Specificational pseudoclefts in Nor-Nakhichevan Armenian

This paper examines pseudocleft constructions in the Nor-Nakhichevan (Don) dialect of Armenian, which represent one of the principal strategies for marking focus in this variety. It describes the grammatical properties of these constructions and shows that Nor-Nakhichevan Armenian pseudoclefts exhibit connectivity effects, including anaphor binding, reconstruction for Principle C, case connectivity, and licensing of negative polarity items. Based on these findings, a formal analysis is proposed within the minimalist framework of generative syntax, which captures the attested connectivity effects and agreement patterns, derives the exhaustive (identificational) interpretation of the construction, and correctly predicts the interaction between the focus operator and negative polarity items. This study contributes to the documentation of underdescribed Armenian varieties and deepens our understanding of their syntactic variation.