PRONOUNS KTO ‘WHO’ AND KOTORYI ‘WHICH’ IN A RELATIVE CLAUSE

The paper analyzes the problem of choice between relative pronouns kto ‘who’ and kotoryi ‘which’ in a relative clause in Russian. The lexemes of the vocables kto and kotoryi are lexicographically described; a definition of pseudorelative clause (= headless, or free, relative: Kto ustal, pustʹ ukhodit ‘Who is tired, let him leave’) is proposed; two major types of relative clause are characterized: restrictive-modifying (Dom, kotoryi ya uvidel za povorotom, byl osveshchën ‘The house that I saw after the road turn was lit’) vs. descriptive-modifying (Tvoi otets, kotorogo vse tak uvazhayut, sumeet sdelatʹ etо ‘Your father, whom everybody deeply respects, will be able to do this’). Formal semantic and deep-syntactic rules for the choice between lexemes kto2а and kotoryiII.a are presented; these rules are based on linguistic factors of three types:

• Semantic factors: 1) the type of the modified noun LGOV’s referent (human/non-human); 2) the type of the relative (restrictive/descriptive); 3) presence/absence of the existence presupposition for LGOV’s referent.

• Syntactic factors: 1) syntactic class of LGOV noun (pronominal/non-pronominal etc.); 2) presence of some particular dependents of LGOV.

• Lexical factor: the lexeme chelovek ‘man ≈ human’ and the lexemes of the type vysochestvo ‘Highness,’ velichestvo ‘Majesty,’ etc.