Дискурсивные функции посессивного показателя третьего лица единственного числа в горномарийском языке

Abstract

This paper describes the discourse functions of the 3rd singular possessive marker in Hill Mari. Many previous works indicated that POSS.3SG markers in the Uralic languages express the semantics of definiteness; contrastive uses were also mentioned for Mari and Permic languages. Indeed, in Hill Mari, POSS.3SG primarily marks contrast (selection from a set) rather than definiteness. The acceptability of this marker depends on the status of NPs in the information structure. It can mark a topic, and it also has a contrastive use — both in topic and in focus. This use is typical of specific NPs. However, if this NP is a contrastive topic or, less often, a contrastive focus, the possessive marker is also possible in non-specific NPs. Using Hawkins’ terms: in definite contexts (anaphoric use, associative anaphoric use, immediate situation use, larger situation use), it is felicitous only in a (contrastive) topic, but not in focus. The influence of the information structure is only absent in the context of the selection from a set. It is the idea of the selection from a set that unites the functions of the POSS.3SG marker in its discourse uses. At the NP level, this is the choice of a referent from a set of participants. Contrastive topic and focus are also analyzed as a selection from several alternatives. As for the topic shift, a new topic is similarly selected from a variety of possible options in discourse, activated in the minds of the speaker and the hearer, and when marking the protagonist, the choice occurs from the set of all protagonists acting in various fragments of the discourse. Thus, the same marker encodes similar semantics in Hill Mari at the levels of NP, local, and global discourse structure.