Linksnių atrakcija lyginamosiose konstrukcijose
Case Attraction in Comparative Constructions: Further Data

Summary/Abstract: This article carries further an investigation into the Lithuanian case hierarchy, the first part of which was presented in Cižik (2003). The investigation is based on an empirical test of the relative accessibility of the Lithuanian cases to case attraction in comparative constructions of the type tokie dalykai kaip žvaigždės ‘such things as stars’ (where the noun in the comparative construction can be in the nominative or be attracted to the case of the object of comparison in the main clause). The occurrence of attraction is determined not only by case but also by the categorial properties of nouns (animacy, number, proper/common) as well as by word order and other syntactic factors. Accessibility to attraction can, however, be used to establish the position of the Lithuanian cases in the case hierarchy. Whereas Cižik (2003) provided no data for the locative and the results were indecisive as to the relative position of the genitive and the dative, the additional tests described in this article point to the following ordering of cases: nominative > accusative > dative > genitive > instrumental > locative.

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