Article

Name: Comparative Constructions of Inequality in the Altai Language (In Comparison with Khakas)

Authors: Aiiana A. Ozonova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The paper is devoted to the study of comparative and superlative constructions that express inequality (differential) relations in Altai and Khakas languages. Comparative constructions express different degrees of manifestation of a certain graded feature in the subject and the standard of comparison, while this feature is more pronounced in one of them than in the other. Comparative relations are expressed by an ablative and postpositional construction. In both constructions, the standard of comparison is marked: in the first – by the ablative, in the second – by the dative case in combination with the postpositions kӧpӧ ‘compared with’ in Altai language and the genitive case in combination with the postposition χyrinda ‘compared with’ in the Khakas language. We have identified a separate subtype of constructions with alt. artyk / khak. artyχ ‘better’, in which the parameter is additionally marked. In the typological classification of comparative constructions, Altai and Khakas constructions belong to the group of fixed-case comparatives, in which the way the standard is designed does not depend on the shape of the subject of comparison. In superlative constructions, the subject of comparison surpasses the standard of comparison in terms of feature or quality expressed by the comparison parameter. From a semantic point of view, superlative constructions are considered by us as a special case of differential constructions. To express superlative semantics in the languages under consideration, constructions with the particle eŋ / iŋ ‘the most’ are used. The specificity of these constructions is that they are marked not by the comparison standard, which, as a rule, is not explicitly expressed, but by the comparison parameter.

Keywords: Altai language, Khakas language, syntax, inequality relations, comparative construction, superlative construction

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