ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI XLII (2000)

Evija LIPARTĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Vilnius

MEANINGS OF THE ILLATIVE OR ADVERB laukan AND POSSIBLE SYNONYMS IN LITHUANIAN DIALECTS

The word laukas (noun) is polysemous in Lithuanian. Its meanings are presented differently in various dictionaries:

¹ DŽ ² DŽ ³ DŽ LKŽ VII 410 359 358 177–178 1. treeless, usually flat area (as distinct from a forest or settlements) + + + + 2. cultivated land + + + 3. figuratively, what grows in fields, crops, summer crops + 4. a plot of land of a certain size + 5. soil, area of land + 6. an open-air place + + + + 7. exterior + 8. a place where something is done + + + + 9. village, rural settlement (as distinct from a town) + 10. physics: a space in which certain forces act + + + + 11. conditions of military operations, a campaign, or an expedition + 12. something set up outdoors + 13. margin (of a page) + 14. in the card game thousand, three cards laid aside separately +

Lithuanian dialect dictionaries record not only the meanings already mentioned, but also others:

Drusk. 185 Laz. 140 Ziet. 343 1. as in the standard language + + 2. cultivated land + + 3. plot of land + 4. open-air place + 5. isolated farmstead + 6. a bald, hairless patch, bald spot +

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The remainder of the article will focus only on certain inflected forms of the word laukas, primarily the illative laukan. In Lithuanian, this form has become adverbialized, and in the four principal Lithuanian dictionaries and the dictionaries of individual Lithuanian dialects it is listed in separate entries:

laukan adv.; ¹DŽ 410 ²DŽ 359 ³DŽ 358 LKŽ VII 176 Drusk. 185 Laz. 140 lauk adv. 1. into the field, outdoors + + + + + 2. away + + 3. in the field + laukan particle; ¹DŽ 410 ²DŽ 359 ³DŽ 358 LKŽ VII 176 1. away +

On the basis of data from the four Lithuanian dictionaries mentioned above and the author’s published and unpublished Lithuanian dialect materials¹, five principal meanings have been identified for the form or word laukan. This was done according to the criteria, or features, listed in the diagram, which differ from those used in the Lithuanian dictionaries mentioned above.

¹ The author is very grateful to K. Morkūnas, Head of the Institute’s Department of Language History and Dialectology, and V. Vitkauskas, Head of its Dictionary Department, for permission to use the unpublished dialect materials and additions to the LKŽ held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language.

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First of all, the examples with laukan are divided here into 2 large groups according to whether laukan in the example denotes the location of the action described or its result. In analyzing the meanings of the word, or rather form, laukan, this criterion is the most important.

1. Location of the action (outdoors).

1.1. An indefinite, nonspecific location outdoors is any place beyond the walls of a building (e.g., a house), and movement to this place can be expressed with the instrumental form laukan, for example: If smoke gathers in the cottage, there is no need to let it out Dv. LKŽ VII 178, and I cannot even go outside without a stick, as well as with the construction į lauką (or į laukus), for example: Run outside to get some exercise; afterwards you can read again Gs. LKŽ I 721, We had a little fight and drove them out into the open [out of the room where the dancing was taking place] Pžrl., with the diminutive laukutis, for example: Mummy, let me go outside (into the open), I want to run around Ig., and with the adverb laukanas – laūkanas eik, nerūkuk viduj Šts.²

In Lithuanian dialects, forms of the word oras are also used with this meaning, namely oran, for example: Go outside, children, and play Ut. LKŽ VIII 1011, She ran out into the open by the church Lnk. LKŽ I 678, Go outside in the morning; it’s beautiful and healthy Ob. LKŽ VIII 1011, as well as the prepositional constructions į orą, ant oro, for example, I will go outside K. LKŽ VIII 1012, [the girls] washed up and went outside Paparčiai, Close the door, because we can’t go outside anymore Pb. LKŽ VIII 1012. A diminutive is also possible here: oriukas – Let me get a little fresh air Mžš. ibid.

