Serés & Espinal (2019). Russian definitional generic sentences

Autors:

Dària Serés, M.Teresa Espinal

Títol:

Russian definitional generic sentences

Editorial: Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1). Ubiquity Press
Data de publicació: 14 de juny de 2019
Pàgines: 30

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In this article we analyse Russian definitional sentences, which are a type of generic sentence. We focus on the structure and meaning of canonical definitions, which express an identity/identification relation between two nominal concepts. In Russian such definitions are given in the form of a bi-nominative structure: NP1 – èto NP2 (‘NP1 is NP2’). We argue that definitional sentences are copular, and they are non-predicational, showing similarities to equative, identificational and specificational sentences. We also argue that (i) both NPs in definitional sentences are kind-referring, whereas èto is non-referential; (ii) a copula be maps a kind entity (the denotation of NP2) to itself (identity function); and (iii) the neuter element èto introduces a presentational function that maps the kind entity in postcopular position to a function that looks for another kind entity (the one corresponding to NP1) and composes a definitional generic sentence.

Borik, Borràs & Serés (2020). Preverbal (in)definites in Russian: An experimental study

Autors:

Olga Borik, Joan Borràs-Comes & Dària Serés

Títol:

Preverbal (in)definites in Russian: An experimental study, chapter 3 in K. Balogh, A. Latrouite & R. D. Van Valin, Jr (eds.) Nominal anchoring

Editorial: Language Science Press
Data de publicació: 2020

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This paper presents an experimental investigation aimed at determining the exact nature of the relationship between type of interpretation (definite or indefinite) and linear position (pre- or postverbal) of bare nominal subjects of intransitive predi- cates in Russian. The results of our experiment confirm that preverbal position correlates with a definite interpretation, and postverbal position with an indefinite interpretation. However, we also discovered that the acceptance rate of preverbal indefinites is reasonably high. We suggest an explanation for the appearance of indefinites in preverbal subject position in terms of lexical accessibility, which is couched in general terms of D-linking.