Valentin Gusev | Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences (original) (raw)

Nganasan & Samoyedic by Valentin Gusev

Hämeenmaalta Jamalille. Kirja Tapani Salmiselle, Apr 1, 2022

Opuscula linguistica Magistro sapientissimo dedicata: Сборник статей к 90-летию Виктора Самуиловича Храковского, 2022

The 1Sg and 1Pl exclusive forms are the most controversial members of the imperative paradigm and... more The 1Sg and 1Pl exclusive forms are the most controversial members of the imperative paradigm and are often claimed to be theoretically impossible. However, they do exist in many languages. This paper presents a sketch of the possible uses of the these forms in Nganasan, compared to Russian and Chukchi, and discusses some typological issues.

Родной язык, 2022

This paper deals with head-marked nominal possessors in Nganasan, i. e., constructions with the p... more This paper deals with head-marked nominal possessors in Nganasan, i. e., constructions with the possessor in the Nominative and possessive markers on the possessee. It is shown that this construction is only used when the possessor is topical and the possessee is in focus. All other combinations of topic/focus and possessor/possessee with a nominal possessor use the standard dependent-marking construction: the possessor stands in the Genitive and the possessee is unmarked.

Siberica et Uralica: In memoriam Eugen Helimski, 2022

The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Samoyedic *ä and *a in the first syllable. It shows th... more The paper deals with the reflexes of Proto-Samoyedic *ä and *a in the first syllable. It shows that their reflexes in Nganasan correlate with the synharmonical class of the root: while in the former front-vowel roots *ä became e and *a became Ća or Cia, in the former back-vowel roots both have passed to Ca. This development is paralleled in Selkup, Kamas and Mator, while in Nenets and Enets both *ä and *a have each developed regardless of the synharmonical class.

Nganasan (Samoyedic < Uralic) has a system of three numbers: singular, dual and plural, which are... more Nganasan (Samoyedic < Uralic) has a system of three numbers: singular, dual and plural, which are marked on all nominals for the object itself and, in the possessive forms, for the possessor. In the inflection, the three numbers are marked in all cases with the dual partly analytical. With paired objects, plural occurs more often than dual; in other cases when there are two objects, the dual is obligatory. Non-singular forms can have an associative reading. Numerals can also be in the plural, either referring to sets of objects or indicating an approximate quantity. Verbs have aspectual derivations which mark plurality of actions or arguments, such as iteratives, multiplicatives and so on. After numerals, nouns are used in the singular (except when the numeral itself is in the plural). Adjectives agree in number with their heads. Verbs agree in number with their subjects and, under certain circumstances, with the object.

Finnic numerals for ‘8’ and ‘9’ and a possible parallel from Samoyed, 2022

The paper deals with a suffix contained in the Finnic numerals for 'eight' and 'nine', such as th... more The paper deals with a suffix contained in the Finnic numerals for 'eight' and 'nine', such as the Estonian kahe-ksa and ühe-ksä. Taking into consideration the forms of some southern varieties of Finnic, such as Votic and Livonian, it is proposed to reconstruct the Proto-Finnic suffix *-ksama/*-ksämä and compare it with the segment -saa in Tundra Enets eesaa, Forest Enets neesaa 'nine', tracing them back to Proto-Uralic *-kśama.

Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology, 2020

The paper presents about 20 etymologies that bring together Samoyedic languages with Evenki

This paper proposes an etymology of the auditive forms in Samoyedic languages. It is argued that ... more This paper proposes an etymology of the auditive forms in Samoyedic languages. It is argued that the auditive goes back to the imperfective verbal noun, namely to that with the suffix *-mon, which has been conserved in Nganasan and left traces in Nenets. Its use as an auditive originates from constructions like ‘his coming is heard’. Since it was more or less the only contexts where it was used as a subject, the verb could be dropped, and the nominative (in most cases plural) form of the verbal noun has been grammaticalised in the auditive meaning.
Paper published in Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen Band 41 2017, 132-151.

