Anne Tamm

Estonian Transitive Verb Classes, Object Case, and Progressive

This article examines the relation between aspect and object case in Estonian and establishes a verb classification that predicts many facets of object case behavior. It is demonstrated that the aspectual opposition between perfectivity and imperfectivity correspond to the morphological opposition between genitive/nominative case marking and partitive object case marking. However, case marking of Estonian objects is shown to be an unreliable indicator for aspectual verb class membership. The verb classification proposed here is established on the basis of tests that involve only the partitive object case. These tests employ the Estonian progressive. The tests distinguish verb classes from each other according to the situations they typically describe and predict several conditions of case assignment of patterns.

Cross-categorial scalar properties explaining Differential Object Marking

Abstract This article aims at a more satisfying explanation of differential object case marking (DOM), and demonstrates that a group of mass nouns displays properties that are preserved in derivation. The central tenet of all accounts relates the Finnish type accusative-partitive DOM to the distinction between mass and count noun objects. I challenge this established view by introducing new data from Estonian: deadjectival mass nouns that unexpectedly behave like count nouns in DOM. I propose an account that has a wider coverage of data and is based on the scalar and boundedness-related properties of the base adjectives of the derived abstract nouns. Typically, the unexpected count-like behavior occurs with abstract nouns that are derived from adjectives that cannot denote open scales for various lexical-semantic and pragmatic reasons. Since the semantic properties of scales as well as the pragmatic standards determining boundedness are preserved in the course of derivation, they are cross-categorial properties. These findings are also relevant in understanding of the role of lexical aspect and aspectual composition as well as the links between morphosyntax in language and norms and standards in cognition.