Object Marking with Discrete Objects in Finnish and Lithuanian

Abstract

The case of the direct object of transitive verbs in Finnish alternates between the accusative and the partitive. In Lithuanian, there is an alternation between the accusative and the partitive genitive. It was shown in previous research that some functions of the Finnish partitive and the Lithuanian partitive genitive in object marking are identical (i.e. partial affectedness of mass nouns) but there are some features that haven’t received enough attention in the literature, e.g., the Lithuanian partitive genitive with discrete nouns. This paper offers an overview of possible conditions for the use of partitive genitive in resultative constructions in modern and older Lithuanian in comparison with their counterparts in Finnish and Slavic.