This article deals with constructions of the form “to be + passive participle” in Veps and Estonian. Depending on the syntactic context, these constructions can be considered either impersonal or passive. Cases where the syntactic properties of the context do not allow us to determine whether a construction is impersonal or passive are the main object of the study. The article proposes two approaches to analysing these cases, using a corpus study in Veps and the analysis of a native speaker survey in Estonian. Analysis of the Veps data shows that 66% of the sample collected cannot be unambiguously attributed to the impersonal or the passive construction. At the same time, there is a correlation between polarity and construction choice: the passive occurs more often in negative contexts and the impersonal occurs more often in affirmative contexts. The results of the Estonian survey show that 88% of constructions are interpreted as passive. Verb tense and stative/dynamic semantics do not correlate with construction type, but there is a relationship between the preverbal position of the nominative argument and the passive construction. It was assumed that in the impersonal construction the argument has a special status and is not a prototypical object but has both object and subject features.
Kokkuvõte. Polina Oskolskaia: Kas impersonaal või passiiv? Mõned lähenemised umbisikuliste konstruktsioonide analüüsile (vepsa ja eesti keele materjali põhjal). Artiklis käsitletakse „olla + passiivne partitiiv -tud“ konstruktsioone vepsa ja eesti keeles. Sõltuvalt süntaktilistest tingimustest võivad need konstruktsioonid olla impersonaalsed või passiivsed. Artiklis uuritakse neid olukordi, kus konteksti süntaktilised omadused ei võimalda täpselt kindlaks teha, kas konstruktsioon on impersonaalne või passiivne. Tehakse ettepanek kaaluda kahte lähenemist selliste olukordade analüüsimiseks vepsa keele korpusuuringu ja eesti keele emakeelekõnelejate küsitluse analüüsi näitel. Vepsa andmete analüüs näitab, et 66% kogutud valimist ei saa üheselt seostada ei impersonaali ega passiivi konstruktsiooniga. Samal ajal esineb korrelatsioon polaarsuse ja konstruktsioonivaliku vahel: passiiv esineb sagedamini eitavates kontekstides ja impersonaal esineb sagedamini jaatavates kontekstides. Eesti keele uuringu tulemused näitavad, et 88% konstruktsioonidest tõlgendatakse passiivina. Verbi aeg ja statiivne / dünaamiline semantika ei korreleeru konstruktsioonitüübiga, kuid on olemas seos nominatiivse argumendi preverbaalse positsiooni ja passiivkonstruktsiooni vahel. Eeldati, et impersonaalses konstruktsioonis on argumendil eriline staatus ja see ei ole prototüüpne objekt, vaid sellel on nii objekti kui ka subjekti tunnused.
Artiklis vaadeldakse verbi vaatama sünonüümide transitiivseid ja intransitiivseid kasutusi. Eesmärk on selgitada, kas eri tähendusnüanssidega vaatamisverbid erinevad oma transitiivsete kasutuste regulaarsuse poolest.Vaatluse all on 12 vaatama-verbi sünonüümi: kaema, vahtima, piiluma, kiikama, silmama, silmitsema, põrnitsema, jõllitama, kõõritama, jälgima, vaatlema ja uudistama. Korpuspõhine uuring näitas, et ühte leksikaalsemantilisse rühma kuuluvad verbid võivad oma transitiivsete ja intransitiivsete kasutuste rohkuse poolest oluliselt erineda. Peaaegu kõik uuritud vaatamisverbid võimaldavad nii sihitise kui ka suunamääruse lisamist ning võivad esineda ka ilma sõltlaienditeta. Spetsiifilise vaatamisviisi komponent verbi semantikas võib sõltlaiendita esinemist soodustada või ka hoopis piirata.
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On the transitivity of Estonian watching-looking verbs
The article studies the differences in the transitivity of Estonian watching-looking verbs. The aim is to determine their lexical semantic features that are related to the degree of transitivity, using the same corpus method. The analysis based on the Estonian National Corpus 2019 shows that Estonian watching-looking verbs vary in their degree of transitivity (i.e. the regularity of transitive and intransitive uses). According to the percentage of the transitive uses among 200 corpus sentences, the analyzed verbs can be divided into three categories (under 40%, 75–85%, and more than 90%). Most Estonian watching-looking verbs can be used with directional postpositions or other direction adverbials (e.g. to the left, down, into the future, etc.), but can also function without an object or a direction. The manner component reflected in the semantics of some Estonian watching-looking verbs can both promote and restrict the occurrence of the verb without an object or a direction. For all the verbs analysed, the occurrence without an object or a direction was syntactically favoured by the association of two or more actions, infinitive verb forms, the imperative, separative and sometimes also locative place adverbials, manner adverbials, and comparisons.
In Slovenia, language counselling activities, especially the online Language Counselling Service, help linguists fill in the gaps in codification caused by the inadequacy of current language manuals for the Slovenian standard language. In this sense, the Language Counselling Service acts as an interpreter of the linguistic information available in the language manuals and as a bridge over the codification gaps. The Service is further one of the main tools used to identify language users’ dilemmas; it automatically creates a provisional online language compendium. The knowledge gained in this way is then used by linguists to create the new normative guide for the Slovenian language.
Kokkuvõte. Urška Vranjek Ošlak: Keelenõuanne kui sild normingute ja keelekasutuse vahel. Sloveenias aitavad keelenõuande teenused, eriti veebipõhine keelenõuandla, keeleteadlastel täita lünki normingutes, mille on põhjustanud praeguste keelekäsiraamatute puudused sloveeni standardkeele kirjeldamisel. Keelenõuandla on mõnes mõttes nagu keelekäsiraamatutes oleva keelelise teabe tõlgendaja ja sild normingulünkade ületamisel. Nõuandla on ka üks peamisi viise, kuidas keelekasutajate dilemmasid tuvastada; see loob veebis automaatselt esialgse kokkuvõtte keelemuredest. Niiviisi saadud teadmisi kasutavad keeleteadlased seejärel uue normatiivse sloveeni keele käsiraamatu loomiseks.
"Reading fiction using gamified active learning methods in eighth grade Estonian as a second language classes".
Acquiring a good level of Estonian as a second language is very important for the students at secondary school to successfully continue their studies and to smoothly integrate into the Estonian society. To encourage students’ desire to learn and increase the effectiveness of learning, activity, engagement, and affordability are very important during language classes (Kitsnik 2018b). Reading is one of four skills that is developed at second language classes. The aim of current action research was to develop more effective learning where gamified teaching methods were used. Based on the aim of the research, there were raised research question, whether more interesting and systematic reading classes can be used to make reading books in Estonian more pleasant for students with other mother tongues and to support the development of language skills.
In the action research the previous reading classes were developed methodically of one of the study groups in grade 8 (n 15). 15 consciously structured reading classes were compiled based on Andrus Kivirähk’s book ”Tont ja Facebook” (”The Ghost and Facebook” 2019). The plan was made on the basis of gamified teaching methods (Kitsnik 2019a, 2019b; Razin & Kingisepp 2018; Kingisepp & Kärtner 2011 etc.). Gamification offers challenges, creates excitement, frees students from the rules and restrictions of everyday life, offers fun and energy (Kitsnik 2019a).
This article discusses the archaeological background of the Leivu and Lutsi Finnic language islands. In contrast to the earlier research tradition, a hidden Finnic presence is suggested by the distribution area of Roman Iron Age tarand graves up to and including the Medieval Period when the presence of a Finnic population in northeastern Latvia (“the Chud in Ochela”) is noted in 1179/80. The Leivu language island west of Alūksne may be the last descendants of this population, formed by the merging of a Finnic substrate and Latgalian superstrate and standing between the Estonians and Livonians. The borders of this Finnic area in northern and northeastern Latvia – a diverse network of communities, existing in parallel with Latgalian ones and based on various ethnic components – are difficult to determine, as archaeological traces of its cultural pattern in the 12th–14th centuries have much in common with the Latgalians despite definite peculiarities. The Finnic traces in the Lutsi area are more difficult to identify archaeologically, although physical anthropology suggests a former Finnic presence there too. Kokkuvõte. Heiki Valk: Lõunaeesti keelesaared Ida-Lätis: arheoloogiline taust ja perspektiiv. Artikkel käsitleb leivu ja lutsi keelesaarte arheolooglist kujunemist. Erinevalt varasemast, baltikesksest vaatenurgast eeldatakse läänemeresoome rahvastiku varjatud püsimist rooma rauaaja tarandkalmete alal kuni keskajani ja ka keskaja vältel – kirjalikud allikad mainivad aastatel 1179– 1180 “Otšela tšuude” (tinglikult “adsele maarahvast”). Leivu keelesaar võiks endast kujutada selle läänemere substraadi ja latgali superstraadi ühtesulamise tulemusena kujunenud ning eestlaste ja liivlaste vahel paiknenud rahvastiku viimaseid järeltulijaid. Läänemeresoome asuala piire Läti põhja- ja kirdeosas on raske määratleda, kuna ilmselt oli tegemist eriilmeliste, läti asustuse kõrval eksisteerinud kogukondade võrgustikuga ja 12.–14. sajandi rahvastiku kultuuri arheoloogilised jäljed on vaatamata teatud iseärasustele paljuski latgalipärase ilmega. Lutsi asualal on läänemeresoome jälgi arheoloogias raskem leida, kuigi füüsilise antropoloogia andmed sellele viitavad.
The main purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the inaccuracies in the article by Paul Kiparsky and Karl Pajusalu (2003). Their influential study suggests a typological classification of vowel harmony based on mostly Finnic languages and their dialects which is claimed to be supported by a particular OT analysis. However, in many cases, their example languages and dialects are hardly classifiable into the category suggested by them. Moreover, their OT analysis completely ignores cases of variation (including vacillation) in the example languages. The present study deals with the data available for Estonian (Mulgi and Northeastern dialects), Veps and Khanty, and demonstrates – mostly based on the same sources referred to by Kiparsky and Pajusalu – that the actual patterns of harmony are considerably different from the patterns described in their article. It is emphasized that many patterns do not arise from the behavior of neutral vowels but instead, they can be results of the length and the nature of the harmonic domain. The paper also introduces the notion of harmonicity slope, according to which the domain has no strict borders and in which the tendency for the vowels to harmonize gradually diminishes.
The Finnish epic Kalevala is written in the so-called Finnic “Kalevala-metre”, typical of Finnic oral poetry. Its main features are the use of trochaic tetrameter (octosyllabic lines), alliteration, assonance, sound parallelisms and the repetition of words. It is difficult to retain those features in translation but one of the early successful attempts was the first full English translation directly from Finnish by William Forsell Kirby (1907). Kirby’s translation was a source of inspiration and the linguistic model for The Story of Kullervo, a tale written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (probably in 1912), based on one of the Kalevala’s stories. Our aim is to compare those texts.
The aim of this article is to investigate the experience and significance of the use and preservation of Latvian for native language maintenance, national culture and identity in the Nordic countries. This has been done by analysing native (heritage) language as a resource for ethnic and culture identity. The aim of the article is to ascertain the language situation in the diaspora, explore practices and perspectives regarding the sustaining of Latvian language and ethnic culture. From the theoretical point of view, the data is approached with reference to P. Bourdieu`s view on language skills as linguistic capital, a form of culture capital. The paper uses a combination of both quantitative survey and in-depth interviews with Latvian emigrants, especially those in the Nordic countries.
Tänaseni puudub ülevaade eesti keele kui sihtkeele õppijate tekstiloomest eri keeleoskustasemetel, mis põhineks tekstide automaatanalüüsi andmete statistilisel töötlusel. Eesmärk on kindlaks teha, millised arvuliselt mõõdetavad tunnused iseloomustavad A2–C1-taseme eksamite loovkirjutiste leksikaalset keerukust ning sõnaliikide ja -vormide kasutust, olles seejuures keeleoskustasemete piiritlemisel nii statistiliselt kui ka sisuliselt olulised. Esile tulevad järjestikuseid tasemeid (A2–B1, B1–B2, B2–C1) läbivalt ja osaliselt eristavad tunnused. Ühed neist muutuvad lineaarselt kasvavas või kahanevas suunas, teiste tunnuste lõikes ei ole muutused aga samasuunalised ja seostuvad pigem kirjutamisülesande (teksti liik, teema) kui keelekasutuse kasvava keerukusega. Uurimuse tulemused pakuvad uudseid teadmisi keeleõppe seisukohalt ja aitavad edaspidi arendada keeleoskustaseme automaathindajat, tuues välja usaldusväärsemad tunnused tasemete prognoosimiseks.
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Written Estonian at the levels A2–C1: Comparative automated analysis
To achieve the communicative purposes of the language proficiency levels defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a learner needs to acquire lexical and grammatical tools specific to the target language (L2). Yet there is little empirical evidence on language-specific features that mark the development from one level to another. This study aims to determine which linguistic features distinguish A2–C1-level written use of Estonian as L2 and how, i.e., which levels differ significantly and what is the direction of change.
Artiklis analüüsitakse koodivahetuse funktsioone viie rootsi eesti noore suulise keelekasutuse näitel. Vaatluse all on eelkõige eesti ja rootsi, osalt ka inglise keele koosmõju. Koodivahetuse näidete põhjal uuritakse, miks toimuvad keeltevahelised üleminekud ning milliseid ülesandeid täidab vaadeldav nähtus suhtlustegevuses. Uurimisandmed on kogutud vestlusringide vormis, kus keelejuhid suhtlesid omavahel mängulistes ja arutlevates situatsioonides. Kogutud ainestikus kodeeriti kokku kuus funktsiooni: semantiline seos, kvaasitõlge, sõnaotsing, keelemäng, voorudeülene keeleharmoonia ja ekspressiivsus. Tulemused näitasid, et kõige enam oli noorte koodivahetuses esindatud semantiline seostamine ja kvaasitõlge.
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A sociopragmatic approach to code-switching: A case study of Swedish-Estonian teenagers
The aim of this article is to give an overview of code-switching functions in the spoken conversations of five Swedish-Estonian teenagers. Generally, code-switching research has been approached in two ways: grammatically and sociopragmatically. The latter was the favoured approach for this paper since it helped distinguish code-switching patterns and the functions which they represent. These functions, on the other hand, give an insight into why the speaker switches between two or more languages.
Data was collected from five young informants, between the ages of 15–17 years, all of whom spoke both Estonian and Swedish fluently. Given the speakers’ age, the analysis also covered the usage of English. The informants were recorded in the form of conversation groups – a less common method for researching codeswitching. A total of 4 hours of speech was recorded, out of which approximately 24.6% (439 utterances) contained switches between languages.
All in all, six code-switching functions were found to systematically appear in the utterances. These include semantic specifications, quasi-translations, vocabulary limitations, expressiveness, word play and cross-utterance language harmony. The results were somewhat biased, which is why, for future notice, it would be suggested to approach different informants with a different method.
