Latvian Grammar

Abstract

“Latvian Grammar” was written to make information about the Latvian language and its grammatical system more easily available not only within Latvia, but also beyond its borders. A modern grammar of Latvian written in English is as important for native speakers of Latvian as for those who have learned Latvian as a second language and also is of great value for anyone interested in the culture and history of Latvia or the Latvian language itself. The need for a reference grammar of Latvian written in English is especially important right now due to the existence of a large Latvian diaspora community abroad, particularly in English-speaking countries where children and young people are educated in the language of their home countries rather than in Latvian. A Latvian grammar written in English will also be useful for those who are learning Latvian as a foreign language and wish to learn more about its grammatical system and unique features. Likewise, “Latvian grammar” will be a useful reference and source for examples for teachers of Latvian – both those who teach it to speakers as a school or university subject and those who teach it as a foreign language. There is also considerable demand among linguists abroad for a systematic and dependable description of Latvian written by native speakers of Latvian. Latvian is a rather unique combination of ancient as well as relatively new features, which are of interest to researchers abroad and are important for the typological, cognitive, pragmatic, functional, and contrastive analysis of language.

Livonian polar questions in their areal context

“…The SE Mulgi, Võro, Seto varieties, and the NE Kihnu variety were included for comparative purposes, thus, we mainly aimed at noting different types of examples from various sources (i.e., EMS, Tanning 1961, Lonn & Niit 2002, Salve 2008, Käsi 2011, Laande & Todesk 2013, Faster et al 2014, Laos 2015, Leas et al 2016, Saar et al 2020, Ilves et al 2021). In the case of Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, and Latgalian, we primarily relied on previous studies (e.g., Hennoste et al 2016, Metslang 2017, Metslang, Habicht & Pajusalu 2017 and grammar books (e.g., Cibuļs & Leikuma 2003, Nau 2011, Kalnača & Lokmane 2021.…”

Sinonimiški bendrašakniai asmenų pagal profesiją pavadinimai: daryba, semantika, stilistika ir vartosena

“…Apie darybos reiškinius skirtingais aspektais rašoma įvairiuose (žodžių darybos) veikaluose (Ulvydas, 1965;V. Ambrazas, 2006;Urbutis, 2009;Soida, 2009;Vulāne, 2013;Kalnača ir Lokmane, 2021;Vaskelienė, 2022 ir pan.). Daugelyje jų paprastai yra minimi ir vardažodiniai, ir veiksmažodiniai asmenų pavadinimai.…”

The verb vajadzēt ‘to need, must’ in Latvian: its Livonian origins, modal and distributional features

“…It has long been a tradition in Latvian linguistics to limit the analysis of modality to the domain of verbal moods. As a result, other linguistic means of expressing modal meanings, such as modal verbs, have been relatively little studied -mainly, in the context of semantic verb classes and, to an extent, the debitive mood (e.g., Ahero et al 1959, Paegle 2003, Kalnača & Lokmane 2021. Latvian has a rich system of verbal moods; it is probably for this reason that the functions of modal verbs are not as grammaticalised as, for example, in English or German.…”

“…Latvian has a rich system of verbal moods; it is probably for this reason that the functions of modal verbs are not as grammaticalised as, for example, in English or German. At the same time, modal verbs (both personal and impersonal) in Latvian are quite numerous and varied, e.g., personal drīkstēt 'to be allowed, may', ļaut 'to let', gribēt 'to wish, to want', varēt 'to be able, can', spēt 'to be able', mēgt 'to sometimes/habitually happen', vēlēties 'to wish', impersonal vajadzēt 'to need, must', nākties 'to be obliged to, to have to (due to some circumstances)', laimēties 'to be lucky', izdoties 'to manage, to succeed', gadīties 'to happen', šķist 'to seem', derēt 'to be advisable/ desirable from the point of view of use fulness' (also see Holvoet 2007: 43-48 on modality in Latvian and Lithuanian), and have a distinct role in the semantic and syntactic structure of the sentence (usually discussed under simple sentence structure and predicate typology) apart from grammatical modality expressed by verbal moods (see, e.g., Kārkliņš 1976, Freimane 1985, and Kalnača & Lokmane 2021. The semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of Latvian modal verbs have been discussed, e.g., in Holvoet (2001Holvoet ( , 2007, Ivulāne (2012Ivulāne ( , 2015, and Ivulāne & Kalnača (2013).…”