expressed by the abso-
lutive (i.e. not further case-marked) masdar denote facts. Therefore, basically the same
matrix predicates that make use of the cross-categorical suffix -ce also allow for the mas-
dar, i.e., cognition predicates, evaluation predicates and emotion predicates if they refer
to factual complements that have propositional meaning:

(26) [bunah b-irχʷ-ni] b-alχ-ul=da

sin n-become.ipfv-msd n-know.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I know that this will be a sin.’
(27) heba č’an-ni arʁ-ib [[il admi-la walžaʁ
then wind-erg understand.pfv-pret that person-gen coat
či-r-sa-b-ertː-ij] a-b-irχʷ-ni]
spr-abl-hither-n-take.pfv-inf neg-n-be.able.ipfv-msd
‘Then the wind understood that he would not be able to take off the coat of this
person.’
(28) [it Maˁħaˁmmad-la xːunul r-iχʷ-ni] dam han b-akːu
that Mahammad-gen woman f-be.pfv-msd 1sg.dat remember n-cop.neg
‘I don’t remember that she was Mahammad’s wife.’

As mentioned above and shown in the elicited example (25) shown in the previous
section, the masdar is often semantically equivalent to the preterite participle and the
cross-categorical suffix.

24.2.5 The perfective converb

The perfective converb is used to form the same types of complement clauses as the
cross-categorical suffix -ce, that is, fact complements. Thus, in elicitation it is given as
an alternative to -ce (§24.2.3), and the types of matrix predicates with which it occurs
are the same as for that suffix, namely cognition verbs (29) and emotion verbs (30), and
evaluation predicates (32), (25). The complement clauses refer to situations in the past.

458
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

(29) [ca-w urči-j murtːa-l ha-jʁ-ib-le] han le-w

refl-m horse-dat rider-advz up-come.m.pfv-pret-cvb remember exist-m
‘(I) remember that he came riding on a horse.’
(30) du razi-l=da [u sa-r-eʁ-ib-le /
1sg happy-advz=1 2sg hither-f-go.pfv-pret-cvb /
sa-r-eʁ-ib-ce]
hither-f-go.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I am happy that you (fem.) came.’ (E)
(31) du pašman r-iχ-ub-le=da [bajram-t-a-j a-kelg-un-ne]
1sg sad f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=1 holiday-pl-obl-dat neg-remain.pfv-pret-cvb
‘I (fem.) regretted that I did not stay for the holidays.’ (E)
(32) “[salam-le a-s-ač’-ib-le] ʡaˁħ-le
greeting-loc neg-hither-come.pfv-pret-cvb good-advz
a-arg-u=q’al,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w
neg-go.ipfv-prs.3=mod m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘He said, “It is not good that I did not go to the meeting.”’ (lit. having come to the
greetings)

Clauses with the perfective converb also express activity complements when they are
used, e.g., with certain emotional predicates (33). Similarly, (31) could also be translated
as ‘I regretted when I did not stay for the holidays.’

(33) it-i-j [xʷit’ haʔ-ib-le] a-b-ičː-aq-i

that-obl-dat whistle say.pfv-pret-cvb neg-n-want.ipfv-caus-hab.pst
‘He did not like when one whistled.’

This makes clear that some constructions, which at the first glance look like comple-
ment clauses formed with the perfective converb, could also be analyzed as adverbial
clauses occurring together with a main clause, which contains one of the complement-
taking predicates given in §24.1. The preterite converb is a regular means of forming
adverbial clauses that refer to events and situation occurring prior to or at the same time
as the situation referred to in the main clause i.e. ‘while, when, after, and’ (§18.1.1.2). In
contrast to complement clauses, adverbial clauses do not fulfill argument positions but
serve as clausal adjuncts. For some of the examples in this section further research is
needed in order to decide if the subordinate clause is a true complement or if it is an
adjunct, as in (30),1 (31), (32). In example (29) an adverbial-clause interpretation seems
rather unlikely.
Finally, the perfective converb occurs in complements of ‘finish’ as an alternative to
the infinite or subjunctive, as in (35) and (34). Such complements are of the activity or
the potential type. Example (34) shows the verb ‘finish’, which contains an intransitive
1
This example could probably be translated as ‘You came and I am happy’.

459
24 Complementation

lexical verb b-iχʷ-ij of which the nominal part taman ‘time’ functions as the subject-
like argument of this verb. The clause preceding this verb contains a verb bearing the
perfective converb suffix just as the complement clause in example (35) and the two verbs
‘finish’ form a pair of which the two members differ with respect to the lexical verbs
(intransitive b-iχʷ-ij ‘be, become’ vs. transitive b-arq’-ij ‘do, make’) (see §12.2 for many
more pairs of verbs of this kind). Thus, it seems reasonable to treat both constructions in
(34) and (35) analogously as complement constructions with complements expressed by
perfective converbs. However, in (34) an analysis as adverbial clause construction seems
again to be possible. In that case the translation would rather be ‘Having built (the mill)
and the time finished, ...’. Such an analysis cannot be applied to (35). Further testing of
the syntactic properties and whether the interpretation as adverbial clause construction
in (34) is in fact possible or necessary or perhaps incorrect must be clarified by future
research.

(34) na [b-arq’-ib-le] taman b-iχ-ub-le, ca ʡaˁχːuˁl dak’u

now n-do.pfv-pret-cvb end n-be.pfv-pret-cvb one guest appear
uq-un ca-w
go.m.pfv-pret cop-m
‘When they finished building, a man appeared.’
(35) Amina-l taman d-irq’-ul ca-d [d-irc-ij /
Amina-erg end npl-do.ipfv-icvb cop-npl npl-wash.pfv-inf /
d-irc-ib-le paltar]
npl-wash.pfv-pret-cvb clothes
‘Aminat is finishing to wash/washing the clothes.’ (E)

24.2.6 Infinitive and subjunctive

The infinitive and the subjunctive are very widely used in complement clauses of the
potential type that occur with complement control. Complement control means that
the subject in the complement clause is obligatorily omitted because it is identical to
the subject or another argument (typically the object) of the matrix clause (§24.5), and
when the matrix clause is an impersonal construction, as it is the case with evaluative
predicates. Note, however, that it is possible to express an overt subject in an infinitival
complement clause containing a trivalent verb when the matrix clause has a different
subject (113).
The infinitive can be used with all persons, whereas the subjunctive has the suffix -tːaj
for the second person and -araj/-anaj for the third person (see §18.1.3 for a more detailed
account of the infinitive and §18.1.4 for the subjunctive). There is no subjunctive suffix
for the first person. The subjunctive can always be replaced by the infinitive without any
change in the meaning of the sentence.
Emotion and cognition predicates take complement clauses headed by the infinitive
or the subjunctive:

460
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

(36) a-b-ikː-ul [gu-r-uq’-aˁnaj], bah hila-r gu-r-ag-ur

neg-n-want.ipfv-icvb sub-abl-go.m-subj.3 most last-abl sub-abl-go.pfv-pret
Sanži-r
Sanzhi-abl
‘Not wanting to leave, he left Sanzhi as the very last.’
(37) “[šːi-l-cːe uˁq’-ij=ra] c’aχ-le ca-b,” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar atːa
village-obl-in go.m-inf=add shame-advz cop-n m-say.ipfv-prs father
‘“(I) am ashamed to go to the village,” said the father.’
(38) [ču-la hunar ħaˁsib b-arq’-ij] q’as b-arq’-ib
refl.pl-gen ability test n-do.pfv-inf decision n-do.pfv-pret
‘They decided to test their ability.’
(39) qum.ert-ur-re [cin-na b-elk’-anaj], heχ-itːe
forget.pfv-pret-cvb refl.sg-gen n-write.pfv-subj.3 dem.down-advz
kelg-un=da
remain.pfv-pret=1
‘He forgot to write and I remained like this.’
Due to the nature of manipulative predicates and modal predicates their complements
belong to the potential type and they exhibit complement control. Therefore, the use of
the infinitive or the subjunctive is the only possible strategy for complementation (40–
44). Other complementizers such as the attributive suffix or the masdar are ungrammati-
cal. As example (42) demonstrates, modal predicates with infinitival complements allow
for backward control: the matrix predicate shows feminine singular agreement because
the ergative agent Paitu in the complement clause has a feminine singular referent. See
§24.5 below for more details.
(40) [hej kaxʷ-ij] a-at-ur
this kill.pfv-inf neg-let.pfv-pret
‘He did not allow (them) to kill him.’
(41) hel kelg-un hel-tːu-w, a-w-alt-ul [k-aqː-araj]
that remain.pfv-pret that-loc-m neg-m-let.ipfv-icvb down-carry-subj.3
‘He (the dead body) remained there, not being allowed to bring him (to Sanzhi).’
(42) [Pajt’u-l ʡaˁjar b-arq’-ij] r-irχ-u=w?
Paitu-erg dance n-do.pfv-inf f-be.able.ipfv-prs.3=q
‘Is Paitu able to dance?’
(43) ca-b=ra a-b-iχ-ub [kaxʷ-araj]
refl-hpl=add neg-hpl-be.able.pfv-pret kill.pfv-subj.3
‘They themselves were not able to kill them.’
(44) “ce ħaˁžat-le,” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar, “at [betsat w-ič-itːaj], durħuˁ”
what need-advz m-say.ipfv-prs.3 2sg.dat here.there m-lead.ipfv-subj.2 boy
‘“What need is there for you,” (he) said, “to move here and there, boy?”’

461
24 Complementation

Phase predicates have complement clauses of the potential or of the activity type.
In the first case, they make use of the infinitive and subjunctive. Thus, in elicitation,
when translating narratives from Russian or Standard Dargwa, or when telling prepared
stories, the complements of ‘begin’ contain the infinitive or subjunctive, as in (45) and
(46). Otherwise, the imperfective converb is employed (§24.2.8). Similarly, with ‘finish’
we find either the perfective converb (§24.2.5) or the infinitive/subjunctive, as in (47).

(45) durħuˁ=ra kac’i=ra či-ka-b-iħ-ib [umc’-anaj

boy=add puppy=add spr-down-hpl-begin.pfv-pret search.ipfv-subj.3
ʡaˁt’a-j]
frog-dat
‘The boy and the puppy began to search for the frog.’
(46) [waˁw ∅-ik’ʷ-ij] w-aʔ ∅-išː-ib ca-w
shout m-say.ipfv-inf m-begin m-become.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He began to shout.’
(47) ʡaˁħmed taman ∅-irχ-ul=de [w-isː-ij]
Ahmed end m-be.ipfv-icvb=pst m-cry-inf
‘Ahmed stopped crying.’ (E)

Evaluative predicates also employ the infinitive/subjunctive if the complement clause

has potential semantics:

(48) hana heštːi k’unt’-be d-emtː-un-ne, [ʁaj r-ik’ʷ-ij] wahi-l

now these lip-pl npl-swell.pfv-pret-cvb word f-say.ipfv-inf bad-advz
ca-b
cop-n
‘Now my lips are swollen, it is difficult to talk.’
(49) c’il=ra ʡaˁħ-le ca-b [w-aš-ij] čem hextːu-le-rka
then=add good-advz cop-n m-go-inf than there.up-loc-abl
‘It is good (better) to go (on the ice-covered ground) than from there.’

24.2.7 The embedded question marker

The embedded question enclitic has three allomorphs: =jal after vowels, =el after conso-
nants, and =l after some suffixes ending in /e/. It is used in all types of embedded ques-
tions and occurs in complementary distribution with the interrogative enclitics used in
independent questions (§28.4). It belongs to the class of predicative particles (together
with the other two interrogative enclitics and a few other particles, see §9.1). The particle
encliticizes to the head of the complement, i.e., the verb, or occasionally to interrogative
pronouns.
Complement clauses with the embedded question marker are of the potential type,
as in (53) and (62) as well as of the activity type (58), but not of the direct speech type,

462
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

because for direct speech the other two interrogative enclitics have to be used. Matrix
predicates that employ the embedded question markers are utterance predicates (see
§24.1.1 for examples) and cognition predicates (§24.1.3). It co-occurs with the quotative
marker (20).
Examples (50–52) show embedded polar questions. The matrix predicates are negated
or they imply the use of an embedded question such as ‘know’ (§28.4). With affirmative
matrix predicates we could alternatively have fact complements (‘know that’) and con-
sequently other complementation strategies. The matrix clause can be a statement or a
question.

(50) [han d-irč-aq-ul=el] aχːu

remember npl-occur.ipfv-caus-icvb=indq not.know
‘I don’t know if (he) is remembering.’
(51) dam b-alχ-ad sa-b-irʁ-u=jal itːi (ja=ra
1sg.dat n-know.ipfv-1.prs hither-hpl-come.ipfv-prs.3=indq they or=add
a-sa-b-irʁ-u=jal) amma a-cːe a-b-urs-an=da
neg-hither-hpl-come.ipfv-prs=indq but 2sg-in neg-n-tell-ptcp=1
‘I know whether they will come (or not), but I am not going to tell you.’
(52) at b-alχ-atːe=w ʡaˁli panedelnik-le-w
2sg.dat n-know.ipfv-prs.2sg=q Ali Monday-loc-m
s-erʁ-u=jal
hither-come.m.ipfv-prs.3=indq
‘Do you know whether Ali will come on Monday?’ (E)

The following two corpus examples illustrate embedded disjunct polar questions. They
have the same structure as the embedded polar questions with the only difference that
there is only one embedded clause and not two.

(53) [k’ʷi ibil b-erčː-ib-le=l a-b-erčː-ib-le=l]

two ord n-drink.pfv-pret-cvb=indq neg-n-drink.pfv-pret-cvb=indq
a-b-alχ-ad
neg-n-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I don’t know whether (they) drank the second (bottle) or not.’
(54) [ca bac=de=l, k’ʷel bac=de=l] aχːu dam
one moon=pst=indq two moon=pst=indq not.know 1sg.dat
‘I don’t know if it was one month or two months.’

With embedded content questions the enclitic mostly appears on the verb (55–58), as
it is also common for the interrogative enclitics in independent questions. The matrix
clause can be affirmative or negative.

463
24 Complementation

(55) “hel šak b-irk-ul=da,” b-ik’-ul ca-b, “[hi-l

that feel n-occur.ipfv-icvb=1 n-say.ipfv-icvb cop-n who.obl-erg
b-arq’-ib=el hel ʡaˁči]”
n-do.pfv-pret=indq that work
‘“I suspect,” says the fox, “whose work this was.”’
(56) urkː-ar [hek’ cet’-le it-ul=el] han
find.ipfv-prs dem.up how-advz beat.up-icvb=indq remember
d-irk-ul
npl-occur.ipfv-icvb
‘(He) probably remembers how he beat her up.’
(57) aχːu dam [ce-lla qari=či-w pikri ∅-ik’-ul=el]
not.know 1sg.dat what-gen on.top=on-m thought m-say.ipfv-icvb=indq
‘I don’t know about what he is thinking.’
(58) “du-l a-b-alχ-ad,” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w “[ceqːel
1sg-erg neg-n-know.ipfv-prs.1 m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m when
hak’-ub=da=jal]”
appear.pfv-pret=1=indq
‘(The horse) said, “I do not know when I was born.”’

If the complement does not contain a verb the enclitic appears on the question word
(59). In utterances with verbs and questions words it is possible to attach the enclitic to
the latter (60), but the variant with the verbal host is judged as preferable (61).

(59) ce b-alχ-ul=de [ča-qal=el]?

what hpl-know.ipfv-icvb=2sg who-assoc=indq
‘How do you know them?’ (i.e. who they are)
(60) [ceqːel=el hak’-ub-ce žamilat azi] dam
when=indq appear.pfv-pret-dd.sg Zhamilat aunt 1sg.dat
a-b-alχ-ad
neg-n-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I don’t know when aunt Zhamilat was born.’ (E)
(61) [ceqːel hak’-ub-ce=jal žamilat azi] dam
when appear.pfv-pret-dd.sg=indq Zhamilat aunt 1sg.dat
a-b-alχ-ad
neg-n-know.ipfv-1.prs
‘I don’t know when aunt Zhamilat was born.’ (E)

If the subject of an embedded question is first person, the verb in the complement
clause takes the modal interrogative suffix -ide(l), which most probably goes back to a
person marker -id plus the petrified marker for embedded questions =el (§17.4), as in (62).
The suffix can occur in combination with the quotative marker (§24.2.2).

464
 24.2 Complementation strategies and their semantics

(62) [ce b-arq’-ide=l] a-b-alχ-ul=da

what n-do.pfv-modq=indq neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=1
‘I do not know what to do.’

24.2.8 The imperfective converb

The imperfective converb belongs to the minor complementation strategies. It expresses
potential or activity complements with the verb ‘begin’, for which it represents the most
common way of marking complements (63) (alternatively, the infinitive/subjunctive is
used, see §24.2.6).

(63) kːurtːa b-aʔ b-išː-ib [šajt’an rucːi r-irʡ-uˁl]

fox n-begin n-put.pfv-pret devil sister f-betray-icvb
‘The fox began betraying/to betray the devil sister.’

Another possible matrix predicate for complements heading the imperfective converb
is the perception verb ‘see’ whose complement clauses are either of the fact type as the
translation in (64) suggests or of the activity type (65).

(64) it-i-j či-d-až-ib [aba-l q’uˁl-e icː-ul]

that-obl-dat spr-npl-see.pfv-pret mother-erg cow-pl milk.ipfv-icvb
‘S/he saw that mother was milking the cows.’ (E)
(65) [Nursijat ʡaˁħ r-iχ-ub-le, r-ax-ul] či-r-až-ib-le, razi
Nursijat good f-be.pfv-pret-cvb f-go-icvb spr-f-see.pfv-pret-cvb happy
r-iχ-ub=da=q’al
f-be.pfv-pret=1=mod
‘I (fem.) got happy when I saw that Nursijat recovered and is (already) walking
around.’

24.2.9 The pretend-construction

The cross-categorical suffix -il, which forms referential attributes that can modify nouns
(e.g. relative clauses) or occur referentially independent in argument or adjunct posi-
tions, can also take the genitive case to express activity complements in the pretending-
construction (66–68) (see §9.6.2 for a summary of all functions of -il). Depending on
whether -il is suffixed to the modal participle (67) or to the preterite participle (69) the
complement clauses have past time reference or non-past time reference. Syntactically,
the dependent clause does not represent the object argument of the matrix verb ‘do,
make’ because of the genitive case. Nevertheless, we can analyze this construction as a
complement construction because there are a number of similar examples with nouns
instead of clauses that semantically, but not syntactically, are arguments of the verb ‘do,
make’ despite bearing the genitive case (§3.4.1.3).

465
24 Complementation

(66) it-i-l [usː-un-il-la] či-b-irq’-ul ca-b

that-obl-erg lay.m.pfv-pret-ref-gen spr-n-do.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘He pretends to sleep.’ (lit. to have laid down) (E)
(67) rursːi-l [durs-re luk’-an-il-la] či-b-irq’-ul ca-b
girl-erg homework-pl write.ipfv-ptcp-ref-gen spr-n-do.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘The girl pretends to do the homework.’ (E)
(68) [ʡaˁħ-le k-alt-an-il-la] či-b-arq’-ib-le, kisna-d
good-advz down-let.ipfv-ptcp-ref-gen spr-n-do.pfv-pret-cvb in.pocket-npl
arc tːura h-asː-ib-le, b-ax-ul b-už-ib ca-b
money outside up-take.pfv-pret-cvb hpl-go-icvb hpl-be-pret cop-hpl
‘Apparently they pretended to put him (to bed) well, took the money that was in
his pocket and left.’

The agreement prefix on the matrix verb can be b- or d- with no difference in semantics
(69). The prefix does not seem to be governed by an agreement controller, because of
the two available options one is not attested (namely long distance agreement with the
absolutive argument of the complement clause), whereas the other (local agreement with
the entire complement clause) is implausible since it allows only for the b- prefix, but not
for the d- prefix. Furthermore, in constructions without a complement only d- is possible
(70).

(69) Ruslan-ni [kiniga b-elk’-un-il-la]

Ruslan-erg book n-write.pfv-pret-ref-gen
či-b-arq’-ib/či-d-arq’-ib
spr-n-do.pfv-pret/spr-npl-do.pfv-pret
‘Ruslan pretended to write a book.’ (E)
(70) či-ma-d-irq’-itːa!
spr-proh-npl-do.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not pretend!’ (E)

24.3 Reported speech constructions

24.3.1 General characteristics of reported speech
Reported speech constructions usually contain an utterance verb and a quote. The rela-
tionship between the clause containing the verb of speech and the quote can be marked
or unmarked. The utterance verb precedes the quote (80), interrupts it (71), or follows it
(72). Sometimes it is repeated and occurs in more than one position (74). The quote itself
does not bear any specific grammatical marking apart from the optional use of quotative
particles to pragmatically mark quotes.
The verb b-ik’ʷ- is the most frequently occurring verb of speech that is also used
as a quotative particle in reported speech constructions and other complement clauses

466
 24.3 Reported speech constructions

(see also §24.2.2). The basic meaning of this verb seems to be ‘say’, but it is often used
with the meaning ‘think’, i.e., expressing mental activities such as thinking, considering,
or reflecting. The verb has only the imperfective stem. Its subject argument takes the
absolutive case and controls the gender agreement prefix. It is very widely used as a
light verb in compounding, as shown by some examples above. The compounds can
denote activities related to speech and language such as pikri b-ik’ʷ- ‘think’, xul b-ik’ʷ-
‘wish, dream’, ʁaj b-ik’ʷ- ‘scold’, ʁumku b-ik’ʷ- ‘swear’, iχtilat b-ik’ʷ- ‘chat’, etc., but they
can also have totally different meanings such as qus b-ik’ʷ- ‘slide’ or duc’ b-ik’ʷ- ‘run’
(see §12.2 for more examples). The verb is used as a matrix verb in reported speech
constructions, either in the form of the compound present (71) or with the suffix -ar for
past time reference (72).

(71) “dam ʡaˁʁuni-l akːu” ∅-ik’-ul ∅-ik’-ul ca-w “hel-tːi

1sg.dat needed-advz cop.neg m-say.ipfv-icvb m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m that-pl
cik’al”
something
‘He says, “I do not need these things.”’
(72) “du-l urč’em-c’anu urč’em-ra ečːa asː-ib=da” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar ʡaˁli
1sg-erg nine-ten nine-num she.goat buy.pfv-pret=1 m-say.ipfv-prs.3 Ali
‘“I bought 99 goats,” said Ali.’
(73) “ca musːa-d k’e-d” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, “kːalk-me. warilla.wari u
one place-npl exist.up-npl m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m tree-pl no.way 2sg
iχ-tː-a-j er či-ma-hark’-utːa!”
dem.down-pl-obl-dat look spr-proh-look.ipfv-proh.sg
‘“In once place, there are,” he says, “trees. Whatever may happen, do not look at
these trees!”’
(74) hel xːunul r-ik’-ul ca-r “d-irʁ-an-ne=n,
that woman f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f npl-be.enough.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3=prt
ha-jcː-e” r-ik’-ul ca-r “gu-r!”
up-get.up.m.pfv-imp f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f down-abl
‘The wife says, “This is enough, get up!”’

This verb is also used when mentioning the name of something or somebody or the
word for something in another language or dialect , e.g. Saliħaˁt b-ik’-ul ‘(a person) called
Salihat’, or as in (75).

(75) nišːa-la “daˁqaˁ-lla q’ar” b-ik’ʷ-ar. [ʡuˁrus ʁaj-la ce=jal

1pl-gen wound-gen plant hpl-say.ipfv-prs Russian word-gen what=indq
b-ik’-ul ca-b it-i-j] dam qum.urt-ul ca-b
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl that-obl-dat 1sg.dat forget.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘In our (language) it is called “plant of the wound.” I forgot what it is called in
Russian.’

467
24 Complementation

The verb b-ik’ʷ- has grammaticalized into a quotative particle (see below). Moreover,
it can express hearsay evidentiality.
Another very frequent utterance verb is -ʔ- (pfv)/-erʔ- (ipfv) ‘say’, which is almost
always used with the spatial preverb ha- ‘upwards’, that is haʔ-/herʔ-. This is a transi-
tive verb that marks the subject, i.e. the speaker, with the ergative. It is mainly used in
reported speech constructions with past time reference. Besides that it functions as a
quotative particle (see below).
(76) “er b-erč’-e!” haʔ-ib č’an-ni
look n-look.pfv-imp say.pfv-pret wind-erg
‘“Look!” said the wind.’
The imperfective stem is used, among other things, for meta-comments on how you
express what you want to say, which words you use:
(77) “sabrat d-arq’-ib” herʔ-an akːu=q’al darkːʷan ʁaj-la
gather npl-do.pfv-pret say.ipfv-ptcp .cop.neg=mod Dargwa language-gen
‘“Gather did,” you should not say in Dargwa.’
Other common simple utterance verbs are the transitive verbs b-urs- and b-ux-, which
both can be translated with ‘tell’, and the transitive verb xar b-eʁ- (pfv)/xar b-irʁ- (ipfv)
‘ask’, which occur, like all verbs of speech, with or without a quotative particle.
(78) “du-l b-aˁq-ib-le” ∅-ik’-ul ca-w “xːunul-li-j, ce
1sg-erg n-hit.pfv-pret-cvb m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m woman-obl-dat what
b-arq’-ide=l” ∅-ik’-ul χabur-t-a-l ux-ul ca-w
n-do.pfv-modq=indq m-say.ipfv-icvb story-pl-obl-erg tell.m.ipfv-icvb cop-m
heχ
dem.down
‘“I hit my wife, what should I do,” he says; he is telling the stories.’
(79) itːi=ra “čina-r sa-d-eʁ-ib-te=da=j?”
those=add where-abl hither-1/2pl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=2pl=q
b-ik’-ul xar.b.eʁ-ib nišːa-la
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb ask.n.pfv-pret 1pl-gen
‘They also asked us “Where did you come from?”’
(80) xːunul-li tiladi b-arq’-ib ca-b hel-i-cːe “ma-ax-utːa!”
woman-erg request n-do.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-in proh-go-proh.sg
r-ik’-ul
f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘His wife begged him “Do not go!”’
(81) c’il bec’-li-cːe xar.b.eʁ-ib ca-b “u ceqːel hak’-ub=de?”
then wolf-obl-in ask.n.pfv-pret cop-n 2sg when appear.pfv-pret=2sg
‘Then they asked the wolf “When were you born?”’

468
 24.3 Reported speech constructions

A minor strategy for expressing reported speech is the use of the verb ‘begin’ (82) and
other non-utterance predicates (83).
(82) w-aʔ ač’-ib, qili sa-jʁ-ib=er […] “du-l
m-begin come.pfv-pret home hither-come.m.pfv-pret=when 1sg-erg
hel=ʁuna cik’al imc’a a-b-irq’-an=da” ∅-ik’-ul
this=eq something anymore neg-n-do.ipfv-ptcp=1 m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘He began when he came home, […] “I will not do things like this anymore.”’
(83) “čina-r sa-k-ul=de?” r-ik’-ul r-irχʷ-an=de
where-abl hither-lead.pfv-icvb=2sg f-say.ipfv-icvb f-become.ipfv-ptcp=pst
het durħuˁ-la xːunul
that boy-gen woman
‘The daughter-in-law must have asked “From where do you bring the body?”’
Finally, the topic of a conversation or a thought can be expressed by using the postpo-
sition qari=či-b ‘on.top=on-n’ together with a complement clause bearing the genitive
case suffix (see (142) and §8.1.6 for another example).

24.3.2 Formal marking in reported speech constructions

The distinction between direct and indirect speech as we know it from European lan-
guages cannot be applied to Sanzhi because it relies on deictic shift, but in Sanzhi the
original speaker’s deictic frame is usually retained. Sanzhi does not have any special
verb forms or sequences of tense. The only formal marking that is available for reported
speech are quotative particles occurring at the end of the quote, and very occasionally
simple reflexive pronouns. These quotative particles are also used with other matrix
verbs that are not utterance verbs (§24.2.2), and their use is mostly optional. In fact, un-
marked quotes are as common as quotes marked by quotative particles.
Sanzhi has two quotative particles for reported speech that transparently derive from
the two most frequently used verbs of speech. The first is b-ik’-ul, the imperfective con-
verb of b-ik’ʷ-. The second is haʔ-ib-le, the perfective converb of haʔ-. Both are, in fact,
formally indistinguishable from the respective converbs. They have not undergone any
phonological reduction so far, and the gender prefix of b-ik’-ul follows the same agree-
ment rules as the matrix verb of speech from which it is derived. Therefore, it is often
impossible to say whether a certain occurrence of them represents the use as a matrix
verb or a quotative particle. If the quotative particles co-occur with framing verbs in a
matrix clause we can be sure that we are dealing with the quotative-particle use, as in
(71), (85) and (86). Sometimes it looks as if the quotative particles alone can mark an ut-
terance as a quote (84). Such an analysis naturally suggests itself if we remember that
the marker of embedded questions can also be used without a matrix clause in epistemic
modal constructions (§28.4) (Forker 2019a). However, despite the relative frequency of
examples such as (84) used in what looks like an independent utterance, these clauses
are dependent clauses that cannot occur on their own (see §25.1.8 for a discussion of the
apparent use of converbs in what seem to be main clauses).

469
24 Complementation

(84) “xːunul-li-sa-r uruχ ∅-ik’-ul=de=w?” b-ik’-ul, …

woman-obl-ante-abl fear m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘“Are you afraid of your wife?” they say and …’

In elicitation, b-ik’-ul cannot apparently be used when the matrix verb of speech oc-
curs in the preterite and instead the particle haʔible is employed. Thus, if we replace
haʔible with ik’-ul in (87), the sentence is rejected by Sanzhi speakers. However, in the
Sanzhi corpus one can find examples of matrix verbs of speech in the preterite used
together with b-ik’-ul, as in (79) and (80).
The quotative particle haʔible is only rarely used and herefore ambiguous examples,
such as (85) and (86), are harder to find. In (86) it could either be analyzed as a quotative
particle that follows the first part of the quote or as matrix verb that heads the preceding
complement clause.

(85) kːurtːa-cːe xar.b.eʁ-ib ca-b “ceqːel hak’-ub=de?” haʔ-ib-le

fox-in ask.n.pfv-pret cop-n when appear.pfv-pret=2sg say.pfv-pret-cvb
‘They asked the fox “When were you born?” …’
(86) “sːaˁʡaˁt kːaʔal-le-w hextːu či-ha-jʁ-ij ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-b”
hour eight-loc-m there.up spr-up-come.m.pfv-inf needed-advz cop-n
haʔ-ib-le “b-urs-a” haʔ-ib=da “u-l!”
say.pfv-pret-cvb n-tell-imp say.pfv-pret=1 2sg-erg
‘“It is necessary that he must come, at 8 he must be there. Tell him this!” I said.’

In elicitiation, the quotative particle haʔible occurs when the matrix clause has past
time reference because it developed from the perfective converb construction that is
derived from the preterite participle (87). The quote together with haʔible looks exactly
like an adverbial clause that follows the main clause and into which a complement is
embedded.

(87) Ramazan ʁaj b-ičː-ib “dam kumek b-irq’-an=da”

Ramazan word n-give.pfv-pret 1sg.dat help n-do.ipfv-ptcp=1
haʔ-ib-le
say.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Ramazan gave me his word “I’ll help.”’ (E)

The same converb is used with the meaning ‘because, in order to’ to express reasons
or purpose clauses. The expression of reason or cause is shown in (88). It might have
developed from an adverbial construction in which haʔible functions as a verb of speech
and the converb clause, which precedes haʔible, represents a quote that explains or pro-
vides reasons for the situation referred to in the main clause. In other words, (88) could
alternatively be translated as ‘After (they) said that he beat up his family and (they) said
that the boy was in the arms (of the mother), they led him away.’

470
 24.3 Reported speech constructions

(88) kulpat b-it-ib-le haʔ-ib-le, nik’a-ce kʷi-lle

family hpl-beat.up-pret-cvb say.pfv-pret-cvb small-dd in.the.hands-advz
naˁq-li-cːe-w haʔ-ib-le, w-erč-ib-le
arm-obl-in-m say.pfv-pret-cvb m-lead.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Because he beat up his family, because the boy was in the arms (of the mother),
they led him away.’

In elicitation, the quotative particle bik’ul is not used when b-ik’ʷ- is the matrix verb.
But this restriction has purely stylistic reasons and is only apparent. In the corpus,
counter-examples can readily be found.
The use of quotative markers together with the infinitive in purpose clauses with the
meaning ‘in order to’ has been noted in a number of other East Caucasian languages
such as Ingush, Godoberi, Hinuq, Tsez, and probably also Tsakhur (Forker 2016a). For
this construction, it is plausible to assume that it goes back to a reported speech con-
struction with haʔible originally functioning as the framing verb to a quote which might
have contained another verb with volitional semantics. In other words, (89) might have
developed from a construction like ‘They said, we want to drink.’.

(89) deč-li b-učː-ij haʔ-ib-le

drinking-erg hpl-drink.ipfv-inf say.pfv-pret-cvb
ka-b-iž-ib-te b-iχʷ-ij heštːu, aχːu dam
down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-dd.pl hpl-be.pfv-inf here not.know 1sg.dat
‘They probably sit down in order to drink here, I do not know.’

If the quote is an utterance with non-declarative mood, be it a command or a question,

then the mood markers such as the imperative suffix (86) or the enclitics for content ques-
tions (79) and polar questions (84) are normally kept and can co-occur with the quotative
markers. Otherwise, it is possible to use the special enclitic for embedded questions that
does not co-occur with the interrogative enclitics for independently used questions, but
can co-occur with the quotative markers (see §24.2.7 above and §28.4). This enclitic is
added to the head of the interrogative clause or to the item in focus. In embedded disjunc-
tive polar questions such as (90) it encliticizes to each member of the disjunction. The
embedded question marker does not normally occur in independent clauses (except for
when it is used to express epistemic modality). Therefore, the complement clauses con-
taining it are marked as dependent, although they have at their disposal the full range
of TAM forms as well as person agreement.

(90) xar b-irʁ-an=da [bek’ le-b=de=l b-akːʷ-i=jal]

ask n-ask.ipfv-ptcp=1 head exist-n=pst=indq n-cop.neg-hab.pst=indq
‘We will ask whether he had a head or not.’

The only further peculiarity that reported speech construction show, and which they
share with other subordinate clauses, most notably other complement clauses, is the use
of reflexive pronouns as logophors (see Forker 2019c for a detailed account of logophoric

471
24 Complementation

reflexives and other properties of non-direct speech constructions in Sanzhi). When the
author of the quote, which must be third person, is identical to an argument or adjunct in
the quote, the reflexive pronoun can be used instead of the first person pronoun (91). The
use of demonstrative pronouns is impossible since they would express disjoint reference
with the author of the quote.

(91) wallah ∅-ik’ʷ-ar wec’al ʡaˁraˁq’i-la šuša ∅-ik’ʷ-ar cin-ni

by.God m-say.ipfv-prs.3 ten vodka-gen bottle m-say.ipfv-prs.3 refl.sg-erg
asː-ib-le, d-alli h-aqː-ib-te d-už-ib ca-d
buy.pfv-pret-cvb npl-together up-carry-pret-dd.pl npl-be-pret cop-npl
‘By God, he said that he himself had bought ten bottles of vodka; and apparently
he had brought them with him.’

The use of personal pronouns is also possible. The first person pronoun is employed
when the referent in the quote is identical to the author (78) and the second person
pronoun is used when the referent is identical to the addressee (81). Furthermore, the
agreement on the verb in clauses with subject-like arguments expressed by reflexive
pronouns is not third person, as would be expected when a reflexive pronoun occurs,
but first person instead, as in (92).

(92) “cin-ni d-arq’-ib-te cik’al, ʡaˁħ d-irq’-an=da,

refl.sg-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl something good npl-do.ipfv-ptcp=1
b-arx xːun-ne k-ercː-an=da” haʔ-ib-le
n-direct road-loc down-stand.ipfv-ptcp=1 say.pfv-pret-cvb
‘(He said,) “The things that I have done, I will repair (make better), I will be on
the right road.”’

The use of reflexive pronouns in quotes referring to overtly expressed speakers that
are first person or second person pronouns is ungrammatical:

(93) du-l haʔ-ib=da “du / * ca-w ʡaˁrkːa-l=da”

1sg-erg say.pfv-pret=1 1sg / refl.sg-m ill-advz=1
‘I said “I am sick.”’ (E)
(94) u-l haʔ-ib=de [u / * ca-w dawla-či-w-ce
2sg-erg say.pfv-pret=2sg 2sg / refl.sg-m wealth-adjvz-m-dd.sg
∅-iχʷ-ni]
m-be.pfv-msd
‘You said that you were rich.’ (E)

With respect to the position of the quote in relation to the utterance predicate we can
state that there are four options available:

1. predicate - quote (93)

2. quote - predicate (76)

472
 24.4 The syntactic properties of complement clauses

3. quote - predicate - quote (95)

4. matrix clause constituent(s) - quote - predicate (79)

The first and the second option prevail among the examples from the Sanzhi corpus
that have been presented in this section. Instances of a matrix utterance verb followed
by the quote can be found in (74), (81), (80), and (93), and the reverse order is illustrated
in (71), (72), and (76). The third option means that the quote is interrupted by the verb of
speech. The constituent that follows is typically a focused item that is newly introduced,
as in (73), or, more frequently, a contrastive topic that is stressed and emphasized, as
in (86) and (95). This type of constituent order is unattested for all other kinds of com-
plement clauses that have been discussed in the previous sections and only found with
reported speech.

(95) “hextːu uq’-ij zamana b-akːu” haʔ-ib=da “heχ-i-la”

there.up go.m.pfv-inf time n-cop.neg say.pfv-pret=1 dem.down-obl-gen
‘I said “He does not have the time to go there.”’

The position of the quotative particles is mostly at the right edge of the quote, which
can easily be explained by their origin. Since they are transparently derived from con-
verbs, they occupy the most common position of converbs in adverbial clauses, that is,
the final position (see §25.1 for the constituent order in adverbial clauses). However, oc-
casionally one finds examples in which the quotative particle occurs within the quote,
as in the following sentence (96). Example (96) can be analyzed in analogy to (95) with
the only difference being that in (95) the matrix predicate separates the contrastive topic
from the rest of the quote, whereas in (96) it is the quotative particle that is followed by
the contrastive topic.

(96) hek’-i-l b-urs-ul ca-b “ce=jal te-d”

dem.up-obl-erg n-tell.pfv-icvb cop-n what=indef exist.away-npl
∅-ik’-ul “hetːu-d”
m-say.ipfv-icvb there-npl
‘He is telling that there is something there (i.e. to steal).’

24.4 The syntactic properties of complement clauses

All complement taking predicates in Sanzhi that have been analyzed so far occur in
the position of objects, i.e., patients or stimuli. So far I did not find complement-taking
predicates for which the complement clause is required to function as a subject-like
argument.
Complement clauses show many overlaps in their structure with the other types of
subordinate clauses (relative clauses, adverbial clauses), as the following paragraphs will

473
24 Complementation

make clear. The argument structure of complement clauses is like that of main clauses:
all arguments are retained and adjuncts can be freely expressed. Verbs in complement
clauses retain the distinction between imperfective and perfective aspect because this
is expressed through the stem and there are no restrictions on negation or on word
formation, i.e., all types of derived or compound verbs can be used (27).
The number of verbal categories expressed depends on the complementation strat-
egy. Zero-marked complements and those bearing the embedded interrogative enclitic
or containing quotative particles express the same number of categories as main clauses,
i.e., person marking, TAM marking, and illocutionary force marking are fully retained.
For all other strategies (converbs, cross-categorical suffixes -ce and -il, infinitive, subjunc-
tive, and masdar) the number of categories expressed in the complement clause is smaller
than in the main clause. For instance, the marking for illocutionary force and for person
is excluded (except for the subjunctive with its rudimentary person paradigm). Tense
marking is largely impossible except for the opposition preterite participle vs. modal
participle, which functions as a basic distinction between past time reference and every-
thing else as the following elicited minimal pair illustrates:

(97) dam b-alχ-a-d [it s-erʁ-an-ce /

1sg.dat n-know.ipfv-hab.pst-1 that hither-come.m.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg /
sa-jʁ-ib-ce]
hither-come.m.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I know that he will come/came.’ (E)

The constituent order in complement clauses is more frequently verb final than in
main clauses, but this is not a strict requirement, e.g. (45). In order to make some prelim-
inary generalizations with respect to the position of the complement clause, I counted all
non-elicited complement constructions in this section whose structure is unambiguous
and which do not represent reported speech (see §24.3.2 above for the position of the
quote in reported speech constructions). The total number is 54, among which one half
has the order matrix verb-complement, and the other half has the reverse order. Within
this data, there is a very small tendency to have the order matrix verb-complement the
longer the complement is, but this needs further research. It is rare for the complement
clauses to be center-embedded into the matrix clause, but two sentences in this section
belong to this category, e.g. (33).
What concerns co-reference across the complement and the main clause, Sanzhi has
complement control constructions with obligatory subject omission in the complement
clause if the latter is headed by the infinitive (or subjunctive). For the details see §24.5
below. In case of co-referential arguments, the overt argument normally occurs in the
matrix clause (e.g. (37) among many others). Occasionally, one can find examples that
might look like they are contradicting this claim (98). The matrix clause in (98) contains
an adverbial ʡaˁʁunil ‘necessarily, needed’, and if we assume that there is an absent ar-
gument in this clause that shares the reference with the subject in the complement, then
this argument bears the semantic role of a beneficiary or some other role similar to an
ethical dative. In other words, it is not a subject or subject-like argument.

474
 24.4 The syntactic properties of complement clauses

(98) ca zamana, durħ-ne, [nušːa cellij ʡaˁlħaˁm-li-j d-uˁq’-ij]

one time boy-pl 1pl why condolence-obl-dat 1/2pl-go.pfv-inf
ʡaˁʁuni-l=de
needed-advz=pst
‘One time, guys, we had for some reason to go to offer condolences.’
In a contrastive context, in which arguments are compared to each other, it is possible
to add a subject to an infinitival clause in a control construction:
(99) dam b-ikː-ul=da [du-l tort b-arq’-ij cara-lli-ja-r]
1sg.dat n-want.ipfv-icvb=1 1sg-erg tart n-do.pfv-inf other-obl-loc-abl
‘I want to make the tart (rather) than another person (making the tart).’ (E)
Co-reference between third person arguments, most notably between the subject in
the matrix clause and any argument or adjunct in the complement clause, is expressed
by the use of reflexive pronouns. For example, the omitted subject in (100) shares the
referent with the goal argument in the complement, which is encoded by the reflexive
pronoun in the dative case. Other instances can be found in (132), in which the agent in
the complement is co-referential, and in (133), in which the possessor is co-referential.
(100) [cini-j d-aˁq-ib-te=ra] han d-irk-ul,
refl.sg.obl-dat npl-hit.pfv-pret-dd.pl=add remember npl-occur.ipfv-icvb
ca-w=ra ka-jž-ib ca-w
refl-m=add down-be.m.pfv-pret cop-m
‘He is sitting and remembering how (they) beat him up.’
Multiple embeddings are possible though rare in natural texts. Relevant examples are
(27), which is a translation from Russian, and (102). Both examples have ‘be able’ in
the complement in the middle and therefore an infinitive in the most deeply embedded
clause. Other examples in this section illustrate reported speech which is itself complex
containing a complement clause (37). The elicited example (101) shows that multiple
embedding is allowed with complementation strategies other than the infinitive.
(101) dam a-b-alχ-ul=de [at b-alχ-an-ce [nišːa-la
1sg.dat neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=pst 2sg.dat n-know.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg 1pl-gen
qili-w ʡaˁbdul le-w-ce]]
home-m Abdul exist-m-dd.sg
‘I did not know that you know that Abdul was at our place.’ (E)
Matrix predicates that have agreement prefixes and non-absolutive arguments usually
exhibit local agreement in which the matrix verb agrees with the complement clause as
a whole and therefore has the prefix b- (neuter singular) (102). This prefix can also be
considered to be the default prefix when there is no agreement controller (see §20.2).
(102) dam han b-ič-ib [[r-aš-ij] r-irχ-ul akːu
1sg.dat seem n-occur.pfv-pret f-go-inf f-be.able.ipfv-icvb cop.neg
r-ik’-ul]
f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘I thought that she cannot walk.’
475
24 Complementation

Sanzhi has, in principle, long-distance agreement in gender and number between the
matrix predicate and the absolutive argument in the complement clause, as in (103), as
well as in (35) and (65) (see also §20.2.1). But in contrast to other East Caucasian lan-
guages in which this is a relative common construction (e.g. Tsezic languages, see Polin-
sky & Potsdam 2001 and Polinsky & Comrie 2003 for Tsezic, and Forker 2013a: 628–639
for Hinuq and further references to the literature), long-distance agreement is almost
unattested in the Sanzhi Dargwa corpus.

