On superiority effects in Russian
Date
1998-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
In this paper I argue that Russian is a [-multiply filled Spec,CP] language: in Russian multiple wh-questions only one wh-word appears in Spec,CP, the rest are adjoined to IP. However, unlike other [-multiply filled Spec,CP] languages, Russian exhibits
Superiority effects, which, according to Rudin (1988) are characteristic of [+multiply filled Spec,CP] languages, but not of [multiply filled Spec,CP] ones. I show that, given a few assumptions, the Russian data can be accounted for by the Weak Crossover
Principle which was used by Hornstein (1995) to explain Superiority effects in a number of languages. To the extent that the analysis is successful, it provides evidence that a [-multiply filled Spec,CP] language can be subject to the Superiority Condition.
Description
Keywords
Linguistics, Russian language, Syntax, Distinctive features (Linguistics)
Citation
Karpacheva, O. (1998). On superiority effects in Russian. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 20(Winter), 29-48.