Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Slawistik und Hungarologie

16.10.2025, 16:30-17:45 [hybrid]
Bożena Rozwadowska (Wrocław), Liudmyla Petryk (Częstochowa) & Natalia Shlikhutka (Wrocław): Psych Reflexive Alternation in Ukrainian and Russian

We investigate the EO/ES (Experiencer Object/Experiencer Subject) in Ukrainian and Russian. Building on Rozwadowska & Bondaruk (2019) and Bondaruk & Rozwadowska (2024) as well as on previous cross-linguistic research, we examine whether this alternation constitutes a subtype of the causative/anticausative alternation (CAA) or represents an independent phenomenon. At the background of comparative evidence from Greek, Romanian, Brazilian Portuguese, Serbian, and Polish, we explore the EO/ES alternation in Ukrainian and Russian and propose a three-way classification of psych verbs based on their morphosyntactic properties. We demonstrate that not all EO verbs are the same. The classes identified in our data differ systematically in terms of case marking, argument realization, as well as their compatibility with instrumental NPs and causative prepositional phrases. The analysis reveals that while some EO/ES alternations in Ukrainian and Russian share surface similarities with CAA, their syntactic behaviour and interpretation often diverge in crucial ways. Our findings support a fine-grained classification of alternating EO verbs with a general conclusion that the EO/ES alternation in these languages cannot be reduced to the causative alternation but rather should be treated as a complex distinct psych verb alternation with different faces.