(103) ašːij b-ikː-ul=de [d-isːu-tːaj / d-isː-ij]

2pl.dat n-want.ipfv-icvb=pst 1/2pl-cry-subj.2 / 1/2pl-cry-inf
‘You wanted to cry.’ (E)

As in other varieties of Dargwa (Serdobolskaya 2010), only a few complement-taking

predicates allow for long-distance agreement, most notably ‘want’ (103), ‘know’ (104),
‘finish’ (35), and ‘see’ (65), (64). The complement clauses must be of the potential type or
of the activity type and can only contain the infinitive/subjunctive (103), the imperfective
converb (64), or the perfective converb (35).

(104) [ceʁuna χurejg d-arq’-ij] b-alχ-atːe / d-alχ-atːe

which food npl-do.pfv-inf n-know.ipfv-prs.2 / npl-know.ipfv-prs.2
at?
2sg.dat
‘Which food do you know how to cook?’ (E)

Serdobolskaya (2009; 2010) argues that in Xuduc and Qunqi Dargwa long-distance
agreement can be analyzed as clause reduction (clause union) that shares many prop-
erties with raising constructions in other languages. She shows that complement con-
structions with embedded subjunctives/infinitives or converbal clauses have some mon-
oclausal properties. This seems to be true for Sanzhi as well. For instance, arguments of
embedded infinitival clauses can easily occur in a clause-final position that can hardly
belong to the embedded clause (105).

(105) atːa-j=ra aba-j=ra [darman b-arq’-ij] b-ikː-ul

father-dat=add mother-dat=add medicine n-do.pfv-inf n-want.ipfv-icvb
ca-b durħuˁ-la, durħuˁ-li-j
cop-n boy-gen boy-obl-dat
‘The father and the mother want to give medicine of the son, to the son.’ (the
speaker corrected herself)

The pragmatic effect of long-distance agreement is sometimes described as highlight-

ing the argument that serves as agreement controller, but before being able to make
more specific claims about its impact on information structure in Sanzhi Dargwa more
research is needed.

476
 24.5 Argument control in complement constructions

24.5 Argument control in complement constructions

Complement constructions in Sanzhi show heterogeneous behavior with respect to con-
trol of the obligatorily omitted argument. Complements of the verb b-aʔašː- ‘begin’ can
be headed by the imperfective converb (§24.2.8) or by the infinitive/subjunctive (§24.2.6).
The controller, i.e., the one who begins something, must be in the absolutive. The con-
trollee can be the single argument of an intransitive verb or the most prominent argu-
ment of a two-place verb as the following examples show:
(106) a. Madina r-aʔ.ašː-ib [ _ ħaˁħaˁ r-ik’-ul]
Madina f-begin-pret abs laughter f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘Madina began to laugh.’ (controllee = S) (E)
b. Murad w-aʔ.ašː-ib [ _ maˁlʡuˁn-te kerx-ul]
Murad m-begin-pret erg snake-pl kill-icvb
‘Murad began to kill snakes.’ (controllee = A) (E)
c. Murad w-aʔ.ašː-ib [ _ maˁʡaˁlim čirʁ-ij]
Murad m-begin-pret dat teacher understand-inf
‘Murad began to understand the teacher.’ (controllee = EXP) (E)
The controllee can never be the second argument of a two-place verb, such as the
patient (107a) or the stimulus (107b).
(107) a. * maˁlʡuˁn-te𝑖 d-aʔ.ašː-ib [Murad-li _𝑖 kerx-ul]
snake-pl npl-begin-pret Murad-erg abs kill-icvb
(Intended meaning: ‘The snakes began to be killed by Murad’.) (E)
b. * maˁʡaˁlim𝑖 w-aʔ.ašː-ib [Murad-li-j _𝑖 čirʁ-ij]
teacher m-begin-pret Murad-obl-dat abs understand-inf
(Intended meaning: ‘The teacher began to be understood by Murad’.) (E)
But if we look at bivalent complement-taking predicates, the situation is slightly dif-
ferent. With the matrix verb b-ikː- ‘want’ the complement clause contains either an in-
finitive or a subjunctive. The controllee can be the subject of an intransitive verb (36).
But it can also be any of the arguments of a two-place verb (e.g. agent or patient), de-
pending on the verb form in the complement clause. With subject-like controllees the
embedded verb takes the infinitive suffix (108), (138).
(108) Murad-li-j𝑖 a-b-ikː-ul=de [ _𝑖 ʡaˁli qːurt w-arq’-ij]
Murad-obl-dat neg-n-want-icvb=pst erg Ali push m-do.pfv-inf
‘Murad did not want to push Ali.’ (controllee = A) (E)
However, if the controllee is the second argument of a two-place predicate, then the
verb form in the complement clause cannot be the infinitive, but must be the perfective
converb (109). The infinitive can only occur when the experiencer of ‘want’ is controlling
a subject-like argument in the complement clause. In (109b) both verbs have different
arguments, and the embedded verb cannot bear the infinitive suffix.

477
24 Complementation

(109) a. Murad-li-j𝑖 b-ikː-ul ca-b [Madina-j _𝑖

Murad-obl-dat n-want-cvb cop-n Madina-dat abs
či-w-až-ib-le]
spr-m-see.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Murad𝑖 wants Madina to see him𝑖 .’ (controllee = P) (E)
b. it-i-j b-ikː-ul ca-b [du-l kaʁar b-elk’-un-ne
that-obl-dat n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n 1sg-erg letter n-write.pfv-pret-cvb
/ * b-elk’-ij]
/ n-write.pfv-inf
‘He wants that I write the letter.’ (E)
The same phenomenon is observed with another complement-taking predicate uruχle
cab- ‘fear’. If the controllee is a subject-like argument, the complement clause is headed
by an infinitive (110a). Otherwise the attributive suffix -ce is employed, as in (110b) and
(110c).
(110) a. χamis𝑖 uruχ-le ca-r [ _𝑖 sːika či-b-až-ij]
Khamis fear-advz cop-f dat bear spr-n-see.pfv-inf
‘Khamis fears to see the bear.’ (controllee = A) (E)
b. χamis𝑖 uruχ-le ca-r [Madina-l _𝑖 qːurt r-irq’-an-ce]
Khamis fear-advz cop-f Madina-erg abs push f-do.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg
‘Khamis fears that Madina pushes her.’ (controllee = P) (E)
c. ʡaˁli𝑖 uruχ-le=de [Madina-j _𝑖 a-w-aχ-ur-ce]
Ali fear-advz=pst Madina-dat abs neg-m-know.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘Ali feared that Madina would not recognize/know him.’ (controllee = P) (E)
It seems that with trivalent matrix verbs there is no such difference between the treat-
ment of subject controllees on the one hand and object controllees on the other hand.
Both types are allowed and the embedded verb forms are identical (111–113).
(111) atːa-l rursːi𝑖 uniwersitet-le [ _𝑖 r-uč’-ij] r-ataʁ-ib
father-erg girl university-loc abs f-learn-inf f-let.pfv-pret
‘Father sent the daughter to the university to study.’ (controllee = S) (E)
(112) aba-l durħuˁ𝑖 w-ataʁ-ib [ _𝑖 urcul d-alʁ-ij]
mother-erg boy m-let.pfv-pret erg wood npl-cut.pfv-inf
‘Mother sent the son to cut firewood.’ (controllee = A) (E)
(113) atːa-l macːa𝑖 b-ataʁ-ib [acːi-l _𝑖 b-elχʷ-ij /
father-erg sheep n-let.pfv-pret uncle-erg abs n-slaughter.pfv-inf /
b-elχʷ-anaj]
n-slaughter.pfv-subj.3
‘Father sent the sheep in order to be slaughtered by the uncle.’ (controllee = P)
(E)

478
 24.5 Argument control in complement constructions

However, this again can be interpreted as a difference in the treatment of subject-like

vs. object-like arguments, but now regarding the controller, not the controllee. If the con-
troller is the subject, then the verb form in the complement clause depends on whether
the controllee is the object or also the subject. If the controller is the object, then, in con-
trast, no such difference in the verb form is noticed. To sum up, in complement control
we have some indication of an S/A pivot. There are no clause level conditions and at least
for the tested complement-taking predicates no difference in the treatment of embedded
predicates could be observed. The predicate class of the embedded verb is possibly a de-
cisive feature that needs to be studied in more detail in the future since for other East
Caucasian languages it has been observed that intransitive, canonical transitive, and af-
fective verbs are treated differently in some complement constructions (Kibrik 2003).
Finally, I will briefly discuss backward control. This term refers to complement con-
structions in which the overt controller appears in the embedded clause, and thus its
case is assigned by the embedded verb. Nevertheless, the matrix verb shows agreement
with the controller. On the surface these constructions look as if the verb is agreeing
with a non-absolutive argument. But instead it is argued that the matrix verb contains a
covert controllee in the absolutive case that is co-referential with the overt nominal in
the non-absolutive case. Backward control is found in other East Caucasian languages,
see, e.g. Polinsky & Potsdam (2002; 2006) on Tsez, and Serdobolskaya (2010) on Qunqi
Dargwa, and is typically restricted to a few modal and phasal predicates.
In Sanzhi Dargwa, there are two verbs that allow for backward control, -b-iχʷ- (pfv)/b-
irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘can, be able’ and b-aʔ axː- (pfv), b-aʔ b-išː- (pfv)/b-aʔ b-irxː- ‘begin, start’. The
verb ‘can, be able’ is far more readily available. In the Sanzhi corpus, backward control
is only attested with the verb ‘can, be able’, but can be obtained with ‘begin, start’ in
elicitation. In standard forward control constructions, the two verbs require subject-like
arguments in the absolutive case that control gender (and person) agreement just like
intransitive verbs:

(114) rursːi [kːurtːi b-arχ-ij] r-irχʷ-an-ne

girl dress n-sew.pfv-inf f-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘The girl will be able to sew the dress.’ (E)
(115) rursːi [palaw b-uk-unne] r-aʔ r-išː-ib / r-aʔ.ašː-ib
girl pilaw n-eat.ipfv-icvb f-begin f-become.pfv-pret / f-begin.pfv-pret
‘The girl began to eat the pilaw.’ (E)

In backward control constructions the clauses contain subject-like arguments in the

ergative case that has been assigned by the embedded verb. This means that in both (116)
and (117) the subject argument bears the ergative case because the embedded verbs are
transitive.

(116) [rursːi-l kːurtːi b-arχ-ij] r-irχʷ-an-ne

girl-erg dress n-sew.pfv-inf f-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3
‘The girl will be able to sew the dress.’ (E)

479
24 Complementation

(117) [rursːi-l palaw b-uk-unne] r-aʔ r-išː-ib / r-aʔ.ašː-ib

girl-erg pilau n-eat.ipfv-icvb f-begin f-become.pfv-pret / f-begin.pfv-pret
‘The girl began to eat the pilau.’ (E)

Backward control is only available with embedded transitive verbs. Affective verbs do
not allow for this construction. There are two cases that look like apparent exceptions. In
example (118), the experiencer argument occurs in the dative, assigned by the affective
verb b-ikː- ‘want, like, love’ appearing as the imperfective converb, whereas the finite
verb is haq-, which usually translates as ‘manage, be enough’. Thus, one might suspect
that haq- functions as a matrix complement-taking verb into which a complement clause
headed by b-ikː- has been embedded together with both the experiencer and the stimulus
argument. However, b-ikː-ul haq- rather functions as a lexicalized periphrastic predicate
and the construction is monoclausal. The verb b-ikː-ul cannot be replaced by any other
verb and the semantics of the periphrastic predicate is not transparently composed of
the semantics of the individual predicates.

(118) ca qːuʁa žahil durħuˁ-li-j r-ikː-ul haq-ib ca-r

one beautiful young boy-obl-dat f-want.ipfv-icvb manage.pfv-pret cop-f
žahil rursːi
young girl
‘One beautiful young man fell in love with a young girl.’

The second apparent exception is the use of affective predicates that are usually biva-
lent as monovalent predicates. This is possible with ‘see’, which then has the meaning
‘be/become visible’ and ‘hear’, which then means ‘be/become audible’. Thus, the dative
nominals in the following two examples can be left out, such that we end up with intran-
sitive constructions. The agreement on the verb ‘begin’ is controlled by the absolutive
arguments, not by the dative experiencers, which is an unambiguous indication that we
do not deal with backward control with an embedded bivalent affective verb, but with
an intransitive complement clause in a construction to which a dative adjunct has been
added.

(119) dalaj [t’am b-iq’-ul] b-aʔ b-išː-ib

song sound n-hear.ipfv-icvb n-begin n-become.pfv-pret
‘The song began to be audible.’ (E)
(120) rursːi-j dalaj t’am b-iq’-ul b-aʔ b-išː-ib
girl-dat song sound n-hear.ipfv-icvb n-begin n-become.pfv-pret
‘The girl began to hear the song.’ OR ‘The song began to be audible to the girl.’
(E)
(121) dubur-te [či-d-ig-ul] d-aʔ.ašː-ib
mountain-pl spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb npl-begin.pfv-pret
‘The mountains started to be visible.’ (E)

480
 24.6 Constructions that semantically resemble complement clauses

(122) dam dubur-te či-d-ig-ul d-aʔ.ašː-ib

1sg.dat mountain-pl spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb npl-begin.pfv-pret
‘I began to see the mountains.’ OR ‘The mountains started to be visible to me.’
(E)

If the constructions were truly biclausal, we would expect restrictions on the con-
stituent order, since items of one clause should normally not be allowed to appear within
the other clause. This is precisely what we find with ‘begin, start’. In a backward control
construction, the ergative argument must occur within the complement clause; it can-
not be positioned clause-initially if it is followed by the matrix predicate. This is only
possible in forward control since then the argument is governed by the matrix predicate:

(123) du r-aʔ r-išː-ib=da [kiniga b-elč’-ij]

1sg f-begin f-become.pfv-pret=1 book n-read.pfv-inf
‘I began to read the book.’ (E)
(124) * du-l r-aʔ r-išː-ib=da [kiniga b-elč’-ij]
1sg-erg f-begin f-become.pfv-pret=1 book n-read.pfv-inf
(Intended meaning: ‘I began to read the book.’) (E)

For the verb b-iχʷ- (pfv)/b-irχʷ- (ipfv) ‘be, become, happen, can, be able’ the data are
not so clear. Some examples show a very flexible word order, which points towards a
monoclausal analysis with a periphrastic predicate:

(125) rursːi-l r-irχʷ-an-ne kːurtːi b-arχ-ij

girl-erg f-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 dress n-sew.pfv-inf
‘The girl will be able to sew the dress.’ (E)
(126) kːurtːi b-arχ-ij r-irχʷ-an-ne rursːi-l
dress n-sew.pfv-inf f-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 girl-erg
‘The girl will be able to sew the dress.’ (E)

Other examples have been rejected by speakers. Further research is needed to provide
a more detailed account of the properties of backward control in Sanzhi.

24.6 Constructions that semantically resemble

complement clauses
24.6.1 Parentheticals
There are three particles and phrases that refer to cognitive activities and are used in a
way that resembles complement clauses with cognition predicates. The first is the fre-
quently used phrase (possessor) pikri ħaˁsible ‘according to the thoughts of (somebody)’,
which consists of a possessor followed by the two borrowed items pikri ‘thought’ and

481
24 Complementation

the postposition ħaˁsib-le (test-advz) ‘according to’. The entire construction is a kind of
calque that partially consist of loans and partially of Sanzhi morphemes. Zero marking
is the only possible usage option for the clauses with which the phrase occurs, as in
(127), (128); the use of quotative particles or other complementation markers together
with the phrase is ungrammatical. In contrast to the common positions of complement
clauses as either following, preceding or occasionally being center-embedded into the
matrix clause (see §24.4 below), the phrase frequently occurs in the middle of the com-
plement. Taking all these peculiarities together, the phrase has to be characterized as a
parenthetical.

(127) hej, di-la pikri ħaˁsible, tusnaq-le-r tːura uq-un ca-w

this 1sg-gen thought following prison-loc-abl outside go.m.pfv-pret cop-m
hež
this
‘In my mind, he left prison.’
(128) hež-i-la xːunul, di-la pikri ħaˁsible, χʷe=ʁuna wahi-ce ca-r
this-obl-gen woman 1sg-gen thought following dog=eq bad-dd.sg cop-f
‘His wife is, in my mind, bad like a dog.’

Note that other complement-taking predicates can also occur in the middle of the
complement clause, in which case additional overt marking of the complement by means
of particles is forbidden. For instance, in (128) we can replace dila pikri ħaˁsible by dam
han birkul cab ‘seems to me’. This complement-taking predicate normally requires the
use of the quotative particle when it occurs before the complement clause.
The phrase ... pikri ħaˁsible is sometimes replaced by its Russian equivalent po-moemu,
which is used in the same manner (129).

(129) pomoemu, atːa-l aba r-it-ib ca-r

my.opinion father-erg mother f-beat.up-pret cop-f
‘In my mind, the father beat up the mother.’

Moreover, the particle aχːu ‘I don’t know, dunno’ also occasionally occurs as a paren-
thetical. In (130) there is not only no formal sign of subordination, but not even a clear
semantic relationship between aχːu and the surrounding clauses, so this is an example
of its parenthetical use. However, in the majority of examples the clause accompanying
the particle is marked by the embedded question marker =el (§24.2.7).

(130) amma ʁaˁʁ ∅-ik’-ul ca-w ik’, aχːu, nuˁq-be aq

but scream m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m dem.up not.know arm-pl high
d-arq’-ib ca-d ik’-i-l=ra
npl-do.pfv-pret cop-npl dem.up-obl-erg=add
‘But he is screaming, I don’t know, he also rose up his arms.’

482
 24.6 Constructions that semantically resemble complement clauses

24.6.2 Nominalized relative clauses resembling complement

constructions
There are a variety of constructions with the predicates listen in §24.1 above as “comple-
ment-taking predicates”, which are syntactically not complement clauses. They function
as a core argument of a higher clause and have the internal constituent structure of a
clause. But they are usually shorter than real complement clauses and contain only one
core argument in addition to the verb. Most importantly, they do not refer to proposi-
tions, but to entities such as persons, events, etc. They are, therefore, not complement
clauses but headless relative clauses, which have been nominalized. Headless relative
clauses can be formed with (i) the cross-categorical suffix -ce (plural -te), the cross-
categorical suffix -il, and the modal participle -an. In this section, I will only discuss
headless relative clauses that occur together with complement-taking predicates and
show how they differ from true complementation. For general information about head-
less relative clauses see §23.4.
As has been described in §24.2.3 above, the suffix -ce marks complements of the fact-
type (131). In this function, -ce can never be replaced by -te, which otherwise function
as the plural equivalent of -ce. Thus, replacing -ce by -te in (131) would result in an
ungrammatical sentence.
(131) du-l razi-l=da [c’il dus [nušːa-l basːejn b-arq’-ib-le]
1sg-erg happy-advz=1 then year 1pl-erg pool n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
ha-b-urχː-an-ce]
up-n-finish.ipfv-ptcp-dd.sg
‘I am happy that during the next year we will finish building the pool.’ (E)
By contrast, when the suffix occurs in headless relative clauses, the use of the plural
suffix te is possible when the referent of the nominalized clause is plural (132), (133). In
(133) the two nominalized relative clauses are conjoined by means of the additive en-
clitic =ra, which is regularly used to conjoin noun phrases (§26.1). Examples (132) and
(133) share with genuine complement clauses their occurrence in the argument position
of verbs of cognition and their ability to preserve their internal argument structure. For
instance, in (132) the agent of the embedded verb is expressed by means of a reflexive
pronoun in the ergative case, which is in accordance with the usual case frame required
by transitive verbs. However, the embedded clauses are propositions (e.g. they cannot
be expressed through a that-clause in English). This is particularly clear in (133) because
in this example the nominalized clauses are, first of all, conjoined like ordinary noun
phrases, and second, modified by a possessor, which refers to the agent, and by a quan-
tifier. In a complement clause the agent of the embedded verb is not expressed by a
possessor in the genitive, but by a nominal in the ergative case.
(132) [cin-ni d-arq’-ib-te] han d-irč-aq-ul
refl.sg-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl remember npl-occur.ipfv-caus-icvb
ca-w uže
cop-m already
‘He remembered what he had done.’

483
24 Complementation

(133) pikri uq-un-ne [cin-na li<d>il [d-urs-an-te=ra]

thought go.m.pfv-pret-cvb refl.sg-gen all<npl> npl-tell-ptcp-dd.pl=add
[d-irq’-an-te=ra]] ...
npl-do.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=add
‘and thought of what he had said and done ...’
The same kind of reasoning applies to nominalized clauses with the cross-categorical
suffix -il. The following two sentences show a minimal pair. The first example illustrates
the headless relative clause, which refers to an animal (134a). The second clause is a
complement construction with a clausal complement (134b).
(134) a. iž-i-j b-aχ-ur ca-b [d-erk-un-il]
this-obl-dat n-know.pfv-pret cop-n npl-eat.pfv-pret-ref
‘He got to know the one (animal) who ate (them).’ (E)
b. iž-i-j b-aχ-ur ca-b [d-erk-ni]
this-obl-dat n-know.pfv-pret cop-n npl-eat.pfv-msd
‘He got to know that (they) ate (them).’ (E)
The use of nominalized clauses with the -il suffix is ungrammatical in constructions
that require clausal complements:
(135) * du-l razi-l=da [c’il dus [nušːa-l basːejn b-arq’-ib-le]
1sg-erg happy-advz=1 then year 1pl-erg pool n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
ha-b-urχː-an-il]
up-n-finish.ipfv-ptcp-ref
(Intended meaning: ‘I am happy that during the next year we will finish
building the pool.’) (E)
As has been shown in (133) for nominalized clauses with -ce, nominalized clauses can
also be conjoined:
(136) na [[b-urs-ib-il=ra] [b-arq’-ib-il=ra]] qum.urt-u dam
now n-tell-pret-ref=add n-do.pfv-pret-ref=add forget.ipfv-prs.3 1sg.dat
‘I forget what I say and what I do.’
The modal participle regularly occurs in headless relative clauses §23.4. When the
main clause contains a complement-taking predicate as in (137), the structure seems to
be ambiguous between an interpretation as a complement clause of the activity type
(‘studying’) and a nominalized verb that functions as action noun (‘the studies’). This
type of construction requires future research in order to be able to decide whether the
construction is, in fact, ambiguous, or whether we can exclude one of the two potential
analyses.
(137) ucːi-l taman b-arq’-ib [b-uč’-an]
brother-erg end n-do.pfv-pret n-learn.ipfv-ptcp
‘Brother finished studying/the studies.’ (E)

484
 24.6 Constructions that semantically resemble complement clauses

In elicitation, I also obtained example (138). This looks like a complement clauses of
the potential type with the modal participle. At the same time this sentence instantiates
a constituent focus construction with a floating predicative particle (the past enclitic =de,
see §27.3.2 for more information).

(138) dam b-ikː-an [χadižat-li-j=de kiniga lukː-an]

1sg.dat n-want.ipfv-ptcp Khadizhat-obl-dat=pst book give.ipfv-ptcp
‘I wanted to give the book to KHADIZHAT.’ or ‘It was Khadizhat to whom I
wanted to give the book.’ (E)

Interestingly, it is impossible to place the predicative particle =de on its usual host,
which would be the verb in the main clause (139). This is only allowed if we simultane-
ously replace the modal participle with the infinitive, which is the default marker for
complement clauses with potential meaning (140). At the same time the use of the in-
finitive instead of the modal participle in (138) is ungrammatical because the constituent
focus construction requires the use of participles.

(139) * dam b-ikː-an=de [χadižat-li-j kiniga lukː-an]

1sg.dat n-want.ipfv-ptcp=pst Khadizhat-obl-dat book give.ipfv-ptcp
(Intended meaning: ‘I wanted to give the book to Khadizhat.’) (E)
(140) dam b-ikː-an=de [χadižat-li-j kiniga lukː-ij]
1sg.dat n-want.ipfv-ptcp=pst Khadizhat-obl-dat book give.ipfv-inf
‘I wanted to give the book to Khadizhat.’ (E)

The cross-categorical suffixes -il and -ce (as well as the masdar) can take case suffixes.
Occasionally these nominalized verbs can occur in the argument position of complement-
taking predicates. For examples, the verb ‘believe’ regularly requires the dative case on
its goal argument. In sentence (141) the goal argument is a nominalized clause with its
own arguments and adjuncts.

(141) ča-k’al w-iχčit ag-ur-il akːʷ-i [du ce

who-indef m-believe go.pfv-pret-ref cop.neg-hab.pst 1sg what
∅-iχʷ-ni-li-j hek’ kuzaw-le-w=či-w]
m-be.pfv-msd-obl-dat dem.up coachwork-loc-m=on-m
‘Nobody believed in what had happened to me there up on the coachwork (on
the car).’

For the utterance verbs and cognition verbs whose complement clauses denote speech
acts or similar types of activities that require the use of language it is possible to use the
postposition qari-či-b followed by a participial clause with the appropriate case marking
to denote the topic of the speech act (§8.1.6) or the topic of the cognitive act (142). Syn-
tactically this construction is not a relative clause but a nominalized case-marked verb,
which is governed by a postposition.

485
24 Complementation

(142) pikri ∅-ik’-ul ca-w [cin-ni d-arq’-ib-t-a-lla

thought m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m refl.sg-erg npl-do.pfv-pret-pl-obl-gen
qari=či-b]
on.top=on-n
‘He thinks about what he had done.’

24.6.3 Adverbial clauses used with emotion and cognition predicates

The possibility of an analysis adverbial clauses instead of a complement constructions
has been amply discussed in §24.2.5 for the perfective converb. Sentence (143) shows an-
other example of a construction for which, however, only the adverbial-clause interpreta-
tion is available because the modal participle is followed by temporal/causal enclitic =qːel
‘when, while, because’, which regularly occurs in adverbial clauses (§18.2.1). Precisely to
what extent these constructions are used, as well as their semantic and morphosyntactic
properties, needs to be clarified by future research.

(143) han d-irk-ul d-urkː-ar [heχ cin-ni

remember npl-occur.ipfv-icvb npl-find.ipfv-prs.3 dem.down refl.sg-erg
it-an=qːel]
beat.up-ptcp=when
‘He is probably remembering when he was beaten.’

486
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and
conditional clauses
This chapter analyzes the syntax of adverbial and conditional clauses in Sanzhi and
compares them to the syntactic properties of similar clauses in other East Caucasian
languages.

25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

Sanzhi has different types of adverbial clauses that can be distinguished by the mor-
phological make-up of the verb forms in the subordinate clause and by their semantics.
Semantically, we can distinguish between simple converbs with a fairly general meaning
and specialized converbs with a rather specific temporal or non-temporal meaning. The
first group consists of the imperfective (§18.1.1.1) and perfective converb (§18.1.1.2). The
second group contains temporal, causal, and other converbs (§18.2). A similar distinction
is found in many East Caucasian languages (e.g. in Tsezic, see Comrie et al. 2012, and
in Dargwa varieties, see Belyaev 2010). The syntactic characteristics of constructions
with general converbs have repeatedly been discussed in the literature because they ex-
hibit a mixed behavior, showing features of subordination as well as of coordination
(see, among others, Kazenin & Testelets 2004; Haspelmath 1995; Belyaev 2010; Comrie
et al. 2012; Creissels 2010; 2012; Forker 2013c). Sentences in Sanzhi can be fairly complex,
containing a number of adverbial clauses that are combined with one main clause. Se-
mantically, these clauses either resemble coordination, as in (1), or subordination, when
the meaning of the adverbial clause is causal (2).

(1) amχa [b-arcː-ur-re] [ka-b-ič-ib-le] b-ebč’-ib

donkey n-get.tired.pfv-pret-cvb down-n-occur.pfv-pret-cvb n-die.pfv-pret
ca-b
cop-n
‘The donkey got tired, fell down, and died.’
(2) bahsar [heχ cin-na atːa-la jurt-la qːarqːa ʡaˁbal qal-la
first dem.down refl.sg-gen father-gen house-gen stone three house-gen
xːari k-ag-ur-re] [qːaq-li-j či-ka-d-irxː-ul]
down down-go.pfv-pret-cvb back-obl-dat spr-down-npl-put.ipfv-icvb
[ha-d-iqː-ul] qːarqːa=ra gu-r-h-aqː-ib=da
up-npl-carry.ipfv-icvb stone=add sub-abl-up-carry-pret=1
‘First, (because) the stones of father’s house had fallen down three floors, we put
them on the back and carried them, carried the stones.’
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

The perfective converb is widely used in procedural texts, such as the description
of how to prepare dishes. These texts consist of a list of actions that are expressed by
verbs bearing perfective converb suffixes with a main clause at the end. The actions
are supposed to occur in the order in which the clauses follow each other, i.e., there is
iconicity, and the order of the clauses cannot be changed without changing the meaning
of the whole sentence. This is generally interpreted as a semantic feature of coordination,
as opposed to subordination, where the order of the clauses does not reflect the temporal
order of the events and can therefore be changed without a concomitant change in the
meaning. Linear order will be discussed in more detail in §25.1.4 below.
Converbs are non-finite in the sense that they head only subordinate clauses. The two
general converbs (imperfective, perfective) also occur in analytic tenses in main clauses
(Chapter 14), but only when combined with a copula or a predicative particle (§9.1). There-
fore, they are unable to express illocutionary force or absolute temporal reference but
share those properties with the verb form in the main clause (see §25.1.1 below). They are
also not marked for person by person suffixes or enclitics, in contrast to the verb forms
in the superordinate clause. However, they express aspect, because aspect is mainly con-
veyed through the verbal stem and there are no restrictions concerning the use of per-
fective or imperfective stems in adverbial clauses. Moreover, they can have their own
arguments that fulfill the same grammatical roles as arguments in main clauses, i.e., case
marking patterns in adverbial clauses and main clauses do not differ. Furthermore, gen-
der agreement is present in adverbial clauses. In contrast to main clauses, it is strictly
controlled by the absolutive argument. By contrast, in main clauses copulas can exhibit
gender agreement with ergative or dative arguments. However, these copulas cannot
occur in subordinate clauses.
The constituent order in adverbial clauses shows a far greater tendency for verb-final
order than is observed for main clauses (2), but adverbial clauses in which the verb is
followed by other constituents can be found as well (3), (20).

(3) [hel=ʁuna musna-w ink w-aq-ib=qːel du=ra]

that=eq place.loc-m meet m-go.through.pfv-pret=when 1sg=add
dam=ra ʡaˁħ-le=kːʷi
1sg.dat=add good-advz=neg.pst
‘[When I was in that situation], when I also was in a place like this, I also did not
feel well.’

In the following discussion, I will adopt the typology of Bickel (2010) for the investiga-
tion of clause-linkage patterns. Bickel’s typology consists of eleven variables, which are
reproduced in the first column of Table 25.1. A short description is given in the second
column of the same table.
I will additionally use a number of other criteria that have been proposed in order to
differentiate between coordination and subordination, namely co-reference and expres-
sion of shared arguments, morphosyntactic locus, and relativization of constituents of
adverbial clauses.

488
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

Table 25.1: Syntactic variables for the analysis of adverbial clauses

Variable Description
Illocutionary scope Which clauses fall within the scope of illocutionary force
operators?
Illocutionary marking Can the dependent clause contain illocutionary force operators?
Tense scope Which clauses fall within the scope of tense operators?
Tense marking Can the dependent clause contain tense markers?
Finiteness Does the dependent clause express fewer (non-finite) or the
same number (finite) of categories?
Symmetry Can the range of expressed categories in the dependent and in
the main clause be different or not?
WH Are question words and focus enclitics inside dependent clauses
allowed or not?
Focus Can focus marking appear on the dependent clause?
Extraction Is extraction of elements of dependent clauses allowed?
Position Can the dependent clause appear before and after the main
clause? Can it be separated by other clauses?
Layer Can the dependent clause be center-embedded?

I will mainly analyze the two general converbs as well as the temporal converb =qːel(la)
‘when, while, because’, which expresses temporal simultaneity and anteriority as well
as causality, because these converbs show the largest semantic overlaps and are seman-
tically close to coordination.

25.1.1 Scope properties

Adverbial clauses do not contain markers for illocutionary force, such as the imperative,
optative suffixes, or the interrogative particles (“banned”). Those markers can only occur
in the main clause. Their scope can be restricted to the main clause (“local”), but, in the
appropriate context, it can also extent across the adverbial clause (“extensible”). However,
the latter possibility is noticeably less common in texts. Examples (4–6) illustrate local
scope restricted to the main clause.

(4) [hej šːal-li-cːe cːiχːin ka-b-alt-an=qːel] het šːal-la ʡaˁnčːi

this side-obl-in roof.beam down-n-put.ipfv-ptcp=when that side-gen earth
a-ka-d-ax-u=w?
neg-down-npl-go-prs.3=q
‘When you put the roof beam at this (at one) side, does the clay of that (the other
side) not fall down?’

489
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

(5) [heχ xːunul-la ʁaj-li-gu aq-ib-le] qili

dem.down woman-gen word-obl-sub go.through.pfv-pret-cvb home
arg-ul=de=w?
go.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q
‘Do you go home because your wife told you to?’
(6) [t’uˁ-me rurčː-ul] taˁħ d-uq-ene!
leg-pl tremble-icvb jump 1/2pl-go.pfv-imp.pl
‘The legs are trembling, jump!’1

Some converbs seem to fully ban joint scope of illocutionary operators. For instance,
interrogative markers (4) or imperative markers (7) cannot scope over the temporal con-
verb =qːel, although tense suffixes can.

(7) [t’ult’ asː-ib=qːel] nisːe-cːella b-erkʷ-en!

bread buy.pfv-pret=when cheese-comit n-eat.pfv-imp
‘When you buy bread, eat it with cheese!’ (NOT: ‘Buy bread and eat it with
cheese!’) (E)

But at least with the perfective and the imperfective converbs it is also possible that
the two clauses have joint scope:

(8) [ag-ur-re] h-aqː-a!

go.pfv-pret-cvb up-carry-imp
‘Go and bring it!’
(9) [dalaj ∅-ik’-ul] qu b-urqː-a!
song m-say.ipfv-icvb field n-dig.pfv-imp
‘Sing a song and dig the field!’ (E)

Similarly, adverbial clauses can only express aspectual distinctions because this is a
property of the verbal stem. Other semantic categories of verbs such as tense and evi-
dentiality are only available to verb forms in main clauses. The converbs have relative
temporal reference. This means that they refer to situations that take place before, after
or during the situation that is expressed by the matrix clause. For instance, in (10) the
verb form in the main clause has future/modal meaning, which is extended to the adver-
bial clause with the preterite converb. Sentence (11) conveys past time reference due to
the preterite in the main clause, and (12) conveys present time reference because of the
compound present tense. Both sentences contain adverbial clauses with the imperfective
converb that only expresses that the situation in the adverbial clause took place during
the situation described in the main clause.
1
Within the contexts from which this example originates the subjects of the adverbial clause and the main
clause differ. The speaker who was guiding a truck full of people urged them to jump off the car because he
had problems controlling it. This means that the full translation is ‘While/because my legs are trembling,
jump!’ Out of context, however, the most natural reading is rather: ‘While your legs are trembling, jump!’
with a same-subject interpretation.

490
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

(10) du-l [ag-ur-re wac’a-cːe] ka-d-iqː-an=da qix-be

1sg-erg go.pfv-pret-cvb forest-in down-npl-carry.ipfv-ptcp=1 nut-pl
‘I will go to the forest and bring nuts.’
(11) [bahla-l bahla-l nik’a kːanc ka-b-ircː-ul] bahla-l
slow-advz slow-advz small step down-n-stand.ipfv-icvb slow-advz
či-r-ag-ur=da
spr-abl-go.pfv-pret=1
‘Very slowly making small steps we went across (the river).’
(12) [qili-r du=gina r-irχ-ul] [a-r-isː-ul] r-ug-ul=da
home-f 1sg=only f-be.ipfv-icvb neg-f-cry-icvb f-stay.ipfv-icvb=1
‘Being alone at home, I (fem.) stay not crying.’
Similarly, the past perfect used in the main clause of (13) expresses not only past time
reference but also indirect evidentiality, which extends to the meaning of the full sen-
tence including the adverbial clause with the preterite converb.
(13) [it-i-sa-r s-asː-ib-le wec’-nu urek-ra azir]
that-obl-ante-abl hither-take.pfv-pret-cvb ten-ten six-num thousand
it-i-l=ra d-ataʁ-ib-le=de
that-obl-erg=add npl-send.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘From her (he) took 16 000, and he sent (that money to us).’
In short, fewer categories are expressed in adverbial clauses than in main clauses,
because person agreement, tense, evidentiality, and illocutionary force are absent. This
means that Sanzhi adverbial clauses are, in Bickel’s terms, “asymmetrical” and non-finite
(Bickel 2010).

25.1.2 Focus and question words

Most but not all focus-sensitive particles can appear in adverbial clauses attached to the
converbs. The following examples show the enclitic =cun ‘only’ and the emphatic modal
particle =q’ar in clauses together with the perfective converb and the =qːel converb. The
modal particle =q’al can also be employed in certain types of adverbial clauses, but in
general its use in subordinate clauses is subject to many restrictions (16), (17). The re-
strictions are specific to this particle and therefore not relevant for a discussion of the
morphosyntactic properties of adverbial clauses.
(14) [b-alk’-un-ne=cun] irʁ-ul=de
n-bend-pret-cvb=only understand.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘I understood (everything) only wrongly (i.e. I had only bad thoughts.).’
(15) ka-d-ič-ib-le=q’ar χe-d heχtːu-d šuš-ne
down-npl-occur.pfv-pret-cvb=mod exist.down-npl there.down-npl bottle-pl
‘Fallen down there are bottles there.’

491
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

(16) [a učitil či-w-až-ib=qːel=q’al] c’il di-la daˁʡ d-ars

but teacher spr-m-see.pfv-pret=when=mod then 1sg-gen face npl-change
d-iχ-ub
npl-be.pfv-pret
‘But when I saw the teacher, my face changed (i.e. turned red).’
(17) * du Derbent-le-r sa-jʁ-ib=qːel=q’al it qili-w=de?
1sg Derbent-loc-abl hither-come.pfv-pret=when=mod that home-m=pst
(Intended meaning: ‘Was he at home when I came back from Derbent?’) (E)

As mentioned in §25.1.1 above, interrogative particles (which also belong to the focus-
sensitive particles) cannot be used in adverbial clauses. However, adverbial clauses with
various converbs can contain interrogative pronouns as the following examples with the
perfective converb (18) and the converb =qːel (19) show.

(18) [ħaˁžimurad-li-j ce b-ičː-ib-le] ušːa razi

Hazhimurad-obl-dat what n-give.pfv-pret-cvb 2pl happy
d-iχ-ub=da=ja?
1/2pl-be.pfv-pret=1=q
‘When Hazhimurad was given what were we happy?’ (E)
(19) [hi-l mašin b-ik-an=qːel] rurs-be uruχ b-ik’-ul=e?
who.obl-erg car n-lead.ipfv-ptcp=when girl-pl fear hpl-aux.ipfv-icvb=q
‘When who is guiding the car do the girls get afraid?’ (E)

25.1.3 Co-reference and expression of shared arguments

Converb clauses can almost always have their own subjects that do not need to be co-
referential with the subject in the main clause. Examples of adverbial clauses with differ-
ing subjects can be found in (20) for the perfective converb, in (21) for the imperfective
converb, and in (4) and (16) for constructions with =qːel. However, for the sentence in
(21) there is no alternative possibility of using a same-subject construction because the
two weather verbs grammatically require different subjects. Thus, syntactically (21) is a
complex clause with two different subjects, but semantically there is a clear relationship
between the two clauses.

(20) [w-ebč’-ib-le Istalin] [mašin-te pojezd-e t’aš aʁ-ib-le]

m-die.pfv-pret-cvb Stalin, car-pl train-pl stop do-pret-cvb
tːuːˁtː-d-ik’-ul, …
toot-npl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘Stalin died, and the cars, the trains were stopped making tooot, …’
(21) k’ʷel bar [wiz b-ik’-ul] b-us-ib
two day freeze n-aux.ipfv-icvb n-rain-pret
‘Two days it was freezing and raining.’

492
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

If the subjects differ, it is possible that other arguments are co-referential instead. In
(6) the subject of the first clause with the imperfective converb is not identical to that
of the following, but can be identical to the omitted possessor (see the comment in the
footnote). In (16), the omitted dative subject of the adverbial clause shares the referent
with the possessive pronoun in the main clause. Similarly, in (22) the omitted subject of
the adverbial clause is identical to the referent of the possessive pronoun in the main
clause. It can also be the case that a string of adverbial clauses shares the subject with
an adjunct in the main clause.
(22) [can ka-b-iž-ib=qːel] ču-la jašaw-li-cːe-b zamana ca-b
meet down-hpl-be.pfv-pret=when refl.pl-gen being-obl-in-n time cop-n
‘When they got married, they had a good life.’ (lit. When they met it is the time
of their well-being.)
The sharing of the subject argument is clearly preferred for the perfective converb
and can be seen in most examples in this section. Even in example (20) there is at least
a causal relationship between the described events: because of the death of Stalin the
trains tooted and honked. If no such causal relationship can be found, a complex clause
with different subjects is impossible (23).
(23) ?? [ʡaˁli qili w-i-ha-w-q-un-ne] Indira-l kːurtːi
Ali home m-in-up-m-go.pfv-pret-cvb Indira-erg dress
b-urχ-ul=de
n-sew.ipfv-icvb=pst
(Intended meaning: ‘When Ali came home, Indira was sewing a dress.’)
The requirement for shared subjects is even stronger for the imperfective converb, for
which it is almost the only attested possibility in natural texts. By contrast, for =qːel it
is easy to find examples with differing subjects (25), but still around half to two third of
the examples share the subject (24), (7)
(24) [tːura sa-w-q-un=qːel] heχ Allah-li-cːe ulkː-un-ne
outside hither-m-go.pfv-pret=when dem.down Allah-obl-in pray-icvb-cvb
‘When he left, he prayed to Allah.’
In clauses with disjoint subjects, normally at least one of the subjects (20), (22), if not
both are overt. However, even in those cases it is possible that both subjects are absent,
as in example (25), in which it is clear from the context that the referent of the subject
of the first clause is the children, and that the referent of the subject in the main clause
as well as in the following adverbial clause is the main character of the story.
(25) [a-b-ug-an=qːel] b-i-ka-b-at-ur ca-b
neg-hpl-be.calm.ipfv-ptcp=when hpl-in-down-hpl-leave.pfv-pret cop-hpl
[q’ʷani-l-cːe uruχ b-arq’-ib-le]
box-obl-in fear hpl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘When they did not calm down, (he) put (the children) into the box, frightening
them.’