1.2. A specific location outdoors can be of two kinds.

1.2.1. A specific location outdoors with no specified purpose.

In this case, the primary function of the word laukas, and likewise of its case forms, is contrastive: laukas is contrasted with a forest or settlement, for example: The bird of the field looks outdoors J.Jabl. LKŽ VII 177,... vaikūkūs / išt.v’ed’e. laukōi ir pamišk’ėj lāuž’a sausūs m’ed’el’us Vyžuonos, the cow must be taken out into the field [to graze] Kybartai, nuvarom laukan pagan’it kārv’es Ziet. 195, or laukas (more often in the plural form laukai) is contrasted with a town, for example: jau aš norėjau ait an laūko Zietela, or even a village, for example: We used to live in the village, but later moved out to the fields (to isolated farmsteads) Vl. LKŽ VII 178. It is worth noting that the author has so far been unable to find precisely the instrumental form laukan with this meaning of an isolated farmstead, contrasted with a town and a village.

Also worth mentioning is the use of the instrumental laukan with the inessive meaning ‘in the field’: I was little then, so I herded [the cows] out in the field Zt. This reflects a phenomenon characteristic only of the dialects of the southern part of Southern Aukštaitian: confusion between the two local cases (the interior directional [illative] and the interior locative [inessive]), in other words, two local cases are conflated—

² Given that “a preposition plays a role in language similar to that of a case ending: it helps express the relationships between words” (DLKGɾ 437), and that in the grammatical system of Lithuanian the combinations “verb + noun” and “verb + preposition + noun” are considered synonymous (see Valiulytė 1998:10), the form laukan and the prepositional construction į lauką are analyzed here as synonyms.

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together into one.³ Cf. also: Today you will not go to the field (into the field) Lzd. LKŽ VII 178 and LKA III maps Nos. 48 and 44.

1.2.2. A specific place—a field with a stated, defined purpose.

The purpose of the field may be indicated by a modifier preceding the word field. It shows what is in the field, e.g.: a rye field, a potato field, or what takes place there, e.g., a battlefield. If there is no such modifier, the word field means cultivated land, soil.

The illative laukan or the prepositional construction into the field here indicates that movement ends at this place and implies that some other action begins (or continues) there, e.g.: We went out into the field late that time (with the explanation: we began working the land) Alk. LKŽ VII 177, Aisim arce in laukó Laz. 140, The lazy one is last to go out to the field, first to come back from it PPr 103 LKŽ VII 177, He took offense that in summer I might have given him only a little bacon to take out V. Krėv. LKŽ VII 177.

2. The word laukan || lauk emphasizes the result of an action.

2.1. The unmarked member of this pair is probably considered to be removal—something is taken out, pulled out, etc., from an enclosed space, a room, or an awkward situation. In this case, the place where the action occurs is specified, but its result is not localized, e.g.: p’l’ėšau ės po tós t’el’yc’os laukan leg Tarvydai. Other phonetic variants of this adverb are also used with this meaning: lauka, lauk, lau-ku, e.g.: v’yrs nūd’en g’ė duōb’e i saka pāčei / ka l’ystu laukā Šakyna, the potatoes have completely charred; scrape them out of the oven Skr. LKŽ I 139.

2.2. The adverb laukan, as well as its variants lauka, lauku, lauk, can also express the loss of something, that is, something goes away (of its own accord), disappears, or is got rid of. In such cases, the meaning of the adverbs laukan, lauk not only corresponds to the meaning of the prefix iš- ‘out’, but is also close to the meanings of the adverbs completely, entirely, finally and indicates the irreversibility of the action. For example: Plow those meadows away; the grass here is poor, and the soil will be better Šts. LKŽ VII 176, The spruces dried out completely and turned red Šts. LKŽ VII 177, in September [the birds] flew away (with the comment “flew away completely”) Mosėdis, darīs aperāce.le, rēk jimte to blūžni lauk Trk.⁴, anu pājeme minàs rinkte lauk po_ kāra Akm., the Lithuanians drove the French out with their guns Sokaičiai et al.

