(Udmurt)
Adp=NNonGov & Adp=NGov
Adp=NNonGov: Adpositions do not behave like verbs. Their complements appear in base form without inflection.
Adp=NGov: Adpositions do not behave like verbs. Their complements appear in various cases depending on the particular adposition in question.
| (1) | śures | duryn | pispu | syl-e. |
|---|
| road | edge.INE | tree | stand‑3SG |
| ’There’s a tree standing on the side of the road.’ (Keľmakov – Hännikäinen 2008: 163) |
| (2) | tekst-a-zy | ǯyny-jez-leś | tros | aźmurt | śaryś | gožja-myn. |
|---|
| text‑INE‑3PL | half‑DET‑ABL | many | president | about | write‑PTCP.PASS |
| ’More than half of their texts is about the president.’ (UdmCorp.) |
| (3) | ta | śaryś | ivor | bydes | šajer-a-zy | völm-i-z. |
|---|
| this | about | news | whole | countryside‑INE‑3PL | spread‑PST‑3SG |
| ’The news about this spread all over their countryside.’ (UdmCorp.) |
| (4) | ton | aľi | ke | no | koťku | mon-en | arte. |
|---|
| you | now | if | too | always | I‑INSCOM | beside |
| ’You are still beside me all the time.’ (UdmCorp.) |
| (5) | ta | ulon-yn | śulemšug-en | arte | šumpoton | vetl-e. |
|---|
| this | life‑INE | sadness‑INSCOM | beside | happiness | go‑3SG |
| ’In this life, happiness and sadness complement each other.’ (UdmCorp.) |
| (6) | zem, | ar-ly | byde | śekyt-ges | jöt-e. |
|---|
| true | year‑DAT | by | difficult‑COMP | touch‑3SG |
| ’True, it seems more difficult each year.’ (UdmCorp.) |
| (7) | ta-leś | aźlo |
|---|
| this‑ABL | before |
| ’before this’ (Keľmakov – Hännikäinen 2008: 162) |
| (8) | pörtem | pudo-os | arte | ke |
|---|
| different | animal‑PL | beside | if |
| ’even if next to different animals’ (UdmCorp.) |
In Udmurt, adposition are postpositins. The case form of the complement varies depending on the postposition. Some postpositions take complements in nominative case (1)–(3), be they nouns (2), or pronouns (3), others take instrumental-comitative forms (such as seren ’because of’, ’for’, valće ’because of’, ’for’, arte ’beside’ (4)–(5)), or dative ones ((e.g. byde ’by (regular time interval interpretation)’ (6), pumit ’against’)), but ablative case is also a possibility (aźlo ’before) (7) (Keľmakov – Hännikäinen 2008: 162–163). At least the postposition arte can also take nominal complements in nominative case (8) indicating that nominal and pronominal complements may differ in case, but further research is needed to establish the details.
Author: Laura Horváth
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