Partitives and genitives in negated sentences in Finnish, Latvian and Lithuanian

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Atvejo variacijos; Baltų kalbos; Genityvas; Neigimas; Neigimo raiška; Objektas; Subjektas; Suomių kalba; Suomių kalba, atvejo variacijos; Baltic; Baltic languages; Case variation; Expression of denial; Finnish; Genitive; Negation; Object; Subject.

ENIn Baltic and Finnic languages, the subject and object cases show a similar variation, with nominative or partitive genitive subjects and accusative or partitive genitive objects. The similarities are stronger between Finnic (here represented by Finnish) and Lithuanian, whereas in Latvian the use of the partitive genitive is decreasing. This applies both to affirmative and negated sentences. In this paper, the attention is concentrated upon the Latvian object cases with negation. Examples from literature, both original and translated from Finnish, were presented to a small group of native Latvian speakers living in Finland, with the expectation that the strong similarities between Latvian genitive and Finnish partitive use with negation might affect the choices. However, that did not seem to be the case. The genitive appears to be specialized to express emphatic negation. Genitives of subject in negated existential sentences were compared in translations of Finnish fiction. Partitives are the rule in negated existential sentences in Finnish, and partitive genitives almost to the same extent in Lithuanian. Again, in Latvian the use of the genitive in this function is decreasing. As a rule, it applies to the existential nebūt ‛not to be’, although spoken language tends towards the nominative. [From the publication]

• Studying variation in case marking: the genitive of negation in Aukštaitian dialects of Lithuanian / Kirill Kozhanov. Baltic linguistics. 2017, 8, p. 97-114.
• Объектный партитив отрицания: ареально-типологическая перспектива / П.М. Аркадьев. Acta linguistica petropolitana. 2017, 13, 3, p. 194-243.