| Popis: |
This chapter presents a concise overview of information structural means of expression as they are typically found in the Uralic languages between the Western European and the Eastern Siberian linguistic areas. It provides a larger picture as a background for the description of several morphosyntactic patterns in the single chapters on specific languages, stressing and comparing their functions of marking primary or secondary topics, or focus, respectively. The patterns relevant for the current chapter are object agreement, differential object marking, dative shift, passivization, as well as the grammaticalization of focus- or topic-marking particles, definite articles, and the development of cleft structures. Providing this assessment seems necessary against the background that Uralic languages differ considerably in the domains mentioned, and they belong to different typological areas. |