493
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

Co-referential arguments are omitted, so zeroes commonly occur in the subordinate

clause. Therefore, cataphora is very frequent. In example (26) the omitted argument in
the first clause corresponds to the agent in the second clause.
(26) [bari-la gʷana-dex-li-j šak ič-ib-le] il-i-l
sun-gen warm-nmlz-obl-dat feel occur.m.pfv-pret-cvb that-obl-erg
bari-li-j barkalla b-aχ-aq-ur
sun-obl-dat thanks n-know.pfv-caus-pret
‘When he felt the warmth of the sun, he thanked the sun.’
But anaphora is also attested (27). In this example, we find G=S=S=A, with only the
first G argument being a full noun phrase and all other occurrences of the same argument
left implicit, so that no grammatical relations are involved.
(27) [hitːi b-uq-un-ne č’aka χːʷe-j=ra hel-i-j=ra]
after n-go.pfv-pret-cvb eagle dog-dat=add that-obl-dat=add
[sa-r-b-uq-un-ne, sa-r-b-uq-un-ne] [waˁw
ante-abl-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb ante-abl-hpl-go.pfv-pret-cvb call
b-ik’-ul] b-arčː-ib-le=kːu ʡaˁt’a
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb n-find.pfv-pret-cvb=neg frog
‘The bird runs (i.e. flies) after him and his dog, and they run and run, and shout,
but they did not find the frog.’
Another strategy commonly employed is to have the co-referential NP in clause-initial
position, syntactically belonging to the main clause, but separated from the rest of the
main clause in terms of linear order. The controlee is in the embedded clause, resulting in
center embedding. In (10), the adverbial clause contains an intransitive predicate; there-
fore, the pronoun dul ‘1sg.erg’ must be part of the main clause. If both clauses have the
same valency frame, it is in principle impossible to decide to which of the two clauses
the overt argument belongs. In general, arguments whose referents the speaker assumes
to be known to the hearer are left implicit such that often none of the clauses contains
an occurrence of the shared arguments.
Though shared arguments are very common, this is not a necessity. In (20) the first ad-
verbial clause contains an overt S, Istalin, which is not shared in the subsequent adverbial
and main clause.
The adverbial clause mostly precedes the main clause, but the reverse order is also
attested (§25.1.4). Shared S and A arguments in either order are frequently found in texts
(26), (10), and are easily provided in elicitation (28a), (28b). The situation gets more com-
plicated if P arguments are also involved. An overt S argument in the first clause can
correspond to a covert P in the second clause but not if the verb in the subordinate
clause bears the converb suffix -le. Instead, the more specific construction with =qːella
must be used such that the first clause is not only syntactically but also semantically an
adverbial clause (28c). According to my Sanzhi consultants, the more general converb
-le can only be used if the S in the converbal clause corresponds to an S or A in the main
clause.

494
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

(28) a. [aba𝑖 sa-r-eʁ-ib-le] _𝑖 Madina r-aχː-un

mother hither-f-come-pret-cvb erg Madina f-feed-pret
‘Mother came and fed Madina.’ (S = A) (E)
b. [Murad-li-j𝑖 Madina či-r-až-ib-le] _𝑖 ag-ur
Murad-obl-dat Madina spr-f-see.pfv-pret-cvb abs go-pret
‘Murad saw Madina and went away.’ (A = S) (E)
c. [rursːi𝑖 sa-r-eʁ-ib=qːella] aba-l _𝑖 r-aχː-un
daughter hither-f-come-pret=when mother-erg abs f-feed-pret
‘When the daughter came, the mother fed (her).’ (S = P) (E)

If the first clause contains two arguments A and P, then an implicit S in the second
clause can, in principle, be co-referential with any of these two arguments. However,
co-reference with P is less preferable, i.e. in example (29), the S argument in the second
clause can be co-referential with P in the first clause, or with another argument pre-
viously established in the context. In natural texts the co-referential argument would
rather be expressed as S in the main clause and left implicit in the adverbial clause. In
(28b), co-reference between the A in the first clause and S in the second clause is the
preferred reading, and co-reference with a third person is rather unlikely.

(29) [atːa-j Madina𝑖 či-r-až-ib-le] _𝑖/𝑗 razi r-iχ-ub

father-dat Madina spr-f-see.pfv-pret-cvb abs happy f-become-pret
‘Father saw Madina and (she) got happy.’ (P = S) (E)

If we exchange the predicate in the second clause in (28c) with a transitive predicate,
we again encounter the same situation. If the shared argument occurs as P in the ad-
verbial clause, the whole sentence becomes rather marginal because out of context the
referent of the omitted A in the main clause could be either the mother or the daughter.
Therefore, speakers prefer to express the shared argument as A in the main clause (30).
(30) [aba-l _𝑖 až-aq-ur-re] rursːi-l𝑖 qal qʷaˁrš b-arq’-ib
mother-erg abs go.pfv-caus-pret-cvb girl-erg house sweep n-do.pfv-pret
‘Mother called her daughter and she (= the daughter) swept the house.’ (P = A) (E)
Thus, there is some evidence that shared arguments are preferably expressed as S or
A instead of P. However, co-reference is never a grammatical necessity. In each of the
sentences an implicit argument can always be co-referential with other referents in the
contexts that do not occur in the sentence to which the omitted argument belongs.
Pronouns (demonstrative or reflexive) in combination with co-referential noun phrases
are usually not employed to express shared arguments, because the use of pronouns
often leads to disjoint reference as the only available interpretation. Adverbial clauses
preceding the main clause never allow for pronominal cataphoras as we know them
from European languages. This means that the demonstrative or reflexive pronoun in
(31) cannot be co-referential with a following noun phrase.

495
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

(31) [cin-ni / it-i-l t’ult’ asː-ib=qːel] Zajnab-li

refl.sg-erg / that-obl-erg bread buy.pfv-pret=when Zainab-erg
nisːe-li-cːella b-erk-un
cheese-obl-comit n-eat.pfv-pret
‘When s/he (i.e. not Zainab) bought bread, Zainab ate (it) with cheese.’ (E)

If we reverse the order of pronoun and noun we also have disjoint reference for the
demonstrative pronoun (32). However, with the reflexive pronoun the situation is more
complicated because this pronoun can be interpreted as fulfilling a purely emphatic func-
tion, which means that the main clause actually lacks an overt subject. This makes it pos-
sible, in turn, to arrive at a co-referential reading (33), (34). If we exclude the emphatic
interpretation of the reflexive, then in clauses with the =qːel converb, disjoint reference is
the only possible interpretation, but perfective converbs still seem to allow co-reference.

(32) [ħuˁrija sa-r-eʁ-ib=qːel] cin-ni q’ʷal b-ircː-ib

Hurija hither-f-go.pfv-pret=when refl.sg-erg cow n-milk.pfv-pret
‘When Hurija came, s/he (i.e. not Hurijat) milked the cow.’ (E)
(33) [ħuˁrija sa-r-eʁ-ib-le] cin-ni q’ʷal b-ircː-ib
Hirija hither-f-go.pfv-pret-cvb refl.sg-erg cow n-milk.pfv-pret
‘When Hurija came, s/he (Hurijat herself or another person) milked the cow.’ (E)
(34) [Zapir dalaj ∅-ik’-ul] cin-ni qu b-urqː-ib
Zapir song m-say.ipfv-icvb refl.sg-erg garden n-dig.pfv-pret
‘While Zapir was singing a song he (another person or Zapir himself) dug the
field.’ (E)

We can also swap around the order of the clauses. In sentences in which the main
clause precedes the adverbial clause, no cataphora whatsoever is allowed (35), (36). This
means that neither zeroes nor pronouns can express co-reference with subject arguments
in the following subordinate clauses. A pronoun (or a zero anaphora) may not both pre-
cede and c-command its antecedent (Langacker 1969: 185; Reinhart 1976: 8). Note that
if we use demonstrative pronouns or zero, the person reference in the first clause re-
mains unspecified. By contrast, the reflexive pronoun would be used if we continue to
talk about a person who already was the topic of the conversation.

(35) (cin-ni / it-i-l) t’ult’ b-erk-un, [Zajnab-li

refl.sg-erg / that-obl-erg bread n-eat.pfv-pret Zajnab-erg
asː-ib=qːel]
buy.pfv-pret=when
‘S/he (i.e. not Zajnab) ate the bread when Zajnab bought it.’ (E)
(36) (cin-ni / it-i-l) qu b-urqː-ib, [Marko dalaj ∅-ik’-ul]
refl.sg-erg / that-obl-erg garden n-dig.pfv-pret Marko song m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘While Marko was singing a song, s/he (i.e. not Marko) dug the field.’ (E)

496
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

25.1.4 Linear order and iconicity

This criterion concerns the linear order of adverbial clause and main clause (“position”
and “layer” in the terminology of Bickel 2010). Although the adverbial clauses most fre-
quently precede the main clause, they may also follow it (37–39), (25), and they may
be separated by other subordinate clauses from the main clause, e.g. by other adverbial
clauses.
In (37), the imperfective converb clause follows the main clause and shares with the
main clause the subject referent and the past time reference. In (38) the converbal clause
with =qːel also follows the main clause and most probably shares the subject-like argu-
ment. In (39) we again have a converbal clause with =qːel that follows the main clause
and has a causal interpretation.
(37) k’ʷi dus kelg-un=da [ʡaˁžlač’i-la χurejg b-erkʷ-ij
two year remain.pfv-pret=1 corn-gen food n-eat.pfv-inf
a-r-irχ-ul]
neg-f-be.able.ipfv-icvb
‘I remained there for two years, unable to eat food made of corn.’
(38) c’il roddom-le heštːu-d lukː-unne=kːu=w ce=ja arc
then maternity.hospital-loc here-npl give.ipfv-icvb=cop.neg=q what=q money
[tːura h-asː-ij r-ax-an=qːel]?
outside up-take.pfv-inf f-go-ptcp=when
‘Then, in the maternity hospital, here you do not give money when you go to
take (the child) out (of the hospital and home)?’
(39) wallah, haʔ-ib=da, [a-cːe hel b-arx-dex b-aχ-ij bahanne]
by.God say.pfv-pret=1 2sg-in that n-right-nmlz n-know.pfv-inf because.of
sa-r-ač’-ib-il=da [ik’-i-l a-b-urs-ib=qːel]
hither-f-come.pfv-pret-ref=1 dem.up-obl-erg neg-n-tell-pret=when
‘I came to know the truth from you, I said, because he (the other doctor) did not
tell me (the truth).’
Examples (40–42) show center-embedding, i.e. adverbial clauses that occur within the
main clause. That it is in fact center-embedding and not adverbial clauses preceding the
main clauses is indicated by the case-marking on the shared argument. The verb in the
adverbial clauses differs from the verb in the main clause in transitivity, and the case
of the shared argument is assigned by the predicate in the main clause. Note that in all
examples the only interpretation available is the shared subject interpretation.
(40) Murad-li [ʡaˁrkːa ∅-iχ-ub-le] lac a-b-arq’-ib
Murad-erg ill m-be.pfv-pret-cvb fence neg-n-do.pfv-pret
‘When/Because Murad got ill he did not build the fence.’ (E)
(41) Musa-l [dalaj ∅-ik’-ul] lac b-irq’-ul ca-b
Musa-erg song m-say.ipfv-icvb fence n-do.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘Musa is singing a song and building the fence.’ (E)

497
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

(42) Madina-l [qili sa-r-eʁ-ib=qːel] t’alaħ-ne d-irc-ib

Madina-erg home hither-f-go.pfv-pret=when dishes-pl npl-wash.pfv-pret
‘Madina, having come home, washed the dishes.’ (E)

It has been observed for the perfective converb in other Dargwa varieties and other
East Caucasian languages that when the subjects are not identical, the order of main
clause and adverbial clause can be changed, but then only the causal interpretation is
possible (Belyaev 2010; Kustova 2015; Kazenin & Testelets 2004). In other words, when
the adverbial clause precedes the main clause, we can have both a same-subject and a
different-subject reading (43). However, the different-subject reading is rather marginal
and only available in the right context (see the discussion in §25.1.3 about example (23)).

(43) [Murad ʡaˁrkːa ∅-iχ-ub-le] lac a-b-arq’-ib

Murad ill m-be.pfv-pret-cvb fence neg-n-do.pfv-pret
‘When/Because Murad got ill he (= Murad or some other person) did not build
the fence.’ (E)

If we reverse the order, interpretations with shared subjects are more frequently dis-
approved, e.g. (44) means that an unspecified person is digging the field while Murad
is singing. For the perfective converb, a reversal of the order means that a causal inter-
pretation between the two described situations is required (45), whereas in the default
order, in which the adverbial clause precedes the main clause, a causal interpretation is
possible, but not necessary. Sentences such as (43) can also simply express the tempo-
ral order of the events as occurring simultaneously or sequentially without implying a
causal relationship.

(44) qu uqː-ul ca-w [Musa dalaj ∅-ik’-ul]

garden dig.ipfv-icvb cop-m Musa song m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘(He) is digging the field while Musa is singing.’ (E)
(45) lac a-b-arq’-ib [Murad ʡaˁrkːa ∅-iχ-ub-le]
fence neg-n-do.pfv-pret Murad ill m-be.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Because Murad got ill, he (= Murad or another person) did not build the fence.’
(E)

This means that the order of the clauses in constructions with perfective and imper-
fective converbs cannot be changed without a concomitant change in the interpretations.
This property makes the respective converb constructions slightly similar to clause coor-
dination, which also depicts the order of the events if they do not occur simultaneously:
the first clause refers to the first event, the second clause to the second event. By contrast,
for other converbs such as the temporal converb =qːel, it is possible to reverse the order
of the clauses without changing the interpretation, which makes them more similar to
subordination (38), (39).

498
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

25.1.5 Morphosyntactic locus

In addition to the properties discussed, I also tested for morphosyntactic locus (Kazenin
& Testelets 2004), i.e. the locus of marking a complement clause as dependent on the
main clause. For coordination embedded into a complement clause, the formal marking
of embedding is expected to occur on each member of the coordination. By contrast, in
case of subordination we can expect the formal marking to occur only on the head or
within the head constituent of the complement, but not within another adverbial clause
that is part of the complement. This is the case for Sanzhi adverbial clauses that can
occur in complement constructions. For instance, in (46) and (47) the masdar suffix that
marks the complement clause as dependent occurs only on one verb, whereas the other
verb in the complement retains its converbal suffix. In (48) complementation is achieved
by means of the cross-categorical suffix -ce added to the preterite.

(46) du pašman-ne=da [[Murad ʡaˁrkːa ∅-iχ-ub-le] lac a-b-arq’-ni]

1sg sad-advz=1 Murad ill m-be.pfv-pret-cvb fence neg-n-do.pfv-msd
‘I am sad because Murad got ill and did not build the fence.’ (E)
(47) du razi-l=da [[Murad ʡaˁħ ∅-iχ-ub=qːel] lac taman
1sg happy-advz=1 Murad good m-be.pfv-pret=when fence end
b-arq’-ni]
n-do.pfv-msd
‘I am happy when Murad got healthy and finished building the fence.’ (E)
(48) du razi-l=da [[Fat’imat dalaj r-ik’-ul] qu b-urqː-ib-ce]
1sg happy-advz=1 Fatimat song f-say.ipfv-icvb garden n-dig.pfv-pret-dd.sg
‘I am happy that Fatimat dug the field while singing a song.’ (E)

25.1.6 Island constraints: relativization and extraction

The data concerning extraction out of relative clauses varies depending on the converb
used and on the interpretations available. The converb =qːel blocks extraction, as exam-
ple (49b) shows. By contrast, the perfective converb allows for extraction (50b). Although
the data in (49a–50b) generally fits what has been observed for other East Caucasian lan-
guages (e.g. Kazenin & Testelets 2004; Creissels 2012; Bickel 2010), two divergent exam-
ples are not enough to understand whether Sanzhi adverbial clauses show the behavior
of coordination or of subordination and to what extent this depends on the converbs
themselves or on the available interpretations.

(49) a. [šupir-ri mašin b-ik-an=qːel] rurs-be uruχ b-iχ-ub

driver-erg car n-lead.ipfv-ptcp=when girl-pl fear hpl-be.pfv-pret
‘When the driver was guiding the car, the girls became afraid.’ (E)

499
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

b. * [[_𝑖 mašin b-ik-an=qːel] rurs-be uruχ b-iχ-ub] šupir𝑖

erg car n-lead.ipfv-ptcp=when girl-pl fear hpl-be.pfv-pret driver
nušːa atːa ca-w
1pl father cop-m
(Intended meaning: ‘The driver who when driving the car the girls got
afraid is our father.’) (E)

(50) a. [ħaˁžimurad-li-j ajpun b-ičː-ib-le] nušːa razi

Hazhimurad-obl-dat i-phone n-give.pfv-pret-cvb 1pl happy
d-iχ-ub=da
1/2pl-be.pfv-pret=1
‘When an i-phone was given to Hazhimurad we got happy.’ (E)
b. [[ħaˁžimurad-li-j _𝑖 b-ičː-ib-le] nušːa razi
Hazhimurad-obl-dat abs n-give.pfv-pret-cvb 1pl happy
d-iχ-ub-il] ajpun𝑖 b-iqː-a!
1/2pl-be.pfv-pret-ref i-phone n-take.out.ipfv-imp
‘Give me the i-phone that when it was given to Hazhimurad we got happy.’
(E)

25.1.7 Summary
Table 25.2 summarizes some of the morphosyntactic properties of perfective and imper-
fective converb clauses as well as adverbial clauses with =qːel that have been discussed
in the previous sections. The table shows that the three converbs by and large share most
of their properties. If we compare the behavior of Sanzhi adverbial clause constructions
with adverbial clauses in other East Caucasian languages, we also find that Sanzhi con-
verb constructions strongly resemble their counterparts in other languages of the family
(e.g. Forker 2013c on Tsezic; Creissels 2010; 2012 on Akhvakh; Bickel 2010 on Chechen).

25.1.8 Adverbial clauses as independent utterances?

When examining natural texts it is striking to notice that adverbial clauses headed by
perfective and imperfective converbs occur sometimes without a main clause that is
obviously connected to it. Example (51) illustrates a perfective converb clause, followed
by an imperfective converb clause, and then the speaker concludes his narrative about
his military service with a comment that is not directly related to the two preceding
adverbial clauses. The utterance in (52), which consists of three adverbial clauses with
preterite converbs, describes what the speaker’s uncle Abdulkhalik did in order to build
himself a house. It is followed by a comment that explicitly states the name of the uncle,
but not by a main clause referring to the building of the house, which would be expected
based on the general rules of use for the perfective converb.

500
 25.1 The syntax of adverbial clauses

Table 25.2: Morphosyntactic properties of adverbial clauses

Variable ipfv/pfv converb =qːel

Illocutionary scope local/extensible local
Illocutionary marking banned
Tense scope conjunct
Tense marking banned
Finiteness non-finite
Symmetry asymmetrical
WH-words allowed
Focus-sensitive particles allowed
Extraction no data/allowed disallowed
Position flexible-relational

(51) c’il=ra hel-tːi bahla bahla-l ʁaj=ra d-aχ-ur-re

then=add that-pl slow slow-advz language=add npl-know.pfv-pret-cvb
bahla bahla-l islužba=ra b-iqː-ul …
slow slow-advz service=add n-carry.ipfv-icvb
‘Then slowly I learned the language and I did my (military) service, (To be honest,
I stayed for three years, and I was not one single hour at the guardhouse.)’
(52) [di-la atːa-la ucːi-l ha-b-ertː-ib-le il b-aʔ]
1sg-gen father-gen brother-erg up-n-take.pfv-pret-cvb that n-edge
[ʡaˁħ-te [cin-na taχna b-arq’-ij] d-erqː-ib-le
good-dd.pl refl.sg.obl-gen room n-do.pfv-inf npl-carry.pfv-pret-cvb
už-ib-le] [wahi-te heχtːu lak’ d-i-ka-d-arq’-ib-le
be-pret-cvb bad-dd.pl there.down throw npl-in-down-npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb
d-už-ib-le ʡaˁbdulχaliq’-li]…
npl-be-pret-cvb Abdulkhalik-erg
‘The brother of my father (= Abdulkhalik) tore down the wall, apparently took
the good (materials) in order to build his house (=room), the bad (materials)
Abdulkhalik threw away there, (My fathers brother was called Abdulkhalik.)’

Therefore, we might wonder if we perhaps observe an ongoing change in which sub-

ordinate verb forms develop into forms that can head independent main clauses. For
Mehweb Dargwa, it has been observed in elicitation that some speakers allow perfective
and imperfective converbs to head main clauses (Kustova 2019), although the corpus does
not contain any examples. In Sanzhi, the situation is reversed: in elicitation, examples
such as (51) and (52) are clearly judged as subordinate clauses, but in narrations we find
again and again subordinate clauses with a missing main clause. The following excerpt
from a discussion between two speakers illustrates the phenomenon. The conversation
starts with a question by speaker A (53), which is then answered by speaker B. About
half of the utterances by speaker B are formally subordinate clauses.

501
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

1. finite clause (speaker A)

(53) c’il cellij w-ebč’-ib-le=de?

then why m-die.pfv-pret-cvb=pst
‘Why did he die?’

2. non-finite clause as answer (speaker B)

(54) cin-na hetːu qːanaw-t-a-cːe-w kːiši-l w-ebč’-ib-le, …

refl.sg-gen there ditch-pl-obl-in-m hunger-adv m-die.pfv-pret-cvb
‘in the ditches, he died because of hunger, …’

3. finite clause (speaker B)

(55) ∅-irχʷ-an=de cellij ubk’-an-ne c’il

m-be.ipfv-ptcp=pst why die.m.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 then
‘Something must have happened to him, why should he die (i.e. what other
reasons were there to die at that time).’

4. non-finite clause (speaker B)

(56) zaˁʡip ∅-ič-ib-le, w-ataʁ-ib-le, …

ill m-occur.pfv-pret-cvb m-let.pfv-pret-cvb
‘He got ill, and they let him go, …’

5. non-finite clause (speaker B)

(57) nuz-b-a-l b-ukː-unne, χalq’ nuz-b-a-l t’ut’u

louse-pl-obl-erg hpl-eat.ipfv-icvb people louse-pl-obl-erg spread
ka-b-ik’-ul, …
down-hpl-move.ipfv-icvb
‘The lice were eating (the people), lice were all over (the people), …’

6. finite clause (speaker B)

(58) b-ubč’-i naχadu. Sanži-b b-ebč’-ib

hpl-die.pfv-hab.pst.3 without.break Sanzhi-hpl hpl-die.pfv-pret
‘They died without stopping. In Sanzhi (people) died.’

Mithun (2008), examines the development of subordinate clauses into main clauses
in Navajo, Central Alaskan, Yup’ik, and a few other languages, and notes that the re-
spective sentences contain background information, evaluations or comments that do
not advance the storyline. However, this does not seem to be the case in Sanzhi. In both
examples (51) and (52), it is rather the other way around. The adverbial clauses drive

502
 25.2 The syntax of conditional clauses

forward the narrative and the main clauses that follow them provide background infor-
mation or evaluations. And when we compare the main clauses with the subordinate
clauses in (53) to (58), there is no obvious division into story line and background in-
formation that correlates with the use of converbs and finite verb forms. Only a more
detailed study of the Sanzhi corpus can help to clarify whether we really observe an
ongoing change, or whether utterances such as the ones discussed in this Section can
simply be explained as natural, unprepared spoken text or perhaps performance errors.

25.2 The syntax of conditional clauses

Conditional clauses behave syntactically like adverbial clauses, but also show some dif-
ferences; for the morphological structure and their functions see §18.3. Firstly, condi-
tional clauses have person agreement. Secondly, conditional clauses express the differ-
ence between present/future time and past time reference, and they can also express
irrealis mood. Thirdly, an imperative marker in a main clause does not have scope over
the conditional clause (59), such that the illocutionary scope is always “local”. Condi-
tional clauses may share their subject or other arguments with the main clause, but this
is not a requirement. They mostly precede the main clause, but can also follow it (60).
(59) [du ħaˁžat b-ik’-ulle] b-ikːʷ-a ca ʁez!
1sg need n-say.ipfv-cond.1 n-burn-imp one hair
‘If you need me, burn one hair!’
(60) “ala ul-li-j aparacija b-irq’-u,” r-ik’ʷ-ar, “[r-uq’-utːe]”
2sg.gen eye-obl-dat operation n-do.ipfv-prs f-say.ipfv-prs f-go-cond.2sg
‘“(They) will operate your eye,” she said, “if you (fem.) go (to the doctor).”’
The past conditional occurs recurrently without an apodosis (61). Such sentences can
also express wishes (62).
(61) bahsar a-b-učː-an-del iž ce=del, …
first neg-n-drink.ipfv-ptcp-cond.pst this what=indef
‘if he did not drink first, …’
(62) čum-ib dusː-i-cːe-b=de=l w-ikː-an Allah dus-me
how.many-ord year-obl-in-n=pst=indq m-want.ipfv-ptcp Allah year-pl
han d-ik-ardel, …
remember npl-occur.pfv-cond.pst
‘In which year it was, beloved Allah, if I would remember the years, …’
Interrogative pronouns (63a) and focus-sensitive particles (63b) are allowed to occur
in conditional clauses. Extraction out of conditional clauses is blocked (63d):
(63) a. [Zapir-ri ce asː-ar] Zajnab xadi r-ax-an-ne?
Zapir-erg what buy.pfv-cond.3 Zainab married f-go-ptcp-fut.3
‘If Zapir buys what Zainab will marry him?’ (E)

503
25 Syntactic properties of adverbial and conditional clauses

b. [Zapir-ri mašin=cun asː-ar] Zajnab xadi a-r-ax-an-ne

Zapir-erg car=only buy.pfv-cond.3 Zainab married neg-f-go-ptcp-fut.3
‘If Zapir buys only a car, Zainab will not marry him.’ (E)
c. [Zapir-ri mašin asː-ar] Zajnab xadi r-ax-an-ne
Zapir-erg car buy.pfv-cond.3 Zainab married f-go-ptcp-fut.3
‘If Zapir buys a car, Zajnab will marry him.’ (E)
d. * [[Zapir-ri _𝑖 asː-ar] Zajnab xadi r-ax-an] mašin𝑖
Zapir-erg abs buy.pfv-cond.3 Zainab married f-go-ptcp car
inomarka ca-b
foreign.car cop-n
(Intended meaning: ‘The car that if Zapir buys it Zainab will marry him is a
foreign car.’) (E)

504
26 Coordination
This chapter describes the coordination of phrases (§26.1) and clauses (§26.2.2), including
adversative (§26.2.3) and disjunctive coordination (§26.2.4).

26.1 Coordination of noun phrases and other phrases

For the coordination of noun phrases the additive enclitic =ra is used (§9.4.1). It is encliti-
cized to the head of every member of the conjunction, which can consist of more than
two noun phrases (1).

(1) qːajakent-li-j, hej-ka gu-d-a ag-ur=da ʡaˁbdulχaliq’=ra

Kajakent-obl-dat this-abl down-1/2pl-dir go.pfv-pret=1 Abdulkhalik=add
Isaq’adi=ra du=ra nišːa-la qːulluqː-a-j
Isakadi=add 1sg=add 1pl-gen matter-obl-dat
‘To Kajakent, from here up downwards we traveled, Abdukhalik, Isakadi and me,
for our matters.’

The enclitic can also coordinate other types of phrases or modifiers within a noun
phrase. In (2) two adverbials are conjoined, in (3) two participles and in (4) two extra-
posed genitives:

(2) hel=sat χalq’-li-sa-r uruc-le=ra uruχ-le=ra

that=as.much people-obl-ante-abl embarrassed-advz=add fear-advz=add
‘as much as (being) embarrassed and anxious in front of people’
(3) na b-urs-ib-il=ra b-arq’-ib-il=ra qum.urt-u dam
now n-tell-pret-ref=add n-do.pfv-pret-ref=add forget.ipfv-prs.3 1sg.dat
‘Now I forget what I say and what I do.’
(4) hel=ʁuna t’amahama ag-ur-te=de Tawlu-la=ra
that=eq story go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=pst Tawlu-gen=add
heχ-i-la=ra
dem.down-obl-gen=add
‘Such a story happened to Tawlu and him.’

The additive enclitic is used in comitative constructions formed with reflexive pro-
nouns (§30.3). Syntactically, they have the structure of coordinated noun phrases (NP=ra
refl=ra), e.g. (5).
26 Coordination

(5) kulpat=ra ca-w=ra

family=add refl-m=add
‘with his family’

Occasionally, noun phrase conjunctions or conjunctions of other phrases occur with-

out overt marking by simple juxtaposition of the phrases (6–7). With respect to nouns
there is only a very limited number of kinship terms – such as the ones in the example
(6) – that allow for coordination by juxtaposition. Sanzhi also has other coordinators
that are loans, namely wa ‘and’, and the Russian conjunctions i ‘and’, a ‘and, but’, but
these loan words are only used in clause coordination (§26.2). That the two nouns in (6)
are coordinated is not only clear from the meaning of the clause and their juxtaposition,
but also from the gender/number agreement on the verb, human plural (hpl), which is
used for conjoint noun phrases with human referents.

(6) aba durħuˁ b-irχʷ-iri

mother boy hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst
‘There were mother and son.’
(7) kːuš-le ʁarib-le=de
hungry-advz poor.fellow-advz=pst
‘(They) were hungry and poor.’

It is possible to form disjunctive noun phrases, either by means of the disjunction ja

(or ja bearing the additive enclitic) (8) or by means of the polar question marker =w (9)
that is used in disjunctive polar questions (see §28.1 for details on disjunction encoded
by the polar interrogative enclitic and more examples).

(8) qːabuʁ-e ja=ra qːalpuz-e ču-la

pumpkin-pl or=add watermelon-pl refl.pl-gen
‘their pumpkins or watermelons’
(9) tralejbus=uw awtobus=uw
trolleybus=q bus=q
‘a trolleybus or a bus’

Coordinated noun phrases are semantically and syntactically plural and therefore trig-
ger plural agreement (6). For agreement resolution with coordinated noun phrases, see
§20.2.3.

26.2 Coordination of clauses

26.2.1 General remarks on the conjunctive coordination of clauses
Sanzhi Dargwa, like many East Caucasian languages, does not have native words or
special syntactic strategies for the coordination of independent main clauses, except for

506
 26.2 Coordination of clauses

simple juxtaposition. Instead, the main way of combining clauses such that they are se-
mantically equivalent to coordinated clauses in European languages is the use of simple
converbs, predominantly of the preterite converb (10). Those clauses sometimes contain
the additive enclitic =ra, which is used for the coordination of phrases (§26.1), on a con-
stituent such as the object or in some other position. Nevertheless, with respect to their
morphosyntactic properties, these constructions do not represent coordination in the
strict sense, since they contain dependent clauses and they show some other properties
of subordination.

(10) [nejg=ra dabawit d-arq’-ib-le] [č’irič’an b-arq’-ib-le] č’irič’an,

milk=add add npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb flat.bread n-do.pfv-pret-cvb flat.bread
hel-tːi d-uk-a-di nušːa-l
that-pl npl-eat.ipfv-hab.pst-1 1pl-erg
‘We added milk, prepared flat breads and ate them.’

Juxtaposition of clauses is illustrated in (11–12). Again in the second sentence in (11)

we find the additive =ra encliticized to the object, which emphasizes the semantic rela-
tionship between the two sentences, but does not function as a syntactic means of clause
conjunction. The sentence in (12) shows that simple juxtaposition is also possible.

(11) ʁanu kːaʔ-ra mas d-alχː-a-di. k’ʷel buʁa=ra

twenty eight-num animal npl-feed.ipfv-hab.pst-1 two bull=add
d-alχː-a-di, χːula-te žins-la.
npl-feed.ipfv-hab.pst-1 big-dd.pl lineage-gen
‘We fed 28 animals. And we also fed two good (lit. big) breeding bulls (of
purebreed ancestry).’
(12) qili-b asː-ib. b-arq’-ib=da.
home-n buy.pfv-pret n-do.pfv-pret=1
‘They bought (the medicine) at home. I did (the medication).’

Coordinated copula clauses are normally only juxtaposed, and the copula item occurs
only once in the first clause. This is possible even in those examples in which the two
copula subjects do not share person/number values:

(13) it tabasran ca-r, du darkːʷan

that Tabasaran cop-f 1sg Dargwa
‘She is Tabasaran, I (am) Dargwa.’ (E)
(14) du darkːʷan=da u žaˁndar
1sg Dargwa=1 2sg Kumyk
‘I am Dargwa, you (are) Kumyk.’ (E)

Sanzhi has a set of conjunctions ultimately borrowed from Arabic and Persian of
which wa ‘and’, amma(ki) ‘but’, and ja(ra) ‘or’ are used for the coordination of main

507
26 Coordination

clauses (for a full list see §9.2). Moreover, it has borrowed the same conjunctions again
from Russian: i ‘and’, a ‘and, but’, no ‘but’, and ili ‘or’. The Russian conjunctions are far
more frequently used than the older borrowings. In particular wa is almost absent from
the corpus (see below for the number of occurrences).

26.2.2 Conjunctive coordination of clauses

The Arabic loan wa, although commonly used in written Standard Dargwa for clause
conjunction (van den Berg 2004), is not widespread in the other varieties such as Icari,
Ashti, or Sanzhi. In the Sanzhi corpus it is only attested in one text that is a translation
from Russian. It is a monosyndetic medial conjunction normally occurring between two
main clauses (15). However, since its use is so rare and it can have been acquired only via
formal education in Standard Dargwa, Sanzhi speakers do not fully adapt to the manner
in which wa is used in the Standard. Thus (16) shows the conjunction used between a
preterite converb clause and a main clause.

(15) [“du či-b-uq-un-ne hel-i-j, hel-i-la walžaʁ

1sg spr-n-go.pfv-pret-cvb that-obl-dat that-obl-gen coat
či-r-sa-jsː-an=da,” b-urs-ib č’an-ni] wa [uf
spr-abl-hither-tear.ipfv-ptcp=1 n-tell-pret wind-erg and blow
b-ik’-ul b-aʔ axː-ib]
n-say.ipfv-icvb n-begin put.pfv-pret
‘“I will blow at him, I will take his coat off,” said the wind and began to blow.’
(16) [či-r-ix-ub-le cin-na walžaʁ, qːuʁa-l
spr-abl-remove.pfv-pret-cvb refl.sg-gen coat beautiful-advz
ka-b-arkː-ur-re] wa [urči-la žilixʷa-la hila hitːi
down-n-wrap.pfv-pret-cvb and horse-gen saddle-gen behind behind
b-iχ-un]
n-tie.pfv-pret
‘He took off his coat, put it together well, and tied it to his horse’s saddle.’

The Russian conjunction i is far more frequently used than wa, predominantly in trans-
lations from Russian (17), but also occasionally in natural discourse (18). In addition, it oc-
curs as clause-initial conjunctional adverb ‘and then’ (26) that connects longer stretches
of discourse (see §9.2 for examples). The total number of occurrences of i in the Sanzhi
corpus is 45, whereas wa appears only three times in one and the same text, which had
been translated from Russian into Sanzhi and intended to represent a non-colloquial,
written text.

(17) [caj-na durħuˁ-l b-arčː-ib ʡaˁt’a] i [sa-qː-ib qili]

one-time boy-erg n-find.pfv-pret frog and hither-carry-pret home
‘Once a boy found a frog and brought it home.’

508
 26.2 Coordination of clauses

(18) [di-la xazajstweni ʡaˁči d-irq’-ul=da] i [pensija ha-jsː-ul=da]

1sg-gen household work npl-do.ipfv-icvb=1 and pension up-take-icvb=1
‘I do my house work and receive retirement pay.’

26.2.3 Adversative coordination of clauses

The Arabic conjunction amma(ki) ‘but’ is very rarely employed as a genuine conjunction
for independent clauses (19–20). In the majority of instances, it appears as an adversa-
tive adverbial in clause-initial (20) or clause-final position (19) (for both cases see §9.2).
Though in this function it also has the adversative semantics, it rather connects larger
episodes of texts that are contrasted to each other.
(19) [il-i-j han b-ič-ib tːura h-erʁ-an-ne žaˁndar]
that-obl-dat seem n-occur.pfv-pret outside up-come.m-ptcp-fut.3 Kumyk
amma [tːura ha-b-eʁ-ib kːurtːa]
but outside up-n-come.pfv-pret fox
‘He thought that the Kumyk man would come out (of the pit), but a fox came out.’
(20) [birikːʷa=ra darman-na d-irχʷ-ar] amma [itːi
cow-parsnip=add medicine-gen npl-become.ipfv-prs.3 but those
či-d-ig-ar wahi-te ca-d]
spr-npl-be.pfv-cond.3 evil-dd.pl cop-npl
‘There is this medical cow-parsnip, but if these (plants) get on (the skin), it is bad.’
The same functional range is found with the Russian conjunction a ‘and, but’. It pre-
dominantly occurs as sentence-initial marker of topic switch (§9.2), but there are also
examples of adversative coordination of clauses (21). The second adversative coordina-
tion from Russian, no ‘but’, differs in its semantics from a because its meaning is more
specific. In the Sanzhi corpus there is only one instance of no occurring between an
independent clause and an ellipsis (22).
(21) [hextːu-b šːatːir sa-b-ač’-ib-te li<b>il=ra χalq’
there.up-hpl visit hither-hpl-come.pfv-pret-dd.pl all<hpl>=add people
b-ikː-ul ca-b gu-r-b-uq’-aˁnaj] a [gu-r-b-uq’-ij
hpl-want.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl sub-abl-hpl-go-subj.3 but down-abl-hpl-go-inf
mašin-te d-akːu]
car-pl npl-cop.neg
‘There all the people who came want to leave, but there are no cars to leave.’
(22) [latiši wredni χalq’=de, wahi χalq’=de] no [parjadok, amzu-dex
Latvian harmful people=pst evil people=pst but order clean-nmlz
χʷal-le heχ-tː-a-lla]
big-advz dem.down-pl-obl-gen
‘The Latvian people were harmful, they were bad people, but order, cleanliness
(was) great among them.’

509
26 Coordination

26.2.4 Disjunctive coordination of clauses

The particle ja(ra) (jara is composed of ja and the additive =ra) is ultimately a loan from
Persian. It used as a bisyndetic particle in clause initial position. In affirmative clauses it
means ‘either … or’ and in negative clauses it means ‘neither … nor’. Although the use
in affirmative clauses can be obtained in elicitation, all corpus examples show negative
clauses. Sentence (24) illustrates that more than two clauses can be coordinated.

(23) [ja luχ-unne či-a-b-až-ib=da] [ja ħaˁšak

or slaughter.ipfv-icvb spr-neg-n-see.pfv-pret=1 or pot
či-ha-b-irxː-ul či-a-b-až-ib=da]
spr-up-n-put.ipfv-icvb spr-neg-n-see.pfv-pret=1
‘Neither did I see how they slaughtered (the sheep) nor did I see how they put
the pot on the fire (in order to cook it).’
(24) [ca arrah ja xujal urekːal dus, ∅-ik’-ul ca-w, ca arrah admi ja
one at.least or five six year m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m one at.least person or
qix-le-r či-r-a-ka-jč-ib] [ja naˁq
nut-loc-abl spr-abl-neg-down-occur.pfv-pret or hand
a-b-aˁč-un] [ja t’uˁ a-b-aˁč-un]
neg-n-crush.pfv-pret or leg neg-n-crush.pfv-pret
‘For at least five or six years, he says, no man has fallen down from the nut (tree),
nor broken a hand or broken a leg.’

For the disjunctive coordination of affirmative clauses the Russian disjunction ili is
used, which occurs between the members of the disjunction or in clause-initial position
(27).

(25) [kax-ub-le=w] ili [b-uč-ib-le=w]?

kill.pfv-pret-cvb=q or n-gather.ipfv-pret-cvb=q
‘Did they kill them or did they take them?’
(26) [i heχ-tː-a-l heχ či-ha-jʁ-ul ca-w] ili
and dem.down-pl-obl-erg dem.down spr-up-drive.pfv-icvb cop-m or
[heχ parʁat ∅-irq’-ul ca-w]
dem.down quiet m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘And they stir him up or they calm him down.’
(27) [ili hež b-iχʷ-ij ʡaˁʁuni-l ca-b] [ili hež w-at tːura iʁ-ul]
or this n-be.pfv-inf needed-advz cop-n or this m-free outside come.ipfv-icvb
[ili uk-ul]
or gather.m.ipfv-icvb
‘Or it must probably be this, or when he is set free, or when is taken (into prison).’

510
27 Constituent order and information
structure
This chapter addresses constituent order at the phrase level, in particular within the
noun phrase (§27.1); constituent order at the clause level in main clauses and subordinate
clauses; as well as the information-structural patterns that are associated with certain
orders (§27.2). It also provides a short overview of other ways of manipulating the in-
formation structure, most notable term focus constructions and cleft-like constructions
and focus-sensitive particles (§27.3–§27.5).

27.1 Constituent order at the phrase level

27.1.1 General remarks on the constituent order at the phrase level
Noun phrases are strictly head-final. A template of the structure of noun phrases and the
internal order of modifiers is given in §21.1.3. Noun phrases can be quite complex, but
mostly they have between zero and two modifiers. Example (1) illustrates a noun phrase
consisting of a demonstrative, a genitive pronoun, a short relative clause, and the head
noun. All modifiers occur in the order which is most common in the Sanzhi corpus (i.e.
demonstrative before genitive before relative clause).

(1) het di-la [r-alχ-an] xːunul-li-šːu r-ax-ul=da

that 1sg-gen f-know.ipfv-ptcp woman-obl-ad f-go-icvb=1
‘I go to my woman who I know.’

Within postpositional phrases and adjective phrases, the word order is also head-final.
Thus, adverbial modifiers always precede and never follow adjectives (2), and postposi-
tions always follow their complements (3). However, since some postpositions also occur
as adverbs, one might come across examples that seem to contradict this claim because
they contain postpositions used adverbially without a complement, or with what seems
to be a postpositional complement, but does not occur in the expected position (see §21.2
for example (54)).

(2) c’aq’-le ʡaˁħ darman ca-b hel

very-advz good medicine cop-n that
‘That is a very good medicine.’
(3) ka-jž-ib ca-w qal-la sala
down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m house-gen front
‘He is sitting in front of the house.’
27 Constituent order and information structure

All modifiers except for demonstrative pronouns and numerals occasionally occur in
positions detached from the noun phrase and in such cases they syntactically do not be-
long to the noun phrase anymore, but form a separate constituent (§21.1.3). I will use the
term “floating” for these items. In the Sanzhi corpus, floating modifiers sometimes imme-
diately follow the head noun ((7) below), but mostly they occur after the verb (4). There
are only few examples of floating modifiers in positions to the left of the noun phrase
(see §21.1.4 for one example with a genitive and §27.1.3 below for two examples with ad-
jectives). In general, the position after the verb can have special properties with regard
to its contribution to the information structure of the sentence (§27.2), and it seems that
when modifiers are extraposed to this position they often receive a contrastive interpre-
tation. This is not unique for floating modifiers, but also regards other constituents that
occur after the verb.
Floating modifiers in the East Caucasian languages have been analyzed by a num-
ber of researchers. Kazenin (2002) investigates their syntactic structure in Lak and the
question of whether they form one constituent with the noun phrase or not (see §21.1.4).
Other authors such as Testelets (1998a), Creissels (2013), Komen (2014), and Lander (2014;
2016) treat their impact on the information structure, in particular contrastivity. In the
following two sections, I will present the accounts that can be found in the literature and
discuss their applicability to Sanzhi.

27.1.2 Floating genitives

The most common modifiers occurring in an extraposed position are genitive modi-
fiers (4–7). In the majority of cases, these postponed genitives are personal pronouns or
demonstratives used as personal pronouns. This means that their referents are human
and highly topical. As was just mentioned, the floating genitive most frequently follows
the verb (4–6). However, genitives occupying the position directly after the noun are
also attested. In (7) this can be explained by the fact that the genitive phrase is part of a
subordinate clause for which verb-final constituent order is strongly preferred (§25.1).

(4) wahi-ce xːun b-irχʷ-i nišːa-lla

bad-dd.sg road n-be.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-gen
‘There was a bad road in our (area).’
(5) rucːiq’ar-ra rursːi ca-r di-la
first.cousin-gen girl cop-f 1sg-gen
‘(She) is the daughter of my cousin.’
(6) ca ʡaˁħ iχtilat ag-ur nišːa-lla hel zamana
one good talk go.pfv-pret 1pl-gen that time
‘We had a good conversation at that time.’
(7) rursːi di-la r-irq’-an=qːel ...
girl 1sg-gen f-do.ipfv-ptcp=when
‘when I gave birth to my daughter ...’

512
 27.1 Constituent order at the phrase level

There are various explanations for why genitive modifiers can follow the head noun,
but contrastiveness does not seem to be the best one. Creissels (2013) analyzes floating
genitives in the East Caucasian language Akhvakh. Like in Sanzhi, the floating genitives
predominantly follow the verb, denote human referents, and occur in one of the three
functions that are also attested for prenominal genitives:

• person-body parts

• person-relatives (5), (7), (8), or other social relations (9)

• person-objects, including abstract objects (4), (6)

As in Akhvakh, possessive predications in Sanzhi, i.e. copula clauses with nominals in

the genitive functioning as predicates, can be treated as a subtype of floating genitives
when they have genitive nominals that follow the copula (8).