With this meaning, forms of the word oras ‘air’ may also be used in Lithuanian dialects, e.g.: pour these nasties into the air Ds. LKŽ I 800, drob’in’ėtus tanč’un

³ In the author's view, example Neither the mistress into the little room, nor the farmhand into the field Skr. also belongs to this group; in LKŽ IV 5 it is included as an illustration of prepositional constructions with į expressing the goal or purpose of an action, alongside phrases such as into battle, to work, to meat, etc.

⁴ Beside this example, the professor A. Girdenis who recorded it noted that lauk is “a postverb that emphasizes the verbs ‘take’, ‘pull’, and the like.” Beside other similar examples recorded by Professor A. Girdenis from northwestern Lithuania (Tirkšliai, Akmenė, Žemalė), there are notes that lauk was used postpositionally; that it is “a postverb associated with the event prefix iš-”; “a postverb corresponding to iš-.”

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v’ąs’im, o pākul’in’ius vörin išm’ės’im (dial.) Ziet. 157, and krak’enos… parn’ėsau – baisù ir oran išp’įl’c – yellow / LTT I 12.

It should be added that the boundary between subgroups 2.1 and 2.2 is not very clear-cut.⁵

From all these examples it is quite clear that laukan, indicating the result of an action (release or loss), has already become significantly removed from the meanings of the noun laukas and, as Prof. A. Girdenis has pointed out, lauk // laukan here tends to attach more closely to the verb. Moreover, only in the second group do shortened forms (variants) lauka, lauku, lauk. also occur alongside laukan. This shows that the illative form of the noun laukan has undergone grammaticalization here: an independent, syntactically autonomous word (a noun) becomes a syntactically dependent, auxiliary grammatical unit (indicating verbal aspect), not only changing its meaning but also losing part of its substance.⁶

In individual expressions of the second group, laukan may have retained its original—locative—meaning alongside its grammaticalized (aspectual) meaning. However, in such expressions it is most often only the starting point of the action (movement) that is located, while its endpoint is not specified, e.g.: ons, jau, ānū tu, vel’n(’) / varīs lāuk // iš t’os trōb’os Tirkšl. 117, stūmket ānū / pār dūrs lāuk⁷ ibid. 247, ale tās… kr’ites i sāva rātus ir’ is’le’kes is kiema lāuka Žagarė LKT 150, prūo, dorės lāukūon Dūnin. 169, Āik laukan! Ziet. 140, Eik lāuka, šuneli K lov. LKŽ VII 176, tāmsta, iš’eik lauk (after quarreling) Možūriškiai.

lauk // laukan and oran in these examples can be compared with what are known as verb particles in other languages, e.g. German aus-, heraus-, hinaus-, English out, Finnish ulos, Estonian välja, and so on.

For comparison: German ich gehe aus dem Zimmer hinaus

English I’m going out of the room

Finnish minä menen huonesta ulos

Livonian ma läb tubast ulzō

Lithuanian aš einu lauk // laukan // oran iš kambario

I am going out of the room: lauk // laukan // oran

⁵The boundaries between groups 2.1 and 2.2 are not very clear-cut. The same expression can often be interpreted in different ways, e.g.: dōn t(i)s prā-ded ge’l’it(e), kē.t(a) ēsėję.m(a) nabō.v(a) – trā-uk t(ę) lā-ukūon Plungė LKT 82. From a person's perspective, this is getting rid of something (2.2), whereas from the tooth's perspective it is release (2.1). Very often, short examples from Lithuanian dialects do not allow the meaning of the word laukan to be determined precisely. A broader context or a description of the situation is then needed. But even this is not always helpful. There are many examples that can simply be interpreted in different ways. For instance, as many as three interpretations of the meaning of laukan are possible in the example ūož’i’s b’ieg’es tuos dārž’un’ies ta’ukūon Klykoliai LKT 45. According to the scheme presented, this could have meaning 1.1, 1.2.1, or 2.1. The same applies to the prepositional construction į lauką, e.g. Pranelis ran after his father into the field Skr. LKŽ I 870.

