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Adpositions localize an entity (Figure) with respect to another entity (Ground), designated by the complement of the adposition. Most Finnic adpositions are postpositions with a genitive Ground, while prepositions typically have a partitive Ground. This work is a cognitive-linguistic study of the synchronic and diachronic semantics of partitive-Ground adpositions. It is argued that adpositions with a partitive Ground select a proximal perspective to the locational relationship, while those with a genitive Ground select a distal perspective. Three alternative hypotheses are introduced and compared concerning the origin of two Finnish partitive-Ground adpositions, kohti ‘towards’ and päin ‘towards’: 1) These adpositions originated as instructive-case bodypart expressions of position (cf. selin ‘with one’s back at’), and their partitive Ground indicated a viewpoint person; 2) They were instructive forms with a meronymic-locative meaning, expressing a more precise target area within the Ground, together with a directionality toward that area; 3) The Ground of kohti and päin was originally a partitive object of ‘aiming’ or ‘shooting’ verbs, and the soon-to-be adpositions themselves were lexicalized adverbs of direction. Kokkuvõte. Tuomas Huumo: Milleks partitiiv? Kaassõnade laiendit markeeriva partitiivkäände motiividest läänemeresoome keeltes. Kaassõnad suhestavad trajektori orientiiriga, mida väljendab kaassõna laiend. Enamik läänemeresoome keelte kaassõnadest on tagasõnad, mille laiend on genitiivis, eessõnade laiend aga on tavaliselt partitiivis. Käesoleva töö eesmärgiks on selgitada partitiivis laiendiga kaassõnade sünkroonilist ja diakroonilist semantikat kognitiivse lingvistika vaatenurgast. Autor väidab, et partitiivlaiendiga kaassõnad valivad asukohasuhtele proksimaalse perspektiivi, erinevalt genitiivlaiendiga kaassõnadest, mis valivad distaalse ja holistilise perspektiivi. Autor pakub välja kolm alternatiivset hüpoteesi, mis puudutavad kahe soome keele partitiivlaiendiga kaassõna, kohti ja päin (mõlemad tähendusega ’suunas, poole’), päritolu: 1) kaassõnad grammatiseerusid instruktiivis kehaosaväljenditest (vrd. selin ’seljaga millegi poole’) ja nende partitiivlaiend väljendas esialgselt vaatleja asukohta; 2) vormid olid lokatiivsed instruktiivid, mis väljendasid meronüümiliselt täpsemat sihtala orientiiri sees; 3) partitiivlaiend oli esialgselt objekt ning väljendas suunatud tegevuse (nt. ’sihtima’, ’laskma’) sihtkohta, tulevased kaassõnad aga olid suunda täpsustavad adverbid.

Adpositions localize an entity (Figure) with respect to another entity (Ground), designated by the complement of the adposition. Most Finnic adpositions are postpositions with a genitive Ground, while prepositions typically have a partitive Ground. This work is a cognitive-linguistic study of the synchronic and diachronic semantics of partitive-Ground adpositions. It is argued that adpositions with a partitive Ground select a proximal perspective to the locational relationship, while those with a genitive Ground select a distal perspective. Three alternative hypotheses are introduced and compared concerning the origin of two Finnish partitive-Ground adpositions, kohti 'towards' and päin 'towards': 1) These adpositions originated as instructive-case bodypart expressions of position (cf. selin 'with one's back at'), and their partitive Ground indicated a viewpoint person; 2) They were instructive forms with a meronymic-locative meaning, expressing a more precise target area within the Ground, together with a directionality toward that area; 3) The Ground of kohti and päin was originally a partitive object of 'aiming' or 'shooting' verbs, and the soon-to-be adpositions themselves were lexicalized adverbs of direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a corpus study investigating the distribution of the three grammatical cases in Estonian (nominative, genitive, partitive) and the factors affecting the interpretation of syntactic role for nouns marked in these cases. Unlike previous studies, which have focussed on the properties of grammatical relations, we take the perspective of morphological case, and investigate the relative frequency of each case in both written and spoken corpora, according to the encoded grammatical roles, referential properties (animacy, number, countability) and syntactic context (word order, transitivity), as well as probing the differences according to register. We find that each case is prototypically, but not reliably, associated with a particular grammatical role, and that a cluster of features are available to assist speakers in identifying the function of a case-marked noun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a corpus study investigating the distribution of the three grammatical cases in Estonian (nominative, genitive, partitive) and the factors affecting the interpretation of syntactic role for nouns marked in these