(8) hetːi weral ucːiq’ar le-b=de di-la aba-la

those seven cousin exist-hpl=pst 1sg-gen mother-gen
‘My mother had seven cousins.’

In contrast to Akhvakh, however, the floating genitive in Sanzhi can also have a head
noun in a case other than the absolutive, though only one such example has been found
so far in the Sanzhi corpus. Thus, example (9) contains the postponed genitive nišːala
‘our’, which functions as possessor of the noun učitilla ‘teacher.gen’. Furthermore, the
sentence contains a relative clause that follows its head noun zamana ‘time’.

(9) hel zamana [duc’ uq-un-il du [heχ-i-la t’uˁ-me

that time run go.m.pfv-pret-ref 1sg dem.down-obl-gen leg-pl
gu-r-sa-d-ertː-ij]], hek’ učitil-la w-arx-le nišːa-la
sub-abl-hither-npl-tear.pfv-inf dem.up teacher-gen m-direct-advz 1pl-gen
[…] dukla w-i-w-aˁq-ib=da
onto.lap m-in-m-strike.pfv=pret=1
‘At the time when I (masc.) ran to pull down his legs, I fell (lit. hit) directly on the
lap of our teacher.’

Creissels (2013: 346) describes the semantic properties of floating genitives for Akh-
vakh by noting that postposed genitives have an “empathy effect” and “consider the
situation from the point of view of the possessor.” He writes that the floating genitive
construction “has a possessive framing function, in the sense that the floating genitive
identifies the personal sphere of its referent as the frame within which the predication
expressed by the clause holds” (Creissels 2013: 333). He further compares them to other
framing adjuncts such as spatial and temporal expressions and external possessors. The
account given by Creissels fits the Sanzhi data well. Like the genitives in Akhvakh, float-
ing genitives in Sanzhi denote affected participants similar to beneficiaries or malefi-
ciaries that are not functioning as arguments, but whose referents are either strongly

513
27 Constituent order and information structure

involved in the situation expressed by the verb and/or are in physical proximity to that
situation (see also Shibatani 1994 and Seržant 2016 on external possessor constructions).
Thus, the floating genitives can often be interpreted as referring to a location (4), and it is
relatively common for adjuncts denoting locations to follow the verb in a locational cop-
ula construction (§22.2.2). The following minimal pair illustrates the difference between
preposed and postposed genitive modifiers (10).

(10) a. heštːi di-la xujal macːa-l li<d>il mura d-erkː-un

these 1sg-gen five sheep-erg all<npl> hay npl-eat.pfv-pret
‘My five sheep ate all the hay.’ (E)
b. heštːi xujal macːa-l di-la li<d>il mura d-erkː-un
these five sheep-erg 1sg-gen all<npl> hay npl-eat.pfv-pret
‘The five sheep of mine ate all the hay.’ (E)

In general, preposed genitives are definite (11).

(11) di-la χatːaj ca-w, ala itwaj χatːaj ca-w

1sg-gen grandfather cop-m 2sg.gen like.that grandfather cop-m
‘(He) is my (real) grandfather. For you he is only an old man.’ (lit. He is like a
grandfather of yours.)

In the following example (12) with the verb b-ic’- (pfv) ‘fill’, the noun denoting with
what the house is filled has human reference and bears the genitive case. Although the
genitive in (12) cannot be analyzed as a modifier of the preceding noun qal ‘house’, the
construction expresses the affectedness and the involvement of the referent of the noun
χalq’ ‘people’ similar to the other extraposed genitives discussed so far. By contrast, if the
filler is inanimate, the ergative case has to be used instead of the genitive. The ergative
also denotes instruments, and instruments are, in general, not affected by an action or a
situation (§3.4.1.2).

(12) ʡaˁħ-le qal b-ic’-ib χalq’-la

good-advz house n-fill.pfv-pret people-gen
‘the house filled well with people’

Similarly, sentence (13) shows a personal pronoun in clause-final position following

the verb. This pronoun can be considered an floating modifier of the quantified noun
phrase k’ʷel admi ‘two persons’ in clause-initial position. Again it has a human referent
that is depicted as being affected by the situation.

(13) k’ʷel admi itwaj ka-d-at-ur-te akːʷa-di nušːa

two person like.this down-1/2pl-let.pfv-pret-dd.pl cop.neg-1 1pl
‘(She) did not put the two of us like this (i.e. in vain).’

514
 27.1 Constituent order at the phrase level

In a few cases the use of floating genitives may have other pragmatic reasons. One
factor is probably to avoid interpretative ambiguities. If the noun phrase contains other
nominals as modifiers, then the modifiers of the head noun that precede the genitive
could be interpreted as modifiers of the genitive (see §21.1.3 for more examples) instead
of belonging to the head noun. In some examples the postponed genitive might be a kind
of afterthought, providing more information about the referent. This could be the case
in the following example (14).

(14) hel qːatːi hel-i-la, hel durħuˁ-la

that hat that-obl-gen that boy-gen
‘the hat of him, of the boy’

Finally, contrast might occasionally be a reason when the extraposed noun is inani-
mate and cannot be analyzed as an affected participant of the situation. In the dialogue
from which (15) was taken, the speaker is talking about two types of medical treatments
that were proposed to her, and she perhaps uses a postponed genitive in order to express
contrast.

(15) “hana awgust-le-r sa-r-eʁ-e,” r-ik’ʷ-ar, “lečenie

now August-loc-f hither-f-go.pfv-imp f-say.ipfv-prs treatement
b-elk’-ij ukul-t-a-lla!”
n-write.pfv-inf injection-pl-obl-gen
‘She said “Come now in August, to prescribe the treatment with injections!”’

27.1.3 Floating adjectives, postpositional phrases, and relative clauses

Floating adjectives, postpositional phrases, and relative clauses are less frequent than
floating genitives, but they are also attested in the corpus. They obligatorily bear the
cross-categorical suffix -ce (adjectives, postpositional phrases, and occasionally relative
clauses, §9.6.1) or the cross-categorical suffix -il (relative clauses, §9.6.2), which both are
used for nominalizations. As with genitives, the floating modifiers often do not follow
the noun immediately, but occur after the verb. In most examples they occur in copula
constructions, but other clause types can also be found.
For other East Caucasian languages, particularly Avar-Andic and Tsezic languages,
Testelets (1998a) claims that “modifiers […] may be postponed only under contrast.” This
statement and the examples, which follow it, suggest that it is a bi-conditional connec-
tion, to the extent that every modifier that is postponed is necessarily contrastive. Similar
claims have also been made for Tanti Dargwa (Lander 2014; 2016, Sumbatova & Lander
2014) but with the caveat that in Tanti Dargwa modifiers bearing a cognate of the Sanzhi
suffix -ce are said to be always restrictive, but not necessarily contrastive, and that con-
trastive modifiers are less likely to follow the head noun.
The Sanzhi sentences containing floating modifiers seem to support the hypothesis
that those modifiers normally receive a restrictive interpretation, which can be con-
trastive, but does not have to be. Thus, in (16), the speaker adds more information about

515
27 Constituent order and information structure

the river without contrasting it to other rivers. Similarly, the stories mentioned in (17)
are not contrasted to other stories that were not interesting. The man in (18) is also not
contrasted to another man that was not on the tree, but the speaker simply mentions a
feature of the man that unambiguously identifies him. The fact that the man is standing
in the crown of a tree is encoded by means of a postpositional phrase that modifies the
noun admi ‘man’ and is marked with -ce.

(16) erk’ʷ=ra le-b=de nik’a-ce

river=add exist-n=pst small-dd.sg
‘There was also a river there that was small.’
(17) il-tː-a-la d-aqil χabur-te k’e-d=de ca-d,
that-pl-obl-gen npl-much story-pl exist.up-npl=pst cop-npl
interesni-te
interesting-dd.pl
‘About them there were, are many stories, interesting.’
(18) či-w-až-ib-le admi kːalkːi-cːe-w či-w-ce
spr-m-see.pfv-pret-cvb person tree-in-m on-m-dd.sg
‘and then (he) saw the man on the tree’

Sometimes it is unclear if the floating modifier has only a restrictive meaning or if

the existence of another, contrasting referent is also implied. For instance, the shampoo
in (19) is identified by means of its description as being expensive, but from the con-
text it remains unclear whether it is also contrasted with other shampoos that are not
expensive.

(19) detski šampun le-b durqa-ce

children’s shampoo exist-n expensive-dd.sg
‘There is shampoo for children, expensive.’

Unambiguous examples of contrastive postposed modifiers can be found. In (20) the

speaker compares the watermelon that he bought with the other watermelons that were
sold but were smaller, and (21) contrasts the thin khinkal to other types of khinkal. In
(21) the contrastive interpretation results from the postnominal position, not from the
use of the suffix -ce.

(20) ca hel s-asː-ib=da χːula-ce

one that hither-buy.pfv-pret=1 big-dd.sg
‘I took one, the big one.’
(21) c’il χːink’-e d-irq’-id d-uk’ul-te
then khinkal-pl npl-do.ipfv-1.prs npl-thin-dd.pl
‘Then we make khinkal, the thin one.’

516
 27.1 Constituent order at the phrase level

It can be argued that the examples in (16–18) represent instances of right dislocation
in which the dislocated element is a nominalized expression conveying an afterthought
that provides more information about the referent of the head noun. A similar case can
be made for examples in which the nominalized adjectives precede the nouns to which
they refer. In those sentences it is the nominal that is right-dislocated (22–23) (see also
(35) in §21.1.4).
(22) miši-ce b-už-ib ca-b urcul
similar-dd.sg n-stay-pret cop-n tree
‘There turned out to be a similar tree.’
(23) c’utːar kːurtːi ca-b. heštːu-b=ra c’utːar-ce ca-b kːurtːi
black shirt cop-n here-n=add black-dd.sg cop-n shirt
‘This is a black shirt. And here this is also a black shirt.’
Clear examples of floating relative clauses are even less frequently found. They mostly
have the form of identificational copula clauses and thus resemble cleft constructions.
Usually relative clauses contain a gap in the position of the head of the relative clause
(Chapter 23), but the floating relative clauses can also be free relative clauses with a pro-
noun that is co-referential to a nominal outside of the relative clause. The relative clauses
are restrictive, although two of them have personal names functioning as heads. In exam-
ples (25) and (26) the speaker helps the addressee to identify the referents by giving more
information about them. Since Patimat is the most common female name in Dagestan
and Rasul is also a common name, the hearer cannot be expected to immediately know
about whom the speaker is talking.
(24) iž=ra het=ra, het ʡaˁχːuˁl ∅-iχʷ-ij [xːunul-la qajqaj-li-cːe
this=add that=add that guest m-be.pfv-inf woman-gen jaw-obl-in
b-aˁq-ib-il]
n-hit.pfv-pret-ref
‘This also and this also is probably the man who hit the woman on the jaw.’
(25) hel Pat’imat ca-r, [hel nišːi-šːu ka-r-eʁ-ib-il]
that Patimat cop-f that 1pl-ad down-f-go.pfv-pret-ref
‘That is the Patimat who had come to us. (She is the daughter of her, of Aminat.)’
(26) ca di-la C’ibac-la durħuˁ=de, Rasul b-ik’-ul, [hek’ Sːanži-w
one 1sg-gen Cibac-gen boy=pst Rasul hpl-say.ipfv-icvb dem.up Sanzhi-m
er ∅-iχ-ub-il], w-alχ-atːe=w
life m-be.pfv-pret-ref m-know.ipfv-prs.2sg=q
‘One was the son of my Cibac, his name is Rasul, the one that lived in Sanzhi, do
you know him?’
In (27) the head is an indefinite pronoun from Russian that is followed by two relative
clauses, restricting the reference of the pronoun. Note that the indefinite pronoun func-
tions as recipient in the clause. It is a borrowing from Russian and unmarked for case

517
27 Constituent order and information structure

(both in Sanzhi and in Russian), although a Sanzhi nominal in this position would have
required dative case. This is remarkable because it is one of the few corpus examples of
floating modifiers with a head noun in a position, which normally requires case mark-
ing (see also (9) for another examples with a floating genitive). Almost all examples of
floating modifiers discussed in this and other sections belong to nouns that are in the
absolutive case (e.g. S and P arguments).

(27) ʡaˁħ-le χːula ħuˁrmat b-irq’-u lubuj [hej-ka

good-advz big respect n-do.ipfv-prs any this-down
sa-jʁ-ib-il] [cin-na w-alχ-an]
hither-come.pfv-pret-ref refl.sg-gen m-know.ipfv-ptcp
‘He gives respect to anybody who comes here, whom he knows.’

Komen (2014) analyzes floating relative clauses in the East Caucasian language Chech-
en. Like in Sanzhi, floating (also called “extraposed” by him) relative clauses are rare.
Furthermore, if they are restrictive then their head always occurs in the preverbal posi-
tion, which is the focus position in Chechen. In Sanzhi, almost all examples are copula
clauses with the head of the relative clause immediately preceding the copula, a position
which is normally used for focal items (25). However, in (27) the head follows the verb.
Due to the lack of more examples it is impossible to clarify at the moment whether the
condition that Komen (2014) established for Chechen also holds for Sanzhi.

27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information

structure
In this section, the constituent order of clauses, including that of interrogative clauses,
will be analyzed. I will also discuss how this order reflects the information structure
status of the constituents.
I adopt the definition of focus given by Dik et al. (1981) as “what is relatively the
most important or salient information in the given setting.” Focus is opposed to topic,
which is defined as “the entity ‘about’ which the predication predicates something in the
given setting.” Sentences can be fully-focused when the entire sentence conveys the most
important information. However, normally only a sub-part of the utterance carries focus,
which means that we have constituent focus (or “term focus” in the terminology of Dik
et al. 1981). Constituent focus can be divided into (i) completive focus and (ii) contrastive
focus. Completive focus fills a gap in the pragmatic information of the addressee, as is
the case with answers to content questions (§28.2). Contrastive focus constitutes a reply
to the addressee’s contrary belief, for instance by correcting and replacing it. Dik et al.
distinguish three subtypes of contrastive focus:

• selective
• corrective (expanding, restricting, or replacing; §27.3.3)
• parallel (in parallel structures)

518
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

Predicate-centered focus, in which the verb is in focus, represents a type of constituent

focus that can also be either completive (in answers to questions about the kind of action
that was carried out) or contrastive (e.g. when the truth value is at issue).
Topical information and topical referents are usually familiar in the given context,
and as such they can be used as anchors for providing new information. Therefore, they
are usually unmarked and often omitted from the utterance in Sanzhi Dargwa. However,
topics can also be new or contrastive when they differ from the topic(s) in the previous
utterances.
The third notion relevant for information structure is contrast. It is independent of the
notions “topic” and “focus” (e.g. Vallduví & Vilkuna 1998; Neeleman et al. 2009). Contrast
is relational because there must be a relation between the contrasted item and at least
one other identifiable alternative in the context, and both the contrasted item and the
alternative must be explicitly verbally mentioned (Malchukov 2004; Izutsu 2008; Repp
2010). The two items must be comparable to each other with respect to a shared domain.
At the same time they are different and can therefore be contrasted with each other.

27.2.1 Declarative clauses

The constituent order in main clauses is basically free, at least in the sense that every
logically possible order can be found in texts and it can easily be elicited. The most fre-
quent order is SOV, but SVO is also very common. Verb-initial orders (VSO and VOS) are
rare, but not ungrammatical. For intransitive clauses we find SV and occasionally VS. In
general, the constituent order is heavily influenced by pragmatics and the information
structure of the utterance. Contextually retrievable arguments are frequently omitted.
This includes subject-like arguments as well as object-like arguments. Therefore, many
monovalent predicates in the corpus occur without a subject and most bivalent predi-
cates have only one overt argument. For clauses with one (monovalent verbs) and two
(bivalent verbs) overt arguments, the tendencies for linking certain constituent orders
with specific pragmatic values of the constituents listed in Table 27.1 can be observed.
With the label “neutral”, I refer to predicate focus, which is commonly assumed to rep-
resent a universally unmarked type of focus in which the subject is the topic and the
predicate is focused.
The pragmatically neutral order, in which none of the constituents is particularly em-
phasized, is SV in intransitive clauses and SOV/SVO in transitive clauses, including in
elicited sentences without any context. In such clauses, the subject usually represents
given information, while the predicate alone or the predicate together with the object
carries the new information.

(28) SV: neutral information structure

[talking about a woman whose husband is taken away by the police]
hel r-isː-ul ca-r
that f-cry-icvb cop-f
‘She is crying.’

519
27 Constituent order and information structure

Table 27.1: The relationship between constituent order and information struc-
ture in main clauses

constituent order common distribution of topic and focus

monovalent predicates
SV neutral or subject focus or presentational focus
VS fully-focused (presentational) or topicalizing of subject
bivalent predicates
SOV neutral or object focus
SVO neutral or subject focus or occasionally presentational structure with
object focus
OVS object focus (+ predicate focus) and/or subject topicalization (= S is a
contrastive topic)
OSV subject focus + predicate focus and/or object topicalization (contrastive
topic)
VSO verb focus and topical subject and topical object
VOS [too rare in texts]

(29) SOV: neutral information structure

[autobiographical narration about personal experiences]
di-la aba-l du jaħaˁra-l ha-r-iq’-un=da
1sg-gen mother-erg 1sg dear-advz up-f-bring.up-pret=1
‘My mother protected me (kept me dear).’
(30) SOV: neutral information structure
[talking about a doctor in a neighbouring village]
ik’-i-l=ra irig akːu=n sala-b dus ʡaˁšibkːa
dem.up-obl-erg=add last.year cop.neg=prt front-hpl year mistake
b-arq’-ib
n-do.pfv-pret
‘But he also, not in the last year but two years ago, made a mistake.’
(31) SOV: object focus
[narration about how Sanzhi people built a water mill on a mountain that turned
out not to work there]
qːatːa-b b-arq’-ib-le, hin-na urχːab b-arq’-ib b-už-ib
canyon-n n-do.pfv-pret-cvb water-gen mill n-do.pfv-pret n-stay-pret
ca-b
cop-n
‘(They) built it in the canyon, (they) apparently built a water mill.’

520
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

(32) SVO: neutral information structure

[finishing the description of how to prepare khinkal]
dam b-ičː-aq-id burt sːerži ʡaˁħ-le b-erʁ-ub
1sg.dat n-want.ipfv-caus-1.prs sour.cream garlic good-advz n-dry.pfv-pret
dig=ra
meat=add
‘I like garlic, sour cream, and also well dried-meat.’

For a number of SOV languages such as Urdu, Turkish, Armenian, Georgian (e.g. Butt
& King 1996, Comrie 1984, Testelets 1998b) and also Chechen (Komen 2007), a very strong
association between focus and the preverbal position has been observed. In many if not
all East Caucasian languages, there is also a clear tendency for putting focused items
immediately before the verb (Testelets 1998a,c; Forker & Belyaev 2016). In general, Sanzhi
behaves alike, but focused constituents are not always and exclusively placed directly in
front of the verb. The two neutral orders SOV and SVO can be used to focus the subject
(33) or the object (31).

(33) SVO: subject focus

[(talking about doctors and treatments) I go to the woman who I know.]
Eštːa Rasul-li b-irq’-u lečenie ca ca=qːel
Ashti.loc Rasul-erg n-do.ipfv-prs cure one one=when
‘In Ashti, Rasul makes treatments from time to time.’

However, subject or object focus is mostly expressed by other constituent orders that
cannot be considered pragmatically neutral. The order OVS has been noticed to be used
when the object or the object together with the predicate is in focus (Testelets 1998a,c;
Forker & Belyaev 2016), and this is confirmed by the following Sanzhi examples (34–36).
In (35) the speaker uses two clauses to describe basically the same event, the arrest of
her husband by the police. The first clause has the constituent order OV and no overt
subject, and the second clause has VS without an overt object.

(34) OVS: object focus

ce ∅-ik’-ul=de u?
what m-say.ipfv-icvb=2sg 2sg
‘What do you (masc.) say?’
(35) OVS: object + predicate focus
[talking about a woman holding her little son in her hands while her husband is
arrested by the police]
sub uk-ul ca-w, kʷi-r-s-asː-ib-le
husband gather.m.ipfv-icvb cop-m in.hands-abl-hither-take.pfv-pret-cvb
ix-tː-a-l ...
dem.up-pl-obl-erg
‘(They) are taking her husband, they took him away from her hands, …’

521
27 Constituent order and information structure

(36) OVS: object + predicate focus

[Then at this time in order to show his masculinity, while she had the child in
her arms, ...]
xːunul-li-j b-aˁq-ib ca-b hel-i-l
woman-obl-dat n-hit.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-erg
‘He hit his wife.’

OVS order can also be used when the subject is a contrastive topic, which, in principle,
does not need to exclude the possibility of focusing the object. In (37) the object is an
aboutness topic, in addition to the subject being a contrastive topic.

(37) OVS: contrastive topic (I vs. they)

[A: They had a five-liter canister of wine.
B: Are you saying that you had the canister?]
xujal litru-la kanister čaˁʁir-la b-alli b-erqː-ib=da du-l
five liter-gen canister wine-gen n-together n-carry.pfv-pret=1 1sg-erg
čːaˁʡaˁl-la
morning-gen
‘C: I had taken the five-liter canister of wine in the morning.’

OSV constituent order is not particularly common in texts, but its pragmatic value
seems to be relatively clear. It is mainly used for topicalizing objects, in particular for
contrastive topics (38), (39). It is also used to focus the subject together with the predicate
(40), (41).

(38) OSV: topical object + predicate focus

[One student whom I took with me in the car said at the end of the journey]
u du-l nikagda qum.a.art-an=de
2sg 1sg-erg never forget.ipfv.neg-ptcp=2sg
‘You, I will never forget!’
(39) OSV: object topicalization (contrastive topic)
[The boy had a dog and a frog.]
ʡaˁt’a il-i-l b-i-ka-b-at-ur ca-b
frog that-obl-erg n-in-down-n-leave.pfv-pret cop-n
‘The frog he put (into a can).’
(40) OSV: subject + predicate focus
[The water drops in that thing.]
heχ hin-ni lus b-irq’-u
dem.down water-erg around n-do.ipfv-prs
‘The water spins it around.’

522
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

(41) OSV: object topicalization, subject + predicate focus

na it du-l r-alχ-an=q’al
now that 1sg-erg f-know.ipfv-ptcp=mod
‘Well, I know her [that Salikhat who married into my family.]’

Although in principle two different verb-initial orders can be elicited, in texts only
VSO is attested. As stated in Forker & Belyaev (2016), VSO consistently expresses verb
focus in combination with topical subjects and topical objects (42–45). The first item in
(44), t’am, forms a compound verb together with the following verbal lexeme and thus
does not function as argument. Example (45) shows an antipassive construction in which
the subject appears as pronoun in the absolutive and the object as ergative-marked noun

(42) VSO: verb focus, topical subject and object

b-urs-ib=da du-l iltːi χabur-te
n-tell.pfv-pret=1 1sg-erg those story-pl
‘I already TOLD these stories.’
(43) VSO: verb focus, topical subject and object
[Husband and wife fought and a scandal happened and]
b-aˁq-ib ca-b sub-li xːunul-li-j
n-hit.pfv-pret cop-n husband-erg woman-obl-dat
‘The husband HIT the wife.’
(44) VSO: verb focus, topical subject and object
[The boy began to whistle and to yell at the dogs in the village. The tree fell
down,]
t’am d-aq’-ib-le=kːu χu-d-a-j il-i-la
sound npl-hear.pfv-pret-cvb=cop.neg dog-pl-obl-dat that-obl-gen
xʷit’=ra
whistle=add
‘and the dogs didn’t hear his sound or whistling.’
(45) VSO: verb focus, topical subject
[Then they went to drink with the money they made from the theft.]
b-učː-ul ka-b-iž-ib ca-b hetːi čaˁʁir-li
hpl-drink.ipfv-icvb down-hpl-be.pfv-pret cop-hpl those wine-erg
‘They sit and drink wine.’ (lit. ‘Drinking they sit down with wine.’)

The answer to the following question illustrates verb focus with an intransitive pred-
icate and a topical subject (46):

(46) VS: verb focus, topical subject

a. ce b-irq’-ul=e?
what n-do.ipfv-icvb=q
‘Q: What are (they) doing?’

523
27 Constituent order and information structure

b. šːatːir tːura b-uq-un ca-b hex-tːi,

walk outside hpl-go.pfv-pret cop-hpl dem.up-pl
či-b-b-axʷ-araj
spr-hpl-hpl-relax.pfv-subj.3
‘A: They went for a walk, to relax.’

To sum up what has been observed so far, we can state that focal arguments and
adjuncts with various semantic functions and grammatical roles most commonly precede
the verb, occurring immediately before it. The only regular exceptions are presentational
sentences with newly introduced arguments, which follow the verb (§27.3.1). Topical
constituents appear to the left of focal constituents, but contrastive topics also normally
occur at the right edge of the clause. This is in line with the studies by Testelets (1998a,b)
and Forker & Belyaev (2016).
In Sanzhi, there is no clear tendency for the relative placement of direct object (theme =
T) vs. indirect object (recipient/goal = G). Both G-T-V and T-G-V are found. Which or-
der is chosen depends on the pragmatic value of the arguments within the information
structure of the utterance, and there does not seem to be a pragmatically neutral order.
Thus, the G arguments in (48), (49) seem to be contrastive, and together with the verb
form part of the new information. Moreover, like other arguments, T and G arguments
can also occur after the verb.

(47) G-T-V
hi-cːe-k’al cik’al lukː-an-te=de=w, aχːu,
who.obl-in-indef something give.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=pst=q not.know
hel-i-l=ra
that-obl-erg=add
‘(He) also had to give something to somebody, I don’t know.’
(48) T-G-V
[Did it die, he asked. No, I said. From there he ran away.]
sumk’a di-cːe b-ičː-ib
bag 1sg-in n-give.pfv-pret
‘(He) gave me his bag.’
(49) T-G-V
[May your beloved stay alive, dear brother!]
hana hel cik’al dam či-ma-sa-b-iršː-itːa!
now that something 1sg.dat spr-proh-hither-n-put.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not put that thing on me!’ (i.e. that piece of work)

Goal-like arguments (recipients, addressees), just like subjects and objects, most com-
monly occur before the verb (G-T-V, T-G-V) (47–49). However, they also seem to have
a relatively high probability to follow the verb, which does not depend on their status
within the information structure of the utterance (50), (51). The tendency includes goal-
like adjuncts (directional adverbials, and possibly also beneficiaries, see below). It has

524
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

been observed for verb-final languages of other language families, most notably West-
ern Iranian languages, but also Iraqi Turkmen and Azerbaijani spoken in the wider area
(Anatolia, south Caucasus; see Haig 2015). Since the postverbal placement does not ex-
tend to objects, it cannot be explained by Russian influence, but might be due to contact
with Kumyk (Turkic) speakers. However, before we can attribute the use of postverbal
goals in Sanzhi to the impact of Kumyk it needs to be clarified if Kumyk belongs to the
Turkic languages with postverbal goals and if other East Caucasian languages that are
not in contact with Kumyk do not have postverbal goals to the same extent as Sanzhi. An
alternative explanation might resort to iconicity. The goal is the spatial endpoint of the
situation. Thus, a postverbal goal is iconic in that the destination of the transfer follows
the entity to be transferred (the T argument) and it also follows the action expressed by
the predicate.

(50) xːunul-li tiladi b-arq’-ib ca-b hel-i-cːe “ma-ax-utːa!”

woman-erg request n-do.pfv-pret cop-n that-obl-in proh-go-proh.sg
r-ik’-ul
f-say.ipfv-icvb
‘His wife begged him “Do not go!”’
(51) “xalastuj pat’run b-ikː-a,” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar, “hel-i-j!”
empty cartridge n-give.pfv-imp m-say.ipfv-prs that-obl-dat
‘“Give him an empty cartridge!”, he said.’

Adjuncts like comitative noun phrases, instruments, and manner adverbials are most
frequently positioned after the subject, if there is one, and before the verb, but sometimes
they can be found after the verb (37), (52), (54).
Temporal and locational adjuncts normally occur at the beginning of clauses and pre-
cede any arguments and other adjuncts; especially the short temporal adverbs ha and
hana ‘now’ (15), (49), (52), and locational adverbs such as heštːu ‘here’ and hetːu ‘there’
have a strong tendency to occur clause-initially. However, they can be placed postver-
bally when representing new information or when they are contrastive. By contrast, di-
rectional adjuncts are goal-like and behave similarly to goal-like arguments (54). Though
a position left of the verb at the beginning of the clause is common for directional ad-
juncts, postverbal placement is roughly equally common, not only when they encode
new information. This behavior is part of a general tendency for all goal-like arguments
and adjuncts, and can be explained by means of iconicity.
Examples of temporal, locational, and directional adverbs are (33), (52), and (53). If
adjuncts are focused, they immediately precede the verb (54), (55).

(52) hel zamana il-i-l hati=ra qːuʁa-l d-al

that time that-obl-erg more=add beautiful-advz npl-together
d-ič-aq-ib-le, …
npl-occur.pfv-caus-pret-cvb
‘At that time he embellished (his story) even more, …’

525
27 Constituent order and information structure

(53) [A. She came to learn about the Sanzhi customs. B answers:]
hana heštːu-d ʁuna ʡaˁdat-urme akːʷ-i hetːu-d, wa Rasul
now here-npl eq custom-pl cop.neg-hab.pst there-npl hey Rasul
‘Now such customs as here were not there, Rasul.’ (i.e. the customs that exist now
in Druzhba did not exist in earlier times in Sanzhi, so how can she learn about
the Sanzhi customs here?)
(54) [They did the treatment; they prescribed injections for one month.]
ukul-te=q’al wec’al bari d-arq’-ib naˁq-li-cːe
injection-pl=mod ten day npl-do.pfv-pret hand-obl-in
‘They made injections into the hand for ten days.’
(55) heχ Tawlu-la har zamana d-irχʷ-ar t’amahama
dem.down Tawlu-gen every time npl-become.ipfv-prs story
‘With Tawlu always such stories happen.’

As discussed in §27.1.2, Sanzhi has floating genitives for which the referents of the
genitives are highly topical and affected. In the great majority of cases, those genitives
take over the clause-final position and can possibly be regarded as framing adjuncts.
Interjections and addressee particles occur at the edge of clauses (53), either preceding
all other items in the clause or following them (see §9.5 for examples).
Clauses fulfilling argument positions in complement constructions can precede or fol-
low the verb. For more information see §24.4. In a complex sentence consisting of a main
clause and at least one subordinate adverbial clause, the neutral order is for the adver-
bial clause to precede the main clause or to be center-embedded within the main clause,
though the order in which the main clause precedes the adverbial clause is also attested
(§25.1).
Subordinate clauses have a strong tendency to be verb-final (52). This is true especially
for complement clauses (§24.4) and relative clauses (§23.3). It is easier to find adverbial
clauses, in particular those headed by the general converbs, which show other than verb-
final orders. Due to the rather fixed word order and the readiness with which arguments
are dropped, which for subordinate clauses is higher than for main clauses, the manip-
ulation of the information structure in subordinate clauses by means of the constituent
order is not readily available. However, it is possible to switch the order of subject and
object, and occasionally postverbal arguments can be found. In such cases, the same
connections between focal or topical elements and certain positions in the clause can be
observed that were summarized for main clauses in Table 27.1. For instance, (56) shows
an adverbial clause with the copula complement preceding the verb because it repre-
sents the focus and the topical subject following the verb. Example (57) illustrates VSO
order in an adverbial clause and resembles the finite VSO clauses in (43) because the verb
carries the new information and the subject is topical.

(56) nacijonalist gu-r-sa-jč-ib-le hel, …

patriot sub-abl-hither-occur.m.pfv-pret-cvb that
‘That (journalist) was a patriot, …’

526
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

(57) [the protagonists ran out of alcohol and sent a boy to the car that was filled with
bottles]
mašina-l-cːe-r k-aqː-ib-le durħuˁ-l cara=ra čaˁʁir, …
car-obl-in-abl down-carry-pret-cvb boy-erg other=add wine
‘The boy brought another (bottle of) wine from the car, …’

27.2.2 Information structure in interrogative clauses and

question-answer pairs
Polar questions are obligatorily marked by the enclitic =w. The enclitic is added to the
verb or another constituent, e.g. noun, pronoun, adjective. Polar questions seem to have
a greater tendency for verb-final constituent order than declarative utterances have (58),
(61), but nevertheless postverbal topical constituents can be found (59a). Answers to polar
questions consist mostly only of the verb, which can be the affirmative copula ca-b, the
negative copula akːu, or a full verb form (58–60). Polar questions are analyzed in detail
in §28.1.

(58) čina-k’al ʡaˁči-le r-uc-ib-il=de=w?

where-indef work-loc f-keep.pfv-pret-ref=pst=q
‘Did they take you (fem.) somewhere to work?’
(59) a. c’il cara musːa-b b-arq’-ib-le=de=w il?
then other place-n n-do.pfv-pret-cvb=pst=q that
‘Q: Then did they build it in another place?’
b. cara musːa-b, absalut’na cara musːa-b b-arq’-ib-il=de
other place-n completely other place-n n-do.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘A: In another place, they built it in a completely other place.’
(60) a. q’aca-la neqːe ixtːu ag-ur-il=de=w u?
he.goat-gen canyon.loc there.up go.pfv-pret-ref=pst=q 2sg
‘Q: Did you go to the goat canyon?’
b. e, ag-ur=da
yes go.pfv=pret=1
‘A: Yes, we went.’

Content questions contain interrogative words and are also marked by a special en-
clitic =e/=ja that is normally attached to the predicate (§28.2). If there is no predicate,
then the interrogative pronoun functions as head. The interrogative pronoun mostly ap-
pears immediately before the verb, that is, in the same position in which most focus
items occur in declarative utterances. Sentence topics regularly precede the interroga-
tive pronoun (61), (62a) or, more rarely follow it (63a). It is also possible to have one
clause-initial topic and another clause-final topic.

527
27 Constituent order and information structure

(61) c’elt-m-a-cːe-w, q’ar-ri-cːe-w, hi-l urkː-ul=e?

gravestone-pl-obl-in-m herbs-obl-in-m who.obl-erg find.m.ipfv-icvb=q
‘Among the graves, in the grass, who finds (him)?’
(62) a. Maħaˁmmadħaˁži acːi-l ce ʡaˁči b-irq’-ul
Mahammadhazhi uncle-erg what work n-do.ipfv-icvb
kelg-un-il=de?
remain.pfv-pret-ref=pst
‘Q: Which work was Uncle Mahammadhazhi doing?’
b. iχ selsawet-le kelg-un birgadir-le
dem.down village.head-loc remain.pfv-pret brigadier-loc
kelg-un c’ili selsawet-le-r ag-ur
remain.pfv-pret then village.head-loc-abl go.pfv-pret
‘A: He was the village head, brigadier, then he stopped being village head (lit.
left).’
(63) a. c’il čina-r d-ax-utːa=ja ušːa?
then where-abl 1/2pl-go-prs.2pl=q 2pl
‘Q: Then from where did you go?’
b. aq d-arq’-ib-le heštːi, či-r-d-ax-ud erk’ʷ-le-r
high npl-do.pfv-pret-cvb these spr-abl-1/2pl-go-1.prs river-loc-abl
‘A: We put up these (trousers) and go through the river.’

Fronting of interrogative words is also possible, but very rare in natural texts. The
only pronoun that is repeatedly fronted is cellij/cel ‘why’ (64) (see §4.5.2.4 for more
examples).1 The pronoun ceqːel ‘when’ also occasionally occurs in clause-initial position
(65), but usually it is preceded by spatial adverbs. Thus, sentence (65) was repeated by
the speaker and in the second occurrence the order of the interrogative pronoun and the
directional adverbial were swapped.

(64) cellij het qili-w w-at-ur-re, laˁk’ a-arq’-ib=da=jal?

why that home-m m-let.pfv-pret-cvb away neg-do.pfv-pret=1=indq
‘Why did I leave it (the photo) in the room and did not take it away (into the
other room)?’
(65) ceqːel Sanži-le ag-ur-il=de χatːaj?
when Sanzhi-loc go.pfv-pret-ref=pst grandfather
‘When did grandfather go to Sanzhi’

1
As one reviewer pointed out, the fronting of a pronoun with the meaning ‘why’ is common. For instance,
in Hungarian it is the only interrogative word that can be found in a position other than the focus position
immediately to the left of the verb. In the Austronesian language Pohnpeian ‘why’ must be initial; other
interrogative phrases do not have to be, see Dryer (2005) for examples and references.

528
 27.2 Constituent order at the clause level and information structure

For other pronouns corpus examples are non-existent, but available in elicitation. Sen-
tence (66) can be uttered in a situation in which we know that the shop is empty and
we wonder what Batichaj can bring if there is nothing to buy. The utterance in (67)
represents the pragmatically neutral constituent order for this type of question with a
postverbal topical subject, see also (34).

(66) ce Bat’ičaj-li ha-b-iqː-an-ne hana?

what Batichaj-erg up-n-carry.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 now
‘What will Batichaj bring now?’ (E)
(67) hij xadi r-ax-an=e Ruq’ijat?
who.dat married f-go-ptcp=q Rukijat
‘Whom should Rukijat marry?’ (E)

Topic-comment sentences are answers to questions such as What is X doing? Example

(68) shows this type of question and the respective answer that has a neutral pragmatic
structure, that is, the subject is topical and has been omitted in the answer. The predicate
together with the object and the goal represents the focal information and occurs in front
of the verb (object) and directly after the verb (goal), the typical positions for focal objects
and goals. The constituent order in the question is SOV, with the interrogative pronoun
occurring insitu.

(68) Isaq’adi-l ce b-irq’-ul=e? qus ha-b-aˁq-ib-le, hel

Isakadi-erg what n-do.ipfv-icvb=q slip up-n-drag.pfv-pret-cvb that
qːalpuz ka-b-išː-ib het xːun-r-a-j naprotiw
watermelon down-n-put.pfv-pret that woman-pl-obl-dat in.front
‘What is Isakadi doing? He dragged the watermelon and put it in front of the
women.’

In sum, the information structure of the vast majority of content questions is (topic)-
question word-verb-(topic) with the interrogative enclitic attached to the verb. Answers to
content questions can mirror this structure by placing the item that answers the question
in the preverbal position as well, with optional topical elements placed at the edges of the
clause (62b). Alternatively, they can also contain the item in focus in another position,
as (63b) shows, in which the relevant noun follows the verb. Short answers consisting
only of the focus are also common.
It is possible to use the constituent focus construction in interrogative clauses. In this
construction the interrogative enclitic is attached to the item in focus and the verb must
take the form of a participle. See §27.3.2 below for more details and examples.

27.2.3 Right and left dislocation

Because of its free constituent order, it is not always easy to identify dislocation in Sanzhi.
Topicalization by means of placing arguments or adjuncts at the edges of clauses cannot
be equated with dislocation. We can be sure we are dealing with dislocation when we
find a pronoun in the clause that is co-referential with the dislocated noun phrase and

529
27 Constituent order and information structure

when the dislocated noun phrase does not correspond to any arguments or adjunct of
the clause and is therefore unlinked.
Dislocation is not particularly frequent, but when it occurs it has the same structure
and the same functions that have been attested for dislocation in other East Caucasian
languages (Forker & Belyaev 2016). Thus, left dislocation is a topicalization strategy. The
dislocated noun phrase occurs in the absolutive case. It can be linked or unlinked (69),
(70). In the following two examples, the dislocated items are given in square brackets
and they are unlinked to the following clauses.
(69) [nu ix-tːi w-ah-la tuχum-te=ra il-tːi akːʷ-ar-te=ra]
well dem.up-pl m-owner-gen relative-pl=add that-pl cop.neg-ptcp-dd.pl=add
q’ʷila bek’lal er ∅-ik’ʷ-an ca-w, pikri b-ik’ʷ-an ca-b
a.little at.all look ∅-look.at.ipfv-ptcp cop-m thought n-say.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘Well, also those own relatives, and those who do not have (relatives), one has to
look after them a bit, think of them.’
(70) [t’upː-e=ra nuˁq-be=ra=q’al] het-itːe haraq-le či-b-ig-ul
finger-pl=add arm-pl=add=mod that-advz far-advz spr-n-see.ipfv-icvb
akːʷa-di
cop.neg-1
‘The fingers, the hands, I do not see that far.’
Right dislocation expresses afterthoughts that either extend the reference of the dou-
bled item, make it more explicit, or re-phrase it in order to help the addressee to arrive at
a correct understanding. The dislocated item bears the same case marking as its doubled
counterpart in the clause. In (71) the recipient, which is encoded as reflexive pronoun in
the clause, is also expressed as a full noun phrase after the clause. In (72) the temporal
adjunct has been repeated (though it is not an exact repetition).
(71) it-i-l ču-j quˁr-be=ra d-ičː-ib, hel-tːi
that-obl-erg refl.pl-dat pear-pl=add npl-give.pfv-pret that-pl
duˁrħ-n-aˁ-j
boy-pl-obl-dat
‘He gave them pears, to the boys.’
(72) ca bac darman-t-a-lla=cun lečenie b-arq’-ib=da, ʡaˁb-c’al bari
one month medicine-pl-obl-gen=only cure n-do.pfv-pret=1 three-ten day
‘For one month I was treated only with pills, for 30 days.’

27.3 Other types of focus constructions

27.3.1 Thetic sentences and presentational constructions
Thetic sentences are fully-focused sentences that can be uttered out of the blue or as
answers to the question What happened? In Sanzhi, they have the same structure with

530
 27.3 Other types of focus constructions

respect to the division of the utterance into topic and focus as utterances with the default
information structure (73) (§27.2).

(73) [the beginning of a story]

ca šːi-l-cːe-b ca kulpat, χːula kulpat b-už-ib ca-b
one village-obl-in-hpl one family big family hpl-stay-pret cop-hpl
‘In one village there lived a family, a big family.’

Moreover, there is a specialized construction for presentational and existential sen-

tences that introduce new and mostly animate referents into discourse. This construc-
tion can be either a thetic sentence if it occurs, e.g., at the very beginning of a story (74),
but it can also contain some topical material. In all cases the newly introduced referent
is an argument that follows the verb and occurs as the subject if the verb is intransitive
and as the object if the verb is transitive. Thus, the constituent order is VS (74), (75) or
VO (76).2 The optional topical items precede or follow the verb with its argument.

(74) daršːi ka-b-iž-ib ca-b sːika=ra bec’=ra kːurtːa=ra

friendship down-n-be.pfv-pret cop-n bear=add wolf=add fox=add
waˁlur=ra
camel=add
‘The bear, the wolf, the fox, and the camel were friends.’
(75) nišːa-la b-irχʷ-i ħaˁz
1pl-gen n-be.ipfv-hab.pst game
‘(When we were little) we had a game.’
(76) Allah-li ma hana dučːi-la paˁq či-ka-b-arq’-ib duˁħi
Allah-erg take now night-gen strike spr-down-n-do.pfv-pret snow
‘Allah sent snow during the night.’

27.3.2 Contrastive focus and floating predicative particles

Selective and corrective focus, which belongs to the category of contrastive focus, is ex-
pressed by placing the predicative particles (§9.1) or the copula (§16.1) immediately after
the focused constituent. This construction exists in many East Caucasian languages, but
its frequency in texts seems to greatly differ from language to language. In this section,
I will analyze the Sanzhi construction by first presenting data about the floating pred-
icative particles and then about the floating copula. All predicative particles have the
(verbal) predicate as their default host. In contrastive focus constructions, the particles
float off from their normal host and appear on arguments and adjuncts, on phrasal heads
and on modifiers of heads. The lexical verb must take the form of a participle (77–80). It
can be either a complex participle with the suffixes -il or -ce, or it can simply be the modal
2
This sentence contains the particle ma, which used when giving things to other people and inviting them
to take the things (§9.5). In this examples, it is Allah who gave snow to the people who had to ‘take’ it, i.e.,
live with it.

531
27 Constituent order and information structure

participle. In contrast to sentences without contrastive focus, it cannot be a converb or

the simple preterite participle.