Published in: M. Miestamo, A. Tamm, B. Wagner-Nagy (eds.) Negation in Uralic languages. [Typologi... more Published in: M. Miestamo, A. Tamm, B. Wagner-Nagy (eds.) Negation in Uralic languages. [Typological Studies in Language, 108]. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2015. P. 103—132.

Published in: M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm (ed.). The Linguistics of Temperature. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:... more Published in: M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm (ed.). The Linguistics of Temperature. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2015. P. 528—560.

Published in: Эвиденциальность в языках Европы и Азии: Сб. ст. памяти Наталии Андреевны Козинцево... more Published in: Эвиденциальность в языках Европы и Азии: Сб. ст. памяти Наталии Андреевны Козинцевой. СПб., 2007. С. 415-444.

Published in: В. А. Плунгян (ред.) Типология аспектуальных систем и категорий (Исследования по те... more Published in: В. А. Плунгян (ред.) Типология аспектуальных систем и категорий (Исследования по теории грамматики, вып. 6 = Acta linguistica Petropolitana. Труды ИЛИ. Т. VIII, ч. 2). СПб., 2012. С. 311-360.

The paper deals with the verbs of swimming in Nganasan. Published in: Т. А. Майсак, Е. В. Рахили... more The paper deals with the verbs of swimming in Nganasan.
Published in: Т. А. Майсак, Е. В. Рахилина (ред.) Типология глаголов плавания. М., 2006. С. 443—456.

Лингвистический беспредел-2: Сборник научных трудов к юбилею А. И. Кузнецовой. М., 2013. С. 67—73.

T. Hyytiäinen, L. Jalava, J. Saarikivi, E. Sandman (eds.). Per Urales ad Orientem: Iter polyphonicum multilingue. Festskrift tillägnad Juha Janhunen på hans sextioårsdag den 12 februari 2012 (MSFOu 264.) Helsinki, 2012. P. 77—81.

Languages of Siberia by Valentin Gusev

This paper deals with three grammatical parallels between Nivkh (primarily its Continental Amur d... more This paper deals with three grammatical parallels between Nivkh (primarily its Continental Amur dialect) and Tungusic languages (in the first place Negidal), which seem to be a result of contact influence. These are (1) the marker of the 1st person singular imperative; (2) the hearsay particle; (3) the separtate locative case. While the imperative marker undoubtedly has been borrowed as such from Negidal into Nivkh, the locative case seems to be a result of a loan translation; and the hearsay particle is an areal feature, the source of which is hard to locate. It is very probable that the languages of Lower Amur and Sakhalin have much more common traits in that are due to a long-lasting areal contacts.

Voprosy onomastiki, 2020

The article discusses the etymology of several ethnonyms and tribal names of the peoples of the T... more The article discusses the etymology of several ethnonyms and tribal names of the peoples of the Taimyr Peninsula and the Lower Yenisei region, namely Rus. yurak '(Eastern) Nenets'; Ket Dýingden 'Nenets'; Nganasan clan name Ngamtusu'o; Nganasan as'a and Enets os'a 'Dolgan'; and proposes a correction to the conventional etymology of the word Tungus.

Voprosy jazykoznanija, 2021

Towards a typological profile of the North Siberian substrate The paper deals with a number of ty... more Towards a typological profile of the North Siberian substrate
The paper deals with a number of typologically rare features present in the languages of Northern Siberia (Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Ewenki, Neghidal, Ewen, to some extent also Yukaghir and Chukchi); these features are: interrogative mood of the verbs, intraclitics, nominal tense, polysemy ‘real’ / ‘autochtonous’. They are absent in the languages spoken to the south, including other Uralic and Tungusic languages, thus being of clearly areal character. On the other hand, none of the existing languages can be regarded as a source of these features, so that their origin must be due to a common substrate. Interestingly, all the four features are well attested in the Eskaleut languages. These features allow us to make some hypotheses about the typological profile of the languages spoken in Northern Siberia about 1000–2000 years ago. They must have been different from the Uralo-Altaic type, but probably were typologically close to the present-day Eskaleut (Unangan-Yupik-Inuit).

