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Partitives cross-linguistically: Dimensions of variation
Edited by Silvia Luraghi and Petra Sleeman
[Linguistic Variation 23:1] 2023
► pp. 124–156

Diachronic bottlenecks of the Uralic (ablative-)partitive

ORCID logo | University of Helsinki

This article discusses the emergence of the partitive case in the three western-most branches of the Uralic language family, which are Saamic and Finnic in North Europe, and Mordvinic in Central Russia. The Finnic languages represent the outer edge of development in the partitive from an earlier ablative case, which used to manifest ‘source’, a specific property of spatial relations. In Finnic the partitive case is a multifunctional and conceptually distinct case, an inflectional category which has developed highly specific functions in object marking, negative phrase and as a case of non-canonical subject. Traces of this development are found in Saamic and Mordvinic as well, whereas other Uralic languages don’t share this kind of secondary development and functional extension. The development of this particular affix consists of several stages, special bottlenecks, enhancing functional properties and triggering the reanalysis of an inherited affix *-ta/-tä. This article focuses on the diachrony of this particular affix with special emphasis on western Uralic.

Keywords: Uralic, partitive, ablative, case, morphology, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Affixal morphology in space and time
  • 3.The erosion and restructuration of local case sets in Uralic
  • 4.(Ablative-)partitive *-ta/-tä as a morphological device
    • 4.1Archaic features: Retention of the inherited affix and its functions?
    • 4.2Western Uralic ablative-partitive
    • 4.3 ap in existential clauses
    • 4.4Archaic extension of ap in comparative constructions
    • 4.5 ap in adpositional phrases
    • 4.6 ap in quantified phrases
  • 5.Language-specific developments
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 27 January 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.21003.gru
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