Seppo Kittilä
Biographic Data
| ID | 1453698 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Seppo Kittilä |
| GIVEN NAMES | Seppo |
| FAMILY NAME | Kittilä |
| SIGNATURE | KITTILÄ S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3409-3615 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A phonological typology of demonstratives: A study in iconicity
This article proposes a phonological typology of proximal and distal demonstratives. The typology is primarily based on the distinctive sounds in the demonstratives under study, and secondarily on their length. Three major types (each with subtypes), labeled as Distance, Length, and Varia, are distinguished. The first type is the most frequent one, but length also makes an important contribution to phonologically coded oppositions between demonst…
Inference versus assumption in light of the Finnish evidential-modal adverbs näköjään and varmaan
Inference is usually defined as a speaker’s personal but indirect evidence that is based on something that the speaker can directly witness (such as the result of an event), while assumption is based on something such as the speaker’s general knowledge of the world. This paper is concerned with inference and assumption in light of the semantics of the Finnish inferential and assumptive adverbs näköjään (inference) and varmaan (assumption). These …
A typological approach to intersubjective uses of the Finnish clitic markers = hAn and = se from the perspectives of engagement and their interrelations with subject person
The present study adopts a typological approach to investigate intersubjective uses of the Finnish clitic markers =hAn and =se , which are derived from third-person pronouns, within the emerging framework of engagement. The methods encompass two data gathering approaches: 1) a qualitative survey involving actual Finnish language users through a questionnaire to identify functions, and 2) a quantitative survey examining co-occurrences between the …
Case
All Uralic languages have cases, but the size of case inventories varies greatly. In some languages, the so-called grammatical cases are used to express not only grammatical roles such as Agent, Patient, or Recipient, but also definiteness or boundedness, the Finnic partitive vs accusative variation being one of the best-known examples. Semantic cases, in turn, are commonly known for multiple tripartite (‘from’—‘at’—‘to’) local case systems in Fi…
A typology of Goal-Source marking in transfer events
This paper discusses the coding of Goals and Sources from a cross-linguistic perspective and proposes a formal-functional typology based on how animacy and direction affect their coding. The proposed typology comprises three types; Goal vs. Source-languages, animacy and direction-languages, and variable types. The paper shows that the coding of Goals and Sources is primarily conditioned by their semantic roles (by the direction of transfer/motion…
Folklore as an evidential category
Folklore refers to information that we have learnt as a part of the history of our own people and that has passed on from generation to generation for hundreds, or even thousands of years. This paper shows that as an information source folklore has features in common with other information sources, most notably hearsay, but it nevertheless constitutes an information source of its own, characterized as [−personal] [−direct] and [+internalized]. In…
Grammatical Voice
The grammatical category of voice covers a wide range of phenomena, including causatives, applicatives, passives, antipassives, middles, and others. Drawing on data from over 200 languages, Fernando Zúñiga and Seppo Kittilä illustrate the semantic, morphological, and syntactic variation of voice across languages from a range of families and regions. They approach the topic from a broad and explicit perspective, and discuss a variety of topics tha…
General knowledge as an evidential category
Numerous studies have dealt with the coding of information sources within and across languages. These studies have shown that despite the significant differences in the number of formally distinct evidentiality categories, languages tend to have grammaticalized markers for certain information sources, but not for others; different kinds of sensory perception, inference, assumption and hearsay evidence are among those information sources that rece…
Person and Knowledge: Introduction
The relation between person and epistemicity has been a topic of investigation throughout the humanities, including linguistics, but has mostly been focused on how conceptualisations of these two notions overlap, or diverge. This paper reviews some of these conceptualisations, but also adds a finergrained picture of how they intersect in the world’s languages. Purported categories such as egophoric marking and lesser known expressions such as non…
[Review Of: [] Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic
Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. (Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Baltic, 2). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ISBN: 9789027259103 (hardback), ISBN: 9789027267955 (e-book). The present book deals with different aspects of voice in Baltic languages. The book presents the second volume in the (mini-)series "Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Balti…
Typology and diachrony of partitive case markers
Recent developments and open questions in the field of semantic roles
This introductory chapter briefly introduces a few milestones in the voluminous previous literature on semantic roles, and charts the territory in which the papers of this volume aim to make a contribution. This territory is characterized by fairly disparate conceptualizations of semantic roles and their status in theories of grammar and the lexicon, as well as by diverse and probably complementary ways of deriving or identifying them based on li…
Semantic roles and verbless constructions: A Finnish challenge for verb-centered approaches
