Sussex R., Cubberley P. The Slavic Languages

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

heterosubject structures, where the subordinate clause has a different subject from

that of the dominating word. It often occurs as an alternative to the infinitive with

subordinate-goal clauses (105b–c), whereas other dominating verbs expressing

facts rather than wishes or orders show the ‘that’ complementizer (105d):

(105a) Rus ja

pris

l (,c

ˇto

by) kopa

v sadu

‘I came (in order) to dig in the garden’

(105b) Rus ja

poprosı

l ego

prijtı

‘I asked him to come’

(105c) Rus ja

poprosı

l ego

by pris

‘I asked him to (that he might) come’

(105d) Rus ja

poobes

l, c

to my

pozvonı

mpo

sle p

‘I promised that we would ring after the play’

(105e) Rus ja

poobes

l pozvonı

sle p

‘I promised to ring after the play’

Subordinate goal clauses in Czech and Slovenian also show an archaic supine

(5.5.5.11) after verbs of motion (see (15c–d) above).

Heterosubject infinitives can have a passive reading (106a). This passive reading,

however, depends on the individual construction, as can be seen from the elliptical

structure of (106b), where the infinitive structure is semantically active rather than

passive:

(106a) Rus ja

tdal c

asy

(ı

x) poc

inı

I-Nom give_up-MascSgPast watch-Acc (it-Acc) fix-Inf

‘I handed (it) over my watch to be fixed’

(106b) Rus ja

l emu

zakurı

I-Nom give-MascSgPast he-Dat begin_to_smoke-Inf

‘I gave him a light’

Sorbian and Slovak possess a Latin-type Accusative + Infinitive construction with

verbs of perception, where other Slavic languages use the ‘as’ Complementizer +

Sentence, an alternative also available in Sorbian and Slovak:

(107a) Sorb widz

ach ju na klawe

rje hrac

see-1SgAor she-Acc on piano-LocSg play-Inf

‘I saw her playing (on) the piano’

(107b) Sorb widz

ach ju, kak na klawe

rje hrje

see-1SgAor she-Acc as on piano-LocSg play-3SgPres

‘I saw her playing (on) the piano’

7.2 More complex constructions 379

In one important area, however, Slavic is less permissive than English with infini-

tives, since verbs of volition may not take heterosubject infinitives, and must use the

‘in-order-that’ complementizer:

(108) Pol ja chce˛,

zeby poszedł

I-Nom want-1SgPres in-order-that go-MascSgPast

‘I want him to go’ (*ja chce˛ jego po

)

The ‘in-order-that’ complementizer is also important in distinguishing Serbian and

Croatian. There is virtually free variation between infinitives and da + Sentence

with many verbs in B/C/S, including cases of infinitives with the same imputed

subject as the subject of the main clause (unlike West and East Slavic):

(109a) B/C/S p

ˇex

ˇı

tati /da c

ˇı



begin-1SgAor read-Inf /in-order-that read-1SgPres

‘I began to read’

(109b) B/C/S ne m

ogu na

i/da na



em ‘I can’t find (it)’

(109c) B/C/S a%ko smı``j



em pı

tati/da pı



am ‘if I dare to ask’

But there is an increasing tendency to use da as one nears the Bulgarian frontier

in the south and east (the Torlak dialects: 10.4.2), while the infinitive prevails

much more in Croatia. There is consequently a long and gradual dialect chain

of usage from west (biased toward the Infinitive) to east (biased toward

da + Sentence).

