Dative radial category in Old Church Slavonic and Modern Russian

In this paper, the semantic roles expressed by the Dative case in Modern Russian and Old Church Slavonic are described in terms of radial categories. The corpus data shows that the radial category of the Dative case has changed since Old Church Slavonic. The radial category in Modern Russian is smaller, and it includes fewer subcategories than attested in Old Church Slavonic. The change of the category prototype could explain the changes in the category of the Dative case. Recipient is postulated to be the prototype of the Dative case category in Modern Russian, while Direction appeared to be the best prototype for Old Church Slavonic data.

Dative experiencers with nominal predicates in Romanian: a synchronic and diachronic study

This article investigates the evolution of the Romanian pattern [dative clitic + ‘be’ + N] (cf. Mi-e foame, lit. me.dat=is hunger, ‘I’m hungry’) from the 16th century until present-day Romanian. This pattern traces back to the Latin mihi est construction (lit. me.dat is), but is semantically more restricted than its Latin ancestor in that it can only express a physiological or psychological state. The aim of our study is to examine to what extent the dative experiencer behaves like a subject and the noun denoting a state like a predicate. We argue that, although certain subject diagnostics raise problems in Romanian, due to the obligatoriness of clitics and the scarcity of controlled infinitives, this pattern is clearly an instance of non-canonical subject marking with quirky dative case. The tendency toward expansion of this construction in present-day Romanian contradicts the hypothesis proposed in language typology according to which non-canonical subject marking tends to recede in favor of canonical marking in European languages.

Revisiting German two-way prepositions

German two-way prepositions have long troubled grammar writing. Unlike most other German prepositions, they occur with both accusative and dative case. Their case is difficult to predict and has been attributed to different underlying meaning construals. Recent exploratory corpus studies propose that, in addition, their case depends on multiple co-occurring contextual variables. Following this approach, this study uses multivariate regression and collostructional analysis to investigate what determines the case of two-way prepositions in a large sample of authentic language use. Based on the results, this study then attempts to provide a usage-based description of the case of two-way prepositions. Contrary to expectations, none of the proposed variables had much influence on case, suggesting that the effects observed in the literature only hold for specific contexts. Instead, the results indicated associations of accusative and dative with individual prepositions and specific lexical items in the context. Framed in terms of usage-based construction grammar, this is interpreted as item-specific constructional prototypes that emerge from typical usage patterns and, once established, determine case based on form-meaning overlap with the current context of use. In line with recent usage-based research on grammar, a first attempt is made to describe case as part of a network of associative links between constructions and lexical items.

Students Difficulties in Determining Case in Sentence

The objectives of this research were to find out the students difficulties in determining types of case and to investigate the reasons why the students had difficulties in determining case. This was a qualitative descriptive research. The subject of this research was the sixth semester students of English Department in IAIN Langsa that consist of 30 students. Documentation, questionnaire and interview were the instruments in collecting the data. Based on the data, the students felt difficult in determining types of case such as accusative, locative, nominative, possessive, agentive, and ablative. It can be seen from the mistakes made by students through documentation and supported by the results obtained from questionnaire and interview. Then, there were several reasons why the students had difficulties in determining case. They were: 1) Many types of case given by a lecturer made the students difficult to remember them. 2) The students were confused with the types of case because a noun phrase can have more than one type. 3) The students felt difficult to distinguish between accusative and dative case. 4) The students did not master English grammar well.

Независимо используемый дательный падеж в литовском, русском и словенском языках: некоторые замечания к сопоставительному анализу

The present article examines independent or non-subcategorized uses of the dative case in three languages: Lithuanian, Russian, and Slovenian. The analysis is based on the classification of the dative functions proposed in the literature on Lithuanian (Holvoet & Čižik-Prokaševa 2005; Rembiałkowska 2007): 1) dativus ethicus, 2) dativus iudicantis; 3) dativus sympatethicus; 4) dativus commodi. The comparative methodology is based on establishing similarities and differences between the examples in each group identified in Lithuanian and their Slavic counterparts. The analysis shows that the first group is represented in all three languages, while in the other three groups considerable differences are observed. In some cases, in the second group, the Lithuanian non-subcategorized dative corresponds to the Russian construction для (‘for’) + GEN, and to the Slovenian construction za (‘for’) + ACC. In the third and fourth groups, the Lithuanian dative case, which usually represents an external possessor, often corresponds to the Slovenian dative, differing nonetheless from Russian where the construction y (‘at’) + GEN is used.

A multifactorial analysis of differential agent marking in Herodotus

Passive agents in ancient Greek exhibit a well-known alternation between dative case and prepositional phrase. It has long been recognized that grammatical aspect plays a crucial role in this alternation: dative agents preponderate among aspectually perfect predicates, prepositional phrase agents elsewhere. Although the importance of grammatical aspect is undeniable, it is not the only factor that determines the realization of passive agents. The identification of other factors has proven challenging, however, not least because previous researchers have lacked methods for assessing the relative importance of the determinants that influence the realization of agent phrases. In this paper, I use Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression to provide a multifactorial account of differential agent marking in Herodotus, according to which the realization of passive agent phrases is conditioned by the relationship between semantic role and referential prominence (Haspelmath 2021). Dative agents are favored in clauses where semantic role and referential prominence are aligned (i.e., the agent is referentially prominent or the patient is referentially non-prominent). By contrast, prepositional phrase agents are more likely when semantic role and referential prominence are at odds (i.e., the patient is referentially prominent or the agent is referentially non-prominent).

