Timur Maisak (Institute of Linguistics RAS & HSE University) Numeral ‘one’ + additive ‘also, even’: one source structure for two Udi particles

In Udi, a Nakh-Daghestanian language of the Lezgic branch, two function words sal and saal seem to share the same source structure: both appear to represent combinations of the numeral sa ‘one’ with the additive clitic =(a)l ‘and, also, even’. At the same time, synchronically the two are both formally and functionally distinct. The word sal is an emphatic negative polarity item ‘not a (single one)’, ‘(not) at all’. The word saal can be used with the meaning ‘again, one more time’, but even more often, one finds it as a coordinating conjunction ‘and’. Cross-linguistically, the numeral ‘one’ is a common grammaticalization source: for example, the World Lexicon of Grammaticalization lists nine paths leading from ‘one’ to a grammatical marker. Additive markers (‘and, also, even’) are also known to take part in the derivation of various grammatical forms or classes of forms. What makes the two Udi particles unusual is the fact that two very different words go back to one and the same combination of two grammaticalization sources. In the talk, I plan to illustrate the uses of both sal and saal (mainly based on textual data from the Nizh dialect). I will also discuss some structural and functional parallels of the two Udi words found in the languages of the area.