Setting the boundaries: Partitive verbs in Estonian verb classifications
Abstract
The paper examines a class of Estonian transitive verbs referred to as ‘partitive verbs’: verbs that appear with partitive-marked objects. This class is more heterogeneous than previously assumed. Firstly, there are verbs that cannot have total (accusative) objects. Secondly, there are verbs that can have total objects in lexically restricted combinations. Thirdly, some verbs combine freely with a boundarymarking element. Finally, there is a group of less studied verbs that normally represent unbounded situations but nevertheless allow total object marking if the context highlights the boundary of a situation or result. We clarify the conditions of partitive verbs appearing with total objects, hoping to enhance Estonian L2 instruction and lexicography.
***
Piiride seadmisest: partitiivverbid eesti verbiklassifikatsioonides
Artiklis vaatleme eesti keele transitiivverbide klassifikatsioonides partitiivverbideks liigitatud verbe, keskendudes nn pehmetele partitiivverbidele. Kasutusnäidetest ilmneb, et pehmete partitiivverbide näol on tegemist heterogeensema verbiklassiga, kui on eelnevate uurimuste alusel järeldatud. Täiustame seniseid klassifikatsioone eesmärgiga täpsustada verbide esitust eesti keele õppesõnaraamatuis. Eristame partitiivverbide klassi, mis tüüpjuhtudel väljendavad tulemuseta ja piiritlemata situatsioone, ent esinevad siiski ka totaalobjektiga, kui diskursuse kontekst tõstab esile situatsiooni piirid ja tulemuse.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Bende-Farkas, Agnes 2001. Verb-object Dependencies in Hungarian and English: a DRT-based Account. Doctoral dissertation. Stuttgart: University of Stuttgart.
Dahl, Östen 1981. On the definition of the telic-atelic (bounded-nonbounded) distinction. – Philip J. Tedeschi, Annie Zaenen (Eds), Tense and Aspect. (Syntax and semantics 14.) New York: Academic Press, 79–90.
Dahl, Östen 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.
Dahl, Östen; Karlsson, Fred 1976. Verbal aspects and objects marking: A comparison between Finnish and Russian. – International Review of Slavic Linguistics, 1 (1), 1–30.
Dowty, David 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. – Language, 67 (3), 547–619. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1991.0021
Erelt, Mati 2007. Syntax. – Mati Erelt (Ed.), Estonian Language. Linguistica Uralica. Supplementary Series 1. 2nd ed. Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers, 93–129.
Erelt, Mati; Kasik, Reet; Metslang, Helle; Rajandi, Henno; Ross, Kristiina; Saari, Henn; Tael, Kaja; Vare, Silvi 1993. Eesti keele grammatika II. Süntaks, lisa: kiri [‘Estonian grammar II. Syntax (Appendix: Script)’]. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Language and Literature.
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: a Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
de Groot, Casper; Tommola, Hannu (Eds.) 1984. Aspect Bound: A Voyage into the Realm of Germanic, Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Aspectology. Dordrecht: Foris.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2005. Lähdekieli kielenoppimisen apuna [‘Contribution L1 to foreign language acquisition’]. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 44. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:951-39-2391-6
Klaas, Birute 1999. Dependence of the object case on the semantics of the verb in Estonian, Finnish, and Lithuanian. – Mati Erelt (Ed.), Estonian: Typological Studies III. Tartu: University of Tartu, 47–83.
Kont, Karl 1963. Käändsõnaline objekt läänemeresoome keeltes [‘The declined object in Finnic languages’]. Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituudi uurimused IX. Tallinn.
Levin, Beth 1993. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leino, Pentti 1991. Lauseet ja tilanteet: Suomen objektin ongelmia [‘Sentences and situations: Some problems of the Finnish object’]. Suomi 160. Helsinki: SKS.
Metslang, Helena 2013. Grammatical Relations in Estonian: Subject, Object and Beyond. Dissertationes philologiae estonicae Universitatis Tartuensis 33. Tartu: Tartu University Press. http://hdl.handle.net/10062/30288
Metslang, Helle 1991. Die temporale Bedeutung der Verbalkonstruktionen im Estnischen. Preprint KKI-69. Tallinn: Estnische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Metslang, Helle 1994. Temporal Relations in the Predicate and the Grammatical System of Estonian and Finnish. Oulun Yliopiston suomen ja saamen kielen laitoksen tutkimisraportteja 39. Oulu: Oulun Yliopiston Kirjasto.
