Grammar 4.2:

4.2.1 THE ACCUSATIVE SINGULAR (DATIVE PLURAL) PREPOSITION SET

· As their name implies, the prepositions are "placed before" nouns (pronouns) to express various grammatical relationships.

· As we saw, the Latvian locatives and the English prepositions 'in', 'into', 'on' are used in similar situations.

· Where the case endings do not suffice, Latvian too must make use of the prepositions.

· It is important to know that any preposition placed before a noun (pronoun) MAKES THAT NOUN TO TAKE ON CERTAIN CASE ENDING.

· This divides Latvian prepositions into two sets:

1. The prepositions that induce the nouns to take the genitive singular forms.

2. The prepositions that induce the nouns to take the accusative singular forms.

· In the plural, all prepositions demand the dative forms.

· Some prepositions can go with more than one declensional case, and their meanings change with each different use.

· The accusative singular preposition set contains these ten prepositions:

ap, ar, gar, pa, par, pār, pret, starp, caur and uz

· Check their meanings in the vocabulary; also, see the Reading Exercise A.

· These should suffice for now. In a later lesson you'll be given an elaborate list of all prepositions. The preposition uz functions in both sets.

· The most important characteristic of the prepositions in this set Is that THEY INDICATE OR IMPLY DYNAMIC, NOT STATIC, RELATIONSHIPS.

· They add directions to the verbs (skriet ap māju 'run around the house', skatīties uz māju 'look at the house', runāt par māju 'talk about the house', etc.), or they imply a series of points, not a single location in the space (or time) relationships.

a. A preposition can have several meanings, some of them quite diverse; note the uses of par or pa. Some uses may be limited in peculiar ways: note that pa meaning through is largely limited to looking (through a window) or entering / leaving (through a door).

b. It is very important to remember to switch to the dative forms when one is using the plural. SINGULAR: ap māju 'around the house', gar dārzu 'alongside the yard', par tevi 'about you'; PLURAL: ap mājām, gar dārziem, par jums.

4.2.11 THE PREPOSITION līdz USES THE DATIVE ALSO IN THE SINGULAR:

· Iīdz mājai 'up to the house' (plural: līdz mājām);

· līdz rītam 'until morning'. Note that its meanings are static—refering to a fixed point in space or time.

· Only when it is used postpositionally (after a noun/pronoun) it loses this rigid reference: nāc man līdz 'come (along) with me'. In this use it can be replaced by the adverb līdzi.

4.2.2 ADDITIONAL USES OF THE ACCUSATIVE. The accusative forms may be used in time and d1rectional phrases.

4.2.21 TIME ACCUSATIVES indicate mostly the duration or frequency:

· Es mācījos visu nedēļu. 'I was studying all week (long).'

· Katru rītu mēs ē*dam brokastis. 'Every morning we eat breakfast.'

4.2.22 DIRECTIONAL PHRASES WITH POSITION NOUNS.

· In Lesson 3.2 vocabulary we saw a group of nouns whose locative singular forms indicated relative positions (see also 3.2.1).

· The accusative singular forms of the same nouns indicate directions when used with the preposition uz:

· The middle slot in the last phrase may be filled with all kinds of words:

uz otru pusi 'to the other side', uz manu pusi 'towards me', etc.

4.2.23 DIRECTIONAL PHRASES WITH ADVERBIAL NOUNS.

· Three quasi-nouns *kuriene, *turiene, *šejiene (and some othes of this pattern) exist only in the genitive and accusative singular forms to make adverbial phrases with certain prepositions.

· These are directional phrases formed with the preposition uz:

uz kurieni 'where to, whither'; uz turieni 'to there, to that place'; uz šejieni 'to here, hither'.

4.2.24 POSITION NOUNS IN "DISPERSED LOCATION" PHRASES WITH pa.

· The basic meaning of this preposition is 'all over (the)'.

· When location phrases are made with it, no single fixed reference point, but the whole approximate area is meant:

· Here belong also two phrases made from direction adjectives:

pa labi 'to the right', pa kreisi 'to the left'.

