conférence de N. Madariaga le 2 avril

[aroui@tiscali.co.uk]

L'UMR 7023 a le plaisir de vous convier, dans le cadre des séances de 
son séminaire,

le lundi 2 avril 2007
10h00-12h00, Université Paris VIII, 2, rue de la liberté, 93200 Saint-
Denis (métro Saint-Denis Université, ligne 13), bâtiment D, salle D 
143,

à une conférence de Nerea Madariaga (University of the Basque Country)

intitulée

"New case relations in Old Russian: syntactic change in grammar case"

Résumé :
In this talk, I will analyse the rise and spreading of new case 
marking relations in several Old Russian constructions. These processes 
started with an initial stage of morphological-stylistic innovation, 
and then underwent reanalysis, giving rise to new structures, which 
eventually replaced the old ones.
First, I will briefly introduce the theoretical framework used for the 
analysis. Diachronic change is analysed from a generative perspective, 
present in most works of the DI(achronic) G(enerative) S(yntax) 
scholars. Supporting many of the DIGS works, I will show that the 
‘difficulties’ in language processing during acquisition can be 
diachronically eliminated from a language or adapted to it [4, 5, 6]. 
The adaptation process involves either syntactic or semantic change of 
the problematic structures. This work concentrates on syntactic 
adaptive changes, though sometimes semantic change is collateral to the 
syntactic processes studied.
Then, I will analyse an still on-going process of change related to 
the psych-verbs "bojat’sja" ‘to be afraid’ and "slushat'sja" 'to obey’, 
namely, change of case encoding of their objects in colloquial Present-
day Russian. These objects have stopped showing up in genitive case and 
started valuing structural accusative case:
(1) a. Ja nichego ne bojus’.
INOM nothingGN not fear
‘I am not afraid of anything.’ 

b. On ne boitsja zhenu.
heNOM not fear wifeAC
‘He is not afraid of his wife.’

This change is similar to earlier changes that affected the group of 
verbs of ‘taking care’ in Russian around the 17th century [3]:
(2) a. Pache zhe bljudi sloves jego. (Anthology of 1076, 15)
moreover part. guard wordsGN his
‘And over all, observe his words.’
(Life of the Archpriest Avvakum, 246)

 b. Chistotoju devstvo sobljula. 
with-cleanliness virginity AC looked-after
‘She took care of her virginity by remaining chaste.’

Finally, I will review the changes that have taken place in the 
Russian system of non-verbal predication, namely, the triggering and 
spreading of the Slavic instrumental predicative case. The old pattern 
of predicate case marking is known as ‘second case encoding’, because 
the non-verbal predicate shows up in the same case as its antecedent in 
the sentence (3a). After the 12th century, instrumental encoding arose 
and spread in some Russian predicates [3] (3b). The crucial 
distribution of case encoding will be claimed to be morphological, as 
is usual in non-verbal predicates [1, 2].
(3) a. Be Kain ratai, a Avel pastux. (Laurentian Chronicle, 29b)
was Cain NOM farmer NOM and Abel NOM shepherd NOM
‘Cain was a farmer and Abel, a shepherd.’

b. Volodimeru zhe velikim muzhem stvori togo i otca ego. (Laurentian 
Chr., 43)
Vladimir part.[great man]INST.SG made this AC and fatherAC his 
‘Vladimir turned him and his father into important men.’

The structures that underwent instrumental case encoding will be 
confronted with certain environments, which preserved the old case 
marking system in Present-day Russian, for example, the ones in (4):

(4) a. Li byla kitajanka / ??* kitajankoj.
Li NOM was Chinese NOM / ?? INST 

b. Voda techet xolodnaja / *xolodnoj.
water NOM pours IMPF cold NOM / *INST
‘Water is flowing cold.’

References:
[1] Bailyn, J. F. 2001 ‘The Syntax of Slavic Predicate case’, in A. 
Strigin et al. (eds.) ZAS Occassional Papers in Linguistics 22, Berlin, 
1-26.
[2] Baker, M. 2003 Lexical categories. Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives. 
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Borkovskij, V. I. 1978 Istoricheskaja grammatika russkogo jazyka: 
sintaksis - prostoe predlozhenie, Nauka, Moskva.
[4] Lightfoot, D. 1999 The Development of Language: Acquisition, 
change and evolution, Blackwell.
[5] Lightfoot, D. 2002 ‘Introduction’ to D. Lightfoot (ed.) Syntactic 
effects on morphological change, Oxford Un. Press: 1-19.
[6] Pintzuk, Susan, George Tsoulas and Anthony Warner 2000 ‘Syntactic 
change: theory and method’ Diachronic Syntax: models and Mechanisms, 
Oxford Un. Press.






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