Semantic roles constitute one of the most notorious notions in linguistics because they have been defined in numerous ways depending on the author’s theoretical framework and goals. Typically these definitions are somehow, more or less explicitly, based on verbs and their properties. In this paper, semantic roles are discussed from a completely different perspective; we examine genuinely verbless constructions attested in Finnish newspaper headli…
Dative shift in a language without dative? The (allative) case of Finnish
Dative shift is a two-fold process that affects both the morphological coding and the order of T and R arguments of a three-participant construction, as in the teacher gave a book to the student vs. the teacher gave the student a book . Across languages, dative shift tends to express similar functions including differences in animacy, definiteness, semantic role of arguments, affectedness of recipient and permanence of transfer. This is understan…
Weather and Language
This paper summarizes current findings in the cross-linguistic study of meteorological constructions. It provides both a typology of weather events and a typology of encoding formats used for the expression of weather in and across languages. The discussion shows that there is a correlation between these two parameters: there are clear tendencies in the distribution of the various encoding types across the various event types. This gives rise to …
Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles
The chapters of this volume scrutinize the interplay of different combinations of case, animacy and semantic roles, thus contributing to our understanding of these notions in a novel way. The focus of the chapters lies on showing how animacy affects argument marking. Unlike previous studies, these chapters primarily deal with lesser studied phenomena, such as animacy effects on spatial cases and the differences between cases and adpositions in th…
Remarks on the coding of Goal, Recipient and Vicinal Goal in European Uralic
This paper discusses the coding of three roles, Goal, Recipient and Vicinal Goal (‘to the vicinity of’) in European Uralic languages. The paper shows that Uralic languages typically use cases for Recipients and Goals, while Vicinal Goals bear adpositional coding except for a few languages with extraordinarily rich case inventories. The explanation given for this is that Goals and Recipients are expected roles, borne by inanimate and animate endpo…
The linguistics of weather: Cross-linguistic patterns of meteorological expressions
This paper is a cross-linguistic investigation of meteorological expressions (such as it is snowing or the wind blows ). The paper proposes a three-fold typology of meteorological constructions according to the element primarily responsible for the coding of weather. In the predicate type, a predicate expresses the meteorological event, while an argument has other functions. In the argument type, an argument is responsible for expressing weather,…
Transitivity Typology
This article describes some of the most central facets of transitivity in general. It briefly reports some of the definitions linguistic transitivity has been given. These comprise semantic (including functional-typological definitions), formal, and pragmatic (transitivity in discourse) approaches to transitivity. The number and marking of overt arguments, along with features of verb morphology, constitute the central formal features of transitiv…
Defining prototypical transitivity
On the encoding of transitivity-related features on the indirect object
The present article examines the effects of transitivity on the encoding of indirect object. The examined features comprise affectedness, aspect and animacy. In addition, differences between what will be labelled as neutral vs. purposeful transfer will be discussed. The article shows that effects of transitivity are not confined to direct objects only, but transitivity has consequences for indirect object coding too. In addition, the article also…
A typology of tritransitives: Alignment types and motivations
The present article discusses the syntax and semantics of tritransitive constructions. The label comprises constructions like a physiotherapist made the phonetician give a book to the bassoon player and a phonetician gave a book to the bassoon player for the physiotherapist and their equivalents in the languages of the world. The article proposes a formal typology, which is based on the formal similarities and differences in the Recipient and Ben…
Object-, animacy- and role-based strategies: A typology of object marking
The present paper discusses the marking of objects in ditransitive clauses. On the basis of the factors conditioning the marking, three strategies are distinguished. These are labeled as object-, animacy- and role-based strategies. In the first case, the mere objecthood (i.e. the contrast to the Agent) determines the marking of objects. In the animacy-based strategy, animate Themes and Recipients are encoded in the same way as animate Patients, w…
The anomaly of the verb 'give' explained by its high (formal and semantic) transitivity
‘Give’ is a very atypical trivalent verb in many ways. In the present article, an explanation for this anomaly will be proposed. The goal of the article at hand is to show that the anomaly of ‘give’ follows from its high formal transitivity, which also has a semantic basis. This means that ‘give’ shares a number of features with highly transitive two-actant clauses and thus outranks other trivalent verbs in formal transitivity in languages in whi…
Optional marking of arguments
Remarks on involuntary agent constructions
The present paper discusses formal and semantic features of so-called “Involuntary Agent Constructions” (IAC for short) from a cross- linguistic perspective. The label refers to constructions that express the meaning ‘do sth. accidentally/involuntarily’. This means that in contrast to a canonical agent the feature of volitionality is lacking. The paper shows that volitionality (and thus agency) is an important part of linguistic transitivity, sin…
General knowledge as an evidential category