(77) du-l hana tʼalaˁħ-ne ic-ul=da

1sg-erg now dishes-pl wash.ipfv-icvb=1
‘Now I am cleaning the dishes.’ (E)
(78) du-l hana tʼalaˁħ-ne=da ic-an, cʼil …
1sg-erg now dishes-pl=1 wash.ipfv-ptcp then
‘Now I am cleaning THE DISHES, … (e.g. I will clean the windows later)’ (E)
(79) du-l hana=da tʼalaˁħ-ne ic-an
1sg-erg now=1 dishes-pl wash.ipfv-ptcp
‘NOW I am washing the dishes.’ (E)
(80) du-l=da hana tʼalaˁħ-ne ic-an
1sg-erg=1 now dishes-pl wash.ipfv-ptcp
‘It is ME who is washing the dishes now.’ (E)

As examples (81) and (82) show, floating predicative particles can even occur in certain
types of subordinate clauses such as infinitival complements.

(81) du-l b-uč’-an [Zamir-ri=de sːa asː-ib-il]

1sg-erg n-read.ipfv-ptcp Zamir-erg=pst yesterday buy.pfv-pret-ref
kːazat
newspaper
‘I had to read the newspaper that ZAMIR bought yesterday.’ (E)
(82) hana du r-aʔ-r-irxː-an [χːink’-e=da d-arq’-ij]
now 1sg f-begin-f-begin.ipfv-ptcp khinkal-pl=1 npl-do.pfv-inf
‘Now I will/have to start to make KHINKAL.’ (E)

Most notably, with transitive and affective verbs it is possible to drop the ergative or
dative marking of the subject if the predicative particle is attached to it.

(83) du=da Sanijat-li-j χabar b-urs-an

1sg=1 Sanijat-obl-dat story n-tell.pfv-ptcp
‘It is me who will/have to tell Sanijat the story.’ (E)
(84) du=da it dars qum.ert-an
1sg=1 dem lesson forget.ipfv.neg-ptcp
‘It is me who will not forget that lesson.’ (E)

When Sanzhi speakers are asked to formulate questions to which sentences with float-
ing predicative particles are suitable answers, they produce content questions in which
the relevant item that is focused in the answer is replaced by a question word serving as
the host for the particles (85).

532
 27.3 Other types of focus constructions

(85) a. ušːa ceqːel=da=ja Družba-le d-ax-an?

2pl when=2pl=q Druzhba-loc 1/2pl-go.ipfv-ptcp
‘WHEN will you/do you have to go to Druzhba?’ (E)
b. nušːa ižal=da d-ax-an
1pl today=1 1/2pl-go.ipfv-ptcp
‘We will/have to go TODAY.’ (E)

In an interrogative clause with a floating person enclitic the interrogative enclitic –

which is also a focus-sensitive particle – must be added to the same item that serves as
the host for the person enclitic. Encliticizing the two markers to two different items (86)
is ungrammatical.

(86) * ušːa ceqːel=da Družba-le d-ax-an=e?

2pl when=2pl Druzhba-loc 1/2pl-go.ipfv-ptcp=q
(Intended meaning: ‘WHEN will you/do you have to go to Druzhba?’)

Person enclitics or the past enclitic used as contrastive focus markers are not very
frequent in the corpus although the constructions are readily available in elicitation as
many examples in this section prove. In example (90) the past enclitic occurs in combi-
nation with another focus-sensitive predicative particle, the modal particle =q’al.

(87) [discussing the viewpoint that a speaker has to take for a narration]
du=da hana heχ, akːu=w? e, u=de hana …
1sg=1 now dem.down cop.neg=q yes 2sg=2sg now
‘I am now her, right? Yes, YOU are now …’
(88) [talking about the places where the speaker had been]
bah qːuʁa-ce dunja ka-b-icː-ur-il dam dejstvitelna
most beautiful-dd.sg world down-n-stand.pfv-pret-ref 1sg.dat really
Latwija=de
Latvia=pst
‘It was Latvia that seemed to me to be really the most beautiful country.’
(89) [Before I came my mother died. At home there was nobody.]
apjat ca du=gina=de kelg-un-il ca
again one 1sg=only=pst remain.pfv-pret-ref one
‘Again it was me who remained alone.’
(90) c’il u=de=q’al qːanaw-t-a-j ca ʡaˁlibatir akːʷ-ar
then 2sg=pst=mod ditch-pl-obl-dat one Alibatir cop.neg-prs.3
a-w-erč-ib ∅-ik’ʷ-an
neg-m-lead.pfv-pret m-say.ipfv-ptcp
‘But you were the one who said that they had taken only Alibatir to the ditch.’

533
27 Constituent order and information structure

It is slightly easier to find examples with interrogative enclitics (91–93) or the modal
particle =q’al (94–96); see also the example (90) above. All corpus examples discussed so
far can be classified as selective focus, because the focus selects one item from among a
presupposed set of possible alternative values (Dik et al. 1981: 62).

(91) “ča=ja,” haʔ-ib=da, “il itːu-w k’ap k-arq’-ib-il?”

who=q say.pfv-pret=1 that there-m wrap down-do.pfv-pret-ref
Baħaˁmma-cːe
Bahamma-in
‘I asked Bahama “Who is it that is wrapped there?”’
(92) ča=ja hel ∅-ik’ʷ-an?
who=q that m-say.ipfv-ptcp
‘Who is it who said that?’
(93) ja=ra hej r-ilʡ-aˁn hež=uw?
or=add this f-steal.ipfv-ptcp this=q
‘Or is this her who is stealing?’
(94) “di-la durħuˁ=q’al?!” “ca<w>i,” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar
1sg-gen boy=mod cop<m> m-say.ipfv-prs
‘“Is he my son?!” “(Yes) he is,” he says.’
(95) il-tːu-w=q’al durħuˁ w-alli le-w
that-loc-m=mod boy m-together exist-m
‘It is here (i.e. on this picture) that the boy is together with them.’
(96) [We are thinking where to meet Abdulkhalik.]
ik’=q’al waˁʡda b-arq’-ib-il ca-w Qːala-j
dem.up=mod agreement n-do.pfv-pret-ref refl.sg-m Mamedkala-dat
či-r-ka-w-q-an-aj
spr-abl-down-m-go-ptcp-subj.3
‘It was he himself who had agreed to get off (the car) in Mamedkala.’

Constituent focus constructions with the copula have the same pragmatics as con-
structions with predicative particles, that is, they express contrastive focus, most com-
monly selective focus. Constituent focus constructions with the copula are a bit more
flexible in the sense that the lexical verb can not only occur as a participle, but appears
occasionally in the form of the general converbs, which are normally used to form an-
alytic tenses (101). In most of the examples, there is a weak pitch accent on the item
preceding the auxiliary. In (97) the existential copula serves as host for the modal parti-
cle =q’al, which also belongs to the class of predicative particles.

(97) a-rurg-an le-b=q’al it, birikːalla.ʁut’ le-b=q’al het

neg-burn-ptcp exist-n=mod that cow.parsnip exist-n=mod that
‘There is the one that does not burn, the cow-parsnip.’

534
 27.3 Other types of focus constructions

(98) [A: They are sitting, enjoying themselves, passing the time. B replies:]
e, ču-la dard-ane šišːim-te istikan-na hila-cːe-d ca-d
yes refl.pl-gen sorrow-pl suffering-pl glass-gen behind-in-npl cop-npl
d-irq’-an-te
npl-do.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl
‘It is behind the glass that resolve their sorrows.’ (i.e. by drinking alcohol)
(99) “ala gawhar ca-b,” r-ik’ʷ-ar, “zaja b-iχ-ub-il”
2sg.gen pupil cop-n f-say.ipfv-prs spoil n-be.pfv-pret-ref
‘“It is your pupil that is spoiled,” she said.’

It is not only the standard copula ca-b that can be used in focus constructions, but also
the existential/locational copulas (§16.2):

(100) χːuˁrbe k’e-d heχtːu-d či-d-ig-ul nišː-ala

graveyard exist.up-npl there.down-npl spr-npl-see.ipfv-icvb 1pl-gen
‘Up there the graveyard of ours is visible.’

In the next two examples, the constituents followed by the copula are already men-
tioned and thus given in the context. These examples can count as confirmative or ap-
proving focus. The speakers do not correct some previous statements, but they acknowl-
edge the selected alternative and reassure the selection. For instance, (101) is part of a
description of a picture. The speaker is at first unsure about one of the depicted objects.
With the utterance of (101) he affirms that those objects must be bunches or bundles of
something unidentified. With the sentence in (102) the speaker sums up his argumen-
tation about a possible sequence of events. The demonstrative pronoun and the verb
bearing the participle suffix were uttered with a rising tone, and there was no noticeable
accent on the pronoun preceding the copula.

(101) [What are these, not bundles? Bundles.]

cel-la=jal χːala ca-b b-iχ-un-il. hež=ra χːala ca-b
what.obl-gen=indef bundle cop-n n-be.pfv-pret-ref this=add bundle cop-n
ka-b-išː-ib-le
down-n-put.pfv-pret-cvb
‘This is a BUNDLE of something. This BUNDLE also has been put down (there).’
(102) [Discussing which events pictures might show]
hel ca-b hel-i-j ag-ur-il
that cop-n that-obl-dat go.pfv-pret-ref
‘[This exactly, this has happened]. This is it what has happened to him.’

Contrastive focus constructions that make use of the copula or of other particles such
as person enclitics are found in a number of other East Caucasian languages. In partic-
ular, floating person enclitics have been investigated for Udi (Harris 2001; 2002), Lak
(Kazenin 2009), Standard Dargwa (Xajdakov 1986) and Tanti Dargwa (Sumbatova 2013).

535
27 Constituent order and information structure

The impact of the modal particle on the information structure and its use in focus con-
structions has been analyzed by Forker (Accepted). Kazenin (2009) proposes an analysis
of such constructions as synchronic cleft constructions because they have the pragmatic
value of cleft construction: the predicative particle or copula identifies or specifies the
argument in a presupposed open proposition. The structure can be simplified as follows:

(103) (topic) [FOCUS]=particle/copula (topic)

Clefts functionally and formally resemble copula clauses (§22.2) when the focal part
is followed by a clause headed by a participle that has the properties of a relative clause
(83), (102) §23.3. The constructions express term focus. They can be formed not only with
the help of the modal particle, but also with all other predicative particles or auxiliary
verbs that function as copulas.
If we adopt the definition of cleft proposed by Lambrecht (2001), we also notice the
morphosyntactic similarities between the constructions in Sanzhi and other Dagestanian
languages and clefts in European languages. Lambrecht defines a cleft as a syntactically
biclausal structure consisting of two simple clauses, that is, a main clause headed by an
auxiliary, and a subordinate clause that is a (free) relative clause or relative-like clause.
Thus, the auxiliary is the predicative particle or copula, i.e. items that are also used in
copula clauses, and the lexical verb appears as participle. In most corpus examples, the
focused constituent occurs at the left or right edge of the clause, so that the construction
looks like a biclausal construction with a copula clause and a preceding or following
relative clause that provides the information needed to identify the copula subject (101),
(102) (for more details see Kazenin 2009; Forker 2016b). However, the topical part is also
frequently simply a demonstrative pronoun (97).
Since it is possible to place the focused item in the middle of the clause, between what
is supposed to represent a free relative clause, a synchronic cleft analysis as proposed
by Kazenin (2009) becomes questionable. For a detailed discussion of the cleft approach
and its problems see Forker (2016b).

27.3.3 Corrections
Corrective focus is found in utterances that correct a previous statement, e.g. by replac-
ing the relevant information. This is frequently done by means of the negative copula
akːu that indicates constituent focus on the preceding item (104–106). The adversative
particle =n(u) is optionally encliticized to the copula.

(104) di-la murgul sunglan akːu, čːuˁħrugan ca-w

1sg-gen man Sanzhi cop.neg Chakhri.person cop-m
‘My husband is not Sanzhi, he is Chakhri.’
(105) [A: He carries him home. B replies:]
qili akːu=n, witrezwitel-le uqː-ul ca-w
home cop.neg=prt sobering-up.station-loc carry.m.pfv-icvb cop-m
‘No, not home, they are carrying him to the sobering-up station.’

536
 27.4 Verb doubling

(106) iž hin-na akːu=n, iž č’an-na urχːab ca-b

this water-gen cop.neg=prt this wind-gen mill cop-n
‘This is not a water, this is a wind mill.’
In (107) the order of rejecting clause and correcting clause is reversed in comparison
with the above examples. The first clause, which represents a cleft-like constructions as
discussed in §27.3.2, expresses the correction and the second clause the rejection.
(107) ala mašin ca-b zaja b-iχ-ub-il, ʡaˁli-la akːu
2sg.gen car cop-n spoil n-be.pfv-pret-ref Ali-gen cop.neg
‘It is your car that is spoiled, not Ali’s.’ (E)

27.4 Verb doubling

Another construction that is found in Sanzhi and in other East Caucasian languages is
verb doubling. This construction consists of a verb that is repeated. The first part occurs
either in the infinitive or in the form of the stem without any inflectional suffix, but pre-
serving derivational morphology, spatial preverbs, or morphemes used in compounding.
To this part the additive =ra is encliticized. The second part consists of a finite verb form
of the same lexical verb (108–110). All corpus examples from Sanzhi make use of the ver-
bal stem, but examples with the infinitive that have the same pragmatics can be elicited
(see below).
(108) [Be sick for three days and then die, she said.]
hel ca-r r-ik’ʷ-an purma-lla, r-ebč’=ra r-ebč’-ib
that refl-f f-say.ipfv-ptcp uniform-gen f-die.pfv=add f-die.pfv-pret
‘She herself said it in that manner (=uniform), and as for dying she died [after
three days as she had wanted].’
(109) [He is thinking a lot. And there he is also thinking.]
w-is=ra w-isː-ul ca-w ik’ heštːu-w ca-w
m-cry=add m-cry-icvb cop-m dem.up here-m cop-m
‘And as for crying, he is crying a lot here.’
(110) [But the Estonians, I think, are very similar to the Icari people, no difference,
how often I went there]
b-uč=ra b-učː-u a-cːella ka-b-iž-ib-le,
n-drink.ipfv=add n-drink.ipfv-prs 2sg-comit down-hpl-be.pfv-pret-cvb
qːuʁa-ce iχtilat=ra b-irq’-i
beautiful-dd.sg talk=add n-do.ipfv-hab.pst
‘As for drinking, they sit and drink with you, and (we) had nice conversations.’
It is also possible to employ the particle =q’ar instead of the additive. This particle
is frequently used to topicalize the items to which it is added (§9.4.3). In (112) only the
preverb in a slightly modified form is repeated, not the verbal stem.

537
27 Constituent order and information structure

(111) d-erčː-ij=q’ar it-i-l čaˁj d-učː-an=de, amma

npl-drink.pfv-inf=mod that-obl-erg tea npl-drink.ipfv-ptcp=pst but
itːa-l a-alt-ur ca-w
those.obl-erg neg-let.ipfv-pret cop-m
‘As for drinking, he would have drunk the tea, but they did not let him.’ (E)
(112) wallah ∅-ik’ʷ-ar ka-r-isː-en! kat=q’ar
by.God m-say.ipfv-prs down-f-sleep.pfv-imp pvb=prt
ka-r-ilsː-a-di
down-f-sleep.ipfv-hab-1
‘“By God,” he says, “lay down (in the hospital)!” As for laying, I lie, (but there
are stairs from here and there.)’

Maisak (2010) discusses verb doubling constructions in a number of Dagestanian lan-

guages including Xuduc Dargwa and Icari Dargwa under the heading of “predicate topi-
calization”. He concludes that the constructions cannot be used in thetic utterances, but
only in reference to previously mentioned or otherwise already known situations, and
that they mostly involve polarity focus, because there is an associated adversative or
concessive clause that is following the verb doubling construction or implicitly present
in the context. Maisak’s interpretation seems to fit the Sanzhi data well, since in all
examples at least part of the information conveyed in the verb doubling construction
has been provided in the previous context. As for the adversative or concessive clause
following the verb doubling construction, there is one corpus example in which the fol-
lowing clause has an adversative (112) marking, but the other examples (108–110) lack
adversative clauses, and there is no example with a following concessive clause. Again,
such examples can be elicited, but due to the general absence of associated adversative
or concessive clauses in the corpus, the expression polarity focus cannot be regarded
as the main function of verb doubling in Sanzhi. Instead, the main function is predicate
topicalization.

27.5 Focus-sensitive particles

Sanzhi Dargwa has a number of focus-sensitive particles. The most common particles
are:

• the additive =ra ‘also, too, as well as’ (§9.4.1)

• the modal particles =q’al and =q’ar (§9.4.2, §9.4.3)
• the adversative =n(u) ‘but’ (§9.4.4)

Further particles are =cun ‘only’, =gina ‘alone, only’, malle ‘even’, arrah ‘at least’, and
akːʷar ‘except, without, only’. In addition, all predicative particles, not only =q’al, can be
used in focus construction and thus also belong to the class of focus-sensitive particles.

538
 27.5 Focus-sensitive particles

The general functions of these particles are analyzed in more details in §9.1 and §9.4
including examples for every particle.
The focus-sensitive particles can be encliticized to focal items in term focus-construc-
tions as was described in §27.3.2 above. Focal items are frequently nominals or adverbials,
but verbs can also be focused. If the focal item is a verb, the enclitics are either added to
the finite inflected verb or to some other part of the predicate such as the preverb (113),
or the verb appears in a non-finite form such as the infinitive (114).

(113) [Thanks to Allah for the life he gave]

ʡaˁħ r-al r-iχː-ib=da, qːuʁa r-al=ra r-iχː-ib=da, ucːi rucːi
good f-fit f-guard-pret=1 beautiful f-fit=add f-guard-pret=1 brother sister
akːʷ-ar=xːar
cop.neg-prs.3=conc
‘He guarded me (fem.) well, he also guarded me safely, although (I was) without
brothers and sisters.’
(114) qili w-iteʁ-ij=q’ar wahi-l akːu
home m-reach.pfv-inf=mod bad-advz cop.neg
‘Coming home is not bad.’

For example, when =q’al is attached to the finite verb, it is the verb phrase or the
whole clause that is in its scope. It is possible that the verb alone is in the scope of
the particle and represents the focus (115), but it can also be the verb with its overtly
expressed arguments (97), which sometimes amounts to the entire clause. If the entire
clause is in its scope, we can have verum focus: e.g. in (116) the polarity of the verb is at
stake, not the lexical meaning conveyed by the verb.

(115) [A said: You do not have musical instruments in your village?]

c’il wallah χe-b=q’al χe-b, ∅-ik’ʷ-ar
then by.God exist.down-n=mod exist.down-n m-say.ipfv-prs
‘Well, by God, we do have them, he said.’
(116) baliqː-e akːu=q’al, ca-d=uw?
fish-pl cop.neg=mod cop-npl=q
‘These are NOT fish, right?’

Particles can be combined and are either encliticized to the same host (89), (90) or two
different hosts. Example (117) contains the additive and both modal particles occurring
in one and the same utterance.

(117) nik’a-ce=xːare, du-l=q’ar, it=ra ʡaˁči=q’alle, unc-e

small-dd.sg=conc 1sg-erg=mod that=add work=mod ox-pl
sa-r-d-uc-ij uˁq’-ni-lla
hither-abl-npl-keep.pfv-inf go-msd-gen
‘Although I (masc.) was little, I myself went behind the oxen, this is also work.’

539
27 Constituent order and information structure

The particle akːʷar ‘except, without, only’ differs from the other particles because it
is morphosyntactically the negative copula inflected for the third person of the habitual
present. It follows the item in focus and occurs in a clause with negative polarity. Its
literal meaning is ‘(X) not being’ and the negative clause refers to a situation that only
takes place when X is present. For instance, (118) can literary be translated as ‘There
were no cars not being trucks.’

(118) gurzawuj-te akːʷ-ar mašin-te a-d-irχʷ-i=q’al

truck-pl cop.neg-prs.3 car-pl neg-npl-be.ipfv-hab.pst=mod
it=qːella
that=when
‘At that time there no cars except for trucks.’
(119) hil-k’al-li-j b-alχ-ul akːʷ-i il
who.obl-indef-obl-dat n-know.ipfv-icvb cop.neg-hab.pst that
Maħaˁmmad-li=ra du-l=ra akːʷ-ar
Mahammad-erg=add 1sg-erg=add cop.neg-prs
‘Nobody knew it, except for Mahammad and me.’

Modal particles such as =q’al or =q’ar, but also additives, scalar additives, or exclusive
particles are often compared to or sometimes even equated with focus particles. For
instance, the Standard Dargwa particle q’alli is cognate with Sanzhi =q’al. It has been
called a “sentence focus particle” by van den Berg (2001: 74–75).
However, all particles discussed in this section participate in the pragmatic structuring
of the utterance, but they are not plain markers of focus. They all have a lexical mean-
ing, although the semantics of modal particles is comparatively hard to access. Whenever
they are used, this meaning is expressed, but their use is not restricted to focus construc-
tions. There are a number of corpus examples in which the referent of the item bearing
the particle is not only not new, but has been mentioned in the immediately preceding ut-
terance (54), (70), (120). It is taken up again in the utterance containing a focus-sensitive
particle. In such examples the host is frequently not a verb, but a nominal, and occurs in
clause-initial position. The host is not focal, but topical, and the construction is used to
topicalize patients (54), (120) or other semantic roles that are typically non-topical (70).
For a more thorough discussion of the functions of =q’al, see Forker (Accepted).

(120) [Talking about Sanzhi dishes, the daughter of the speaker reminds her mother
that there is also milk soup. Then the mother continues to talk about this topic.]
nejg-la nerʁ-be=q’al, cara-la=ra d-irχ-u
milk-gen soup-pl=mod other-gen=add npl-be.ipfv-prs
‘There is milk soup and soup from other things, (we are also preparing milk
soup…)’

540
28 Interrogative clauses
Interrogative clauses are marked by interrogative enclitics and by rising intonation, but
the latter is not always particularly salient. The interrogative enclitics belong to the
class of predicative particles (§9.1). This means that interrogative enclitics can co-occur
with certain non-finite verb forms in analytic tenses, and they turn the verb plus enclitic
complex into a finite verb form used in main clauses. Thus, in many questions there is
no copula, auxiliary or other predicative particle (person enclitic, past enclitic), but only
a non-finite lexical verb and an interrogative enclitic, but the clause is nevertheless a full
grammatical question. This chapter covers
• polar questions and disjunctive polar questions (§28.1)
• content questions (§28.2)
• tag questions (§28.3)
• embedded questions (§28.4)

28.1 Simple polar questions and disjunctive polar

questions
Polar questions are marked by means of an enclitic that has four allomorphs: =w after
vowels, and =uw after consonants, with additional restrictions. The allomorph =ew oc-
curs after the imperfective converb suffix -ul and the allomorph =aw after the first person
suffix -id and after certain words ending in /aw/, e.g. qːanaw ‘ditch’. Its use is obligatory.
It is encliticized to the predicate, i.e., to the verb if there is a verb (1), (2), otherwise to the
nominal predicate which bears a person or past enclitic (3). Elliptic polar questions can
consist of nominals or other items without an accompanying verb or other auxiliary (4).
(1) miši-l ca-w=uw iχ iχ-i-j?
similar-advz cop-m=q dem.down dem.down-obl-dat
‘Is this similar to him?’
(2) hel musːa-j χaˁnhara b-ik’-u=w?
that place-dat khanhara hpl-say.ipfv-prs=q
‘Is this place called khanhara? Yes.’
(3) hel-t-a-lla=de=w il=ra?
that-pl-obl-gen=pst=q that=add
‘He also belonged to them?’ (i.e. was their relative)
28 Interrogative clauses

(4) [Why did they not kill Osman?]

qːačuʁ-e=w?
bandit-pl=q
‘The bandits?’
It cannot be added to another constituent if the clause contains a verb:
(5) a. t’ult’ le-b=uw ala?
bread exist-n=q 2sg.gen
‘Do you have bread?’ (E)
b. * t’ult’uw leb ala?
Very frequently polar questions are followed by the interrogative pronoun ce=ja (6),
which functions as a kind of hesitation marker or expresses doubts on the part of the
speaker similar to a phrase such as ‘I wonder’.
(6) kinu b-aʔ ač’-ib-le=w ce=ja?
film n-begin come.pfv.pret-cvb=q what=q
‘Did the movie start or what?’
Examples (6–8), (10) illustrate that the interrogative enclitics are sufficient to guaran-
tee the finiteness of the clause even when no copula, person enclitic or past enclitic is
present. In (6) the lexical verb appears as perfective converb, and in (7) and (10) as imper-
fective converb. In (9) the interrogative enclitic follows the past enclitic, which cannot
be left out.
There are three basic ways of answering polar questions: (i) the full verb with or with-
out arguments and adjuncts can be used (7); (ii) only the appropriate copula or auxiliary
occurs (8), or (iii) only the particles e ‘yes’ or a, aʔa ‘no’ are used. However, the use of
only these particles is not very common as Sanzhi speakers told me and as the data from
my own corpus show. It is also possible to combine the strategies.
(7) r-aš-ij r-irχ-ul=ew? e, e, r-irχ-ul ca-r
f-go-inf f-be.able.ipfv-icvb=q yes yes f-be.able.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Is she able to walk? Yes, yes, she is able.’
(8) “b-ebč’-ib-le=w?” ∅-ik’ʷ-ar. “akːu,” haʔ-ib=da
n-die.pfv-pret-cvb=q m-say.ipfv-prs cop.neg say.pfv-pret=1
‘“Did (the cow) die?” he asked. “No,” I said.’
(9) ca-w qːumuqlan=de=w? aʔa, darkːʷan=de
refl-m Kumyk=pst=q no Dargwa=pst
‘Was he himself Kumyk? No, Dargi.’
If the question is headed by a non-finite verb form without a copula, only the negative
copula can stand alone in an answer. If the answer is affirmative either the particle e ‘yes’
or the whole predicate including the lexical verb must be used. The copula alone cannot
serve as a grammatical answer (11).

542
 28.1 Simple polar questions and disjunctive polar questions

(10) it w-ax-ul=ew Derbent-le?

that m-go.ipfv-icvb=q Derbent-loc
‘Is he going to Derbent?’ (E)
(11) w-ax-ul ca-w / (w-ax-ul) akːu / * ca-w
m-go.ipfv-icvb cop-m / m-go.ipfv-icvb cop.neg / cop-m
‘He is going/not going.’ (E)

If the question already contains the affirmative copula, then the copula alone is enough
for making up a complete answer (12). However, in an interrogative clause such as the
one in (12) normally no copula is used because the interrogative particle is sufficient
(compare examples (7), (12) above).

(12) it w-ax-ul ca-w=uw Derbent-le? ca-w

that m-go.ipfv-icvb cop-m=q Derbent-loc cop-m
‘Is he going to Derbent? Yes, he is.’ (E)

Answers to negative polar questions normally contain a predicate because the parti-
cles alone could lead to misunderstanding (13), (14). However, negative polar questions
are rare and most of them are rather rhetorical questions to which no real answer is
expected, but they express surprise or disbelief on part of the speaker (15).

(13) a. daˁrχaˁ=ra heχtːu-d a-d-už-ib=da=w?

evening=add there.down-1/2pl neg-1/2pl-be-pret=2pl=q
‘Did you not also spend the night there?’
b. ca dučːi d-už-ib=da
one night 1/2.pl-be-pret=1
‘We stayed one night.’
(14) erk’ʷ χʷal-le=kːʷi=w? hana χʷal-le=de
river big-advz=neg.pst=q now big-advz=pst
‘Was the river not big? Now it was big.’
(15) hel arrah a-b-alχ-ul=ew c’il heštːi sunglan-t-a-l
that at.least neg-n-know.ipfv-icvb=q then these Sanzhi-pl-obl-erg
b-urs-araj?
n-tell-subj.3
‘Don’t the Sanzhi people know at least that (story) to tell?’

Polar interrogative clauses are mostly verb-final (2), (13a), but it is also possible to find
examples with verbs occurring in other positions (5a), (12), (16).

(16) hel-i-la ʁaj-li-j qili arg-ul=de=w u?

that-obl-gen word-obl-dat home go.ipfv-icvb=2sg=q 2sg
‘Are you going home because of what she said?’

543
28 Interrogative clauses

Polar interrogatives are frequently combined with a following phrase that bears the
marker for embedded questions (17) since that marker is also used for expressing epis-
temic uncertainty (§28.4).
(17) ač’i=de=w ce ca-d=de=l?
wheat=pst=q what cop-npl=pst=indq
‘Was it wheat or something else.’
In disjunctive polar questions the interrogative enclitic appears on the predicate in
each member of the disjunction:
(18) tusnaq-le-w=uw iž ʡaˁrmija-le-w=uw?
prison-loc-m=q this army-loc-m=q
‘Is he in a prison or in the army?’
(19) “iž ala sub-la bek’ le-b-il=de=w”, b-ik’-ul ca<b>i,
this 2sg.gen husband-gen head exist-n-ref=pst=q hpl-say.ipfv-icvb cop<hpl>
“akːʷ-ar-il=de=w?”
cop.neg-prs-ref=pst=q
‘They say to the wife, “Did your husband have a head or not?”’
The same construction can also be used as an assertive disjunction without any inter-
rogative illocutionary force (20). A similar multifunctionality of interrogative particles
covering polar and content questions as well as in declarative disjunctions and some
other contexts is attested in a number of other East Caucasian languages (e.g. Hinuq,
see Forker 2013b) as well as unrelated languages such as Japanese and Malayalam (Slade
2011: 2, Uegaki 2018).
(20) hek’ bari-li-j=uw bac-li-j=uw miši-l ca-b
dem.up sun-obl-dat=q moon-obl-dat=q similar-advz cop-n
‘This is similar to the sun or the moon.’

28.2 Content questions

Content questions contain interrogative pronouns (see §4.5 for a list of the pronouns)
and an enclitic that has two allomorphs. It is =e after consonants and =ja after vowels.
The use of the interrogative enclitic is obligatory. The only two contexts where its use
is prohibited are questions containing the second person enclitic =de or the past enclitic
=de, which both end with /e/.1 It is usually added to the predicate (verbal or nominal),
unless there is no verb or other predicates, then it is added to the question word.
1
One can argue that the enclitic =e is used in such cases, but because its phonological form is identical to
the vowel in the past enclitic and the second person enclitic, its presence is not noticeable. However, in
many instances a sequence of identical vowels leads to long vowels (§2.6.5), which is not the case for the
respective interrogative clauses. The long vowel [eː] does not occur very often, but it is attested. Thus, it
is reasonable to assume that in interrogative clauses an underlying long vowel [eː] has been shorted, but
for a conclusive argumentation more research is needed.

544
 28.2 Content questions

The constituent order in questions is such that topical items mostly precede the inter-
rogative pronoun and the verb appears in clause-final position.

(21) bek’ akːʷ-ar admi celij w-i-ha-w-q-aq-un=da=ja nušːa-li?

head cop.neg-prs.3 person why m-in-up-m-go.pfv-caus-pret=1=q 1pl-erg
‘Why did we send a man without a head there into (the cave)?’
(22) il-tːi cet’-le b-aχ-ij b-irχ-u=ja, aba?
that-pl how-advz hpl-know.pfv-inf hpl-be.able.ipfv-prs=q mother
‘How can you get to know them, mother?’
(23) Jusup-la durħuˁ-l ce b-irq’-u=ja?
Jusup-gen boy-erg what n-do.ipfv-prs=q
‘What does Jusup’s son do?’

Often genitive phrases are split up if the head is part of the interrogative phrase and the
genitive then follows the host of the interrogative enclitic (24). Such extraposed genitives
are not restricted to questions but also frequently found in assertions (§27.1.2).

(24) cara ce χurejg d-irχ-u=ja nišːa-la?

other what food npl-be.ipfv-prs=q 1pl-gen
‘What other dishes do we have?’

If there is no verb then the respective predicate or even the interrogative pronoun can
end up in clause-final position bearing the interrogative enclitic.

(25) hej čina-b b-iχʷ-ij ʡaˁʁuni-ce=ja, hež?

this where-n n-be.pfv-inf needed-dd.sg=q this
‘This where should it be, this?’
(26) d-ac’ šuš-n-a-la cek’u čina-b=e?
npl-empty bottle-pl-obl-gen whatchamacallit where-n=q
‘Where is this (picture) of the empty bottles?’

It is also possible to put the interrogative pronoun in clause-initial position, but this is
far less common (27–30). Equally possible and slightly more common is the occurrence
of material following the verb.

(27) ce b-arq’-ida=ja it-i-j du-l?

what n-do.pfv-modq=q that-obl-dat 1sg-erg
‘[He does not leave me alone], what should I do with him?’
(28) c’il čina-r d-ax-utːa=ja ušːa erk’ʷ-la itille?
then where-abl 1/2pl-go-prs.2pl=q 2pl river-gen further
‘Then from where do you cross the river?’ (lit. ‘go to the other side of the river’)

545
28 Interrogative clauses

(29) čina-b=e hana heštːi?

where-hpl=q now these
‘Where are these now? (these = people)’
(30) cellij it-i-l salam a-lukː-an=e nišːi-cːe?
why that-obl-erg greeting neg-give.ipfv-ptcp=q 1pl-in
‘Why will he not greet us?’

The only constituent order that is strictly forbidden is for the interrogative pronoun
to follow the verb (31) or to follow the constituent that bears the person enclitic or past
enclitic (32). In the latter examples possible orders are u ča=de? and ča u=de?:

(31) * Madina-l asː-ib=e ce?

Madina-erg buy.pfv-pret=q what
(Intended meaning: ‘What did Madina buy?’) (E)
(32) * u=de ča?
2sg=2sg who
(Intended meaning: ‘Who are you’) (E)

As in polar questions the lexical verb can appear in non-finite forms (30) and the inter-
rogative particle can take the place of the copula (29). Except for verbs, any constituent
can be questioned, be it an argument or an adjunct, e.g. absolutive (24), ergative, spa-
tial adjunct (29), manner adjunct (22), causal adjunct (30). Genitive modifiers or other
modifiers of nouns can also be questioned (see §4.5 for examples). It is also possible to
question constituents of subordinate clauses (33), (34) or of postpositional phrases (35).

(33) a [presedatel ča ca-w=de] ∅-ik’ʷ-a-tːe?

and head who cop-m=pst m-say.ipfv-hab.pst-2sg
‘Who did you (masc.) say was the head (of the kolkhoz)?’
(34) [t’ut’u b-arq’-ib-te, ča-qal] ∅-ik’ʷ-a-tːe?
throw.out hpl-do.pfv-pret-dd.pl who-assoc m-say.ipfv-hab.pst-2sg
‘The ones who were thrown out, who did you (masc.) say was this?’
(35) hila qari=či-b itːi ʁaj ka-b-ik’-ul=de?
who.gen up=on-n those word down-hpl-say.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘About whom were they talking?’ (E)

Interrogative clauses can contain more than one interrogative pronoun (36). The order
of the interrogative pronouns in (37) can also be switched around.

(36) hi-l ce padarit b-arq’-ib=e?

who.obl-erg what make.present n-do.pfv-pret=q
‘Who made which present?’ (E)

546
 28.3 Tag questions

(37) a it ce darman=e cellij?

and that what medicine=q what.dat
‘And this is what medicine for what?’

Answers to content questions can either consist of only the focus part (41) or they
can be whole sentences. In the answers that are full sentences the nominal part of the
constituent that constitutes the focus can be absent (i.e. in (39) the inflection on the verb
is enough to convey the meaning of the first person pronoun that represents the answer
to the question). In (40) the item in focus follows the verb which is rather unexpected
if one embraces the position that the focus position in East Caucasian is immediately
before the verb.

(38) čina-w=el hi-j b-alχ-ul=e il?

where-m=indq who.obl-dat n-know.ipfv-icvb=q that
‘Who knows where he is?’
(39) “a-b-alχ-ad” b-ik’-ul
neg-n-know.ipfv-prs.1 hpl-say.ipfv-icvb
‘“We do not know,” they say, …’
(40) hek’-tːi arc hi-l lukː-an-te=ja? arc
dem.up-pl money who.obl-erg give.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=q money
lukː-an-te=q’al du-l
give.ipfv-ptcp-dd.pl=mod 1sg-erg
‘Who should give this money (back)? I have to give the money back.’
(41) a qːaq ħuˁsen hana heχ ʡaˁbdulχaliq’ acːi-lla ča=ja? atːa
and back Husen now dem.down Abdulkhalik uncle-gen who=q father
‘And Kak Husen, who is he with respect to uncle Abdukhalik? The Father.’

28.3 Tag questions

Tag questions are very common in Sanzhi and occur after assertions. The form of the
tag depends on the polarity of the assertion because it reverses the polarity. In the vast
majority of corpus examples tag questions follow clauses with affirmative clauses and
the tags are formed by means of the negative present tense copula to which the polar
question marker =w is attached, i.e. akːu=w? (lit. ‘Is it not?’) (42), (43). This copula can
even be used when the assertion contains a verb with past time reference (44). However,
in such a case the negative past tense copula can also be used (45). Note that the copula in
(42) that functions as short answer to the tag question has the default neuter agreement
although the copula in the assertion before the tag question is inflected for masculine
singular.

547
28 Interrogative clauses

(42) ag-ur d-iχ-ub-t-a-lla qari=či-b ʁaj ∅-ik’-ul

go.pfv-pret npl-be.pfv-pret-pl-obl-gen at.top=on-n word m-say.ipfv-icvb
ca-w heχ, akːu=w? ca-b
cop-m dem.down cop.neg=q cop-n
‘About what had happened he is talking, right? Yes.’
(43) ij kampanija ca-b, akːu=w?
this company cop-hpl cop.neg=q
‘This is the company (group of friends), right?’
(44) di-la pikri ħaˁsible ka-jž-ib-le het-ka čar
1sg-gen thought following down-be.m.pfv-pret-cvb that-down back
∅-iχ-ub ca-w, akːu=w?
m-be.pfv-pret cop-m cop.neg=q
‘In my opinion, he was imprisoned and then came back from there, right?’
(45) žaq’-ne a-d-uk-i nušːa-l, akːʷ-i=w?
boar-pl neg-npl-eat.ipfv-hab.pst 1pl-erg cop.neg-hab.pst=q
‘We did not eat boars, right?’

The tense of the copula in the tag question reflects the tense of the verb (copula or
other) or the tense of the copula if it is an analytic inflection form in the assertion pre-
ceding the tag. For instance, in (45) the verb in the assertion appears in the habitual past
and the copula in the tag also appears in the habitual past.
When the assertion is negative the tag marker normally has positive polarity as, e.g.,
the copula ca-b (46) or the verb in (47), which is simply the negation of the predicate in
the assertion.2

(46) baliqː-e akːu=q’al, ca-d=uw? aχːu wallah

fish-pl cop.neg=mod cop-npl=q not.know by.God
‘(These) are not fish, are they? By God, I don’t know.’
(47) [a iš-tːi juldašː-e ce b-ik’-ul=el] tolko hel sːurrat ħaˁsible
but that-pl friend-pl what n-say.ipfv-icvb=indq only that picture following
b-aχ-ij a-w-irχʷ-ar, w-irχʷ-an-ne=w?
n-know.pfv-inf neg-m-be.able.ipfv-prs m-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3=q
e-rχʷ-an-ne, e
neg-be.able.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3 yes
‘And these friends, what they are saying, only by means of the picture, (one)
cannot know, can one? One cannot know, yes.’

2
Note that this is not the case in example (45), and I do not have an explanation for this example.

548
 28.4 Subordinate questions

28.4 Subordinate questions

Subordinate questions are marked with an enclitic that has three allomorphs: (i) =jal
after vowels, (ii) =el after consonants, and (iii) =l after some suffixes ending in /e/, in
particular the perfective converb suffix. The enclitic occurs in all types of embedded
interrogatives, i.e. content questions, polar and disjunctive polar questions. It is also used
as a complementizer with verbs of speech and cognition (§24.2.7), and for the formation
of specific indefinite pronouns (§4.6.1). The rules for the placement of the enclitic are the
same as for normal questions. This means that in embedded polar questions the marker
occurs on the verb if there is any (48), and otherwise on the non-verbal predicate (49).

(48) ag-ur=da [ačː-ib=el] či-d-až-ij

go.pfv-pret=1 get.pfv-pret=indq spr-1/2pl-see.pfv-inf
‘We went to see if (the cartridge) had struck.’
(49) a [iš-tːi qːalpuz-e=jal] aχːu heštːi
and this-pl watermelon-pl=indq not.know these
‘I don’t know whether these are watermelons.’

In embedded disjunctive polar questions it occurs on all members of the disjunction:

(50) duc’ ∅-ik’-ul, duc’ ∅-ik’-ul, er=itːi sark’-ul,

run m-aux.ipfv-icvb run m-aux.ipfv-icvb look=after inspect.ipfv-icvb
[le-r=el rucːi r-akːu=jal] ∅-ik’-ul hel
exist-f=indq sister f-cop.neg=indq m-say.ipfv-icvb that
‘He ran and ran, looked around, wondering whether his sister is there or not.’
(51) [hin ca-d=el iχ-tːi čaˁʁir=el] b-alχ-an w-akːu
water cop-npl=indq dem.down-pl wine=indq n-know.ipfv-ptcp m-cop.neg
‘Is this water or wine, (I) do not know.’

In embedded content questions the enclitic appears on the verbal or non-verbal pred-
icate:

(52) pikri ∅-ik’-ul ka-jž-ib ca-w heχ [ce

thought m-say.ipfv-icvb down-remain.m.pfv-pret cop-m dem.down what
b-arq’-ij ħaˁžat-le=jal] ∅-ik’-ul
n-do.pfv-inf need-advz=indq m-say.ipfv-icvb
‘He is thinking, sitting, about what must be done.’
(53) na [ʡaˁbdulχaliq’ čina-w suk sa-w-irk-u=jal] pikri
now Abdulkhalik where-m meet hither-m-occur.ipfv-prs=indq thought
d-ik’-ul=da nušːa
1/2pl-say.ipfv-icvb=1 1pl
‘We are thinking where to meet Abdulkhalik.’

549
28 Interrogative clauses

(54) nu [ceʁuna qːihin-dexː-e či-d-až-ib=da=jal] nišːi-j

well which difficult-nmlz-pl spr-npl-see.pfv-pret=1=indq 1pl-dat
b-alχ-ul=de
n-know.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘Well, we knew which difficulties we had seen.’
The Sanzhi enclitic is not only used in embedded questions, but also in the protasis
of realis and irrealis conditional clauses (55) (§18.3). The apodosis of irrealis conditionals
can be omitted, in which case the construction expresses wishes similar to an optative
(56).
(55) r-ilʡ-uˁnne r-iχʷ-ar=de=l, xːunul
f-steal.ipfv-icvb f-be.pfv-cond.3=pst=indq woman
r-i-ka-jʁ-an=de=q’al
f-in-down-drive.pfv=ptcp=pst=mod
‘If the woman would have stolen, they would/should have imprisoned her.’
(56) b-uˁq’-aˁn-de=l! či-b-b-et’-ib ca-b
hpl-go-ptcp=pst=indq spr-hpl-hpl-bore.pfv-pret cop-hpl
‘If they would go! They bore (me).’ (E)
The marker for embedded questions has also evolved into a general marker of epis-
temic uncertainty occurring in rhetorical questions for which the speaker does not ex-
pect an answer (57).
(57) cet’le herʔ-an-ne=l, aj Allah!
how say.ipfv-ptcp-fut.3=indq oh Allah
‘How should this be said, oh, Allah!’ (i.e. ‘How should I say this?’)
And more importantly, it is used when speakers are expressing thoughts whose truth
they do not vouch for and when they advance hypotheses, i.e. for the expression of
epistemic modality, more specifically, epistemic uncertainty. In such cases there is no
matrix complement-taking predicate (58), (59), but optionally the borrowed adverb belki
may occur (60). Since the marker for embedded questions belongs, just like the other
interrogative enclitics, to the class of predicative particles, it can be used with a converb,
but the resulting clause is finite (§9.1). Such examples might be interpreted as “insubor-
dination” (Evans 2007; Evans & Watanabe 2016, see also Mithun 2008) because a clause
with a dependency marker is used as an independent sentence.
(58) heš-tː-a-l sud b-irq’-ul=el
this-pl-obl-erg trial n-do.ipfv-icvb=indq
‘They are probably making a trial.’
(59) c’il abuχar tusnaq-le w-ič-ib=el
then then prison-loc m-occur.pfv-pret=indq
‘Then he probably went to prison.’

