Abstract:This paper discusses the genitive of negation in Russian, one of the most well-studied case alternations that exists in the language and the most well-known diagnostic for unaccusativity. Direct objects and subjects of unaccusative predicates may occur in the genitive case under sentential negation, alternating with accusative and nominative, respectively. When these Noun Phrases (NPs) appear in the genitive, they tend to receive an indefinite, non-specific, or existential interpretation. Recent semantic analy… Show more
“…The genitive of negation in modern spoken Russian is an illustrative example. This phenomenon, albeit popular among linguists (see Harves, 2013 for an overview and further references), is not prominent in the modern baseline (Comrie, Stone & Polinsky, 1996, pp. 146-147), and the heritage varieties barely use the genitive of negation.…”
Section: Predicting Change Without a Long Viewmentioning
There has been a substantial amount of research on heritage language acquisition and diachronic change. Although recent work has increasingly pointed to parallels between those two areas, it remains unclear how systematic these are. In this paper, we provide a bird's eye view, illustrating how patterns of diachronic change are mirrored in heritage language grammars. In doing so, we focus on one of the best-described grammaticalization processes – namely, the formation of articles from demonstratives and numerals, reviewing studies on heritage varieties which mirror those processes. Based on this review, we make two main points: that change in heritage language can be predicted based on established diachronic scenarios, and that heritage languages often amplify incipient changes in the baseline. After discussing a number of attested changes in a bilingual context, we identify directions for future research in the domain of determiners in heritage languages.
“…The genitive of negation in modern spoken Russian is an illustrative example. This phenomenon, albeit popular among linguists (see Harves, 2013 for an overview and further references), is not prominent in the modern baseline (Comrie, Stone & Polinsky, 1996, pp. 146-147), and the heritage varieties barely use the genitive of negation.…”
Section: Predicting Change Without a Long Viewmentioning
There has been a substantial amount of research on heritage language acquisition and diachronic change. Although recent work has increasingly pointed to parallels between those two areas, it remains unclear how systematic these are. In this paper, we provide a bird's eye view, illustrating how patterns of diachronic change are mirrored in heritage language grammars. In doing so, we focus on one of the best-described grammaticalization processes – namely, the formation of articles from demonstratives and numerals, reviewing studies on heritage varieties which mirror those processes. Based on this review, we make two main points: that change in heritage language can be predicted based on established diachronic scenarios, and that heritage languages often amplify incipient changes in the baseline. After discussing a number of attested changes in a bilingual context, we identify directions for future research in the domain of determiners in heritage languages.
“…Use of the genitive of negation is superficially optional, though it has some semantic correlates. See Harves 2013 and citations therein for more information. What matters for our purposes is that the absence of negation in an example like (26) removes the possibility of genitive case marking on the object of the adjunct, rendering the sentence totally unacceptable: …”
Section: The Facts About the Interaction Between Pgs And Lbe In Russianmentioning
We use parasitic gaps to examine left‐branch extraction from nominal phrases in Russian. We observe that the interpretation of a parasitic gap in a context with left‐branch extraction is the same as the interpretation assigned when an entire nominal phrase is moved. Thus we argue that Russian left‐branch extraction involves concealed pied‐piping of an entire nominal phrase, rather than true extraction of a left branch. We go on to explore the consequences of this analysis for several other topics.
“…Counter to past analyses, I do not interpret these exceptional predicates as exhibiting varying unaccusative/unergative behavior (Levin & Rappaport, 1989;Pesetsky, 1982;Harves, 2002). Additionally, I do not see these predicates as semantically bleached (Partee & Borschev, 2004;Harves, 2013) because they are used with existentiality. Instead, I offer a new explanation: an overt LOC can cancel the presupposition of an unergative subject's existence.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Numerous linguists have noted genitive NPs lack EC, while accusative objects optionally communicate EC (Chvany, 1975;Babby, 1980;Borschev & Partee, 2002;Harves, 2002Harves, , 2013Partee & Borschev, 2004;Kagan, 2007Kagan, , 2010Kagan, , 2013Borschev et al, 2007). Borschev & Partee (2002) explain existentiality involves an entity (THING) relative to a location (LOC), though the LOC need not be explicit in Russian.…”
This paper presents data from Russian exhibiting seemingly variable unaccusative and unergative behavior. Russian motion-verb-weather/season expressions pass several accepted diagnostics for unaccusativity yet fail the genitive of negation—the diagnostic most widely agreed to show unaccusativity in Russian. I argue this failure results from a presupposition of existential commitment, which can be canceled. Crucial to this analysis is the assumption that Neg0 is always a secondary—not obligatory—licenser and arguments communicating existential commitment exist within a small clause structure. This analysis accounts for seemingly exceptional unergative clauses and has implications for what the genitive of negation reveals about a predicate structure.
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