Alcune considerazioni sulla morfosintassi dell’imperativo russo

Abstract

The article deals with the interaction between morphology and syntax of Russian imperative verbs. It is shown that imperatives with distinctive morphology lack distinctive syntax, and distribute like other finite verbs. On the other hand, imperatives which lack distinctive morphology (i.e. imperatives which are identical to verbal forms used in other paradigms) move to the left periphery of the clause. Assuming the typological proposal by Rivero and Terzi (1995) about the encoding of the Imperative Force, these data are evidence that Russian has a “mixed” system: the [+Imperative] feature in the left periphery is activated by the movement of the verb or at a distance, with the verb in situ. The relation between syntetic (pojdemte) and analogic forms (davajte pojdem) is also taken into consideration. The data suggest that analogic forms derive from the insertion of a functional verb in the left periphery in order to activate the [+Imperative] feature. Some conclusive remarks are dedicated to the features encoded by the morpheme –te.