550
 28.4 Subordinate questions

(60) belki ij tusnaq-le-r sa-jʁ-ib-il ca-w=el

it.is.possible this prison-spr-abl hither-come.m.pfv-pret-ref cop-m=indq
‘Maybe this is when he came from prison.’

This use has been conventionalized in the frequently occurring phrase ce ca-b=el (ce
ca-d=el) ‘what it might be, whatever’ lit. ‘what cop-n-indq’ (61).

(61) masliʡaˁt b-arq’-ij saˁ-q’-un-ne=jal cara ce

reconciliation n-do.pfv-inf hither-go.pfv-pret-cvb=indq other what
ca-b=el
cop-n=indq
‘He came out to reconcile them or so or there is something else.’

Evans (2007: 367), who introduces the term “insubordination”, defines it as “the con-
ventionalized main clause use of what, on prima facie grounds, appear to be formally sub-
ordinate clauses.” He explains the diachronic development of insubordination by means
of four steps:
1. subordinate construction with subordinate morphosyntax
2. ellipsis of main clause
3. restriction of interpretation of ellipsed material
4. reanalysis (conventionalized main clause use of formally subordinate clause)
Evans’ four-step model provides a very plausible path of the diachronic change: the
Sanzhi particle underwent all four stages, but at the same time preserved its function as
complementizer. Thus, the syntactic development can be summarized as (62), accompa-
nied by the semantic extension schematized in (63).

(62) syntax: complementizer > to predicative particle with a functional range similar
to copula-auxiliaries
(63) semantics: marker of embedded questions > epistemic modality (more specifically,
uncertainty)

Examples for the first step are (48–54). Embedded interrogatives occur with matrix
verbs that denote cognitive activities (which can include perception verbs such as ‘see’).
Embedded interrogatives are often of irrealis modality and therefore not asserted as fac-
tual or actual events or situations (49). During the third step the interpretation was re-
stricted from various possible main clauses to an omitted main clause as general as ‘It is
probable that X’. Language-internally, the reanalysis (step 4) might have been supported
by the presence of the other predicative particles. This means that by analogy with the
person markers, the past enclitic or the modal particle the embedded question marker
received its syntactic ability to express finiteness of clauses.
However, there is one general problem with the insubordination analysis of the en-
clitic =(e)l/=(j)al. In principle, it is possible that the diachronic development occurred in

551
28 Interrogative clauses

the reverse order, i.e. that the particle was originally a marker of epistemic modality that
subsequently came be to be used in embedded interrogatives due to its epistemic modal
meaning. Because we lack data of older stages of Sanzhi Dargwa, this question cannot
be resolved with certainty.
Insubordination of the type just described is also found in other East Caucasian lan-
guages. Examples in case are irrealis markers in the Tsezic languages Bezhta, Hunzib,
and Hinuq, the potential infinitive in Bagvalal, and the potentialis (i.e. the infinitive) in
Tsakhur (see Comrie et al. (2016) for examples and references). The study by Kalinina
(2011) provides many examples of insubordinated exclamative utterances in Agul, Archi,
Avar, Bagvalal, and Bezhta (East Caucasian) as well as Adyghe (West Caucasian). Of the
surveyed languages only Agul employs an irrealis conditional form in embedded ques-
tions and exclamatives in a similar fashion as the Sanzhi example (56).

28.5 Other uses of questions

Some questions are normally used as greetings. Thus female addressees are not greeted
with the Arabic phrase As-salam ʡaˁlaykum, but with the sentences below; the first vari-
ant is for single addressees (64a), the second for situations when the addressee is more
than one person (64b). The answer is again a clause (64c).
(64) a. ka-r-iž-ib-le=de=w!
down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=2sg=q
‘Hello!’ (lit. ‘Are you sitting?’) (singular addressee)
b. ka-d-iž-ib-le=da=w!
down-1/2pl-be.pfv-pret-cvb=2pl=q
‘Hello!’ (lit. ‘Are you sitting?’) (plural addressee)
c. ka-r-iž-ib-le=da
down-f-be.pfv-pret-cvb=1
‘Hello!’ (lit. ‘I am sitting.’)
For greeting people who have just got up in the morning, the sentences in (65) are
used. The addressee can be female or male.
(65) r-alh-un=de=w! / w-alh-un=de=w!
f-wake.up.pfv-pret=2sg=q / m-wake.up.pfv-pret=2sg=q
‘Good morning!’ (female/male addressee)
When Sanzhi speakers meet during the day they might ask when greeting each other:
(66) ce ʡaˁči b-arq’-ib=de?
what work n-do.pfv-pret=2sg
‘What (work) have you done?’
This question can be taken literally, but it is also a general question of the type “How
do you do?”

552
29 Reflexive and reciprocal
constructions
This chapter discusses the syntax of reflexive and reciprocal constructions. The morpho-
logical paradigms of reflexive and reciprocal pronouns are given in §4.3 and §4.4.

29.1 Reflexive constructions

Sanzhi has morphologically simple and complex reflexive pronouns. The pronouns are
ca-w/ca-r/ca-b in the singular (oblique stem cin-) and ca-b/ca-d (oblique stem ču-) in the
plural. The relevant case paradigms are given in §4.3. Their functions are summarized
in Table 29.1. There are two types of complex reflexive pronouns, which always consist
of reduplication of the simple reflexive pronoun. Both types contain one reflexive that
bears case marking according to the function of the reflexive pronoun in its clause and
often appears as the second part of the complex reflexive pronoun. The first part either
copies the case marking of the controlling noun phrase (“case copying”) or it invariably
bears the genitive case (“complex genitive reflexive”). The functional range of both types
is roughly identical, but there are three restrictions that all concern reflexives marked by
the genitive case. First of all, complex genitive reflexives do not have a genitive case form,
because this would lead to two identical pronouns used together, which is ungrammat-
ical (see Table 4.8 in §4.3). Therefore, in the respective constructions only case-copying
complex reflexives can be used (e.g. local reflexivization and reciprocal constructions).
Second, in emphatic reflexivization the complex reflexives are morphologically rather a
mixture of genitive reflexive and case-copying reflexive, because they consist of a first
part in the genitive and a second part that has the same case as the nominal to which
the emphatic belongs (§29.1.2). Third, only genitive forms of simple reflexives occur as
pause fillers; all other case forms cannot be used.
In this chapter, local, non-local, and emphatic reflexivization are treated, as well as co-
reference across clausal boundaries, and reciprocalization. For the other functions see
the respective sections (references to them are given in Table 29.1).
In all types of local reflexive constructions, the pronouns are only used with third
person referents. For reflexivization of first and second person, the personal pronouns
are used. In long-distance reflexivization with logophoric function, simple reflexive pro-
nouns are occasionally used to refer to speech act participants (i.e. first or second person
referents).
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

Table 29.1: Functions of simple and complex reflexive pronouns

simple complex
local reflexivization (§29.1.1) y y
reciprocalization (§29.2) n y
emphatic reflexivization (§29.1.2) y y
long-distance reflexivization (including logophoric contexts) (§29.1.3) y n
pause fillers (§9.5) y n
comitative constructions (§30.3) y n

29.1.1 Local reflexivization

In local reflexive constructions, pronouns are bound by an antecedent within the same
clause. With first and second person, the normal personal pronouns occur:

(1) u-l u ma-kerx-utːa!

2sg-erg 2sg proh-kill.ipfv-proh.sg
‘Do not kill yourself!’ (E)
(2) nišːi-j nušːa d-ičː-aq-ud
1pl-dat 1pl 1/2pl-want.ipfv-caus-1.prs
‘We love ourselves.’ (E)

Only for third person reflexivization the reflexive pronouns are used. Almost all corpus
examples contain simple reflexive pronouns, but (4) shows a complex reflexive in the
function of beneficiary.

(3) ca ca il-tːa-j d-ičː-ib, ca cin-i-j b-at-ur

one one that-pl.obl-dat npl-give.pfv-pret one refl.sg-obl-dat n-let.pfv-pret
‘(The boy) gave them one (pear) each, one he kept for himself.’
(4) [talking about the sister of one of the speakers]
u-l daˁʡle čaˁj-la istikan a-b-irq’-u cin-ni cin-i-j
2sg-erg as tea-gen glass neg-n-do.ipfv-prs refl.sg-erg refl.sg-obl-dat
‘She does not make herself a glass of tea like you.’

Reflexive pronouns are in complementary distribution with personal or demonstrative

pronouns (5), (6). The c-command requirement holds, i.e., a possessor cannot control a
reflexive pronoun (7).

(5) it-i-l cin-i-j cik’al isː-ul ca-b

that-obl-erg refl.sg-obl-dat something buy.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘S/he buys herself/himself something.’ (E)

554
 29.1 Reflexive constructions

(6) it-i-l it-i-j cik’al isː-ul ca-b

that-obl-erg dem-obl-dat something buy.ipfv-icvb cop-n
‘S/he buys him/her something.’ (no co-reference) (E)
(7) Madina-la aba cinij ca-r či-r-ig-ul ca-r
Madina-gen mother refl.dat refl-f spr-f-see.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Madina’s𝑖 mother𝑗 sees herself∗𝑖/𝑗 .’ (E)

The complex reflexive pronouns must be locally bound (8) and therefore cannot have
an antecedent in another clause. The example in (8) is fully grammatical if the pronoun
is bound by the noun aba ‘mother’, which occurs in the same clause.

(8) Madina-j b-ikː-ul ca-b [aba cinij ca-r

Madina-dat n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n mother refl.dat refl-f
či-r-až-ib-le]
spr-f-see.pfv-pret-cvb
‘Madina𝑖 wants that the mother𝑗 sees herself∗𝑖/𝑗 .’ (E)

The simple pronouns can occur as arguments and adjuncts of various types, e.g. pa-
tients, experiencers (7), stimuli (23), beneficiaries (5), goals (9), possessors (10), and com-
plements of postpositions (11).

(9) Rašid (ca-w) cin-i-j er=či w-ik’-ul ca-w

Rashid (refl-m) refl.sg-obl-dat look=on m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Rashid is looking at himself.’ (E)
(10) bec’-li=ra d-ičː-ib hel-i-j cin-na ʁiz-be
wolf-erg=add npl-give.pfv-pret that-obl-dat refl.sg-gen hair-pl
‘The wolf gave him also his hair.’
(11) Madina (ca-r) cin-na qari=či-r ʁaj r-ik’-ul ca-r
Madina refl-f refl.sg-gen at.top=on-f word f-say.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Madina is talking about herself.’ (E)

The same is true for the complex reflexive pronoun except for the possessor function
and the use in postpositional phrases. The complex genitive can never be used as pos-
sessor, and the case-copy pronoun is judged as marginal or interpreted as an emphatic
reflexive and thus not as part of a complex reflexive pronoun. Thus, the preferred and
entirely acceptable reading of (12) is ‘Rashid himself loves his mother’. In the posses-
sor function normally the simple reflexive pronouns are used (10). The same point is
illustrated in example (13): the reflexive bearing the ergative case functions as emphatic
particle whereas the genitive reflexive occupies the possessor position.

(12) ?? Rašid-li-j cin-i-j cin-na aba r-ičː-aq-u

Rashid-obl-dat refl.sg-obl-dat refl.sg-gen mother f-love-caus-prs.3
‘Rashid loves his mother.’ (E)

555
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

(13) Rašid-li cin-ni cin-na qal b-arq’-ib

Rashid-erg refl.sg-erg refl.sg-gen house n-do.pfv-pret
‘Rashid himself/alone built his house.’ (E)

Similarly, a complex reflexive within a postpositional phrase is judged as possible

but less felicitous than a simple pronoun unless the first part can function as emphatic
reflexive (11).
The simple and the reflexive pronouns are interpreted as bound variables that can be
bound by indefinite noun phrases (14), (15).

(14) har durħuˁ-j cin-na aba r-ičː-aq-u

every boy-dat refl-gen mother f-love-caus-3.prs
‘Every boy loves his mother.’ (E)
(15) har durħuˁ-j [cin-na ca-w] či-w-až-ib
every boy-dat refl-gen refl-m spr-m-see.pfv-pret
‘Every boy saw himself.’ (E)

The internal order of the two parts of the complex reflexive pronoun that exhibits case
copying is free to some degree. Thus, in example (16) the two pronouns can be switched
around and they can also be positioned before the controller.

(16) a. Rašid [ca-w cin-i-j] er=či w-ik’-ul ca-w

Rashid refl-m refl.sg-obl-dat look=on m-say.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Rashid is looking at himself.’ (E)
b. Rašid [cinij caw] erči wik’ul caw
c. [caw cinij] Rašid erči wik’ul caw

This is not possible in the ergative construction. In contrast to the extended intransi-
tive construction in (16), the complex reflexive cannot precede the controlling noun (17).
Due to time constraints, I did not systematically test verbs from different valency classes
and their use with complex reflexives in local reflexivization. This topic must be left to
future research.

(17) * [cin-ni ca-w] Rasul-li gap w-irq’-ul ca-w

refl.sg-erg refl-m Rasul-erg praise m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
(Intended meaning: ‘Rasul is praising himself.’) (E)

We can speculate a bit about the origin of complex reflexives. It is possible to elicit
examples in which it seems that the pronoun can be split up (18a), (18b). In these ex-
amples, the two parts of the case-copying reflexive pronoun are independent of each
other and do not form one constituent. The part that copies the case functions as em-
phatic reflexive, which is co-referent with the controlling noun phrase, and enforces the
reflexive interpretation. The second part is a simple reflexive pronoun. It is likely that
such sentences represent the diachronic source of the case-copying complex reflexive

556
 29.1 Reflexive constructions

constructions.1 In the following examples (18) the emphatic reflexive is given in bold.
The other reflexive pronoun functions as goal argument of the predicate ‘look at’ in a
standard local reflexive construction.

(18) a. cinij Rašid caw erči wik’ul caw

b. caw Rašid cinij erči wik’ul caw

As (19) shows, the emphatic reflexive cannot be separated from the noun it accompa-
nies by an intervening verb, which is a general rule that applies to all emphatic reflexives.

(19) * Rašid cinij erči wik’ul caw caw

The situation is different in case of the complex genitive reflexive which consists of
a genitive reflexive pronoun and a second reflexive pronoun that takes the appropriate
case-marking, because they do not allow for varying orders of the two pronouns. The
reason for the restriction is probably a grammaticalization path, which differs from that
of the case-copying complex reflexives. Genitive reflexives are not used in the emphatic
reflexive function, but only as pause fillers, and I do not want to suggest that their func-
tion as pause fillers forms the basis of the complex genitive, although I lack an alternative
hypothesis. In the complex genitive reflexive construction, the internal order of the gen-
itive reflexive pronoun cannot be changed (20). If we switch the order around to cinna
caw, (20) becomes grammatical.

(20) * Rasul-li [ca-w cin-na] gap w-irq’-ul ca-w

Rasul-erg refl-m refl.sg-gen praise m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
(Intended meaning: ‘Rasul is praising himself.’) (E)

Within a ditransitive construction, the direct (21) or the indirect object (22) can func-
tion as binder, although simple reflexive pronouns would be preferred in such examples.

(21) Patʼimat-li Rašid𝑖 surraticːe-w cin-na cinij𝑖

Patimat-erg Rashid picture.in-m refl-gen refl.dat
či-w-iž-aq-ul=de
spr-m-see.ipfv-caus-icvb=pst
‘Patimat was showing Rashid𝑖 to himself𝑖 on the picture.’ (E)
(22) Patʼimat-li či-w-iž-aq-ul=de Arsen-ni-ji𝑖 surrat-le-w či-w𝑖
Patimat-erg spr-m-see.ipfv-caus-icvb=pst Arsen-obl-dat picture-loc-m on-m
cinij ca-w
refl.dat refl-m
‘Patimat was showing to Arsen𝑖 himself𝑖 on the picture.’ (E)

1
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion. Note that the root of the absolutive reflexive
pronouns, ca-, is very likely a cognate of the standard copula ca-b.

557
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

Most notably, the case marking of the antecedent and the reflexive pronoun can swap.
This phenomenon, which is cross-linguistically rare, has been observed in a number
of East Caucasian languages, among them Sanzhi Dargwa and other Dargwa varieties
(see Forker 2014 for a typological study). It is constrained by three interacting factors:
morphological complexity of the pronouns, constituent order, and valency class of the
predicate.
For morphologically simple reflexive pronouns, case swapping is generally unavail-
able. For instance, if in clauses with transitive or affective verbs the cases are distributed
such that the controlling noun bears the case marking of the agent or experiencer (erga-
tive or dative) and the reflexive appears in the absolutive, then a local reflexive (14), (15)
and a non-reflexive reading are possible (23). In the non-reflexive reading, the pronoun
refers to a contextually salient referent that, for instance, had been mentioned in the
preceding discourse:
(23) Madina-j ca-r r-ikː-ul ca-r
Madina-dat refl-f f-want.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘Madina likes/wants/loves herself.’ OR ‘Madina likes/wants/loves her.’ (E)
If we swap the case marking, only the non-reflexive reading remains. With swapped
case marking, it is more natural to position the pronoun in the dative case before the
noun in the absolutive (24), although the reversed order is also possible.
(24) cin-i-j Madina r-ikː-ul ca-r
refl.sg-obl-dat Madina f-want.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘She likes/wants/loves Madina.’ (E)
With complex reflexive pronouns, affective as well as transitive predicates exhibit a
reversal of case marking (25–26), but all other positions including co-arguments of ex-
tended intransitive verbs are excluded (27). With transitive and affective predicates the
distribution of the case marking in reflexive constructions is free, i.e. either the controller
or the pronoun take the ergative or the dative case suffix (25–26).
(25) a. Rasul-li cin-ni ca-w / cin-na ca-w gap w-irq’-ul ca-w
Rasul-erg refl-erg refl-m / refl-gen refl-m praise m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Rasul is praising himself.’ (E)
b. Rasul ca-w cin-ni / cin-na cin-ni gap w-irq’-ul ca-w
Rasul refl-m refl-erg / refl-gen refl-erg praise m-do.ipfv-icvb cop-m
‘Rasul is praising himself.’ (E)
(26) a. Rasul-li-j cinij ca-w / cin-na ca-w čiːg-ul ca-w
Rasul-obl-dat refl.dat refl-m / refl-gen refl-m see.m-cvb cop-m
‘Rasul sees himself.’ (E)
b. Rasul cinij ca-w / cin-na cinij čiːg-ul ca-w
Rasul refl.dat refl-m / refl-gen refl.dat praise.m-cvb cop-m
‘Rasul sees himself.’ (E)

558
 29.1 Reflexive constructions

The reversal of the marking is forbidden for co-arguments of extended intransitive

verbs that are marked with spatial cases. For example, ‘believe’ requires an argument
in the absolutive and another argument in the dative. The controller of the reflexive
pronoun must be in the absolutive case; any change in the marking leads to ungrammat-
icality (27).

(27) a. Šamil či-w-w-irχː-ul ca-w cin-na cinij

Shamil spr-m-m-believe.m.ipfv-icvb cop-m refl-gen refl.dat
‘Shamil believes in himself.’ (E)
b. * Šamil-li-j či-w-w-irχː-ul ca-w cin-na ca-w
Shamil-obl-dat spr-m-m-believe.m.ipfv-icvb cop-m refl-gen refl-m
(Intended meaning: ‘Shamil believes in himself.’) (E)

Out of context, there is no semantic or pragmatic difference between reflexive con-

structions with standard case marking and reflexive constructions with reversed mark-
ing. This stands in contrast to other East Caucasian languages for which such differences
have been reported (see Forker 2014 for references). There are some restrictions on the
word order concerning both standard reflexive constructions (see above) and those with
reversed marking, but this topic requires further research.
To sum up the discussion on complex reflexive pronouns in Sanzhi, we can state that
these anaphoras can function as A (agents and experiencers) as the examples in (25b)
and (26b) have shown. The constructions illustrated in both sentences are plain reflex-
ive constructions with basic transitive and affective verbs. Under certain circumstances,
the complex reflexive pronouns can also precede their antecedents (16c), but this topic
requires more testing. Since the complex reflexive pronouns are not personal or demon-
strative pronouns, but must be locally bound, the Sanzhi data look like a violation of a
commonly assumed constraint, namely that anaphors cannot fulfill the grammatical role
of subjects. However, such an argumentation crucially depends on the notion of subject
and whether it can be applied to Sanzhi Dargwa. Forker (2014) argues that Sanzhi does
not have subjects in exactly the same sense in which this term is applied to European
languages, and that therefore the examples in (25b), (26b) do not represent a violation of
the subject anaphora constraint.

29.1.2 Emphatic reflexive and intensifying uses

Simple and complex genitive reflexives serve emphatic and intensifying functions, in
which case they are not bound by a co-referential argument in the clause but simply
occur together with a nominal co-constituent. Complex reflexive pronouns that copy
the case of the controller cannot be used in this function. The nominal co-constituent
can be a pronoun (32) or a noun (28), or it can be absent (35). In the Sanzhi corpus,
most emphatic reflexives occur without the nominal co-constituent, but if they co-occur,
then the reflexive follows the nominal, which is cross-linguistically the most common
position for emphatic reflexives. Furthermore, the simple reflexives are preferred over
the complex reflexives in this function. The simple and complex genitive reflexives can

559
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

only function as emphatic reflexives with third person co-constituents. As is the case
with local reflexivization, emphatic reflexivization of first and second persons is done
with first and second person pronouns. These pronouns occur in the genitive case and
are usually used without the pronominal co-constituents (see the examples below).
König & Gast (2006) list the following four functions of emphatic reflexives:

1. adnominal (X, not Y or X, in contrast to Y)

2. adverbial-exclusive (alone, without help)
3. adverbial-inclusive (also, too)
4. attributive (own)

Reflexive pronouns in Sanzhi predominantly occur in the first function, in which two
situations or two referents are contrasted with each other. This can be done by means of
parallel structures in which the items follow each other and are explicitly contrasted. In
(28) the speaker contrasts herself with a friend called Hurija. In example (29) the contrast
is expressed in a parallel structure that is marked by means of the additive enclitic =ra
on both members, the speaker herself and the friends.

(28) ħurija ja ca-r ha-r-ax-ul akːu ja du r-ax-ul akːʷa-di

Hurija or refl-f up-f-go-icvb cop.neg or 1sg f-go-icvb cop.neg-1
‘Neither Hurija herself comes (to me) nor do I go (to her).’
(29) tuχum-te ruc-be akːu=xːar, w-alχ-an ucːi urš-b-a-l,
relative-pl sister-pl cop.neg=conc m-know.ipfv-ptcp brother guy-pl-obl-erg
du-l=ra usal-dex a-b-irq’-id mas-la arc-la,
1sg-erg=add weak-nmlz neg-n-do.ipfv-1.prs wealth-gen silver-gen
ču-l=ra a-b-irq’-ul er r-arq’-ib=da
refl.pl-erg=add neg-n-do.ipfv-icvb life f-do.pfv-pret=1
‘Although there were no brothers (relatives) and sisters, my friends (known
brothers), the guys, I also did not show a lack of money, things (i.e. supported
them), and (they) themselves also did not, so I have lived (my life).’

In most cases the contrast is rather indirect and resembles topic switch constructions
in which the sentence topic switches from one sentence to the next (30), (31). As exam-
ples (32), (33) show, among the complex reflexives only genitive reflexives occur in the
emphatic reflexive function.

(30) [He says, “Hello, Asja Iwanowna.”]

ca-r ka-r-icː-ur ca-r er či-ka-r-ik’-ul
refl-f down-f-stand.pfv-pret be-f look spr-down-f-look.ipfv-icvb
heχ-i-j
dem.down-obl-dat
‘(She) herself is standing and looking at him.’

560
 29.1 Reflexive constructions

(31) [The fox brought a lot of animals to the poor farmer. The farmer came home and
was wondering, looked at them.]
ca-b ka-b-iž-ib-le daˁʡ amzu d-irq’-ul ca-d
refl-n down-n-be.pfv-pret-cvb face clean npl-do.ipfv-icvb cop-npl
‘(The fox) itself is sitting and cleaning its face.’
(32) hel-tː-a-li ču-la ču-l d-iqː-ul, hetːi qːup-re
that-pl-obl-erg refl.pl-gen refl.pl-erg npl-carry.ipfv-icvb those sack-pl
d-ic’-ib-le ...
npl-fill.pfv-pret-cvb
‘They themselves were carrying the sacks and when they were filled ...’
(33) tem.bolee nišːa-la priezd-li-j=ra ču-la ca-b=ra
moreover 1pl-gen arrival-obl-dat=add refl.pl-gen refl-hpl=add
padgatuwleni=de
prepared=pst
‘Moreover, (the Icari people) themselves were prepared for our coming.’
The second function of emphatic reflexives, the adverbial-exclusive function ‘alone,
without help’, is also attested for Sanzhi. Example (34) illustrates this function with a
complex genitive reflexive. Example (35) originates from a fairy tale and here the reflex-
ive can be interpreted as adverbial-exclusive and/or as adnominal-contrastive.
(34) absalut’na cin-na ca-w w-aš-i
absolutely refl.sg-gen refl-m m-go-hab.pst
‘(He) went completely on his own (alone).’
(35) [When she was sweeping, she found a walnut.]
cin-ni a-b-erk-un-ne, turba-le-r lak’
refl.sg-erg neg-n-eat.pfv-pret-cvb chimney-loc-abl throw
b-i-ka-b-arq’-ib ca-b qili hel qix
n-in-down-n-do.pfv-pret cop-n home that nut
‘(She) did not eat the nut herself, but threw it through the chimney into the
house.’
The third function (adverbial-inclusive ‘also, too’) is not common in East Caucasian
languages, including Sanzhi, because the languages have additive enclitics that already
serve this function (§9.4.1). The fourth function (attributive ‘own’) is covered by pro-
nouns in the genitive case, i.e., by personal pronouns for first and second person and by
simple reflexive pronouns for the third person.
The first and second person genitive pronouns, when used as intensifiers, slightly
differ in their morphosyntactic properties from the reflexive pronouns. First of all, they
normally do not occur together with the pronominal co-constituent (36a). It would not
be natural to add the pronoun in the absolutive to this sentence in order to overtly fill
the position of the copula subject (36b), and there are no examples of this kind in the
corpus.

561
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

(36) a. [He was a relative) of those people up there. I don’t know of whose family
he was.]
nik’a durħuˁ=de di-la
small boy=pst 1sg-gen
‘(I) myself was a little boy.’
b. ?? du nik’a durħuˁ=de di-la
1sg small boy=pst 1sg-gen
‘(I) myself was a little boy.’ (E)
Second, in all corpus examples, which are only a small handful, the genitive pronoun
appears at the right boundary of the clause after the verb (36a), (37), (38). This position
is typical for contrastive topics (§27.2.1). But as the example in (39) proves, this position
is not obligatory. As to the function, the first and second person genitive pronouns used
as intensifiers fulfill the first function as adnomial intensifiers (36a), (39) and the second
as adverbial-exclusive particles (37), (38).
(37) [At our place, nobody steals, she said.]
“uˁq’-en,” r-ik’ʷ-ar, “bahla-l ala!”
go.m-imp f-say.ipfv-prs.3 slow-advz 2sg.gen
‘“You (can) leave,” she says, “without worries!”’ (lit. “Go slowly yourself!” she
says.)
(38) [We left the Sanzhi. We went to Shari.]
itːi=ra “čina-r sa-d-eʁ-ib-te=da=j?”
those=add where-abl hither-1/2pl-go.pfv-pret-dd.pl=2pl=q
b-ik’-ul xar b-eʁ-ib, “nišːa-la”
hpl-say.ipfv-icvb ask n-aux.pfv-pret 1pl-gen
‘They also asked us, “Where did you come from?”’
(39) ala r-uˁq’-aˁn!
2sg.gen f-go-imp
‘(You) yourself go away!’ (I do not go.) (E)

29.1.3 Long-distance reflexivization

The simple reflexive pronouns are also bound across clausal boundaries. This means that
they can occur in various types of subordinate clauses with the antecedent belonging to
the main clause. Such a usage is impossible for complex reflexives. Sentence (40) illus-
trates long-distance reflexivization with a relative clause. In (42) we find the reflexive
pronoun in a complement clause.
(40) il=qːel juldaš-li [juldašː-a-l cin-i-j
that=when friend-erg friend.pl-obl-erg refl.sg-obl-dat
sa-qː-ib-te] xunul-be ʡaˁli-j d-ičː-ib
hither-carry.pfv-pret-dd.pl gift-pl Ali-dat npl-give.pfv-pret
‘At that, the friend gave to Ali the gifts that his friend had brought to him (= to
the friend).’
562
 29.1 Reflexive constructions

The vast majority of instances of long-distance reflexivization are logophoric contexts.

This includes longer stretches of discourse that are framed by verbs of speech and cogni-
tion. Normally it is the author of the quote, who serves as the antecedent of the reflexive:
(41) xːunul-li-cːe=ra durħuˁ-cːe=ra χabar b-urs-ul ca-b
woman-obl-in=add boy-in=add story n-tell.pfv-icvb cop-n
[cin-ni-j ag-ur-il-la]
refl.sg-obl-dat go.pfv-pret-ref-gen
‘He is telling his wife and his son what had happened to him.’
(42) tusnaq-le-w=qːella hek’-i-j d-aqil cik’al han
prison-loc-m=when dem.up-obl-dat npl-much something remember
či-sa-d-irk-ul=de hel admi-li-j [cet’le
spr-hither-npl-occur.ipfv-icvb=pst that person-obl-dat how
milic’a-b-a-l ca-w w-it-ib-ce=de=l, cet’le cin-ni
police-pl-obl-erg refl-m m-beat.up-pret-dd.sg=pst=indq how refl.sg-erg
xːunul it-ul kelg-un-ce=de=l]
woman beat.up-icvb remain-pret-dd.sg=pst=indq
‘When the man was in prison he remembered a lot, how the police beat him up,
how he beat up his wife.’
(43) ca zamana bari=ra wahi-ce č’an=ra čːal d-uq-un [kutːi
one time sun=add evil-dd.sg wind=add argument npl-go.pfv-pret which
ču-cːe-rka c’aq’-ce=de=l]
refl.pl-in-abl mighty-dd.sg=pst=indir.q
‘Once the sun and the evil wind argued about who is stronger.’
It is also possible that the speaker of the quote is included in the group of referents of
the reflexive pronoun, i.e., pronoun and antecedent are not identical in their denotation,
but the domain of reference of the reflexive is larger (44).
(44) hel-i-l b-urs-ib ca-b [ču-j ag-ur-il]
that-obl-erg n-tell-pret cop-n refl.pl-dat go.pfv-pret-ref
‘He told what had happened to them.’
Reflexive pronouns are also used in non-logophoric contexts of co-reference across
clauses and across sentences. They can occur when the speaker wants to refer to a topical
referent in the discourse that is not necessarily used as an argument in the preceding
clause, but simply a salient discourse topic at the moment of utterance. This is the case
with optative phrases used to commemorate dead relatives and friends or acquaintances
(45).
(45) hel ʡuˁrus xːunul er r-ik’-ul r-už-ib-le; alžana
that Russian woman look f-look.at.ipfv-icvb f-be-pret-cvb heaven
b-ikː-ab cin-i-j
n-give.pfv-opt.3 refl.sg-obl-dat
‘It turned out that the Russian woman had looked (at the events), may heaven be
given to her.’
563
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

Discourse topics expressed with reflexive pronouns are also found outside of optative
phrases (46). In (47), it seems that the speaker used first the reflexive because he assumed
that the referent of the pronoun would be topical enough to be interpretable, but then he
changed his mind and added the full noun phrase as an afterthought in order to reassure
the reference of the pronoun.

(46) [talking about the sister of one of the speakers]

itwaj cin-i-j kam-le χurejg-e χe-d ħaˁdur-re
like.this refl.sg-obl-dat little-advz food-pl exist.down-npl ready-advz
ka-d-išː-ib-te
down-npl-put.pfv-pret-dd.pl
‘Like there is little food for her prepared and served (lit. put down).’ (i.e. as if she
wasn’t getting enough food)
(47) [Talking about a group of three boys and another boy. One boy from the group
brought the other boy back his hat, which he had lost.]
il bahanne it-i-l ču-j quˁr-be=ra d-ičː-ib hel-tːi
that therefore that-obl-erg refl.pl-dat pear-pl=add npl-give.pfv-pret that-pl
duˁrħ-n-aˁ-j
boy-pl-obl-dat
‘Therefore he (= the other boy) gave them pears, to those boys.’

In cases of discourse topics the referent of a reflexive pronoun can even be inanimate
(48).

(48) [There is a tall summit.]

muza arilla muza b-ik’ʷ-ar cin-i-j=ra
summit during.day summit hpl-say.ipfv-prs refl.sg-obl-dat=add
‘It is called the midday summit.’

29.2 Reciprocal constructions

Reciprocal constructions are built either with plural reflexive pronouns (54) or with spe-
cialized pronouns that make use of the numeral ca ‘one’. There are three types of recip-
rocal pronouns whose paradigms are given in §4.4. All pronouns occurring in reciprocal
constructions are morphologically complex with the same patterns that the morpholog-
ically complex reflexive pronouns exhibit.
Reciprocal pronouns are always clause-bound. They occur in various argument and
adjunct positions and are controlled by a suitable plural antecedent that can be omitted.
In the following examples, they function as patient (60a), as experiencer or stimulus
(49), as beneficiary, as addressee (50), as goal (63a), and as genitive possessor fulfilling
the semantic role of an experiencer (51), (52).

564
 29.2 Reciprocal constructions

(49) ca-lla ca ħuˁrmat b-irq’-ul=de, calli-j ca

one-gen one respect n-do.ipfv-icvb=pst one.obl-dat one
b-ikː-ul=de
hpl-want.ipfv-icvb=pst
‘They respected each other, loved each other.’
(50) [b-arq’-ib=el] cal-li calli-cːe b-urs-ul ca-b
n-do.pfv-pret=indq one.obl-erg one.obl-in n-tell-icvb cop-n
‘They are talking to each other what they would do.’
(51) glawni cal-li ca-lla urk’i arʁ-ib ca-d heχ-tːi
main one.obl-erg one-gen heart understand.pfv-pret cop-npl dem.down-pl
sub-xːunul-li
husband-woman-erg
‘The main point is that they understand each other, the couple.’
(52) ca-lla ca-lla urk’i hitːi-dex b-akːu
one-gen one-gen heart behind-nmlz n-cop.neg
‘There are no bad feelings between each other.’

In all the above corpus examples, the first part of the reciprocal pronoun copies the
case of the antecedent, which is absent from the clause, and the second part takes the case
marking appropriate to its role in the clause. It is also possible, just like with complex
reflexive pronouns, to mark the first part invariably with the genitive (52), (53).

(53) Murad=ra Rašid=ra ca-lla calli-j qːurt b-ik’-ul ca-b

Murad=add Rashid=add one-gen one.obl-dat push hpl-aux-icvb cop-hpl
‘Murad and Rashid are pushing each other.’ (E)

Other variants of reciprocal constructions involve the plural reflexive pronouns (54)
and the group numeral form of ca ‘one’, which is ca-b-a (55) (§6.4). The latter item means
‘the ones, some’ and therefore (55) has, in addition to the reciprocal interpretation, an-
other reading in which one person loves another one, who in turn, loves a third person,
and so on, such that there are no reciprocal feelings of love between any of the involved
persons.

(54) Madina-j=ra Pat’imat-li-j=ra čula ca-b

Madina-dat=add Patimat-obl-dat=add refl.pl.gen refl-hpl
či-b-ig-ul ca-b
spr-hpl-see.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘Madina and Patimat see each other.’ (E)
(55) ca-b-a-li-j ca-b-a b-ičː-aq-u
one-hpl-group-obl-dat one-hpl-group hpl-like.ipfv-caus-prs.3
‘(They/Some) love each other.’ (E)

565
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

Reciprocal pronouns can also be marked with spatial cases (50) or be governed by
postpositions (56), (57).
(56) i pa.parjadku ka-d-irxː-ul hel-tːi calli-hara ca hitːille
and in.order down-npl-put.ipfv-icvb that-pl one.obl-post one on.back
‘and putting them in order one after the other’
(57) Madina=ra ʡaˁšura=ra ca ca-lla qari=či-b ʁaj
Madina=add Ashura=add one one-gen on.top=on-hpl word
ka-b-ik’-ul ca-b
down-hpl-say.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
‘Madina and Ashura talk about each other.’ (E)
Syntactically, reciprocal constructions show the same properties as local reflexiviza-
tion. The c-command requirement holds. Therefore, possessors cannot bind reciprocal
pronouns. For instance, in (58) the conjoined possessor noun phrase cannot serve as an
antecedent for the reciprocal pronoun, but only the head of the genitive phrase can. The
pronouns are interpreted as bound variables and can thus be controlled by non-specific
noun phrases (59).
(58) Murad-la=ra Pat’imat-la=ra bahinte calli-j ca
Murad-gen=add Patimat-gen=add parents one.obl-dat one
b-ičː-aq-u
hpl-love.ipfv-caus-prs.3
‘Murad and Patimat’s parents love each other.’ (E)
(59) li<b>il durħ-n-aˁ-j calli-j ca b-alχ-u
all<hpl> boy-pl-obl-dat one.obl-dat one hpl-know.ipfv-prs.3
‘All boys know each other.’ (E)
As has been shown for complex reflexive pronouns above, the reciprocal pronouns
can also occur in the position of the ergative agent controlled by an antecedent that
fulfills the role of the absolutive patient.
(60) a. Murad-li=ra Rašid-li=ra cal-li ca b-aˁq-ib
Murad-erg=add Rashid-erg=add one.obl-erg one n-hit.pfv-pret
‘Murad and Rashid hit each other.’ (E)
b. Murad=ra Rašid=ra cal-li ca b-aˁq-ib
Murad=add Rashid=add one.obl-erg one n-hit.pfv-pret
‘Murad and Rashid hit each other.’ (E)
Similarly, experiencers can be expressed by reciprocal pronouns that are bound by
absolutive stimuli. In other words, case marking can swap from the standard distribu-
tion to the reverse non-standard distribution. Note that in (61) this does not lead to any
change in the form of the reciprocal pronoun because this is the case-copying variant
and the two cases involved are the same independently of which case appears on the
antecendent.

566
 29.2 Reciprocal constructions

(61) a. Musa-j=ra Murad-li-j=ra calli-j ca b-alχ-u

Musa-dat=add Murad-obl-dat=add one.obl-dat one hpl-know.ipfv-prs.3
‘Musa and Murad know each other.’ (E)
b. Musa=ra Murad=ra calli-j ca b-alχ-u
Musa=add Murad=add one.obl-dat one hpl-know.ipfv-prs.3
‘Musa and Murad know each other.’ (E)

In fact, it seems that the reversed case marking pattern is sometimes preferred with
affective constructions. Thus, the standard case marking has been rejected or judged as
very marginal for a similar clause with the same type of reciprocal pronoun (62).

(62) ?? Madina-j=ra Pat’imat-li-j=ra calli-j ca

Madina-dat=add Patimat-obl-dat=add one.obl-dat one
či-b-ig-ul ca-b
spr-hpl-see.ipfv-icvb cop-hpl
(Intended meaning: ‘Madina and Patimat see each other.’) (E)

Transitive verbs and affective verbs are the only valency types that permit the cases
to be switched around. As we have noticed for complex reflexive pronouns, swapping of
case marking is ungrammatical for extended intransitive verbs (63b).

(63) a. itːi calli-j ca er či-b-ik’-u

those one.obl-dat one look spr-hpl-say.ipfv-prs.3
‘They look at each other.’ (E)
b. * itː-a-j calli-j ca er či-b-ik’-u
those-obl-dat one.obl-dat one look spr-hpl-say.ipfv-prs.3
(Intended meaning: ‘They look at each other.’) (E)

Again, there is some freedom concerning the word order both with the standard case
marking pattern and when the cases have been switched around. Nevertheless, there are
word orders that are forbidden, most notably when the pronoun is split apart and the part
that copies the case precedes its antecedent from which the case has been copied. More
generally, complex reciprocal pronouns, just like complex reflexive pronouns, cannot
be split into two parts, and none of the individual parts could be interpreted as fulfilling
another function (e.g. as emphatic particle, intensifier or as pause filler). Thus, they must
occur next to each other as one constituent.

(64) standard case marking

a. Madina-l=ra Dinara-l=ra [cal-li ca] gap
Madina-erg=add Dinara-erg=add one.obl-erg one praise
b-irq’-i
hpl-do.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘Madina and Dinara (regularly) praised each other.’ (E)

567
29 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions

b. [calli ca] Madinalra Dinaralra gap birq’i

c. * calli Madinalra Dinaralra gap birq’i ca

Note that again the case marking of the reciprocal pronouns is identical for the stan-
dard patterns as well as for the reversed patterns as is obvious when comparing examples
above with the following sentences (65).

(65) reversed case marking

a. Madina=ra Dinara=ra cal-li ca gap b-irq’-i
Madina=add Dinara=add one.obl-erg one praise hpl-do.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘Madina and Dinara (regularly) praised each other.’ (E)
b. Madinara Dinarara [ca calli] gap birq’i
c. [ca calli] Madinara Dinarara gap birq’i

Finally, reciprocal pronouns can only have antecedents within the same clause. For
instance, in (66) the pronoun is bound by the conjoined noun phrase ‘Patimat and Mu-
rad’ and cannot be controlled by the compound noun atːa-aba ‘parents’ in the higher
clause. The pronoun consists of a part in the dative in accordance with its function in
the clause, and a first part that either copies the case of the controller (66a) or occurs in
the absolutive (66b).

(66) a. atːa aba-j b-ikː-ul ca-b [Pat’imat-li=ra

father mother-dat n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n Patimat-erg=add
Murad-li=ra cal-li calli-j kumek b-arq’-ib-le]
Murad-erg=add one.obl-erg one.obl-dat help n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘The parents want that Patimat and Murad help each other.’ (E)
b. atːa aba-j b-ikː-ul ca-b [Pat’imat-li=ra
father mother-dat n-want.ipfv-icvb cop-n Patimat-erg=add
Murad-li=ra ca calli-j kumek b-arq’-ib-le]
Murad-erg=add one one.obl-dat help n-do.pfv-pret-cvb
‘The parents want that Patimat and Murad help each other.’ (E)

568
30 Minor constructions
30.1 Comparative constructions
In comparative constructions two or more items are examined in order to note similari-
ties and differences in degree between them (Dixon 2008: 787). Inequality between two
items is expressed by means of one of the spatial cases (§3.4.2.2). In superlative construc-
tions, degree adverbs occur. Equative constructions and the expression of similarity are
realized by means of several particles (§30.2).
In Sanzhi comparative constructions we find a comparee, the standard of compari-
son, and the parameter of comparison. The standard of comparison is marked with the
loc-ablative case that has the suffixes -ler(ka), -ar(ka) or -jar(ka) (§3.4.2.2). It is cross-
linguistically common to mark the standard of comparison with an ablative (or locative)
case (Dixon 2008: 791), and East Caucasian languages including Dargwa varieties nicely
confirm this tendency. Neither the comparee nor the parameter of comparison bears
any special marking. Consequently, if the standard of comparison were to be omitted,
the construction would be a simple clause and not a comparative construction. Most
commonly the standard precedes the comparee. The parameter is a gradable adjective
or adverb that occurs in its plain form without any additional index (as, e.g., English
more).
(1) Baħaˁmma-ja-rka Baˁħmud šːustri=de
Bahamma-loc-abl Bahmud smart=pst
‘Bahmud was smarter than Bahamma.’
(2) atːa-ja-r χːula-te=ra b-irχʷ-i
father-loc-abl big-dd.pl=add hpl-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘There were those older than father.’
(3) ij ač’i-lla-ja-rka […] muqi-lla=ra ʡaˁħ-ce b-irχ-u
this wheat-gen-loc-abl barley-gen=add good-dd.sg n-become.ipfv-prs.3
‘It (bread) is better (when made) of barley than of wheat.’
(4) u-le-rka sala-r du-l maχ χːula-ce b-arq’-ij
2sg-loc-abl front-abl 1sg-erg barrow big-dd.sg n-do.pfv-inf
‘I (will) make a big barrow (maχ) earlier than you.’
(5) žaniwar-t-a-lla χʷal-le jaˁħ=ra namus=ra b-už-ib
animal-pl-obl-gen big-advz conscience=add conscience=add n-stay-pret
ca-b nišːa-la dawla-či-b-t-a-lla-ja-r
cop-n 1pl-gen wealth-adjvz-hpl-pl-obl-gen-loc-abl
‘The animals had apparently more conscience than our rich (people).’ (lit. ‘their
conscience was bigger’)
30 Minor constructions

Superlative constructions contain a comparee, a standard of comparison, and a param-

eter. They basically have the same structure as the constructions described so far in this
section. The only differences are the case marking of the standard, which is now the
in-lative, and the additional degree adverb modifying the parameter. The standard of
comparison can be omitted if it is inferable from the context

(6) li<b>il-li-cːe-rka bah qːuʁa-ce dune ka-b-icː-ur-il

all<n>-obl-in-abl most beautiful-dd.sg world down-n-stand.pfv-pret-ref
dam dejstwitelno Latwija=de
1sg.dat really Latvia=pst
‘Among all as the most beautiful (country) seemed to me Latvia.’
(7) il kulpat-li-cːe-r bah χːula-ce r-už-ib ca-r
that family-obl-in-abl most big-dd.sg f-be-pret cop-f
‘She was the oldest within her family.’
(8) bah wahi-ce ʡaˁzirbažan=de
most bad-dd.sg Azerbajan=pst
‘The worst (place) was Azerbajan.’

