Subordination and sentence connectives in Old Hittite: a quantitative analysis

Old Hittite sentence connectives nu, ta and šu display a significantly different distribution when connecting a preposed subordinate clause to the main clause with respect to their distribution between main clauses. Other distributional restrictions concern ta and šu in all syntactic environments, but do not concern nu. The discourse function of connectives when they occur between main clauses points to partly different roles by which they variously indicate event and/or participant continuity, and contribute to the grounding of information. Ongoing increase in the frequency of P2 clitics also called for the occurrence of connectives as hosts. Lack of distributional restrictions on the occurrence of nu made it multifunctional, and suitable as a host for P2 clitics while preserving at least in part its original discourse function: this brought about the onset of a change by which nu replaced other connectives. The discourse function of connectives is blurred between a subordinate and a main clause, as subordinate clauses explicitly indicate their relation to the main clause. Due to its multi-functionality, nu also extended more readily to this syntactic environment, in which it developed into a boundary marker. Uneven distribution of connectives in different syntactic environments is a consequence of gradualness in actualization of languages change.