Featural asymmetries in extraction out of strong islands in Russian

Ekaterina Morgunova
Lomonosov Moscow State University / Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Abstract. In this paper I examine the asymmetry between the extraction of focused and non-focused elements out of the finite sentential subject in Russian. This phenomenon is not expected under the structural theories of islands. I demonstrate that these violations of island constraints are accounted for if one assumes that the island-like properties of sentential subjects are connected not only with their syntax, but also with the informational structure.

Keywords: syntactic islands, sentential subject island

For citation: Morgunova E. Featural asymmetries in extraction out of strong islands in Russian. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2019. Vol. 2, iss. 1. Pp. 70–85. (In Rus.)