FAQ

Expletives in a Null Subject Language and Criteria for Expletiveness: Evidence from Russian

Publication date: 21.03.2019

Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume, Special Volume 1 (2019), pp. 189 - 205

https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.19.012.10992

Authors

Olga Pekelis
Russian State University for the Humanities
All publications →

Titles

Expletives in a Null Subject Language and Criteria for Expletiveness: Evidence from Russian

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of three pronouns used to refer to a right-peripheral complement clause in Russian. It is demonstrated that two of them exhibit properties associated with expletives, which is unexpected at first sight, Russian being a (partial) null subject language. However, these pronouns are shown to have a discourse-related function rather than a syntactic one. The third pronoun under discussion, though used in the same grammatical context, turns out to be referential. The paper offers an account for this fact and proposes that the parameters that have proved to be relevant for differentiating expletives and non-expletives in Russian should be regarded as general criteria for expletiveness.

Acknowledgements

I am thankful to the anonymous SPL reviewers, who have provided numerous helpful comments and corrections. All errors are m

References

Download references

Biberauer Theresa, van der Wal Jenneke (2012). Why languages don’t like expletives. Paper presented at Syntax of the World’s Languages V Conference, Dubrovnik, October 2012. [URL: https://recos-dtal.mml.cam.ac.uk/Publications/publications-folder/jw-handout-swl-5-expletives; accessed December 4, 2018].

Birner Betty, Ward Gregory (2004). Information structure and non-canonical syntax. In The Handbook of Pragmatics, Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward (eds.), 153–174. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Bolinger Dwight (1977). Meaning and Form. English Language Series, 11. London: Longman.

Bryzgunova E.A. (1980). Intonacija [Intonation]. In Russkaja grammatika [Russian grammar], Natalja Ju. Švedova, Nina D. Arutjynova, Aleksander V. Bondarko,

Valerij V. Ivanov, Vladimir V. Lopatin, Igor S. Uluhanov, and Fedot P. Filin (eds.), vol. I, 96–120. Moscow: Nauka.

Cann Ronnie, McPherson Catriona (1999). Interclausal cataphora in English.  Ms., PPLS University of Edinburgh and University of Leeds. [URL:  http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~ronnie/cat99-pretty.doc, accessed October 5, 2018].

Dowty David (1991). Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67(3), 547–619. DOI: 10.2307/415037

Frey Werner, Meinunger André, Schwabe Kerstin (eds.) (2016). Inner-sentential Propositional Proforms: Syntactic Properties and Interpretative Effects [Linguistics Today]. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Greco Ciro, Haegeman Liliane, Phan Trang (2017). Expletives and speaker-related meaning. In Order and structure in syntax II: subjecthood and argument structure, Michelle Sheehan and Laura R. Bailey (eds.), 69–93. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Letučij Alexander (2011). Bezličnost’ [Impersonality]. In Materialy dlja proekta korpusnogo opisanija russkoj grammatiki [Towards a corpus description of Russian grammar]. Ms., Moscow. [URL: http://rusgram.ru; accessed April 3, 2019].

Malchukov Andrej, Siewerska Anna (2011). Introduction. In Impersonal Constructions, Andrej Malchukov, and Anna Siewerska (eds.), 1–15. Amsterdam–Philadelphia: John Benjamin.

Pekelis Olga E. (2018). Expletives, referential pronouns and pro-drop: The Russian extra-position pronoun èto in light of the English it and the German es. Lingua 203, 66–101.

Quirk Randolph, Greenbaum Sidney, Leech Geoffrey, Svartvik Jan (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

Russian National Corpus. [URL: www.ruscorpora.ru; last accessed December 5, 2018].

Roberts Ian, Holmberg Anders (2010). Introduction: parameters in minimalist theory. In Parametric Variation: Null Subjects in Minimalist Theory, Theresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg, Ian Roberts, and Michelle Sheehan (eds.), 1–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schwabe Kerstin, Frey Werner, Meinunger André (2016). Sentential proforms: an overview. In Frey, Meinunger, Schwabe (eds.), 1–22.

Sudhoff Stefan (2016). Correlates of object clauses in German and Dutch. In Frey, Meinunger, Schwabe (eds.), 23–48.

Svenonius  Peter  (2002).  Introduction.  In  Subjects,  Expletives,  and  the  EPP,  Peter Svenonius (ed.), 3–27. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Trnavac Radoslava, Taboada Maite (2016). Cataphora, backgrounding and accessibility in discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 93, 68–84.

Vikner Sten (1995). Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Information

Information: Studies in Polish Linguistics, Special Volume, Special Volume 1 (2019), pp. 189 - 205

Article type: Original article

Authors

Russian State University for the Humanities

Published at: 21.03.2019

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Article financing:

This research has been supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanitarian Research (grant no. 17-04-00517(а)).

Percentage share of authors:

Olga Pekelis (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English