cases. Unlike previous studies, which have focussed on the properties of grammatical relations, we take the perspective of morphological case, and investigate the relative frequency of each case in both written and spoken corpora, according to the encoded grammatical roles, referential properties (animacy, number, countability) and syntactic context (word order, transitivity), as well as probing the differences according to register. We find that each case is prototypically, but not reliably, associated with a particular grammatical role, and that a cluster of features are available to assist speakers in identifying the function of a case-marked noun. Kokkuvõte. Merilin Miljan, Virve Vihman: Eesti keele grammatilised käänded kirjalikus ja suulises korpuses: sagedus, jaotumus ning süntaktilised rollid. Artiklis esitatakse tulemused korpusuuringust, mille eesmärgiks oli välja selgitada eesti keele grammatiliste käänete (nominatiiv, partitiiv, genitiiv) jaotumus ning tegurid, mis mõjutavad nende käänetega markeeritud nimisõnade süntaktiliste rollide tõlgendamist. Erinevalt varasematest töödest, mis keskenduvad grammatilistele suhetele ja (seejärel) nende käändetähistusele, lähtub selle uurimuse fookus eelkõige morfoloogiast, st käändest endast. N-ö käände perspektiivist vaatleme iga grammatilise käände esinemise sagedust kirjalikus ja suulises korpuses: milliseid süntaktilisi funktsioone see markeerib, markeeritava nimisõna omadusi (elusus, arv, loendatavus), süntaktilist konteksti (sõnajärg, transitiivsus) ning registri erinevusi. Leiame, et kuigi üldpildina eristub iga grammatilise käände puhul sagedaim süntaktiline põhiroll, toob detailsem analüüs välja nimisõna omaduste ja süntaktilise konteksti olulisuse nende rollide jaotumuses.

The Arabic prepositions min and ʕan in their prototypical spatial use relate to the Source domain, translating as '(away) from'. In many contemporary dialects ʕan is absent or limited to secondary, non-spatial meanings. In Traditional Negev Arabic, however, both prepositions are used complementarily. The proto-scene of ablative min is a Figure (F) exiting from a 3-dimensional Ground (G)-source, with 'containment' and 'boundary-crossing' typical components of the scene. The preposition ʕan prototypically fulfils a separative function, denoting separation from a Source with no relevance to dimensions, and has developed secondary modal functions. Both also have perlative functions and may appear in static scenes. Only min heads prepositional complexes, where it typically restores the nominal origin of the following element as a bounded region. So 'min behind the house' may denote 'in the back zone of the house'; these complexes characterize multiple axes, when F crosses G's path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide a survey of the diachronic development of the Russian second genitive (Gen2). As endpoints of this development, we consider data from Russian dialects representing different dialect groups. Assumedly, the expansion of Gen2 started off as 'recycling' of the genitive of a declension type that became obsolete already in the pre-written period. Nouns of this declension type were adopted by another declension, carrying their old genitive over as a variant form. This alternative ending started spreading, always as a variant, to other nouns in the adoptive declension. As the survey of the literature shows, in the course of this expansion new constraints evolved, including phonological, morphophonological, phonotactic, syntactic and semantic conditioning. While there is no declension class or even individual nouns where Gen2 became the only option, it expanded to different extents in different dialects. We believe that the diversity of functions associated with the form, the range of language-internal factors driving its expansion, as well as the current geographic distribution of constraints on its formation weaken the claim that emergence of Gen2 as a morphological category dedicated to partitive was due to contact with the languages of the Circumbaltic area, a suggestion made on a macro-areal basis and also based on comparison with the northern dialects alone. While we cannot argue that the data we present disproves the contact factor, we would at least expect that the increased granularity of dialectal data would provide some data to support it. This is not what happens, which we consider to be an argument against contact-induced change. The aim of the paper is two-fold: to present a synopsis of the discussions of the history of Gen2 and a survey of the data on the use of Gen2 in the dialects, both firsthand and available from the literature; and to question the role of contact in the emergence of the new category of Gen2 in Russian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the emergence of the partitive case in the three western-most branches of the Uralic language family, which are Saamic and Finnic in North Europe, and Mordvinic in Central