Numerous studies have dealt with the coding of information sources within and across languages. These studies have shown that despite the significant differences in the number of formally distinct evidentiality categories, languages tend to have grammaticalized markers for certain information sources, but not for others; different kinds of sensory perception, inference, assumption and hearsay evidence are among those information sources that rece…
Optional marking of arguments
Remarks on the basic transitive sentence
Weather and Language
This paper summarizes current findings in the cross-linguistic study of meteorological constructions. It provides both a typology of weather events and a typology of encoding formats used for the expression of weather in and across languages. The discussion shows that there is a correlation between these two parameters: there are clear tendencies in the distribution of the various encoding types across the various event types. This gives rise to …
The anomaly of the verb 'give' explained by its high (formal and semantic) transitivity
‘Give’ is a very atypical trivalent verb in many ways. In the present article, an explanation for this anomaly will be proposed. The goal of the article at hand is to show that the anomaly of ‘give’ follows from its high formal transitivity, which also has a semantic basis. This means that ‘give’ shares a number of features with highly transitive two-actant clauses and thus outranks other trivalent verbs in formal transitivity in languages in whi…
Remarks on the basic transitive sentence
Optional marking of arguments
Remarks on involuntary agent constructions
The present paper discusses formal and semantic features of so-called “Involuntary Agent Constructions” (IAC for short) from a cross- linguistic perspective. The label refers to constructions that express the meaning ‘do sth. accidentally/involuntarily’. This means that in contrast to a canonical agent the feature of volitionality is lacking. The paper shows that volitionality (and thus agency) is an important part of linguistic transitivity, sin…
Object-, animacy- and role-based strategies: A typology of object marking
The present paper discusses the marking of objects in ditransitive clauses. On the basis of the factors conditioning the marking, three strategies are distinguished. These are labeled as object-, animacy- and role-based strategies. In the first case, the mere objecthood (i.e. the contrast to the Agent) determines the marking of objects. In the animacy-based strategy, animate Themes and Recipients are encoded in the same way as animate Patients, w…
The anomaly of the verb 'give' explained by its high (formal and semantic) transitivity
‘Give’ is a very atypical trivalent verb in many ways. In the present article, an explanation for this anomaly will be proposed. The goal of the article at hand is to show that the anomaly of ‘give’ follows from its high formal transitivity, which also has a semantic basis. This means that ‘give’ shares a number of features with highly transitive two-actant clauses and thus outranks other trivalent verbs in formal transitivity in languages in whi…
On the encoding of transitivity-related features on the indirect object
The present article examines the effects of transitivity on the encoding of indirect object. The examined features comprise affectedness, aspect and animacy. In addition, differences between what will be labelled as neutral vs. purposeful transfer will be discussed. The article shows that effects of transitivity are not confined to direct objects only, but transitivity has consequences for indirect object coding too. In addition, the article also…
A typology of tritransitives: Alignment types and motivations
The present article discusses the syntax and semantics of tritransitive constructions. The label comprises constructions like a physiotherapist made the phonetician give a book to the bassoon player and a phonetician gave a book to the bassoon player for the physiotherapist and their equivalents in the languages of the world. The article proposes a formal typology, which is based on the formal similarities and differences in the Recipient and Ben…
Defining prototypical transitivity
The linguistics of weather: Cross-linguistic patterns of meteorological expressions
This paper is a cross-linguistic investigation of meteorological expressions (such as it is snowing or the wind blows ). The paper proposes a three-fold typology of meteorological constructions according to the element primarily responsible for the coding of weather. In the predicate type, a predicate expresses the meteorological event, while an argument has other functions. In the argument type, an argument is responsible for expressing weather,…
Transitivity Typology
This article describes some of the most central facets of transitivity in general. It briefly reports some of the definitions linguistic transitivity has been given. These comprise semantic (including functional-typological definitions), formal, and pragmatic (transitivity in discourse) approaches to transitivity. The number and marking of overt arguments, along with features of verb morphology, constitute the central formal features of transitiv…
Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles
The chapters of this volume scrutinize the interplay of different combinations of case, animacy and semantic roles, thus contributing to our understanding of these notions in a novel way. The focus of the chapters lies on showing how animacy affects argument marking. Unlike previous studies, these chapters primarily deal with lesser studied phenomena, such as animacy effects on spatial cases and the differences between cases and adpositions in th…
Remarks on the coding of Goal, Recipient and Vicinal Goal in European Uralic
This paper discusses the coding of three roles, Goal, Recipient and Vicinal Goal (‘to the vicinity of’) in European Uralic languages. The paper shows that Uralic languages typically use cases for Recipients and Goals, while Vicinal Goals bear adpositional coding except for a few languages with extraordinarily rich case inventories. The explanation given for this is that Goals and Recipients are expected roles, borne by inanimate and animate endpo…
Weather and Language