Russian language by Valentin Gusev

Govorka, a Russian-based pidgin spoken on the Taimyr peninsula until the end of the 20th century,... more Govorka, a Russian-based pidgin spoken on the Taimyr peninsula until the end of the 20th century, has very few lexical elements of non-Russian origin; however, some of its structural properties permit us to trace the history of its emergence and development. We hypothesize that originally it was the language of the descendants of Russian settlers who were mixed with the aboriginal Dolgan population and switched to Dolgan but conserved Russian as their heritage language. This form of Russian, strongly influenced by Dolgan, was used to communicate with Russian authorities and merchants. Later it spread to the surrounding population — Nganasan and Evenki — and formed ethnolects, some traces of which can be found in the old attestations.

Hämeenmaalta Jamalille. Kirja Tapani Salmiselle, Apr 1, 2022

Opuscula linguistica Magistro sapientissimo dedicata: Сборник статей к 90-летию Виктора Самуиловича Храковского, 2022

Родной язык, 2022

Siberica et Uralica: In memoriam Eugen Helimski, 2022

Finnic numerals for ‘8’ and ‘9’ and a possible parallel from Samoyed, 2022

Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology, 2020

The paper presents about 20 etymologies that bring together Samoyedic languages with Evenki

Лингвистический беспредел-2: Сборник научных трудов к юбилею А. И. Кузнецовой. М., 2013. С. 67—73.

Voprosy onomastiki, 2020

Voprosy jazykoznanija, 2021

Русский язык в научном освещении, 2021

This paper deals with the cases in Russian where the perfective aspect (PF) is, or is not, replac... more This paper deals with the cases in Russian where the perfective aspect (PF) is, or is not, replaced by the imperfective aspect (IPF) after a modal verb with negation: "dolzhen kupit’" PF ‘must buy’ — "ne dolzhen pokupat’" IPF ‘must not buy’, but "mozhet kupit’" PF ‘can buy’ — "ne mozhet kupit’" PF ‘cannot buy'. It shows that in most contexts this substitution is governed by one rule: if the subject of modality controls the action, PF is changed to IPF; if not, PF is retained. Hence, the change normally occurs in deontic contexts, when the subject has a full control over the situation, and does not occur if the control is only partial. Epistemic contexts and expressions of internal modality do not allow the substitution. Expressions of will allow both possibilities.
The same rule is acting in other parts of Russian grammar, including the well-known case of negated imperatives.
The main exception from the rule of controllability is that PF can be retained if the absence of action contradicts the speaker’s expectations. This is also paralleled in the so-called “contrary-to-expectations present”.
The paper also discusses a number of particular cases where the expected substitution is blocked.

A typological survey of the imperative forms in more than 200 languages (Moscow, 2013).

Voprosy jazykoznanija, 2005

The paper deals with irregular and suppletive imperatives in a sample of about 200 languages. It ... more The paper deals with irregular and suppletive imperatives in a sample of about 200 languages. It demonstrates that by far the most frequent meaning, which is expressed irregularly in the 2nd person imperatives, is 'come': in about 15% of languages the form for 'come (here)!' is suppletive or irregular. Other irregular 2nd person forms are 'go', 'give (me)', 'bring', 'take', 'eat' and 'see'.
In the 1st person plural, the only meaning that is likely to be expressed irregularly or suppletively is 'let's go together' (in about 7% of languages of the sample).

In this paper we show how different types of spelling errors influence the quality of machine tra... more In this paper we show how different types of spelling errors influence the quality of machine translation. We also propose a method to evaluate the impact of spelling errors correction on translation quality without expensive manual work of providing reference translations.

In Russian, the negation after a modal verb often - though not always - triggers the aspect of th... more In Russian, the negation after a modal verb often - though not always - triggers the aspect of the subordinated verb: perfective becomes imperfective. It is shown here that the change of the aspect depends on the controllability of the action: if the action is controlled by its subject, the aspect becomes imperfective; otherwise it remains perfective.
The abstract was published as:
Гусев В. Ю. Отрицание, несовершенный вид, обязанности и свободная воля в русском языке // Грамматические категории в языках мира: иерархия и взаимодействие (Санкт-Петербург, 22—24 сентября 2016 г.): Материалы докладов. СПб.: Нестор-История, 2016. С. 34—41.

