Impersonal constructions with personal reference.

Referents of deleted actors in Baltic and Estonian


Abstract

This paper explores referential features of deleted actors in impersonal passive and impersonal constructions in three languages: Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian. Though cross-linguistically passive or impersonal verb forms of intransitive verbs are generally associated with indefinite human agency, our study shows that this correlation is not absolute: in the investigated languages passives and impersonals of intransitives, apart from generic and indefinite actors, may also imply contextually given, definite actors, and for some constructions, e.g. Estonian impersonals with the auxiliary saama ‘get’, this is actually their main use. Data for our study comes from large comparable corpora of web resources. In a small quantitative study we determine the factors that condition a personal use of an impersonal verb form in the three languages. The most important factors are verbal lexeme (certain lexemes show a greater preference for certain types of covert actors), as well as construction type: of two formally distinct impersonal (passive) constructions, one is preferred in non-impersonal functions where the covert actor is a contextually given person.

Keywords

voice-related impersonal constructions, impersonal, passive, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, covert actors, cumulative construction, experiential perfect.

Aavik, Johannes. 1936. Eesti õigekeelsuse õpik ja grammatika [Textbook of Correct Usage and Grammar of Estonian]. Tartu: Noor-Eesti Kirjastus.

Alvre, Paul. 1993. Mõningaist passiivi erijoontest [Some characteristics of the passive]. Keel ja Kirjandus 36.7, 404–409.

Ambrazas, Vytautas et al. 2006. Lithuanian Grammar. Second revised edition. Vilnius: Baltos lankos.

Blevins, James P. 2003. Passives and impersonals. Journal of Linguistics 39, 473–520.

Blevins, James P. 2006. Passives and impersonals. In: Keith Brown, ed., The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Second edition, Amsterdam: Elsevier, Vol. 9, 236–239.

Cennamo, Michela. 2014. Passive and impersonal reflexives in the Italian dialects. Synchronic and diacronic aspects. In: Paola Benincà, Adam Ledgeway & Nigel Vincent, eds. Diachrony and Dialects. Grammatical Change in the Dialects of Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 71–95.

Cennamo, Michela. 2016. Voice. In: Martin Maiden & Adam Ledgeway, eds. The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 967–980. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.003.0060

Christen, Simon. 1995. Morphologische und syntaktische Eigenschaften des Subjekts im Litauischen. Inauguraldissertation, Universität Bern.

Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Creissels, Denis. 2018. La typologie générale des constructions impersonnelles et les constructions impersonnelles du Français. In: 6e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française. shs Web of Conferences 46 (2018): 15001. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20184615001.

Creissels, Denis. 2019. Impersonal constructions in typological perspective. Paper read at the Sixteenth Conference on Typology and Grammar for Young Scholars, St Petersburg, 21–23 November 2019.

Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford-New York: Blackwell.

Dahl, Östen & Eva Hedin. 2000. Current relevance and event reference. In: Östen Dahl, ed. Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 385–401.

Endzelin, J[ānis]. 1923. Lettische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.

Erelt, Mati. 1979. Eesti lihtlause probleeme [Questions of Estonian simple sentences]. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.

Erelt, Mati. 1990. Kõneleja ja kuulaja kaudse võimalusi eesti keeles [The possibilities of expressing the speaker and the listener in an indirect way in Estonian]. Keel ja Kirjandus 33.1, 35–39.

Erelt, Mati, Reet Kasik, Helle Metslang, Henno Rajandi, Kristiina Ross, Henn Saari, Kaja Tael & Silvi Vare. 1993. Eesti keele grammatika ii. Süntaks [Grammar of Estonian: Syntax]. Tallinn, Estonia: Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituut.

Erelt, Mati. 2003. Syntax. In: Mati Erelt, ed., Estonian Language (Linguistica Uralica Supplementary Series, 1). Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers, 93–129.

Erelt, Mati. 2017. Öeldis [Predicate]. In: Mati Erelt & Helle Metslang, eds., Eesti keele süntaks. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 93–239.

Frajzyngier, Zygmunt. 1982. Indefinite agent, passive and impersonal passive. Lingua 58.3, 267–290.

Fraurud, Kari. 1996. Cognitive ontology and NP form. In: Thorstein Fretheim & Jeanette K. Gundel, eds., Reference and Reference Accessibility. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 65–87.

Geniušienė, Emma Š. 2006. Passives in Lithuanian (in comparison with Russian). In: Werner Abraham & Larisa Leisiö, eds., Passivization and Typology: Form and Function. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 29‒61.

