Functioning of the prolative-comparative casein non-spatial values in newspaper texts in Khakas language

Purpose: Article is devoted to research of functioning of the prolative-comparative case with non-spatial values in newspaper texts of XX - the beginning of XXI centuries in the Khakas language. Non-spatial values of the prolative-comparative case have received progress chiefly in newspaper texts, rather than in literary fiction. The relative recency of this linguistic phenomenon clearly demonstrates the relevance of the chosen research topic and the necessity of such a research for the Turkic studies in general. Results: The description of progress of functioning of a prolative-comparative case in mass media texts in competition to other ways of transfer of non-spatial values is presented in the following article. Rate of usage of the prolative-comparative case is verified, ways of expression of limitative and coordinative values are presented. Special attention is also paid to the description of mechanisms of transition from initial spatial value to non-spatial values of the prolative-comparative case. The republican newspaper Habar (News) which has been printed since 1927 till today served as the primary source of material for our research. Prolative-comparative case in the Khakas language expresses the spatial values: route, stage, wayside and passage, and spaceless values: limitative, coordinative and criterion. An important characteristic feature of non-spatial consumption values of the prolative-comparative case (with the exception of the value criterion, which is found mainly in folklore texts, which are not the focus of this study) is that they have developed mainly in newspapers and similar mass-media texts, rather than literary works. Conclusion: Gradual replacement of other forms by the prolative-comparative case of expression of limitative and coordinative values is observed within our study on the basis of modern and relevant language material. Therefore, since the 1950s in newspaper texts it has been rarely possible to observe the uses of the core and instrumental cases in limitative value as the prolative-comparative case starts to carry out this function as its basic one, signifying a certain linguistic shift. If in beginning of the XX century, the coordinative value was normally expressed by the means of the instrumental case, in the second half of the XX century this function, as our observations demonstrate, is carried out using the postpositions хоостыра ‘through, on, according to something, along with’ and сығара ‘with, from’, and since the 2000s the use of the prolative-comparative case has been becoming more and more common in wide mass media usage. Thus, the prolative-comparative case, steadily expanding its functions in the Khakas language as the language evolution proceeds, passes from the zone of partially-spatial case to the abstract-grammatic zone.