Circumfixed Causatives in Russian and Polish: A Root-based Account

Anna Malicka-Kleparska

doi:10.18290/rh.2015.63.5-3

Anna Malicka-Kleparska The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh.2015.63.5-3

Keywords: causative; anticausative; Voice; root-based morphology; Slavic

Abstract

This paper is aimed at explaining an unexpected adverse relationship of circumfixed causatives and synthetic anticausatives based on the same roots in Slavic languages, on the example of Russian and Polish. We have opted for the root-based construction model of verbal morpho-syntax, as it creates the theoretical mechanisms capable of accounting for this difference. Causatives and anticausatives are topped with distinct Voice heads, which cannot co-occur in a single form. As the heads are prefixal elements, differently prefixed distinct Voice forms are predicted by the model.

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