Understanding the nature of "self"

Binding and the OVS word order in Russian

Authors

  • Asya M Pereltsvaig Independent Scholar

Keywords:

binding, word order, scrambling, anaphora

Abstract

Anaphor binding is a broadly-studied and widely-used diagnostic for syntactic structure across languages: since anaphors (which are subject to Principle A of the Binding Theory) require an antecedent that is local, c-commanding and in an A-position, the possibility of anaphor binding is commonly used as a diagnostic for both c-command (e.g. Barss & Lasnik 1986) and A- vs. A’- distinction. This use of anaphor binding as a syntactic diagnostic is not without problems, however, as evidenced from the debate surrounding the structure of OVS sentences in Russian. The goals of this paper are, thus, three-fold: (a) to gain a better understanding of anaphor binding as a syntactic diagnostic, (b) to shed new light on the long-standing and hotly-debated puzzle of OVS sentences in Russian, and (c) to explore the interaction of syntax and semantics, as concerns binding and thematic roles.

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Published

2022-12-08

How to Cite

Pereltsvaig, A. M. “Understanding the Nature of ‘self’: Binding and the OVS Word Order in Russian”. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, vol. 30, no. FASL 29 extra issue, Dec. 2022, pp. 1-22, https://ojs.ung.si/index.php/JSL/article/view/75.

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