Abaza, a polysynthetic ergative Northwest Caucasian language, possesses a typologically unique system of forming content questions by means of inflectional marking in the verb. I offer a detailed description of this peculiar system, showing how it is grounded in the more general pattern of encoding relativization by means of prefixes forming part of the basic cross-referencing paradigms. I also discuss a tentative diachronic scenario, explaining how at least a subpart of the synthetic interrogative marking in Abaza (and its close relative Abkhaz) could have emerged via univerbation of pseudocleft focus constructions.
CITATION STYLE
Arkadiev, P. M. (2020). Syntax in morphological guise: Interrogative verbal morphology in Abaza. Linguistic Typology, 24(2), 211–251. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2020-5004
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