Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

Section E: Word Order 59
agreement, e.g. Jaan/poisid sööb/söövad suppi [Jaan/boy:pl eat:3sg/pl soup:part] ‘Jaan/the
boys is/are eating soup’.
The main type of marked basic clause is an existential clause that presents a referent: e.g. Aias
kasvasid lilled [garden:in grow:past:3pl flower:pl:nom] ‘Flowers were growing in the
garden’; Aias kasvas lilli [garden:in grow:past:3sg flower:pl:part] lit. ‘There were growing
some flowers in the garden’. In a typical existential clause the clause-initial topic is an
adverbial of location (or time). The subject exhibits some object properties: it is a rhema and
often indefinite. The subject may receive the partitive case, which is typical of objects (and
obligatory in negation), and thus does not trigger verbal agreement.
Between the unmarked basic clauses and the existential clauses there are clauses whose
clause-initial subject is an actor with behavioural properties similar to those of the subject of
the unmarked basic clause, except that the actor here is not realised as the subject but as an
adverbial (in certain cases as a direct object) as in the existential clause. This is illustrated in
the table below. Another argument may (although need not) be realised as the subject. This
subject has some object properties: e.g., it may also be in the partitive. This kind of clause
pattern, similar to the existential clause, is used to express possessive, experiencer relations
and resultative processes, whereas the marked actor functions as the possessor, experiencer or
the source of the resultative process. These clause patterns are not the only ones that can
express the relations mentioned. The same relations can be expressed also with unmarked
basic clauses, as again illustrated in the table.
Possessive
clauses
Experiental
clauses
Resultative
clauses
Unmarked basic clauses Clauses with a marked topical actor
Jaan omab autot [Jaan has:3sg
car:part] ‘Jaan has a car’
Ma kardan [I fair:1sg] ‘I am
afraid’
Tiia armastab lapsi [Tiia like:3sg
children] ‘Tiia loves children’
Ma tean teie arvamust [I
know:1sg you:gen opinion:part] ‘I
know your opinion’
Poiss kasvas meheks [boy
grow:past:3sg man:trnsl] ‘The
boy grew into man’
Adessive Jaanil on auto [Jaan:ad be:3sg car]
‘Jaan has gota car’
Adessive Mul on hirm [I:ad be:3sg fear]
‘I am scared’
Allative Tiiale meeldivad lapsed [Tiia:all
like:3pl children] ‘Tiia loves children’
Partitive Mind huvitab teie arvamus [I:part
interest:3sg you:gen opinion] ‘I am
interested in your opinion’
Elative Poisist kasvas mees [boy:el
grow:past:3sg man] ‘The boy grew
into man’
Current trends in language use demonstrate an expanding use of unmarked possessive and
experiental basic clauses at the expense of marked clauses. This could be seen both as a
language contact-induced shift from the Finno-Ugric clause patterns towards SAE patterns
and as (just) the simplification of the internal structure of the language. Resultative
constructions show a tendency to use the focussed clause-final subject in both clause patterns.
The subject is, according to the aims of the speaker, either the focussed goal, e.g. Tomsonist
sai direktor [Tomson:el became director:nom], or the source, e.g. Direktoriks sai Tomson
[director:trnsl became Tomson:nom].