Erkkilä, Riku

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https://helda.helsinki.fiTerminology of spatial cases : Problems and prospectsErkkilä, Riku2020-02-22Erkkilä , R 2020 , ' Terminology of spatial cases : Problems and prospects ' , The FirstInternational Conference on Linguistic Terminology, Glossing and Phonemicization ,Yonezawa , Japan , 22/02/2020 - 24/02/2020 .http://hdl.handle.net/10138/347803cc_by_nc_ndpublishedVersionDownloaded from Helda, University of Helsinki institutional repository.This is an electronic reprint of the original article.This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail.Please cite the original version.Humanistinen tiedekuntaRiku ErkkiläUniversity of Helsinki / Descriptive grammar of Mordvin projectTERMINOLOGY OF SPATIAL CASES: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTSTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 1Humanistinen tiedekuntaBACKGROUND• Terminology of spatial cases has not been reviewed extensively• However, see Haspelmath (2009)• Usually different traditions of linguistic research (e. g. researchers of Indo-European, Uralic or Caucasian languages) have somewhat differing terminology• Alternatively, same terms are used in different manner• Clear and compatible terminology is essential in any field of study, including the research of spatial casesTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 2Humanistinen tiedekuntaPROBLEMS• Usually the terminology of spatial cases is bound to some linguistic tradition• Ill-suited terms can be used within the research paradigm without questioning • Different terms for cases with same basic function makes it hard to compare languages• Same terms for cases with different basic function can result in false comparison• This makes it hard and time-consuming to compare languages described within different traditions• In studies of single languages (paralells)• In contrastive studies• In grammaticalization studies• In typology of casesTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 3Humanistinen tiedekuntaSAME NAME, DIFFERENT MEANINGinessive elative ablativeFinnish (Uralic) LOCATION IN SOURCE IN SOURCE ON/ATErzya (Uralic) LOCATION SOURCE partial obj.Udmurt (Uralic) LOCATION SOURCE SOURCE (POSS)• Finnish has a two-way distinction in coding LOCATION/SOURCE/GOAL• Appropriate two-way distinction in the terminology• Erzya and Udmurt make on distinction regarding the relative location• No need to use terms that refer to the inside of a landmark• Term ablative is used in Erzya and Udmurt of non-spatial casesTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 4Humanistinen tiedekuntaSAME NAME, DIFFERENT MEANING (CONT.)Finnish (Uralic)Erzya (Uralic) Ingush (Nakh) Rutul (Lezgian)PATH - - + +(internal) state - + - -change of (internal) state+ + - -• In Uralic linguistic tradition the term ’translative’ is used to express change of state and in some languages additionally being in a state• In Caucasian linguistic tradition the term ’translative’ refers to the spatial case expressing path• This could pose serious problems in comparison of these languagesTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 5Humanistinen tiedekuntaDIFFERENT NAME, SAME MEANINGLOCATION SOURCE GOALMoksha (Uralic) inessive elative illativeForest Enets (Uralic)locative ablative lative• Both Moksha and Forest Enets have only one case expressing LOCATION/SOURCE/GOAL• Forest Enets has better terminology, as the names refer to general cases• The term ablative is problematic in a different wayTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 6Humanistinen tiedekuntaDIFFERENT NAME, SAME MEANING (CONT.)PATHKarelian (Uralic) prolativeKet (Yeniseic) prosecutiveIngush (Nakh) tranlativeWambaya (West Barkly)perlative• Cases expressing PATH are quite rare in languages of the World• Also semantically homogenous• It seems unnecessarily complicated to have such diverse naming conventions for a rather marginal categoryTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 7Humanistinen tiedekuntaSERIOUS TERMINOLOGICAL PROBLEMSPATH (along) PATH (through)prolative transitive• Komi (Uralic) has two cases expressing different kinds of paths• The term ’transitive’ has a lot of other, more central uses in linguisticsTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 8Humanistinen tiedekuntaPOSSIBLE SOLUTION• Define a basic function for each term and use the term of a case only if the defined basic function and the basic function correspond• Probably some variation must be tolerated• Parameters for defining the basic function (Tyler & Evans 2003)• Historically earliest (attested) function• A dominant spatial configuration in the functions• Functions attested in compoud forms• Contrast with functions of other elements on the same grammatical level• Centrality of one function among the functions of a case• Frequency of a function• Layspeakers opinionTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 9Humanistinen tiedekuntaIN PRACTICE• Explain the terminological choices made and explain their relation to other traditions of naming cases• Mark the correspondences explicitly• E. g. in parentheses after the term normally used in the paradigmTerminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 10Humanistinen tiedekuntaREFERENCESHASPELMATH, MARTIN 2009: Terminology of case. In Andrej Malchukov and Andrew Spencer (eds.) The Oxford handbook of case p. 505–517. Oxford: Oxford university press.TYLER, ANDREA AND VYVYAN EVANS 2003: The semantics of englishprepositions. Spatial scenes, embodied meaning and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.Terminology of spatial cases / Riku Erkkilä 11

Terminology of spatial cases : Problems and prospects

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