Semantic oppositions in comparative constructions of equality in some Iranian languages
Keywords:
equative constructions, similative constructions, typology, Ossetic, Pashto, Tajik, BalochiAbstract
The study deals with the strategies used in comparative constructions of equality (CoE) in some Iranian languages: Iron Ossetic, Iranian and Tajiki Persian, Balochi. CoE are described based on three semantic oppositions: subject or event comparison, qualitative or quantitative comparison, and explicit or implicit comparison. Languages form our sample use case markers (Oss. -aw) or adpositions (Pers. mesle ‘like’ etc.) with more simple standards of comparison, both from structural and semantic point of view. More complex (i.e. clausal) standards are marked with conjunctions. Ossetic has special conjunctions that introduce standard clauses — kʷəd ‘how’ and cyma ‘as if’ — while Persian, Tajik and Balochi languages use one general subordinating conjunction ki / ke that introduce comparative clauses, among others, and special forms indicating parameter of comparison, e.g. towr ‘manner’. I did not find the information about special quantitative standard markers in Persian and Balochi. On the contrary, there is a quantitative standard marker in Ossetic, bærc ‘approximately’, which is used in approximative constructions. Tajik postposition barin has a more broad meaning and can be used either in equative or similative constructions, either in approximative ones. Equative constructions with case or adpositions as standard markers in all of our languages can be attributed to implicit equatives, according to formal criteria (parameter marker is absent in such constructions, what we would expect from typological perspective). At the same time there are some examples of equative constructions with a parameter marker that I classify as explicit strategies.
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