7.2.2.2 Complements

True Slavic complements involve four types of complementizer: ‘that’, ‘as’,

‘in-order-that’ and ‘question’ (for indirect questions, see 7.3.4). The complement-

izer introduces the subordinate sentence, and is itself introduced by a word or

phrase. It is this word or phrase which governs the choice of complementizer, and

the type of subordinate sentence:

(110a) Rus koro

sly

al, c

to prie

xali

king[Masc]-NomSg hear-MascSgPast that arrive-PlPastPrfv

‘the king heard that they had arrived’

(110b) Rus koro

sly

al, kak

king[Masc]-NomSg hear-MascSgPast as

priez ˇza

arrive-PlPastImprfv

‘the king heard them arriving’

380 7. Sentence structure

(110c) Rus koro

prikaza

l, c

ˇto

king[Masc]-NomSg order-MascSgPast in-order-that

prie

xali

arrive-PlPastPrfv

‘the king ordered that they arrive/come (... them to come)’

(110d) Rus koro

sprosı

l, prie

xali

king[Masc]-NomSg ask-MascSgPast come-PlPastPrfv

li onı

Q they-Nom

‘the king asked whether they had arrived’

The ‘that’ complementizer (110a) follows expressions of saying, believing, know-

ing, and implies a non-physical sensation/perception, as of experiencing or perceiv-

ing a fact or result. The ‘as’ complementizer (110b) follows expressions of sensation

and perception (of a process), making the whole construction similar to the English

construction with -ing. The ‘in-order-that’ complementizer (110c) follows expres-

sions of ordering, wishing, doubting, fearing, and some expressions of obligation

and necessity. It uses the past of the verb plus the hypothetical/conditional -by-

element (5.5.5.7), which may also express person:

(111a) Cz chte

l by-ch, aby se

want-MascSgPast Aux-1SgCond in-order-that-3Sg ReflCl

ti u na

slı

bilo

you-Cl-DatSg at we-Gen please-NeutSgPast

‘I would like you to enjoy it here with us’

(111b) Cz ba

lse, aby-ch se

fear-MascSgPast ReflCl in-order-that-1Sg ReflCl

o tom ne

kdo nedove

about that-LocSg someone-Nom Neg-know-MascSgPast

‘he was afraid that someone would find out about it’

(111c) Cz je tr

eba, aby-s to

be-3SgPres necessary in-order-that-2Sg it-NeutSg

vide

see-MascSgPast

‘it is necessary that you see it’

The use and structure of subordinate sentence-types with Slavic complements is not

unlike English, though Slavic has fewer types. The ‘that’ type is often preceded by

the pronoun to, with or without a preposition, especially when the expression

7.2 More complex constructions 381

introducing the subordinate clause is not transitive (112a). This to also occurs when

sentences function as the subject of another sentence (112b):

(112a) Cz nehlede

na to,

ze me

l moc

in-spite-of it-AccSg that have-MascSgPast much

pra

ce, musel tam jı

work-GenSg must-MascSgPast there go-Inf

‘in spite of the fact that he had a lot of work, he had to go

there’

(112b) Rus to

, c

to o

n ume

et govorı

it-NeutNomSg that he-Nom know-3SgPres speak-Inf

po-kita

jski, o

ˇzno

in-Chinese very important-NeutSg

‘the fact that he can speak Chinese is very important’

The ‘in-order-that’ type is very common in Bulgarian and Macedonian, and in the

south-east dialects of Serbian, where the infinitive is missing, and the whole range

of infinitive expressions is transferred to this construction, whatever the subject; the

‘in-order-that’ complementizer is da:

(113) Mac sednav da si poc

ˇinam

sit-1SgAor in-order-that self-Dat rest-1SgPres

‘I sat down to rest’

As we saw in 7.2.2, in languages with an infinitive the subordinate sentence cannot

have a subject identical to the subject of the main sentence, as in English:

(114a) Rus ja

prikaza

l ego

ujtı

‘I ordered him to leave’

(114b) Rus ja

prikaza

l, c

ˇto

by o

nus

l ‘I ordered that he leave’

(114c) Rus *ja

xoc

ˇu´

ˇto

by ja

pris

l ‘*I want that I come’

(114d) Rus ja

xoc

prijtı

‘I want to come’

The ‘in-order-that’ complementizer may be followed by an infinitive if the subject

of the infinitive is the same as the subject of the main sentence. Some verbs of

motion can even dispense with the complementizer:

(115) Pol Janek przyszedł (,

zeby) pro

bowac

nasz

e wina

‘Janek came (in order) to try [Inf] our wines’

