(Udmurt)

Nom

Nom: Two categories are distinguished from a morphosyntactic perspective: 1. [Sa, Snona, Aa and Anona]; 2. [P]. This type is known as nominative or nominative–accusative.

(1)marajkokyšk-az
Maraykoget_scaredPST.3SG
’Marayko got scared’ (UdmCorp.)

(2)marajkokošk-i-zporja-nyslavči-jen-yz
MaraykogoPST3SGwalkINFSlavchiINSCOM3SG
’Marayko went for a walk with his Slavchi’ (UdmCorp.)

(3)emespipejunzolvöjamkartoška-jez
brotherinlawPCLverystronglybutteredpotatoACC
jarat-evylem.
love3SGAUX.PST2
‘The brother-in-law allegedly loved buttered potatoes very much.’ (Keľmakov 2006: 187)

(4)marajkovagon-ez-leśös-jos-seuśt-i-z
Maraykocarriage3SGABLdoorPL3PL.ACCopenPST3SG
’Marayko opened the doors of his carriage’ (UdmCorp.)

(5)amerikańec-jos80milliondollarčekt-ovylem.
AmericanPL80milliondollarpay3PLAUX.PST2
’The Americans paid 80 million dollar.’ (Kondrateva 2011: 64)

In Udmurt, both the Snona (1) and Sa (2) arguments of intransitive verbs and the Anona (3) and Aa (4) arguments of transitive verbs have nominative case, while the P arguments of transitive verbs are accusative (4), or, in certain cases nominative (5). The marking of the object is subject to further research, the literature usually associates unmarkedness with indefiniteness (Kozmács 2001: 26), quantitative expressions functioning as objects (Kondrateva 2011: 64) (5), and specificity. Tánczos (2016) claims that markedness is determined by the animacy of the object together with definiteness as follows: definite objects are always marked, just like animate objects, irrespective of their definiteness. Unmarkedness is possible with inanimate indefinite (but specific) objects, the choice depending on the preferences of the speaker according to Tánczos (Tánczos 2016: 45–47). In general it can be stated that in Udmurt the functions of grammatically marked and unmarked objects are divided based on these criteria: indefinite/non-specific objects are unmarked, whereas definite/specific objects are morphologically marked (cf. Csúcs 2003, Keľmakov – Hännikäinen 2008: 31–32, 144–148, É. Kiss – Tánczos 2018).

Author: Laura Horváth


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