“Other” Strategies in the Eastern Caucasus (Part I): Data from Udi

Abstract

Udi (East Caucasian) possesses several means of expressing the meaning “other”, namely (i) the combination of a (usually distal) demonstrative with a numeral (usually “one”), arguably calqued from Azerbaijani, (ii) the expression originating from a combination of a demonstrative with the noun “arm, side”, and (iii) borrowed adjectives. It is shown that the morphological properties of some of these expressions suggest a kind of grammaticalization. The semantic differences between the expressions mostly fit into the contrast between the types of “other” expressions proposed by Cinque (2015), but also display additional remarkable contrasts.