Structure of Lithuanian What You Are Missing out On... 1 Adjectival

Structure of Lithuanian 2016 © Yuriy Kushnir

Structure of Lithuanian What you are missing out on...

Lithuanian determiners and adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number and case:

t`as gražus` vyras´ that handsome man M.Nom.Sg (1) tõ gražaus˜ vyro´ that handsome man’s M.Gen.Sg tõs gražiõs móters that pretty woman’s F.Gen.Sg

Like nouns, adjectives are divided into several desclension classes based on the endings they take. Adjectives have fewer declension types than nouns:

(2) Adjectival declension types (differences from the respective noun declension classes highlighted) Class I Class II Class III geras ‘good’ gražus ‘beautiful’ medinis ‘wooden’ MFMFMF n.sg g˜eras gerà gražus` graž`ı med`ınis med`ınė g.sg g˜ero gerõs gražaus˜ gražiõs med`ınio med`ınės d.sg gerámg ˜erai gražiám grãžiai med`ıniam med`ınei a.sg g˜erą g˜erą grãžų grãžią med`ınį med`ınę i.sg geru` gerà gražiu` gražià mediniu` medinè l.sg geramè gerojè gražiamè gražiojè med`ıniame medìnėje n.pl ger`ıg ˜eros grãžūs grãžios med`ıniai med`ınės g.pl gerų˜ gerų˜ gražių˜ gražių˜ med`ınių med`ınių d.pl ger´ıems geróms graž´ıems gražióms med`ıniams med`ınėms a.pl gerus` geràs gražius` gražiàs medinius` medinès i.pl gera˜ıs gerom`ıs gražia˜ıs gražiom`ıs med`ıniais med`ınėmis l.pl geruosè gerosè gražiuosè gražiosè med`ıniuose med`ınėse

Primary (root) adjectives are usually Class I or II. They normally have unaccented stems. Class III comprises adjectives derived from other parts of speech. Their declension is closest to that of normal nouns.

There are also several irregular adjectives whose declension is not included here.

If the definiteness of a DP needs to be underscored, or if an Adj-N combination denotes a specific class of things (i.e. the adjective is no longer a mere modifier describing a property of the head noun), the adjectival inflection 1 is supplemented by an inflected form of the personal pronoun ‘he’ or ‘she’, producing the following augmented forms:

1 Usually only in classes I and II.

1 Structure of Lithuanian 2016 © Yuriy Kushnir

(3) Augmented adjectives Class I Class II geras ‘good’ gražus ‘beautiful’ MFMF n.sg geràsis geróji gražusis` gražióji g.sg g˜erojo gerõsios grãžiojo gražiõsios d.sg gerájamg ˜erajai gražiájam grãžiajai a.sg g˜erąjįg ˜erąją grãžųjį grãžiąją i.sg geruoju´ ger´ąja gražiuoju´ graži´ąja l.sg gerãjame gerõjoje gražiãjame gražiõjoje n.pl ger´ıejig ˜erosios graž´ıeji grãžiosios g.pl gerųjų˜ gerųjų˜ gražiųjų˜ gražiųjų˜ d.pl ger´ıesiems gerósioms graž´ıesiems gražiósioms a.pl geruosius´ ger´ąsias gražiuosius´ graži´ąsias i.pl gera˜ısiais gerõsiomis gražia˜ısiais gražiõsiomis l.pl geruõsiuose gerõsiose gražiuõsiuose gražiõsiose

The diﬀerence in meaning is sometime quite subtle, especially since non-augmented adjectives readily modify deﬁnite objects:

(4)t `as skanus` ma˜ıstas ‘that tasty food’ t`as skanusis` ma˜ıstas ‘that (exquisitely) tasty food’

(5) a. Nerašyk´ (su)` tuõ pieštuku!` Rašyk´ (su)` raudónu! ‘Don’t write with this pencil! Use a red one!’ b. Nerašyk´ (su)` tuõ pieštuku!` Rašyk´ (su)` raudonuoju´ ! ‘Don’t write with this pencil! Use the/this red one!’

