Abstract
This article presents a discourse approach to the case variation between the nominative and the partitive in Finnish copula complement adjectives. Using video recordings of spontaneous spoken Finnish, I show that the case marking of these adjectives reflects the discourse functions of demonstratives, which constitute the vast majority of copula subjects in the material. I also demonstrate that aspects of stance-taking in interaction are of relevance for the distribution of case in this construction. Based on the results of the present study, as well as on previous discussion in the literature, I analyse Finnish copulative constructions with partitive and nominative adjectives in terms of conversational patterns of subjectivity and intersubjectivity.
Appendix
A Transcription conventions
- .
falling intonation
- ,
even intonation
- ?
rising intonation
- ↑
higher pitch
- tää
(underscore) emphasis
- [ ]
speech overlap
- (.)
micropause shorter than 0.2 second
- (0.4)
pause in tenths of seconds
- =
no interval between two pieces of talk
- ><
faster speech
- <>
slower speech
- :
prior syllable prolonged
- °
decreased volume
- (mitä sä)
assumed wording
- e-
truncated word
- (-)
unintelligible word
- (–)
longer unintelligible part of talk
- ´
vowel deletion
- .hhh
inhalation
- hhh.
exhalation
- (h)
explosive aspiration, e.g. laughter or breathlessness
- £
uttered on a smile
- @
altered voice quality
- %
glottal stop
- #
creaky voice
- ((laughter))
researcher’s comments on the situation
- →
line relevant for discussion
B Glossing abbreviations
- 1
first person
- 2
second person
- 3
third person
- a
agent
- abl
ablative
- ade
adessive
- all
allative
- cl
clitic
- cmp
comparative
- cng
connegative
- comp
complementiser
- conj
conjunction
- cond
conditional
- cop
copula
- cvb
converb
- dem
demonstrative
- ela
elative
- ess
essive
- gen
genitive
- ill
illative
- imp
imperative
- ine
inessive
- inf
infinitive
- neg
negation
- nom
nominative
- pap
past active participle
- pass
passive
- pl
plural
- ppp
past passive participle
- pr
proper name
- prs
present
- pst
past
- ptc
particle
- ptv
partitive
- q
question
- sg
singular
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- On the different interpretations of sentence-initial ainsi ‘so’ and the competition between three types of Verb–Subject order
- Present-day English gerunds: A multilayered referential model
- Disjunctive clauses with o. o ‘either. or’ in Spanish and clausal cosubordination
- Towards a constructional approach to discourse-level phenomena: The case of the Spanish interpersonal epistemic stance construction
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- On the different interpretations of sentence-initial ainsi ‘so’ and the competition between three types of Verb–Subject order
- Present-day English gerunds: A multilayered referential model
- Disjunctive clauses with o. o ‘either. or’ in Spanish and clausal cosubordination
- Towards a constructional approach to discourse-level phenomena: The case of the Spanish interpersonal epistemic stance construction
- Transparent and non-transparent languages
- Minimizers in Azerbaijani from a comparative perspective
- Case, discourse structure, and (inter)subjectivity: A discourse approach to case of Finnish copula complement adjectives