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

[Kim, Yongtaek]

Dear Maria,

Thank you very much for sharing the interesting and crucial data on 'li.' It will be extremely useful for our project!

Sincerely,

___________________________________________________

Yongtaek Kim, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Korean and Linguistics

Director of Korean Program

School of Modern Languages, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Swann 309

ykim791 at gatech.edu

________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Maria Kholodilova <hol_m at mail.ru>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 10:11 AM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a temporal adverbial (Kim, Yongtaek)

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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