(6) áukštas pãstatas ‘a tall building’ aukštàsis išsilãvinimas ‘higher education’ (non-combinational reading)

Non-relative adjectives have degrees of comparison:

(7)g ˜eras ‘good’ → ger`esnis ‘better’ → geri´ausias ‘best’

Comparative and superlative, as well as augmentative forms (gerókas ‘pretty good’), inﬂect for gender, number and case. They can also appear in the augmented forms (though not so frequently):

(8) geri´ausio///misiomis → good.sprl.augm.f.instr.pl, i.e. ‘with the best ones (f)’ 2

2 Normal people will just say geri´ausiom(is) :-)

2 Structure of Lithuanian 2016 © Yuriy Kushnir

2 Truncated Forms

Some nominal and verbal endings are truncated in colloquial speech:

(9)M ˜es duodame´ saldainius` ger´ıems vaik´ams → m˜es duodam´ saldainius` ger´ıem vaik´am ‘We are giving candy to the good kids.’

(10)B uvome` Lietuvoj`e → buvom` Lietuvõj ‘We were in Lithuania.’

(11) Nóriu iše˜ıti → nóriu iše˜ıt ‘I want to leave.’

Some forms become identical:

(12)v árnoms (Dat), várnomis (Instr) → várnom

3 The World of Participles

There are active and passive participles in Lithuanians, existing in all the three tenses. The masculine and feminine nominative singular forms are presented below:

Active Passive Present rãšantis/rãšąs, rãšanti rãšomas, rãšoma (13) Present Conv. rašydamas,´ rašydama´ – Past rãšęs, rãšiusi rašytas,´ rašyta´ Future rašysiantis,´ rašysianti´ rašysimas,´ rašysima´

The gerunds are based on the active participle (we learned the present-tense gerund):

(14)r ˜ašant, r˜ašius, rašysiant´

The full declension paradigm of the past active participle (augmented forms excluded):

(15) The past active participle declined

dirbęs ‘the one who worked’ M.SG F.SG M.PL F.PL N dirbęs dirbusi dirbę dirbusios G dirbusio dirbusios dirbusių dirbusių D dirbusiam dirbusiai dirbusiems dirbusioms A dirbusį dirbusią dirbusius dirbusias I dirbusiu dirbusia dirbusiais dirbusiomis L dirbusiame dirbusioje dirbusiuose dirbusiose

3 Structure of Lithuanian 2016 © Yuriy Kushnir

Participles are extensively used in the language. For instance, the gerunds and the converb occur frequently in embedded clauses. The present active gerund and the present-tense converb both describe an action simultaneous with that rendered by the matrix verb. The converb is used when the subjects are co-referent, and the gerund is used when the subjects are diﬀerent:

(16) a. Jõn-ui rãš-ant láišk-ą, Rūt-à ilsė-j-o-Ø-si J-dat.sg write-ger.prs letter-acc.sg R-nom.sg rest-ep-th.pst-3-rfl ‘While John was writing a/the letter, Ruta was resting.’ b. PROi/*j rašy-dam-as´ láišką, Jõn-asi g´ėr-ė-Ø kãv-ą PRO write-conv-m.sg letter-acc.sg J-nom.sg drink-th.pst-3 coffee-acc.sg ‘While writing a/the letter, John was drinking coffee.’ not: ‘While someone was writing a letter, John was drinking coffee.’

Since there is no past-tense converb, the diﬀerence here is rendered by using the agreeing for for co-referent subjects and a plain gerund for diﬀerent subjects:

(17) a. Jõn-ui iš-˜ė-j-us, Rūt-à iš-v´ėm-ė-Ø ant˜ grind-ų˜ J-dat.sg out-go-ep-ger.pst R-nom.sg out-vomit-th.pst-3 on floor-gen.pl ‘After John left, Ruta vomited on the floor.’ b. iš-˜ė-j-ęs, Jõn-as iš-v´ėm-ė-Ø ant˜ out-go-ep-ptcp.pst.act.m.sg.nom J-nom.sg out-vomit-th.pst-3 on grind-ų˜ floor-gen.pl ‘Having walked out, John vomited on the floor.’

