Article

Name: Сomparative constructions in the Ket language

Authors: E. A. Kryukova

Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Сравнительные конструкции в языках разных систем

Abstract:

Comparative constructions have not yet been the focus of a dedicated study. Separate grammars, dissertations, and articles by ketologists have explored the concept of degrees of comparison in relation to adjectives. This article describes comparative constructions in the Ket language by analysing a corpus comprising 8032 words of Ket folklore and daily prose texts, encompassing 1293 sentences across 38 texts. These are primarily texts in the Kureyka dialect (North Ket dialect), with an additional five texts representing the Yeloguy dialect (South Ket dialect). All materials were collected by A. P. Dulzon during expeditions conducted in 1956, 1959, and 1960. The corpus primarily includes texts published in a glossed form in the collection series “Annotated Folklore and Daily Prose Texts of the Ob-Yenisseic Linguistics Area.” Also coverec in the corpus are Ket riddles published by E. A. Kreinovich in the “Studia Ketica”. The study has found only 9 sentences with comparative constructions, with the relations under analysis expressed explicitly by means of the conjunctions eta / qoda / eta qoda (as, as if), the postpositions as (as), dokot (as), the adverb bila (as), and the ablative case affix -daŋal / -diŋal. This does not preclude the existence of widespread comparative relations in the Ket language. The nature of language permits the implicit expression of ideas, based on the context of the situation, a characteristic likely found in non-written languages. Nonetheless, locating such instances within the corpus using search managers has proved infeasible. Manual searches for these situations are consequently quite arduous.

Keywords: comparison, comparative constructions, Ket language, ablative case, comparant

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