Russia. The Finnic languages represent the outer edge of development in the partitive from an earlier ablative case, which used to manifest 'source', a specific property of spatial relations. In Finnic the partitive case is a multifunctional and conceptually distinct case, an inflectional category which has developed highly specific functions in object marking, negative phrase and as a case of non-canonical subject. Traces of this development are found in Saamic and Mordvinic as well, whereas other Uralic languages don't share this kind of secondary development and functional extension. The development of this particular affix consists of several stages, special bottlenecks, enhancing functional properties and triggering the reanalysis of an inherited affix *-ta/-tä. This article focuses on the diachrony of this particular affix with special emphasis on western Uralic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object has two variants in Estonian: partial object (in partitive, the functionally unmarked variant) and total object (in genitive or nominative). We examine the variation in object case in Estonian texts from the 17th to the 20th century, focusing on the 19th century and regarding this variation as an indicator in assessing the sociolinguistic variation of Estonian in texts. The texts of Old Literary Estonian were written by German scholars for whom Estonian was a collective interlanguage. In the 19th century the development of written Estonian came gradually into the hands of native speakers, who were surrounded by a predominantly German-language cultural space. In the Estonian of Germans the total object was overused. The 19th-century texts written by native Estonians represent an amalgam of native language and earlier interlanguage, they show fluctuations, and overuse of the partial object. By the turn of the 20th century, object case usage has stabilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a quantitative and qualitative approach to the syntactic functions of the pronoun en from Archaic Catalan to Modern Valencian. In order to describe these, the functional behaviour of its predecessor, the Latin adverb ĭnde, is discussed, and its meanings are explained through grammaticalisation. A corpus of texts selected from the Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), the Corpus Informatitzat del Valencià (CIVAL) and the Corpus Informatitzat de la Gramàtica del Català Modern (CIGCMod) is analysed. The various occurrences of the pronoun en are identified, their syntactic functions are delimited and quantified, and the data are submitted to statistical analysis. The results show that the syntactic functions of en exhibit a high degree of continuity with respect to Latin ĭnde. The analysis demonstrates that partitives and lexicalisations constitute the very functional core of the pronoun en through time and they are the only functions that strongly survive in Modern Valencian. The progressive decay of the rest of the functions – a decay that in today's language is also affecting partitives and lexicalisations – provides a faithful picture of the pathway of the linguistic change affecting Catalan. The progressive recession of the functionality of en can be considered an exponent of this linguistic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students show deficient understanding on fraction division and supporting that understanding remains a challenge for mathematics educators. This article aims to describe primary students’ understanding of partitive fraction division (PFD) and explore ways to support their understanding through the use of sequenced fractions and context-related graphical representations. In a design-research study, forty-four primary students were involved in three cycles of teaching experiments. Students’ works, transcript of recorded classroom discussion, and field notes were retrospectively analyzed to examine the hypothetical learning trajectories. There are three main findings drawn from the teaching experiments. Firstly, context of the tasks, the context-related graphical representations, and the sequence of fractions used do support students’ understanding of PFD. Secondly, the understanding of non-unit rate problems did not support the students’ understanding of unit rate problems. Lastly, the students were incapable of determining symbolic representations from unit rate problems and linking the problems to fraction division problems. The last two results imply to rethink unit rate as part of a partitive division with fractions. Drawing upon the findings, four alternative ways are offered to support students’ understanding of PFD, i.e., the lesson could be starting from partitive whole number division to develop the notion of fair-sharing, strengthening the concept of unit in fraction and partitioning, choosing specific contexts with more relation to the graphical representations, and sequencing the fractions used, from a simple to advanced form.

