From preverbal focus to preverbal “left periphery”: The Ossetic clause architecture in areal and diachronic perspective

I show that a focus position may serve as a source of grammaticalization for the “left periphery”, i.e. the locus of wh-phrases and complementizers. In Ossetic, wh-phrases and certain complementizers are obligatorily placed immediately to the left of the verb, with only a specific class of lexemes being able to intervene between them. Other complementizers may occur anywhere between the left edge of the clause and the verb. I propose a scenario whereby this unusual clause architecture came into existence. The key step is that the wh-position got split from the focus. I argue that this change occurred under influences from South Caucasian languages.

► A focus position may serve as a grammaticalization source for the left periphery. ► In Ossetic, wh-phrases and certain complementizers are verb-adjacent. ► I propose a scenario whereby this unusual clause architecture came into existence. ► The key step is that the wh-position got split from the focus. ► This change occurred under influences from South Caucasian languages.