Tánczos Orsolya Causative Constructions and Their

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Tánczos Orsolya Causative Constructions and Their TÁNCZOS ORSOLYA CAUSATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND THEIR SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS IN THE UDMURT LANGUAGE (M ŰVELTET Ő SZERKEZETEK ÉS MONDATTANI ELEMZÉSÜK AZ UDMURT NYELVBEN) DOKTORI (PHD) ÉRTEKEZÉS Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Bölcsészet és Társadalomtudományi Kar Nyelvtudományi Doktori Iskola Vezet ője: Prof. É. Kiss Katalin egyetemi tanár, akadémikus FINNUGOR M ŰHELY TÉMAVEZET Ő: PROF. CSÚCS SÁNDOR EGYETEMI TANÁR BUDAPEST 2015 Nagyapámnak, aki Zeppelint látott 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 7 Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... 10 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 The aim of the dissertation .................................................................................. 12 1.2 The Udmurt data of the dissertation................................................................... 14 1.2.1 Acceptability judgments ............................................................................... 14 1.2.2 Data collecting method ................................................................................ 15 1.2.3 The examples ................................................................................................ 16 1.3 The Udmurt language .......................................................................................... 16 1.3.1 Characteristics of Udmurt ........................................................................... 18 1.3.1.1 Main syntactic properties .................................................................. 18 1.3.1.2 Morphology ...................................................................................... 28 1.3.2 Valence-changing affixes ............................................................................. 29 1.3.2.1 The function of the -t- marker .......................................................... 29 1.3.2.2 The functions of the -sʼk- marker ..................................................... 30 1.3.3 The suffix -ez/jez in Udmurt ......................................................................... 34 1.3.3.1 A general picture of the different functions of the suffix ................. 34 1.3.3.2 Extensive use of the possessive -ez/jez in Udmurt ........................... 36 1.3.3.3 -ez/jez as the Accusative case marker ............................................... 41 1.3.3.3.1 The origin of the Accusative case in Udmurt .................... 41 1.3.3.3.2 Previous studies on Direct Object Marking in Udmurt ..... 42 1.3.3.3.3 Differential Object Marking in Udmurt ............................. 44 1.3.3.4 The grammaticalization pathway of -ez/jez ...................................... 48 1.4 Theoretical background ....................................................................................... 49 1.4.1 Distributed Morphology ............................................................................... 50 1.4.2 Pylkkänen (2002, 2008) ............................................................................... 51 1.5 The typology of Causative Constructions ........................................................... 54 1.6 Terminology .......................................................................................................... 57 1.7 Outline of the dissertation .................................................................................... 57 2 Lexical Causatives ......................................................................................................... 59 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 60 2.2 The causative alternation cross-linguistically ..................................................... 61 3 2.2.1 Focus on the alternation .............................................................................. 62 2.2.2 Typological classification of the causative alternation ............................... 63 2.3 Lexical causatives in Udmurt .............................................................................. 64 2.3.1 Causative alternation ................................................................................... 65 2.3.2 Anticausative alternation ............................................................................. 66 2.3.3 Labile alternation ......................................................................................... 67 2.3.4 Equipollent alternation ................................................................................ 68 2.3.5 Suppletive alternation versus non-alternating verbs ................................... 69 2.4 Internal structure ................................................................................................. 71 2.4.1 Distinguishing between passives and non-causatives ................................... 71 2.4.2 Half-passives vs. non-causatives: a parallel from Hungarian? ................... 76 2.4.3 The structure of the alternating verbs ........................................................... 81 2.4.3.1 Non-causative verbs ......................................................................... 81 2.4.3.2 Causative verbs ................................................................................. 