@article{ART002813442},
author={Jungwon Chung},
title={The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages},
journal={Cross-Cultural Studies},
issn={1598-0685},
year={2022},
volume={65},
pages={79-115},
doi={10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79}
TY - JOUR
AU - Jungwon Chung
TI - The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages
JO - Cross-Cultural Studies
PY - 2022
VL - 65
IS - null
PB - Center for Cross Culture Studies
SP - 79
EP - 115
SN - 1598-0685
AB - This article aims to examine functions of the Slavic coordinate conjunction a. All modern Slavic national and regional languages have a conjunction that is pronounced as /a/ which fulfills functions, such as contrastive, introductory, adversative (in a narrow sense), copulative, consecutive, and disjunctive functions.
The contrastive function occurring among semantically related or unrelated things juxtaposed by the Slavic conjunction a is the most basic and prominent function of this conjunction, and all the modern Slavic conjunctions pronounced as /a/ can represent a contrastive relation between coordinates.
The Slavic a also serves as an introductory conjunction appearing at the beginning of an utterance without a related precedent utterance or context, and as an adversative conjunction connecting incompatible events. These two functions must have been derived from its contrastive function since the introductory conjunction juxtaposes a new utterance to an unuttered inner speech or an unrelated precedent discourse, and the Slavic adversative a juxtaposes propositions that do not usually co-occur, not implicating a breaking of a usual chain of causation.
In the West Slavic languages, except Polish, the conjunction a is, above all, a copulative conjunction and can also serve as a consecutive conjunction. On the other hand, some South Slavic languages have a correlative disjunctive conjunction a, repeatedly added at the beginning of each coordinate.
Many Russian linguists suggested that the Russian conjunction a is the most typical Russian conjunction that cannot be translated into other languages. However, the Russian conjunction a shares its main functions and pragmatic peculiarities with other Slavic equivalents, and the corresponding conjunctions in other Slavic languages also have their own idiosyncratic functions. Therefore, the conjunction a should be considered a characteristic Slavic conjunction rather than a peculiar Russian conjunction.
KW - Slavic;Coordinate Conjunction;a;Contrastive;Introductory;Adversative;Copulative;Consecutive;Disjunctive
DO - 10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
ER -
Jungwon Chung. (2022). The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages. Cross-Cultural Studies, 65, 79-115.
Jungwon Chung. 2022, "The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages", Cross-Cultural Studies, vol.65, pp.79-115. Available from: doi:10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung "The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages" Cross-Cultural Studies 65 pp.79-115 (2022) : 79.
Jungwon Chung. The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages. 2022; 65 79-115. Available from: doi:10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung. "The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages" Cross-Cultural Studies 65(2022) : 79-115.doi: 10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung. The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages. Cross-Cultural Studies, 65, 79-115. doi: 10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung. The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages. Cross-Cultural Studies. 2022; 65 79-115. doi: 10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung. The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages. 2022; 65 79-115. Available from: doi:10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79
Jungwon Chung. "The Functions of the Coordinate Conjunction a in Modern Slavic Languages" Cross-Cultural Studies 65(2022) : 79-115.doi: 10.21049/ccs.2022.65..79