Geniušienė, Emma Š. 2016. Passive Constructions in Lithuanian. Selected Works of Emma Geniušienė. Edited by Anna Kibort & Nijolė Maskaliūnienė. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Gast, Volker & Johan van der Auwera. 2013. Towards a distributional typology of human impersonal pronouns, based on data from European languages. In: Dik Bakker & Martin Haspelmath, eds., Languages Across Boundaries. Studies in Memory of Anna Siewierska. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 119‒158.

Giacalone Ramat, Anna & Andrea Sansò. 2007. The spread and decline of indefinite ‘man’-constructions in European languages: An areal perspective. In: Paolo Ramat & Elisa Roma, eds., Europe and the Mediterranean as Linguistic Areas: Convergences from a Historical and Typological Perspective. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 95‒131.

Habicht, Külli & Ilona Tragel. 2014. Verbiga saama väljendatud leksikaalsed kategooriad ja konstruktsioonid [Lexical categories and constructions with the verb saama (‘get’) in written Estonian]. Keel ja Kirjandus 57.11, 826−844.

Haspelmath, Martin. 1990. The grammaticization of passive morphology. Studies in Language 14.1, 25−72.

Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2006. The Changing Languages of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa. 2006. Passive―personal or impersonal? Finnish perspectives. In: Marja-Liisa Helasvuo & Lyle Campbell, eds., Grammar From the Human Perspective: Case, Space and Person in Finnish. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 233−255.

Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa & Maria Vilkuna. 2008. Impersonal is personal: Finnish perspectives. Transactions of the Philological Society 106.2, 216–245. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2008.00208.x.

Holvoet, Axel. 1995. Indefinite zero subjects in Latvian. Linguistica Baltica 4, 153–161.

Holvoet, Axel. 2001a. Impersonals and passives in Baltic and Finnic. In: Östen Dahl & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, eds,. Circum-Baltic Languages. Vol. 2: Grammar and Typology. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 363–389.

Holvoet, Axel. 2001b. Studies in the Latvian verb. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Holvoet, Axel. 2007. Mood and Modality in Baltic. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.

Holvoet, Axel. 2015. Latvian passives―personal, impersonal and evidential. In: Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds., Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 367–394.

Holvoet, Axel & Loreta Semėnienė. 2004. Linksnio teorijos pagrindai [Basics of case theory]. In: Axel Holvoet & Loreta Semėnienė, eds., Gramatinių kategorijų tyrimai [Studies in grammatical categories]. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 11–31.

Hothorn, Torsten, Kurt Hornik & Achim Zeileis. 2006. Unbiased recursive partitioning: A conditional inference framework. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 15.3, 651–674.

Jakubíček, Miloš, Adam Kilgarrif, Vojtěch Kovář, Pavel Rychlý & Vít Suchomel. 2013. The TenTen Corpus Family. 7th International Corpus Linguistics Conference cl, 125–127. Available online at https://www.sketchengine.eu/wp-content/uploads/The_TenTen_Corpus_2013.pdf [accessed 16.11.2019].

Jokela, Hanna 2012. Nollapersoonalause suomessa ja virossa. Tutkimus kirjoitetun kielen aineistosta [The Zero Person Clause in Finnish and Estonian. Studies of Written Language Material]. Turku University Press.

Kalme, Vilma & Gunta Smiltniece. 2001. Latviešu literārās valodas vārddarināšana un morfoloģija. Lokāmās vārdšķiras [Standard Latvian Word Formation and Morphology. Decinable Parts of Speech]. Liepāja: Liepājas Pedagoģijas akadēmija.

Keevallik, Leelo. 2005. Politeness in Estonia: A matter of fact style. In: Leo Hickey & Miranda Stewart, eds., Politeness in Europe. Bristol-Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, 203–217.

Kehayov, Petar. 2008. An Areal-Typological Perspective to Evidentiality: the Cases of the Balkan and Baltic Linguistic Areas. Dissertationes Linguisticae Universitatis Tartuensis 10. Tartu: Tartu University.

Kehayov, Petar & Florian Siegl. 2006. The evidential past participle in Estonian reconsidered. Études finno-ougriennes, 38, 75−117.

Kehayov, Petar & Reeli Torn-Leesik. 2009. Modal verbs in Balto-Finnic. In: Björn Hansen & Ferdinand de Haan, eds., Modals in the Languages of Europe. Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 363−401.

Kärkkäinen, Elise, Marja-Leena Sorjonen & Marja-Liisa Helasvuo. 2007. Discourse structure. In: Timothy Shopen, ed., Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol. iii: Complex Constructions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 301−371.

Keenan, Edward L. & Matthew S. Dryer. 2007. Passive in the world’s languages. In: Timothy Shopen, ed., Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol. i: Clause Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 325−361.

