ИСТИНА

It is often the case that discourse-pragmatic markers find their origin in linguistic elements with locative or temporal semantics. In Andi, a Nakh-Daghestanian language of the Avar-Andic branch (Russia), there exists a set of cognate words with very different functions ranging from locative adverb ‘after, behind’ to emphatic particle. In the present paper, I try to determine which elements should be distinguished within this set, and which are the diagnostic properties of each member. In particular, I look at the semantics/function of respective words/markers, their class membership (e.g. whether they are adverbs, postpositions, or particles, etc.) and various properties of their morphosyntactic behaviour (such as position in the clause, ability to agree and phonetic weight). Besides illustrating the various heterosemousitems, the paper will present possible semantic links between them. This, while the development from an adverb/postposition ‘behind’ to a sequential marker ‘then’ seems quite straightforward, it is less clear how the sequential developed into a pragmatic particle.