Grammatical case in Estonian
The aim of this thesis is to show that standard approaches to grammatical case fail to provide an explanatory account of such cases in Estonian. In Estonian, grammatical cases form a complex system of semantic contrasts, with the case-marking on nouns alternating with each other in certain constructions, even though the apparent grammatical functions of the noun phrases themselves are not changed. This thesis demonstrates that such alternations, and the differences in interpretation which they induce, are context dependent. This means that the semantic contrasts which the alternating grammatical cases express are available in some linguistic contexts and not in others, being dependent, among other factors, on the semantics of the casemarked noun and the semantics of the verb it occurs with. Hence, traditional approaches which treat grammatical case as markers of syntactic dependencies and account for associated semantic interpretations by matching cases directly to semantics not only fall short in predicting the distribution of cases in Estonian but also result in over-analysis due to the static nature of the theories which the standard approach to case marking comprises. On the basis of extensive data, it
Miljan, Merilin
grammatical case ; case marking ; case alternation ; Estonian case ; Finnic languages
Grammatical case in Estonian. The aim of this thesis is to show that standard approaches to grammatical case fail to provide an explanatory account of such cases in Estonian. In Estonian, grammatical cases form a complex system of semantic contrasts, with the case-marking on nouns alternating with each other in certain constructions, even though the apparent grammatical functions of the noun phrases themselves are not changed. This thesis demonstrates that such alternations, and the differences in interpretation which they induce, are context dependent. This means that the semantic contrasts which the alternating grammatical cases express are available in some linguistic contexts and not in others, being dependent, among other factors, on the semantics of the casemarked noun and the semantics of the verb it occurs with. Hence, traditional approaches which treat grammatical case as markers of syntactic dependencies and account for associated semantic interpretations by matching cases directly to semantics not only fall short in predicting the distribution of cases in Estonian but also result in over-analysis due to the static nature of the theories which the standard approach to case marking comprises. On the basis of extensive data, it
grammatical case estonian aim_show standard approach grammatical case fail provide explanatory account case estonian estonian grammatical case form complex_system semantic contrast case_marking noun alternate certain construction even_though apparent grammatical_function noun_phrase change demonstrates alternation difference interpretation induce context_dependent mean semantic contrast alternate grammatical case express available linguistic context others dependent among factor semantics noun semantics verb occurs with hence traditional_approach treat grammatical case marker syntactic dependency account associate semantic_interpretation match case directly semantics fall_short predict distribution case estonian also over analysis due static nature theory standard case_marking comprises basis extensive data