Semantic functions of complementizers in Baltic

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Latvių kalba; Papildiniai; Semantika; Latvian; Lithuanian; Complementizers; Semantic.

ENThough closely related, Lithuanian and Latvian show, from the very start, considerable differences in their use of complementizers. Latvian shows, on the whole, a greater semantics differentiation than Lithuanian: it consistently distinguishes propositional and state-of-affairs complementizers, and among the latter there is even a specialized irrealis complementizers. This semantic marking is partly distinctive, partly harmonic (and thus redundant). Lithuanian makes do with a smaller number of complementizers, using mood distinctions as a means of opposing clausal complement types, whereas Latvian uses mood to much lesser extent in contrasting complement types, which leaves realis and irrealis forms of the verb available for expressing 'expectations of actuation'. The main interest of the Baltic complementizer system seems to lie in the insights it affords into the potentially distinct though often by default coinsiding oppositions between propositional and state-of-affairs, realis and irrealis, epistemically neutral and epistemically marked complementizers. Also of interest are the recent developments in the domain of epistemic, evidential ant interpretive use marking. Markers of these three types acquire specific functions in clausal complements (often differing from the functions they have in independent sentences) and after a period of co-occurrence with complementizers seem to shift to position of complementizer themselves, leading to the rise of new types of semantically marked complementizers. These processes are still ongoing, especially in Lithuanian, and they are still awaiting more in-depth research. [eLABa]