In Latvian and Estonian existential clauses, the subject’s case form alternates between nominative vs. genitive (in Latvian) and nominative vs. partitive (in Estonian). This article is a study of the case-alternation systems of existential clauses and related clause types, locative and possessive clauses in these languages. It includes a corpusbased analysis of Latvian existential clauses that is being compared with Estonian corpus-based findings on similar clause types in Estonian. *** "Subjekti käändevaheldus läti ja eesti keele eksistentsiaallausetes" Nii eesti kui ka läti keeles esineb subjekti käändevaheldust. Läti keeles saab subjekt olla lisaks nominatiivile ka genitiivis, eesti keeles lisaks nominatiivile ka partitiivis. Artiklis võrreldakse subjekti käändevaheldust mõlema keele kirjaliku variandi eksistentsiaallauses, lisaks vaadeldakse ka eksistentsiaallausega seostuvaid lausetüüpe: lokatiiv- ja possessiivlauset. Läti keele subjekti käändevaheldus leiab aset eitavates lausetes verbiga nebut ‘mitte olema’, mida nimetame tinglikult eksistentsiaal-, possessiiv- ja lokatiivlauseteks. Kõigis lausetüüpides domineerib genitiivsubjekt mõjukalt nominatiivsubjekti üle. Eesti keele subjektikäände varieerumine ilmneb kõige produktiivsemalt eksistentsiaal- ja possessiivlausetes, seejuures on olulisemateks käändevaliku mõjuriteks lause polaarsus ja subjekti referendi kvantitatiivne määratletus. Esitame tänapäeva läti keele korpusematerjalil põhinevaid uuringutulemusi ning kõrvutame neid seniste uuringutega läti ja eesti keele kohta. Erinevalt varasematest seisukohtadest ilmneb, et lausetüübil peaaegu puudub mõju läti keele subjektikäändele. Uurime seetõttu peamisi subjekti käänet mõjutavate muutujate klastreid, keskendudes nende erinevatele realiseerumisvõimalustele. Peamised muutujad on subjekti referendi definiitsus, subjekti sõnaliik, subjektifraasi raskus ning subjekti paiknemine predikaadi ja määruse suhtes. Andmetest ei ilmne tugevaid reegleid, vaid ainult eelistuste tendentsid. Kõigis vaadeldavates lausestruktuuritüüpides on sagedasem genitiivsubjekt, kuid ülekaalukuse määr varieerub. Korpusematerjali suurim rühm subjekte on verbijärgsed indefiniitsed genitiivsubjektid. Nominatiivi kasutus on kõige sagedasem verbijärgsete definiitsete subjektide puhul, ületades kahekordselt nominatiivsubjektide osakaalu kogu uuritud korpusematerjalis. Teatud puhkudel on ka lausetüüp subjektikäände osaliseks mõjutajaks. Näiteks on eitavas lokatiivlauses, mille sõnajärg meenutab jaatavat lokatiivlauset, definiitne subjekt just nominatiivis. Artikkel esitab läti keele uuringutulemuste kõrvale tänapäeva eesti keele korpusematerjalil põhinevaid kvalitatiivseid ja arvulisi andmeid eesti keele võrreldavate subjektikäände tegurite ja tingimuste kohta.

This paper studies the syntactic behavior of outro(s) in Brazilian and European Portuguese. Starting from the syntax of its Italian counterpart un altro/(degli) altri, we argue that outro(s) in prenominal position is neither an adjective nor a determiner, but an existential quantifier and that the presence of the indefinite article, um outro/uns outros, gives rise to a complex existential quantifier, like the corresponding Italian form. We also argue that outro(s) and um outro/uns outros do not specialize for different interpretations since they both substantially show the same ambiguity (one/some more or a/some different one(s)) and behave in the same way in relation to possible semantic interpretations typical of existential quantifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the development of the contrastive-partitive function of the possessive =eš in colloquial Persian. Examples of colloquial Persian show that the third person singular clitic pronoun =eš in some adnominal possessive constructions does not refer to any obvious referent present either in the syntactic structure (co-text) or in the situational context. Instead, the function of =eš, namely contrastive-partitive, is to mark the host as a part and contrast it with other parts of the similar set. The same function is attested in a few languages of Uralic and Turkic group. We believe that the same development has been occurred in possessive =eš in Persian. To describe the process of the development of the contrastive-partitive function, authentic colloquial examples from Internet blogs and formal examples from a historical corpus of New Persian are investigated. It is argued that this non-possessive function of =eš has originated from the whole-part relation in cross-referencing possessives, where both the lexical and clitical possessor =eš are present. The presence of the lexical possessor facilitates the loss of referentiality in =eš and it is developed to denote partitivity. Furthermore, the pragmatic motivation of communicating contrast makes =eš to be further grammaticalized into denoting contrastive-partitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we analyze partitive objects under negation (NPOs) in the Northern Italian dialectal (NID) domain and discuss their diachronic and synchronic relation with both partitive constructions and partitive articles. We take into exam the areal distribution of the phenomenon, its syntactic variation and the different factors that regulate this variation. The main claim of the paper is that NPOs in the NIDs are a special type of grammaticalized partitive constructions, where negation licenses a silent quantifier and the preposition expresses extraction from a 'whole'. In other words, the development of NPOs is similar to that of partitive articles, but they have not lost the partitive meaning. This explains why they appear only with plurals and singular mass nouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a movement in philosophy, growing over the last twenty years, to treat dispositionality as irreducible and, in turn, offer dispositional accounts of important metaphysical matters such as the laws of nature, free will, causation, and modality. However, unlike the earlier turn towards possible worlds in metaphysics, the turn towards dispositions hasn’t had much impact in semantics. But this is, in my view, largely because semanticists have yet to consider what dispositional analyses of (say) tense, aspect, generics, or modals would look like. My aim in this paper is to push the dispositionality movement forward on the semantics front by considering a dispositional analysis of the progressive aspect.

