The Lazy Speaker and the Fascination of Emptiness
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Daniel Weiss
Abstract
The paper presents an overview of different syntactic gaps in modern colloquial Russian, and focuses on so-called ‘syntactic emptiness’, i.e. the zero copula, the referential zero lexemes Øljudi and Østixii, the generic ‘you’ Øty2 and omission of verbs of action [ØV], taking into account the pragmatical impact of these phenomena (text economy, explicitness, politeness). In addition, the study provides an historical review of colloquial empty slots in Russian (on the example of Avvakum’s ‘Autobiography’) and approaches it from a typological perspective, specifically, by comparing it to West Slavic languages (Polish, Czech) as well as to other languages, which corroborates the idea of the “Eurasian orientation” of colloquial Russian. Keywords: syntactic emptiness; zero sign; ellipsis; colloquial Russian; typology
Abstract
The paper presents an overview of different syntactic gaps in modern colloquial Russian, and focuses on so-called ‘syntactic emptiness’, i.e. the zero copula, the referential zero lexemes Øljudi and Østixii, the generic ‘you’ Øty2 and omission of verbs of action [ØV], taking into account the pragmatical impact of these phenomena (text economy, explicitness, politeness). In addition, the study provides an historical review of colloquial empty slots in Russian (on the example of Avvakum’s ‘Autobiography’) and approaches it from a typological perspective, specifically, by comparing it to West Slavic languages (Polish, Czech) as well as to other languages, which corroborates the idea of the “Eurasian orientation” of colloquial Russian. Keywords: syntactic emptiness; zero sign; ellipsis; colloquial Russian; typology
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Abbreviations xi
- Impersonals and Beyond in Slavic 1
-
Section I: Morphosyntax
- Binding and Morphology Revisited 25
- Possessor Raising and Slavic clitics 43
- The Slavonic Languages and the Development of the Antipassive Marker 61
- Clitic SE in Romance and Slavonic revisited 75
-
Section II: Syntactical relations
- The Lazy Speaker and the Fascination of Emptiness 91
- Is the Polish Verb iść an Auxiliary to be? 123
- Towards Evidentiality Markers in Albanian and Macedonian Bilingual Political Discourse 139
- A strange variant of Russian ctoby -construction 149
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Section III: Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal Constructions in Serbian 169
- Interpretation and voice in Polish SIĘ and –NO/–TO constructions 185
- Dative-infinitive constructions in Russian 199
- On the Nature of Dative Arguments in Russian Constructions with «Predicatives» 225
- Russian Adversity Impersonals and Split Ergativity 247
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Section IV: Lexical semantics
- Morphological and lexical aspect in Russian deverbal nominalizations 267
- Lexical synonymy within the semantic field POWER 281
- Collocations with nominal quantifiers 297
- Polysemy Patterns in Russian Adjectives and Adverbs 313
- Language index 323
- Name index 325
- Subject index 329
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Abbreviations xi
- Impersonals and Beyond in Slavic 1
-
Section I: Morphosyntax
- Binding and Morphology Revisited 25
- Possessor Raising and Slavic clitics 43
- The Slavonic Languages and the Development of the Antipassive Marker 61
- Clitic SE in Romance and Slavonic revisited 75
-
Section II: Syntactical relations
- The Lazy Speaker and the Fascination of Emptiness 91
- Is the Polish Verb iść an Auxiliary to be? 123
- Towards Evidentiality Markers in Albanian and Macedonian Bilingual Political Discourse 139
- A strange variant of Russian ctoby -construction 149
-
Section III: Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal Constructions in Serbian 169
- Interpretation and voice in Polish SIĘ and –NO/–TO constructions 185
- Dative-infinitive constructions in Russian 199
- On the Nature of Dative Arguments in Russian Constructions with «Predicatives» 225
- Russian Adversity Impersonals and Split Ergativity 247
-
Section IV: Lexical semantics
- Morphological and lexical aspect in Russian deverbal nominalizations 267
- Lexical synonymy within the semantic field POWER 281
- Collocations with nominal quantifiers 297
- Polysemy Patterns in Russian Adjectives and Adverbs 313
- Language index 323
- Name index 325
- Subject index 329
