Dėl žodžių lie. abu, la. abi, pr. abbai gramatinio statuso

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltų kalbos; Skaitvardis; Įvardis; Baltic languages; Numerals; Pronouns.

ENThe article deals with the grammatical status of Lith. "abu - both", Latv. "abi" and OPr. "abbai". In the Baltic literature, these words are traditionally referred to as numerals. However, the said words and the numerals - Lith. "du - two", Latv. "divi", OPr. "dwai" - have different lexical meanings. The presupposition of the utterances with Lith. "du", Latv. "divi", OPr. "dwai" and Lith. "abu", Latv. "abi", OPr. "abbai" does not lead to the assumption that Lith. "abu", Latv. "abi" and OPr. "abbai" are numerals. Cf. "Jonas atsivežė du sūnus" (John has brought two sons) and "Jonas atsivežė abu sūnus" (John has brought both sons). The first utterance implies that John may have even more sons (but he has brought only two), whereas the second utterance indicates that John does not have more sons (and he has brought all of them). The meaning of Lith. "abu", Latv. "abi", OPr. "abbai" suggests that the latter words should be considered pronouns. Moreover, these words function as pronouns in the structure of the text, too; the Lith. numeral "du", Latv. "divi", OPr. "dwai" usually occur in the focus, whereas the Lith. pronoun "abu", Latv. "abi", OPr. "abbai" occur in anaphoric structures. The contextual partners of the Lith. pronoun "abu" and the Latv. pronoun "abi" are always nouns which mean "forming a pair" or "having two sides": akys ('eyes'), rankos ('hands'), ausys ('cars'), etc., (Latv. "acis, rokas, ausis"); kelias ('road'), gatvė ('street'), takas ('path'), geležinkelis ('railway'), ežia ('boundary'), upė ('river'), griovys ('ditch'), kanalas ('c.