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The core proposal of this contribution is that in [P DP] or [K DP] structures, where K, P are oblique prepositions or cases, either P/K or DP can label the resulting constituent. If PP/KP is the resulting label, the constituent does not provide a goal for Agree. If DP is the resulting label, the constituent behaves like any other DP, providing a goal for Agree. This is what we call the agreement parameter for structural obliques. Inherent obliques, i.e. those selected by a predicate, obligatorily project as PP/KP. In section 1 we use this hypothesis to explain variation in the agreement pattern of pseudopartitives, in section 2 we institue a parallelism with Differential Object Marking (DOM). In section 3, we illustrate a consequence of the same labelling algorithm independent of agreement, arguing that so-called Romance partitive articles include the partitive preposition di 'of ', but at the same time project as DPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

José Saramago's 'The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis' deals with an existential confrontation of the human subject who strives to impart meaning to a crucialjuncture in his life. The coinciding occasion of the death of Fernando Pessoa and his heteronym's return to the place of his origin underlines an existential experience wherein, rather than discovering definitive answers, Ricardo Reis undergoes a multiplicity of experience which is productive of a body constructed by innumerable, partitive selves. This paper attempts to explore the series of incidents Reis encounters independently after the death of his creator from the perspective of the thematic paradigm of innumerability. It would be argued that Reis 's belief that he is innumerable people could be specifically contextualizedwith respect to the understanding of his character that evolves out of the interconnectivity between the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, his alter ego Ricardo Reis, and existential episodes involving the heteronym as imagined by Saramago. It becomes a threefold human struggle, charged with significance and presented through a paradigmatically chosen pattern of signifying images revealing the complexity of his existential condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presentative constructions in Serbian allow two patterns [presentative particle NPGEN] and [presentative particle CLi NPiNOM]. This paper proposes derivations of these patterns. The premise is that the choice between the two patterns is determined by the the type of inert v0. Namely, the first pattern is derived if inert v0 can assign partitive case, i.e. v0 [PART], while the latter pattern is derived if v0 cannot assign partitive case. A special focus is put on the [CLi+NPi] pattern since it represents a case of the co-occurrence of a pronominal clitic and a co-indexed NP, which is not characteristic of Serbian. It is argued that the relationship between the NP and the co-indexed clitic is that of agreement. The X0 and the NP establish a relationship in which X0 assigns nominative case to the NP and the NP values X0’s [uφ:]. This agreement is taken to be the same kind of agreement that holds between an NPNOM and the X0 which is in charge of agreement with participles in Serbian. The only twist in presentative constructions is the absence of a verb in the numeration. This means that the φ-features checked in X0 cannot be pronounced as an integral part of a participle. Allowing certain morpho-phonological rules to pronounce boundless of features as various morphemes, it is proposed that the clitic is a spell-out of this bundle of features, resulting in the [CLi+NPi] pattern.