THE FAREWELL FORMULA DAVAY IN SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC ASPECTS

В статье показан возможный путь формирования формулы прощания давай, состоящий из двух параллельных процессов: трансформации пожелания в формулу прощания и компрессии этой формулы. Трансформация заключается в тяготении пожелания к конечной точке в диалоге, а позднее и фиксации в этой позиции. Компрессия заключается в отпадении частей формулы вплоть до свертывания ее в одно слово. Современная форма повелительного наклонения давай однозначно воспринимается как побуждение говорящим собеседника и встраивается в ряд с просторечными формулами прощания будь и бывай. Однако мы видим, что в прототипической формуле (давай + местоимение в Д.п. + Бог + существительное в В.п.) глагол обращен не к собеседнику, а к Богу или мирозданию. Невозможно утверждать, что фраза типа Давай тебе Бог счастья! стала единственным источником современной формулы прощания давай. Тем не менее важно наличие устойчивой формулы-предшественницы, выполняющей тождественную функцию (т. е. не только пожелания, но и прощания). The article shows a possible way to form a formula for saying goodbye, which comprises two parallel processes: the transformation of a wish into a formula for saying goodbye and the compression of this formula. The transformation consists of a wish gravitating towards the end point in the dialog, and later fixation in this position. Compression consists of dropping off parts of a formula up to collapsing into a single word. The modern form of the imperative mood davay is clearly perceived as an incentive made by the speaker to the interlocutor and it fits in the same row with colloquial formulas of farewell bud’ and byvay. However, we see that in the prototypical formula (davay + the pronoun in the dative case + God + noun in the accusative case) the verb is not addressed to the interlocutor, but to God or the universe. It is impossible to assert that the phrases like Davay tebe Bog schact’a! have become the only source of the modern formula davay for saying goodbye. Nevertheless, it is important to have a stable predecessor formula that performs the same function (that is, not only one of a wish, but also of a farewell).

Explaining Siewierska’s generalization

This article presents an explanation for a cross-linguistic gap observed by Anna Siewierska: morphologically unmarked indirect objects may alternate with prepositional marking in what is sometimes called a ‘dative’ or ‘prepositional-dative’ ditransitive frame, but never with actual dative case marking. ‘Dative’, to the extent it alternates with accusative, is always expressed as a preposition. I show firstly that German, which has a robust dative case paradigm, also displays a double object alternation in which the erstwhile dative DP occurs in a prepositional phrase, meaning both accusative (in English) and dative (in German) indirect objects alternate with prepositional encoding. I construct an analysis in which the the indirect object may be generated as either a DP (which receives dative in German and accusative in English) or a PP in the same theta position. This characterization of the double object alternation does not admit an alternation between dative and accusative case on the indirect object, capturing Siewierska’s generalization. The analysis also extends to ‘symmetric’ passive languages, in which either object in the double object construction can be raised to subject in the passive. Some current perspectives on this phenomenon make such languages exceptions to Siewierska’s generalization, but not the analysis proposed here.

Pattern replication and extraction from spatial PPs in Molise Slavic

This paper investigates P-stranding under A′-extraction in spatial PPs in Molise Slavic (MSL). After showing that P-stranding bijectively correlates with dative case on the Ground argument of P, I argue that the cases of extraction at stake instantiate grammatical convergence in the form of “pattern replication” (Matras & Sakel 2007). A′-extraction is licensed by the presence of borrowed additional functional material valuing and interpreting K(ase). The richer structure allows for KP to move out of the PP Phase without violating Anti-Locality. Both Italian and MSL secondary Ps displaying P-stranding are characterized as instantiating one of two possible structural options for P-stranding. The alternative structure is argued to be instantiated in Germanic, consistently with existing proposals (Abels 2012). The choice between the two options, as well as the productivity of the selected option in a given grammatical system, is a matter of (micro-)variation in the availability of functional vocabulary.

FEATURES OF DECLENSION UKRAINIAN FEMININE NAMES І DECLINATION OF FIRM GROUP

The article analyzes the inflectional paradigm of Ukrainian anthroponyms - feminine names, which are decimated according to the pattern of the I declination of a firm group because in the process of inflection Ukrainian anthroponyms show a number of case features to designate their feminine names that distinguish them from other nouns. It defines relevant factors for highlighting the morphological paradigms of the studied anthropolexems, such as the nominal type of declination; tribal affiliation (labelling category of feminine gender); attribution to the category of human beings; one-type accentuation (fixed emphasis on the basis, movable emphasis or on the basis of the singular and on inflection of the plural, or on the basis of the singular and parallel of the plural - on inflection (except genitive and accusative) and on the basis); the formation of complete paradigms; common endings in case forms; doublet forms in the accusative plural form (zero and -и); morphological phenomena that arise at the base of lexemes during inflection; the alternation of hard and soft phonemes, pharyngeal and lingual with soft tooth phonemes, vowel phoneme /о/ and /е/ with zero phoneme; it analyzes case inflections of masculine names of II declination of the firm group in the singular form (-а in the nominative case, -u in the genitive case, -і in the dative case, -у in the accusative case, -ою in the instrumental case, -і in the prepositional case, -о in the vocal case) and in the plural form (-и in the nominative case, zero in the genitive case, -ам in the dative case, zero (*-и) in the accusative case, -ами in the instrumental case, -ах in the prepositional case, -и in the vocative case); it describes the system of simple paradigmatic classes ofproper feminine names of I declination. The morphological paradigm of anthroponyms for the designation of proper masculine and feminine names requires a detailed study and systematic description, taking into account modern approaches.