One Way of Forming Hypotaxis in Zan

Abstract

The examined material and the accompanying linguistic analysis—based on data from both dialects of the Zan language, Megrelian and Chan, and considered in relation to the other Kartvelian languages—allow us to formulate several general conclusions. In particular, the study traces aspects of the historical development of Kartvelian sentence structure from parataxis to the emergence of hypotaxis. Parataxis (coordination) is known to precede hypotaxis (subordination) historically, and scholarly literature correctly notes that at earlier stages complex sentences were non-hypotactic, with the relationship expressed solely through intonation. The subsequent stage is thought to involve the use of subjunctive and absolutive constructions in hypotactic contexts, constructions still attested today in certain Daghestanian languages. Only later does the dependent clause become formally defined through pronominal and verbal markers. The long-standing view that all types of dependent clauses in Georgian originate from interrogative structures remains valid. The findings presented in this study are significant primarily for understanding the early phases of hypotactic development in the Georgian languages, as well as for other IberoCaucasian languages, many of which lack fully developed subordinate clauses and preserve only incipient forms. In this regard, clarifying the situation in the Zan languages is especially valuable. Consequently, the issues discussed here are of broad linguistic and theoretical importance.