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Непосессивные функции показателя посессивности третьего лица в малокарачкинском говоре чувашского языка
This article aims to describe the non-possessive functions of the third person possessive affix in the Maloe Karachkino dialect of Chuvash. It is known from the literature on standard Chuvash that in addition to indicating possessive relation to the third person, possessive marker allomorphs -i and -ë are used to mark noun phrases with the null head or head ellipsis (thus serving as a substantivizer in traditional terms) and demonstrate a range of functions typical of the definite article (so called kategoriya vydeleniya — category of emphasis). The disputable trait of this marker consists in fact that according to the existing descriptions its allomorph -i has a wider distribution and is semantically specialized to serve as a marker of category of emphasis, which has made several authors to suggest it to be a separate morpheme. In the present article an attempt is made to investigate this assumption on the elicitation data collected during the field trips to Maloe Karachkino in 2017–2019. The second section of the article is dedicated to the description of morphological conditions on the distribution of -i and -ə / -ë variants (unlike in standard Chuvash, in Maloe Karachkino dialect the -ë allomorph has different realizations, -ə and -ë, depending on the backness of the stem vowels). According to the general rule, -i is expected after the stems ending in a vowel, while the -ə / -ë attaches to the consonant-final. The following chapter presents a probable model of the wordform containing several third person possessive morphemes with different functions. The fourth chapter investigates article-like usages of the -i and -ə / -ë morphemes. As data shows, distribution of these markers in this domain fully falls under the morphonological rule. Chuvash third person possessive marker is claimed to appear in the following contexts typical of markers of definiteness: marking of the anaphorical NPs and NPs referring to a member chosen from the specific group, as well as of the NPs connected to the previous discourse through bridging. In all of these contexts the usage of definiteness marker is optional. The fifth chapter provides an overview of the cases where -i and -ə / -ë affixes serve as substantivizers. It is shown that the presence of the affix under discussion is not obligatory in some cases and that when substantivizing adjectives -i can be seen instead of -ə / -ë. In the final part the cases of multiple assignment of the third person possessive affix are discussed.