30.2 Equative constructions and the expression of

similarity
For equative constructions and the expression of similarity Sanzhi has two particles,
ʁuna and daˁʡle ‘as, like’, and the adjective miši ‘similar’.
The particle ʁuna ‘as, like’ immediately follows the parameter of comparison that it
has scope over like, e.g., focus-sensitive particles. The parameter can be a pronoun, an
adjective (9), an adverbial (10), or a noun (12). Very often it is simply a demonstrative pro-
noun, and the combination of demonstrative and equative particle means ‘like this, such’
(11). Depending on the parameter, the particle thus appears, e.g., within noun phrases (9)
or in the position of adverbial modifiers.

(9) žahil ʁuna admi ca-w heχ

young eq person cop-m dem.down
‘He is like a young man.’
(10) heštːu-d ʁuna ʡaˁdat-urme akːʷ-i
here-npl eq custom-pl cop.neg-hab.pst.3
‘There were not such customs as here.’
(11) hel ʁuna ʡaˁħ χalq’ b-irχʷ-iri
that eq good people hpl-become.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘They were good people like that.’

570
 30.2 Equative constructions and the expression of similarity

It can also occur as a predicate in a copula clause without a head noun and it can be
nominalized by suffixing -b (unclear origin) and the cross-categorical suffix in the plural
form -te (ʁunabte).

(12) heχ kuruškːa ʁuna b-irχʷ-i

dem.down mug eq n-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘This was like a mug.’

The particle daˁʡle ‘as, like’, which diachronically seems to be an adverbial derived
with the adverbializing suffix -le, has a meaning very similar but not identical to ʁuna. It
indicates only that some situation or some item resembles another situation or item. Both
particles slightly differ in their distribution. The particle daˁʡle follows the parameter
of comparison over which it has scope. As with ʁuna, the parameter can be expressed
by nouns (13), adverbials (14), or adjectives (15). But in contrast to ʁuna, daˁʡle is most
frequently used in non-finite clauses headed by participles (16) or the infinitive (17).

(13) kiwi daˁʡle χe-d heχ-tːi, kiwi ʁuna cik’al

kiwi as exist.down-npl dem.down-pl kiwi eq something
‘This looks like kiwi, something similar to kiwi.’
(14) it=qːella hana daˁʡle maršrutka-be a-d-irχʷ-i=q’al
that=when now as minibus-pl neg-npl-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3=mod
‘At that (time) there were no minibuses like now.’
(15) heχ xːunul bulan r-uqna-ce daˁʡle či-r-ig-ul ca-r
dem.down woman even f-old-dd as spr-f-see.ipfv-icvb cop-f
‘This woman even looks like she is old.’
(16) du-l haʔ-ib daˁʡle
1sg-erg say.pfv-pret as
‘as I said’
(17) qaˁjqaˁj b-uc-ib ca-b a-ka-b-ič-ij daˁʡle
jaw n-catch.pfv-pret cop-n neg-down-n-occur.pfv-inf as
‘He is keeping his jar as if it fell down.’ (lit. ‘like not to fall down’)

Finally, the adjective miši ‘similar’ assigns the dative case to its complement that rep-
resents the standard of comparison (18). In copula clauses, in which it is used in the
copula complement, the adverbializing suffix -le is added, as it regularly happens with
adjectival stems in copula construction.

(18) tusnaq-li-j miši-l akːu

prison-obl-dat similar-advz cop.neg
‘This is not similar to a prison.’

571
30 Minor constructions

The differences between the three comparative constructions lie mostly in their mor-
phosyntactic behavior, with an additional semantic distinction between ʁuna and daˁʡle
on the one side, and mišil on the other (19), (20). The particles ʁuna and daˁʡle have the
distribution of focus-sensitive particles and can therefore occur within certain types of
phrases as, e.g., noun phrases, but do not assign case to the items they scope over, in
contrast to the case-assigning adjective miši.

(19) žahil admi ʁuna / daˁʡle ca-w

young person eq / as cop-m
‘(He) is like a young man. (i.e. He seems to be young, he looks young or behaves
as if he were young)’
(20) žahil admi-li-j miši-l ca-w
young person-obl-dat similar-advz cop-m
‘(He) is similar to a young man.’

30.3 Comitative constructions

Sanzhi has two ways of expressing comitative meaning: case marking (in combination
with optional postpositions) and a construction involving the use of reflexive pronouns.
The cases used are the comitative case (-cːella, §3.4.2.1) or, more rarely, the in-ablative
case (§3.4.2.4). They can occur together with the postposition b-alli (§8.2.1) or the post-
position/adverb canille (§8.2.2). These constructions can be used with animate and inan-
imate nouns. In the latter case they can express instruments (21).

(21) č’ala-cːella ʡaˁmi ka-b-at-ur-re

fork-comit hole down-n-let.pfv-pret-cvb
‘having made a hole with a fork’
(22) nu, iž-i-cːella canille=qːel il hel zamana, akː-u=w?
well this-obl-comit together=when that that time cop.neg-prs.3=q
‘Well, he was together with him at that time, right?’

There does not seem to be a clear semantic difference between b-alli and canille (23).
The two items can only be distinguished by means of their morphosyntactic behavior,
because b-alli agrees in gender with the argument in the absolutive (23) and it always
implies a complement even when the complement is not overtly expressed. For instance,
(24) entails that there were other people with whom we came, whereas in (25) there is
no such implication and canille only functions as an adverb that expresses the fact that
Madina and the speaker came together:

(23) burta ħaˁšak-li-cːella b-alli / canille b-irχʷ-an ca-b

lid pot-obl-comit n-together / together n-be.ipfv-ptcp cop-n
‘The lid should be together with the pot.’ (E)

572
 30.3 Comitative constructions

(24) Madina=ra du=ra d-alli ag-ur=da

Madina=add 1sg=add 1/2pl-together go.pfv-pret=1
‘Madina and I came together (with somebody else/with other people).’ (E)
(25) Madina=ra du=ra canille ag-ur=da
Madina=add 1sg=add together go.pfv-pret=1
‘Madina and I came together.’ (E)
The second construction is the use of a reflexive pronoun in what looks like a coor-
dination of noun phrases. This construction has been described for Standard Dargwa
by van den Berg (2004). The structure is [Y=ra X=ra] ‘X with Y’. X refers to an animate
(usually human) entity and is formally expressed through the reflexive pronoun. Y is a
nominal that can be animate or inanimate and takes case suffixes. It can be a common
noun, a pronoun, a personal name or any other type of noun phrase. Both X and Y are
marked with the additive =ra and are often adjacent to each other, which makes them
look like a coordinated noun phrase. However, the argument referred to by the reflexive
can be expressed independently. Furthermore, the coordinated noun phrase usually does
not take an argument position in the clause. It is rather one of the individual members
that functions as argument. For instance, in (26) the pronoun heχ that is following the
comitative phrase represents the subject of the following verb as the agreement on the
verb shows (masculine singular).
(26) [hin-na badra=ra ca-w=ra] heχ ka-jcː-ur ca-w
water-gen bucket=add refl-m=add dem.down down-stand.m.pfv-pret cop-m
‘With a bucket of water he is standing.’
(27) sa-r-uq-un ca-w χːʷe=ra ca-w=ra
hither-abl-go.pfv-pret cop-m dog=add refl-m=add
‘He ran away with his dog.’
Example (28) shows that the two items bearing the additive enclitic =ra can be sepa-
rated by other material. The agreement on the existential copula is controlled by the first
noun phrase ca ca šuša, which is semantically plural and functions as the copula subject
of the existential/locational copula χe-d, and the reflexive pronoun appears in a kind of
right-dislocated position, such that it is syntactically not part of the subject constituent.
(28) harkil-li-cːe-d ca ca šuša=ra χe-d ca-b=ra
every-obl-in-npl one one bottle=add exist.down-npl refl-hpl=add
‘Everybody is with a bottle in their hands.’ (lit. ‘There is one bottle each in
everybody’s (hand), and they also.’)
It is also possible to elicit examples in which the semantically coordinated items func-
tion as a coordinated noun phrase. The coordinated noun phrase controls plural agree-
ment on intransitive verbs if it functions as subject (29). However, masculine singular
would also be possible in this type of construction as (27) shows. In example (30) the two
coordinated items are marked for the ergative case. Again the coordinated noun phrase
rather looks like an adjunct in the clause in which Musal is the agentive argument.

573
30 Minor constructions

(29) rucːi=ra ca-w=ra ka-b-icː-ur ca-b

sister=add refl-m=add down-hpl-stand.pfv-pret cop-hpl
‘He and (his) sister were standing there.’ (E)
(30) rucːi-li=ra cin-ni=ra Musa-l dalaj b-uč’-un ca-b
sister-erg=add refl.sg-erg=add Musa-erg song n-sing.ipfv-pret cop-n
‘Musa sang a song together with his sister.’
The construction has probably evolved from the emphatic use of reflexive pronouns
(§29.1.2) in combination with the additive meaning of the enclitic =ra. Thus, in (31) the
two parts occur in independent clauses that follow each other as arguments of their
respective verbs. The reflexive pronoun in the second clause doubles an omitted subject
argument and conveys the emphatic meaning ‘she herself’. The whole construction can
be rephrased as ‘both the backpack and she herself’ and has a comitative reading (‘she
went away with the backpack’) that has to be inferred from the structure.
(31) ca xːunul-li χːap b-arq’-ib-le hil-i-la wešimišuk’=ra
one woman-erg grab n-do.pfv-pret-cvb that-obl-gen backpack=add
b-erqː-ib ca-b, ca-r=ra ag-ur ca-r
n-carry.pfv-pret cop-n refl-f=add go.pfv-pret cop-f
‘There one woman grabbed his backpack, took it, and went away with it.’ (lit.
‘She also took [the backpack], and [she herself also] went away.’)

30.4 Possession
Possession is either expressed by cases or by means of the b-ah construction. In the first
case the possessor is marked with the genitive case and most commonly preceding the
possessed item (32), but other positions are available, too (33) (see §21.1 on noun phrases
and §27.1 on the constituent order of phrases). There is no grammaticalized distinction
between alienable and inalienable possession. Clauses expressing possession are copula
clauses (§22.2) containing locational copulas (§16.2).
(32) di-la atːa aba le-b=de
1sg-gen father mother exist-hpl=pst
‘I had mother and father.’
(33) qːap χe-b=uw, wa Ašura, ala?
sack exist.down-n=q hey Ashura 2sg.gen
‘Is your sack there, Ashura?’
If the respective item is not permanently possessed but only temporarily in the custody
of the possessor, the in-essive case is used (34) (§3.4.2.4).
(34) hež-i-cːe-b šuša ca-b deč-la
this-obl-in-n bottle cop-n drinking-gen
‘He has a bottle with a drink.’

574
 30.4 Possession

The second way of expressing possession is the b-ah construction. The noun b-ah
means ‘owner’ (plural b-ahin-te, also translates as ‘parents’). It is one of the few nouns
that have a gender prefix expressing the gender of the owner. The possessed item appears
in the genitive with b-ah as the head noun of the genitive phrase. If the possessor is overt
it occurs after b-ah. Both noun phrases together form an appositive phrase (§21.1). The
possessed items in this construction are normally inanimate objects (35–38). Often they
refer to clothes (37) or body parts (35), (36) that are used to characterize and identify the
owner. From this noun the adjective-like item wahwalla ‘own, everybody’s own’ with
frozen gender agreement has been derived.

(35) č’imi-la b-ah b-irχʷ-i

tail-gen n-owner n-be.ipfv-hab.pst.3
‘There was one with a tail.’
(36) ca ul-la b-ah šajt’an
one eye-gen n-owner devil
‘the devil with one eye’
(37) šljaˁp’a-la b-ahin-te=de ʡaˁbal-ra
hat-gen hpl-owner-pl=pst three-num
‘All three had hats.’
(38) qar=či-b sa-b-ik-u […] hin-ni, duqu-l, le-b-il ʁuna
up=on-n hither-n-smear.ipfv-prs water-erg egg-erg exist-n-ref eq
w-ah-la cik’al-li
m-owner-gen thing-erg
‘On the upper side you smear […] water, egg, whatever you have.’

575
Appendix A: List of affixes and enclitics
This section gives a list of all prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and enclitics, including those
suffixes that do not have glosses. The list includes the name of the item, their glosses (if
any), and the number of the chapter or section where the item is treated. Predictable allo-
morphs are separated by comma or given in brackets, and occasionally within separate
entries. Allomorphs that occur in free variation and cannot be predicted are separated
by forward slashes.

-a directional case dir

-a spatial case ‘in, on’ loc
-a oblique plural stem marker obl.pl, obl
-a derivation of action and event nouns nmlz
-a derivation of group numerals; occurs only together group
with a gender marker, e.g. -b-a, -d-a
-a imperative singular imp
-a habitual past hab.pst
a- negation neg
-ab optative opt (opt.3,
opt.2pl)
-ad habitual present first person 1.prs
-adi habitual past first person hab.pst.1
-aj(a) imperative plural imp.pl
-aj(a) second person plural of certain verb forms (e.g. 2pl
optative)
=al marker for embedded questions indq
-al, -jal derivation of numerals num
-ala derivation of action and event nouns nmlz
-alle realis conditional first person cond.1
-an realis conditional third person cond.3
-an locative participle ptcp.loc
-an obligative/modal/future participle ptcp
-(a)n derivation of adjectives adjvz
-an/-anne realis conditional third person cond.3
-anaj subjunctive third person subj.3
-aˁne imperative plural imp.pl
-aq causative caus
-ar habitual present third person 3.prs
-ar participle of copula ptpc
-ar derivation of adjectives adjvz
-ar/-ar(re) realis conditional third person cond.3
A List of affixes and enclitics

-araj subjunctive third person subj.3

-ardel past conditional third person cond.pst
-arte optative second and third person plural opt.pl
-at/-atːa prohibitive singular proh.sg
-at/-atːal realis conditional second person plural cond.2pl
-at/-atːe realis conditional second person singular cond.2sg
-atːa habitual present second person plural 2pl.prs
-atːe habitual present second person singular 2sg.prs
=aw (< =w) marker for polar questions q
-azi- derivation of adjectives; occurs only together with adjvz
gender markers, e.g. -b-azi-b
-aχː conditional cond
b-, -b-, -b neuter singular (gender marker) n
b-, -b-, -b human plural (gender marker) hpl
-be, -b- plural (of nouns) pl
-c’a(l) derivation of numerals multiples of ten ten
-ce definite description singular (cross-categorical suffix) dd.sg
-cːe spatial case ‘in, among’ in
-cːel(la) comitative comit
-če- (< či-ha-) preverb ‘on’ + preverb ‘up, upwards’ spr.up
či- preverb ‘on’ spr
-či derivation of agent nouns nmlz
-či derivation of adjectives adjvz
=č’u derivation of negative indefinites and free-choice indef
indefinites
=cun focus-sensitive particle ‘only’ only
d-, -d-, -d neuter plural (gender marker) npl
d-, -d-, -d first and second person plural (gender marker) 1/2pl
=da first person; second person plural 1, 2pl
-darš derivation of numerals (hundreds) 100
=de second person singular 2sg
=de past pst
-de, -d- plural (of nouns) pl
=del derivation of nonspecific indefinite pronouns indef
-del past conditional cond.pst
-dex derivation of abstract nouns nmlz
-di first person of habitual past 1
-e plural (of nouns) pl
-e imperative singular imp
=e marker for content questions q
=el 1. marker for embedded questions; 2. derivation of indq; indef
specific indefinite pronouns
-en imperative singular imp
-ene(ja) imperative plural imp.pl
=er temporal enclitic ‘when, as’ when
-ere imperative plural imp.pl
=ew (< =w) marker for polar questions q
=gina focus-sensitive particle ‘alone, only’ only

578
 -gu spatial case ‘under’ sub
gu- preverb ‘under, down’ down
gʷa- (< gu-ha-) preverb ‘down’ + preverb ‘up, upwards’ down.up
ha- preverb ‘up, upwards’ up
-hara spatial case ‘behind’ post
hitːi- preverb ‘behind, after’ behind
-i oblique stem marker obl
i- preverb ‘in, inside’; occurs only together with a in
prefixed gender marker, i.e. w-i-, r-i-, b-i-, d-i-
-i(ri), -ini habitual past third person hab.pst
-ib preterite pret
-ib(il), -ubil derivation of ordinal numerals ord
-id habitual present first person (transitive verbs) 1.prs
-ida first person modal 1.mod
-ide(l) modal interrogative modq
-ij infinitive inf
-il referential attribute (cross-categorical suffix) ref
-ille realis conditional first person (transitive verbs) cond.1
-it- preverb ‘away from the speaker, thither’; occurs only thither
together with a prefixed gender marker, i.e. w-it-,
r-it-, b-it-, d-it-
-it/-itːa prohibitive singular (transitive verbs) proh.sg
-itːa habitual present second person plural (transitive 2pl.prs
verbs)
-itːaj subjunctive second person (transitive verbs) subj.2
-itːaj(a) prohibitive plural (transitive verbs) proh.pl
-itːal 1. realis conditional second person plural; 2. past cond.2pl;
conditional second person plural (transitive verbs) cond.2pl
-itːe derivation of manner adverbs advz
-itːe habitual present second person singular (transitive 2sg.prs
verbs)
-itːe(l) realis conditional second person singular (transitive cond.2sg
verbs)
-itːel past conditional first and second person singular cond.1; cond.2sg
(transitive verbs)
-j dative dat
=ja marker for content questions q
-ja spatial case ‘in, on’ loc
=jal 1. marker for embedded questions; 2. derivation of indq; indef
specific indefinite pronouns
=kːʷa politeness particle prt
ka- preverb ‘down, downwards’ down
-k’a derivation of free-choice indefinite pronouns indef
-k’al derivation of negative indefinite, specific indefinite, indef
free-choice indefinite pronouns
-kar derivation of agent nouns nmlz
-k’u 1. derivation of specific indefinite pronouns; indef; emph
2. emphatic/modal particle

579
A List of affixes and enclitics

kʷi- preverb ‘in(to)/to, in(to) the hands’ in.the.hands

=l marker for embedded questions indq
-l, -li 1. ergative; 2. oblique stem marker erg; obl
-la, -lla 1. genitive; 2. temporal suffix ‘since, after’ gen; post
=le emphatic particle emph
-le spatial case ‘in, on’ loc
-le, -lle derivation of adverbials (cross-categorical suffix) advz
-lim derivation of numerals num
ma- prohibitive proh
-me, -m- plural (of nouns) pl
-na (< -la) genitive gen
-na, -jna derivation of multiplicative numerals time
-ne (< -le) spatial case ‘in, on’ loc
-ne (< -le) derivation of adverbials advz
-ne (< -le) perfective converb cvb
-ne future, third person fut.3
-ne, -n- plural (of nouns) pl
-ni masdar msd
-ni (< -li) ergative erg
-nu derivation of numerals (multiples of ten) ten
=n(u) pragmatic particle prt
-pːe, -pː- plural (of nouns) pl
=qːel(la) temporal enclitic ‘when, while, because’ when
-q’aˁ derivation of agent nouns nmlz
-qal associative plural assoc
=q’al modal particle mod
=q’ar modal particle mod
r-, -r-, -r feminine singular (gender marker) f
-r ablative abl
=ra 1. additive particle; 2. derivation of negative add
indefinite, universal indefinite, free-choice
indefinite pronouns
-ra derivation of numerals num
-ra (< -la) genitive gen
-rbe, -rb- plural (of nouns) pl
-re conditional cond
-re (< -le) perfective converb cvb
-re (< -le) spatial case ‘in, on’ loc
-re (< -le) derivation of adverbials advz
-re, -r- plural (of nouns) pl
=ri politeness particle prt
-ri (< -li) ergative erg
-rka (< -r-ka) ablative abl
-rme, -rm- plural (of nouns) pl
=ʁuna equative particle eq
-šːu ‘ad’-series (spatial case ‘to’) ad
-sa spatial case ‘in front’ ante
sa- preverb ‘to the speaker, hither’ hither

580
 sa- preverb ‘in front of’ ante
=sat/=satːin/ temporal enclitic ‘until, before, as much as, as long until; as.much
=satːinna as’
-tːa second person plural of habitual past 2pl
-tːe second person singular of habitual past 2sg
-tːi, -tː- plural (of demonstrative pronouns) pl
-tːu derivation of spatial adverbs loc
tːura- preverb ‘outside’ outside
-te, -t- plural (of nouns); definite description plural pl; dd.pl
-u habitual present third person 3.prs
-ub preterite pret
-ube, -ub- plural (of nouns) pl
-ubne, -ubn- plural (of nouns) pl
-ud habitual present first person (interrogative clauses) 1.prs
-ul(e) imperfective converb icvb
-ulle realis conditional first person (interrogative clauses) cond.1
-un preterite pret
-une, -un- plural (of nouns) pl
-unne imperfective converb icvb
-uˁq derivation of agent nouns nmlz
-ur preterite pret
-urme, -urm- plural (of nouns) pl
-ut/-utːa prohibitive singular (interrogative clauses) proh.sg
-utːa habitual present second person plural (interrogative 2pl.prs
clauses)
-utːaj subjunctive second person (interrogative clauses) subj.2
-utːaj(a) prohibitive plural (interrogative clauses) proh.pl
-utːal 1. realis conditional second person plural; 2. past cond.2pl
conditional second person plural (interrogative
clauses)
-utːe habitual present second person singular 2sg.prs
(interrogative clauses)
-utːe(l) realis conditional second person singular cond.2sg
(interrogative clauses)
-utːel past conditional first and second person singular cond.1; cond.2sg
(interrogative clauses)
-utːi derivation of action and event nouns nmlz
=uw (< =w) marker for polar questions q
=w marker for polar questions q
w-, -w-, -w masculine singular (gender marker) m
=xːar concessive enclitic ‘although, even if’ conc

581
References
Abdullaev, Said. 1950. Urus mezla-dargan mezla slovar’ (Russko-Darginskij slovar’)
[Russian-Dargwa dictionary]. Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR, Institut istorii, jazyka i lit-
eratury.
Abdullaev, Said. 1954. Grammatika darginskogo jazyka: Fonetika i morfologija [A gram-
mar of Dargwa: Phonetics and morphology]. Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR, Institut is-
torii, jazyka i literatury.
Abdullaev, Zapir G. 1961. Kategorija padeža v darginskom jazyke [The category of case
in Dargwa]. Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR, Institut istorii, jazyka i literatury.
Abdullaev, Zapir G. 1969. Sub’ektnoe-ob’ektnye i predikativnye kategorii v dargin-
skom jazyke [Subject-object and predicative categories in Dargwa]. Makhachkala:
DagUčPedgIz.
Abdullaev, Zapir G. 1971. Očerki po sintaksis darginskogo jazyka [Essays on the syntax of
Dargwa]. Moscow: Nauka.
Abdullaev, Zapir G. 1986. Problemy èrgativnosti darginskogo jazyka [Problems of ergativ-
ity in Dargwa]. Moscow: Nauka.
Abdullaev, Zapir G. 1993. Darginskij jazyk, 3 vol. I fonetika, II morfologija, III slovoobrazo-
vanie [The Dargwa language, 3 vol. I Phonetics, II Morphology, III Word formation].
Moscow: Nauka.
Abdullaev, Zapir G., A.A. Abdusalamov, Magomed-Said M. Musaev & Sapijakhanum M.
Temirbulatova. 2014. Sovremennij darginskij jazyk [Modern Dargwa]. Makhachkala:
IJaLI DNC RAN.
Belyaev, Oleg. 2010. Coordination and subordination in Dargi languages (Icari, Qunqi
and Ashti). (Paper presented at the conference Syntax of the World’s languages IV,
Lyon, 23–26 September 2010).
Belyaev, Oleg. 2012. Aspektual’no-temporal’naja sistema aštynskogo darginskogo [The
tense and aspect system in Ashti Dargwa]. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana 6. 181–227.
Belyaev, Oleg. 2013. Optimal agreement at m-structure: Person in Dargwa. In Miriam
Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of the LFG13 conference, 90–110. Stan-
ford: CSLI Publications.
Belyaev, Oleg. 2016. Ergative gender agreement in Dargwa: “Backward Control” or fea-
ture sharing? In Doug Arnold, Miriam Butt, Berthold Crysmann, Tracy Holloway King
& Stefan Müller (eds.), Proceedings of the joint 2016 conference on Head-driven Phrase
Structure Grammar and Lexical Functional Grammar, Polish Academy of Sciences, War-
saw, Poland, 83–103. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Belyaev, Oleg. 2017a. Information structure conditions on the agreement controller in
Dargwa. In Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of the LFG’17 con-
ference, University of Konstanz, 66–82. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
References

Belyaev, Oleg. 2017b. Soglasovanie svjazki po klassu v kubačinskom i aštynskom dar-

ginskom kak raznovidnost’ proksimativno-obviativnoj sistemy [Copula gender agree-
ment in Kubachi and Ashti Dargwa as a proximate-obviative system]. Acta Linguistica
Petropolitana 13. 508–535.
Belyaev, Oleg. In Preparation. A grammar of Shiri Dargwa. Ms.
Bickel, Balthasar. 2010. Capturing particulars and universals in clause linkage: A multi-
variate analysis. In Isabelle Bril (ed.), Clause linking and clause hierarchy: Syntax and
pragmatics, 51–101. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Bickel, Balthasar. 2011. Multivariate typology and field linguistics: A case study on
detransitivization in Kiranti (Sino-Tibetan). In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, David
Nathan & Lutz Marten (eds.), Proceedings of conference on language documentation
and linguistic theory 3, 3–13. London: SOAS.
Bickel, Balthasar. 2015. Distributional Typology: Statistical inquiries into the dynamics
of linguistic diversity. In Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds.), The Oxford handbook of
linguistic analysis, 2nd edn, 901–923. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bickel, Balthasar, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, Kamal Kumar Choudhary, Matthias
Schlesewsky, Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky & Kenny Smith. 2015. The neurophysiology
of language processing shapes the evolution of grammar: Evidence from case marking.
PLOS ONE 10. e0132819. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0132819
Butt, Miriam & Tracy Holloway King. 1996. Structural topic and focus without movement.
In Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of LFG. CSLI Publications.
Chumakina, Marina. 2014. Semantičeskoe soglasovanie v arčinskom jazyke [Semantic
agreement in Archi]. In Michael Daniel, Vladimir Plungian & Ekatarina A. Lyutikova
(eds.), Jazyk. Konstanty. Peremennye. [Languages. Constants. Variables.] 454–470. St.
Petersburg: Aleteja.
Chumakina, Marina, Anna Kibort & Greville G. Corbett. 2007. Determining a language’s
feature inventory: Person in Archi. In Peter K. Austin & Andrew Simpson (eds.), En-
dangered languages. [Linguistische Berichte, Sonderheft 14], 143–172. Hamburg: Helmut
Buske.
Comrie, Bernard. 1984. Some formal properties of focus in Modern Eastern Armenian.
Annual of Armenian Linguistics 5. 1–21.
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. 2012. Adverbial clauses in the Tsezic
languages. In Holger Diessel & Volker Gast (eds.), Clause linkage in cross-linguistic
perspective, 157–190. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. 2013. Alignment typology, reflexives,
and reciprocals in Tsezic languages. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berke-
ley Linguistics Society 37. 32–51.
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. 2016. Insubordination in the Tsezic
languages. In Nicholas Evans & Honoré Watanabe (eds.), The dynamics of insubordi-
nation, 171–182. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. 2017. General noun-modifying clause
constructions in Hinuq and Bezhta, with a note on other Daghestanian languages.
In Yoshiko Matsumoto, Bernard Comrie & Peter Sells (eds.), Noun-modifying clause
constructions in languages of Eurasia, 121–146. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

584
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. 2018. Affective constructions in Tsezic
languages. In Jóhanna Barðdal, Na’ama Pat-El & Stephen Mark Carey (eds.), Non-
canonically case-marked subjects: The Reykjavík-Eyjafjallajökull papers, 55–82. Ams-
terdam: Benjamins.
Comrie, Bernard, Diana Forker & Zaira Khalilova. Forthcoming. Antipassives in Nakh-
Daghestanian languages: Exploring the margins of a construction. In Katarzyna Janic
& Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.), The multifaceted nature of antipassive. Amster-
dam: Benjamins.
Comrie, Bernard & Helma van den Berg. 2006. Experiencer constructions in Daghesta-
nian languages. In Ina Bornkessel, Matthias Schlesewsky, Bernard Comrie & Angela D.
Friederici (eds.), Semantic role universals and argument linking: Theoretical, typological
and psycholinguistic perspectives, 127–154. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Corbett, Greville G. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Corbett, Greville G. 2012. Features. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Creissels, Denis. 2010. Specialized converbs and adverbial subordination in Axaxdərə
Akhvakh. In Isabelle Bril (ed.), Clause linking and clause hierarchy: Syntax and prag-
matics, 105–142. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Creissels, Denis. 2012. External agreement in the converbal construction of Northern
Akhvakh. In Holger Diessel & Volker Gast (eds.), Clause linkage in cross-linguistic per-
spective, 127–156. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Creissels, Denis. 2013. Floating genitives and possessive framing in Northern Akhvakh.
In Anne Carlier & Jean-Christophe Verstraete (eds.), The genitive, 333–354. Amster-
dam: Benjamins.
Crisp, Simon. 1983. Subject marking in some languages of Daghestan. Paper in Linguistics
16. 203–216.
Curnow, Timothy J. 2000. Towards a cross-linguistic typology of copula constructions.
In John Henderson (ed.), Proceedings of the 1999 conference of the Australian Linguistic
Society, 1–9. Australian Linguistic Society.
Daniel, Michael. 2015. Person in Archi revisited, with parallels from Dargwa and Nakh.
(Paper presented at the conference Languages in Daghestan, Chicago, 15. May 2015).
Daniel, Michael, Dmitry Ganenkov & Nina Dobrushina (eds.). 2019. The Mehweb lan-
guage. Selected essays on phonology, morphology and syntax. Berlin: Language Science
Press.
Daniel, Michael & Yury Lander. 2008. O nekotoryx osobennostjax otnositel’noj kon-
strukcii v dagestanskix jazykax. [On some peculiarities of the relative clause construc-
tion in Daghestanian languages]. In Magomed I. Magomedov (ed.), Kavkazskie jazyki:
Genetičeskie, tipologičeskie i areal’nye svjazi [Caucasian languages: Genetic, typologi-
cal and areal connections], 242–249. Makhachkala: IJaLI DNC RAN.
Daniel, Michael & Yury Lander. 2010. A girl of word, meat of a ram, and a life of longing.
On peculiar cases of relativization in East Caucasian languages. (Paper presented at
the conference Syntax of the World’s languages IV, Lyon, 23–26 September 2010).
Dik, Simon C. 1997. The theory of functional grammar. Part 2: Complex and derived con-
structions. Kees Hengeveld (ed.). Berlin: de Gruyter.

585
References

Dik, Simon C., Maria E. Hoffmann, Jan R. de Jong, Ing Dijang Sie, Harry J. Stroomer &
Lourens de Vries. 1981. On the typology of focus phenomena. In Teun Hoekstra, Harry
van der Hulst & Michael Moortgat (eds.), Perspectives on functional grammar, 41–74.
Dordrecht: Foris.
Dixon, R. M. W. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2006. Complement clauses and complementation strategies in typologi-
cal perspective. In R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Complementation,
1–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2008. Comparative constructions. Studies in Language 32. 787–817.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2010. Basic linguistic theory, vol. 2: Grammatical topics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Dobrushina, Nina, Michael Daniel & Yuri Koryakov. 2020. Languages and sociolinguis-
tics of the Caucasus. In Maria Polinsky (ed.), The Oxford handbook of languages of the
Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dryer, Matthew S. 2005. Position of interrogative phrases in content questions. In Martin
Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.), The world atlas of
language structures, 378–381. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Evans, Nicholas. 2007. Insubordination and its uses. In Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), Finiteness:
Theoretical and empirical foundations, 366–431. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Evans, Nicholas & Honoré Watanabe (eds.). 2016. The dynamics of insubordination. Am-
sterdam: Benjamins.
Foley, William A. & Robert D. Van Valin. 1984. Functional syntax and universal grammar.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Forker, Diana. 2012. The bi-absolutive construction in Nakh-Daghestanian. Folia Linguis-
tica 46. 75–108.
Forker, Diana. 2013a. A grammar of Hinuq. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Forker, Diana. 2013b. Interrogative particles in Nakh-Daghestanian languages. Rice Work-
ing Papers in Linguistics 4. 1–17.
Forker, Diana. 2013c. Microtypology and the Tsezic languages: A case study of syntactic
properties of converbal clauses. SKY Journal of Linguistics 26. 21–40.
Forker, Diana. 2014. Are there subject anaphors? Linguistic Typology 18. 51–81.
Forker, Diana. 2016a. Complementizers in Hinuq. In Kasper Boye & Petar Kehayov
(eds.), Semantic functions of complementizers in European languages, 745–792. Berlin:
de Gruyter.
Forker, Diana. 2016b. Floating agreement and information structure: The case of Sanzhi
Dargwa. Studies in Language 40. 1–25.
Forker, Diana. 2016c. Towards a typology for additive markers. Lingua 180. 69–100.
Forker, Diana. 2017. Ergativity in Nakh-Daghestanian languages. In Jessica Coon, Diane
Massam & Lisa Travis (eds.), The Oxford handbook of ergativity, 851–872. Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Forker, Diana. 2018a. Evidentiality in Nakh-Daghestanian languages. In Alexandra Y.
Aikhenvald (ed.), The Oxford handbook of evidentiality, 490–509. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.

586
Forker, Diana. 2018b. Introduction. In Diana Forker & Timur Maisak (eds.), The semantics
of verbal categories in Nakh-Daghestanian languages: Tense, aspect, evidentiality, mood
and modality, 1–25. Leiden: Brill.
Forker, Diana. 2018c. Sanzhi–Russian code switching and the Matrix Language Frame
model. International Journal of Bilingualism 23. 1448–1468.
Forker, Diana. 2019a. Elevation as a category of grammar: Sanzhi Dargwa and beyond.
Linguistic Typology 23. 59–106.
Forker, Diana. 2019b. Grammatical relations in Sanzhi Dargwa. In Alena Witzlack-
Makarevich & Balthasar Bickel (eds.), Argument selectors: A new perspective on gram-
matical relations, 69–106. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Forker, Diana. 2019c. Reported speech constructions in Sanzhi Dargwa and their exten-
sion to other areas of grammar. Sprachwissenschaft 44. 171–199.
Forker, Diana. Submitted. A sketch grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa. In Yuri Koryakov, Yury
Lander & Timur Maisak (eds.), The Caucasian languages: An international handbook.
Berlin: de Gruyter.
Forker, Diana. Accepted. More than just a modal particle: The enclitic =q’al in Sanzhi
Dargwa. Functions of Language.
Forker, Diana & Oleg Belyaev. 2016. Word order and focus particles in Nakh-
Daghestanian languages. In M. M. Jocelyne Fernandez-Vest & Robert Van Valin (eds.),
Information structuring of spoken language from a cross-linguistic perspective, 239–262.
Berlin: de Gruyter.
Forker, Diana & Gadzhimurad Gadzhimuradov. 2017. Sanžinskie skazki i rasskazy [Sanzhi
tales and narratives]. Makhachkala.
Gadžieva, O. Š., M. O. Osmanova & A. G. Pašaeva. 1967. Material’naja kul’tura dargincev
[The material culture of the Dargwa people]. Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR Institut istorii,
jazyka i literatury.
Gagliardi, Annie, Michael Goncalves, Maria Polinsky & Nina Radkevich. 2014. The biab-
solutive construction in Lak and Tsez. Lingua 150. 137–170.
Gagliardi, Annie, Jeff Lidz & Maria Polinsky. 2009. The acquisition of noun classes in
Tsez. (Paper presented at the conference BUCLD 34, Boston, 6–8. November 2009).
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2006. Experiencer coding in Nakh-Daghestanian. In Leonid Kulikov,
Andrej Malchukov & Peter de Swart (eds.), Case, valency and transitivity, 179–202.
Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2007. Spatial preverbs in Lezgic languages. (Paper presented at the
conference on the Languages of the Caucasus, MPI EVA Leipzig, 7–9 December 2007).
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2010. Topological relations in Daghestanian languages. Linguistics
48. 1011–1041.
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2012. Partial control with overt embedded subjects. (Paper pre-
sented at the conference Typology, Theory: Caucasus, Bogaziçi University & IFEA,
29. November – 1. December 2012).
Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2013. Diachrony of experiencer subject marking. Evidence from East
Caucasian. In Ilja A. Seržant & Leonid Kulikov (eds.), The diachronic typology of non-
canonical subjects, 231–256. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

587
References

Ganenkov, Dmitry. 2018. Gender agreement alternation in Aqusha Dargwa: A case

against information structure. Studies in Language 42. 529–561.
Ganenkov, Dmitry. Submitted. A sketch grammar of Chirag Dargwa. In Yuri Koryakov,
Yury Lander & Timur Maisak (eds.), The Caucasian languages: An international hand-
book. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Gasanova, Saida M. 1961. Glagol v darginskom jazyke [The verb in Dargwa].
Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR, Institut istorii, jazyka i literatury.
Gasanova, Saida M. 1971. Očerki darginskoj dialektologii [Essays on Dargwa dialectology].
Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR, Institut istorii, jazyka i literatury.
Gigineishvili, B. K. 1977. Sravnitel’naja fonetika dagestanskix jazykov [Comparative pho-
netics of the Daghestanian languages]. Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Press.
Grenoble, Leonore. 2003. Language policy in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Haig, Geoffrey. 2015. Verb-Goal (VG) word order in Kurdish and Neo-Aramaic: Typo-
logical and areal considerations. In Geoffrey Khan & Lidia Napiorkowska (eds.), Neo-
Aramaic and its linguistic context, 419–437. Piscataway: Gorgias Press.
Harris, Alice C. 2001. Focus and universal principles governing simplification of cleft
structures. In Jan Terje Faarlund (ed.), Grammatical relations in change, 159–170. Am-
sterdam: Benjamins.
Harris, Alice C. 2002. Endoclitics and the origins of Udi morphosyntax. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. A grammar of Lezgian. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1995. The converb as a cross-linguistically valid category. In Mar-
tin Haspelmath & Ekkehard König (eds.), Converbs in cross-linguistic perspective, 1–55.
Berlin: de Gruyter.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1998. The semantic development of old presents: New futures and
subjunctives without grammaticalization. Diachronica 15. 29–62.
Helmbrecht, Johannes. 1996. The syntax of personal agreement in East Caucasian lan-
guages. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 49. 127–148.
Hengeveld, Kees. 1989. Layers and Operators in Functional Grammar. Journal of Linguis-
tics 25. 127–157.
Izutsu, Mitsuko Narita. 2008. Contrast, concessive, and corrective: Toward a comprehen-
sive study of opposition relations. Journal of Pragmatics 40. 646–675.
Jusupov, Khizri A. 2005. Russko-darginskij slovar’ [Russian-Dargwa dictionary].
Makhachkala: Jupiter.
Jusupov, Khizri A. 2009. Russko-darginskij škol’nyj slovar’ [Russian-Dargwa school dic-
tionary]. Makhachkala.
Kadibagomedov, Amirbek A. 1998. Sixinskij dialect darginskogo jazyka. (fonetičeskaja sis-
tema) [The Sikhi dialect of Dargwa (The phonetic system)]. Makhachkala: IJaLI DNC
RAN.
Kalinina, Elena. 2011. Exclamative clauses in the languages of the North Caucasus and the
problem of finiteness. In Gilles Authier & Timur Maisak (eds.), Tense, aspect, modality
and finiteness in East Caucasian languages, 161–201. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

588
Kalinina, Elena & Nina Sumbatova. 2007. Clause structure and verbal forms in Nakh-
Daghestanian. In Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), Finiteness: Theoretical and empirical founda-
tions, 183–249. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kazenin, Konstantin. 1998. On patient demotion in Lak. In Leonid Kulikov & Heinz Vater
(eds.), Typology of verbal categories, 95–115. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Kazenin, Konstantin. 2001. Umen’šenie perexodnosti: Binominativnaja konstrukcija
[Transitivity reduction: The binominative construction]. In Aleksandr E. Kibrik (ed.),
Bagvalinskij jazyk. Grammatika. Teksty. Slovari. [The Bagwalal language. Grammar.
Texts. Dictionaries.] 394–399. Moscow: Nasledie.
Kazenin, Konstantin. 2002. Focus in Daghestanian word order typology. Linguistic Ty-
pology 6. 391–416.
Kazenin, Konstantin. 2009. Discontinuous nominals, linear order, and morphological
complexity in languages of the North Caucasus. Linguistic Typology 13. 289–316.
Kazenin, Konstantin & Yakov G. Testelets. 1999. Porjadok slov i struktura sostavlja-
jushchix [Word order and constituent structure]. In Aleksandr E. Kibrik, Konstantin
I. Kazenin, Ekatarina A. Lyutikova, Sergei G. Tatevosov & Yakov G. Testelets (eds.),
Èlementy caxurskogo jazyka v tipologičeskom osveščenii [Aspects of Tsakhur from a
typological perspective], 293–346. Moscow: Nasledie.
Kazenin, Konstantin & Yakov G. Testelets. 2004. Where coordination meets subordina-
tion: Converb constructions in Tsakhur (Daghestanian). In Martin Haspelmath (ed.),
Coordinating constructions, 227–239. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Khalilova, Zaira. 2009. A grammar of Khwarshi. Utrecht: LOT.
Kibrik, Aleksandr E. 1985. Toward a typology of ergativity. In Johanna Nichols & An-
thony Woodbury (eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause. Some approaches to
theory from the field, 268–323. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kibrik, Aleksandr E. 1996. Godoberi. Munich: Lincom.
Kibrik, Aleksandr E. 1997. Beyond subject and object: Towards a comprehensive rela-
tional typology. Linguistic Typology 1. 279–346.
Kibrik, Aleksandr E. 2003. Konstanty i peremennye jazyka [Constants and variables of
language]. St. Petersburg: Aleteja.
Komen, Erwin R. 2007. Chechen vowel inventory. Leiden Papers in Linguistics 4. 33–60.
Komen, Erwin R. 2014. Chechen extraposition as an information ordering strategy. In
Rik van Gijn, Jeremy Hammond, Dejan Matić, Saskia van Putten & Ana Vilacy Galu-
cio (eds.), Information structure and reference tracking in complex sentences, 99–126.
Amsterdam: Benjamins.
König, Ekkehard & Volker Gast. 2006. Focused assertion of identity: A typology of inten-
sifiers. Linguistic Typology 10. 223–276.
Koryakov, Yuri. 2006. Atlas kavkazskix jazykov [An atlas of the Caucasian languages].
Moscow: RAN.
Koryakov, Yuri, Yury Lander & Timur Maisak (eds.). Submitted. The Caucasian languages:
An international handbook. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Koryakov, Yuri & Nina Sumbatova. 2007. Darginskie jazyki [Dargwa languages]. Bol’šaja
rossijskaja ènciklopedija 8.

