PATTERNS OF COMPLEMENTATION IN RUSSIAN: CORE AND PERIPHERY

The paper is focused on patterns of complementation in Russian. The Russian patterns of complementation have been the subject of linguistic research, but is, nevertheless, a bit overlooked, as compared to NP arguments.

In the article, two main purposes are stated. First, we consider it important to describe peripheral complementation patterns which have not been previously described or have only been mentioned in previous studies. Second, we would like to show that peripheral patterns and types of variance provide us with additional information about the semantics of embedded verb forms and strategies (e.g., infinitive clauses or finite clauses with complementizers) and the behavior of particular verb classes.

In particular, it turns out that some verbs, such as sledit’ ‘watch’ or dobivat’sja ‘(try to) achieve’, allow complementation with the marker čtoby, but are (almost) incompatible with the infinitive, even in co-reference contexts. There are also patterns which differ more significantly from standard ones: for instance, verbs like načat’ ‘begin’ allow a strategy which I call ‘syntactic doubling’: the form which occurs in the main clause is repeated in the embedded one.