Da- ja ma-infinitiiviga konstruktsioonid 17. sajandi kirjakeeles
Constructions of da- and ma-infinitives in Old Written Estonian

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the use and functions of da- and ma-infi nitives in Old Written Estonian and compares their use with contemporary written Estonian. Since the use and functions of the infi nitives can best be characterized by the argument structure of the verbs that take an infi nitive complement, the article focuses on those clauses where one member is an infi nitival construction. The theoretical framework used is construction grammar, and the analysis is based on corpus texts. It appeared that the frequent contemporary Estonian constructions were also predominant in 17th-century texts. However, some changes in the most typical meaning of these constructions can still be noted. The same construction revealed extensive variation of da- and ma-infi nitives in the selection of 17th-century texts. The data of the 17th-century language revealed also single occurrences of infi nitives for which no counterparts could be found among either the ma- or da-infi nitives in contemporary Estonian. Examples of such occurrences include verbal substantives with the ma-suffi x, counterparts of contemporary vat-infinitive constructions, and the use of infi nitives as adverbials of purpose (manifesting a German infl uence). However, compared to the more frequent constructions with infinitives, these uses were still marginal.

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