Likely different: On the development of a similar referential pattern in Russian, Latvian and Ingrian

Evgeniya Budennaya
Institute of Linguistic RAS

Abstract. This article deals with a comparative diachronic study of subject reference in Russian, Latvian and Ingrian. In these languages, a typologically rare restructuring of referential pattern took place — from an affixal to a pronoun-affixal type. For each language, internal and external scenarios of further referential type change are analyzed. The analysis shows that in Russian and (most likely) Latvian, the expansion of pronouns was due to internal factors — copular loss in perfect and noun clauses in Russian, loss of subjunctive inflectional paradigm in Latvian, whereas for Ingrian the main trigger is an external contact with native speakers of Russian.

Keywords: subject reference, personal pronoun, verb copula, Old Russian, Latvian, Ingrian, diachronic study

For citation: Budennaya E. Likely different: On the development of a similar referential pattern in Russian, Latvian and Ingrian. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2018. Vol. 1, iss. 2. Pp. 11–27. (In Rus.)