The construction kak-to tak as a discourse marker

The article analyzes discourse functions of the expression kak-to tak (‘kind of like that’), which encompass anaphora, deixis, hesitation, evaluation, and summation. These functions can be divided into referential, structural, and cognitive. The semantics of the marker arises from the interaction of two components: the indefiniteness associated with kak-to (‘somehow’) and the deixis conveyed by tak (‘like that’). The deictic component dominates in anaphoric, deictic, and summative uses, while the indefinite component is more prominent in hesitative and evaluative contexts. Each function is associated with distinct syntactic, prosodic, and even gestural features. The construction kak-to tak exhibits a development from compositional usages to a grammaticalized discourse marker. While this evolutionary path is typical for demonstrative pronouns, it is rarely described for combinations involving indefinite elements. Diachronic analysis shows that the summative function is the most recent, whereas the other functions are already attested in 19th-century texts, where the evaluative use initially predominated.