Keele muutumine kasutuskontekstis
Change of Language in Usage Context

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses certain grammatical tendencies observable in written and spoken Estonian, which could be accounted for by the function, or usage context of the linguistic phenomena in question. A broad functional approach could be applied here as theoretical basis, including the theory of natural morphology, the theory of grammatization (with a cognitive background), and conversation analysis. The object of our study included some notable morphological changes such as, e.g. generalization of the partitive plural ending in -si, receding of quality alternation, emergence of -t as the partitive singular ending in the inflectional paradigm typified by the noun pesa ’nest’, and some composites and short forms that, having spontaneously emerged in spoken language, go on worming their way into literary language. It should be noted that both written and spoken variants of a language are apt to change in usage context, while deviations from norm are not merely accidental. We argue that salient colloquialisms should be included in lexical and grammatical descriptions of a language, as such speech forms are vital for successful communication. Our conclusion reads that inferences made from natural language usage enable research of functional shifts taking place in the grammar. In addition, natural language studies provide authentic source material for grammarians and language planners.

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