%0 Journal Article
%T CROATIAN ZA-INFINITIVE: EXTERNAL BORROWING VS. INTERNAL LANGUAGE CHANGE
%A Vela
%A Jozo
%J -
%D 2019
%R 10.31820/f.31.1.10
%X Sa£¿etak The use of the infinitive in sentences such as Imate li sobu za iznajmiti? in the modern Croatian language is usually called ¡°prepositional infinitive¡± or ¡°za + infinitive construction¡±. Infinitive used with za is considered to be ungrammatical and a loan from other languages, namely German and/or Italian. It is therefore recommended to avoid using such an expression in a finer literary discourse. This paper proposes a different approach and points out that the za-infinitive might be an issue of internal language change, as has already been indicated by Pranjkovi£¿. Furthermore, it shows that the Croatian za-infinitive follows the universal path of semantic and formal grammaticalization of the infinitive, as outlined by Haspelmath. Such a claim is supported by evidence from older texts in the Croatian language, as well as by certain comparisons with other European languages. Consequently, a new formal description of the infinitive use in question is proposed
%K Croatian language
%K infinitive
%K prepositional infinitive
%K za + infinitive
%K language change
%K grammaticalization
%K loan
%U https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=325671