Dative radial category in Old Church Slavonic and Modern Russian

Ekaterina Voloshina

doi:10.7557/6.5925

Abstract

In this paper, the semantic roles expressed by the Dative case in Modern Russian and Old Church Slavonic are described in terms of radial categories. The corpus data shows that the radial category of the Dative case has changed since Old Church Slavonic. The radial category in Modern Russian is smaller, and it includes fewer subcategories than attested in Old Church Slavonic. The change of the category prototype could explain the changes in the category of the Dative case. Recipient is postulated to be the prototype of the Dative case category in Modern Russian, while Direction appeared to be the best prototype for Old Church Slavonic data.

Highlights

In this paper, I will describe the radial categories of the bare Dative case in Modern Russian and Old Church Slavonic based on the scholarly literature and corpus data
My hypothesis is that the semantic role of Goal used to be the prototype of the Dative case in Old Church Slavonic, whereas in Modern Russian Recipient is the best candidate for the prototype
I have described the functions of Dative, which can be found in Old Church Slavonic and discussed two possible prototypes for the semantic roles of Dative: Goal and Recipient

Summary

Introduction

I will describe the radial categories of the bare Dative case in Modern Russian and Old Church Slavonic based on the scholarly literature and corpus data. My hypothesis is that the semantic role of Goal used to be the prototype of the Dative case in Old Church Slavonic, whereas in Modern Russian Recipient is the best candidate for the prototype. Referring to the semantic map proposed by Martin Haspelmath, the following functions of the Dative case were attested in Old Church Slavonic: Goal, Recipient, Experiencer, Beneficiary, External Possessor and Purpose. I have described the functions of Dative, which can be found in Old Church Slavonic (summarized in Schema 5) and discussed two possible prototypes for the semantic roles of Dative: Goal and Recipient. Some roles, such as Addressee and Beneficiary, can be motivated by both Goal and Recipient. The most important argument for Goal as the prototype of the radial category of Dative in OCS is the fact that Goal can be a source for the metaphor of Recipient but not vice versa, as the meaning of Recipient is more abstract than the meaning of Goal, and it is believed that abstract meanings tend to develop from spatial ones

Type frequency of Dative in Old Church Slavonic

Findings

Conclusion