Relativizzazione e restrittività: alcuni criteri distintivi in russo
abstract
This work discusses issues related to the syntax and semantics of relative clauses in contemporary Russian. More precisely, the study explores some differences between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses on the basis of data drawn from the Russian National Corpus and, additionally, on the basis of native speakers’ judgments. It will show the occurrences of the relative introducers čto and kotoryj investigating the nature of their possible antecedents (animacy feature), the Case-marking strategy and the Resumption phenomenon, which has been tested in colloquial language. My observations appear to support the hypothesis on a relationship, in Russian, between the Resumption strategy (that only čto-relatives license) and the non-restrictive interpretation of the relative clause, if island-constraints are not present.
Keywords: Relative Introducers • Relative Clauses • Russian • Restrictive/non-restrictive • Resumption