Northwest Caucasian languages. Grammar and typology

PhD-seminar at the University of Zurich, fall semester 2022

Course description

Northwest Caucasian is a language family comprising West Circassian, Kabardian, Abkhaz, Abaza and the extinct Ubykh, which are or were spoken mainly in the western slopes of the Caucasus and the neighboring plains. While sharing some structural traits with the other indigenous languages of the Caucasus, the languages of the family offer a number of typologically rare and unique phenomena in the domains of phonology, morphology and syntax. Their most salient structural feature is polysynthetic organisation of grammar, revealing itself in consistent head-marking, rich systems of applicatives, limited use of grammatical case, complex patterns of verbal spatial encoding, expression of anaphoric and interclausal relations with the verb. In the framework of the proposed seminar, selected grammatical phenomena of Northwest Caucasian languages were discussed against a cross-liguistic background with a focus on their theoretical significance.

Materials

Topic 1: Introduction and overview pdf

Topic 2: Nominal morphology pdf

Topic 3: Overview of polysynthetic features pdf; references pdf

Topic 4: Grammatical relations and alignment(s) pdf