But some verbs do not occur with the infinitive. In Sorbian there is quite a different

relation of infinitival constructions to complementizer constructions, since Sorbian

has a special Accusative + Infinitive (above). But the verbs stac

‘stand’, le ˇzec

‘lie’,

382 7. Sentence structure

sedz

´ec

‘sit’, spac

‘sleep’, and tc

ˇec

‘be, be located’ occur with a present gerund, rather

like the English -ing (116a). In such instances the other Slavic languages would have

either an ‘as’ or a temporal complementizer (116b) or a participial construction

(116c). This use of a gerund modifying something other than the subject of the

sentence is unusual in Slavic (7.3.6):

(116a) Sorb woni su nas widz

eli w busu

they-Nom Aux-3Pl we-Acc see-PlPast in bus

sedz

sit-PresGer

‘they saw us sitting in the bus’

(116b) Rus onı

vı

deli na

s, kak/kogda

they-Nom see-PlPast we-Acc as/when we-Nom

side

li v avto

buse

sit-PlPast in bus

‘they saw us as we sat in the bus’

(116c) Rus onı

vı

deli na

s, sidja

ix v avto

buse

(...) sit-AccPl-PresPartAct (...)

‘they saw us sitting in the bus’

7.2.2.3 Relative clauses

Relative clauses in Slavic work on the same general principle as in English.

A relative pronoun, which concords in number and gender with the nominal to

which it refers, introduces a subordinate clause. Its case is controlled by its syntactic

role in the relative clause:

(117a) Ukr s

fa, v jakı

jleˇza

cupboard[Fem]-NomSg in which-FemLocSg lie-3PlPres

kny

ˇzky

books-NomPl

‘the cupboard in which the books are lying’

(117b) Sorb kupich knihu, kotru ˇzna

buy-1SgAorist book[Fem]-AccSg which-FemAccSg at

wustajency widz

ach

exhibition-LocSg see-1SgAor

‘I bought the book that I saw at the exhibition’

Word order in subordinate clauses is dictated by the syntactic role of the relative

pronoun. This pronoun is usually in first position in the relative clause, particularly

when it is either subject or object:

7.2 More complex constructions 383

(118a) Ukr ljudy

na, jaka

ˇo

person[Fem]-NomSg who-FemNomSg/that-Inv

pryxo

dyla vc

ˇo

come-FemStPast yesterday

‘the person who came yesterday’

(118b) Blg velikole

pnata panora

ma, s

to predsta

vja

magnificent-FemDef panorama which present-3SgPres

dolı

nata

valley-[Fem]-Def

‘the magnificent view which the valley presents’

As a genitive the relative pronoun may come first, as is regularly the case in Polish

(119a) (and in Czech (121) ):

(119a) Pol pani, kto

rej ma˛z

lady[Fem]-NomSg who-FemGenSg husband[Masc]-NomSg

wyjechał niedawno

leave-MascSgPast recently

‘the lady whose husband left recently’

Or it may follow the governing noun phrase, as is usual in the other languages:

(119b) Rus mu ˇzc

ˇı

na, ˇzena

koto

rogo

man[Masc]-NomSg wife[Fem]-NomSg who-MascSgGen

xala neda

vno

leave-FemSgPast recently

‘the man whose wife left recently’

The only two word-classes which regularly and obligatorily precede the relative

pronouns are prepositions and conjunctions:

(120a) Blg sres

tna

x pozna

ti, s koı

to otda

vna ne

meet-1SgAor friend-Pl with who-PlDef long Neg

sa˘m se vı

ˇzdal

Aux-1Sg ReflCl see-MascSgPastPart

‘I met some friends that I hadn’t seen for a long time’

(120b) Sorb

njeznaju nikoho, pola koho ˇz

Neg-know-1SgPres no-one-GenSg chez who-GenSg

bych so mo

hła schowac

Aux-1SgCond ReflCl able-FemSgPastPart hide-Inf

‘I know no one at whose home I could hide’