87 2.4.4 True inchoative verbs .................................................................................... 90 2.4.5 Nominalization .............................................................................................. 93 2.4.5.1 The realization of the external argument .......................................... 93 2.4.5.2 Nominalization in Udmurt ................................................................ 94 2.5 Summary ............................................................................................................... 96 3 Factitive Causatives ....................................................................................................... 97 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 97 3.2 The causative morpheme in Udmurt ................................................................... 98 3.2.1 The history of the -t- morpheme in a nutshell ............................................... 98 3.2.2 Synchronic description of the -t- morpheme ................................................. 99 3.3 The arguments of the factitive causative ........................................................... 100 3.3.1 Double-object constructions ....................................................................... 101 3.3.2 The order of the arguments ......................................................................... 104 3.3.3 Neutralization of the case-marked/non-case-marked object alternation .... 106 3.3.4 Case-marking patterns ................................................................................ 107 3.4 Approach to the suffix -ez/jez .............................................................................. 112 3.4.1 Nominalization – is the suffix -ez/jez of the causee an inherent case marker? ............................................................................................... 113 3.4.2 -ez/jez as an associative suffix in factitives ................................................. 115 3.5 Pylkkänen’s (2002, 2008) diagnostics for Phase-selecting causatives ............. 116 4 3.6 Events and domains ............................................................................................. 122 3.6.1 Tests for mono- versus biclausality ............................................................. 123 3.6.1.1 Negation .......................................................................................... 123 3.6.1.2 Condition B ..................................................................................... 124 3.6.2 Monoclausal Udmurt causatives ................................................................. 125 3.6.3 Tests for mono- versus bi-eventivity ............................................................ 127 3.6.3.1 Subjects of participials .................................................................... 127 3.6.3.2 Low adverbial modifiers ................................................................. 127 3.6.4 Udmurt causatives are also bi-eventive ...................................................... 128 3.7 Summary ............................................................................................................. 129 4 Periphrastic Causatives .............................................................................................. 130 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 130 4.2 The distribution of periphrastic causatives in Udmurt ................................... 132 4.2.1 Verb + infinitival complement .................................................................... 132 4.2.3 Verb + subjunctive complement .................................................................. 134 4.3 Nonfinite clauses as complements of causative verbs ...................................... 137 4.3.1 Exceptional Case Marking vs. object control ............................................. 137 4.3.2 The syntactic position of the cause ............................................................
Recommended publications
  • A Grammar of Tundra Nenets Mouton Grammar Library
    Irina Nikolaeva A Grammar of Tundra Nenets Mouton Grammar Library Edited by Georg Bossong Bernard Comrie Matthew Dryer Patience L. Epps Volume 65 Irina Nikolaeva A Grammar of Tundra Nenets ISBN 978-3-11-032047-3 e-ISBN 978-3-11-032064-0 ISSN 0933-7636 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. 6 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: RoyalStandard, Hong Kong Printing and binding: CPI buch bücher.de GmbH, Birkach ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgment This grammar is the result of many years of cooperation with members of the Tundra Nenets community, whose linguistic intuitions, passion for language, and, last but not least, extraordinary patience in dealing with me made it all possible. I am greatly indebted to all of you. Ңули” сава! I owe a great debt of gratitude to the colleagues with whom I have had the opportunity to work and discuss various intriguing aspects of Tundra Nenets grammar, especially to Farrell Ackerman, Larisa Leisiö and Tapani Salminen. I really miss our joint elicitation sessions; it was a lot of fun! Tapani Salminen was the first to intro- duce me to the language, and his own work on Tundra Nenets has always been a source of inspiration for me. I also thank Tapani and Larisa for their assistance in the practical aspects of my fieldwork.
