Система локативных падежей в истории литовского языка

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Adesyvas; Aliatyvas; Iliatyvas; Inesyvas; Linksniavimo sistema; Linksnių sistema; Lokatyvas; Vardažodis; Vietininko linksniai; Adessive; Adessive case; Allative; Allative case; Case system; Declensional system; Illative; Illative case; Inessive; Inessive case; Lithuanian; Locative; Locative cases; Noun.

ENThe paper focuses on the development and collapse of the spatial case system in Lithuanian. In the Old Lithuanian period, the old locative case derived from Indo-European was displaced by the new system of four spatial cases, which was more complex, than in other Indo-European languages. This happened under influence of Finno-Ugric languages. The resulting case system is typologically very peculiar. It reached its peak by the XVI century, just before the first Old Lithuanian written texts emerged; later the system started to collapse. In contemporary Lithuanian only the inessive case used without preposition is left (with the exception of dialects of certain villages in Belarus). In informal speech of inhabitants of certain regions illative case is also found; illative case has remained only in fixed adverbial forms. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the spatial case system in Lithuanian in a semantic perspective and to examine other ways of expressing spatial meanings both within the lifetime of this system and after its collapse. [text from author]