Metslang, Helle 2001. On the developments of the Estonian aspect: The verbal particle ära. – Östen Dahl, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (Eds.), Circum-Baltic Languages, Vol. 2. Grammar and Typology. Studies in Language Companion Series 55. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 443–479. https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.55.07met
Metslang, Helle 2017. Sihitis [‘Object’]. – Mati Erelt, Helle Metslang (Eds.), Eesti keele süntaks [‘An Estonian syntax’]. Eesti keele varamu III. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 258–277.
Ogren, David 2018. Object Case Variation in Estonian da-infinitive Constructions. Dissertationes philologiae estonicae Universitatis Tartuensis 41. Tartu: University of Tartu Press.
Pool, Raili 2007. Eesti keele teise keelena omandamise seaduspärasusi täis- ja osasihitise näitel [‘The acquisition of total and partial objects by learners of Estonian as a second language’]. Dissertationes philologiae estonicae Universitatis Tartuensis 19. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus. http://hdl.handle.net/10062/2237
Rätsep, Huno 1978. Eesti keele lihtlausete tüübid [‘The types of simple sentences in Estonian’]. Tallinn: Valgus.
Smith, Carlota 1991. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7911-7
Spoelman, Marianne 2013. Prior Linguistic Knowledge Matters: The Use of the Partitive Case in Finnish Learner Language. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis B Humaniora 111. Oulu: University of Oulu. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526201146
Sulkala, Helena 1996. Expression of aspectual meanings in Finnish and Estonian. – Mati Erelt (Ed.), Estonian: Typological Studies I. Tartu: University of Tartu, 165–225.
Suni, Minna 2012. The impact of Finno-Ugric languages in second language research: Looking back and setting goals. – Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja, 22, 407–438. https://doi.org/10.5128/LV22.14
Tamm, Anne 2004a. Aspectual mismatches in bilingual dictionaries. – Geoffrey Williams, Sandra Vessier (Eds.), Proceedings of the eleventh EURALEX international congress, 967–972. http://euralex.org/wp-content/themes/euralex/proceedings/Euralex%202004/111_2004_V3_Anne%20TAMM_Aspectual%20mismatches%20in%20bilingual%20dictionaries.pdf (7.4.2019).
Tamm, Anne 2004b. On the grammaticalization of the Estonian perfective particles. – Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 51 (1-2), 143–169. http://real.mtak.hu/54879/1/aling.51.2004.1-2.6.pdf (7.4.2019).
Tamm, Anne 2012. Scalar Verb Classes. Scalarity, Thematic Roles, and Arguments in the Estonian Aspectual Lexicon. Biblioteca di Studi di Filologia Moderna 14. Firenze: Firenze University Press. http://www.fupress.com/archivio/pdf/5326.pdf (1.2.2018).
Tauli, Valter 1980. Eesti grammatika II. Lauseõpetus [‘Estonian grammar II: Syntax’]. Uppsala: Finsk-ugriska institutionen.
Vaiss, Natalia 2004. Eesti keele aspekti väljendusvõimalusi vene keele taustal [‘The expression of aspect in Estonian in comparison with Russian’]. Tallinn: Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool. http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/44143 (1.2.2018).
Vaiss, Natalia; Kallas, Jelena; Metslang, Helle 2016. Teoretičeskie osnovy učebnogo slovarja obektnogo upravlenija estonskih glagolov [‘Theoretical foundations of a dictionary of object case marking of Estonian verbs’]. – Irina Külmoja (Ed.), Acta Slavica Estonica VIII. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 229–244. http://hdl.handle.net/10062/59674
Veldi, Enn 1994. Eesti-hollandi sõnastik tulpide ja tuulikute maalt [‘Estonian-Dutch dictionary: Review’]. – Keel ja Kirjandus, 7, 438–439.
Vendler, Zeno 1957. Verbs and times. – The Philosophical Review, 66 (2), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2182371
Web references
EELex. https://eelex.eki.ee/ (1.2.2018).
ENC 2013 = Estonian National Corpus 2013. https://www.sketchengine.eu/user-guide/user-manual/corpora/by-language/estonian-text-corpora/ (7.3.2019).
ENC 2017 = Estonian National Corpus 2017. https://www.sketchengine.eu/user-guide/user-manual/corpora/by-language/estonian-text-corpora/ (7.3.2019).
Sketch Engine. https://www.sketchengine.co.uk/ (7.3.2019).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa15.09
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2019 Anne Tamm, Natalia Vaiss
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
ISSN 1736-2563 (print)
ISSN 2228-0677 (online)
DOI 10.5128/ERYa.1736-2563