Cover not available
Part of
Causation, Permission, and Transfer: Argument realisation in GET, TAKE, PUT, GIVE and LET verbs
Edited by Brian Nolan, Gudrun Rawoens and Elke Diedrichsen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 167] 2015
► pp. 353–383

Rise and fall of the TAKE-future in written Estonian

| University of Tartu, Estonia
| University of Tartu, Estonia
| University of Tartu, Estonia
The paper presents an overview of the development of the Estonian take + Vinf1 construction from runic songs to modern Estonian, with an emphasis on the study of Old Written Estonian. Proceeding from construction grammar, grammaticalization theory and statistical corpus analysis we discuss three grammatical functions of the construction – aspect (volitional ingressive), agent-oriented modality and future. The main focus is on the vernacular usage of võtma ‘take’ in the Vinf1 construction as quasi-auxiliary of future in Old Written Estonian. In the 18th and 19th century the construction was widely used for expressing all three grammatical functions. By the 20th century its frequency had decreased considerably due to the prescriptive grammar approach and in modern Estonian the construction is no longer used for expressing future.
Published online: 14 January 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.167.13tra
References (54)
Data sources
BCE = Balanced Corpus of Estonian <[URL]
CED = Corpus of Estonian Dialects <[URL]
CERS = Corpus of Estonian Runic Songs <[URL]
COWE = Corpus of Old Written Estonian <[URL]
CWE = Corpus of Written Estonian
MCE = Mixed Corpus of Estonian <[URL]
References
Ahrens, Eduard. 1853. Grammatik der Ehstnischen Sprache Revalschen Dialektes. 2. Theil: Satzlehre. Reval: In Commission bei Kluge und Ströhm (Lindfors Erben).Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2010. Language, Usage and Cognition. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cantos Gómez, Pascual. 2013. Statistical Methods in Language and Linguistic Research. 
Sheffield: Equinox.Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen. 2000. The grammar of future time reference in European languages. In Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe, Östen Dahl (ed.), 309–328. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dunning, Ted. 1993. Accurate methods for the statistics of surprise and coincidence. Computational Linguistics 19(1): 61–74.Google Scholar
EDE 2009 = Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat (Explanatory Dictionary of Estonian). Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus. <[URL]> (15 April 2013).Google Scholar
Erelt, Mati (ed.). 2003. Estonian Language [Linguistica Uralica Supplementary Series 1]. Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers.Google Scholar
Gallese, Vittorio & Lakoff, George. 2005. The brain’s concepts: The role of the sensory-motor system in perceptual knowledge. Cognitive Neuropsychology 22(3–4): 455–479. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Adele. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
. 2006. Constructions at Work. The Nature of Generalization in Language. 
Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Habicht, Külli. 2001a. Eesti vanema kirjakeele leksikaalsest ja morfosüntaktilisest arengust ning Heinrich Stahli keele eripärast selle taustal [On the lexical and morphosyntactic development of Old Written Estonian and the characteristics of Heinrich Stahl’s language] [Dissertationes philologiae estonicae universitatis Tartuensis 10]. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus.Google Scholar
. 2001b. Infinitive Konstruktionen in der estnischen Schriftsprache der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Linguistica Uralica 4: 245–269.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1993. Auxiliaries. Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalization. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Kuteva, Tania. 2002. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. On contact-induced grammaticalization. Studies in Language 27(3): 529–572. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2005. Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. The Changing Languages of Europe. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Nomachi, Motoki. 2013. Contact-induced replication: Some diagnostics. In Shared Grammaticalization: With Special Focus on the Transeurasian Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series 132], Martine Irma Robbeets & Hubert Cuyckens (eds), 67–100. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heinsoo, Heinike. 2010. Mā ja pūd lēväd, meid eb lē. The subject and the predicate in Votic. – [Linguistica Uralica Supplementary Series 4]. Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers.Google Scholar
Helle, Anton Thor. 1732. Kurtzgefaβte Anweisung Zur Ehstnischen Sprache, Eberhard Gutsleff (ed.). Halle: Stephan Orban.Google Scholar
Hilpert, Martin. 2008. Where did this future come from? The constructional grammaticalization of Swedish komma att V. In Constructions and Language Change, Alexander Bergs & Gabriele Diewald (eds), 105–129. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hundt, Marianne. 2001. What corpora tell us about the grammaticalisation of voice in get-constructions. Studies in Language 25(1): 49–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hupel, August Wilhelm. 1780. Ehstnische Sprachlehre für beide Hauptdialekte den revalschen und den dörptschen. Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch.Google Scholar
Häkkinen, Kaisa. 2011. Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja (The etymology dictionary of modern Finnish), 5th edn. Helsinki: WSOY.Google Scholar
ISK 2004 = Iso suomen kielioppi. (The great grammar book of Finnish). 2. painos. Auli 
Hakulinen, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen, Irja Alho [Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Toimituksia 950]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
Kaalep, Heiki-Jaan & Muischnek, Kadri. 2002. Eesti kirjakeele sagedussõnastik (Frequency dictionary of written Estonian). Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus.Google Scholar
Kilgi, Annika. 2012. Tõlkekeele dünaamika piibli esmaeestinduse käigus: verbi morfosüntaksi areng ja lõplik toimetamisfaas (Dynamics of the language of translation during first Estonian Bible translation: development and final editing phase of the verbal morphosyntax) [Humanitaarteaduste dissertatsioonid 27]. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli Kirjastus.Google Scholar
Kopecka, Anetta & Narasimhan, Bhuvana. 2012. Events of Putting and Taking: A Crosslinguistic Perspective [Typological Studies in Language 100]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laanekask, Heli & Erelt, Tiiu. 2003. Written Estonian. In Estonian Language. (Linguistica Uralica. Supplementary Series Vol. 1.), Mati Erelt (ed.), 273–342. Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers.Google Scholar
Lenz, Alexandra N. & Rawoens, Gudrun (eds). 2012. The Art of Getting: GET verbs in European Languages from a Synchronic and Diachronic Point of View. Special issue of Linguistics 50(6).