Active participles are also found in attributive positions:

(18) pad´ė-k nu-kr`ıt-us-iai merg`ın-ai! help-imp down-fall-ptcp.pst.act-f.dat.sg girl.f-dat.sg ‘Help the girl who has fallen down!’

Passive participles are often used to form passive clauses:

(19) a.n ãm-as buv-o-Ø` pa-staty-t-as´ pérnai houe-nom.sg be-th.pst-3 pv-put.up-ptcp.pst.pass-m.nom.sg last.year ‘The house was built last year.’ b.n ãm-as yrà stãt-o-m-as house-nom.sg be.prs.3 put.up-th.prs-ptcp.prs.pass-m.nom.sg ‘The house is being built.’

They can also be used attributively:

(20)j `ıs `ıš-met-ė-Ø su-gadin-t-ą˜ knyg-ą˜ he out-throw-th.pst-3 pv-ruin-ptcp.pst.pass-f.acc.sg book.f-acc.sg ‘He threw the ruined book out.’

4 Structure of Lithuanian 2016 © Yuriy Kushnir

4 The Verbal Particles and Verbal Derivation

Just like in English and German, Lithuanian verbal roots combine with endless particles (pri- marily prepositional in origin) to yield new aspects of meaning:

(21) rašyti´ – to be writing / to write repeatedly 3 parašyti´ – to complete writing / to write a whole piece pérrašyti – to rewrite (no additional semantics, perfective interpretation) nurašyti´ – to copy (as in ‘abschreiben’) užrašyti´ – to write/note down atrašyti´ – to respond in writing ...

In many instances, there is no real change in meaning, but merely the addition of telicity (derived perfectivity):

(22) a. Jõn-as r˜aš-ė-Ø knyg-ą˜ J-nom.sg write-th.pst-3 book-acc.sg ‘John was writing a/the book.’ b. Jõn-as pa-r˜aš-ė-Ø knyg-ą˜ J-nom.sg pv-write-th.pst-3 book-acc.sg ‘John wrote a/the book.’

(23) a.t ´ėv-as baud-ė-Ø˜ vaik-us` father-nom.sg punish-th.pst-3 child-acc.pl ‘The father was punishing / used to punish the children.’ b.t ´ėv-as nu-baud-ė-Ø` vaik-us` father-nom.sg pv-punish-th.pst-3 child-acc.pl ‘The father punished the children.’

In combination with other roots, these preﬁxes yield semantic content (cf. nuraš´yti above).

The choice of the perfectivizing particle by a particular verb is largely idiosyncratic, although there are certain commonalities and trends within semantic ﬁelds.

If a particle changes a verb’s meaning in addition to making it telic, the resulting verb can be made atelic by applying special ‘imperfectivizing’ derivational suﬃxes:

(24) a.j `ıs rãš-ė-Ø rãšin-į he write-th.pst-3 composition-acc.sg ‘He was writing a/the composition.’ b.j `ıs pa-rãš-ė-Ø rãšin-į he pv-write-th.pst-3 composition-acc.sg ‘He wrote a/the composition.’ c.j `ıs pér-raš-ė-Ø rãšin-į he over-write-th.pst-3 composition-acc.sg ‘He rewrote a/the composition.’

3 Root verbs are typically atelic in Lithuanian.

d.j `ıs pér-raš-inė-j-o-Ø r˜ašin-į he over-write-iter-ep-th.pst-3 composition-acc.sg ‘He was rewriting a/the composition.’