This article takes a usage-based perspective on the partitive genitive construction in Dutch (iets moois, ‘something beautiful’), which has previously drawn scholarly attention from a theoretical perspective, due to the challenges it presents to Dutch nominal morphosyntax. We will argue that a good understanding of the construction at issue cannot circumvent the enormous variation in the expression of the genitive marker. Within the wide variation space, regular patterns can be discerned, which we uncovered by using mixed-effects logistic regression. This approach allows us to assess the precise contribution of internal factors (e.g. length of the adjective, or the type of quantifier) and external factors (e.g. regional variety, or register), as well as their interactions. This article has three objectives then: first, it wants to contribute to the description of Dutch syntax, second it aspires to advance methodological standards in grammatical investigation, and third, it makes a theoretical plea for a usage-based perspective, with full recognition of variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the semantic constant shared by the quantifier, indefinite determiner, and approximator uses of the construction ši + NP in a number of Arabic dialects is an underlying part–whole relation. It proposes a grammaticalization path in which these three uses of ši + NP are ultimately derived from the partitive construction šay’ min “something of,” beginning with the quantifier and ending with the approximator. The key innovation that allows this development is a reanalysis in which šay’ ceases to be a head noun with lexical content, functioning instead as a modifier marking a noun as an indefinite instance conceptualized within a larger whole. After this reanalysis, successive uses of ši + NP continue to express a part– whole relation but in an increasingly abstract way, being further and further removed from the transparency of the original partitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines object case marking in a Finnish verb structure called the Projected Directive Construction, e.g. Liisa pyysi Matti-a lähte-mä-än ‘Liisa asked Matti to leave’ (Liisa.NOMINATIVE asked Matti-PARTITIVE leave-INF-ILLATIVE). The PDC is divided into three subtypes. Type A includes verbs such as pyytää ‘to request’, which take a partitive object regardless of the outcome of the action. Verbs used in type B, such as määrätä ‘to order’, take an accusative object despite the result of the action. Type C comprises verbs such as suostutella ‘to persuade’ taking either a partitive or an accusative object, depending on the outcome of the semiotic causation expressed in the clause. The object case marking in the three subtypes reflects the two-faceted nature of the construction: on the one hand, it is a construction used for reporting of speech, on the other, it is a causative construction. It seems that boundedness – as it has traditionally been defined – does not suffice to describe the alternation of the object case in the PDC. Kokkuvõte. Yrjö Lauranto: Projitseeritud direktiivsed konstruktsioonid ja objekti käände markeerimine soome keeles. Artiklis käsitletakse objekti käänet soome keele projitseeritud direktiivses konstruktsioonis (PDK), nt Liisa pyysi Matti-a lähte-mä-än ‘Liisa palus Matit ära minna’. PDK võib jagada kolme alltüüpi. Tüüp A sisaldab verbe nagu pyytää ‘paluda’, mis nõuavad partitiivobjekti, sõltumata tegevuse tulemusest. Tüüp B verbid nagu määrätä ‘käskida’ nõuavad akusatiivobjekti, sõltumata tegevuse tulemuslikkusest. Tüüpi C kuuluvad verbid nagu suostutella ‘veenda’, mis võivad võtta nii partitiivse kui akusatiivse objekti, sõltuvalt lausega väljendatud semiootilise põhjustatuse tulemusest. Kolme alltüübi käändemarkeering peegeldab konstruktsiooni kahetist olemust: ühelt poolt kasutatakse konstruktsiooni kõne vahendamiseks, teiselt poolt on tegemist kausatiivse konstruktsiooniga. Seega ei piisa PDK objekti käändevahelduse selgitamiseks vaid piiritletuse mõistest. Võtmesõnad: objekti käände markeerimine; piiritletus; akusatiiv; partitiiv; kõne ja mõtete vahendamine; projitseerimine; kausatiivne konstruktsioon; soome keel

In this work I explore the semantics of two case forms of the Finnish quantifier moni ‘many’: the regular nominative moni and the regular partitive monta [mon-ta many-PARTITIVE], which however has taken on a function similar to that of the nominative of numerals and is thus not a functional partitive anymore. This development has apparently motivated the rise of the pleonastic montaa [mon-ta-a many-PARTITIVE-PARTITIVE] to unambiguously mark the partitive. I argue that an important difference between moni and monta is the opposition between a distributive and a collective meaning: in ambiguous contexts, moni is clearly distributive and monta collective. I compare the two with the nominative form of the near-synonymous quantifier usea ‘several; a number of’ which in similar contexts displays ambiguity between the distributive and collective readings. The analysis sheds new light to the division of labor between the two (functional) nominative forms of moni, showing that they divide the functions of the nominative in an idiosyncratic way. Kokkuvõte. Tuomas Huumo: Moni või monta? Distributiivse ja kollektiivse tähenduse vastandus soome keele kvantori moni ‘mitu’ kahe käändevormi vahel. Artikkel käsitleb soome keele kvantori moni ‘mitu’ kahe käändevormi tähenduserinevusi. Võrdlusobjektideks on reeglipärane nominatiiv moni ning reeglipäraselt moodustatud partitiivivorm