Functional and Sеmantic Analysis of the Case Markers in Vakh Khanty (a Case Study of the Latest Field Data on LingvoDoc)

In this paper we argue that the category of nominal case in the Vakh Khanty dialect needs reviewing which is due to the availability of the recent field data obtained in 2019. This objective is considered to be topical because the results of the study will equip researches with all necessary data to develop a unified notation system for the case markers to be used in an annotated corpus of Vakh Khanty on the LingvoDoc platform. The declension system of the Eastern Khanty dialect under analysis is heterogeneous and relatively vast. The controversy around the synthetic means of expression of semantic relations concerns the terminology of case markers, their quantity, morphemic status and functional features. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the functional and semantic aspects of the Vakh Khanty case markers drawing on the recently obtained field material. This objective is achieved by means of the tools available on the LingvoDoc platform. The latest field data on the Vakh Khanty dialect was collected in the village of Korliki in 2019. More than 6,000 words of data are posted on the endangered languages documentation platform LingvoDoc. Part of the material used in the analysis is being processed and integrated on the LingvoDoc platform. The underlying opinion of this study draws on the seminal work by N.I. Tereshkin, as well as other prominent researchers of the Khanty language, and their description of the declension system of the Eastern dialect. The latest field data contains texts and questionnaires allowing researches to examine functioning of the morphological markers and compare results with the findings previously presented in the literature. Such approach entails observations leading to the systematization of the case category in this dialect at its current state of development. The examination of the range of meanings conveyed by the Vakh Khanty case markers at present has made it possible to distribute them into groups of semantic and syntactic case markers. As a result, the study confirmed that the nominal declension system encompasses such case markers as the abessive, ablative, allative, distributive, comitative, comparative, lative, locative, nominative, oblicative, and translative cases. The recent field data confirms the presence of the distributive case within the case paradigm and the status of the comparative element niŋit as a postposition. Each case marker of the Vakh Khanty dialect is terminologically specified which is essential for developing a parser for this dialect on the LingvoDoc platform. The development of the parser in the future will speed up the process of processing and analyzing language material and lead to the elimination of errors.

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