Согласование прилагательных по числу в нахско-дагестанских языках: генеалогические и ареальные закономерности

Abstract

This paper provides a survey of number agreement in the East Caucasian languages and languages of other language families in contact with East Caucasian. For a sample of 59 idioms I considered number agreement strategies of adjectives in the attributive position and established what factors license agreement in these idioms. Besides, I assessed the weight of genealogical and areal factors in the distribution of number agreement patterns across the East Caucasian languages. Although the genealogical factor was found to prevail, instances of features shared due to contact were also found, mainly between Avar and the contacting languages.