589
References

Kulikov, Leonid. 2011. Voice typology. In Jae Jung Song (ed.), The Oxford handbook of
linguistic typology, 368–398. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kustova, Marina. 2015. General converbs in Mehweb. Working Paper Series Lingusitics.
WP BRP 31/LNG/2015.
Kustova, Marina. 2019. General converbs in Mehweb. In Michael Daniel, Dmitry Ga-
nenkov & Nina Dobrushina (eds.), The Mehweb language. Selected essays on phonology,
morphology and syntax, 184–195. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Lambrecht, Knud. 2001. A framework for the analysis of cleft constructions. Linguistics
39. 463–516.
Lander, Yury. 2008. Nestandartnoe množestvennoe čislo v tantinskom darginskom [Non-
standard plural in Tanti Dargwa]. In M. I. Magomedov (ed.), Kavkazskie jazyki:
Genetičeskie, tipologičeskie i areal’nye svjazi [Caucasian languages: Genetic, typologi-
cal and areal connections], 241–245. Makhachkala: IJaLI DNC RAN.
Lander, Yury. 2010. O raznyx morfologijax: Tantynskie darginskie lokativnye formy [On
different morphologies: Tanti Dargwa locative forms]. Bjulleten’ obščestva vostokove-
dov 17. 139–161.
Lander, Yury. 2014. Modifier incorporation in Dargwa nominals.
Lander, Yury. 2016. Looking for a hierarchical structure in Tanti Dargwa NPs. (Presenta-
tion at the Workshop on Nakh-Daghestanian languages, University of Bamberg, 15–16
April 2016).
Langacker, Ronald. 1969. Pronominalization and the chain of command. In David Reibel
& Sanford Schane (eds.), Modern studies in English: Readings in Transformational Gram-
mar, 160–200. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Magomedov, Rasul M. 1999. Dargincy v dagestanskom istoričeskom processe. [The Dargwa
people in the historical process of Dagestan]. Makhachkala: Dag. Knižn. Iz.
Magometov, Aleksandr A. 1963. Kubačinskij jazyk [The Kubachi language]. Tbilisi: Izd.
AN Gruz. SSR.
Magometov, Aleksandr A. 1983. K istorii izučenija dialektov darginskogo jazyka [On the
history of the study of Dargwa dialects]. Annual of Ibero-Caucasian Linguistics 10. 273–
293.
Maisak, Timur. 2010. Predicate topicalization in East Caucasian languages. (Paper pre-
sented at the conference Syntax of the World’s languages IV, Lyon, 23–26 September
2010).
Malchukov, Andrej L. 2004. Towards a semantic typology of adversative and contrast
marking. Journal of Semantics 21. 177–198.
Mithun, Marianne. 2008. Extension of dependency beyond the sentence. Language 81.
69–119.
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 1975. Čiragskij dialect darginskogo jazyka [The Chirag
dialect of Dargwa]. In Voprosi russkogo i dagestanskogo jazykoznanija, 144–161.
Makhachkala.
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 1978. Leksika darginskogo jazyka [The lexical inventory of
Dargwa]. Makhachkala: DSU.
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 1980. Sistema glagol’nogo slovoizmenenija darginskogo jazyka
[The system of verbal inflection in Dargwa]. Makhachkala.

590
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 1983. Slovoizmenitel’nye naklonenija darginskogo jazyka
(vremja i naklonenie) [Verbal inflection in Dargwa (tense and mood)]. Makhachkala:
DSU.
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 1984. Padežnij sostav darginskogo jazyka [The case inventory
of Dargwa]. Makhachkala: DagUčPedgIz.
Musaev, Magomed-Said M. 2002. Darginskij jazyk [The Dargwa language]. In Vladimir
P. Neroznak (ed.), Gosudarstvennye i titul’nye jazyki rossii [State and titular languages
of Russia], 83–95. Moscow: Academia.
Mutalov, Rasul. 1992. Icarinskij dialekt darginskogo jazyka [The Icari dialect of the
Dargwa language]. Makhachkala: DSU.
Mutalov, Rasul. 2002. Glagol darginskogo jazyka [The verb in the Dargwa language].
Makhachkala: DSU.
Mutalov, Rasul. 2018. The tense / aspect system of Standard Dargwa. In Diana Forker
& Timur Maisak (eds.), The semantics of verbal categories in Nakh-Daghestanian lan-
guages: Tense, aspect, evidentiality, mood and modality, 49–79. Leiden: Brill.
Neeleman, Ad, Elena Titov, Hans van de Koot & Reiko Vermeulen. 2009. A syntactic
typology of topic, focus and contrast. In Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (ed.), Alternatives
to cartography, 15–51. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Nichols, Johanna. 1980. Control and ergativity in Chechen. Chicago Linguistic Society 16.
259–268.
Nichols, Johanna. 2003. A bipartite verb stem outlier in Eurasia: Nakh-Daghestanian.
Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 29. 321–334.
Nichols, Johanna. 2007. Head gender/source gender in Nakh-Daghestanian: Synchrony
and typology. (Paper presented at the conference on the languages of the Caucasus,
Leipzig, 8. December 2007).
Polinsky, Maria. 2005. Antipassive constructions. In Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S.
Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.), The world atlas of language structures, 438–
441. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Polinsky, Maria (ed.). 2020. The Oxford handbook of languages of the Caucasus. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Polinsky, Maria & Bernard Comrie. 2003. Constraints on reflexivization in Tsez. In Dee
Ann Holisky & Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current trends in Caucasian, East European and In-
ner Asian linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, 265–289. Amsterdam: Ben-
jamins.
Polinsky, Maria & Eric Potsdam. 2001. Long-distance agreement and topic in Tsez. Natu-
ral Language & Linguistic Theory 19. 583–646.
Polinsky, Maria & Eric Potsdam. 2002. Backward Control. Linguistic Inquiry 33. 245–282.
Polinsky, Maria & Eric Potsdam. 2006. Expanding the scope of control and raising. Syntax
9. 171–192.
Pustet, Regina. 2003. Copulas: Universals in the categorization of the lexicon. Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Reinhart, Tanya. 1976. The syntactic domain of anaphora. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dis-
sertation).

591
References

Repp, Sophie. 2010. Defining ‘contrast’ as an information-structural notion in grammar.

Lingua 120. 1333–1345.
San Roque, Lila, Lauren Gawne, Darja Hoenigman, Julia C. Miller, Alan Rumsey, Stef
Spronck, Alice Carroll & Nicholas Evans. 2012. Getting the story straight: Language
fieldwork using a narrative problem-solving task. Language documentation and con-
servation 6. 135–174.
Šaxbanov, Marko. 2009. Perepis’ 2010 i nacional’nyj vopros v Dagestane [The 2010 census
and the national question in Dagestan]. Novoe delo 33. 24–25.
Schilling, E. M. 1949. Kubačincy i ix kul’tura [The Kubachi people and their culture].
Moscow: Iz. AN SSSR.
Schulze, Wolfgang. 2003. The diachrony of demonstrative pronouns in East Caucasian.
In Dee Ann Holisky & Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current trends in Caucasian, East European,
and inner Asian linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, 291–348. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
Schulze, Wolfgang. 2011. The Lak language. Nová Filologická Revue 3. 11–37.
Serdobolskaya, Natalia. 2009. Towards the typology of raising: A functional approach. In
Patience Epps & Alexandre Arkhipov (eds.), New challenges in typology: Transcending
the borders and refining the distinctions, 269–294. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Serdobolskaya, Natalia. 2010. Backward control in connection with the principles of the
binding theory (based on the data of Qunqi Dargwa). (Paper presented at the confer-
ence Syntax of the World’s languages IV, Lyon, 23–26 September 2010).
Seržant, Ilja A. 2016. External possession and constructions that may have it. Sprachty-
pologie und Universalienforschung 69. 131–169.
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1994. An integrational approach to possessor raising, ethical da-
tives and adversative passives. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistics Society. 461–486.
Slade, Benjamin Martin. 2011. Formal and philological inquiries into the nature of inter-
rogatives, indefinites, disjunction, and focus in Sinhala and other languages. Urbana &
Illinois: UIUC. (Doctoral dissertation).
Sumbatova, Nina. 2009. Constituent questions and argument-focus constructions: Some
data from the North-Caucasian languages. In Johannes Helmbrecht (ed.), Form and
function in language research. Papers in honour of Christian Lehmann, 313–328. Berlin:
de Gruyter.
Sumbatova, Nina. 2010. Svjazki v darginskom jazyke: Oppozicii i upotreblenie [Copulas
in Dargwa: Oppositions and use]. Voprosy jazykoznanija 5. 44–62.
Sumbatova, Nina. 2011. Person hierarchies and the problem of person marker origin in
Dargwa: Facts and diachronic problems. In Gilles Authier & Timur Maisak (eds.), Tense,
aspect, modality and finiteness in East Caucasian languages, 131–160. Bochum: Brock-
meyer.
Sumbatova, Nina. 2013. Tipologičeskoe i diaxroničeskoe issledovanie morfosintaksisa (na
primere jazykov darginskoj gruppy) [Typological and diachronic morphosyntactic in-
vestigations (exemplified by the Dargwa languages)]. Moscow: RSUH. (Doctoral dis-
sertation).

592
Sumbatova, Nina. 2014. V poiskax podležaščego: Kontrol’ klassnogo soglasovanija i
priznaki grammatičeskogo prioriteta v darginskom jazyke [In search of the subject:
Control of class agreement and grammatical indications for priority in Dargwa]. In
Michael Daniel, Vladimir Plungian & Ekatarina A. Lyutikova (eds.), Jazyk. Konstanty.
Peremennye. [Languages. Constants. Variables.] 499–517. St. Petersburg: Aleteja.
Sumbatova, Nina. 2017. Predikaty i ix absoljutivnye argumenty v tantynskom dialekte
darginskogo jazyka [Predicates and their absolutive arguments in the Tanti dialect of
Dargwa]. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana 13. 786–827.
Sumbatova, Nina. Submitted. Dargwa languages. In Yuri Koryakov, Yury Lander & Timur
Maisak (eds.), The Caucasian languages: An international handbook. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Sumbatova, Nina & Yury Lander. 2014. Darginskij govor selenija Tanty: Grammatičeskij
očerk, voprosy sintaksisa [The Dargwa dialect of the village of Tanti: Grammar sketch,
syntactic topics]. Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kul’tury.
Sumbatova, Nina & Rasul Mutalov. 2003. A grammar of Icari Dargi. Munich: Lincom.
Tatevosov, Sergei. 2000. Metafizika dviženija v grammatike estestvennogo jazyka:
Glagol’naja prefiksacija v severokavkazskix jazykax [Metaphysics of motion in gram-
mar of natural languages: Verbal prefixation in North Caucasian languages]. Vestnik
MGU 9. 14–29.
Tatevosov, Sergei. 2001. From resultatives to evidentials: Multiple uses of the perfect in
Nakh-Daghestanian languages. Journal of Pragmatics 33. 443–464.
Tatevosov, Sergei. 2005. From habituals to futures: Discerning the path of diachronic
development. In Henk Verkuyl, Henriëtte de Swart & Angeliek van Hout (eds.), Per-
spectives on aspect, 181–197. Dordrecht: Springer.
Tatevosov, Sergei. 2011. Detelicization and argument suppression: Evidence from
Godoberi. Linguistics 49. 135–174.
Temirbulatova, Sapijakhanum M. 2005. Xajdakskij dialect darginskogo jazyka [The Kha-
jtag dialect of Dargwa]. Makhachkala: IJaLI DNC RAN.
Testelets, Yakov G. 1998a. Word order in Daghestanian languages. In Anna Siewierska
(ed.), Constituent order in the languages of Europe, 257–280. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Testelets, Yakov G. 1998b. Word order in Kartvelian languages. In Anna Siewierska (ed.),
Constituent order in the languages of Europe, 235–256. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Testelets, Yakov G. 1998c. Word order variation in some SOV languages of Europe. In
Anna Siewierska (ed.), Constituent order in the languages of Europe, 649–679. Berlin:
de Gruyter.
Uegaki, Wataru. 2018. A unified semantics for the Japanese Q-particle ka in indefinites,
questions and disjunctions. Glossa 3. 1–45.
Uslar, Peter K. 1892. Ètnografia Kavkaza, vol. 5: Xjurkilinskij dialekt [The ethnography of
the Caucasus, vol. 5: The Khjurkili dialect]. Tiflis.
Vallduví, Enric & Maria Vilkuna. 1998. On rheme and kontrast. In Peter W. Culicover &
Louise McNally (eds.), The limits of syntax, 79–108. New York: Academic Press.
van den Berg, Helma. 1999. Gender and person agreement in Akusha Dargi. Folia Lin-
guistica 33. 153–168.
van den Berg, Helma. 2001. Dargi folktales: Oral stories from the Caucasus and an intro-
duction to Dargi grammar. Leiden: CNWS.

593
References

van den Berg, Helma. 2003a. Antipassive constructions in Nakh-Daghestanian lan-

guages, Ms.
van den Berg, Helma. 2003b. Die Lokalkasussysteme der darginischen Dialekte: Ein syn-
chroner und diachroner Überblick. In Winfried Boeder (ed.), Kaukasische Sprachprob-
leme. Caucasica Oldenburgensia, 59–73. Oldenburg: BIS.
van den Berg, Helma. 2003c. Spatial prefixes in Dargi (East Caucasian). Acta Linguistica
Hungarica 50. 201–225.
van den Berg, Helma. 2004. Coordinating constructions in Daghestanian. In Martin Has-
pelmath (ed.), Coordinating constructions, 197–226. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
van den Berg, Helma. 2005. The East Caucasian language family. Lingua 115. 147–190.
Wixman, Ronald. 1980. Language aspects of ethnic patterns and processes in the North
Caucasus. Chicago: Department of Geography, University of Chicago.
Xajdakov, Said M. 1986. Logičeskoe udarenie i členenie predloženij (Dagestanskie dan-
nye) [Logical stress and sentence structure (Daghestanian data)]. In Georgij A. Klimov
(ed.), Aktual’nye problemy dagestansko-naxskogo jazykoznanija [Current questions in
Nakh-Dagestanian linguistics]. Makhachkala: DFAN SSSR.

594
Name index

Abdullaev, Said, 8, 9, 12 Gagliardi, Annie, 383, 384, 389

Abdullaev, Zapir G., 12, 82, 124, 126, 188 Ganenkov, Dmitry, 11, 12, 197, 217, 342,
354, 386, 388, 389
Belyaev, Oleg, 11, 12, 257, 264, 274, 296, Gasanova, Saida M., 9, 12
306, 386, 394, 398, 487, 498, Gast, Volker, 560
521, 523, 524, 530 Gigineishvili, B. K., 11
Bickel, Balthasar, 342, 390, 417, 488, 491, Grenoble, Leonore, 8, 9
497, 499, 500
Butt, Miriam, 521 Haig, Geoffrey, 525
Harris, Alice C., 535
Chumakina, Marina, 376, 383 Haspelmath, Martin, 11, 132, 244, 487
Comrie, Bernard, 11, 342, 365, 430, 444, Helmbrecht, Johannes, 373
476, 487, 521, 552 Hengeveld, Kees, 454
Corbett, Greville G., 373, 376
Creissels, Denis, 410, 487, 499, 500, 512, Izutsu, Mitsuko Narita, 519
513
Crisp, Simon, 430 Jusupov, Khizri A., 12
Curnow, Timothy J., 423
Kadibagomedov, Amirbek A., 12
Daniel, Michael, 12, 257, 274, 444 Kalinina, Elena, 11, 12, 161, 174, 393, 552
Dik, Simon C., 454, 518, 534 Kazenin, Konstantin, 389, 413, 487, 498,
Dixon, R. M. W., 341, 423, 432, 454, 569 499, 512, 535, 536
Dobrushina, Nina, 9 Khalilova, Zaira, 351
Dryer, Matthew S., 528 Kibrik, Aleksandr E., 7, 11, 430, 479
King, Tracy Holloway, 521
Evans, Nicholas, 279, 550, 551 Komen, Erwin R., 512, 518, 521
König, Ekkehard, 560
Foley, William A., 430 Koryakov, Yuri, 7, 9, 11
Forker, Diana, xiii, 6, 7, 11–13, 65, 92, Kulikov, Leonid, 370
99, 101, 105, 106, 132, 168, 172, Kustova, Marina, 307, 498, 501
174, 221, 282, 342, 351, 360, 386,
389, 390, 393, 430, 469, 471, Lambrecht, Knud, 536
476, 487, 500, 521, 523, 524, Lander, Yury, xiii, 12, 65, 70, 124, 161, 162,
530, 536, 540, 544, 558, 559 174, 188, 219, 295, 319, 386–388,
444, 512, 515
Gadzhimuradov, Gadzhimurad, xiii, 7, Langacker, Ronald, 496
12, 13
Gadžieva, O. Š., 12 Magomedov, Rasul M., 9
Name index

Magometov, Aleksandr A., 11, 12 Van Valin, Robert D., 430

Maisak, Timur, 538 Vilkuna, Maria, 519
Malchukov, Andrej L., 519
Mithun, Marianne, 307, 502, 550 Watanabe, Honoré, 279, 550
Musaev, Magomed-Said M., 9, 12 Wixman, Ronald, 9
Mutalov, Rasul, xiii, 12, 161, 162, 180, 190,
278, 296, 306, 319, 346, 360, Xajdakov, Said M., 535
379, 389, 422

Neeleman, Ad, 519

Nichols, Johanna, 44, 217, 430

Polinsky, Maria, 7, 361, 389, 476, 479

Potsdam, Eric, 389, 476, 479
Pustet, Regina, 419

Reinhart, Tanya, 496

Repp, Sophie, 519

San Roque, Lila, 14, 94, 151, 267, 272

Šaxbanov, Marko, 9
Schilling, E. M., 12
Schulze, Wolfgang, 92, 373
Serdobolskaya, Natalia, 11, 12, 476, 479
Seržant, Ilja A., 514
Shibatani, Masayoshi, 514
Slade, Benjamin Martin, 544
Sumbatova, Nina, xiii, 9, 11, 12, 65, 70,
161, 162, 174, 180, 188, 190, 219,
278, 295, 296, 306, 319, 346,
360, 379, 386–390, 393, 394,
422, 430, 515, 535

Tatevosov, Sergei, 174, 217, 221, 244, 365

Temirbulatova, Sapijakhanum M., 11, 12
Testelets, Yakov G., 389, 407, 487, 498,
499, 512, 515, 521, 524

Uegaki, Wataru, 544

Uslar, Peter K., 9, 12

Vallduví, Enric, 519

van den Berg, Helma, 11, 12, 69, 70, 124,
132, 174, 188, 217, 342, 365, 373,
386, 508, 540, 573

596
Subject index

ablative, 64, 65, 655 , 68, 69, 72, 73, 76, 103, spatial, 44, 65, 77, 103, 104, 139–144,
104, 108, 128, 140–143, 150, 153, 147, 187, 217, 314, 375, 380, 384,
155–157, 198, 217, 218, 221, 314, 415, 528
315, 348, 358, 415, 418, 437, 438, temporal, 104, 144, 145, 150–152,
445, 569, 572, 580 323, 324, 525
absolutive, 11, 43, 54–56, 64, 89–91, 97, adverbializer, 31, 37, 107, 133, 195, 2502 ,
104–108, 115, 131, 147, 149, 150, 258, 306, 323
154, 155, 157–159, 189, 195, 214, agent, 28, 50, 57, 65, 73, 77, 78, 80, 127,
230, 232, 261, 278, 280–282, 260, 262–264, 268, 344, 351,
285, 296, 303, 341–346, 349– 363, 364, 378, 386–389, 392–
352, 354, 356, 357, 3572 , 360, 394, 398–401, 418, 435, 443,
361, 363, 364, 374, 375, 377– 446, 447, 461, 475, 477, 483,
380, 383–386, 388, 389, 394– 494, 558, 566, 578–581
396, 400, 411–414, 417–422, agreement
425, 426, 431, 434–436, 439, closest conjunct, 383, 384
445, 456, 458, 466, 467, 475– deviant, 385–390
477, 479, 480, 488, 513, 518, 523, person, 11, 162, 163, 165, 205, 214,
530, 546, 5571 , 558, 559, 561, 215, 243, 259, 261, 264, 268,
566, 568, 572 269, 278, 281, 282, 286, 299,
additive, 169–173, 178, 217, 222, 328, 336, 303, 305, 317, 318, 330, 344–
507, 510, 537–539, 561, 573, 346, 349, 354–358, 373, 390,
574, 580, see also enclitic, ad- 391, 394–396, 398–401, 418,
ditive 420, 432, 440, 471, 491, 503
adjectives, 22, 46, 78, 8511 , 86, 89, 119, agreement controller, 215, 251, 285, 288,
121–127, 129, 137, 146, 147, 162, 299, 301, 356, 357, 374, 375,
169, 183–185, 187–191, 194, 195, 377–381, 384, 387–390, 400,
197, 206, 229, 237, 311, 322, 466, 475, 476
3731 , 375, 376, 403–405, 407, agreement prefix, 34–36, 44, 80, 819 , 184,
408, 410, 412, 424, 426, 440, 207–212, 214, 215, 220, 222,
511, 512, 515, 517, 571, 577, 578 224, 232, 288–290, 357, 3573 ,
adjectivizer, 127, 197 385, 386, 389, 400, 420, 439,
adverb 456, 466, 467, 475
degree, 122, 128, 139, 146, 147, 569, agreement target, 380, 381, 384
570 antipassive, 57, 58, 257, 259, 260, 297,
manner, 102, 127, 139, 146, 147, 428, 299, 344, 360–362, 3624 , 363–
579 366, 378, 417, 432, 435, 523
Subject index

apposition, 84, 191 499

aspect compounding, 43, 83, 123, 125, 197, 206,
imperfective, 243, 259, 320, 360, 215, 227, 228, 234, 294, 424,
361 467, 537
perfective, 11, 207, 210, 227, 276, concessive, 115, 117, 118, 172, 289, 305,
320, 335, 474 327, 328, 330, 336, 337, 380,
assimilation, 30, 37, 262, 324 538, 581
conditional, 163, 167, 168, 172, 214, 215,
causative, 28, 37, 205, 212, 215, 225, 245, 277–279, 281, 290, 293,
227, 315, 317, 320, 360, 368, 305, 318, 325, 328, 330–337,
370, 577, see also construction, 391, 393, 395, 397, 398, 400,
causative 503, 515, 552, 577–581
clause conjunction, 161, 166–169, 171, 172, 297,
adverbial, 80, 152, 163, 169, 275, 277, 330, 382, 384, 432, 505–509
293, 305–308, 310, 312, 313, consonant, 11, 19, 20, 22–25, 27, 28, 30,
315, 317, 319, 321–326, 328– 32, 37–40, 49, 50, 66, 78, 92,
330, 361, 362, 401, 438, 444– 113, 194, 206, 225, 227, 257, 462,
446, 449, 454, 459, 460, 470, 541, 544, 549
473, 486–490, 4901 , 491–500, distribution of, 19
502, 503, 526 geminate, 24, 49, 78
conditional, 116, 163, 167, 178, 243, tense, 48
254, 277, 278, 293, 330–333, constituent order, 11, 123, 153, 192, 219,
335, 391, 487, 503, 550 387, 403, 417, 419, 421, 443, 473,
interrogative, 107, 191, 197, 306, 419, 474, 481, 488, 511, 512, 518–522,
471, 518, 529, 533, 543, 5441 , 526, 527, 529, 531, 545, 546,
581 558, 574
purposive, 455 construction
relative, 86, 163, 184–188, 190–195, causative, 228, 366–368, 370, 371
256, 258, 268, 286, 305, 309– comparative, 69, 128, 147, 569, 572
316, 328, 329, 361, 401, 403, equative, 570
406, 408, 410, 412–414, 433, involuntary agent, 73
434, 438–447, 449, 454, 457, partitive, 60
458, 465, 473, 483–485, 499, reciprocal, 106, 391, 553, 564–566
511, 513, 515, 517, 518, 526, 536, reflexive, 61, 104, 105, 180, 432, 553,
562 554, 556–559
simple, 341, 384, 417, 420, 536, 569 control
clause union, 187, 476 backward, 11, 389, 461, 479–481
cleft, 257, 386, 517, 536 forward, 479, 481
comitative, 54–56, 58, 63, 65, 67, 73, 90, converb
105, 106, 108, 113, 157, 158, 351, imperfective, 32, 147, 173, 212, 213,
383, 438, 443, 505, 525, 554, 249, 2502 , 252, 258, 271, 273–
572–574, 578 275, 278, 291, 306, 308, 326,
complementation, 449, 453, 454, 461, 3666 , 453, 454, 462, 465, 469,
463, 465, 474, 475, 482, 483,

598
 Subject index

476, 477, 480, 490, 492, 493, 428, 435, 436, 446, 451, 456,
497, 500, 541, 542, 581 474, 475, 480, 485, 488, 493,
perfective, 37, 195, 212, 2502 , 257– 518, 532, 558, 559, 568, 571, 579
259, 262–264, 273, 275, 276, degemination, 30, 31, 39, 40, 47–51, 225
282, 292, 293, 306, 308, 309, delabialization, 30, 35, 39, 46
326, 453, 454, 457–460, 462, derivation, 43, 79, 80, 8511 , 103, 125, 139,
469, 470, 476, 477, 486–488, 172, 197, 207, 227, 577–581
491–493, 498–500, 542, 549 dislocation, 517, 529, 530
coordination, 84, 171, 423, 487–489, 498,
499, 505–507, 509, 510, 573 ejective, 11, 19, 20, 22, 25
copula, 57, 79, 105, 123, 125, 158, 162– enclitic, 31, 32, 39, 104, 107, 114, 116–118,
166, 169, 181, 184, 187, 194, 127, 153, 162–164, 170, 171, 173–
195, 222, 224, 249–252, 254– 179, 215, 249–251, 254, 256–
258, 261, 262, 264–266, 268– 258, 264, 268–270, 273, 275,
272, 281, 282, 285–294, 306, 276, 286, 287, 292, 306, 310,
308, 310, 320, 322, 327, 328, 316, 321–324, 327–329, 332,
345, 348, 349, 356, 357, 3572 , 337, 355, 356, 391, 395, 400,
375, 3762 , 380, 384–390, 393– 419, 420, 422–425, 427–430,
395, 400, 401, 403, 410, 417– 462–464, 471, 474, 485, 486,
430, 445, 453, 488, 507, 513, 491, 505, 506, 527, 529, 533, 541,
515, 517, 518, 526, 527, 531, 534– 542, 544, 5441 , 545, 546, 549–
536, 540–543, 546–548, 5571 , 551, 574, 581
561, 571, 573, 574, 577 additive, 84, 112, 117, 118, 135, 166,
existential, 194, 256, 314, 375, 410, 171, 337, 423, 483, 505–507,
420, 427, 534, 573 560, 573
locational, 23, 174, 272, 2912 , 426, modal, 163, 401, 429
427, 514, 573 temporal, 104, 107, 293, 578, 580,
counterfactual, 254, 333 581
cross-categorical suffix, 120, 126, 131, epenthetic vowels, 26
158, 161, 191, 197, 255–258, 266, ergative, 11, 31, 37, 40, 43, 54–58, 60, 65–
268, 273, 289, 290, 308, 311, 312, 67, 89, 90, 951 , 105–108, 110,
316, 319, 373, 374, 400, 401, 403, 113, 131, 132, 149, 199, 232, 233,
405, 412, 424, 425, 433, 441, 245, 246, 257, 259, 260, 263,
445, 453, 454, 457, 458, 465, 281, 296, 299, 315, 332, 333,
474, 483–485, 499, 515, 571 341–344, 346, 349–356, 360–
367, 369, 374, 377–379, 384–
dative, 11, 33, 43, 54–56, 58, 61, 69, 80, 389, 394, 396, 418, 419, 430–
89, 90, 102, 105–108, 110, 111, 432, 435, 438, 447, 461, 468,
113, 131, 132, 199, 232, 245, 261, 479, 481, 483, 488, 514, 532,
280, 281, 295, 296, 298, 302, 546, 555, 556, 558, 566, 573, 580
313, 315, 317, 320, 329, 332, experiencer, 11, 61, 261, 280, 333, 342,
333, 341–344, 346, 347, 350– 344, 345, 353–357, 3572 , 368,
358, 368, 369, 377, 378, 384– 369, 386, 393, 398, 401, 418,
389, 395, 396, 406, 418–420,

599
Subject index

428, 435, 443, 451, 456, 477, 184, 187, 193, 194, 197, 199, 200,
480, 558, 564 230, 233, 234, 320, 324, 325,
experiential, 62, 76, 184, 187, 194, 195, 342, 344, 345, 349, 353, 357,
257–259, 266–269, 273, 286, 403–405, 407–410, 413, 414,
342, 348, 358, 368, 374, 400, 418, 423, 425, 427, 438, 443,
420, 431 444, 465, 469, 483, 511–515, 518,
545, 553, 555, 557, 559–562,
finiteness, 11, 161, 169, 391, 542, 551 564–566, 574, 575, 580
floating modifier, 403, 410, 412, 413, 512, goal, 64, 67, 70, 344, 346, 348, 351, 353,
514–516, 518 356, 357, 367, 436, 437, 443,
focus, 162, 174, 262, 263, 268, 387, 393, 475, 485, 524, 525, 529, 557,
423, 471, 473, 489, 511, 518–523, 564
525–527, 5281 , 529, 531, 532, grammatical cases, 11, 43, 54
534–536, 538–540, 547 grammatical role, 370, 394, 397, 418, 431,
completive, 518, 519 432, 488, 524, 559
constituent, 386, 393, 485, 518, 519,
529, 536 habitual present, 39, 162, 163, 212, 214,
contrastive, 177, 518, 531–534 215, 243, 245–247, 251, 281,
corrective, 518, 531 290, 298, 306, 317, 318, 332,
focus-sensitive particle, 119, 169, 171, 173, 359, 361, 391–393, 540, 577–
177, 491, 492, 503, 511, 533, 579, 581
538–540, 570, 572, 578 hearsay evidentiality, 283, 468

gender, 11, 24, 31, 34–36, 39, 43, 44, 51, ideophone, 19, 21, 28, 228, 236, 450
54, 60, 64, 65, 77, 80, 81, 819 , 89, imperative, 32, 163, 181, 212, 214, 295–
90, 103, 104, 106, 108, 119–122, 299, 301, 359, 363, 391, 392,
126, 127, 1271 , 133, 136, 155, 157, 417, 419, 431, 432, 471, 489, 490,
162, 184, 188, 205–212, 214– 503, 577, 578
217, 220–222, 2221 , 225, 230, infinitive, 169, 170, 184, 187, 212, 230,
232, 240, 249, 2491 , 251, 278, 277–280, 282, 286, 290, 297,
281, 282, 285, 288, 289, 2891 , 305, 315–319, 321, 323, 324,
290, 291, 297, 300, 326, 344, 330, 401, 434, 453, 454, 460–
346, 349–352, 354, 357, 358, 462, 465, 471, 474–478, 485,
361, 363, 373–376, 3762 , 377– 537, 539, 552, 571, 579
381, 384–386, 388, 389, 393, information structure, 11, 179, 386, 387,
394, 396, 400, 403, 405, 411, 419, 430, 476, 511, 512, 518–521,
418, 420, 421, 425, 426, 428, 524, 526, 529, 531, 536
431, 439, 455, 456, 467, 469, insertion
476, 479, 488, 506, 572, 575, glide, 30
577–581 glottal stop, 30, 33
genitive, 11, 23, 37, 43, 54–56, 58, 60, 604 , insubordination, 113, 279, 303, 550, 551
61, 65, 79, 819 , 83, 86, 89, 90, interjection, 26, 161, 183
105, 106, 108–110, 113, 124, 127,
131, 132, 1351 , 144, 149–156, 180, juxtaposition, 455, 506, 507

600
 Subject index

labialization, 22, 30, 31, 38 166, 183, 191, 205–207, 210, 212,
215, 216, 218, 224, 227, 228, 235,
masdar, 37, 38, 40, 80, 162, 186, 212, 224, 240, 249, 266, 271, 278, 281,
225, 285–287, 290, 293, 305, 285, 286, 290, 306, 310, 312,
317, 320, 329, 330, 391, 444, 315–318, 326, 332, 341, 343–
453, 454, 457, 458, 461, 474, 346, 348–352, 354, 355, 3573 ,
485, 499, 580 358, 360, 361, 364, 366, 368,
microtoponym, 77, 201 373–379, 381, 383, 385, 386,
mirative, 174 388, 390, 391, 393, 394, 396,
modal interrogative, 212, 277–279, 295, 400, 403, 407, 411, 417–420,
303, 304, 419, 456, 464, 579 430, 431, 433, 453, 454, 465,
471, 474, 476, 487–489, 506–
negation, 28, 31–36, 116, 123, 177, 214, 508, 512, 521, 535, 538, 540,
215, 217, 222, 224, 246, 251, 252, 544, 558, 577
254, 269, 280, 282, 283, 292, numerals
333, 420, 421, 440, 474, 548, cardinal, 129, 135, 172, 190
577 collective, 129, 172
nominalizer, 127, 188 group, 129, 133, 375, 565, 577
noun phrase, 84, 123, 129, 143, 149, 157, multiplicative, 32, 107, 111, 129, 135,
169, 171, 187–190, 192, 373, 375– 580
377, 380, 382–384, 403, 405– ordinal, 124, 129, 132, 194, 195, 313,
415, 420, 421, 423, 425, 440, 579
441, 494, 495, 505, 506, 511, 512,
514, 515, 529, 530, 553, 556, 564, object
566, 568, 573 direct, 60, 604 , 232, 257, 370, 524
nouns, 11, 22, 28–31, 34, 35, 39, 40, 43, 44, indirect, 370, 524, 557
441 , 45, 46, 48–52, 54, 56, 58, oblique stem, 37, 66, 67, 8511 , 90, 91, 169,
604 , 65–70, 74, 75, 77–85, 8511 , 185, 413, 446, 553, 579, 580
86, 89–91, 97, 111, 112, 117, 119– optative, 163, 173, 181, 214, 216, 222, 295,
121, 124–127, 1271 , 129, 133, 135, 296, 299, 300, 302, 374, 391,
137, 142, 147, 154, 156, 159, 169, 392, 406, 417, 419, 445, 447,
171, 184, 185, 187–191, 195, 197– 489, 550, 563, 564, 577, 578
200, 206, 229, 230, 232–234, orthography, 8, 13, 19, 22, 24
258, 289, 300, 312, 317, 320,
322, 353, 373, 375, 381, 382, palatalization, 30, 225, 227
3823 , 388, 403–406, 408, 410, parentheticals, 455
412, 413, 439, 440, 444, 445, participle, 28, 30, 68, 79, 82, 86, 123–
465, 495, 506, 517, 518, 546, 571, 125, 158, 169, 184, 185, 187, 206,
572, 575, 577–581 249, 250, 253–256, 258, 271,
number, 7–9, 11, 12, 20, 22, 27, 30, 39, 286, 287, 289, 290, 305, 309–
40, 43, 49, 50, 54, 60, 64, 67– 315, 322, 324, 373, 377, 391, 403,
69, 73, 76, 77, 80, 82, 83, 89, 90, 406, 414, 433, 4381 , 440, 441,
103, 104, 106, 108, 119, 120, 122, 443, 457, 485, 505, 529, 531,
124, 126, 127, 136, 155, 157, 162, 534–536, 571, 577

601
Subject index

locative, 40, 83, 125, 197, 305, 309, 240, 298, 313, 3131 , 341, 349,
314, 315, 321, 329, 433, 445, 577 357, 375, 386, 415, 468, 537, 539,
modal, 169, 170, 184, 212, 249, 309, 578–581
311–314, 316, 318, 321–323, 325, prohibitive, 181, 212, 214, 222, 295, 298,
327, 328, 3666 , 414, 433, 441, 299, 301, 317, 3172 , 359, 363,
445, 457, 465, 474, 483–486, 391, 392, 419, 578–581
531 pronoun
preterite, 124, 185–187, 192, 194, 266, demonstrative, 54, 67, 89, 91, 94,
308–310, 313, 321, 322, 324, 100–102, 104, 107, 135, 139, 145,
325, 327–329, 433, 441, 457, 146, 151, 156, 169–171, 192, 217,
458, 465, 470, 474, 532 257, 290, 301, 322, 323, 373,
particle, 22, 23, 32, 112, 161–166, 168, 169, 403, 404, 407, 409, 410, 414,
173–175, 178–183, 222, 251, 285, 425, 439, 440, 472, 496, 512,
327, 329, 393, 395, 406, 417, 535, 536, 554, 559, 570
419–423, 429, 430, 451, 453– demonstratives, 581
457, 462, 466, 468–471, 473, indefinite, 32, 89, 109, 110, 112–119,
474, 481, 482, 485, 488, 489, 129, 133, 134, 170, 172, 179, 188,
491, 492, 501, 510, 526, 531, 191, 380, 388, 439, 440, 517, 549,
5312 , 532–544, 546, 550–552, 578–580
555, 562, 567, 569–572, 579, reciprocal, 79, 89, 106, 133, 375, 431,
580 432, 553, 564–568
past, see also tense, past reflexive, 67, 89, 104–106, 180, 188,
experiential, 222, 258, 259, 268, 269 285, 375, 383, 404, 406, 443,
habitual, 162, 163, 212, 214, 243, 469, 471, 472, 475, 483, 495,
245–247, 281, 290, 317, 332, 496, 505, 530, 553–557, 5571 ,
333, 354, 361, 392, 394, 548, 558, 559, 561–567, 572–574
577–579, 581
patient, 56, 58, 60, 323, 356, 363–365, quantifier, 113, 117, 119, 120, 124, 133, 178,
374, 386–389, 392, 394, 398– 194, 375, 3762 , 407, 408, 410,
401, 418, 436, 477, 564, 566 411, 430, 431, 483
pause filler, 181, 183, 567 questions, 32, 113, 114, 116, 162, 163, 173–
pharyngealization, 19, 23, 28–30, 34 175, 179, 212, 247, 251, 278, 285,
pluperfect, 222, 258, 259, 265, 273, 282, 302, 304, 316, 387, 395, 409,
391 417, 422, 429, 462–464, 469,
possession, 59, 124, 420, 423, 427, 574, 471, 506, 518, 519, 527, 529, 532,
575 541–547, 549–552, 577–581
predicate content, 429
cognition, 451, 458, 460, 463, 481 embedded marker, 173, 303, 316,
complement-taking, 316, 389, 447, 429, 453, 454, 462, 471, 482, 551
449, 451, 453, 459, 473, 476– tag, 289, 541, 547, 548
479, 482–485, 550 quotative, 453–456, 463, 464, 466, 468–
preverb, 11, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31–39, 65, 75, 471, 473, 474, 482
149, 153, 156, 157, 178, 205–207,
209, 212, 214–224, 227, 228, recipient, 342, 369, 436, 517, 524, 530

602
 Subject index

reduplication, 43, 82–84, 222, 553 342–344, 346, 353–356, 3561 ,

reflexivization 357, 368, 369, 374, 386, 396,
local, 105, 106, 553, 554, 556, 560, 418, 431, 435, 436, 479, 480,
566 532, 558, 559, 567
long-distance, 11, 553, 554, 562, 563 analytic form, 161–166, 187, 194,
reported speech, 11, 73, 449, 450, 454, 2221 , 249, 257, 271, 278, 286,
455, 466–469, 471, 473–475 294, 308, 311, 332, 385
resultative, 222, 257–259, 261, 262, 264– bivalent, 342–344, 352, 356, 396,
266, 282, 286, 308, 361, 385 519
compound, 28, 33, 44, 60, 78, 808 ,
spatial case, 11, 32, 37, 43, 54, 56, 63–67, 120, 123, 152, 205, 206, 215, 228,
69, 70, 75, 83, 143, 145, 147, 149, 230–240, 293, 294, 341, 344,
152, 153, 171, 187, 195, 197, 201, 345, 347, 348, 353, 356, 371,
217, 218, 221, 234, 314, 315, 342, 375, 396, 426, 451, 474, 523
343, 346, 348, 352, 379, 395, intransitive, 56, 62, 80, 227, 230,
403, 405, 413, 414, 418, 419, 426, 234, 237, 243, 274, 295, 298,
559, 566, 569, 577–580 318, 342, 344–349, 358, 363,
spatial postposition, 64, 75, 126, 143, 149, 370, 374, 386, 391, 395, 417, 418,
217, 230, 234, 345, 353, 414 426, 434, 436, 477, 479, 558,
standard of comparison, 69, 128, 569– 559, 567, 573
571 labile, 297, 358, 359, 364, 365
stimulus, 56, 76, 261, 280, 342, 344, 353– light, 206, 228, 231, 232, 234–240,
355, 357, 358, 374, 377, 393, 349, 356, 371, 379, 450, 467
398, 418, 436, 477, 480, 564 manipulative, 452
stress, 19, 30, 176, 190 modal, 453
subjunctive, 169, 170, 297, 305, 317, 3172 , monovalent, 342, 346, 366, 519
318, 319, 321, 323, 324, 330, 332, periphrastic form, 249, 271–276,
391, 401, 434, 453, 454, 459– 285, 2891 , 291, 293, 306, 308,
462, 465, 474, 476, 477, 577– 310, 326, 374, 385, 452, 453
579, 581 phasal, 452
syllable structure, 19, 24, 31, 206 three-place, 341, 399
transitive, 80, 227, 232–234, 237,
tense 243, 263, 274, 295, 296, 298,
past, 39, 162–164, 173, 245, 252, 260, 303, 341, 344, 349–351, 354,
265, 286–288, 291, 421, 547 355, 358–363, 368, 374, 377,
present, 162, 285, 287, 291, 421, 490, 396, 418, 419, 431, 432, 435,
547 468, 480, 483, 579
theme, 56, 394, 436, 524 trivalent, 431, 460
two-place, 353, 357, 370, 391, 399,
valency class, 274, 302, 341, 342, 344,
400, 477
369, 417–419, 431, 432, 556, 558
utterance, 450, 455, 466, 468, 469,
verb
473, 485
affective, 56, 227, 245, 246, 261, 274,
vocative, 57
280, 295, 298, 318, 332, 333,
vowel deletion, 30, 31, 46–49, 51

603
Subject index

vowel mutation, 29, 30, 33, 35, 36, 39,

46–48, 50

word order, 390, 430, 441, 481, 511, 526,

559, 567

604
Did you like this
book?
This book was brought to you for
free

Please help us in providing free access to

linguistic research worldwide. Visit
http://www.langsci-press.org/donate to
provide financial support or register as a
language
community proofreader or typesetter science
press
at http://www.langsci-press.org/register.
A grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa
Sanzhi Dargwa belongs to the Dargwa (Dargi) languages (ISO dar; Glottocode sanz1248) which
form a subgroup of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) language family. Sanzhi Dargwa
is spoken by approximately 250 speakers and is severely endangered. This book is the first
comprehensive descriptive grammar of Sanzhi, written from a typological perspective. It treats
all major levels of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax) and also information structure.
Sanzhi Dargwa is structurally similar to other East Caucasian languages, in particular Dargwa
languages. It has a relatively large consonant inventory including pharyngeal and ejective conso-
nants. Sanzhi morphology is concatenative and mainly suffixing. The language exhibits a mixture
of dependent-marking in the form of a rich case inventory and head-marking in the form of ver-
bal agreement. Nouns are divided into three genders. Verbal inflection conflates tense/aspect/
mood/evidentiality in a rich array of synthetic and analytic verb forms as well as participles,
converbs, a masdar (verbal noun), and infinitive and some other forms used in analytic tenses
and subordinate clauses. Salient traits of the grammar are two independently operating agree-
ment systems: gender/number agreement and person agreement. Within the nominal domain,
modifiers agree with the head nominal in gender/number. Agreement within the clausal domain
is mainly controlled by the argument in the absolutive case. Person agreement operates only at
the clausal level and according to the person hierarchy 1, 2 > 3. Sanzhi has ergative alignment
in the form of gender/number agreement and ergative case marking. The most frequent word
order at the clause level is SOV, though all other logically possible word orders are also attested.
In subordinate clauses, word order is almost exclusively head-final.

ISBN 978-3-96110-196-2

9 783961 101962