Article published in:
Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-CanonicalEdited by Marja-Liisa Helasvuo and Tuomas Huumo
[Constructional Approaches to Language 16] 2015
► pp. 231–251
The syntactic and semantic history of the Finnish genitive subject
Construction networks and the rise of a grammatical category
Prototypical Finnish subjects are marked with the nominative case. In many
non-finite expression types, however, the subject is marked with the genitive
case. The genitive subject has grammaticalized from three different sources. In
some constructions, it developed from an earlier adverbial expressing a recipient,
beneficiary or experiencer; in others, it originates in an adnominal possessive
genitive; and its background is a syncretistic accusative. The present paper
analyzes the properties of the different predecessors of the genitive subject
which have made earlier adverbials and objects susceptible to a reanalysis into
grammatical subjects. The paper sheds light on the nature and origins of the
genitive subject, and tackles the development of abstract grammatical categories
from more concrete context-specific ones on a more general level.
Published online: 14 January 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.16.09lei
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.16.09lei
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