⁶ For grammaticalization (German Grammatikalisierung), see ²Bußmann 289–291.

⁷ For technical reasons, the diacritics in examples from the text collection “This Is How the People of Tirkšliai Speak” have been simplified here.

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Latvian es eju ārā // laukā no istabas es eju no istabas ārā // laukā

Thus, in Baltic languages too, lauk // laukan and oran can be regarded as parts of particle verbs and examined as such. However, particle verbs in Baltic languages are not equivalent to particle verbs in Germanic or Finno-Ugric languages: their forms, grammatical meanings, and functions are partly different.

One feature of particle verbs in Baltic languages is that they coexist in the language alongside corresponding prefixed verbs and form pairs of correlates with the latter. This correlation between particle verbs and prefixed verbs is very widespread in Latvian, where the phenomenon constitutes an entire system associated with verbal aspect. A particle verb, e.g., iet ārā ar iet laukā (Lith. eiti oran ar eiti laukan), expresses imperfective aspect, while a prefixed verb, e.g., iziet (Lith. išeiti), is used to express perfective aspect.⁸ Some examples from Lithuanian dialects show that a similar system, or at least its remnants or beginnings, may also exist in Lithuanian, or at least in some of its dialects. Let us compare:

throw out – eject

kat [a stork] numàn(a), kad blùoks mēc, mèt lāukā maž(a) gandrīt(i) Plikiai LKT 133 – if a stork throws one or two of its young out of the nest, it will be a bad year Kp. LKŽ VIII 61.

pull out – extract (in the sense “pull (a shirt) out from under the waistband”) Nepėšk mą marškinių lauką (=of the trousers)! Jrb. – The shirt is pulled out above Er. LKŽ IX 876.

pull out – uproot (in the sense “pull or pluck out by the roots”)

pavāsar da jāusēm / to_saldēnē [the apple tree – E. L.] lāuk Tirkšl. 183 – There was a storm; it uprooted the trees Vvr. LKŽ XI 328.

The three-aspect system formed by particle verbs in northern Lithuanian dialects has already been described; see Girdenis, Kači uškienė 1986: 21 ff. In that article, the aspect expressed by particle verbs is called perfective-imperfective (“ongoing”; Russian совершающиеся) aspect. In the authors’ view, this phenomenon arose in northern Lithuanian dialects (especially Samogitian) under the influence of neighboring Latvian, where such a three-aspect system also exists.

To verify the validity of such claims, more examples of particle verbs are needed from across Lithuania, especially its eastern and southern parts. It is precisely because the available material is not homogeneous that, so far, it has not been established

⁸ For particle verbs and their correlation with prefixed and particle-prefixed verbs in Latvian dialects, see Liparte 1996: 30 ff. The literature is also cited there.

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the distribution areas of particle verbs in Lithuanian dialects. Nevertheless, it can already be stated that this phenomenon is not characteristic only of the Latvian-border Aukštaitian and Žemaitian dialects (from which most of the examples examined originate), which would allow it to be regarded as having arisen under the influence of Latvian. Individual examples have also been recorded from Western and Central Aukštaitian dialects, as well as from Lithuanian-speaking enclaves beyond Lithuania’s borders (in Belarus): Zietela, Lazūnai, and Ramaškonys.

When discussing lauk // laukan, as in the case of other adverbs derived from nominal locatives, one must also take account of the use of the different Lithuanian locative cases—the illative and the inessive—in Lithuanian dialects. This is one way of determining the boundary between laukan as a noun’s illative form and laukan as an adverb, that is, the degree to which this illative form has become adverbialized in different dialects. On the basis of this criterion, the academic Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language lists laukan as an adverb and laukan as an intensifying particle in separate entries.