Доклад посвящен русским конструкциям с глаголом "хотеть" в условном наклонении, которые могут обо... more Доклад посвящен русским конструкциям с глаголом "хотеть" в условном наклонении, которые могут обозначать неосуществимость желания: "Я хотел бы быть сейчас рядом с тобой". Такие употребления, присутствующие, во всяком случае, во многих европейских языках, являются частным случаем "перетягивания" грамматических значений на модальный глагол (гораздо более известное явление такого рода - так называемый "подъем отрицания", переход отрицания от подчиненного глагола к модальному).
Данный текст представляет собой тезисы, поданные на конференцию "Русская грамматика: описание, преподавание, тестирование" (Хельсинки, 7-9 июня 2017 г.)

It has been known before that, while new verbal forms often develop first in assertive main predi... more It has been known before that, while new verbal forms often develop first in assertive main predications, archaic forms tend to be preserved either in subordinate or in non-indicative uses. This presentation deals with the history of non-assertive verbal moods in Samoyedic languages, which in some cases are etymological remnants of older forms with a broader meaning. These forms have been ousted by newer forms in the indicative, but have been preserved in modal contexts and thus have developed into separate moods.
This abstract was published in: Проблемы типологии и общей лингвистики. Международная конференция, посвященная 100-летию со дня рождения А. А. Холодовича: Материалы. СПб., 2006. С. 41—45.

Доклад на юбилейной конференции «Африканское языкознание» (Институт языкознания РАН, Москва, 2–4 ... more Доклад на юбилейной конференции «Африканское языкознание» (Институт языкознания РАН, Москва, 2–4 декабря 2015 г.)

Доклад на конференции «Уральские языки: синхрония и диахрония» (ИЛИ РАН, Санкт-Петербург, 15-17 о... more Доклад на конференции «Уральские языки: синхрония и диахрония» (ИЛИ РАН, Санкт-Петербург, 15-17 октября 2015 г.)

Краткое сообщение о вероятных фрагментах говорки, встретившихся в сборнике материалов Туруханской... more Краткое сообщение о вероятных фрагментах говорки, встретившихся в сборнике материалов Туруханской экспедиции Приполярной переписи 1926-1927 гг.

Editor (Russian-English): Annotated Folk and Daily Prose Texts in the Languages of Ob-Yenissei Linguistic Area. 2017. V-5. _ (Отв.редактор) Аннотированные фольклорные и бытовые тексты обско-енисейского языкового ареала. 2017. Том-5., 2017

Пятый том собрания аннотированных фольклорных и бытовых текстов обско-енисейского языкового ареал... more Пятый том собрания аннотированных фольклорных и бытовых текстов обско-енисейского языкового ареала – является продолжением проекта публикации исследовательского наследия кафедры языков народов Сибири ТГПУ. Языковой материал пятого тома сборника продолжает охватывать обширную территорию обско-енисейского языкового ареала, представляя материал наиболее редких и наименее изученных диалектов коренного населения Сибири: восточных ханты, южных селькупов и чулымских тюрков Томской области; телеутов Кемеровской области; нганасан и кетов Красноярского края. Тексты, вошедшие в серию сборников записаны в период 1960–1990 гг. и представляет собой архив кафедры-лаборатории языков народов Сибири ТГПУ. В пятый том сборника также включены тексты из полевых материалов васюганского диалекта хантыйского языка, собранные в 2000х годах. Тексты по каждому языку представлены в сравнимом объеме и жанровой специфике. Языковой материал представлен максимально полно: в современной международной академической транскрипции IPA, оригинальной транскрипции авторов на основе кириллицы, а также снабжен полным морфемным глоссированием, морфемным и свободным переводом на русский и английский языки. Кроме того, тексты снабжены анализом фольклорных характеристик.