Functional adaptation models loaned from the Russian conjunction i (‘and’) in Selkup dialects.

Abstract

The article proposes an analysis of the functioning of the conjunction i (Russian ‘and’), borrowed from Russian into five Selkup dialects. The analysis allows us to see that the Selkup dialects differ in terms of how the functional adaptation of the borrowed unit (which is polysemous in the donor language) takes place. Several strategies for such functional adaptation have been identified, based on whether the functions of the borrowed element are identified with the functions of some “native” element of the recipient language, or whether the functions of the borrowed element are replicated from the donor language to the recipient language. This study allows us to investigate some mechanisms of assimilation of the grammatical system of the recipient language to the grammatical system of the donor language. The article also suggests which sociolinguistic characteristics of the contact situations may correspond to different strategies of functional adaptation.