Saama-verb grammatilistes konstruktsioonides
The verb saama ’to get’ in grammatical constructions

Summary/Abstract: In the present article an overview is given of the development of the grammatical functions of the Estonian polysemous and polyfunctional verb saama ’get; can, become’. The article is a follow-up to an overview of the lexical usages of the same verb (Habicht, Tragel 2014). saama is an old Estonian verb with a long history of grammaticalization from a lexical motion verb to a modal auxiliary and to an auxiliary verb used in future constructions. The verb saama is frequent both in early and modern written Estonian, in particular due to the various grammatical functions expressed by saama-constructions. The Estonian saama-constructions contain non-finite verb forms such as the -ma infinitive (the original function of which is lative, referring to change as a directed process), -da infinitive (the original function of which is object, referring to acquisition as an object-bound process), and -nud, -tud participles (the original function of theirs is resultative, referring to a change). The Estonian passive construction of saama is a typological vessel of the properties and functions of both GET-passive and BECOME-passive, because the full verb of saama used to have and still has both of the meanings. Considering the use of the word and its constructions from 16th to 21st centuries, we suggest a grammaticalisation chain for the Estonian saama.

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