9 Case marking and complex adpositions in Basque
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Gerd Jendraschek
Abstract
In addition to a paradigm of eleven cases, the Basque benefactive and motivative are halfway between case suffix and complex postposition. One new postposition expressing ‘after’ is the result of degrammaticalization. The omission or optionality of overt adverbial marking leads to the establishment of a set of lexical items with flexible word class membership. Certain adpositions may trigger differential argument marking: this means that their complement can receive different cases, or no case, depending on semantic factors. Differential case marking can correlate with a difference in meaning of the adposition. We further observe differential marking conditioned by the Nominal Hierarchy; for yet another class of adpositions, the determining factor is referential status. While Basque has phrase-level inflection, nouns in certain adpositional constructions have a privileged relation to their head. This stronger bondedness may be labelled “morphological affinity”. Such an analysis only pertains to the morphological boundary between the adposition and its immediate neighbour, but leaves the syntactic constituency unaffected. Adverbial phrases are routinely turned into adnominal modifiers by adding a suffix used to derive complex modifiers. One major insight from the Basque data is that the distinction between a simple and a complex adposition is not very robust. It is a common development for the additional relator that makes an adposition complex to be omitted as the adposition becomes autonomous from its etymon. Such omissibility of the inner and outer relators suggests a continuum of grammaticalization.
Abstract
In addition to a paradigm of eleven cases, the Basque benefactive and motivative are halfway between case suffix and complex postposition. One new postposition expressing ‘after’ is the result of degrammaticalization. The omission or optionality of overt adverbial marking leads to the establishment of a set of lexical items with flexible word class membership. Certain adpositions may trigger differential argument marking: this means that their complement can receive different cases, or no case, depending on semantic factors. Differential case marking can correlate with a difference in meaning of the adposition. We further observe differential marking conditioned by the Nominal Hierarchy; for yet another class of adpositions, the determining factor is referential status. While Basque has phrase-level inflection, nouns in certain adpositional constructions have a privileged relation to their head. This stronger bondedness may be labelled “morphological affinity”. Such an analysis only pertains to the morphological boundary between the adposition and its immediate neighbour, but leaves the syntactic constituency unaffected. Adverbial phrases are routinely turned into adnominal modifiers by adding a suffix used to derive complex modifiers. One major insight from the Basque data is that the distinction between a simple and a complex adposition is not very robust. It is a common development for the additional relator that makes an adposition complex to be omitted as the adposition becomes autonomous from its etymon. Such omissibility of the inner and outer relators suggests a continuum of grammaticalization.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: Complex adpositions and complex nominal relators 1
-
Indo-European language families & isolates
- 1 Complex adpositions in Romance: Emergence and variation 33
- 2 Complex adpositions in three West Germanic Languages: German, Dutch, and English 65
- 3 Complex adpositions in Slavic languages: The case of Serbian 139
- 4 Complex prepositions in Breton 195
- 5 On complex adpositions in Modern Greek 233
- 6 Complex prepositions in Albanian: A first assessment 265
-
Non Indo-European languages
- 7 What makes a complex postposition: The cyclic development of postpositions in Estonian 299
- 8 Complex and simple postpositions: The split in Permic 335
- 9 Case marking and complex adpositions in Basque 367
- 10 Structure and origin of Turkish adpositions 403
- 11 A chapter on compound prepositions in Maltese: prep-prep combinations and related issues 439
-
Discussion
- 12 Complex adpositions in Europe and beyond: A synthesis 473
- Index 497
- Language Index 501
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: Complex adpositions and complex nominal relators 1
-
Indo-European language families & isolates
- 1 Complex adpositions in Romance: Emergence and variation 33
- 2 Complex adpositions in three West Germanic Languages: German, Dutch, and English 65
- 3 Complex adpositions in Slavic languages: The case of Serbian 139
- 4 Complex prepositions in Breton 195
- 5 On complex adpositions in Modern Greek 233
- 6 Complex prepositions in Albanian: A first assessment 265
-
Non Indo-European languages
- 7 What makes a complex postposition: The cyclic development of postpositions in Estonian 299
- 8 Complex and simple postpositions: The split in Permic 335
- 9 Case marking and complex adpositions in Basque 367
- 10 Structure and origin of Turkish adpositions 403
- 11 A chapter on compound prepositions in Maltese: prep-prep combinations and related issues 439
-
Discussion
- 12 Complex adpositions in Europe and beyond: A synthesis 473
- Index 497
- Language Index 501
