M. V. Kosheleva. Features of the functioning of the I infinitive in the Veps language based on the materials of the Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages

Introduction. One of the important reasons for the high attention to the study of the Veps language is the young system of Veps writing language, the formation of which has been taking place in recent decades. Because of rules development the researchers have to analyze a number of grammatical categories, including the form of the I infinitive considered in the article.
Materials and Methods. The article analyzes the cases of the use of the I infinitive based on dialect materials of the Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages. It identifies the statistics of the use of these forms in sentences, identifies the patterns of their functioning in syntactic constructions, and identifies the difference or its absence in the use of infinitives in different dialects of the Veps language.
Results and Discussion. The I infinitive is the most common and popular infinitive form in the Veps language, therefore it is represented in a large number of texts available in the Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages. The analysis showed that the frequency of its use in all dialects of Veps language is approximately the same. The I infinitive performs the roles of subject, object, adverbial and adjective in the sentence, and acts as a predicative as part of the colorative construction. Depending on the syntactic function of the infinitive, several main groups are distinguished as part of the infinitive construction.
Conclusion. The Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages is a rich source for the study of the Veps language material. It contains a significant dialect base, which, despite the need for its constant replenishment, is valuable and representative for the researcher, and with manual processing allows us to describe the picture of the use of the I infinitive in the Veps language from the point of view of its syntactic role.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, the Veps language, I infinitive, syntactic functions of infinitives

Acknowledgments: The article was prepared within the framework of the state assignment of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, No. 121070700122-5 “Fundamental and applied aspects of the study of the Baltic-Finnish languages of Karelia and adjacent regions”.

For citation: Kosheleva MV. Features of the functioning of the I infinitive in the Veps language based on the materials of the Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2023;15;4:408–420. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.015.2023.04.408-420.

Information about the author
M. V. Kosheleva – Senior Lecturer, Department of Baltic-Finnish Languages, Petrozavodsk State University, Junior Research Fellow, Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, koshelevamasha@bk.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9468-9580