Natalia Serdobolskaya | Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences | The Pushkin State Russian Language Institute
In Beserman, a new converb grammaticalizes from the possessive locative form of the locative noun in
(o)ń-ńig. We show that the constructions with the converb have a clausal structure, while the constructions
with the locative noun are mostly noun phrases, even if they include an indication of the agent and patient of the situation
encoded by the locative noun. Semantically, the two types of constructions are also different. In the converb constructions the
situations encoded by the main and the embedded clause must overlap, while with locative nouns this is not necessarily the case.
The temporal reference of locative nouns is habitual/iterative, while converbs often have episodic (non-habitual) interpretation.
The original locative noun denotes a reference to a fixed location where the situation usually takes place. In the constructions
with the converb this meaning is bleached and generalized as an action which takes place in any possible location.
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