The conceptual basis of synactic rules: a semantic motivation for the second dative in Russian

• Autores: E. Fortuin
• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Vol. 113, Nº 1, 2003, págs. 49-92
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper examines the status of syntactic rules, such as they are given in formal frameworks, by discussing the case assignment to the Russian semipredicatives sam (‘self’) and odin (‘alone’) when they occur with the infinitive. The paper focuses in particular on the appearance of these semipredicates in the dative case, the so-called ‘second dative’. It is argued that formal approaches to the second dative suffer from a number of shortcomings which can all be contributed to the fact that they do not take the semantics of the relevant expressions (dative, nominative, infinitive, lexical meaning of sam and odin) into consideration in the linguistic analysis. The negligence of semantics leads to (i) the use of non-motivated rules and notions, (ii) circularity in the explanation, (iii) arbitrariness in the distinction of linguistic data, and, in some cases (iv) wrong predictions. In this paper it is shown that an analysis that proceeds from the semantic (or conceptual) basis of morphological case adds a deeper level of explanation and understanding to formal analyses of the second dative. By discussing the different contexts in which the second dative occurs, it is shown that the syntactic combination of the second dative and the infinitive expresses that there is a force directed at the realization of the infinitive situation by the participant expressed by odin or sam. The nominative occurs if the idea of assigning a situation is absent, and the subject of the infinitive (which is associated with the participant expressed by the semipredicative) and the infinitive situation, are conceptualized as manifestations of the same scene.