The typology of the essive in the Uralic languages

This chapter presents the typology of the essive in the Uralic languages. The input for the typology is the detailed information about the essive in nineteen Uralic languages presented in the former chapters of this volume. The chapter specifically investigates the distribution of the essives and also the opposition between permanent and impermanent state in non-verbal predications. The typological variation is discussed within the linguistic domains of non-verbal main predication, secondary predication, complementation, and manner, temporal, and circumstantial adverbial phrases. The use of the marker in the essive sense (associated with state) is contrasted with its use in expressing the translative sense (associated with change). The syntactic position of elements marked by the essive is discussed in relation to the position of focus constituents. The conclusions summarize the major findings of this volume.