384 7. Sentence structure

The relative pronoun itself is usually of the k-/j- type, a form which is only used for

the relative and certain question structures. Some languages, however, have special

forms for the possessive relative pronoun. Czech has a literary form jen ˇz, originally

from the pronoun ‘he’ plus the particle ˇze. This word also provides possessive

relative forms, which follow prepositions in spite of their being morphologically

genitive in form (a type of modifier which is normally post-posed in Slavic):

(121a) Cz spisovatel, jeho ˇzdı

author[Masc]-NomSg whose[MascSg] work[Neut]-AccSg

teme

read-1PlPres

‘the author whose work we are reading’

(121b) Cz univerzita, jejı

ˇz fakulta ...

university[Fem]-NomSg whose[FemSg] faculty ...

‘the university whose faculty ...’

It is also the possessive which shows variation in B/C/S, Bulgarian and

Macedonian, and also in literary Russian, where the interrogative ‘whose?’ form

is available for use as a relative. Note that in Bulgarian the definite article–suffix -to

converts the interrogative into a relative; Macedonian adds-s

to:

(122a) B/C/S to

je Pe%tar, c



this-NeutSgNom be-3SgPres Peter whose-FemSgNom

je s

estra ra



ica

Aux-3SgPres sister[Fem]-NomSg worker[Fem]NomSg

‘that is Peter, whose sister is a worker’

(122b) Blg e

to e le

kar, c

jto

this-NeutSg be-3SgPres doctor whose[Masc]-Sg

sı

n e pisa

tel

son[Masc]-Sg be-3SgPres writer[Masc]-Sg

‘this is the doctor whose son is a writer’

(122c) Mac pisatelot c

iis

to pesni peat ovie

writer[Masc]-Def whose-Pl song-Pl sing-3PlPres this-Pl

devojki

girl-Pl

‘the writer whose songs those girls are singing’

The invariant

to/co can also be used as a relative form for animate referents in all

eleven languages:

(123) Blg xo

rata, c

to vidja

x ‘the people whom/that I saw’

7.2 More complex constructions 385

Czech and B/C/S possess a construction which is superficially similar, but which

introduces another basis altogether for the construction of relative clauses:

(124) Cz pr

inesl jsem ti knihu,

bring-1SgPrfv Aux-1Sg you-DatSg book[Fem]-AccSg

co jsme o nı

era mluvili

which Aux-1Pl about it-FemLocSg yesterday talk-PlPast

‘I have brought you the book about which we were talking

yesterday’ (lit. ‘... that we about it yesterday talked’)

There are also structures where the head ( ¼ referent) in the main clause is not a

noun, but a pronoun or an abstract – for example, a whole sentence. Reference to a

whole sentence is made by the neuter singular of the appropriate relative pronoun,

or by the c

to/co form:

(125a) Rus po

sle obe

da s

ldo

ˇzd

, c

to udivlja

lo na

s vse

‘after dinner rain fell, which (i.e. which fact) astonished us all’

The more common form of such constructions, however, is by means of the

typically Slavic Double Pronoun + Relative, where the first element is one of the

t-series of pronouns, and the second is one of the k-/j-series (5.5.5.2, 8.6.2):

(125b) Rus to

, c

to po

sle obe

da s

it that after dinner-GenSg went-MascSgPast

ˇzd

, udivlja

lo na

s vse

rain[Masc]-NomSg amaze-NeutSgPast we-Acc all-AccPl

‘that (lit. it that) after dinner rain fell astonished us all’

This ‘‘that ... which’’ construction is also found with unspecified objects in the

main clause:

(125c) Rus ja

vdru

g vspo

mnil to

, o

I-Nom suddenly remember-MascSgPast it about

e¨ m my

uˇze

zaby

which-LocSg we already forgot-PlPast

‘I suddenly remembered what (that about which) we had already

forgotten’

If there is a nominal object, it may be preceded by a determiner of the t-series, and

the relative clause is again introduced by the appropriate form of the relative

pronoun:

