[Lingtyp] revisiting an ambiguity

[Jussi Ylikoski]

Dear Arnold,



In your blog post, you write as follows:



"– – I reported on a search for a language that overtly differentiated the two kinds of location, via distinct inflectional morphology or adpositions or lexical pro-forms (demonstratives of the here/there sort, interrogatives like where in I know where she got hurt, relativizers like where in the place where she got hurt).



This search provoked some really interesting discussion (summarized in the follow-up posting), but nothing of the sort I was looking for. – –"



Hasn't anyone referred to the functions of static and directional cases in Uralic, discussed on this list on another occasion last year (http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/2018-October/thread.html#6549)?


If I understand you right, you are still searching for "a language that overtly differentiated the two kinds of location"? Here you are:



Finnish

Body-location (elative case):

Mursin        jalka-ni           kolme-sta  paika-sta.

break.PST.1SG leg-(ACC.)POSS.1SG three-ELAT place-ELAT

‘I broke my leg in three places.’



Event-location (inessive case):

Mursin        jalka-ni           kolme-ssa  paika-ssa.

break.PST.1SG leg-(ACC.)POSS.1SG three-INE  place-INE

‘I broke my leg in three places.’



Incidentally, most speakers of Finnish would rather use another noun, kohta 'place' instead of paikka 'place' when referring to body-location, but on the other hand it could also used for event-location. My intuition says the kohta refers to places within a more limited area (e.g., a leg), but this has nothing to do with the differentiated functions between the elative and inessive cases seen above.


Best,



Jussi



________________________________
Saatja: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> nimel
Saadetud: laupäev, 6. aprill 2019 6:41
Adressaat: Linguistic Linguistic Typology
Teema: [Lingtyp] revisiting an ambiguity

4/5/19: Science, charity, and adverbial ambiguity

https://arnoldzwicky.org/2019/04/05/science-charity-and-adverbial-ambiguity/

"broke my leg in three places": body-location vs. event-location?

 (discussed a while back on this mailing list)

arnold


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