Another feature of the use of verbal particles (including laukan, oran), characteristic only of the Baltic languages and Livonian influenced by them, is that a particle can attach to a prefixed verb expressing the perfective aspect, thereby forming what is called a particle-prefixed verb. In such cases, the particle merely emphasizes the result of the action or specifies the location of its endpoint (if the local meaning of the verb prefix is polysemous or “bleached⁹”), e.g.: Manę n’išmuši iš šiltos istubos lauku Mit 67. LKŽ VII 188, ale tās.. kr’ites i sāva rātus ir is’lēkes is kiema lāuka Žagarė LKT 150, ta mūotręšk(a) ę’m ę išęruops’tę’n lā’uk(o) Lapiai LKT 84, Whatever is too much—throw it out Marijampolė, That food also gets thrown out (goes to waste) Prn., a krāk’ēnos … paũn’ēšau – baisū ir ōran išp’īl’e – geltōnas Ramaškonys LTT I 12, the daughter went out / ibid. 34.

A phraseological expression— a euphemism with the word or form laukan—is quite widespread in Lithuanian: eiti laukan ‘to relieve oneself’, e.g., sustoję ma šlapūms i lāuka ējims Jrb., The man has loose bowels, that is, he often runs outside; he has dysentery J. LKŽ I 931, ka_tęn gōli (in the hospital)/ nūę tęn lauk gāli išęte | rēk vãistus dōute ka_išvaritu Plateliai. The word or form oran is also used here, e.g., The child’s bowels have stopped; it hasn’t gone out for three days Vb. LKŽ VIII 1011, My stomach hurts; I have diarrhea (has loose bowels) Ob. ibid.

As a phraseological expression, the combination eiti laukan or eiti oran has acquired a specific meaning of its own, which is non-transparent (that is, it is not the sum of the meanings of the two components of the expression), unlike what could be said of the meanings of most of the examples mentioned earlier. Therefore, synonyms for the expression eiti laukan may include not only verbs—

⁹ On the repetition of adverbs (particles) at the end of sentences with verb prefixes denoting movement direction with a “bleached meaning” in other languages, see Recha 1893: 74.

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the verb išeiti ‘to go out’ (as seen above), but also other verbs—derivatives of the same root lauk-: laukinėtis, išsilaukinėti, nusilaukinėti, laukuotis, nusilaukioti, e.g.: A person goes there to relieve themselves KlvrŽ. LKŽ VII 181, The child ran outside to relieve itself Vks. ibid., Relieve yourself here, and it’ll be all right Lp. LKŽ VII 189, as well as similar idioms with other nouns, e.g., to go to the yard ‘to defecate’: ānas an k’íemo č’āsta ait’i Ziet. 290.

Among other languages, German is noteworthy: the meaning ‘to relieve oneself’ is also expressed there by the derivative aus- (more precisely, a particle) austreten. In Latvian, the language closest to Lithuanian, alongside the standard-language prefixed verb iziet, e.g.: One should ask /the patient/..., how many times the bowels move in a day and night.. LLVV VIII 345, another idiom is used with this meaning—with the adverb or particle cauri: ‘the bowels pass through’ (colloq.) LLVV VIII 346, [vēders iet cauri] colloq. LFraz II 535.¹⁰ In Latvian, particle verbs with cauri, like particle verbs with lauka or ārā, correlate with verbs containing the prefix iz-, e.g.:

to drive through the yard with cauri – to drive through the yard;

to go out of the yard with lauka – to go out of the yard.

The possibilities for correlations between individual particles, and idioms containing them in the languages mentioned, remain to be investigated.

ABBREVIATIONS

b.g. – bez gada – without year

sar. – sarunvalodas stilistiskā nokrāsa – colloquial stylistic shade

t.p. – there

vienk. – vienkāršrunas stilistiskā nokrāsa – vulgar stylistic shade

vs. – versus – against

Abbreviations for sources and locations of Lithuanian-language examples are adopted from LKŽ.