monta [mon-ta mitu-PARTITIIV ‘mitut’], millel siiski on tekkinud arvsõnade nominatiivile sarnane funktsioon ning mis seetõttu ei ole enam funktsionaalne partitiiv. See areng on tõenäoliselt motiveerinud ka pleonastilise, kahe partitiivilõpuga vormi mon-ta-a [mitu-PARTITIIV-PARTITIIV] teket, mis väljendab ühetähenduslikult partitiivi funktsioone. Artikli põhiväide on, et oluline erinevus vormide moni ja monta vahel on distributiivse ja kollektiivse tähenduse vastandamine: mitmetitõlgendatavates kontekstides annab moni edasi distributiivset, monta aga kollektiivset tähendust. Artiklis võrreldakse nimetatud kaht vormi lisaks ka semantiliselt lähedase kvantori usea ‘mitu; arvukas’ nominatiivivormiga. Usea on sarnastes kontekstides mitmetähenduslik ning võib edasi anda nii distributiivset kui ka kollektiivset tähendust. Kokkuvõttes valgustab analüüs seni käsitlemata vaatenurgast kvantori moni kahe (funktsionaalses mõttes nominatiivi-)vormi tööjaotust, mis on üsnagi idiosünkraatiline. Võtmesõnad: kvantor; kääne; partitiiv; kollektiivne vs. distributiivne tähendus; soome keel

Syncretism is the phenomenon where one (phonological) form is able to spell out more than one (grammatical) function. The P(repositional) element van (“from/of”) in Afrikaans represents an instance of syncretism: it is able to spell out many different functions including spatial, possessive and partitive functions. Any theoretical framework seeking to account for how form relates to function ought to provide an account of this phenomenon. Within the broad minimalist approach, Nanosyntax (NS) has yielded the most systematic and explicit accounts of syncretism (cf. e.g. Starke 2009; Caha 2006, 2009). This paper offers a nanosyntactic characterisation of the Afrikaans P element van, focusing specifically on its behaviour in Afrikaans partitive constructions and offering a tentative analysis to account for the seemingly irregular behaviour displayed by van in these constructions. The analysis is based on a modified syntactic decomposition of “the genitive zone” proposed by Caha (2009). The presence of an additional node, Specific (SPF), is argued for in the lowest layer of the structure that is encoded on the lexical entry for van. One merit of the proposed analysis is that it takes into account how van interacts with other word-level elements in the phrase.

This study investigates the expression of Catalan clitics en and hi, which have no grammatical equivalent in Spanish, in the adult grammar of Catalan-Spanish early bilinguals. Participants (N = 57), born and raised in Catalonia, are divided into 3 groups according to their onset of acquisition and language use: Spanish-dominant (n = 20), Balanced Bilinguals (n = 15) and Catalan-dominant (n = 22). The results of an Acceptability Judgment Task and an Elicited Production Task indicated that Spanish-dominant bilinguals have a divergent grammar compared to that of the Catalan-dominant speakers, overaccepting ungrammatical omission and doubling of the clitics. The bilingual group patterned with the Catalan-dominant group in some of their judgments, but with the Spanish-dominant group in their production. It is argued that onset of acquisition cannot be the only explanation for the differences between the bilingual groups, and that quantity and quality of input play an important role in the acquisition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines object case marking in a Finnish verb structure called the Projected Directive Construction, e.g. Liisa pyysi Matti-a lähte-mä-än 'Liisa asked Matti to leave' (Liisa.NOMINATIVE asked Matti-PARTITIVE leave-INF-ILLATIVE). The PDC is divided into three subtypes. Type A includes verbs such as pyytää 'to request', which take a partitive object regardless of the outcome of the action. Verbs used in type B, such as määrätä 'to order', take an accusative object despite the result of the action. Type C comprises verbs such as suostutella 'to persuade' taking either a partitive or an accusative object, depending on the outcome of the semiotic causation expressed in the clause. The object case marking in the three subtypes reflects the two-faceted nature of the construction: on the one hand, it is a construction used for reporting of speech, on the other, it is a causative construction. It seems that boundedness - as it has traditionally been defined - does not suffice to describe the alternation of the object case in the PDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work I explore the semantics of two case forms of the Finnish quantifier moni 'many': the regular nominative moni and the regular partitive monta [mon-ta many-PARTITIVE], which however has taken on a function similar to that of the nominative of numerals and is thus not a functional partitive anymore. This development has apparently motivated the rise of the pleonastic montaa [mon-ta-a many-PARTITIVE-PARTITIVE] to unambiguously mark the partitive. I argue that an important difference between moni and monta is the opposition between a distributive and a collective meaning: in ambiguous contexts, moni is clearly distributive and monta collective. I compare the two with the nominative form of the near-synonymous quantifier usea 'several; a number of which in similar contexts displays ambiguity between the distributive and collective readings. The analysis sheds new light to the division of labor between the two (functional) nominative forms of moni, showing that they divide the functions of the nominative in an idiosyncratic way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new