Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

‘Knowing How’ in Slovene: Treading the Other Path

Sonnenhauser, Barbara (2017). ‘Knowing How’ in Slovene: Treading the Other Path. Slovene = Словене : International journal of slavic studies, 1:95-117.

Abstract

For the linguistic expression of the concept of knowledge, the Slavic languages use verbs deriving from the Indo-European roots *ĝnō and *u̯ ei̯d. They differ in terms of the availability of both types of verbs in the contemporary standard languages and in terms of their semantic range. As will be shown in this paper, these differences are interesting not only from a language-specific lexicological point of view, but also in the context of the intersection of lexicon and grammar. Covering the domain of ‘knowing how,’ the *ĝnō-based verb in Slovene (znati) has been extending into the domain of possibility and, on this basis, developing into a modal verb. While this development is not surprising from a typological point of view, it is remarkable from a Slavic perspective, since this particular grammaticalisation path towards possibility is otherwise unknown to Slavic. This peculiar feature of Slovene, which most probably relates to its long-lasting and intensive contact with German, is illustrated in the present paper by comparing Slovene to Russian on the basis of three main questions: 1) the semantic range of vedeti / vedat' and znati / znat', 2) the lexicalisation of ‘know how,’ and 3) the relation between knowledge, ability, and possibility. The focus is on contemporary Slovene and Russian, leaving a detailed diachronic investigation and the further embedding into a larger Slavic and areal perspective for future analyses.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:06 Faculty of Arts > Institute of Slavonic Studies
08 Research Priority Programs > Language and Space
Dewey Decimal Classification:490 Other languages
410 Linguistics
Scopus Subject Areas:Social Sciences & Humanities > Cultural Studies
Social Sciences & Humanities > Language and Linguistics
Social Sciences & Humanities > History
Social Sciences & Humanities > Religious Studies
Social Sciences & Humanities > Linguistics and Language
Language:English, Slovenian
Date:2017
Deposited On:17 Nov 2017 07:41
Last Modified:20 Nov 2024 04:30
Publisher:Institut slavânovedeniâ RAN
ISSN:2304-0785
Funders:SNF
OA Status:Gold
Project Information:
  • Funder: SNSF
  • Grant ID:
  • Project Title: SNF
Download PDF  '‘Knowing How’ in Slovene: Treading the Other Path'.
Preview
  • Content: Published Version
  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0)

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Downloads

84 downloads since deposited on 17 Nov 2017
15 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications