Case, prepositions and aspectual prefixation in Russian

Abstract

The paper offers a theory of the oblique case system of Russian based on Belvin & den Dikken’s (1997) idea of ‘zonal inclusion’. It is proposed that such a framework can be enhanced by assuming that, in a language like Russian, the different contributions made by the oblique case inflection and by the preposition amount to a domain-narrowing of the former by the latter. Evidence is provided based on the particular behavior of the preposition s, which can select for three different cases yielding different meanings. Finally, on the widely shared view that verb prefixes and prepositions in Slavic are based on the same categorial set, it is suggested that, by assuming Predicate Restriction as the mode of composition, we can provide a more parsimonoius account of Russian aspectual prefixation, dispensing with the articulated cartographic structure postulated in most current approaches.