analysis of English partitives in which a quantifier is immediately followed by an of-phrase. It has been claimed that a partitive contains a null NP, analyzing the of-phrase as an adjunct. The null noun approach, however, does not adequately account for some important characteristics of English partitives. I argue that in a partitive, a quantifier takes an argument of type e, which is syntactically realized as a PP, and denotes a part-of relation. It is therefore proposed that a quantifier can take either an NP or a PP as its complement. I present diachronic evidence to support this dual-function analysis while explaining why every and no are not used with the partitive of-phrase. The proposed analysis has advantages over previous approaches that treat quantifiers in a uniform way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the syntax of partitive constructions with superlatives in French and the realization of gender in constructions with an animate noun, and focuses on contexts that allow gender mismatches (la plus intelligente de mes gentils professeurs ‘the most intelligent of my kind professors’). We show that such mismatches are allowed in French superlative partitives that contain a default masculine noun. To account for the mismatches, we propose that the nouns involved have an unvalued gender feature that can be assigned a sex specification in the course of the derivation. For superlative partitives we propose that this specification takes place in a Gender Phrase in the outer DP. Furthermore, we show that quantified partitives (e.g. three of the books) behave differently from superlative partitives, a fact we try to explain in terms of ­structural differences. We distinguish between partitives with an of-complement and ­non-canonical partitives with an ‘among’-PP or a preposed ‘of’-phrase. We also claim that our data can provide further insight into the role of locality in semantic agreement: we compare superlative partitives to quantified partitives in terms of agreement, and suggest that the two types of partitives should be placed in different positions on an Agreement Hierarchy.

The partitive has often been acknowledged as problematic for L2 learners of Finnish. The purpose of this study was to identify possible instances of L1 influence in Estonian learners’ use of partitive predicatives and to explore the relation between L1 influence and L2 proficiency. Research materials (85,749 words) were selected from the Estonian subcorpus of the International Corpus of Learner Finnish and evaluated according to the CEFR proficiency scales (i.e. A1–C2). A frequency-error analysis revealed instances of both positive L1 influence (e.g. a virtual lack of partitive overuse errors) and negative L1 influence (e.g. frequent use of nominative plural instead of partitive plural predicatives). The latter error type was found to ultimately decrease with increasing L2 proficiency, suggesting an inverse relation between negative L1 influence and L2 proficiency. Nonetheless, interactions between L1 influence and several other variables also reflected the extremely complex nature of the phenomenon of L1 influence.

This study applies the methodology described by Gries & Deshors (2014) within the framework of the Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (Granger, 1996) to the partitive genitive inflection in post-quantifier adjectives in the Moroccan Dutch ethnolect. This implies fitting a logistic regression model on data from the complementary ConDiv and Moroccorp corpora to investigate the differences between the L1 variety and the (early L2/2L1) ethnolect variety. It was found that the Moroccan Dutch language users do not differ from 'ordinary' Dutch language users in the realisation of the partitive genitive -s suffix, neither through an outspoken preference for one of the inflectional variants, nor in the factors determining the alternation. This is considered a rather surprising result, as such differences do exist for a number of other grammatical phenomena (Cornips and Rooij, 2003; Van de Velde and Weerman, 2014). This finding can tell us something about the inflectional status of the partitive genitive. It appears that it is less non-transparent than other quirks in adjectival inflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at a more satisfying explanation of differential object case marking (DOM), and demonstrates that a group of mass nouns displays properties that are preserved in derivation. The central tenet of all accounts relates the Finnish type accusative-partitive DOM to the distinction between mass and count noun objects. I challenge this established view by introducing new data from Estonian: deadjectival mass nouns that unexpectedly behave like count nouns in DOM. I propose an account that has a wider coverage of data and is based on the scalar and boundedness-related properties of the base adjectives of the derived abstract nouns. Typically, the unexpected count-like behavior occurs with abstract nouns that are derived from adjectives that cannot denote open scales for various lexical-semantic and pragmatic reasons. Since the semantic properties of scales as well as the pragmatic standards determining boundedness are preserved in the course of derivation, they are cross-categorial properties. These findings are also relevant in understanding of the role of lexical aspect and aspectual composition as well as the links between morphosyntax in language and norms and standards in cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]