The external possessor in Russian: comparing dative construction and construction k (‘towards’) + npdat

This paper examines the ways of possession expression in Russian. We focus on two of them: the dative construction and the “k (‘towards’) + NPDat” construction. In some cases they seem to be synonymous: (1) Vor lezet ei / k nei v sumochku ‘The thief is trying to reach something in her (other person's) purse.’ Many researchers consider them to be external possessor constructions and treat them as transformations of genitive noun phrases. This approach successfully explains some characteristics of the constructions in question, it even catches some subtle shifts in the semantics that come along with the choice between the dative construction and the genitive NP or between the k-construction and the genitive NP. However, it fails to explain how the synonymy like (1) occurs. Examples show that the k-construction has its own semantics, which become plain in combination with predicates that do not have the ‘translocation’ component in their meaning at all (odet'sya k podruzhke na ulitsu ‘dressing (to go) to a friend (awaiting) outdoors’). In all cases when the k-construction is considered to express the external assessor, this semantics is preserved, that leads us to the conclusion that the k-construction is presumably not a grammaticalized way of possessor raising, it rather expresses the same semantics in some cases. Most of these cases are due to the semantics of the predicate that imposes restrictions on the actants, as in the case of lezt' ‘to penetrate somewhere for the purpose of theft.’ The dative construction probably does arise as a result of possessor raising.