Grammaticalization of the Lithuanian comparative -jau(s)
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Aukštesnio laipsnio konstrukcija; Aukštesnio laipsnio priesaga; Gramatikalizacija; Istorinė sintaksė; Palyginamosios konstrukcijos; Comparative construction; Comparative constructions; Comparative suffix; Grammaticalization; Historical; Historical syntax; Lithuanian; Syntax.
ENWhen analysing Old Lithuanian texts from the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, one can notice that comparatives with the -jaus suffix tend to appear in comparative constructions with connectives containing negation, e.g. Bet esch daugiaus dirbau / neig kursai isch yũ ‘but I laboured more abundantly than they all’ (VEE 102: 16–17; 1 Corinthians 15: 10). This is the “particle comparative” in Stassen’s terms (1985; 2001). On the other hand, authors avoided comparatives with the -jaus suffix in other types of comparative constructions (with the preposition už and the genitive). Philological and etymological analysis of neg(i) and nei(gi) ‘than’ shows that these connectives developed out of former sentence negations. This sheds some light on the syntactic environment in which the grammaticalization of the comparative suffix -jaus occurred. The Lithuanian comparative suffix -jaũ (OLith. -jau-s, e.g. geriaus ‘better’) goes back to the postposed focus particle -jaũ, which functions as a marker of emphatic assertion of identity (König 1991). The primary contrastive function of the ‑jau-s suffix can be compared to Ancient Greek -τερος (Sanskrit -taraḥ) in such usages as δεξίτερος ‘right(-hand)’. The grammaticalization of the focus marker jau(s) has occurred in sentences consisting of juxtaposed and contrasted clauses – the “conjoined comparative” in Stassen’s terms (1985: 38, 44), and in these sentences, -jaus filled the role of pragmatic marker and focalizer, emphasizing one of two compared, oppositional items. [From the publication]
- Lithuanian 'dabar' ‘now’ and the baltic *-a-illative / Norbert Ostrowski. Baltìstikos platýbėse / sudarė: Agnė Navickaitė-Klišauskienė, Vytautas Rinkevičius, Daiva Sinkevičiūtė, Miguel Villanueva Svensson. Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2022. P. 253-261.
- Old Latvian comparative constructions / Norbert Ostrowski. Baltu filoloģija. 2021, t. 30, nr. 1-2, p. 93-99.
