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In:Uralic Essive and the Expression of Impermanent State
Edited by Casper de Groot
[Typological Studies in Language 119] 2017
► pp. 57–90

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Chapter 3
The essive in Estonian

Published online: 30 November 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.119.03met
Abstract
This chapter presents an empirical study of the distribution of the essive marker in Standard Estonian and Estonian dialects. The use of the essive has changed considerably in Estonian: it almost vanished from North Estonian but was revived in the 19th century. In South Estonian, the essive ending has merged with that of the inessive. The description of the properties of the essive marker follows the questionnaire of the Uralic essive. The domains involved are non-verbal main predication, secondary predication, complementation, and manner, temporal, and circumstantial adverbial phrases. The study specifically investigates the opposition between permanent and impermanent state in non-verbal predications. The use of the marker in the essive sense is contrasted with that of the translative and also to other means of marking non-permanent state.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Data
    • 1.2Formation
    • 1.3Historical background and distribution in dialects
    • 1.4The revival of the essive
  • 2.Non-verbal predication
  • 3.Secondary predication
    • 3.1The essive as a marker of secondary predicates
    • 3.2Depictives
    • 3.3Circumstantials
    • 3.4Temporals
  • 4.Complements
  • 5.Adverbials
  • 6.Temporality and location
  • 7.Comparatives and expressions of similarity
  • 8.Essive versus translative
  • 9.Word order
  • 10.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Transcription symbols
  • Sources
  • References
References (45)
Sources
balanced corpus (subcorpus of ERC)BC =  balanced corpus (subcorpus of ERC)
Corpus of Estonian Literary LanguageCELL =  Corpus of Estonian Literary Language <[URL]> (9 March 2014)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corpus of Estonian DialectsCED =  Corpus of Estonian Dialects <[URL]> (9 March 2014)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corpus of Spoken EstonianCSE =  Corpus of Spoken Estonian <[URL]> (19 November 2014)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Estonian Reference CorpusERC =  Estonian Reference Corpus <[URL]> (9 March 2014)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
etTenTenETT =  etTenTen <[URL]> (29 March 2014)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
fiction texts (subcorpus of CELL)FICT =  fiction texts (subcorpus of CELL)
newspaper texts (subcorpus of CELL)NEWS =  newspaper texts (subcorpus of CELL)
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