Zu Konstruktionen mit unpersönlich gebrauchtem ‘haben’ in den Balkansprachen

Abstract

Summary The present paper deals with a particular type of sentence structure without subject, which from the semantic point of view represents a special kind of the so-called existential sentences. The corresponding syntactic constructions consist of the immediate constituents predicate and direct object; optionally they can be completed with a local adverbial and/or a temporal adverbial. The author points out several common characteristics of Balkan languages, appearing in concrete representations of this type. Among these the most striking conformity is the lexical realization of the predicate with equivalents to the verb ‘to have’, only impersonally used in the given syntactic context. This parallel is evident in seven Balkanic languages reap, dialects, representatives of four branches of the Indo-european language family: Albanian; Modern Greek; Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian ; Aromanian, Meglenitian. A comparison with older stages of the contemporary Balkan languages shows, that the way of construction with ‘to have’-equivalents seems to bo an innovation. The author regards this kind of expression as an appearance of convergence, resulting from processes of interference between the Balkan languages, and considers it as Balkanism. The same way of expression occurs also in languages outside the Balkan, for example in other Slavic and Romanic ones, but the relevant areas mostly are formed from languages with genealogic relationship, whereas the relatively closed area at the Balkan, shown with regard to the investigated phenomenon, above all is founded upon geographic neighbourhood.