On the Nature of Dative Arguments in Russian Constructions with «Predicatives»
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Sergey Say
Abstract
Based on diachronic corpus data, the ability of Russian predicatives (категория состояния, items like холодно ‘it is cold’, грустно ‘it is sad’, приятно ‘it is pleasant’) to co-occur with dative Experiencers is compared to the ability of corresponding adjectives to co-occur with Experiencers. The hierarchy (predicatives > short forms of adjectives > long forms of adjectives) is put forward, which reflects decreasing ability to co-occur with dative Experiencers. The predicatives are divided into several classes based on how their syntactic properties are related to properties of corresponding adjectives. It is shown that none of the usual types of analysis (structural-syntactic, derivational, constructional) adequately captures the properties of all the groups of predicatives, but rather that each of these approaches is best suitable for a particular subtype of predicatives. It is hypothesized that a possible way out could be to assume that in the experiential predicative construction the dative position is directly linked with the Experiencer, so that this structure is “blind” to the role structure of the head lexeme. Keywords: Russian; dative; argument structure; predicatives; adjective; corpus linguistics; derivation; constructional approaches; diachrony
Abstract
Based on diachronic corpus data, the ability of Russian predicatives (категория состояния, items like холодно ‘it is cold’, грустно ‘it is sad’, приятно ‘it is pleasant’) to co-occur with dative Experiencers is compared to the ability of corresponding adjectives to co-occur with Experiencers. The hierarchy (predicatives > short forms of adjectives > long forms of adjectives) is put forward, which reflects decreasing ability to co-occur with dative Experiencers. The predicatives are divided into several classes based on how their syntactic properties are related to properties of corresponding adjectives. It is shown that none of the usual types of analysis (structural-syntactic, derivational, constructional) adequately captures the properties of all the groups of predicatives, but rather that each of these approaches is best suitable for a particular subtype of predicatives. It is hypothesized that a possible way out could be to assume that in the experiential predicative construction the dative position is directly linked with the Experiencer, so that this structure is “blind” to the role structure of the head lexeme. Keywords: Russian; dative; argument structure; predicatives; adjective; corpus linguistics; derivation; constructional approaches; diachrony
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Abbreviations xi
- Impersonals and Beyond in Slavic 1
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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
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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
