volume: 14 (2020)
pages: 157–194
author: Nathaniel Jacob Torres
title: The Finnish numeral-noun construction
DOI: http://doi.org/10.57133/evenyrbk.20to
keywords: Numeral-Noun Construction, numerals, case, partitive, Differential Object Marking, caseless, Finno-Ugric, Slavic
abstract: The Numeral-Noun Construction (NNC) is a cross-linguistic phenomenon involving an apparent mismatch between the numeral and the nominal complement. In some languages, it may simply be that after a numeral the noun remains in the singular. In other languages, such as Russian or Estonian, a case other than the nominative appears after the numeral. This paper looks specifically at Finnish using Slavic languages and Estonian as points of comparison. The paper identifies differences between the NNC in Finnish and in other languages and endeavors to account for the occurrence of the partitive case after the numeral. The paper concludes in a fashion similar to Pesetsky (2013) that the Finnish partitive is in fact the lexical form of the noun and not a ‘real’ case. In so concluding, the paper discusses that the partitive case in Finnish is in fact a caseless form of the noun straight from the lexicon. Evidence taken from Differential Object Marking (DOM) languages is used to argue for presence of caseless arguments and complements in Finno-Ugric languages, as well as in others. This caseless nominal is also argued to be the argument of prepositions in Finnish, using the case of the Hungarian ‘dressed’ prepositions as a similar occurrence of caselessness in nominal arguments of prepositions.
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