Abstract
This article presents a syntactic analysis and comparison of diminutive suffixes in Russian, Kolyma Yukaghir, and Itelmen, three genetically unrelated languages of the Russian Federation. Kolyma Yukaghir and Itelmen are on the verge of extinction. This article investigates how contact with Russian (specifically the syntax of Russian diminutives) has influenced the syntax of diminutives in Kolyma Yukaghir and Itlemen. Adopting the framework of Distributed Morphology, a syntactic analysis of diminutives across the three languages reveals that they share the same manner of syntactic attachment, but differ in regards to the site or place of attachment. Specifically, it is proposed that diminutives in all three languages are syntactic modifiers; however, in relation to the place of attachment, in Russian, diminutives attach below the functional category of Number, while diminutives in Kolyma Yukaghir and Itelmen attach above the Number category. This article contributes to our understanding of variation in universal grammar and linguistic outcomes of the syntactic feature ‘diminutive’ in a multilingual situation where a majority language is in contact with two genetically unrelated endangered languages.
Highlights
This article presents a syntactic analysis and comparison of diminutive suffixes in Russian, Kolyma Yukaghir, and Itelmen, three genetically unrelated languages spoken in the Russian Federation
The article is organized as follows: Section 1 introduces the languages Kolyma Yukaghir and Itelmen; Section 2 presents an analysis of Russian expressive suffixes as discussed in [4,5,6,7]; Section 3 compares Russian diminutive suffixes with those in German; Section 4 proposes an analysis of diminutives in Kolyma Yukaghir; Section 5 proposes an analysis of diminutives in Itelmen; and Section 6 presents the conclusions
This article has presented a syntactic analysis of diminutive suffixes in three genetically unrelated languages spoken in the Russian Federation: Russian, Kolyma Yukaghir, and Itelmen
Summary
This article presents a syntactic analysis and comparison of diminutive suffixes in Russian, Kolyma Yukaghir, and Itelmen, three genetically unrelated languages spoken in the Russian Federation. It investigates how the Russian diminutive syntax affects the diminutive syntax in Kolyma Yukaghir and Itelmen. The Lexicon, in the traditional sense, is ‘distributed’ across the grammar in various lists: (i) the Formative List (bundles of features), (ii) the Exponent List (vocabulary items), and (iii) the Encyclopedia. Items from these lists enter the derivation at various stages. Distributed Morphology distinguishes between word formation from roots and from syntactic categories. The article is organized as follows: Section 1 introduces the languages Kolyma Yukaghir and Itelmen; Section 2 presents an analysis of Russian expressive suffixes as discussed in [4,5,6,7]; Section 3 compares Russian diminutive suffixes with those in German; Section 4 proposes an analysis of diminutives in Kolyma Yukaghir; Section 5 proposes an analysis of diminutives in Itelmen; and Section 6 presents the conclusions
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