    [Show full text]
  • Berkeley Linguistics Society
    PROCEEDINGS OF THE FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY February 7-8, 2015 General Session Special Session Fieldwork Methodology Editors Anna E. Jurgensen Hannah Sande Spencer Lamoureux Kenny Baclawski Alison Zerbe Berkeley Linguistics Society Berkeley, CA, USA Berkeley Linguistics Society University of California, Berkeley Department of Linguistics 1203 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA All papers copyright c 2015 by the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0363-2946 LCCN: 76-640143 Contents Acknowledgments . v Foreword . vii The No Blur Principle Effects as an Emergent Property of Language Systems Farrell Ackerman, Robert Malouf . 1 Intensification and sociolinguistic variation: a corpus study Andrea Beltrama . 15 Tagalog Sluicing Revisited Lena Borise . 31 Phonological Opacity in Pendau: a Local Constraint Conjunction Analysis Yan Chen . 49 Proximal Demonstratives in Predicate NPs Ryan B . Doran, Gregory Ward . 61 Syntax of generic null objects revisited Vera Dvořák . 71 Non-canonical Noun Incorporation in Bzhedug Adyghe Ksenia Ershova . 99 Perceptual distribution of merging phonemes Valerie Freeman . 121 Second Position and “Floating” Clitics in Wakhi Zuzanna Fuchs . 133 Some causative alternations in K’iche’, and a unified syntactic derivation John Gluckman . 155 The ‘Whole’ Story of Partitive Quantification Kristen A . Greer . 175 A Field Method to Describe Spontaneous Motion Events in Japanese Miyuki Ishibashi . 197 i On the Derivation of Relative Clauses in Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec Nick Kalivoda, Erik Zyman . 219 Gradability and Mimetic Verbs in Japanese: A Frame-Semantic Account Naoki Kiyama, Kimi Akita . 245 Exhaustivity, Predication and the Semantics of Movement Peter Klecha, Martina Martinović . 267 Reevaluating the Diphthong Mergers in Japono-Ryukyuan Tyler Lau .
    [Show full text]
  • A Case Study in Language Change
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Honors Theses Lee Honors College 4-17-2013 Glottopoeia: A Case Study in Language Change Ian Hollenbaugh Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses Part of the Other English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hollenbaugh, Ian, "Glottopoeia: A Case Study in Language Change" (2013). Honors Theses. 2243. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/2243 This Honors Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Lee Honors College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Elementary Ghau Aethauic Grammar By Ian Hollenbaugh 1 i. Foreword This is an essential grammar for any serious student of Ghau Aethau. Mr. Hollenbaugh has done an excellent job in cataloguing and explaining the many grammatical features of one of the most complex language systems ever spoken. Now published for the first time with an introduction by my former colleague and premier Ghau Aethauic scholar, Philip Logos, who has worked closely with young Hollenbaugh as both mentor and editor, this is sure to be the definitive grammar for students and teachers alike in the field of New Classics for many years to come. John Townsend, Ph.D Professor Emeritus University of Nunavut 2 ii. Author’s Preface This grammar, though as yet incomplete, serves as my confession to what J.R.R. Tolkien once called “a secret vice.” History has proven Professor Tolkien right in thinking that this is not a bizarre or freak occurrence, undergone by only the very whimsical, but rather a common “hobby,” one which many partake in, and have partaken in since at least the time of Hildegard of Bingen in the twelfth century C.E.
    [Show full text]
  • A Reappraisal of M. Alexander Castrén's Forest Nenets Records
    Rentota Relata Studia Orient¡¡lia 97, Helsinki 2003, pp. 263-271 A Reappraisal of M. Alexander Castrén's Forest Nenets Records Tapani Salminen Among the first of the many highlights of M. Alexander Castrén's great Siberian expedition (1845-1849) was his scientific discovery of the Forest Nenets people and language in the surnmer of 1845. It turned out to have significant consequences for Castrén's thinking of comparative linguistics and Siberian ethnohistory, and his records of the language continue to be of utmost importance to Samoyedological studies. More exactly, Castrén's material shows the existence of two distinct varieties of Forest Nenets, and the bulk of this article is devoted to determining the nature of their differences and their background. The progress of Castrén's expedition is accounted in detail in Castrén (1856), and his encounters with the Forest Nenets are dcscribed in the section titled <<Reise von Samarowa nach Surgub>, which includes a travel account (pp. 62-88) as well as two letters, one to Castrén's supervisor, Councillor of State A. J. Sjögren (pp. 88-90), and the other to his friend, Assessor F. J. Rabbe (pp. 90-92). In the summer of 1845, Castrén was mainly engaged in Khanty studies, but he was even more intrigued about the possibility of contacting Forest Nenets people, known at the time as Kondinsk or Kazym Samoyeds, who he had heard about on his first expedition. He finally succeeded in meeting and, albeit briefly, working with a few Forest Nenets after he had left Samarova at the beginning of July and, for a month, travelled along the waterways of the Ob to various directions between Samarova and Silyarskoy.
