Russian OVS: towards a Better Understanding of the Construction’s Properties and Significance

Abstract

In this paper I discuss some familiar data as well as novel syntactic evidence that allows us to map the position of the internal and the external arguments in the Russian OVS construction. I argue that the evidence unequivocally points to the object occupying the canonical subject position, Spec,TP, thus excluding this position from consideration as far as the position of the subject is concerned. I then provide evidence that may constitute new support for the subject extraposition accounts of OVS, while also considering what the remaining viable possibilities may be and fleshing out the details of one such promissing account. The significance of the emerging picture for our theories of Syntax-Information Structure relation is briefly discussed.