Journal of Slavic Linguistics

Theme vowels, iterativity and verb classes: A DM analysis

Petr Biskup — 2026-09-10

This paper is concerned with the relation between theme vowels, mainly -a, iterativity and verb class properties of Czech predicates. It investigates three phenomena – participial adjectives, motion verbs and impersonal constructions – and there, two puzzles: unaccusative participial adjectives with the “transitive” -n/t suffix and unaccusative impersonal constructions. The three phenomena share some properties: they have iterative (or more generally, plural) interpretation; display specific changes in argument structure behavior and crucially, they contain the verbal theme -a. The article addresses the question of what role the theme -a has in derivations of these phenomena. It argues that the theme -a is a marker with several functions; among other things, it realizes the iterative head.

Categorial mismatches of pronouns – a diachronic perspective

Krzysztof Migdalski — 2026-09-10

This paper investigates categorial mismatches in Slavic pronouns, focusing on cases where the morphological form of pronominal clitics diverges from their syntactic or prosodic interpretation. We argue that such mismatches are empirically necessary to account for both synchronic variation and diachronic change. The analysis shows that mismatches between PF (phonological form) and LF (logical form) interpretations may give rise to structural ambiguity—one of the key preconditions for language change, as noted by Lightfoot (1979, 1991). Building on accounts of PF/LF mismatches in pronominals proposed by Despić (2011), Despić (2014), Stegovec (2019), and Puśkar-Gallien (2022), we argue that diachronic data from Old Russian and synchronic variation in Polish and Macedonian provide strong support for the categorial mismatches as the most explanatory framework for the observed changes and distributional patterns.

No HAVEs to GIVE? No problem!

Barbara Citko — 2026-09-10

This paper explores a correlation, due to Harley (2002), that only languages that express predicative possession with a transitive verb like English have (i.e., languages with P_HAVE that incorporates into BE in her terms) allow double object constructions. We focus on Polish (a have-language) and Russian (a be-language) and show that the distinction between Have and Be languages and the availability of P_HAVE does not necessarily affect the properties (or existence) of double object constructions. We next turn to another potential diagnostic for the presence of a PP in a DOC, due to Bondarenko (2018), involving the availability of restitutive readings in DOCs. We show that Polish and Russian both lack restitutive readings in DOCs, suggesting that the presence of a PP/P_HAVE, which Polish has and Russian appears to lack, cannot be responsible for restitutive readings.

To inflect, or not to inflect, that is the question

Kirill Chuprinko — 2026-09-10

We present two experiments in which Russian speakers used nonce nouns ending in -a, -o, -e, -i and -u, producing a form or selecting it from a list. Most forms from -a stimuli were inflected, as expected. We also received many inflected answers for other stimuli, although real -i/u nouns are always indeclinable, as well as new loanwords ending in -o/e. Notably, the majority of inflected instrumental singular forms from -i/u stimuli and more than half of such forms from -o/e stimuli used suffixes of declension I, although all real declinable -o/e nouns belong to declension II, neuter gender. We suggest an explanation for these findings and discuss why the II declension neuter gender pattern is unproductive.

On Adjunction, Complementation and the Problem of Present Perfectives in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian

Miloje Despic — 2026-09-10

We focus on the well-known fact that in BCMS simple present perfective sentences are in general unacceptable as independent clauses, in contrast to present imperfectives. A plausible analysis of these facts could be that they are in some sense syntactically impoverished, e.g., they are not full CPs, and for that reason they cannot function as independent clauses. We argue for an alternative analysis. We will first show that present perfectives can appear in unambiguous CP environments. The second argument comes from the behavior of complements of misliti ‘think’, which are ambiguous between propositional and future irrealis meaning. Present perfectives are felicitous in both contexts; crucially, propositional complements are unambiguously CPs. Instead of the syntactic explanation, we show that all the facts can be explained via semantic requirements of present perfectives, as in Todorović (2015).

Pseudo-relative clauses and "Pseudo" pseudo-relative clauses

Wayles Browne — 2026-09-10

This paper discusses relative clauses in Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian and Bulgarian, with some comparisons to English and French. It adopts much of the terminology used in the book (Mel’čuk 2021), including governor and image, and discusses differences in relativizer that arise when the governor is a noun vs. when it is certain kinds of non-noun; it connects these differences with different behavior of anaphoric pronouns. The paper nevertheless argues for maintaining the term pseudo-relative in its older meaning (the French type Le voilà qui arrive ‘Here he is arriving’) rather than Mel’čuk’s usage to mean a relative construction that seems to have no expressed governor/antecedent.

(C)overt (in)definiteness marking in Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian

Daria Alexandrova (Seres) — 2026-09-10

The paper presents an experimental investigation of NP marking of discourse-new subjects in Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. The study showed that bare NPs are favoured in articleless languages, despite the general availability of overt indefinite marking, which can be considered optional. In Bulgarian (language with a definite article) the use of bare NPs is restricted to non-salient referents (e.g., with postverbal subjects). The results obtained provide support to the hypothesis that bare NPs in articleless languages are compatible with an indefinite interpretation.

Processing syntactic dependencies in Slovene heritage speakers

Katarina Gomboc Čeh — 2026-09-10

This study investigates how Slovene heritage speakers comprehend syntactic dependencies. 30 heritage speakers were tested on (i) A’-movement, (ii) referential dependencies and (iii) the configurational dependency. Heritage speakers performed comparably to monolingual controls on canonical SVO and coordinated clauses but showed reduced accuracy on non-canonical OVS order, object relative clauses and cataphora while manifesting greater latencies on these types. Overall, the findings suggest that Slovene heritage speakers rely more on surface structure and default parsing strategies when morphosyntactic cues are in conflict with word order and that they operate under greater processing demands than monolingual speakers, supporting models of heritage grammar that frame it as a re-weighted yet resource-intensive system.

The role of the subjunctive in the factivity-assertiveness alternation in German and Polish

André Meinunger — 2026-09-10

This article contributes to the discussion on the factivity-non-factivity alternation by providing evidence from German and Polish. Previous literature discusses various types of such an alternation by focusing on lexically factive verbs that can receive both a factive and a non-factive assertive(-like) interpretation depending on the type of the complement clause. In German and Polish, lexically factive verbs have a factive meaning if combined with an indicative clause, and that they have a non-factive reading if combined with a subjunctive clause. We show that such an alternation also occurs with some verbs of communication, which proves the general character of the alternation heuristics and the productivity in the language systems.

Case and Copular Sentences in Heritage Speakers of Russian

Eugenia Kirsanova — 2026-09-10

This study investigates the grammatical abilities of heritage speakers of Russian with regard to their use of grammatical case in copular sentences. In the present tense, the only grammatical construction has the predicate in the Nominative case. However, in the past and future tenses, some baseline speakers will accept it in either the Instrumental or Nominative case, alternating based on semantic context. This study seeks to answer two questions. First, can Heritage speakers of Russian correctly use case forms in the present tense, where only one is grammatical? Second, in past and future tenses, do they select one over the other based on semantic context in the same way as baseline speakers? The results show that there is indeed a statistically significant difference between heritage and baseline speakers of Russian, indicating that the interaction of syntax and semantics may be an area of particular difficulty for heritage speakers.

UG determinism and phi-feature interpretability in the direction of language change

Krzysztof Migdalski — 2026-09-10

This paper explores the issue of the directionality in language change, analyzing functional elements in Slavic as the empirical basis. Specifically, it examines the diachronic morphophonological weakening of auxiliary verbs and the strengthening of pronominal clitics in Slavic, showing that they instantiate modifications that occurred in opposite directions and which therefore may pose a challenge for the hypothesis of the directionality of language change. The changes are attributed in the paper to a uniform formal condition, the weakening of the T-feature, while their directionality is argued to be contingent on the (un)interpretability of phi-features carried by the elements undergoing the change.

Case, prepositions and aspectual prefixation in Russian

Antonio Civardi — 2026-09-10

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.

Anti-anti-homophony

Jules Roscoe — 2026-09-10

It has often been claimed that clusters of wh-words in multiple whquestions in Slavic languages are subject to a ‘low-level PF constraint’ against sequences of homophonous wh-words. This article revisits this claim in light of data from Bulgarian. We show that there is a substantial class of exceptions to this anti-homophony constraint in Bulgarian, and we claim that the generalization is that the putative constraint holds of simplex wh-words but not complex or D-linked wh-phrases. We propose a fully syntactic account of this generalization, in which the anti-homophony effect comes about when a probe attempts to interact with two or more goals with exactly the same features, and this is ruled out by a general condition against such derivations (the Principle of Minimal Compliance).

Two Predicative-of-State Constructions in Russian and Serbian

Igor Mel'cuk — 2026-09-10

The paper deals with Russian and Serbian predicative-of-state lexemes (L_PS) that denote psychological states of persons, focusing on two syntactic constructions controlled by such lexemes (L_PS constructions). An L_PS is an adverb that has adjectival semantics but quite particular syntactic properties: it is invariable and accepts only adverbial intensifiers; it can be used only predicatively—with a copula-like support verb, and a noun in the dative or the accusative, which expresses the Experiencer of the state denoted by the L_PS. As a particular L_PS construction is fully determined by its controlling L_PS, a lexicographic description of L_PS constructions is called for. Such a description—embedded in the lexical entries of L_PSs—is based on Meaning-Text dependency syntax and Explanatory Combinatorial Lexicology. The lexical entries for two Russian and two Serbian L_PSs are presented.

Negation and Finiteness in BCMS

Miloje Despic — 2026-09-10

Future tense sentences in BCMS (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian) can be formed in two general ways: the future auxiliary verb ću can combine either with (i) a simple infinite verb, or (ii) a da-clause, which contains a fully finite verb. This paper investigates an interesting empirical puzzle, namely, that the latter type resists being negated. The main proposal is that this puzzle and other phenomena related to finiteness and negation can be explained if we assume that NegP of a finite clause projects above the first fully finite XP. In other words, NegP can indeed appear in different positions in the clause (e.g., Zanuttini 1997), but that is determined by whether the XP immediately dominated by NegP is fully finite. I also provide an explanation for some apparent exceptions to this pattern.