Grammatical relations in Estonian: subject, object and beyond
Date
2013-05-21
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Abstract
Doktoritöö eesmärk on määratleda ja kirjeldada eesti keele nominaalseid lauseliikmeid ja nende äärealasid. Tüpoloogilistel, kognitiivsetel ja funktsionaalsetel teooriatel põhinevas töös vaadeldakse lauseliikmeid morfosüntaksist, semantikast ja pragmaatikast lähtuvalt. Korpusanalüüsi põhjal kirjeldatakse lause argumentide vormistust, käitumist, semantilisi ja infostruktuurilisi omadusi ning ka lause kõrvalliikmete (objektisarnased määraadverbiaalid ehk osmad, nt ‘kaks kuud’) vormistust. Seega keskendutakse dissertatsioonis küll erinevatele lause-liikmetele, kuid kõiki neid käsitlusi ühendavad lauseliikmete iseloomustamiseks kasutatud ühtsed parameetrid ja nende roll lausekonstruktsioonide struktuurilise, semantilise ja infostruktuurilise olemuse kujundamisel.
Doktoritöö annab panuse eesti keele subjektikategooria ja selle piirialade määratlemisse. Esmakordselt analüüsitakse siinses uuringus ka suuremat hulka eesti keele subjektisarnaseid argumente (kokku 10) ning kasutatakse subjektikategooria defineerimisel korpusandmeid. Põhijärelduseks on, et subjektisarnased argumendid, näiteks mõlemad argumendid konstruktsioonides ’Talle meeldib fotograafia’, ’Norralasel on kaks kulda’ ja ’Mariast sai õpetaja’, moodustavad oma subjektilisuse määra alusel kontiinumi, kuid kõigil neil on siiski üsna vähe subjektilikke morfosüntaktilisi käitumisomadusi. Korpusuuring kinnitas ka, et eksistentsiaalkonstruktsiooni nimisõnafraas (e-NP, nt ’piima’ lauses ’Külmkapis on piima’) on oma semantilistelt, infostruktuurilistelt ja vormistuslikelt omadustelt lähemal objektile kui subjektile.
Lisaks pakub töö ühtse aluse objekti, e-NP ja osmade käändevaheldussüsteemide võrdlemiseks, tuginedes Dixoni (1994) argumentide vormistuse tüpoloogiale. Ilmnes, et objekti ja e-NP käändevaheldussüsteemid on võrreldava komplekssusega. Põhiosas mõjutavad mõlema lauseliikme käänet samad faktorid, kuid nende osatähtsus korpusmaterjalis on erinev. Osmade käändevaheldus on seevastu seotud vaid üksikute objekti käändemõjuritega.
Kuigi eesti keelt peetakse üldiselt akusatiivseks keeleks, näitas siinne uuring, et eesti keeles on lisaks küllaltki sage nähtus verbist sõltumatu joondumusvaheldus (fluid intransitivity), mida vormistatakse eesti keeles eelkõige sõnajärje abil. Varem ei ole eesti keelega seoses kirjeldatud tüpoloogias kasutatavaid implikatsioonilisi hierarhiaid. Siinne töö tegi esimese katse kontrollida nende hierarhiate rakendatavust eesti keele korpusmaterjalil. Ilmnes, et eesti keele andmed kinnitavad lauseliikmete konstruktsioonide hierarhia (Hierarchy of Grammatical Relations Constructions) paikapidavust, osaliselt kehtib eesti keele argumendivormistuse puhul ka referentsiaalsushierarhia (Referential Hierarchy). Materjal kinnitab Crofti (2001) tüpoloogilise hüpoteesi Behavioural Potential universal (süntaktilise käitumise potentsiaal) kehtivust. Hüpoteesi järgi on kasutuses sagedamini esinevatel kategooriatel vähemalt sama mitmekesine süntaktiline käitumine kui harvemini esinevatel kategooriatel.
