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Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-Canonical
Edited 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
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.16.06lin
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