Parasitic gap and null anaphora in Russian

Lada Pasko
Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract: The paper adresses the question whether Russian possesses parasitic gap (PG), an empty category in the embedded clause licensed by Аʹ-movement of the coindexed phrase in the main clause. We consider four types of contexts where an empty category in the embedded clause cannot be analyzed as a PG, as they violate the basic requirements for PG licensing: Аʹ-movement in the main clause and coindexing of the elements of a complex chain. The grammaticality of such sentences in Russian makes it necessary to postulate two types of empty categories, which differ only in their conformity with the standard features of PG. The uneconomical nature of this solution is an argument against PG in Russian.

Keywords: Аʹ-movement, object drop, parasitic gap, pro-drop

For citation: Pasko L. Parasitic gap and null anaphora in Russian. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2022. Vol. 5, iss. 2. Pp. 44–60. (In Rus.)