4.2.3 THE DIMINUTIVES

· Are nouns (in most cases) that take on special suffixes to indicate one (or more) of these three aspects:

· DIMINUTIVE SIZE: krēsliņš 'little chair', gultiņa 'little bed', bērniņš 'little child', meitenīte 'little girl'.

· ENDEARMENT: māmiņa 'dear mother', tētiņs' 'dear father', Ilzīte 'dear lIze', Jānītis 'dear John'. The last two words may have both aspect at the same time:

Ilzīte 'dear little Ilze', Jānītis 'dear little Johnny', the same also for words like brālītis 'dear little brother', māsiņa 'dear little sister'—but they can be used for grownups too.

· PEJORATIVE: use is somewhat less common: vīrelis 'insignificant little man', prātiņš 'wee little mind'. In such instances the words like "little" should convey insignificance or contempt.

4.2.31 DIMINUTIVE FORMATIONS FOLLOW THE NOUN DECLENSION STEMS

· The choice of the diminutive suffix depends on the declension of the noun:

a. THE a-STEM NOUNS OF BOTH GENDERS INSERT THE SUFFIX -iņ- between the noun bases and endings (the nom.sg. masc. -s becomes -š after -ņ-):

krē*sl-s 'chair' - krēsliņš;. gult-a 'bed' - dim. gultiņa.

The base-end -k- and -g- must change to -c- and -dz- respectively before the suffix -iņ-: roka "hand' - dim. rociņa; svārki 'coat' - dim. svārciņi; draugs 'friend' - dim. draudziņš.

b. THE MASC. i-STEMS AND FEM. e-STEMS INSERT THE SUFFIX -īt- between the noun bases and endings:

brāl-is 'brother' - dim. brālītis; skap-is 'cupboard' - skapītis; meiten-e 'girl' - meitenīte; biks-es 'pants' -'biksītes.

c. THE MASC. u-STEMS AND FEM. i-STEMS INSERT THE SUFFIX -tiņ- (in most cases) and ADOPT THE a-STEM ENDINGS.

· However irregularities occur often, and it is best, therefore, to learn these diminutives one by one:

d. IRREGULAR DIMINUTIVES are made also for some nouns in the first two (a. and b.) categories. So far we have these nouns:

· ūdens 'water' - dim. ūdentiņš (this noun belongs to a small subcategory to be studied later)

· brīdis 'moment' - dim. brītiņš

· de*guns 'nose' - dim. de*guntiņš (probably by analogy with actiņa, autiņa)

e. DIMINUTIVES FROM OTHER WORD TYPES are sometimes made ADJECTIVAL: mazs 'little' - maziņš 'very little'; labs 'good' - labiņš 'good and nice'.

· ADVERBIAL: tūliņ/tūlīt "this little moment" = 'right away'.

4.2.4 ADDITIONAL PRONOUNS.

· This lesson includes the emphatic pats, pati, the nom.sg. forms are irregular, but all the rest follow the a-stem declension pattern (see the bottom section of the Declension Chart).

· It is used as a modifier or appositive with nouns and other pronouns. It also combines with certain other, pronouns to make double modifiers (see Reading Exercise B.)

4.2.41 Pats USED WITH NOUNS/PRONOUNS

· Adds emphasis to the word with which it associates and means '-self' (specified in English as 'mysel', 'yourself', etc.)

· It can be placed before or after a nouns, but must always follow a pronoun:

Paši zēni (or: Zēni paši) neko neteica. 'The boys themselves did not say anything.

· But only this version with a pronoun:

Viņi paši neko neteica. 'They themselves did not say anything.'

· With things—especially with the position nouns, and especially in the locative—pats can mean 'the very':

Pašā vidū bija galds. In the very middle (there) was a table.'

4.2.42 PHRASAL PRONOUNS tas pats 'THE SAME' AND tāds pats 'OF THE SAME KIND':

Šī ir tā pati grāmata, ko es lasīju. 'This is the same book that I read.'

Nevelc šo pašu kreklu šodien! 'Do not put on the same shirt today!'

Mana pildspalva ir tādā pašā krāsā kā tava. 'My pen is in the same color as yours.'