386 7. Sentence structure

(125d) Rus my

vstre

tilis

s te

m stude

ntom, u

we meet-Past with that-InstrSg student-InstrSg at (chez)

koto

rogo my

li ra

who-GenSg we be-PlPast earlier

‘we met the (that) student at whose house we had been earlier’

This ‘‘t- ... k-/j-’’ pattern also applies to determiners in both the main and the

subordinate clause:

(125e) Rus my

vı

deli ta

m takı

e mas

ny, kakı

we see-PlPast there such-AccPl car-AccPl which-GenP

nikogda

ne vı

del!

you-NomSg never Neg see-MascSgPast

‘we saw there such cars as you have never seen!’

and to a whole range of other determiners and adverbials. As with the basic to ...

ˇto

construction discussed above, the first element can sometimes be omitted. But

there is a strong tendency in Slavic to include both, particularly in syntactically

complex sentences.

(126a) Cz jdi tam, odkud jsi pr

go-2SgImper there whence Aux-2Sg come-MascSgPastPart

‘go (there) where you came from’

(126b) Cz de

lejte tak, jak va

do-2PlImper thus how you-DatPl say-1SgPres

‘do as I tell you’

(126c) Sorb namakach ju tam, hdz

z ju

find-1SgAor it-FemAcc there where it-FemAcc

pytat njebe

seek-MascSgPastPart Neg-Aux-1SgCond

‘I found it (there) where I wouldn’t have looked for it’

The same type of construction occurs with quantifiers:

(127) Cz dostanete tolik, kolik potr

ebujete

receive-2PlFutPrfv so_much how_much need-2PlPres

‘you will get as much as you need’

And there is the common use of the ‘that ...which’ pronominal structure (7.2.2.2),

with a preceding preposition, for instance where English uses a preposition or a

conjunction:

7.2 More complex constructions 387

(128a) Rus pe

red te

m, kak ... ‘before (it, that) + Sentence’

(128b) Rus po

sle togo

, kak ... ‘after (it, that) + Sentence’

In these examples the total structure, with the syntactic role of a conjunction, uses a

‘‘dummy’’ pronoun (tem, togo, etc.). But ‘‘relative adverbs’’ can also refer not to

‘‘dummy’’ pronouns, but to nouns themselves:

(129a) Sorb w dobje, hdy ˇz ... ‘at a time when ...’

(129b) Sorb do cuzeho kraja, hdz

´e

ˇz ... (w kotrym ˇz )

‘to a foreign land, where ... (in which)’

In the majority of examples cited thus far, the t- word in the main clause precedes

the k-/j- word in the subordinate clause. This order is not always followed, espe-

cially in proverbs:

(130a) Sorb kelko

z hłowow, telko myslow

how_many head-GenPl so_many thought-GenPl

(‘there are as many opinions as there are heads’) [saying]

(130b) Sorb hdz

z so kuri, tam je wohen

where ReflCl smoke-3SgPres there be-3Sg fire-Nom

‘where there is smoke (there) there is fire’

Furthermore, the t-word may be omitted entirely – not only, as we have seen, in

adverbial constructions but also with the relative pronoun. This is particularly

common in ‘he ... who’ sentences, and in the ‘‘free’’ relative:

(131a) Mac s

to sum ka ˇzal e vistina

what Aux-1Sg say-MascSgPast be-3Sg truth

‘what I have said is the truth’

(131b) Mac koj prv k

e dojde, prv k

e svrs

who first Fut arrive-3Sg first Fut finish-3Sg

‘he who comes first will finish first’

(131c) Rus bla ˇze

n, kto pra

zdnik ˇzı

zni ra

no osta

vil ... (Pushkin)

happy who festival life-Gen early leave-MascSgPast

‘happy is he who has left the festival of life early ...’

(131d) Pol co napisałem, zostało przyje˛te

what write-1SgPast Aux-NeutSg accepted-NeutSgPass

‘what I wrote was accepted’

388 7. Sentence structure