    [Show full text]
  • Estonian and Latvian Verb Government Comparison
    TARTU UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ESTONIAN AND GENERAL LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT OF ESTONIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Miķelis Zeibārts ESTONIAN AND LATVIAN VERB GOVERNMENT COMPARISON Master thesis Supervisor Dr. phil Valts Ernštreits and co-supervisor Mg. phil Ilze Tālberga Tartu 2017 Table of contents Preface ............................................................................................................................... 5 1. Method of research .................................................................................................... 8 2. Description of research sources and theoretical literature ......................................... 9 2.1. Research sources ................................................................................................ 9 2.2. Theoretical literature ........................................................................................ 10 3. Theoretical research background ............................................................................. 12 3.1. Cases in Estonian and Latvian .......................................................................... 12 3.1.1. Estonian noun cases .................................................................................. 12 3.1.2. Latvian noun cases .................................................................................... 13 3.2. The differences and similarities between Estonian and Latvian cases ............. 14 3.2.1. The differences between Estonian and Latvian case systems ................... 14 3.2.2. The similarities
    [Show full text]
  • Interrogative Words and Content Questions in Tundra Nenets
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by SZTE Doktori Értekezések Repozitórium (SZTE Repository of Dissertations) Interrogative words and content questions in Tundra Nenets Nikolett Mus A PhD dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Szeged University of Szeged Doctoral School in Linguistics Uralic Studies PhD Programme Supervisor: Beáta Wagner-Nagy, Prof. Dr. Szeged, 2015 This page intentionally left blank ii Acknowledgements The story of this dissertation began at the University of Szeged in 2001, when I missed a Finnish course, which was obligatory at the first year of Hungarian studies. Instead of Finnish I had to choose any other “related” language such as Udmurt, Mordvin or Nenets. At that time, I was reading a series of books written by Margit Sandemo. A really exciting part of this series is set in Siberia among Enets characters. I did not think the difference could be great between Nenets and Enets, therefore I decided to attend the Nenets language course held by Erika Körtvély. The course aroused my interest towards Samoyed linguistics and turned my attention to Samoyed syntax which was a less described field of study at that time. I owe special thanks to Erika who became my advisor later. I feel very fortunate to have had such a great teacher. I definitely have to thank to my supervisor, Beáta Wagner-Nagy, for taking on my research. She accompanied the developement of this dissertation and her comments were useful in writing. I hope that our work will continue in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Janne Bondi Johannessen (Ed.)
