Article published in:
Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-CanonicalEdited by Marja-Liisa Helasvuo and Tuomas Huumo
[Constructional Approaches to Language 16] 2015
► pp. 141–173
Subjecthood of the agent argument in Estonian passive constructions
This paper tackles diachronic changes in the choice between elative and adessive
case for marking the agent in Estonian periphrastic passive constructions in
two time periods. In 1800–1850, the main agent-marking device was the elative
case, whereas in the 1990s the elative was limited to inanimate actors, and the
use of the adessive had increased considerably. However, the adessive can only
be used for marking volitional, animate agents. Changes are observed with
regard to semantic constraints, subject properties of the adessive and elative
agents, and language contacts. Adessive arguments behave like non-canonical
subjects in many constructions in Estonian, and the use of the adessive for
marking agents in passives is strengthened by the possessive perfect construction
in Eastern Circum-Baltic languages.
Published online: 14 January 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.16.06lin
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.16.06lin
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