Papers by Reeli Torn-Leesik
Linguistica Uralica, 2007
The interaction of voice and modal verbs in Estonian confirms the impersonal nature of the basic ... more The interaction of voice and modal verbs in Estonian confirms the impersonal nature of the basic voice opposition in Estonian and clarifies the constraints on impersonalization. In the voice system of Modern Estonian, active personal constructions contrast primarily with active impersonal constructions and resultative passive constructions. The existence of impersonal forms of most modal elements shows that impersonals are active indefinites, not passives, since modals almost universally resist passivization. The modals that lack impersonal forms are those that express necessity. However, this semantic pattern has a syntactic explanation. Verbs that do not allow a nominative subject do not have impersonal forms in Estonian. Most modals that express necessity do not govern nominative subjects, but instead code their actors as adessive obliques. The general connection between nominative subjects and impersonal forms is reinforced by the behaviour of a subclass of necessity modals that are characteristically used in the negative. Modals of this class, including tarvitsema 'need' and pruukima 'need', allow nominative subjects in negative contexts, and also have negative impersonal (but not affirmative impersonal) forms.
Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
Rahvusvaheline lingvistikaolümpiaad kutsuti ellu 2003. aastal. Eestis seati see sisse samal aast... more Rahvusvaheline lingvistikaolümpiaad kutsuti ellu 2003. aastal. Eestis seati see sisse samal aastal tänu Renate Pajusalule, kes seda vedama asus. Siinne artikkel vaatabki tagasi 20-le lingvistikaolümpiaadi aastale ning Renate rollile selles, tehes seda Renate kaasteeliste pilgu läbi. Artiklis leiavad kajastust erinevad võistlusvoorud, aga ka olümpiaadi heaks tehtavad tegevused, nagu lingvistikalaagrid, koolikülastused ja lingvistikaseminarid. Ühtlasi ilmneb artiklist, et olümpiaad ja sellega seonduv on nende 20 aasta jooksul täitnud oma laiemat eesmärki: tuhanded õpilased on saanud aimu erisugustest maailma keeltest ja ka keeleteadusest. . Miina Norvik, Linda Freienthal, Olga Gerassimenko, Airika Harrik, Axel Jagau, Reeli Torn-Leesik, Külli Prillop: 20 years of linguistics Olympiad with Renate Pajusalu. The International Linguistics Olympiad was inaugurated in 2003. The corresponding Estonian national olympiad was established in the same year thanks to the efforts of Ren...
Kalbotyra, 2003
The present paper reports the results of one part of a study conducted on the native language of ... more The present paper reports the results of one part of a study conducted on the native language of three Estonian-English bilingual children living in Britain. This part focuses on object case marking. The study found that the native language of these children demonstrated English influence in their systematic overuse of the partitive to mark direct objects in Estonian. The plausibility of regarding this as a transfer effect is supported by two considerations. First, the children have limited exposure to Estonian speakers in England, so that English has become their dominant language. Second, the children's simplification of object marking patterns conforms to the much simpler English pattern. The primary subjects were asked to translate 40 English sentences (with 43 object contexts) into Estonian. A set of Estonian control subjects were given a completion task with the same sentences in Estonian. The results of the study revealed that the primary subjects overwhelmingly used the ...
This study was supported by the Doctoral School of Linguistics and Language Technology and by Gra... more This study was supported by the Doctoral School of Linguistics and Language Technology and by Grant no. TFLEE 2568. I am especially grateful to Jim Blevins and Mati Erelt for their helpful comments on this article. 2 Estonian has 14 cases. Nominative, genitive and partitive are abstract grammatical cases. Illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive and ablative are 'local' semantic cases, and translative, terminative, essive, abessive and comitative make up the remaining semantic cases.
