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

Philip Shushurin (NYU): The distribution of short form adjectivals in Russian: a novel generalization

The paper discusses the distribution of short and long adjectival forms in finite and non-finite clauses. A novel hypothesis is formulated according to which short form adjectivals possess two case forms – Nominative and Instrumental – and hence are not devoid of case, as standardly assumed. The paper shows that with this novel assumption the empirical description of the relevant phenomena can be significantly simplified, in particular, the long form passive participles can be described as completely disallowed in the predicative position. I also propose an analysis, according to which: (a) long and short forms are in complementary distribution depending on the attributiveness; (b) the case of an adjectival can be assigned by certain (lexical) verbal heads, as well as several non-finite heads (c) short forms can also be assigned Nominative by the closest T in the case it is finite.