Kašubský duál
The Dual in Kashubian

Summary/Abstract: The dual is a morphological category that has completely disappeared in most Indo-European languages, but may have left traces in the morphosyntax. The case of Kashubian, described in the following article, shows the process of extinction of this category in the last two centuries, and at the same time, its influence on the process of the birth of a literary language which took place in parallel. The fall of the dual in this small Slavonic language is introduced by comparing preserved forms and the structure of the corresponding paradigm in Kashubian with existing forms in other languages. The key focus of the study includes grammar and literary works which represent many interpretations of the semantic value and use of the dual, allowing to follow the steps of the degrammaticalization of a grammatical category appearing in the history of other languages. The question related to the last living forms that may be interpreted semantically as the dual (the paradigm of the first person pronoun and corresponding verb endings) remains semi-open.

• Details
• Contents