ИСТИНА

The East-Caucasian languages (Nakh-Daghestanian) are characterized by rich consonant systems, ergative case alignment and verbal agreement, complex gender systems, elaborate paradigm of locative cases, deictic demonstratives and preverbs. In syntax, they show 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 and long-distance agreement in complement clauses. This talk is focused on complementation in East Caucasian. First, I discuss the distribution of complementation strategies in Qunqi Dargwa. Then I focus on the phenomenon of long-distance agreement. The infinitives and converbs are the only complementation strategies that allow long-distance agreement. In Qunqi, there is a fuzzy boundary between infinitives and indirect mood forms. The converbs are used both with control verbs and with emotive and perception complement-taking verbs. The long-distance agreement pattern is only observed with control verbs. I show that these structures show properties of clause union. Then I consider the data of 19 East-Caucasian languages from Kibrik 2005 (Materials to the typology of ergativity), and discuss the long-distance agreement patterns in those languages. In most of these languages this phenomenon is limited to control constructions, while Tsez and Tsakhur deviate from this generalization.