Invenitive-locational constructions in Estonian

• In Event: Language and Place-Making

Abstract

Invenitive-locational constructions are a proposed class of grammatical strategies that involve a verb with meaning ‘find’ that undergoes semantical bleaching and assumes a locational function (for ‘locational’ see Haspelmath 2022; Creissels 2019). This means that its original meaning ‘find’ becomes only secondary. Basile (2023) shows that this strategy is common in European languages, Estonian included (1).

(1) Metsas leidub karusid
Forest.INE find.MM.3SG bear.PL.PTV
‘There are bears in the forest.’

In English, invenitives may get an additional mirative meaning, i.e., a meaning that has a component of surprise or unexpectedness, such as in the utterance “I found myself at the hospital”. In this example, it is implied that I am momentarily located at the hospital, but I do not know how I ended up there. Similarly, Estonian employs a dedicated reflexive strategy to express this kind of mirative meaning, also with abstract locations. We can see how (2) fundamentally differs from (1).

(2) Leidsin end võõrast linnast
Find.PST.1SG self foreign.ELA town.ELA
‘I found myself in a foreign town.’

The paper at hand investigates invenitive-locational constructions and related strategies specifically in one Baltic language, Estonian. It also discusses possible contact situations with other neighboring languages, such as Finnish, German, and Latvian, to shed light on the historical origin of such constructions.

References
Basile, R. (2023). Invenitive-locational constructions in the languages of Europe. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ES3FH MLA
Creissels, D. (2019). Inverse-locational predication in typological perspective. Italian Journal of Linguistics, 31(2), 37-106.
Haspelmath, M. (2022). Nonverbal clause constructions. Submitted manuscript. Lingbuzz/006673. h ttps://ling. auf. net/lingbuzz/006673, last accessed, 2, 2022.

Short Bio

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Tartu and the University of Turku. I am mainly interested in linguistic typology, language in use, and language contact. I investigate instances of locational constructions that I call invenitive-locational constructions, which involve a ‘find’-based strategy that becomes used as a locational copula. My sample includes several European languages, with a focus on Finnic (including Estonian). With my research, I aim at bringing together fresh perspectives with more traditional typological inquiries through mixing qualitative and quantitative methods.

Author

• Rodolfo Basile, University of Tartu