Latvian indefinite pronouns

Latvian builds its three indefinite series on the interrogative pronouns: the general kaut-series with the particle kaut 'at least, even' (kaut kas 'something'), the negative ne-series with the prefix ne-, apparently that of verbal negation, with which the series co-occurs (Viņu nekas neinteresē 'Nothing interests him'), and the free-choice jeb-series with jeb 'or' (jebkas 'anything'). The person row departs from the pattern: neviens 'nobody' is built on the numeral viens 'one' and jebkāds 'anybody' on the determiner kāds, which is also used bare for 'somebody'. The manner row has no member of the jeb-series in Haspelmath's table, and the determiner row of the kaut-series has kaut kurš beside kaut kāds (Kalnača and Lokmane, §2.4.7).

Implementation notes

Forms are orthographic: the prefixes are written together with the interrogative (nekas), kaut apart from it (kaut kas), as Kalnača and Lokmane prescribe; Haspelmath hyphenates the prefixes (ne-kas). A member is its series' marker applied to an interrogative of Latvian.Pronouns, which derives its form and category. In the person row kāds and jebkāds take the person category over the determiner they are built on, and neviens, built on no interrogative, is stated whole.

References

• [Has97]
• [KL21]

The markers

def Latvian.Indefinites.kaut : InterrogativePronoun → IndefinitePronoun

The kaut marker puts the particle kaut before the interrogative.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.kaut = IndefinitePronoun.ofInterrogative fun (x : String) => "kaut " ++ x

def Latvian.Indefinites.ne : InterrogativePronoun → IndefinitePronoun

The ne- marker attaches the negative prefix ne- to the interrogative.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.ne = IndefinitePronoun.ofInterrogative fun (x : String) => "ne" ++ x

def Latvian.Indefinites.jeb : InterrogativePronoun → IndefinitePronoun

The jeb- marker attaches the prefix jeb- to the interrogative.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.jeb = IndefinitePronoun.ofInterrogative fun (x : String) => "jeb" ++ x

The person row

def Latvian.Indefinites.kautKas : IndefinitePronoun

kaut kas 'someone' is the kaut-member of kas 'who'.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.kautKas = Latvian.Indefinites.kaut Latvian.Pronouns.kasPerson

def Latvian.Indefinites.kāds : IndefinitePronoun

kāds 'somebody' is the interrogative determiner used bare as a person indefinite.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.kāds = { toPronoun := (IndefinitePronoun.ofInterrogative id Latvian.Pronouns.kāds).toPronoun, ontology := Pronoun.OntologicalCategory.person }

def Latvian.Indefinites.neviens : IndefinitePronoun

neviens 'nobody' is ne- on the numeral viens 'one', in a series otherwise built on the interrogatives ([Has97], §7.5.2).

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.neviens = { form := "neviens", ontology := Pronoun.OntologicalCategory.person }

def Latvian.Indefinites.jebkāds : IndefinitePronoun

jebkāds 'anybody' is the jeb-member of the determiner kāds, the person member of [Has97]'s table. [KL21] gloss jebkāds 'any, any kind' and jebkurš 'any, anyone'.

Equations

• Latvian.Indefinites.jebkāds = { toPronoun := (Latvian.Indefinites.jeb Latvian.Pronouns.kāds).toPronoun, ontology := Pronoun.OntologicalCategory.person }

The series

def Latvian.Indefinites.kautSeries : IndefinitePronoun.Series

The kaut-series.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Latvian.Indefinites.neSeries : IndefinitePronoun.Series

The ne-series.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Latvian.Indefinites.jebSeries : IndefinitePronoun.Series

The jeb-series.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.