Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte
Estonian is a verb-second (V2) language: in certain types of sentences, the finite verb tends to be the second constituent. The V2 feature of Estonian is most likely to have developed under Germanic influence. However, there are differences between Germanic and Estonian V2 order. The word order of E...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Estonian |
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SA Kultuurileht
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Keel ja Kirjandus |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://keeljakirjandus.ee/ee/archives/35887 |
| _version_ | 1797326800537255936 |
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| author | Heete Sahkai Anne Tamm Anders Holmberg |
| author_facet | Heete Sahkai Anne Tamm Anders Holmberg |
| author_sort | Heete Sahkai |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Estonian is a verb-second (V2) language: in certain types of sentences, the finite verb tends to be the second constituent. The V2 feature of Estonian is most likely to have developed under Germanic influence. However, there are differences between Germanic and Estonian V2 order. The word order of Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is one of the major exceptions to the V2 order. Main-clause wh-interrogatives are always V2 in Germanic but predominantly verb-final in Estonian. The paper describes two corpus studies – a synchronic and a diachronic one – that aimed to clarify the proportion, nature and development of the V2 order in Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives.
The synchronic study showed that the proportion of the V2 order in present-day Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is approximately 22%. The V2 order is thus considerably less frequent in wh-interrogatives than in declaratives, but it is subject to similar prosodic exceptions in both. The V2 order is nevertheless more frequent in main-clause wh-interrogatives than in embedded wh-interrogatives and relative clauses, giving evidence of a Germanic-like asymmetry between main and embedded clauses.
The results of the diachronic study suggest that the V2 order has never been borrowed as the predominant order of Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives. To explain why the V2 feature was borrowed to a different extent into declaratives and wh-interrogatives, we hypothesise that their word order had already diverged before the V2 order was borrowed. According to the hypothesis, wh-interrogatives had retained the historical verb-final order, which remained unaffected by the V2 order, while declaratives had already lost the verb-final order. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T06:29:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-876ed8ed5a83486683333d5ecf681f06 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0131-1441 2346-6014 |
| language | Estonian |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T06:29:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | SA Kultuurileht |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Keel ja Kirjandus |
| spelling | doaj.art-876ed8ed5a83486683333d5ecf681f062024-02-03T12:17:26ZestSA KultuurilehtKeel ja Kirjandus0131-14412346-60142023-10-016610987100610.54013/kk790a3Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekteHeete Sahkai 0Anne Tamm 1Anders Holmberg2Institute of the Estonian LanguageKároli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in HungaryNewcastle UniversityEstonian is a verb-second (V2) language: in certain types of sentences, the finite verb tends to be the second constituent. The V2 feature of Estonian is most likely to have developed under Germanic influence. However, there are differences between Germanic and Estonian V2 order. The word order of Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is one of the major exceptions to the V2 order. Main-clause wh-interrogatives are always V2 in Germanic but predominantly verb-final in Estonian. The paper describes two corpus studies – a synchronic and a diachronic one – that aimed to clarify the proportion, nature and development of the V2 order in Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives. The synchronic study showed that the proportion of the V2 order in present-day Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives is approximately 22%. The V2 order is thus considerably less frequent in wh-interrogatives than in declaratives, but it is subject to similar prosodic exceptions in both. The V2 order is nevertheless more frequent in main-clause wh-interrogatives than in embedded wh-interrogatives and relative clauses, giving evidence of a Germanic-like asymmetry between main and embedded clauses. The results of the diachronic study suggest that the V2 order has never been borrowed as the predominant order of Estonian main-clause wh-interrogatives. To explain why the V2 feature was borrowed to a different extent into declaratives and wh-interrogatives, we hypothesise that their word order had already diverged before the V2 order was borrowed. According to the hypothesis, wh-interrogatives had retained the historical verb-final order, which remained unaffected by the V2 order, while declaratives had already lost the verb-final order.https://keeljakirjandus.ee/ee/archives/35887verb second (v2)language contactlanguage historygermanic languagesprosodycorpus studylinguistics |
| spellingShingle | Heete Sahkai Anne Tamm Anders Holmberg Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte Keel ja Kirjandus verb second (v2) language contact language history germanic languages prosody corpus study linguistics |
| title | Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte |
| title_full | Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte |
| title_fullStr | Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte |
| title_short | Eesti keele otseste eriküsilausete sõnajärje aspekte |
| title_sort | eesti keele otseste erikusilausete sonajarje aspekte |
| topic | verb second (v2) language contact language history germanic languages prosody corpus study linguistics |
| url | https://keeljakirjandus.ee/ee/archives/35887 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heetesahkai eestikeeleotsesteerikusilausetesonajarjeaspekte AT annetamm eestikeeleotsesteerikusilausetesonajarjeaspekte AT andersholmberg eestikeeleotsesteerikusilausetesonajarjeaspekte |