Some verbs are awkward with such derivational suﬃxes, so they have to either be ambiguous between telic and atelic readings, or remain defective and use other tools to express actions in progress:

pad´ėti – to help (25) a. padedin´ėti – *to be helping (OK in the meaning to help many times) b. ji˜e mán laba˜ı pad´ė-j-o-Ø they me.dat a.lot help-ep-th.pst-3 ‘They helped me a lot.’ c. How does one say: they were helping me (when mother came) ? d. ji˜e buv-o-Ø` mán be-paded-˜ą, ka˜ı they be-th.pst-3 me.dat prog-help-ptcp.prs.act.m.nom.pl when at-˜ė-j-o-Ø mam-à here-go-ep-th.pst-3 mom-nom.sg ‘They were just helping me when mom came.’ 4

(26)m ´an pat`ık-o-Ø ta dain-`a me.dat like-th.pst-3 dem.f.nom.sg song.f-nom.sg ‘I liked this song (when I heard it).’ or: ‘I used to like this song.’

Verbal particles also have a tendency to be stressed after particular verbs in particular morpho- syntactic conﬁgurations. It seems like, in these forms, the verbal root loses it’s inherent accent, and so the particle (being the closest element to the left edge of the word) receives epenthetic stress by default.

(27) a. ke˜ısti – to change keičiu` – I change ke˜ıčia – he changes keičiau˜ – I was changing ke˜ıtė – he was changing b. iške˜ısti – to exchange iškeičiu` – I exchange iške˜ıčia – he exchanges `ıškeičiau – I exchanged `ıškeitė – he exchanged

The rules responsible for the distribution of accents in verbal forms are quite complex.

4 There is, however, an additional implication in this sentence, namely, that the mother’s arrival interrupted the helping process.

5 Pronouns and Animacy

Interestingly enough, animacy is not encoded in any way in the grammar of Lithuanian, not even in the interrogative pronouns:

(28)K `as ta˜ı yr`a? – Who/what is this? K˜ą tu` mate˜ı? – Who/what did you see?

6 What is Relevant for the Final Exam

• The phoneme inventory. The vowel/consonant phonemes.

• The neutralization of phonemic distinctions in particular contexts (e.g. neutralization of low vowels).

• Other phonological processes (e.g. lengthening, place assimilation, nasal absorption, voi- cing/devoicing, palatalization in general, palatalization of /t/ and /d/ before back vowels with an intervening glide).

• The syllable structure. Light and heavy syllables. Which vowels are capable of forming heavy rhymes with which consonants?

• Pitch accent. The phonetic cues of pitch accent on diﬀerent types of rhymes (simple vowels. diphthongs, mixed rhymes).

• The noun. Gender, number and case. Paradigms I.a and II.a.

• Noun stem classes with respect to accent. Ending classes. De Saussure’s Law. Stem and ending interacting.

• The verbal paradigm. The theme vowels and their alternations for all tenses. The agreement aﬃxes. Accentual interaction of stems and agreement aﬃxes.

• Case. Subjects and objects. Possessors. Instruments. Spacial relations. Prepositional case. Genitive of negation.

• Subordinate clauses headed by present-tense gerunds. The case frame in such clauses.

Bibliography

Ambrazas, Vytautas (2006): Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika (A grammar of Modern Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, Vilnius. Blevins, Juliette (1993): ‘A tonal analysis of Lithuanian nominal accent’, Language pp. 237–273. Dambriūnas, Leonardas, Antanas Klimas and William R Schmalstieg (1998): Beginner’s Lithuanian. Hippocrene Books. Meilutė Ramonienė and Joana Pribušauskaitė (2008): Praktinė lietuvių kalbos gramatika (A practical grammar of Lithuanian). Baltos Lankos, Vilnius. Smoczyński, Wojciech (2007): Lietuvių kalbos etimologinis žodynas. Edytor "Printer Polyglott". Stang, Chr. S. (1966): Vergleichende Grammatik der baltischen Sprachen. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo-Bergen-Tromsø.