The present paper reports the results of one part of a study conducted on the native language of ... more The present paper reports the results of one part of a study conducted on the native language of three Estonian-English bilingual children living in Britain. This part focuses on object case marking. The study found that the native language of these children demonstrated English influence in their systematic overuse of the partitive to mark direct objects in Estonian. The plausibility of regarding this as a transfer effect is supported by two considerations. First, the children have limited exposure to Estonian speakers in England, so that English has become their dominant language. Second, the children’s simplification of object marking patterns conforms to the much simpler English pattern. The primary subjects were asked to translate 40 English sentences (with 43 object contexts) into Estonian. A set of Estonian control subjects were given a completion task with the same sentences in Estonian. The results of the study revealed that the primary subjects overwhelmingly used the part...
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Väitekiri uurib eesti keele imperson... more Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Väitekiri uurib eesti keele impersonaali- ja passiivikonstruktsioonide omadusi ning näitab, et eesti keele impersonaal (nt matkati) on passiivist (nt spioonid olid kinni püütud) olemuslikult erinev tegumood ning seda ei saa käsitleda nt indo-euroopa keeltest tuntud passiivi alamliigina. Autor analüüsib eesti keele tegumoekonstruktsioone nii kirja- kui suulises keeles ning panustab nelja peamisse valdkonda. Esiteks uuritakse impersonaali ja passiivi moodustamisel ja kasutamisel eesti keeles kehtivaid piiranguid. Uurimused näitavad, et impersonaalile ja passiivile kehtivad eri leksikaalsed, semantilised ja morfosüntaktilised piirangud. Impersonaali saab moodustada nii sihilistest kui sihitutest (sh mitteakusatiivsetest) verbidest, samuti modaalverbidest – samas on passiivi moodustamine võimalik vaid sihilistest verbidest. Erinevalt passiivist annab impersonaali kasutamine vaikimisi edasi tähenduse, et verbiga märgitava tegev...
Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu aastaraamat Estonian Papers in Applied Linguistics
The aim of the study is to examine whether the CLAWS7 tagger is a suitable tool for tagging the T... more The aim of the study is to examine whether the CLAWS7 tagger is a suitable tool for tagging the Tartu Corpus of Estonian Learner English (TCELE). Extracts were tagged manually and automatically, and the results were compared to calculate the error rate and reveal the possible causes for tagger errors. The error rate was 4.01%. The tagger expectedly experienced some of the disambiguation problems outlined in the CLAWS7 post-editing guide, yet certain tagger errors were also triggered by learner errors.
Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, 2021
Modals in the Languages of Europe
s of the GGG annual meeting, 26−30. Rätsep, H. 1978. Eesti keele lihtlausete tüübid. Tallinn: Val... more s of the GGG annual meeting, 26−30. Rätsep, H. 1978. Eesti keele lihtlausete tüübid. Tallinn: Valgus. Saareste, A. (ed.) 1925. Valik eestikeelseid grammatilisi oskussõnu. Eesti Keel IV, 20−35. Seymour, H., Roeper T., De Villiers, J. and De Villiers, P. A. 2005. The DELV-NR (normreferenced version): The diagnostic evaluation of language variation. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. Shibatani, M. 1985. Passives and related constructions: a prototype analysis. Language 61 (4), 821–848. Shibatani, M. (ed.). 1988. Passive and Voice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Shimada, H. and Sano, T. 2007. A-chains and unaccusative-unergative distinction in the child grammar: The acquisition of Japanese te-iru constructions. In A. Belikova, L. Meroni and M. Umeda (eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 386–393. Shore, S. 1986. Onko suomessa passiivia? Helsinki:...
Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu aastaraamat. Estonian Papers in Applied Linguistics, 2009
Ülevaade. Artiklis uuritakse tegumoekonstruktsioone eesti lapsekeeles. Esiteks vaadeldakse tegumo... more Ülevaade. Artiklis uuritakse tegumoekonstruktsioone eesti lapsekeeles. Esiteks vaadeldakse tegumoekonstruktsioonide esinemist lapse ja täiskasvanu vahelises vestluses. Analüüsitav keelematerjal pärineb korpusest CHILDES. Analüüsi tulemus näitab, et lapse ja täiskasvanu vahelises vestluses kasutatakse sünteetilisi impersonaalivorme enamasti geneerilises funktsioonis üldkehtivate (käitumis)normide esitamiseks, kuid mõnikord ka ebaolulise tegija taandamiseks. Enamik lapsekeele impersonaalivorme on moodustatud sihilistest tegusõnadest. Perifrastilisi tud-partitsiibiga vorme kasutatakse resultatiivsuse märkimiseks ja neid võib pidada ka aspektikategooria väljenduseks. Artikli teises pooles esitatakse 4-6-aastaste lastega läbi viidud mõistmiskatse tulemused, mis osutavad, et impersonaali vormid iseenesest ei valmista lastele raskusi, mõnevõrra raskendab aga impersonaalse lause mõistmist testlauses esinev poolt-konstruktsioon. Vaadeldud lausetüüpidest tekitasid tõsiseid mõistmisraskusi ainult OVS-sõnajärjega aktiivilaused, milles puudus objekti käändemarker.* Võtmesõnad: keeleomandamine, sisendkeel, grammatilised kategooriad, impersonaal, passiiv, eesti keel
Language Acquisition, 2015
Journal of Baltic Studies, 2012
Modals in the Languages of Europe: …, 2009
This cross-linguistic study evaluates children’s understanding of passives in eleven typologicall... more This cross-linguistic study evaluates children’s understanding of passives in eleven typologically different languages: Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Polish. The study intends to determine whether the reported gaps between the comprehension of active and passive and between short and full passive hold crosslinguistically. The present study offers two major findings. The first is the relative ease in which
five year-old children across 11 different languages are able to comprehend short passive constructions (compared to the full passive). The second and perhaps the more intriguing finding is
the variation seen across the different languages in children’s comprehension of full passive constructions. We argued, based on the present findings, that given the relevant linguistic input (e.g., flexibility in word order and experience with argument reduction), children at the age of five are capable of acquiring both the short passive and the full passive. Variation, however, stems from the specific characteristics of each language, and good mastery of passives by the age of five is not a universal, cross-linguistically valid milestone in typical language acquisition. Therefore, difficulties with passives (short or full) can be used for identifying SLI at the age of five only in those languages in which it has already been mastered by typically developing children.
Language Typology and Universals, 2009
... and today seem:impers:past these:el finals:el more huvi tundvat ja elati rohkem kaasa.25 inte... more ... and today seem:impers:past these:el finals:el more huvi tundvat ja elati rohkem kaasa.25 interest:part feel:vinf and live:impers:past more with ... Also the verbs meenuma 'remember' and meeldima 'like' tend not to be used in the impersonal, as illustrated in (33b) and (34b). ...
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Papers by Reeli Torn-Leesik
five year-old children across 11 different languages are able to comprehend short passive constructions (compared to the full passive). The second and perhaps the more intriguing finding is
the variation seen across the different languages in children’s comprehension of full passive constructions. We argued, based on the present findings, that given the relevant linguistic input (e.g., flexibility in word order and experience with argument reduction), children at the age of five are capable of acquiring both the short passive and the full passive. Variation, however, stems from the specific characteristics of each language, and good mastery of passives by the age of five is not a universal, cross-linguistically valid milestone in typical language acquisition. Therefore, difficulties with passives (short or full) can be used for identifying SLI at the age of five only in those languages in which it has already been mastered by typically developing children.
five year-old children across 11 different languages are able to comprehend short passive constructions (compared to the full passive). The second and perhaps the more intriguing finding is
the variation seen across the different languages in children’s comprehension of full passive constructions. We argued, based on the present findings, that given the relevant linguistic input (e.g., flexibility in word order and experience with argument reduction), children at the age of five are capable of acquiring both the short passive and the full passive. Variation, however, stems from the specific characteristics of each language, and good mastery of passives by the age of five is not a universal, cross-linguistically valid milestone in typical language acquisition. Therefore, difficulties with passives (short or full) can be used for identifying SLI at the age of five only in those languages in which it has already been mastered by typically developing children.