Constructional variation in Estonian: Demonstrative pronouns and adverbs as determiners in noun phrases

Abstract

In Estonian, demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adverbs can be used as determiners in NPs to express similar meanings (cf. selles majas ‘in this house’ and siin majas ‘in this house [here]’). Using multifactorial corpus study, we examine demonstrative choice in such constructions (demPronNP vs. demAdvNP). We demonstrate that the choice between a demonstrative pronoun and an adverb as a determiner is closely related to the meaning of a noun in NP. Most notably, pronouns as determiners co-occur frequently with abstract nouns (including time; e.g., sellel ajal ‘at this time’), and adverbs as determiners with concrete words (including locations; e.g., seal poes ‘in that shop [there]’). Compared to pronouns, adverbs tend to be used more often in combination with words that denote inanimate and static entities. Demonstrative adverbs also occur somewhat more frequently in informal texts and pronouns in formal texts. The results suggest that there is a cline of spatiality ranging from highly spatial sub-constructions of demAdvNP to highly non-spatial sub-constructions of demPronNP. Furthermore, the distinction between demPronNP and demAdvNP is more important in accounting for data variation than the meaning of a demonstrative in terms of the proximal and distal distinction.