This thesis focuses on grammatical relations in Estonian from the viewpoint of typological, cognitive and functional theories of grammar. What unites all the different insights of this dissertation are the the common morphosyntactic, semantic and information structural parameters that have been used in exploring the grammatical relations as well as the extensive use of corpus data. In the thesis, the Estonian subject category is determined in a novel way by focusing on the morphosyntactic behavioural properties. The dissertation also provides an integrated model for making comparisons of object’s, the existential construction’s argument’s and extent adverbials’ case-marking in Estonian. This analysis is based on Dixon’s (1994) typology of argument coding factors. The impact of different semantic and message-packaging properties on case-marking is analyzed. The study found that the existential construction’s argument (for example milk in the sentence ‘Külmkapis on piima’ – There is milk in the fridge) is from the point of view of semantics, information structure and coding closer to the direct object than the subject. Estonian subject-like arguments, e.g. both arguments in the constructions ’Talle meeldib fotograafia’ (She likes photography), ’Norralasel on kaks kulda’ (The Norwegian has two gold medals) and ’Mariast sai õpetaja’ (Maria became a teacher) form a continuum on the basis of their subjecthood properties. However, all these argument types display subject-like behaviour to a significantly lower degree than the prototypical subject. The case-alternation systems of the direct object and existential construction’s argument are comparable in their complexity. They mainly depend on the same case-assignment factors but these factors have different usage frequencies in the case of both arguments. The case-alternation of object-like degree adverbials (e.g. ‘kaks kuud’ – for two months) only depends on a small subset of object’s case-assignment factors. The findings of the thesis suggest that although Estonian is an accusative language the spread of fluid intransitivity is significant in Estonian. It mainly manifests itself in word order alternation which is a relatively rare feature in typological alignment descriptions. The study also analyses for the first time the suitability of Estonian data with several typological argument realization hypotheses. The data partly supports the Referential Hierarchy hypothesis. The Estonian data confirms the predictions of the typological Hierarchy of Grammatical Relations Constructions (which makes predictions on the accu¬sative and ergative alignment of arguments in different behavioural constructions) and Croft’s (2001) Behavioural Potential universal (that assumes a link between a category’s high token frequency in the discourse and the versatility of syntacic behaviour).
This thesis focuses on grammatical relations in Estonian from the viewpoint of typological, cognitive and functional theories of grammar. What unites all the different insights of this dissertation are the the common morphosyntactic, semantic and information structural parameters that have been used in exploring the grammatical relations as well as the extensive use of corpus data. In the thesis, the Estonian subject category is determined in a novel way by focusing on the morphosyntactic behavioural properties. The dissertation also provides an integrated model for making comparisons of object’s, the existential construction’s argument’s and extent adverbials’ case-marking in Estonian. This analysis is based on Dixon’s (1994) typology of argument coding factors. The impact of different semantic and message-packaging properties on case-marking is analyzed. The study found that the existential construction’s argument (for example milk in the sentence ‘Külmkapis on piima’ – There is milk in the fridge) is from the point of view of semantics, information structure and coding closer to the direct object than the subject. Estonian subject-like arguments, e.g. both arguments in the constructions ’Talle meeldib fotograafia’ (She likes photography), ’Norralasel on kaks kulda’ (The Norwegian has two gold medals) and ’Mariast sai õpetaja’ (Maria became a teacher) form a continuum on the basis of their subjecthood properties. However, all these argument types display subject-like behaviour to a significantly lower degree than the prototypical subject. The case-alternation systems of the direct object and existential construction’s argument are comparable in their complexity. They mainly depend on the same case-assignment factors but these factors have different usage frequencies in the case of both arguments. The case-alternation of object-like degree adverbials (e.g. ‘kaks kuud’ – for two months) only depends on a small subset of object’s case-assignment factors. The findings of the thesis suggest that although Estonian is an accusative language the spread of fluid intransitivity is significant in Estonian. It mainly manifests itself in word order alternation which is a relatively rare feature in typological alignment descriptions. The study also analyses for the first time the suitability of Estonian data with several typological argument realization hypotheses. The data partly supports the Referential Hierarchy hypothesis. The Estonian data confirms the predictions of the typological Hierarchy of Grammatical Relations Constructions (which makes predictions on the accu¬sative and ergative alignment of arguments in different behavioural constructions) and Croft’s (2001) Behavioural Potential universal (that assumes a link between a category’s high token frequency in the discourse and the versatility of syntacic behaviour).
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Keywords
eesti keel, morfosüntaks, semantika, pragmaatika, korpuslingvistika, Estonian language, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics