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Estonian, Finnish, and other European languages

Estonian, Finnish, and other European languages. Helle Metslang Estonian: typology and databases Szeged, 27 – 30 April 2009. SAE (Standard Average European) 1. B.L. Whorf 1939 (the concept of SAE developed by comparing Native American languages with the well-known European languages)

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Estonian, Finnish, and other European languages

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  1. Estonian, Finnish, and other European languages Helle Metslang Estonian: typology and databases Szeged, 27–30 April 2009

  2. SAE (Standard Average European) 1 • B.L. Whorf 1939 (the concept of SAE developed by comparing Native American languages with the well-known European languages) • M. Haspelmath 1998, 2001: 12 typical structural features were singled out (they occur in most European languages but are usually missing elsewhere) • SAE includes Romance, Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic languages, Albanian, Greek, Hungarian(2001)

  3. SAE (Standard Average European) 2 • Background to the shared features: great migrations during the transition period from antiquity to the Middle Ages, at the beginning of the formation of European common cultural space. The SAE linguistic area is also known as the Charlemagne-Sprachbund. • Estonian and Finnish – SAE periphery (1998) / outside SAE, only two shared features (2001).

  4. Nucleus. core and periphery of SAE (Haspelmath 1998)

  5. SAE features 1 Haspelmath 2001: 1) Definite and indefinite article (-), cf. article-like use of E see ‘this’, üks ‘one’; in Finnish, too, se functions as an article Ma ei jaksa täna seda ajalugu őppida ‘Today I have no energy to study the history’ Üks tüdruk tői sulle ühe raamatu ‘A girl brought you a book’

  6. SAE features 2 2) Relative clauses come after the noun; the clause opens with a declinable relative pronoun (e.g. (der/die/das/welcher/welche/welches;who, whose, whom) (+) E raamat, mida(P) ma lugesin F kirja, jota(P) luin ‘the book that I read’

  7. WALS map 123: relativization of obliques

  8. SAE features 3 3) have-perfect (-) Estonian and Finnish have the olema-perfect (‘be-perfect’). Nevertheless, possessive syntactic structures with the impersonal / passive perfect are spreading in Estonian E Mul on õpitud I-AD learn:IMPS:PFCT F Olen lukenut läksyni read:PFCT:1SG homework ‘I’m done with my homework’

  9. SAE features 4 4) Nominative experiencer prevails (-). Use of syntactic patterns with the nominative experiencer is becoming more frequent in Estonian Peeter (NOM) armastab teatrit Peetrile (ALLAT) meeldib teater ‘Peeter loves the theatre’ Peeter(NOM) vajab puhkust Peetril (ADESS) on vaja puhkust ‘Peeter needs some rest’

  10. SAE features 5 5) Participial passive (-) is spreading in Estonian. E Te olete külla kutsutud ‘You have been invited to visit us’ Fpuukirkoista,jotka ovat sisältä leikkauksin koristellut(ISK) 'from wooden churches that are decorated inside with woodcuts'

  11. SAE features 6 6) Prevalence of anti-causative (intransitive) verb derivation over causative derivation (-) It’s true that causative derivation is more common in Estonian and also in Finnish E loobuma ‘to give up’> loovutama‘to surrender sth’ sööma ‘to eat’> söötma ‘to feed’ jätkama ‘to continue sth’> jätkuma ‘to continue’ F luopua > luovuttaa pestä ‘to wash’> peseytyä ‘to wash oneself’

  12. SAE features 7 7) Dative external possessors (Die Mutter wäscht dem Kind die Haare ‘Mother is washing the hair of her child’) (-) Three ways to express the possessor: 1) dative(Die Mutter wäscht dem Kind die Haare), 2) locative, 3) NP-internal (English). Estonian: locative, NP Ema peseb lapsel (AD) juukseid / lapse (G) juukseid ‘Mother is washing the hair of her child’) Tüdrukul (AD) suri vanaisa ‘The girl’s grandpa died’ Finnish: NP, ablative Äiti pesee lapsen(G) hiuksia Tytöltä(ABL) kuoli isoäiti

  13. SAE features 8 8) Negative indefinitepronouns and lack of verbal negation (Niemandkommt, nobody comes) (-) Two form types: 1) V + NI (Niemandkommt), 2) NV + NI Estonian, Finnish NV + NI E (Mitte) keegi ei tule F Kukaan ei tule nobody NEG come

  14. SAE features 9 9) Comparative constructions with a particle (+) Types of the comparative construction: 1) locative (‘bigger from / to / at X‘), 2) the exceed comparative (‘Y is bigger exceeding X‘), 3) the conjoining comparative (‘Y is big, Y is little‘), 4) the particle comparative (bigger than X). Estonian: particle, locative Ema on noorem kui isa Ema on isast(EL) noorem ‘Mother is younger than father‘ Finnish: particle, partitive (<locative) Äiti on nuorempi kuin isä. Äiti on isää(P) nuorempi

  15. SAE features 10 10) relative-based equative constructions (-): so groβ wie einElefant nii suur kui elevant ‘as big as an elephant’ niin iso kuin norsu

  16. SAE features 11 11) Subject person affixes as strict agreement markers (-). The verb has personal forms and the subject is obligatory: du kommst, wir kommen It does not occur in Estonian and Finnish: E tuled, ei tule F tulet, et tule ‘you come, you don’t come’

  17. SAE features 12 12) Intensifier-reflexive differentiation (-): different pronouns used as intensifiers (G selbst, R sam) and reflexives (G sich, R sebja) E intensifier ise, enda Minister ise (N) tuleb ‘The minister himself will come’ Oodatakse ministrit ennast(P) ‘The minister himself is expected to come’ reflexive enda, iseenda Minister kiitis ennast/ iseennast (P) ‘The minister praised himself’

  18. SAE features 13 F intensifier itse, itse+PSx Ministeri itse tulee Odotetaan ministeria itseään reflexive itse+PSx Ministeri kehui itseään

  19. SAE features, Estonian and Finnish • Both Estonian and Finnish have the following features: 2 (relative pronoun), 9 (comparative with a particle), and 10 (equative with a relative construction) • Both languages lack the following features: 6 (anti-causative), 7 (dative possessor), 8 (negation with a pronoun), 11 (obligatory predicate agreement with the pronoun); Finnish has no 3 (have-perfect)

  20. SAE features, Estonian and Finnish • Developments in the direction of SAE-like features in Estonian: features 1 (article), 3 (possessive perfect), 4 (nominative experiencer), 5 (passive), 12 (reflexive pronouns); in Finnish 1, 4, 5, 12?

  21. Some further likely SAE features 1 Because of insufficient data Haspelmath did not include on his list, for example, • AND-coordination (vs WITH-coordination) E isa ja ema, F isä ja äiti ‘father and mother’ also WITH-coordination: isa emaga, isä äidin kanssa ‘father with mother’

  22. Some further likely SAE features 2 • Verb fronting in polar interrogatives (inversion) E Tuled sa koju? ‘Will you come home?’ interrogative particle: Kas sa tuled koju? F particle: Tuletko kotiin? Spoken language reveals also inversion: Tulet sä kotiin? • Comparative marking of adjectives (E suure-m, F suure-mpi ‘bigger’)

  23. Some further likely SAE features 3 • Comitative-instrumental syncretism Comitative: jalutab lapsega (COM)’is walking with the child’, kirjutab pliiatsiga (COM) ‘writes in pencil’ Syncretism is absent in Finnish: kävelee lapsen kanssa (POSTP), kirjoittaa kynällä (AD) • Suppletive second ordinal numeral: E kaks – teine, F kaksi – toinen‚ zwei – zweite‘ (vgl. two – second)

  24. Some comparisons between Estonian, Finnish, German, and Russian Opposition of totality-partiality1 • The application of the opposition of totality –partiality is more restricted in Estonian than in Finnish E Pahempoolsed on saamas võitu (P)Poola valimistel F Vasemmisto on saamassa voiton (G)Puolan vaaleissa ‘The lefties are gaining a victory at the Polish elections’

  25. Totality-partiality opposition2 The opposition of totality–partiality occurs in several Circum-Baltic-languages (Finnic, Baltic, Russian). In the case of negation Estonian and Finnish always have the partial object and the partial subject in existential sentences; in similar cases Russian tends to have the genitive (not the nominative or the accusative).

  26. Totality-partiality opposition3 Partial object E Ma ei saanud seda raamatut (P) F En saanut sitä kirjaa (P) R Ja ne polučila ètoj knigi (G) / ètu knigu (ACC) ‘I did not receive this book’ Partial subject: E Mul ei ole raamatut (P) F Minulla ei ole kirjaa (P) R U menja net knigi (G) ‘I don’t have the book’

  27. Expression of aspectual meaning by means of verb particles ära jooma – aus/trinken – vy/pit‘‘drink up’, ära viima – abf/ühren – u/nesti ‘take away’, läbi lugema – durch/lesen – pro/čitat‘read through‘. E Ema lõhku-s tassi ära F Äitirikko-i muki-n D Die Mutter zerbrach die Tasse R Mama raz-bi-la čašku ‘Mother broke a cup’

  28. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: saama 1 Quasi-auxiliaries saama ‘get, become’, tohtima ‘may, be allowed’, laskma ‘let’,ähvardama ‘threaten’, tõotama ‘promise’ • SAAMA: future E Elu saa-b ole-ma raske F Elämä tulee ole-maan vaikea D Das Leben wird schwersein R Žizn‘bude-tnelegka ‘Life will be hard’

  29. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: saama 2 • SAAMA: impersonal construction E Sa-i palju tantsi-tud become-PST a lot dance-PASS:PART F Tul-i tanssi-ttu-a paljon come-PSTdance-PASS:PART-PRTVa lot D Es wurde viel getanzt ‘We used to dance a lot’

  30. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: saama 3 • SAAMA: passive construction’ E Töö sa-i teh-tud work become-PST make-PASS:PART F Työ tul-i teh-dy-ksi work come-PST make-PASS:PART-TRN D Die Arbeit wurde gemacht ‘The work was done’

  31. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: tohtima • TOHTIMA ‘may, be allowed’ – a special deontic modal verb (similar to the German dürfen; in Finnish the common modal verbs assaada ‘can’, pitää ‘must’, tarvita ‘need’, etc.; it’s the same in Russian) E Lapsed tohivad meres ujuda F Lapset saavatuida meressä D Die Kinder dürfen im See baden ‘The children are allowed to swim in the sea’

  32. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: laskma 1 • LASKMA ‘tolet’ (Finnish reveals derivation, e.g. rakentaa > rakennuttaa orantaa ‘to give‘; Russian uses dat‘/davat‘ ‘to give‘). E Lapsed lasid isal segamatult töötada F Lapset antoivat isän työskennellä rauhassa G Die Kinder lieβen den Vater ungestört arbeiten R Deti dali otcu spokojno rabotat’ ‘The children let the father work undisturbed’

  33. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: laskma 2 Particle las: E las olla! Glaß sein! ‘let (it) be’

  34. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: ähvardama, tõotama 1 • ÄHVARDAMA ‘to threaten’, TÕOTAMA ‘to promise’ in the function of modal verbs G Das Hochwasser droht die Altstadt zu überschwemmen E Suurvesi ähvardab vanalinna üle ujutada ‘The flood threatens to flood the old city’ F USA:n ja E-Korean vapaakauppasopimus uhkaakariutua (HS) ‘The treaty of free commerce between the USA and South-Korea threatens to fall through’

  35. Verb constructions with quasi-auxiliaries: ähvardama, tõotama 2 G Mein Mann droht krank zu werden E Mu mees ähvardab haigeks jääda ‘My husband is likely to fall ill’ G Die Aktienkurse verspechenzu steigen E Aktsiakursid tõotavad tõusta ‘Share prices promise to rise’

  36. Evidentiality Expression of the opposition of direct and indirect information in verb morphology (Circum-Baltic: Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) E Maril olevat(QUOT) palju aega G Mari habe(CONJ:PRES) viel Zeit F Marilla on(IND)kuulemma(PARTICLE) paljon aikaa R U Mari, govorjat(PARTICLE), mnogo vremeni (IND) ‘Mari is reported to have a lot of time’

  37. Infinitive as the predicate: command E Mitte (NEG)akna peal seista (dINF)! F Ei saa seistäikkunalla! G Nichtam Fenster stehen! R Na okne ne (NEG)stojat’ (INF)! ‘No standing in the window’

  38. Infinitive as the predicate: final clause E Pylkkänen peitis suu käega, et (CONJ)mitte (NEG) muiata (smile:dINF) F Pylkkänen peitti suunsa kädellään, ettei (CONJ.NEG) hymyilisi (COND) G Konsta hielt sich die Hand vor dem Mund, um sein Grinsen zu verbergen R Pjulkkjanen prikryl rot rukoi, čtoby (CONJ)ne (NEG) ulybnutsja (INF) ‘Pylkkänen covered his mouth with his hand in order not to smile’

  39. Subordinating conjunctives: person agreement of the relative pronoun E Sina, kes sa kõikoled teinud, pole ära teeninud etteheiteid. G Du, der du alles getan hast, verdienst keinen Vorwurf ‘You who have done everything have not deserved any criticisms’ No agreement: F Sinä, joka olet tehnyt kaiken,… R Ty, kto vsë sdelal, …

  40. Subordinating conjunctives: kusjuures etc. • Subordinating adverbs that join a subordinate clause with the entire main clause (and not some part of the sentence): kusjuures (G wobei, indem, R pričëm)’whereas’, mispeale (G worauf) ‘whereupon’, misüle (G worüber) ‘over what’. E Ta läks läbi metsa, kusjuures ta aeg-ajalt peatus ja kuulatas. G Er ging durch den Wald, wobei/indem er ab und zu stehen blieb und horchte. ‘He walked through the forest and stopped from time to time and listenedawhile’

  41. Subordinating conjunctives: kusjuures etc. R v pohode byli tri dnja, pričëm nočevali v palatkah ‘they undertook a three-day hike whereas they camped in tents’ E alused põrkasid kokku, kusjuures teine uppus F alukset törmäsivät yhteen, jolloin toinen niistä upposi (usual relative time adverb) ‘the vessels clashed whereas the other one sank’

  42. Multifunctionality of quantifiers: väga • väga ‘very’ E väga ilus,väga kiiresti,väga palju,ma armastan sind väga F hyvin / erittäin kaunis / nopeasti / paljon;rakastan sinua paljon G sehr schön, sehr schnell, sehr viel: ich liebe dich sehr R očen‘ krasivyj / bystro / mnogo, ja tebja očen‘ ljublju ‘very beautiful, very fast, very much, I love you very much’

  43. Multifunctionality of quantifiers: palju • palju : paljud ‘much; many’ E palju vett, palju sõpru, paljud sõbrad F paljon vettä, paljon ystäviä, useat / monet ystävät G viel Wasser, viele Freunde R mnogo vody, mnogo druzej, mnogie druz’ja ‘much water, many friends, many of the friends’

  44. Word order (V2, frame construction) E Anna on oma raamatud ümber tõstnud F Anna on siirtänyt kirjansa toiseen paikkaan G Anna hat ihre Bücher umgestellt ‘Anna has rearranged her books’ E Täna tuleb Anna koju F Tänään Anna tulee kotiin G Heute kommt Anna nach Hause R Segodnja Anna pridët domoj ‘Anna will come home today’

  45. Syncretism of comitative and instructive Metaphor INSTRUMENT IS A COMPANION Anne kirjutab pliiatsiga Anne kirjoittaa kynällä Anne schreibt mit dem Bleistift Anne pišet karandašom ‘Anne writes in pencil’

  46. Summary of comparisons (use the symbol + or -)

  47. Summary of comparisons

  48. Concerning Finnish against the background of the languages of Europe and the world Dahl 2005: how exotic is Finnish? (the conclusions are probably valid for Estonian, too) • Euro-centrism in linguistics; the Uralic languages are regarded as exotic, e.g. typical agglutinating languages, such as Finnish and Turkish. • The position of Finnish in typology according to WALS.

  49. Languages that are typologically close to Finnish 1 Typological distance between two languages: how many of the 142 WALS features are represented in these languages? Close languages include: • Slavic and Baltic languages spoken in the Circum-Baltic area • Genetically related languages • Probably some accidentally close languages (e.g. Armenian)

  50. Languages that are typologically close to Finnish 2 Languages that are typologically closest to Finnish (according to WALS; the figure showing typological distance) (East-)Armenia (Indo-European)22 Polish (Indo-European)25 Latvian (Indo-European) 25 Nenets (Uralic) 25 Bulgarian (Indo-European) 26 Latvian (Indo-European) 26 Russian (Indo-European) 27 Kashmir (Indo-European) 27 Evenki (Altaic) 28 Brahui (Dravidian) 28 Turkish (Altaic) 29 Hungarian (Uralic) 29

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