Comparative study of syntactIc constructIon in yakut, evenki, even and korean

• Published in: Idndigenous Languages as a Factor of sustainable development of the Arctic. Conference Proceedings. 1
• Main Author: Ducksoo, K.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Институт гуманитарных исследований и проблем малочисленных народов Севера СО РАН 2019
• Subjects: predicate construction with auxiliary verbs; dual subject sentences; possessive constructions; embedded clauses; Evenki; Yakut
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25693/npk2019ducksoo; https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=39152845

Yakut, Even, and Evenki are assumed to belong to the Altaic languages family, while the genealogical relations of the Korean language with the Altaic family remain controversial. This paper compared Korean with three Altaic languages, Yakut, Even, Evenki, in three aspects of the grammatical structure: predicate construction with auxiliary verbs, dual subject sentences in Korean and possessive constructions in Even, and embedded clauses. Although the presented evidence does not conclusively overcome the dubious opinions against the supposition of Altaic languages family, it does support the hypothesis that affliates the Korean language with other Altaic languages. As for predicate construction with auxiliary verbs, Korean and Yakut languages can be argued to share very similar characters. Furthermore, it is not an accidental coincidence that embedded clauses placed before predicates are found by the same fashion in all four languages. Finally, the structural affnity between dual subject sentences in Korean and the possessive constructions in Even suggests a worthwhile avenue for further study on the old Korean language, which may present some reliable evidences. It is important to fnd proper characteristics of the Altaic languages family in common.This paper proposes to include three grammatical aspects: predicate construction with auxiliary verbs, dual subject sentences and possessive constructions, and embedded clauses.