Number Marking of the Verb in the East Caucasian Languages

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of dedicated number marking on verbs in the East Caucasian languages. The review is based on the data drawn from grammatical descriptions. First of all, possible ways to analyze number marking on verbs are discussed: 1) as agreement, i.e. as an operation by which morphological features are copied from one word form onto another, 2) as a special category of verbal number. Second, the article discusses the ways in which number is marked on verbs and the factors by which this marking is conditioned. As it turns out, the Nakh and the Avar-Ando-Tsez branches feature number marking strategies, which are limited to a lexically defined set of verbs. Number markers in this case are localized in the verb stem. On the other hand, in many branches of the family, a different situation is also common: number marking is conditioned by the TAM-forms of the verb, i.e. by grammatical factors. Third, the diachrony of number marking is considered. The article proposes that the verb forms which are marked for number often go back to copular constructions where the predicate position is occupied by a participial form. As a result of grammaticalization of these constructions into verbal forms, the original nominal number marking on the participle develops into verbal number marking.