This article discusses areas observed on geolinguistic maps showing Finnic or Finnic-like features in Latvian subdialects possibly resulting from Finnic influence. The Latvian dialect material analysed for this study shows that several such areas can be identified based on their phonetics and morphology: the Livonic dialect, the Selonic subdialects, certain Selonic subdialects on both banks of the Daugava River, certain subdialects in the former Leivu territory in northeastern Latvia near Alūksne and Gulbene, and a few subdialects in Zemgale near Bauska and Vecsaule where the Krevin Votians were settled. The shortening of word endings and generalisation of third-person verb forms is also quite regularly encountered in the subdialects spoken around Preiļi in Latgale. The least amount of language material is available about the Ludza Estonians or Lutsis who lived in eastern Latgale where their influence is seen in the tone system of the local subdialects. Kokkuvõte. Anna Stafecka: Läänemeresoome mõju võimalikud jäljed läti murrakute foneetikas ja morfoloogias. Artikkel käsitleb läänemeresoome ja läänemeresoomepäraste joonte maa-alalist levikut läti murretes. Läti murdeainestik, mida on selle uurimuse jaoks analüüsitud, näitab, et foneetilise ja morfoloogilise eripära põhjal on võimalik määratleda mitu sellist mõjuala: liivipärased murded, teatud seeli murrakud Daugava jõe mõlemal kaldal, teatud Kirde-Läti Alūksne ja Gulbene ümbruse murrakud ajaloolisel leivu alal ning mõned semgali murrakud Bauska ja Vecsaule lähistel, kus kunagi elasid kreevini vadjalased. Sõnalõppude lühenemist ja kolmanda isiku verbivormide üldistumist on üsna regulaarselt märgitud ka Latgales Preiļi ümbruse murrakutes. Vähem on selliseid andmeid Ida-Latgalest Ludza eestlaste ehk lutside kunagistelt asualadelt. Siiski on seal lutsi mõju nähtav kohalike murrakute toonisüsteemis.
: Alongside the nation-state languages Finnish and Estonian, their sister varieties – such as Meänkieli in Sweden, Kven in Norway, Karelian in Finland and Russia, Veps in Russia, or Võro in southern Estonia – are now either recognized or striving for recognition as minority languages. Developing literary standards and literatures raises questions of authenticity: is language a naturally existing part of ethnic identity or something that must be cultivated and formally studied? Should literature offer realistic depictions of the life and multilingual language use of minorities, or should it serve the puristic goals of language planning and language-based identity building? The ways in which literary and mimetic multilingualism can relate to the linguistic reality of minorities are still in need of further research.
Abstract This paper explores the hypothesis of contact-induced change for the rise of the partitive case in Finnic languages and of the partitive case/determiner in Basque. On the basis of the well-established Indo-European partitive-genitive case and taking into account the lack of such a basis on the Uralic side, we argue that the partitive case in Finnic languages has arisen as a result of Balto-Slavic influence. Concerning the Basque partitive determiner, we likewise suggest a contact scenario (with Romance languages) as being responsible for the development of an entire system of determiners, including the definite and possibly the indefinite article as well as the partitive marker, which originates in an old ablative ending but crucially lacks the morphological properties characteristic of Basque inflectional markers.
Abstract The present article studies verbs that are used to convey change-of-state in the Finnic languages: “to come”, “to go”, “to remain/stay”, “to get”, “will be”, “to make/do”, and “to be born/give birth”. These are polysemous core verbs, which can be expected to be integrated in constructions with (new) generalized grammatical meaning. As will be shown, in order to convey change-of-state typically they occur in constructions that either mark the goal and the source or leave both unmarked. In addition, change can be associated with experiential, existential, and possessive constructions, which also enable to shed more light on the development of the above-mentioned verbs, including the possible development change-of-state → future. The article demonstrates that each Finnic language uses several verbs from the list presented above, but there are differences in what are the most commonly used ones and in what kind of constructions they occur. In some languages, there is a general change-of-state verb, which also appears as a future copula if there is no competing future copula. In the case of Estonian, Finnish, and Livonian, the results of previous studies on change-of-state predicates were used; for the other Finnic languages, a separate data set was compiled using various collections of texts.