Especially in functional-typological linguistics, semantic roles have been studied thoroughly, because they constitute a good starting point for any study on argument marking due to their semantically defined nature. However, the very concept of semantic roles is far from being without problems,… read more
Edited by Seppo Kittilä, Katja Västi and Jussi Ylikoski
The chapters of this volume scrutinize the interplay of different combinations of case, animacy and semantic roles, thus contributing to our understanding of these notions in a novel way. The focus of the chapters lies on showing how animacy affects argument marking. Unlike previous studies, these… read more
Benefactives are constructions used to express that a state of affairs holds to someone’s advantage. The same construction sometimes also serves as a malefactive, whose meanings are generally not a simple mirror image of the benefactive. Benefactive constructions cover a wide range of phenomena:… read more
This paper discusses the coding of Goals and Sources from a cross-linguistic perspective and proposes a formal-functional typology based on how animacy and direction affect their coding. The proposed typology comprises three types; Goal vs. Source-languages, animacy and direction-languages, and… read more
In this chapter, different types of data used in evidentiality studies are discussed. We first discuss reference grammars, which are necessary for any cross-linguistic study of evidentials. This is followed by a discussion of (different types of) usage-based data, as well as natural language data… read more
This introductory chapter briefly introduces a few milestones in the voluminous previous literature on semantic roles, and charts the territory in which the chapters of this volume aim to make a contribution. This territory is characterized by fairly disparate conceptualizations of semantic roles… read more
Semantic roles constitute one of the most notorious notions in linguistics because they have been defined in numerous ways depending on the author’s theoretical framework and goals. Typically these definitions are somehow, more or less explicitly, based on verbs and their properties. In this… read more
The peculiar semantic properties of meteorological predicates have linguistic
consequences. Some of these consequences concern their subjects, which do not
behave like prototypical subjects do. Meteorological predicates often lack a subject,
and in the languages where they do have subjects they are… read more
Valence comprises the number of arguments a verb (maximally) takes. Valence is not an invariable notion, but the valence of verbs may be either increased (e.g. causative) or decreased (passive) by modifying the verbal morphology. In this chapter, an overview of the central valence changing… read more
The present paper examines the coding of Direction in Finnish. It will deal with both typical and less typical instances of Direction in light of features, such as animacy, size of the landmark and the nature of the reference to the landmark. The paper pursues two goals. First, it will show that… read more
This introductory chapter briefly introduces a few milestones in the voluminous previous literature on semantic roles, and charts the territory in which the papers of this volume aim to make a contribution. This territory is characterized by fairly disparate conceptualizations of semantic roles… read more
Semantic roles constitute one of the most notorious notions in linguistics because they have been defined in numerous ways depending on the author’s theoretical framework and goals. Typically these definitions are somehow, more or less explicitly, based on verbs and their properties. In this… read more
This paper discusses the coding of three roles, Goal, Recipient and Vicinal Goal (‘to the vicinity of’) in European Uralic languages. The paper shows that Uralic languages typically use cases for Recipients and Goals, while Vicinal Goals bear adpositional coding except for a few languages with… read more
This paper is a cross-linguistic investigation of meteorological expressions (such as it is snowing or the wind blows). The paper proposes a three-fold typology of meteorological constructions according to the element primarily responsible for the coding of weather. In the predicate type, a… read more
This paper examines the beneficiary coding in (Standard) Finnish. Finnish has an elaborate system of coding benefaction. Finnish uses two cases (allative and ablative) for this, in addition to which benefaction can be coded by an array of postpositions. As will be shown in the paper, the markers… read more
The present article examines the effects of transitivity on the encoding of indirect object. The examined features comprise affectedness, aspect and animacy. In addition, differences between what will be labelled as neutral vs. purposeful transfer will be discussed. The article shows that effects… read more
The present paper discusses the marking of objects in ditransitive clauses. On the basis of the factors conditioning the marking, three strategies are distinguished. These are labeled as object-, animacy- and role-based strategies. In the first case, the mere objecthood (i.e. the contrast to the… read more
Seppo Kittilä’s paper discusses the (formal and semantic) distinction between recipient and beneficiary in Finnish. The paper shows that the allative case is strongly associated with the notion of reception. This means that whenever a participant can be regarded as a recipient, the allative case is… read more
