participle-aux orders in Slavic

[Roumyana Izvorski]

Dear colleagues,

For a project on participle-auxiliary orders that David Embick and I are doing
we need your help. We are interested in the possibilities of PART-AUX and
AUX-PART orders in various environments, particularly when the auxiliary is
a clitic, and we still need information for the following languages:

Macedonian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Sorbian

We would appreciate it very much if you can tell us whether in the above
languages the following cases are possible. (For illustration I am giving
examples from Bulgarian (1)-(3) and Slovene (4)).  We are interested in
both active and passive participles. For comparison we would also like to
see the behavior of infinitives after the future verb `be'.


I. PART-AUX(clitic) in Embedded Clauses

(1) Mislim    si,  ce   proceteni sa  knigite.
    think-1pl refl that read      are the-books.
    `We think that the books have been read.'

II. PART-AUX(clitic) in Two Participle Cases

(2) a. Bili sa  proceteni knigite
       been are read      the-books

    b. Proceteni sa  bili knigite
       read      are been the-books

      `The books have been read.'

III. PART-AUX(non-clitic)

When the auxiliary is not a clitic, it can appear sentence initially.
Still, the participle is allowed to appear before the auxiliary.

(3) a. Bese procel knigata.
       was  read   the-book

    b. Procel bese knigata.

       `He had read the book'

IV. AUX(clitic) First

In certain cases (emphatic sentences, questions) clitic auxiliaries can
appear sentence initially:

(4) a. Je prebral knjigo.
       is read    book
       `He DID read the book.'

    b. Je prebral knjigo?
       `Did he read the book?'

Thank you very much. Please reply to my address
(izvorski at babel.ling.upenn.edu).

Best,
Roumi Izvorski