Copular Constructions in Lithuanian

298 Pages·2017·1.605 MB·English

by  Rolandas Mikulskas

Valency, Argument Realization
and Grammatical Relations in Baltic 4
Copular
Constructions
in Lithuanian
Rolandas Mikulskas
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Copular Constructions in Lithuanian
Valency, Argument Realization and
Grammatical Relations in Baltic (VARGReB)
issn 2352-0159
This series of five volumes is the outcome of a research project coordinated by Vilnius
University, aiming at bundling research efforts of scholars from different countries
in the domain of the Baltic languages (Lithuanian and Latvian). Baltic linguistics has
long been fraught with a strong diachronic bias, but there is now a growing body of
theoretically and typologically informed work on these languages. The series focuses
on a core domain of Baltic grammar, viz. that of clausal architecture, case marking
and grammatical relations, and the syntax-semantic interface. It consists of three
collections of articles and two monographs. The present volume presents an in-depth
investigation of Lithuanian copular constructions from the viewpoint of Cognitive
Grammar.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/vargreb
Volume 4
Copular Constructions in Lithuanian
by Rolandas Mikulskas
Copular Constructions
in Lithuanian
Rolandas Mikulskas
Vilnius University

John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/vargreb.4
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2017015074 (print) / 2017020738 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 5912 7 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6742 9 (e-book)
© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Acknowledgement ix
List of abbreviations xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
Part I. Copular constructions and their grammatical context
chapter 1
Difficulties encountered in the syntactic analysis of constructions
with the verb būti ‘be’ 19
chapter 2
Semantic properties of the verb būti (‘be’) 27
chapter 3
Types of copular constructions 55
3.1 Tradition 55
3.2 The cognitive alternative 64
chapter 4
Peripheral cases of copular constructions 83
chapter 5
Final remarks: Common ontology and functional differentiation 91
Part II. Specificational copular constructions
chapter 6
The ‘inverted’ type of copular constructions: Its specificity and place
in the classification of copular constructions 97
6.1 Expression of the relation of specification in language:
functional motivation of the constructions 97
6.2 Formal approaches to specificational copular constructions 102
6.3 The cognitive approach to specificational copular constructions 109
vi Copular Constructions in Lithuanian
chapter 7
Pseudoclefts – a variety of specificational copular sentences 115
7.1 Syntactic problems of pseudoclefts 115
7.2 Assumptions for the equative analysis of pseudoclefts 117
7.3 The Lithuanian counterparts of pseudoclefts 120
chapter 8
The problem of subject assignment in the specificational
copular construction 133
8.1 Preverbal and postverbal subjects of specificational copular sentences 133
8.2 Problems with the analysis of specificational copular sentences
arising due to their fixed information structure 139
8.3 Discrepancies in information structure and morphosyntactic encoding
in constructions of the Lithuanian and the English types: similarities
and differences 148
8.4 A challenge to the theory of Cognitive Grammar 150
chapter 9
Final remarks 169
Part III. The expression of aspect in copular constructions
chapter 10
Overview of basic issues 175
10.1 The specificity of the expression of aspect in copular constructions 175
10.2 Aspectual semantic zone grams recognizable
in Lithuanian copular constructions 176
chapter 11
The role of morphosyntactic encoding in aspectual expression
in copular constructions 193
11.1 Three predicative encoding strategies in Stassen’s typology
of intransitive predication 193
11.2 The place of the Lithuanian copular constructions in Stassen’s
stratificational models of the morphosyntactic encoding strategies
of intransitive predicates 206
Table of contents vii
chapter 12
Expression of aspect in different types of copular constructions 213
12.1 Aspectual profiles available in the ascriptive type
of copular constructions 213
12.2 Aspectual profiles available in the inclusive type
of copular constructions 222
12.3 The aspectual properties of change-of-state copular verbs 225
12.3.1 The dubious case of the copular lexeme
virsti ‘turn into; become’ 226
12.3.2 Sensitivity of the aspectual construal of ‘dynamic’ copulas
to tense constructions 237
12.4 The aspectual profiles available in identificational
equative constructions 242
12.5 Aspectual profiles on the borderline of the semantic zones
of aspect and modality 243
12.6 Aspectual construals in the copular constructions
with action noun subjects 246
chapter 13
Final remarks 253
General conclusions 257
Bibliography 265
Name index 273
Subject index 275

Acknowledgement
Copular Constructions in Lithuanian is the first of two monographs published in the
framework of the project Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations
in Baltic. This series is the outcome of a research project conducted by Vilnius
University and supervised by the Lithuanian Research Council. It was financed
from the European Social Fund under measure VP1-3.1-ŠMM-07-K “Support to
Research Activities of Scientists and Other Researchers” (also called the Global
Grant Measure), Priority 3 “Strengthening of Capacities of Researchers and other
Scientists” of the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development.