chapter 1 Introduction

1 The Aim of the Study

The aim of this study is to compare and contrast the use of case in five , especially the alternations involving the , and also the different forms of the . The languages include Estonian, Finnish, Karelian, Livonian, Veps and to a minor extent Votic, with occasional reference to some others. The aim is to compare the use of case for objects, predicates and subjects, using parallel texts from the New Testament in these languages. I am not aware of any simi- lar study comparing five Finnic languages, particularly as the New Testament translations into Karelian (2003) and Veps (2006) are fairly recent. In addition to comparing recent translations of the New Testament, a diachronic study has also been carried out for each language. Although there are other dia- chronic studies, especially in Estonian and Finnish, the present study provides new quantitative analysis, including some Estonian material which has only recently become generally available on line. In order to supplement the infor- mation gained from Bible texts some additional material from oral collections is used, especially in Veps and Votic, where the biblical material is limited. Some of the data presented here has been published previously in a more condensed form and including only a part of the present corpus, with earlier publications comparing only Estonian and Finnish. References to these publi- cations are given in the various chapters concerned. Case alternations are found in many languages. Iemmolo (2013) discusses the classification of these into asymmetric and symmetric, depending on direct object encoding. In asymmetric alternations a case marker alternates with zero marking, while in the symmetric system, all alternations have a case marker. In Finnic languages the partitive-accusative case alternation is sym- metric (Iemmolo 2013: 381). He does not mention the accusative alternation, which involves the zero-marked (nominative) form. The main area of interest here is the partitive case and its alternations, as well as the various forms of the accusative case. Tamm (2014: 98) points out the difference between the partitive concept (separative relationship), which can be expressed in various ways, and the linguistic partitive (the morpholog- ical case), which has evolved to uses not directly related to separation. She explores the relationship between the concept and the morphological case

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004296367_002 2 Chapter 1 in Uralic languages.The present study deals with the linguistic partitive. The partitive case is found in all the Finnic languages, but not as a separate mor- phologic case in most other languages. While there is mention of the partitive in Hungarian (Moravcsik 1978: 261), it is really the elative case being used in this sense. The partitive case has a number of different functions, the most common use being for objects. There is commonly mention of ‘partitive sub- jects’ in Finnic languages. These are found in existential clauses and there are differences of opinion as to whether these are really subjects or whether they are objects or something in between. With objects the partitive case alternates with the accusative, and in the case of subjects with the . These alternations, while similar in all the Finnic languages (Kont 1959a: 132), do show some significant differences from one language to the next. The fac- tors governing the choice of case have also varied diachronically. As Grünthal (2003: 21) points out, the genetic relationship between the Finnic languages is so well accepted that much less attention has been paid to their differences. The aim of the present study is to look at the differences in the case alterna- tions between the various languages and the factors conditioning them, as well as diachronic changes in individual languages. A number of features are involved in determining whether a clause is bounded, in which the object is accusative. These are related to the proper- ties of the verb (aspect) and the object (quantification). There is a gradation from partitive to accusative and a grey area in between. There are some clauses which are partitive in all the languages and some which are accusative in all of them, but many vary from language to language. This variation forms an important part of this study. The different forms of the accusative case have also been studied in the various languages. The choice of form here is determined by syntax. A smaller section is devoted to the comparison of partitive predicates and arguments of existential clauses in the different languages.

2 The Organization of the Present Study

This chapter gives a background description of the Finnic languages as well as the related Saami. This is followed by a section explaining the Finnic case system and a special section, describing the historical development of the partitive and accusative cases. Details concerning the corpus and the general methods involved in carrying out this study are given in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 to 7 discuss the case selection for objects, Chapter 3 giving a general back- ground from the literature, and the other chapters dealing with results from