    Oslo Studies in Language 3 (2) / 2011 Janne Bondi Johannessen (ed.) Language Variation Infrastructure Papers on selected projects Oslo Studies in Language General editors: Atle Grønn and Dag Haug Editorial board International: Henning Andersen, Los Angeles (historical linguistics) Östen Dahl, Stockholm (typology) Laura Janda, Tromsø/UNC Chapel Hill (Slavic linguistics, cognitive linguistics) Terje Lohndal, Maryland (syntax and semantics) Torgrim Solstad, Stuttgart (German linguistics, semantics and pragmatics) Arnim von Stechow, Tübingen (semantics and syntax) National: Johanna Barðdal, Bergen (construction grammar) Øystein Vangsnes, Tromsø (Norwegian, dialect syntax) Local: Cecilia Alvstad, ILOS (Spanish, translatology) Hans Olav Enger, ILN (Norwegian, cognitive linguistics) Ruth E. Vatvedt Fjeld, ILN (Norwegian, lexicography) Jan Terje Faarlund, CSMN, ILN (Norwegian, syntax) Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen, ILOS (German, contrastive linguistics) Carsten Hansen, CSMN, IFIKK (philosophy of language) Christoph Harbsmeier, IKOS (Chinese, lexicography) Hilde Hasselgård, ILOS (English, corpus linguistics) Hans Petter Helland, ILOS (French, syntax) Janne Bondi Johannessen, ILN, Text Laboratory (Norwegian, language technology) Kristian Emil Kristoffersen, ILN (cognitive linguistics) Helge Lødrup, ILN (syntax) Gunvor Mejdell, IKOS (Arabic, sociolinguistics) Christine Meklenborg Salvesen, ILOS (French linguistics, historical linguistics) Diana Santos, ILOS (Portuguese linguistics, computational linguistics) Ljiljana Saric, ILOS (Slavic linguistics) Bente Ailin Svendsen, ILN (second language acquisition) Oslo Studies in Language 3 (2) / 2011 Janne Bondi Johannessen (ed.) Language Variation Infrastructure Papers on selected projects Oslo Studies in Language, 3(2), 2011. Janne Bondi Johannessen (ed.): Language Variation Infrastructure. Papers on selected projects. Oslo, University of Oslo ISSN 1890-9639 © 2011 the authors Set in LATEX fonts Gentium Book Basic and Linux Libertine by Rune Lain Knudsen, Vladyslav Dorokhin and Atle Grønn. Cover design by UniPub publishing house.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Computational Linguistics For
    IWCLUL 2017 3rd International Workshop for Computational Linguistics of Uralic Languages Proceedings of the Workshop 23–24 January 2017 Norwegian University Centre of Oslo, St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Russia c 2017 The Association for Computational Linguistics Order copies of this and other ACL proceedings from: Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) 209 N. Eighth Street Stroudsburg, PA 18360 USA Tel: +1-570-476-8006 Fax: +1-570-476-0860 [email protected] ii Introduction Uralic is an interesting group of languages from the computational-linguistic perspective. The Uralic languages share large parts of morphological and morphophonological complexity that is not present in the Indo-European language family, which has traditionally dominated computational-linguistic research. This can be seen for example in number of morphologically complex forms belonging to one word, which in Indo-European languages is in range of ones or tens whereas for Uralic languages, it is in the range of hundreds and thousands. Furthermore, Uralic language situations share a lot of geo-political aspects: the three national languages—Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian—are comparably small languages and only moderately resourced in terms of computational-linguistics while being stable and not in threat of extinction. The recognised minority languages of western-European states, on the other hand—such as North Smi, Kven and Vro—do clearly fall in the category of lesser resourced and more threatened languages, whereas the majority of Uralic languages in the east of Europe and Siberia are close to extinction. Common to all rapid development of more advanced computational-linguistic methods is required for continued vitality of the languages in everyday life, to enable archiving and use of the languages with computers and other devices such as mobile applications.