Šis nav tāds pats krē*sls kā tas. 'This is not the same kind of chair as that (one).'

a. The phrasal pronoun viens pats 'alone, by oneself' enters similar structures:

Es to padarīju vien pats. 'I did it alone.' / 'I did it by myself.'

4.2.43 THE DOUBLE MODIFIER PRONOUNS pats savs 'ONE'S OWN' AND katrs savs 'EACH ONE'S OWN

· Are unique structural pairs that don't fuse semantically to make unified meanings.

· Each element in each pair modifies a different noun / pronoun in the same sentence.

Man ir pašai sava grāmata. 'I have my own book.'

Bērni lasa katrs savu grāmatu. 'The children are reading each his / her own book.'

4.2.5 ADDITIONS TO THE PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION.

· For the first time in our vocabulary are entering the verbs from I-i, II-ū and III-ā classes.

I-i VERBS: There are about a dozen I. conjugation verbs that take -i in the 2nd sgingle even though they are not -st- verbs. All of them have a long base vowel, and most f them are intransitive. Of this type, labeled "I-i", we now have the verb saprast 'understand'.

II-ū CLASS: has only one representative, the verb dabūt 'get, become'.

III-ā VERBS: that have entered our vocabulary are zināt 'know', dziedāt 'sing', raudāt 'cry'. The verb zinat is a regular representative of its type: with an -a in its present principal part: zina. The other two verbs are unique in that their present principal part has no ending: dzied, raud. This makes their present tense conjugation resemble that of III-e verbs (with the short -am, -at in the plural).

· THE PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION OF ALL THE ABOVE VERBS:

4.2.6 THE PAST TENSE CONJUGATION

· Leaving the present tense, we leave all irregularities behind. In the past tense all verbs are regular.

· There are only two sets of the past tense personal endings, one for the active and one for the reflexive verbs.

* Note that these two sets are used also in the present tense of those verbs [III-ā like zina and all III-ī] that have an -a in their present principal part.

4.2.61 PAST TENSE SAMPLE OF THE I. CONJUGATION VERBS:

*Note that the subdivisions like I-ļ/l, š/t, etc. have become unimportant to conjugate these verbs in the past tense.

4.2.62 PAST TENSE SAMPLE OF THE II. CONJUGATION VERBS:

· The feature of [long vowel + -j-] between the verb bases and the personal endings is present in all past tense forms of this conjugation.

· Two verbs not yet in our vocabulary: spēlēt 'play an instrument', laboties 'mend one's ways'.

· We do not yet have any verb of the rare II-ī type.

4.2.63 PAST TENSE SAMPLE OF THE III. CONJUGATION VERBS:

· In the past tense the II. and III. conjugation verb forms look alike.

· However, for those verbs that use the same ending sets also In the present, the addition of the [long vowel + -j-] In the past becomes the past tense marker. (See zināt here and in 4.2.5 above.)

· Verbs not yet in our vocabulary:

aizgulēties: aizguļas, aizgulējās, aizgulēsies
itr: oversleep

sazināties: sazinās, sazinājās, sazināsies
itr: communicate (with)

4.2.64 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON CONJUGATION

a. CHANGES WITHIN THE VERB BASE occur in many I. conjugation verbs when they CHANGE THE TENSES. Let us compare some present and past tense 1st single forms, which have the same ending in both tenses:

· ceļu - cēlu (ceļos - cēlos);
· dodu - devu;
· dzeru - dzēru;
· laižu - laidu;
· ģērbju - ģērbu;
· kļūstu - kļuvu;
· lieku - liku;
· mostos - modos;
· nāku – nācu;
· ņemu - ņēmu;
· pazīstu - pazinu;
· pūšu - pūtu;
· saprotu - sapratu;
· skrienu - skrēju;
· smejos - smējos, etc.
· This is another reason why learning the principal parts is so important.

b. THOSE I-REG. VERBS IN WHICH NO-CHANGES OCCUR USUALLY HAVE THE SAME FORM IN THE 1ST SINGULAR PRESENT AND PAST:

· saucu 'I call /called'
· saucos 'I am / was called'
· teicu 'I say / said'
· beidzu 'I finish / finished'
· lūdzu 'I pray / prayed',
· sniedzu 'I hand / handed'
· sāku 'I begin / began'
· atstāju 'I leave / left' etc.
· In the case of ēdu (and similar verbs with -e / ē- in their base) ONLY THE SPELLING IS THE SAME; in pronunciation there is the "broad" vs. normal -e- interchange

· ē*du 'I eat'
· ēdu 'I ate'
· uzve*dos 'I behave'
· uzvedos 'I behaved'

c. ALL II. CONJUGATION VERBS HAVE THE SAME 1ST SINGULAR FORM IN THE PAST AND PRESENT TENSE:

· dabūju 'I get / got'
· meklēju 'I seek / sought',
· dzīvoju 'I live / lived'
· mazgāju 'I wash / washed'
· mazgājos 'I wash / washed myself'
· runāju 'I speak / spoke'
· runājos 'I converse / conversed (with)'
· spēlējos 'I play / played (with)', etc.

d. IN THE REFLEXIVE, ALSO THE 2ND SINGULAR OF I. CONJUGATION STABLE BASE VOWEL AND ALL II. CONJUGATION VERBS HAVE THE SAME FORM IN THE PRESENT AND THE PAST:

· saucies 'you are / were called'
· uzvedies 'you behave / behaved'
· mazgājies 'you wash / washed yourself'
· spēlējies 'you play / played (with)', etc.

4.2.7 ANOTHER LOOK AT THE REFLEXIVE CONJUGATION.

· So far we have memorized the reflexive forms as being different from the active ones.

· Actually all reflexive forms can be thought of as coming from the corresponding active forms.

· This derivation can be made by learning few simple rules.

4.2.71 First, THE GRAMMATICAL LENGTHENINGS MUST BE LEARNED. They are:

· short i lengthens to ie

· short u lengthens to uo, spelled "o"

· short a lengthens into ā

· As you know, the phonetic lengthenings of i and u are ī and ū respectively. For a both types of lengthening are the same.

4.2.72 Now TWO RULES FOR MAKING REFLEXIVE ENDINGS can be stated:

A. Where the active ending has a short vowel alone, LENGTHEN IT GRAMMATICALLY AND ADD -s

B. Everywhere else ADD -ies.

· Let's apply these rules to all verb forms we have learned so far:

· A subrule: If the 3rd com. has no ending, ADD -as.

· This derivational viewpoint for the reflexive verb forms now unifies the whole conjugation into one highly regular system.

4.2.8 SENTENCE STRUCTURES

4.2.81 A REVIEW OF DEPENDENT CLAUSES

· They have these characteristics:

A. They do not express a complete thought

B. They need A CLAUSE INTRODUCER

C. They do some "job" for the independent (main) clause in the sentence.

· According to what type of job they do, they are classified as adverb, adjective and noun clauses. Each type, in turn, has its subdivisions:

a. ADVERB CLAUSES MODIFY THE VERBS (as single adverbs do):

· Time clause:

KAD mācības beidzās, mēs gājām mājās = WHEN the instruction ended, we went home.

· Condition clause:

JA Ivars mācīsies, viņš dabūs labu atzīmi =. IF Ivars will study, he will get a good grade.

· Reason clause:

Ivars nedabūja labu atzīmi, JO viņš nemācījās. = Ivars did not get a good grade BECAUSE he did not study.

b. ADJECTIVE CLAUSES MODIFY THE NOUNS/PRONOUNS:

· Viņi dzīvoja MĀJĀ, KAM bija sarkan jumts.= They lived in a HOUSE THAT had a red roof.

· Te ir VĀRDS, KO es nesaprotu.= Here's a WORD THAT I do not understand.

· VISI, KAS mācījās, dabūja labas atzīmes.= ALL WHO studied got good grades.

c. NOUN CLAUSES SERVE AS SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS for the main clause:

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

d. THE PUNCTUATION IS DIFFERENT...

in the same Latvian and English sentences.

In Latvian each clause gets separated from the others under all circumstances.

e. THE INTRODUCTORY WORDS ...

for most dependent clauses in the above samples are the forms of kas. Note their different English translations depending in what kind of clause they serve. Of course, other k-words (kāds, kurš) in all their forms can introduce clauses; and so can the particles ka 'that', kur 'where', kad 'when'.

f. THE K-QUESTIONS AND K-CLAUSES ARE STRUCTURALLY THE SAME...

