Aspectual triplets in Estonian Cover Image

Aspectual triplets in Estonian
Aspectual triplets in Estonian

Author(s): Anne Tamm
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Finno-Ugrian studies, Philology
Published by: Tallinna Ülikooli Kirjastus
Keywords: aspect; Aktionsart; partitive; Differential Object Marking; verbal particle; verb semantics; secondary imperfective; Russian contact; Estonian dialects;

Summary/Abstract: Estonian has lexical perfective-imperfective ‘doublets’, as inmõõtma ‘measure’, välja mõõtma ‘measure (out)’. The ‘doublets’ render theEstonian lexical aspect similar to that of Germanic, e.g. Dutch meten ‘measure’and uitmeten ‘measure out’. Finnish uses object case alternation forthe expression of the opposition, e.g. mitata/mitoittaa ‘measure’. However,Estonian also has regular morphological means to express aspectual ‘triplets’,like Slavic, as in the Russian imperfective simplex merit’ ‘measure’, theperfective izmerit’ ‘measure (out)’ and the secondary imperfective izmerjat’,approximately ‘be measuring out’. The third member of the Estonian tripletemerges via combining the particle and the partitive object case.

  • Issue Year: 3/2018
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 208-234
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: English, Estonian