ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1965
 
Linguistica Uralica cover
Linguistica Uralica
ISSN 1736-7506 (Electronic)
ISSN 0868-4731 (Print)
Research article
The Emergence of Hierarchical Alignment in Northern Khanty: A Comparative Dialectal Corpus Study; pp. 106–130
PDF | https://doi.org/10.3176/lu.2025.2.03

Author
Nikita Muravyev
Abstract

This study investigates the morphosyntactic coding of core arguments in Northern Khanty, with a focus on the use of active/passive voice and subjective/objective conjugation. The goal is to offer a more detailed understanding of the coding patterns across dialects. To achieve this, I analyze corpus data from four Northern Khanty dialects: Obdorsk, Shuryshkary, Tegi, and Kazym Khanty, using a dataset of 4,320 transitive clauses from available corpora. These clauses are manually annotated based on parameters of person, animacy, referential status, and topicality. The analysis reveals that Northern Khanty exhibits varying degrees of hierarchical alignment across its dialects, forming a gradient from north to south. Based on this observation, I argue that Northern Khanty historically transitioned from nominative/accusative alignment to symmetrical alignment, remnants of which can be observed in the Obdorsk dialect and in Eastern Khanty. It further evolved into hierarchical alignment, as seen in the present-day Kazym dialect.

References

Aissen,  Judith  1997,  On the Syntax of Obviation.— Language 73:4, 705—750.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/417324

Aissen,  Judith  2001,  The Obviation Hierarchy and Morphosyntactic Markedness. — Linguistica Atlantica 23, 1—34.

Arka,  I  Wayan  2002,  Voice Systems in the Austronesian Languages of Nusantara: Typology, Symmetricality and Undergoer Orientation. A paper (invited) to be presented at the 10th National Symposium of the Indonesian Linguistics Society, Bali-Indonesia, July 2002.
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/697ef412-c4e6-473d-901b-60bcf60fe376/content

Bárány,  András  2015,  Differential Object Marking in Hungarian and the Morphosyntax of Case and Agreement. PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.
https://andras.barany.at/files/barany-dissertation.pdf

Bickel,  Balthasar,  Nichols,  Johanna  2009,  Case Marking and Alignment. — The Oxford Handbook of Case, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 304—321.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199206476.013.0021

Blust,  Robert  2013,  The Austronesian Languages.
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/acb0151b-ebb5-4941-8f29-8f61a28c777e/content

Clark,  Herbert  H.  1975,  Bridging. — Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing. TINLAP ’75. Proceedings of the 1975 Workshop on Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3115/980190.980237

Collinder,  Björn  1960,  Comparative Grammar of the Uralic Languages, Stock­holm: Almqvist & Wiksell.

Comrie,  Bernard  1981,  Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Syntax and Morphology, Oxford: Blackwell.

Dalrymple,  Mary  &  Nikolaeva,  Irina  2011,  Objects and Information Structure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511993473

Däbritz,  Chris  Lasse  2020,  Topik, Fokus und Informationsstatus. Modellierung am Material nordwestsibirischer Sprachen, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (Language, Context and Cognition. Volume 17).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110716337

Dixon,  Robert  M.  W.  1972,  The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139084987

Dixon,  Robert  M.  W.,  Aikhenvald,  Alexandra  Y.  1997,  A Typology of Argument-Determined Constructions. — Essays on Language Function and Language Type. Dedicated to T. Givón, Amsterdam: Benjamins, 71—113.
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.82.08dix

É.  Kiss,  Katalin  2019,  Fused Grammatical and Discourse Functions in Ob-Ugric: Case, Agreement, Passive. — Arbeitspapier 130, 163—174.

Filchenko,  Alexander  Y.  2007,  A Grammar of Eastern Khanty. Doctoral dissertation, Rice University.
https://repository.rice.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/ab28c5c1-1683-404c-92e3-818b44593c2e/content

Filchenko,  Andrei  2012,  Continuity of Information Structuring Strategies in Eastern Khanty. — Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations. A Crosslinguistic Typology, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 115—131.
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.126.05fil

Foley,  William  A.  1998,  Symmetrical Voice Systems and Precategoriality in Philippine Languages.
https://zenodo.org/records/5336774

Gildea,  Spike  &  Zúñiga,  Fernando  2016,  Referential Hierarchies: A New Look at Some Historical and Typological Patterns. — Linguistics 54:3, 483—529.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2016-0007

Givón,  Talmy  1983,  Topic Continuity in Discourse. A Quantitative Cross-Language Study, Amsterdam—Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.3

Givón,  Talmy  1994,  Introduction. — Voice and Inversion, Amsterdam—Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 3—44.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/tsl.28

Goddard,  Ives  1990,  Aspects of the Topic Structure of Fox Narratives: Proximate Shifts and the Use of Overt and Inflectional NPs. — International Journal of American Linguistics 56:3, 317—40.
https://doi.org/10.1086/466161

Gulya,  János  1970,  Aktiv, Ergativ und Passiv im Vach-Ostjakischen. — Symposion über Syntax der uralischen Sprachen, Göttingen: Van den Hoock and Ruprecht, 80—83.

