Izafet as a Means of Expressing the Functional-Semantic Category of Measure in the Yakut Language

Abstract

The current paper is the first to consider possessive (one-suffix) phrases in the functional-semantic aspect, designating spatial measures (level, distance, length, size, time, etc.) in Yakut. In the Yakut and Turkic linguistics, the study of the category of belonging, namely, isafet, has a long history. But possessive constructions based on the isafet have not been presented until now as a means of expressing the functional-semantic category of measure. The purpose of the article is to identify and analyse the structural and semantic features of possessive constructions expressing measure in the Yakut language. To achieve this goal, we considered the history of the study of possessive constructions in Turkic and Yakut linguistics and analyzed the structure and semantics of constructions to determine the carrier of quantitative semes in each construction. The object of the study is the determinative phrases (isafet) formed morphologically, namely with the help of the affix of the 3rd person singular -a (-e, -o, -o), -ta (-te, -to, -to). The main methods used in the study were systematization, analysis of syntactic units, morphemic description (glossing) of a lexical unit, descriptive method and semantic analysis to identify the functions of possessive constructions. As a result of the systematization in terms of functional grammar, three main groups have been identified: possessive constructions with special lexemes for measurement – classifiers, comparative postpositions saҕa, kurduk’, as if with the affix of the instrumental case -nan, also the affix of the dative case -ar, -gar. The classifier in the isafet is an indicator that allows us to more clearly express parametric data in the language. Phrases with postpositional-case components express intersubject relations “the subject and its part”, with the affix of the dative case – locative relations. With the help of functional and semantic studies of language or speech, we penetrate into the national system of language behavior, a specific worldview and thinking process of the people.