Article

Name: Buryat equative-similative constructions with the predicate adli ‘similar; the same as’

Authors: Elena K. Skribnik, Nadezhda B. Darzhaeva

Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany; Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation

In the section On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor M. I. Cheremisina

Abstract:

The Buryat equative-similative word adli ‘similar; the same’ can be used as a nominal predicate expressing a comparison between persons, objects, abstract notions, or events. The components can be NPs or clauses. The construction variants form a system primarily determined by information structure. The subject position is held by the equation component in the focus of attention: it can be the comparee, both the comparee and the standard, or the parameter of comparison. When the comparee is in focus, the standard is marked by either the dative-locative (the pattern ‘A is similar to B’) or the comitative (to express metaphoric equation and equation of events). When both equation components are in focus, the subject is either a generalizing term in the plural or a pair of coordinated NPs or clauses (the pattern ‘A and B are similar’/‘They are similar’). The parameter of comparison in both variants can be expressed by an NP in an instrumental case (‘…similar in (lit. with) size’). When it is in focus, it takes the subject position, with both equation components (verbalized with a plural term encom-passing both or through a coordinated pair) realized as attributes in the genitive (‘Their/A and B’s size is similar’). The corpus data indicate that this construction is mostly used for the comparison of persons and objects (expressed by nouns, extremely rarely by headless relative clauses); comparison of events (expressed by clauses, extremely rarely by event nouns) is less frequent. One specific variant with an auxiliary quotation verb is used for equative comparison of an event with a cultural stereotype (through citing proverbs, etc.).

Keywords: Buryat syntax, equative constructions, similative constructions, variants of constructions, adli ‘similar’

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