Gundel,  Jeanette  K.  &  Hedberg,  Nancy  &  Zacharski,  Ron  1993,  Cognitive Status and the Form of Referring Expressions in Discourse. — Language 69:2, 274—307.
https://doi.org/10.2307/416535

Haspelmath,  Martin  2011,  On S, A, P, T, and R as Comparative Concepts for Alignment Typology. — Linguistic Typology 15:3, 535—567.
https://doi.org/10.1515/lity.2011.035

Haude,  Katharina  &  Zúñiga,  Fernando  2016,  Inverse and Symmetrical Voice: On Languages with Two Transitive Constructions. — Linguistics 54:3, 443—481.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2016-0009

Heim,  Irene  1982,  The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
https://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jA2YTJmN/Heim%20Dissertation%20with%20Hyperlinks.pdf

Honti  László  2022,  Az ősi uráli tárgyragok története és vesszőfutása. Accusatum et expulsum, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó (Segédkönyvek a nyelvészet tanulmányozásához 226).

Janhunen,  Juha  2020,  Grammaticalization in Uralic as Viewed from a General Eurasian Perspective. — Cross-Linguistic Variation and Universal Tendencies, Berlin—Boston: de Gruyter, 361—398.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110563146-007

Kamp,  Hans  1981,  A Theory of Truth and Semantic Interpretation. — Formal Methods in the Study of Language. Proceedings of the Third Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam: Mathematical Center, 277—322.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110867602.1

Karttunen,  Lauri  1976,  Discourse Referents. — Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 7. Notes from the Linguistic Underground, New York: Academic Press, 363—385.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368859_021

Kibrik,  Aleksandr  E.  1997,  Beyond Subject and Object: Toward a Comprehensive Relational Typology. — Linguistic Typology 1, 279—346.
https://doi.org/10.1515/lity.1997.1.3.279

Klaiman,  Miriam  1991,  Grammatical Voice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Klaiman,  Miriam  1993,  The Relationship of Inverse Voice and Head-Marking in Arizona Tewa and other Tanoan languages. — Studies in Language 17:2, 343—370.
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17.2.04kla

Koga,  Hiroaki  &  Ohori,  Toshio  2008,  Reintroducing Inverse Constructions in Japanese. The Deictic Verb kuru ’to come’ in the Paradigms of Argument Encoding. — Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface, Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Studies in Language Companion Series 105), 37—57.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/slcs.105.07kog

Kulonen,  Ulla-Maija  1989,  The Passive in Ob-Ugrian, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura (MSFOu 203).

Kuno,  Susumo  1972,  Functional Sentence Perspective: A Case Study from Japanese and English. — Linguistic Inquiry 3, 269—320.

Lambrecht,  Knud  1994,  Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic Focus and the Mental Representation of Discourse Referents, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511620607

Mithun,  Marianne  2007,  Integrating Approaches to Diversity: Argument Structure on the NW Coast. — Diversity in Language: Perspectives and Implications, Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 9—36.

Muravyev,  Nikita  2023,  Passive in Kazym Khanty and the Interaction of Givenness, Topicality and Animacy. — LU LIX, 49—66.
https://doi.org/10.3176/lu.2023.1.04

Neale,  Stephen  1990,  Descriptions, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780415249126-X011-1

Nichols,  Johanna  1992,  Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226580593.001.0001

Nikolaeva,  Irina  1999,  Ostyak, München: LINCOM Europa.

Nikolaeva,  Irina  2001,  Secondary Topic as a Relation in Information Structure. — Linguistics 39:1, 1—50.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.006

Nikolaeva,  Irina  &  Bárány,  András  2019,  Proximate Possessors. — Prominent Internal Possessors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 228—258.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198812142.003.0008

Russell,  Bertrand  1905,  On Denoting. — Mind, Volume XIV:4, 479—493.
https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/XIV.4.479

Shibatani,  Masayoshi  1985,  Passives and Related Constructions: A Prototype Analysis. — Language 61:4, 821—848.
https://doi.org/10.2307/414491

Shibatani,  Masayoshi  2003,  Directional Verbs in Japanese. — Motion, Direction and Location in Languages, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 259—286.
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.56.19shi

Sosa,  Sachiko  2017,  Functions of Morphosyntactic Alternations, and Information Flow in Surgut Khanty Discourse, Helsinki: University of Helsinki doctoral dissertation.
https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/24971e30-3490-485d-a0e8-cd1ca959e95a/content

Steinitz,  Wolfgang  1950,  Ostjakische Grammatik und Chrestomatie mit Wörterverzeichnis, Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112640142

Thompson,  Chad  L.  1994,  Passive and Inverse Constructions. — Voice and Inversion, Amsterdam—Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 47—63.
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.28.05tho

Virtanen,  Susanna  2014,  Pragmatic Direct Object Marking in Eastern Mansi. — Linguistics 52:2, 391—413.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2013-0067

Zuñiga,  Fernando  2006,  Deixis and Alignment: Inverse Systems in Indigenous Languages of the Americas, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing (Typological Studies in Language 70).
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.70

Кошкарёва  Н.  Б.  2002,  Коммуникативная парадигма хантыского предложения. — Языки коренных народов Сибири. Вып. 12, Новосибирск, 29—44.

Михайлов,  С.  К.  2024,  Семантика севернохантыйского салиентного ар­тикля: определенность, салиентность и обвиация. — ВЯ, № 1, 7—38.
https://doi.org/10.31857/0373-658X.2024.1.7-38

Back to Issue