Browsing by Subject "object"

The thesis explores object case-marking under long-distance negation. Opposed to local negation (where the negated verb governs the object directly), long-distance (or non-local) refers to negation where the main negated verb governs a clause, which includes an object. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how social (such as age, region of origin, education, bilingualism, second languages) and linguistic factors (structural verb types) might affect case choice between genitive and accusative in negated infinitival clauses in Lithuanian. The data was collected through a questionnaire, distributed to speakers of Lithuanian through Facebook. In total, 116 responses were received. The results were analyzed using statistical methods (Chi-square or Fisher's exact test for statistical significance, Cramer's V for strength of relationship). The findings show that age, region of origin and bilingualism show the strongest relationship with case choice. The choice of accusative is least frequent among the youngest, and most frequent among the oldest respondents. Accusative is also most common among residents of Mažoji Lietuva, followed by Vilnius, while speakers of Kaunas prefer the genitive. Russian-Lithuanian bilinguals favor accusative significantly more often that native speakers of Lithuanian, while Polish-Lithuanian bilinguals favor the genitive. Education and second languages (specifically, Russian and Polish) have weaker, but statistically significant relationships with case choice. The higher the degree of education the less frequent use of accusative, and more frequent the genitive. Second languages reflect the trends of bilingualism, but to a smaller degree: speakers of Russian as a second language use accusative more often, while speakers of Polish as a second language prefer the genitive. Case-marking variation under long-distance negation is still very much viable in Modern Lithuanian and the frequencies of each case used in object marking reflect those of earlier research. Structural verb types play a role in case choice, with some less and others more prone to take an accusative object: same-subject verbs are least likely to take an accusative object, the possibility increases with different-subject verbs and verb+noun complexes and reaches its height with dative experiencer verbs.