This paper summarizes current findings in the cross-linguistic study of meteorological constructions. It provides both a typology of weather events and a typology of encoding formats used for the expression of weather in and across languages. The discussion shows that there is a correlation between these two parameters: there are clear tendencies in the distribution of the various encoding types across the various event types. This gives rise to …
Typology and diachrony of partitive case markers
Recent developments and open questions in the field of semantic roles
This introductory chapter briefly introduces a few milestones in the voluminous previous literature on semantic roles, and charts the territory in which the papers of this volume aim to make a contribution. This territory is characterized by fairly disparate conceptualizations of semantic roles and their status in theories of grammar and the lexicon, as well as by diverse and probably complementary ways of deriving or identifying them based on li…
Semantic roles and verbless constructions: A Finnish challenge for verb-centered approaches
Semantic roles constitute one of the most notorious notions in linguistics because they have been defined in numerous ways depending on the author’s theoretical framework and goals. Typically these definitions are somehow, more or less explicitly, based on verbs and their properties. In this paper, semantic roles are discussed from a completely different perspective; we examine genuinely verbless constructions attested in Finnish newspaper headli…
Dative shift in a language without dative? The (allative) case of Finnish
Dative shift is a two-fold process that affects both the morphological coding and the order of T and R arguments of a three-participant construction, as in the teacher gave a book to the student vs. the teacher gave the student a book . Across languages, dative shift tends to express similar functions including differences in animacy, definiteness, semantic role of arguments, affectedness of recipient and permanence of transfer. This is understan…
[Review Of: [] Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic
Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. (Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Baltic, 2). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ISBN: 9789027259103 (hardback), ISBN: 9789027267955 (e-book). The present book deals with different aspects of voice in Baltic languages. The book presents the second volume in the (mini-)series "Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Balti…
Person and Knowledge: Introduction
The relation between person and epistemicity has been a topic of investigation throughout the humanities, including linguistics, but has mostly been focused on how conceptualisations of these two notions overlap, or diverge. This paper reviews some of these conceptualisations, but also adds a finergrained picture of how they intersect in the world’s languages. Purported categories such as egophoric marking and lesser known expressions such as non…
Grammatical Voice
The grammatical category of voice covers a wide range of phenomena, including causatives, applicatives, passives, antipassives, middles, and others. Drawing on data from over 200 languages, Fernando Zúñiga and Seppo Kittilä illustrate the semantic, morphological, and syntactic variation of voice across languages from a range of families and regions. They approach the topic from a broad and explicit perspective, and discuss a variety of topics tha…
General knowledge as an evidential category
Numerous studies have dealt with the coding of information sources within and across languages. These studies have shown that despite the significant differences in the number of formally distinct evidentiality categories, languages tend to have grammaticalized markers for certain information sources, but not for others; different kinds of sensory perception, inference, assumption and hearsay evidence are among those information sources that rece…
Folklore as an evidential category
Folklore refers to information that we have learnt as a part of the history of our own people and that has passed on from generation to generation for hundreds, or even thousands of years. This paper shows that as an information source folklore has features in common with other information sources, most notably hearsay, but it nevertheless constitutes an information source of its own, characterized as [−personal] [−direct] and [+internalized]. In…
Case
All Uralic languages have cases, but the size of case inventories varies greatly. In some languages, the so-called grammatical cases are used to express not only grammatical roles such as Agent, Patient, or Recipient, but also definiteness or boundedness, the Finnic partitive vs accusative variation being one of the best-known examples. Semantic cases, in turn, are commonly known for multiple tripartite (‘from’—‘at’—‘to’) local case systems in Fi…
A typology of Goal-Source marking in transfer events
This paper discusses the coding of Goals and Sources from a cross-linguistic perspective and proposes a formal-functional typology based on how animacy and direction affect their coding. The proposed typology comprises three types; Goal vs. Source-languages, animacy and direction-languages, and variable types. The paper shows that the coding of Goals and Sources is primarily conditioned by their semantic roles (by the direction of transfer/motion…
Inference versus assumption in light of the Finnish evidential-modal adverbs näköjään and varmaan
Inference is usually defined as a speaker’s personal but indirect evidence that is based on something that the speaker can directly witness (such as the result of an event), while assumption is based on something such as the speaker’s general knowledge of the world. This paper is concerned with inference and assumption in light of the semantics of the Finnish inferential and assumptive adverbs näköjään (inference) and varmaan (assumption). These …
Philosophy (25 works) · Linguistics (24 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 works) · Artificial Intelligence (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Typology (11 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works)