Communicative variation of typical syntactic structures with prototypical spatial semantics in the Surgut dialect of Khanty from a typological perspective

This study is concerned with communicative variation of syntactic structure, which is expressed in the existence of their variants, contrasted, on the one hand, by communicatively relevant characteristics attributed to individual components of the structure, such as rheme (focus) and theme (topic), and, on the other hand, by a series of formal means, including its constituent order, intonation and morphosyntactic properties. The research is based on a sample of realizations of three typical syntactic structures with prototypical spatial semantics in Surgut Khanty texts. As a result of the analysis of these utterances from the point of view of their formal and communicative organization, a series of communicative variants forming the paradigm of each typical syntactic structure are identified. The research shows that the constituent order and intonation are the predominant means of forming basic communicative oppositions determined by the choice of the leading component in the utterance’s focal part. This conclusion contrasts with the widespread notion of morphosyntactic variations such as passive voice, object conjugation and case marking of different nominal components of the structure being the dominant means of communicative variation. Considering such means in the context of the communicative paradigm of different types of syntactic structures shows the limitations of their communicative functions in comparison with system of oppositions expressed by constituent order and intonation. Thus, from the point of view of the typology of communicative systems proposed by R. Van Valin Jr., the Surgut Khanty communicative system could be viewed as representing a type of systems characterized by variability of constituent order in combination with limited domain of focus.

Khanty language, Surgut dialect, spacial sentences, typical syntactic structure, communicative paradigm, actual articulation, constituent order, phrase intonation, morphosyntactic variation, typology