According to Kremer (1997: 30), reference to people is mostly made by using full, lexical noun phrases, proper names and pronouns. With regard to linguistic gender, nouns and pronouns are closely related. In fact, Greenberg’s implicational universal No. 43 is: ´If a language has gender categories in the noun, it has gender categories in the pronoun` (1966:96).
Pronouns, which are always mentioned as one of the traditional word classes, represent a very heterogeneous collection of `closed-class words with nominal function` (Quirk et al. 1985:335).
The Lezgian is spoken by about 400,000 people in southern Daghestan and northern Azerbaijan in the eastern Caucasus. Lezgian has been written since 1928, first in the Latin alphabet, from 1938 onward in the Cyrillic alphabet. The grammar, which I used describes the standard language, which is based on the lowland Güne dialect.
Lezgian is a member of the Lezgic branch of the Nakho-Daghestanian family of languages. The family tree of Nakho-Daghestanian is shown in (1) (following Hewitt 1981 a:197).
Table of Contents
1. Lezgian
1.1. The Lezgian language
1.2. An overview of Lezgian grammar
1.2.1. Phonology and morphophonemics
1.1.2. Morphology
1.1.3. Syntax
1.1.4. Verbal inflection
1.1.5. Textual examples
2. English
2.1. Forms of the verb
2.2. Forms of the pronoun
3. German
3.1. Pronoun
3.2. Gender
3.3. Number
3.4. Case
3.5. Verbal categories
3.6. Person
4. Russian
4.1. Personal pronouns
4.2. Use of personal instead of possessive pronouns
4.3. The pronoun Я
4.4. The conjugation of the verb
5. Comparing Lezgian, English, German and Russian
5.1. Verbal inflections
5.2. Personal pronouns
Objectives and Topics
The paper explores the functional role of person reference by conducting a comparative analysis of linguistic structures in Lezgian, English, German, and Russian, focusing on how different languages manage pronominal systems and verbal agreement.
- Comparative analysis of verbal inflectional systems.
- Examination of personal pronoun usage and omission across languages.
- Typological overview of Lezgian grammar.
- Analysis of grammatical categories like gender, number, and case in German.
- Investigation of morphological strategies in Russian verb conjugation.
Excerpt from the Book
1.2.2. Morphology
Lezgian morphology is overwhelmingly suffixing and agglutinating. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs can be easily distinguished by morphological criteria.
Nouns are inflected for number (Singular, Plural), case and localization (Ad, Sub, Post, Super, In). The locative cases Essive, Elative, and Directive occur in combination with the localizations (Ad-essive, Sub-elative, Super-directive, etc.). All cases other then the Absolutive are based on a special oblique stem whose suffix is idiosyncratic for many nouns.
The locative cases in combination with the localizations can express various local relations. However, local relations are more often expressed by postpositions, and noun inflections tend to express more abstract relations.
The only inflections of adjectives are the substantivizing suffix di (e.g. c'iji “new”, c'iji-di “newone”) and adverbial suffixes –(di)z / -dakaz (e.g. jawaš “slow”, jawaš-diz “slowly”).
Verbs are inflected for tense-aspect, negation, several mood forms and various non-finite forms. There are no person-number agreement forms.
Summary of Chapters
1. Lezgian: This chapter provides an introduction to the Lezgian language, covering its geographic distribution, classification, and fundamental features of its grammar including phonology, morphology, and syntax.
2. English: This chapter outlines essential points of English grammar, specifically focusing on the base forms of verbs and the two-case system of pronouns.
3. German: This chapter examines German grammatical structures, analyzing the functional roles of pronouns and the complexity of categories like gender, number, case, and person.
4. Russian: This chapter details the Russian pronominal system, usage of personal pronouns, and the patterns involved in the conjugation of verbs.
5. Comparing Lezgian, English, German and Russian: This chapter synthesizes the previous findings to compare how these distinct languages handle person reference, verbal inflections, and the permissibility of omitting personal pronouns.
Keywords
Person reference, Lezgian, English, German, Russian, Pronominal systems, Verbal inflection, Linguistic comparison, Morphology, Syntax, Agglutination, Grammatical categories, Comparative linguistics, Personal pronouns, Typology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
The work investigates the functional role of person reference through a cross-linguistic analysis of Lezgian, English, German, and Russian.
What are the central thematic fields covered?
The themes include the structure of pronominal systems, verbal agreement patterns, and the morphological categorization of nouns and verbs.
What is the core research question?
The research explores how different linguistic systems organize person reference and whether these systems require overt grammatical expression or allow for the omission of pronouns.
Which scientific methods are employed?
The paper utilizes a comparative typological approach, analyzing specific grammatical examples and morphological paradigms from the four selected languages.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The main body covers a structural overview of Lezgian, the verb and pronoun forms in English, the categories of German grammar, and the conjugation and pronoun usage in Russian.
Which keywords characterize this publication?
The study is characterized by terms like comparative linguistics, person reference, verbal inflection, and morphosyntax.
How does Lezgian differ from the other analyzed languages regarding verbal agreement?
Unlike the other analyzed languages, Lezgian lacks person-number agreement forms entirely, which is a key typological distinction.
What role do personal pronouns play in the context of Russian?
In Russian, personal pronouns can often be omitted because the inflectional forms of the verbs are sufficient to convey the necessary information about person and number.
How does the second-person plural pronoun in Lezgian function?
The Lezgian pronoun 'kün' is noted for sometimes serving as a form of polite address, which the author suggests may be influenced by Russian usage.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Elena Dubodelova (Autor:in), 2002, Functional Role of Person Reference. Comparing Lezgian, English, German and Russian, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/301054