Laanemets, Anu. 2012. Passiv i moderne dansk, norsk og svensk. Et korpusbaseret studie af tale- og skriftsprog [Passive in modern Danish, Norvegian and Swedish. A Corpus-Based Study of Spoken and Written Language]. Doctoral dissertation. University of Tartu Press.

Laitinen, Lea. 2006. Zero person in Finnish: a grammatical resource for construing human reference. In: Marja-Liisa Helasvuo & Lyle Campbell, eds., Grammar from the Human Perspective: Case, Space and Person in Finnish. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 209–231.

Lavine, James E. 2006. Is there a passive evidential strategy in Lithuanian? In: Jacqueline Bunting et al., eds., Papers from the 42nd Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 41–55.

Lindstedt, Jouku. 2000. The perfect―aspectual, temporal and evidential. In: Östen Dahl, ed., Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 366–383.

Lindström, Liina. 2010. Kõnelejale ja kuulajale viitamise vältimise strateegiaid eesti keeles [Strategies for avoiding explicit reference to the speaker and the addressee in Estonian]. Emakeele Seltsi aastaraamat 55, 88−118.

Lindström, Liina. 2013. Between Finnic and Indo-European: Variation and change in the Estonian experiencer-object construction. In: Ilja A. Seržant & Leonid Kulikov, eds., The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 139–162.

Lindström, Liina. 2015. Subjecthood of the agent argument in Estonian passive constructions. In: Marja-Liisa Helasvuo & Tuomas Huumo, eds., Subjects in Constructions―Canonical and Non-Canonical. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 141−173.

Lindström, Liina & Ilona Tragel. 2007. Eesti keele impersonaali ja seisundipassiivi vahekorrast adessiivargumendi kasutuse põhjal [Estonian impersonal and stative passive, and the use of the adessive argument]. Keel ja Kirjandus 50.7, 532–553.

Lindström, Liina & Ilona Tragel. 2010. Possessive perfect construction in Estonian. Folia Linguistica 44.2, 371–400.

LVG 2013 = Latviešu Valodas Gramatika [Latvian Grammar]. Rīga: LU Latviešu valodas institūts, 2013.

Malchukov, Andrej & Anna Siewierska. 2011. Introduction. In: Andrej Malchukov & Anna Siewierska, eds., Impersonal Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1–15.

Metslang, Helle. 1997. On the use of the Estonian past tense forms through the last one hundred years. In: Mati Erelt, ed., Estonian: Typological Studies ii. Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 8. Tartu, 98–145.

MLLVG i, 1959 = Mūsdienu latviešu literārās valodas grammatika. i. Fonētika un morfoloģija [Grammar of Modern Literary Latvian i. Phonetics and morphology], ed. E. Sokols. Rīga: lpsr Zinātņu akadēmijas izdevniecība.

Myhill, John. 1997. Toward a functional typology of agent defocusing. Linguistics 35.5, 799–844. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1997.35.5.799.

Nakipoğlu-Demiralp, Mine. 2001. The referential properties of the implicit arguments of impersonal passive constructions. In: Eser Erguvanlı Taylan, ed., The Verb in Turkish. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 129–50.

Napoli, Maria. 2009. Impersonal passivization and agentivity in Latin. In: Stephanie Jamison, Craig Melchert & Brent Vine, eds., Proceedings of 20th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los-Angeles October 31–November 01/2008, Bremen: Hempen, 163–178.

Napoli, Maria. 2013. Semantic constraints on the Latin impersonal passive. In: Elly van Gelderen, Jóhanna Barðdal & Michela Cennamo, eds., Argument Structure in Flux: The Naples-Capri Papers. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 373–404.

Nau, Nicole. 2005. Perfekts un saliktā tagadne latviešu valodā [Perfect and compound present in Latvian]. Baltu filoloģija 14.2, 137–154.

Nau, Nicole. 2019. The Latvian continuative construction runāt vienā runāšanā ‘talk in one talking’ = ‘keep talking’. Baltic Linguistics 10: Minor Grams in Baltic, Slavonic and Fennic (thematic issue), 21–63. Online publication https://doi.org/10.32798/bl.360

Nau, Nicole & Axel Holvoet. 2015. Voice in Baltic: An overview. In: Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, ed., Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1–36.

Nau, Nicole, Birutė Spraunienė & Vaiva Žeimantienė. 2020. The passive family in Baltic. Baltic Linguistics 11: Studies in the Voie Domain in Baltic and Its Neighbours (thematic issue),

Ogren, David. 2015. Differential object marking in Estonian: prototypes, variation, and construction-specificity. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 28, 277−312.

Pajusalu, Renate. 2015. Hidden subjects in conversation: Estonian personless verb forms as referential devices. In: Marja-Liisa Helasvuo & Tuomas Huumo, eds., Subjects in Constructions―Canonical and Non-Canonical. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 43−72.

