Research Article

Contact at the treetops: syntactic borrowing and syntactic complexity

Volume: 36 Number: 3 - Türkiye'de Tehlikedeki Diller Özel Sayısı (Konuk Editörler: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek) / Special Issue - Endangered Languages in Turkey (Guest Editors: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek) January 27, 2026
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Contact at the treetops: syntactic borrowing and syntactic complexity

Abstract

We examine the function and structure of ki-clauses in Modern Greek dialects of Trabzon (Romeyka), Silli, Cappadocia and Pharasa. We demonstrate that ki, transferred from Turkish, has been integrated into the clausal spine of these dialects in JudgeP (Krifka, 2023), whereby the speaker renders their private epistemic judgement regarding an assertion in its scope. In the source language, Turkish, ki spells-out not only Judge head—the lowest head in the expressive layer—but all heads of this layer. Given that ki realizes solely the Judge head in the Asia Minor Greek dialects, we propose a constraint according to which the accommodation of morphosyntactic rules in contact situations commences at the lowest relevant projection of a layer relevant to that rule. In other words, the accommodation of contact-induced rules correlates with structural complexity.

Keywords

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Language Documentation and Description , Linguistics (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

January 27, 2026

Submission Date

November 15, 2024

Acceptance Date

December 30, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 36 Number: 3 - Türkiye'de Tehlikedeki Diller Özel Sayısı (Konuk Editörler: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek) / Special Issue - Endangered Languages in Turkey (Guest Editors: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek)

APA
Bağrıaçık, M., & Öztürk, B. (2026). Contact at the treetops: syntactic borrowing and syntactic complexity. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 36(3 - Türkiye’de Tehlikedeki Diller Özel Sayısı (Konuk Editörler: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek) / Special Issue - Endangered Languages in Turkey (Guest Editors: Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek), 261-292. https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.1585856