[Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a temporal adverbial (Kim, Yongtaek)

[Maria Kholodilova]

Dear Yongtaek,
 
Russian used to have a strategy of adverbial subordination with the question particle  li  ‘if’, which is optional in independent questions and (almost) obligatory in dependent questions. This strategy seems to have been limited to conditional clauses (just as suggested by Ellison) and some temporal contexts, mainly if not exclusively habitual.
E.g.:
 
Подадут    ли  дыню, Лев Степанович вырежет лучшую часть, а корки положит ему на  тарелку . (Herzen)
serve.FUT.3PL  if melon Lev Stepanovich cut_out.FUT.3SG best part but peels put.FUT.3PL he.DAT on plate.ACC
‘Whenever a melon was served, Lev Stepanovich would cut out the best part and put the peels on his plate’
 
The habitual temporal clauses and conditional clauses are difficult to distinguish, and I don’t know if  li ever occured in more unambiguously temporal contexts. 
 
I hope this helps. I don’t currently know of any detailed studies of this strategy; please let me know if you need more data.
 
Best regards,
 
Maria
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