Pieroni, Silvia. 2000. Agents in Latin impersonal passives. Mnemosyne: A Journal of Classical Studies 53.3, 288–301. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1163/156852500510606.

Pinkster, Harm. 1992. The Latin impersonal passive. Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, 45, No. 2, 159–77.

Pihlak, Ants. 1993. A Comparative Study of Voice in Estonian. Eesti Sisekaitse Akadeemia toimetised. Tallinn.

Rajandi, Henno. 1999 [1968]. Eesti impersonaali ja passiivi süntaks [Syntax of Estonian Impersonal and Passive]. Eesti Keele Instituudi toimetised 3. Tallinn.

Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1985. Passives and related constructions: A prototype analysis. Language 61.4, 821–48. Online publication https://doi.org/10.2307/414491.

Shore, Susanna. 1988. On the so-called Finnish passive. Word 39, 151–176.

Siewierska, Anna. 2008. Impersonal constructions in grammatical theory. Transactions of the Philological Society 106.2, 115–336. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2008.00211.x.

Siewierska, Anna & Dik Bakker. 2012. Passive agents: prototypical vs. canonical passives. In: Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina & Greville G. Corbett, eds., Canonical Morphology and Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 151–189. Online publication https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604326.003.0007.

Spraunienė, Birutė, Auksė Razanovaitė & Erika Jasionytė. 2015. Solving the Puzzle of the Lithuanian passive. In: Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds., Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 323−366.

Torn, Reeli. 2002. The Status of the Passive in English and Estonian. In: H. Hendriks, ed., rceal Working Papers in English and Applied Linguistics 7. Cambridge: Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, 81–106.

Torn, Reeli. 2006. poolt-tarind eesti keele impersonaalis ja passiivis [The poolt ‘by’-phrase in the Estonian impersonal and passive]. In: Pille Penjam, ed., Lause argumentstruktuur. Tartu Ülikooli eesti keele õppetooli preprindid 2. Tartu, 108–121.

Torn-Leesik, Reeli. 2009. STUF Language Typology and Universals 62.1–2, 72–90.

Torn-Leesik, Reeli. 2016. An Investigation of Voice Constructions in Estonian. Dissertationes linguisticae universitatis tartuensis 26. Tartu: Tartu University Press.

Torn-Leesik, Reeli & Virve-Anneli Vihman. 2010. The use of impersonals in spoken Estonian. SKY Journal of Linguistics 23, 301–343.

Tragel, Ilona & Külli Habicht. 2017. Saama-verb grammatilistes konstruktsioonides [The verb saama ‘get’ in grammatical constructions]. Keel ja Kirjandus 60.1, 22−40.

Uiboaed, Kristel. 2013. Verbiühendid eesti murretes [Verbal Constructions in Estonian Dialects] (Dissertationes philologiae estonicae Universitatis Tartuensis, 34). Tartu: Tartu University Press.

Van Valin, Robert D. 2001. An Introduction to Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vihman, Virve-Anneli. 2007. Impersonaliseeritud impersonaal kui konstruktsioonitasandi grammatisatsioon [Impersonalised impersonals: construction-level grammaticalisation]. Emakeele Seltsi aastaraamat 52, 158–178.

Vihman, Virve-Anneli. 2008. Construction-based interpretation of implicit arguments. In: Nikki Adams, Adam Cooper, Fey Parrill & Thomas Wier, eds., Proceedings from the 40th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 225–239.

Viits, Tiit-Rein. 2003. Rise and development of the Estonian language. In: Mati Erelt., ed., Estonian Language (Linguistica Uralica Supplementary Series, 1). Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers, 130–230.

VISK = Auli Hakulinen, Maria Vilkuna, Riita Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen & Irja Alho. 2004. Iso suomen kielioppi verkkoversio [Comprehensive Grammar of Finnish, Internet version]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Available at: http://scripta.kotus.fi/visk. Last visited: 7.7.2020.

Wiedemann, Ferdinand Johann 1875. Grammatik der ehstnischen Sprache, zunächst wie sie in Mittelehstland gesprochen wird, mit Berücksichtigung der anderen Dialekte. St. Pétersbourg: Académie Impériale des Sciences.

Download

Published : 2020-12-30


Lindström, L., Nau, N., Spraunienė, B., & Laugalienė, A. (2020). Impersonal constructions with personal reference. Baltic Linguistics, 11, 129–213. https://doi.org/10.32798/bl.700

Liina Lindström 
Nicole Nau 
Birutė Spraunienė 
Vilnius University  Lithuania
Asta Laugalienė 
Vilnius University  Lithuania