Look again at the depended clauses that are introduced by a k-word: taken alone, THEY COULD SERVE AS K-QUESTIONS: Kad mācības beidzās? 'When did the instruction end?' Kam bija sarkans jumts? 'What has a red roof?' Kas mācās? 'Who is studying?' Ar ko viņa runājās? 'With whom did she speak?' Etc. Now compare the sentence structures in the English versions of the clause and question of the same content, and you must note a great difference.

4.2.82 MORE DATIVE SUBJECT STRUCTURES.

· Again, at the core of their construction are certain verbs with idiomatic meanings.

a. veikties 'be proficient / good at'; 'be able to do (something) well':

Man veicas rakstīšana. 'I am good at writing.'

Man veicas rakstīt. 'I can write well.'

b. iet 'fare / do':

Man iet rakstīšana. 'I do well in writing.'

Tur viņai gāja ļoti labi. 'There she was doing / fared very well.'

Kā tev iet? 'How are you doing?'

c. likties 'seem' is a linking verb needing a complement:

Jānis liekas kārtīgs. 'John seems (to be) neat.' (adjecive complement)

Jānis liekas kārtīgs zē*ns. 'John seems (to be) a neat boy.' (noun + modif. compl.)

Jānis man liekas kārtīgs zē*ns. 'John seems to me a neat boy.' (dative elem. added)

Man liekas, ka Jānis ir kārtīgs zē*ns. '(It) seems to me that John is a neat boy.' (noun clause complement)

· For the new QUESTION INTRODUCERS Uz kuru pusi / Uz kurieni see 4.2.22 and 4.2.23

4.2.9 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

4.2.91 THE PROCESS OF DERIVATION

· In Latvian two processes, inflection and derivation are used extensively.

· Inflectional suffixes are used to show various grammatical relationships, among them the personal endings and the declensional case markers.

· The other just as extensive process is DERIVATION, WHICH MAKES NEW WORDS BY THE USE OF DIFFERENT SUFFIXES.

· Earlier we learned to derive adverbs from adjectives (adj. labs -- adv. labi, etc.)

· In this lesson we are learning two types of NOUNS DERIVED FROM VERBS:

-šana 'the process of -ing', a feminine noun derived from the future principal part

-ums 'the act / result of an action', a masculine noun derived from the past principal part

· Both are very productive, and you'll be meeting more of them. For the current additions see the end part of the new verb list In the 4.2 vocabulary.

4.2.92 ar 'and'...

· When two persons or things are considered belonging or being together, ar (instead of un) is used as a conjunction and must be translated with 'and':

· tēvs ar māti 'father and mother', maize ar sviestu 'bread and butter'.

· When the 1st or 2nd person pronoun is involved in such a pair, THE PLURAL PRONOUN FORM IS USED:

· Mēs ar māsu gājām uz skolu. 'I and (my) sister went to school.'

· Es Annai prasīju: Kur jūs ar Jāni bijāt? 'I asked Ann, Where have you and John been?'

4.2.93

· In the phrasal subjects mēs katrs 'each of us' and jūs katrs 'each of you', THE VERBS MUST AGREE WITH THE PERSONAL PRONOUN (opposite to English):

· Mēs katrs rakstām sacerējumu. 'Each of us is writing a composition.'

· Ko jūs katrs vakar darījāt? 'What did each of you do yesterday?'

4.2.94 THE VERBS sacīt AND teikt MEAN THE SAME: 'TO SAY'.

· In the present tense sacīt is preferred; in the past and future the use of teikt is more common.

4.2.95 THE PARTICLES līdz(i) 'ALONG WITH' AND pakaļ 'AFTER'

· Usually placed after the noun / pronoun. (Such particles are called POSTPOSITIONS.)

· Both put their noun / pronoun in the dative case:

· Zēns gāja mātei līdz. The boy walked (along) with his mother.

· Zēns skrēja mātei pakaļ. The boy ran after his mother.

· Māte gāja uz skolu zēnam pakaļ. The mother went to the school after (= to get) her boy.