Bipredicative constructions with dependent predicative units denoting location in the Tuvan language

The paper gives a brief overview of grammaticalized syntactic constructions within the Tuvan polypredicative system, represented by specialized syntactic structures denoting locations. The semantics being analyzed is represented in the Tuvan language by three structural types of bipredicative constructions. The first type consists of bipredicative constructions where the relation between the dependent predicative unit and the main predicative unit is usually analytical, expressed by correlative pronouns. These correlative pronouns show the necessity of dependent predicative unit. In other words, the correlative pronouns mark the predicative units specifically as parts of complex sentences that are unable to function independently. The second type includes bipredicative constructions with local case forms (dative, locative, directive) of nouns, correlating with a dependent predicative unit. In the Tuvan language, the localizer is marked by locative case in predicates in temporal forms, with their semantics denoting the relevance of the action for the moment of speech. It is marked by dative case when other temporal forms are used. Due to denoting the meaning of whereabouts, the dative case usually expresses the static aspect of its semantics. The third type consists of bipredicative constructions with analytical markers, namely the synsemantic nouns cher “earth,” kizhi “human,” үe “time,” and others. While being formally attributive, these constructions serve as dependent predicative units with meanings of location and localize the entire main predicative unit.

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