Chapter 5. From an adverb/postposition ‘behind’ to a discourse marker

Abstract

The paper describes two uses of the discourse particle reχu in Andi (Nakh-Daghestanian, Avar-Andic), namely the consecutive, or sequential, use found in the non-final clauses of multiclausal sentences and reinforcing the idea of temporal sequence (‘and then’), and the pragmatic use with retrospective contrastive meaning, predominantly found in imperatives and questions. A diachronic scenario is proposed for the development of the particle: first from spatial adverb/postposition ‘behind’ to temporal adverb/postposition ‘after’, then from clause-initial ‘then’ to clause-final sequential marker, then from longer to shorter sequential marker and, finally, from enclitic sequential marker to enclitic pragmatic particle. This evolution is accompanied by semantic, morphosyntactic and phonological changes typical of grammaticalization, and is supported by both intragenetic evidence and cross-linguistic parallels.