Word-order variation in a contact setting: A corpus-based investigation of Russian spoken in Daghestan

Abstract

This paper deals with word-order variation in a situation of language contact. We present a corpus-based investigation of word order in the variety of Russian spoken in Daghestan, focusing specifically on noun phrases with a genitive modifier. In Daghestanian Russian, the nonstandard word order GEN+N (prepositive or left genitive) often occurs. At first glance, this phenomenon might be easily explained in terms of syntactic calquing from the speakers’ left-branching L1s. However, the order GEN+N does not occur with the same frequency in all types of genitive noun phrases but is affected by several lexicosemantic and formal features of both the head and the genitive modifier. Therefore, we are not dealing with simple pattern borrowing. Rather, L1 influence strengthens certain universal tendencies that are not motivated by contact. The comparison with monolinguals’ Russian, in which prepositive genitives sporadically occur too, supports this hypothesis.

Why we need a gradient approach to word order

“…Poplack 2020; Poplack and Levey 2010; Thomason and Kaufman 1988: 58-59). A similar conclusion is drawn in a recent study by Naccarato et al (2021) devoted to word order variation in noun phrases with a genitive modifier in the variety of Russian spoken in Daghestan. In this variety of L2 Russian the Genitive -Noun order in noun phrases is unexpectedly frequent, whereas in Standard Russian the Noun -Genitive order is the neutral and by far most frequent option (see also Section 2.4).…”

“…Specifically, vernacular varieties are relatively free from the pressure of prescriptive norms and are more inclined to word order variation compared to "standard" varieties. An example is reported in the study by Naccarato et al (2020) on genitive noun phrases in several spoken varieties of Russian. In Standard Russian, the neutral and most frequent word order in genitive noun phrases is Noun followed by Genitive modifier, while two types of vernacular Russiandialects and contact-influenced varietiesoften show the alternative order Genitive modifier followed by Noun.…”

Spoken Corpora of Slavic Languages

“…The first hypothesis was that the speakers tend to over-use left branching because their native languages are left-branching. In particular, constructions with noun phrases with a genitive modifier in Daghestanian Russian tend to have the genitive on the left more often than it happens in monolingual Russian: mojej babushki plem'an nik 'the nephew of my grandmother' (plem'annik mojej babushki in monolingual Russian) (Naccarato et al, 2021). The second hypothesis concerned the omission of prepositions in Daghestanian Russian (Panova & Philippova, 2021): mog by institut postupit' 'could have entered the university' (mog by v institut postupit' in monolingual Russian), which might be due to the fact that the languages spoken in Daghestan have no prepositions.…”