Notes on two markers of contrast in Terek Kumyk

Abstract

This paper investigates the meaning and the position of two discourse particles in Terek Kumyk (<West Kipchak<Kipchak<Turkic): =msA and =ˇc. The first one is found commonly within Turkic languages as a contrastive topic marker (see Iatridou (2013)), while the latter one can be called an universal marker of contrast which can mark either contrastive focus or contrasive topic. We will distinguish these two particles from homonymic markers, observe some contexts where we can meet them.