    [Show full text]
  • SELECTED ACTIVITIES RELATED to CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATION in REINDEER HUSBANDRY 2016 - 2018
    For the Barents Working Group of Indigenous Peoples (WGIP): SELECTED ACTIVITIES RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATION IN REINDEER HUSBANDRY 2016 - 2018. Reindeer herders traditionalfrom knowledge - transforming indigenous economy in the circumpolar north – side event UniversitySeptember of the 11 Arcticth UArctic Institute Conference for Circumpolar St Petersburg Reindeer 2016. Husbandry Unprecedented climate challenges and threats to reindeer husbandry will effects low sustainability of reindeer(UArctic herding EALÁT economy Institute) in the(UEI) circumpolar north, effecting local communities and environment. Future sustainable governance of reindeer husbandry might face major challenges related to these rapid changes. Reindeer husbandry represents a livelihood and way of life based on practices and knowledge developed through long-term COORDINATEDexperiences AT in livingINTERNATIONAL under harsh and CENTREhighly variable FOR conditions. REINDEER Therefore, HUSBANDRY reindeer herders’ traditional knowledge, culture, and language(ICR) provide a central foundation for rebuilding social ecological resilience locally, to be used to navigate through future shocks and disturbances. This workshop will explore potential ways to full and effective participation of indigenous reindeer herder towards ecologically, socially and economically sustainable societies. Governance of Arctic resources have to reconnect to our planet, and to the original indigenous knowledge base. Our vision is to develop adaptive skills to sustaining
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Federation
    INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION Johannes Rohr Report 18 IWGIA – 2014 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION Copyright: IWGIA Author: Johannes Rohr Editor: Diana Vinding and Kathrin Wessendorf Proofreading: Elaine Bolton Cover design and layout: Jorge Monrás Cover photo: Sakhalin: Indigenous ceremony opposite to oil facilities. Photographer: Wolfgang Blümel Prepress and print: Electronic copy only Hurridocs Cip data Title: IWGIA Report 18: Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Federation Author: Johannes Rohr Editor: Diana Vinding and Kathrin Wessendorf Number of pages: 69 ISBN: 978-87-92786-49-4 Language: English Index: 1. Indigenous peoples – 2. Human rights Geographical area: Russian Federation Date of publication: 2014 INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS Classensgade 11 E, DK 2100 - Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: (45) 35 27 05 00 - Fax: (45) 35 27 05 07 E-mail: [email protected] - Web: www.iwgia.org This report has been prepared and published with the financial support of the Foreign Ministry of Denmark through its Neighbourhood programme. CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................................................................................................. 8 1 The indigenous peoples of the north ................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Matters of definition .........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Grammatical Case in Estonian
    Grammatical Case in Estonian Merilin Miljan A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh September 2008 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is of my own composition, and that it contains no material previously submitted for the award of any other degree. The work reported in this thesis has been executed by myself, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. Merilin Miljan ii Abstract The aim of this thesis is to show that standard approaches to grammatical case fail to provide an explanatory account of such cases in Estonian. In Estonian, grammatical cases form a complex system of semantic contrasts, with the case-marking on nouns alternating with each other in certain constructions, even though the apparent grammatical functions of the noun phrases themselves are not changed. This thesis demonstrates that such alternations, and the differences in interpretation which they induce, are context dependent. This means that the semantic contrasts which the alternating grammatical cases express are available in some linguistic contexts and not in others, being dependent, among other factors, on the semantics of the case- marked noun and the semantics of the verb it occurs with. Hence, traditional approaches which treat grammatical case as markers of syntactic dependencies and account for associated semantic interpretations by matching cases directly to semantics not only fall short in predicting the distribution of cases in Estonian but also result in over-analysis due to the static nature of the theories which the standard approach to case marking comprises.
    [Show full text]
  • Partitive-Accusative Alternations in Balto-Finnic Languages
    Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society 1 Partitive-Accusative Alternations in Balto-Finnic Languages AET LEES [email protected]. au 1. Introduction The present study looks at the case of direct objects of transitive verbs in the Balto-Finnic languages Estonian and Finnish, comparing the two languages. There are three structural or grammatical cases in Estonian: nominative, genitive and partitive. Finnish, in addition to these three, has a separate accusative case form, but only in the personal pronoun paradigm. All of these cases are used for direct objects, but they all, except the Finnish personal pronoun accusative, also have other uses. 2. Selection of object case Only clauses with active verbs have been considered in the present study. In all negative clauses the direct object is in the partitive case. In affirmative clauses, if the action is completed and the object is total, that is, the entire object is involved in the action, the case used is the accusative. The term ‘accusative’ is used as a blanket term for the non-partitive object case. In Estonian, more commonly than in Finnish, the completion of the event is indicated by an adverbial phrase or an oblique, indicating a change in position or state of the object. The total object is usually definite, or at least specific. If the action is not completed, or if it involves only part of the object, the partitive case is used. A partial object must be divisible, i.e. a mass noun or a plural count noun, but if the aspect is irresultative, the partitive object may be a singular count noun.
    [Show full text]