On why there is no partitive case
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In the talk, I address the behaviour of the partitive case in numerical constructions in Estonian. The specific fact to be explained is the interaction between the partitive marking of the numeral´s complement, and the larger phrasal syntax of the numerical phrase, which sometimes leads to the elimination of the partitive marking. I shall present an analysis in terms of ellipsis: the partitive marking is eliminated if the external case is 'large enough' to make the deletion of the partitive recoverable. This analysis, as we shall see, leads to an apparent paradox for the *ABA property of case paradigms, and can only be resolved if "partitive" is not a case at all, but rather a (misleading) descriptive name for a combination of two different cases, one stacked on top of the other. |
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