The Diachrony of Subjunctive-Infinitive Competition in Balkan Slavic

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_18116
dc.title	The Diachrony of Subjunctive-Infinitive Competition in Balkan Slavic. Typological vs. Sprachbund Phenomena
dc.contributor.author	Sočanac Tomislav
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/balcania-et-slavia/2023/2/the-diachrony-of-subjunctive-infinitive-competitio/
dc.description.abstract	The paper analyses the phenomenon of infinitive loss in Balkan Slavic in the context of the broader cross-linguistic process of subjunctive-infinitive competition (SIC). I adopt a diachronic perspective, analysing the historical developments pertaining to SIC in languages ranging from Old Church Slavonic to present-day Bulgarian and Serbian. The main goal of the paper is to distinguish between those instances of Balkan-Slavic infinitive loss that are a result of broader typological processes and those that can be viewed as genuine Balkan-sprachbund innovations. The specific Balkan innovation in this context was the replacement of infinitives by finite subjunctives in obligatory subject-control environments. I analyse this diachronic development as the result of a formal reanalysis affecting the syntactic status of the Balkan-Slavic subjunctive marker, which allowed it to spread to obligatory-control structures.
dc.relation.ispartof	Balcania et Slavia
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 3 \| Issue 2 \| December 2023
dc.issued	2024-04-18
dc.dateAccepted	2024-04-03
dc.dateSubmitted	2024-02-12
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2785-3187
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/BES/2785-3187/2023/02/005
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Balkans sprachbund
dc.subject	Bulgarian
dc.subject	Infinitive
dc.subject	Old Church Slavonic
dc.subject	Serbian
dc.subject	Subjunctive

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Typological vs. Sprachbund Phenomena

Tomislav Sočanac Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Italia

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abstract

The paper analyses the phenomenon of infinitive loss in Balkan Slavic in the context of the broader cross-linguistic process of subjunctive-infinitive competition (SIC). I adopt a diachronic perspective, analysing the historical developments pertaining to SIC in languages ranging from Old Church Slavonic to present-day Bulgarian and Serbian. The main goal of the paper is to distinguish between those instances of Balkan-Slavic infinitive loss that are a result of broader typological processes and those that can be viewed as genuine Balkan-sprachbund innovations. The specific Balkan innovation in this context was the replacement of infinitives by finite subjunctives in obligatory subject-control environments. I analyse this diachronic development as the result of a formal reanalysis affecting the syntactic status of the Balkan-Slavic subjunctive marker, which allowed it to spread to obligatory-control structures.

Published

April 18, 2024

Accepted

April 3, 2024

Submitted

Feb. 12, 2024

Language

Keywords: Serbian • Old Church Slavonic • Balkans sprachbund • Infinitive • Bulgarian • Subjunctive

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/BES/2785-3187/2023/02/005

Copyright: © 2023 Tomislav Sočanac. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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