LITERATURE AND SOURCES

²Bußmann – B u ß m a n n H. Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft, zweite, völlig neu bearbeitete Aufl.Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1990.

DLKGг – Grammar of Contemporary Lithuanian, Vilnius: Institute of Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing, 1994.

¹DŽ – Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, ed. J. K r u o p a s, Vilnius: State Publishing House for Political and Scientific Literature, 1954.

²DŽ – Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, ed. J. K r u o p a s, Vilnius: Mintis, 1972.

¹⁰Perhaps this idiom in Latvian is associated with the adjective caurs ‘perforated’, cf. Caurs vēders colloq. – diarrhea. LVV 845.

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³DŽ – Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian, ed. S. K e i n y s, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1993.

Drusk. – N a k t i n i e n ė G., P a u l a u s k i e n ė A., V i t k a u s k a s V. Dictionary of the Druskininkai Dialect, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1988.

Dūnin. – V i t k a u s k a s V. Dictionary of the North-Eastern Dūnininkai Subdialects, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1976.

G i r d e n i s A., K a č i u š k i e n ė G. 1986: Parallel phenomena in the Latvian and Northern Lithuanian verb systems. – Kalbotyra 37(1), Vilnius, 21–27.

Laz. – P e t r a u s k a s J., V i d u g i r i s A. Dictionary of the Lazūnai Dialect, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1985.

LFraz – L a u a A., E z e r i ņ a A., V e i n b e r g a S. Latviešu frazeoloģijas vārdnīca 1–2, Rīga: Avots, n.d.

L i p a r t e E. 1996: Par dažiem partikulyverbiem un to lietojumu Engures un Mērsaga izloksnē. – Baltu Filoloģija 6, Rīga, 30–36.

LKA III – Atlas of the Lithuanian Language 3. Morphology, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1991.

LKT – Lietuvių kalbos tarmės (Chrestomatija), Vilnius: Mintis, 1970.

LKŽ I – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language 1, second edition, ed. J. K r u o p a s, Vilnius: Mintis, 1968.

LKŽ IV – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language 4, ed. K. U l v y d a s, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla, 1957.

LKŽ VII–IX – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language 7–9, ed. J. K r u o p a s, Vilnius: Mintis, 1966, 1970, 1973.

LKŽ XI – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language 11, ed. K. U l v y d a s, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1978.

LLVV VIII – Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language 8, Rīga: Zinātne, 1996.

LTT I – Lithuanian Dialect Texts 1, Balatna (Varanavas), compiled by E. G r i n a v e c k i e n ė, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1994.

LVV – Latviešu valodas vārdnīca, red. D. G u ļ e v s k a, Rīga: Avots, 1987.

R e c h a C. 1893: Zur Frage ueber den Ursprung der perfectivierenden Function der Verbalpraefixe. Dorpat: Schnakenburg’s Buchdruckerei.

Tirkšl. – G i r d e n i s A. This Is How the People of Tirkšliai Speak, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1996.

V a l i u l y t ė E. 1998: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos sintaksiniai sinonimai, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas.

Ziet. – V i d u g i r i s A. Dictionary of the Zietela Subdialect, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 1998.

THE MEANINGS AND POSSIBLE SYNONYMS OF THE ILLATIVE OR ADVERB laukan IN LITHUANIAN DIALECTS

Summary

This article considers only some case forms (especially the illative laukan) of the polysemous Lithuanian noun laukas ‘field, arable land, countryside, outdoors’. The illative laukan has already become an adverb. The meanings of the illative or adverb laukan are divided here into 2 major groups and several subgroups, depending on whether it emphasizes the location or the result of an action. In the first case, laukan still has a close relationship with the noun laukas; in the second case, it has already lost this relationship and is to be regarded as part of a particle verb.

Evija LIPARTE Lithuanian Language Institute Antakalnio g. 6 LT-2055 Vilnius, Lithuania Email [email protected]

Received 1999 08 27

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