Lindquist, Hans & Mair, Christian (eds). 2004. Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalization in English [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 13]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics, Vol 2. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Mägiste, Julius. 1936. Eesti saama-futuurumi algupärast ja tarvitamiskõlblikkusest (On the origin and usability of the Estonian saama-future). Eesti Keel 3: 65–92.Google Scholar
Metslang, Helle. 1994. Temporal Relations in the Predicate and the Grammatical System of Estonian and Finnish [Oulun yliopiston suomen ja saamen kielen laitoksen tutkimusraportteja 39]. Oulu: University of Oulu dissertation.Google Scholar
. 1997. Eesti keele ja teiste ja soome-ugri keelte futuurumi arenguid. (Developments of grammatical future in Estonian and other Finno-Ugric languages). Keel ja Kirjandus 4: 226–231.Google Scholar
. 2009. Estonian grammar between Finnic and SAE: Some comparisons. In Language Typology and Universals (Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung) 62: 49–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Metsmägi, Iris, Sedrik, Meeli & Soosaar, Sven-Erik. 2012. Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [The etymology dictionary of Estonian]. Eesti Keele Instituut. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus.Google Scholar
Penjam, Pille. 2008. Eesti kirjakeele da- ja ma-infinitiiviga konstruktsioonid (The constructions of DA- and MA-infinitives in written Estonian) [Dissertationes philologiae estonicae universitatis Tartuensis 23]. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus.Google Scholar
Rayson, Paul & Garside, Roger. 2000. Comparing corpora using frequency profiling. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Comparing Corpora, Held in Conjunction with the 38th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2000) , 1–8 October, Hong Kong, 1–6.
Ross, Kristiina. 2006. „Lühike sissejuhatus“ ja eesti piiblitõlge. – Lühike sissejuhatus eesti keelde 1732. (Brief introduction to the Estonian language 1732). Saksa keelest tõlkinud ja järelsõnad kirjutanud Annika Kilgi ja Kristiina Ross. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, C26–C53.Google Scholar
SKP 1996 = Suomen kielen perussanakirja 2 (The basic dictionary of Finnish) L–R. 4. painos. [Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 55]. Helsinki: OY Edita AB, Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus.Google Scholar
Tauli, Valter. 1966. Structural Tendencies in Uralic Languages [Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series 17]. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Tragel, Ilona. 2003. Seriaalkonstruktsioonist eesti keeles (Serial constructions in Estonian). Keel ja Kirjandus, 919–934.Google Scholar
Tragel, Ilona & Habicht, Külli. 2012. Grammaticalization of the Estonian saama ‘get’. In The Art of Getting: GET verbs in European languages from a synchronic and diachronic point of view, Alexandra N. Lenz & Gudrun Rawoens (eds). Special issue of Linguistics 50(6): 1371–1412.Google Scholar
Vestring, Salomo Heinrich. [?1720–1730] 1998. Lexicon Esthonico Germanicum. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum.Google Scholar
Wiedemann, Ferdinand Johann. 1973[1893]. Estnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch: Vierter unveränderter Druck nach der von Jakob Hurt redigierten Auflage. Tallinn: Valgus.Google Scholar
Viitso, Tiit-Rein. 2003. Phonology, morphology and word formation. In Estonian Language. [Linguistica Uralica Supplementary Series 1], Mati Erelt (ed.), 9–92. Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers.Google Scholar
Viitso, Tiit-Rein & Ernštreits, Valts. 2012. Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-leţkīel sõnārōntõz. Liivi-eesti-läti sõnaraamat. Lībiešu-igauņu-latviešu vārdnīca. Tartu & Rīga: Tartu Ülikool, Latviešu valodas aģentūra.Google Scholar