{"title":"Structural Ambiguities of Russian Dative Infinitival Constructions","authors":"Anna Melnikova","doi":"10.1353/jsl.2022.a923069","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<small>abstract</small>\n<p>This paper addresses the issue of control and raising properties in Russian dative modal constructions with the overt modal element of obligation/necessity <em>nužno</em> 'need'. Using traditional syntactic tests to distinguish raising from control (Davies and Dubinsky 2008), I show that the subject of the lower clause under <em>nužno</em> can be either an overt DP (raising) or PRO controlled by the matrix subject, confirming the correlation between structural selection and interpretive possibilities. Similar to English ambiguous verbs (e.g., <em>begin, threaten</em>), the modal element <em>nužno</em> can participate in different syntactic structures. I ague that syntactic differences are attributed to the unspecified semantics of <em>nužno</em>, resulting in two possible interpretations of the same modal construction.</p>","PeriodicalId":52037,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Linguistics","volume":"244 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Slavic Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jsl.2022.a923069","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
abstract
This paper addresses the issue of control and raising properties in Russian dative modal constructions with the overt modal element of obligation/necessity nužno 'need'. Using traditional syntactic tests to distinguish raising from control (Davies and Dubinsky 2008), I show that the subject of the lower clause under nužno can be either an overt DP (raising) or PRO controlled by the matrix subject, confirming the correlation between structural selection and interpretive possibilities. Similar to English ambiguous verbs (e.g., begin, threaten), the modal element nužno can participate in different syntactic structures. I ague that syntactic differences are attributed to the unspecified semantics of nužno, resulting in two possible interpretations of the same modal construction.
期刊介绍：
Journal of Slavic Linguistics, or JSL, is the official journal of the Slavic Linguistics Society. JSL publishes research articles and book reviews that address the description and analysis of Slavic languages and that are of general interest to linguists. Published papers deal with any aspect of synchronic or diachronic Slavic linguistics – phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, or pragmatics – which raises substantive problems of broad theoretical concern or proposes significant descriptive generalizations. Comparative studies and formal analyses are also published. Different theoretical orientations are represented in the journal. One volume (two issues) is published per year, ca. 360 pp.
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