Slavic Morphosyntax is Primarily Determined by its Geographic Location and Contact Configuration.

ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to identify causal factors constraining the diachronic dynamics of particular morphosyntactic categories of Slavic. It is suggested that the modern inventory of Slavic languages is not a result of accumulation of historically accidental changes and non-changes. Instead, it is argued that macro-areal pressures constrained by the geographic location and the particular language-contact configuration determine the selection of inherited properties for either retention or loss and, subsequently, innovation. I primarily provide evidence from two categories: verbal person-number indexes (subject agreement markers) and partitivity markers and I also briefly discuss some other fusional categories.

SUBMITTER: Serzant IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8827618 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature