ИСТИНА

The systems of complement clauses of East Caucasian languages present interesting issues both in their syntax and the semantics. They exhibit a number of puzzling structures that are challenging from the theoretical point of view: non-finite clauses where all the arguments are encoded in the same way as in independent sentences, backward control, long-distance reflexive pronouns, long-distance agreement in complement clauses. The complementation systems of East-Caucasian languages also differ from those of Slavic and Germanic in the respect of the semantic distribution of complementation strategies. In particular, East Caucasian languages seem to have a strong preference toward encoding factive clauses by dedicated markers or constructions. Indirect questions show cross-linguistically rare polysemy patterns.