On adjectives and adverbs expressing ‘nakedness’ and ‘barefootedness’ in Polish and Russian: a study on morphosyntactic variation

Abstract

In Polish and Russian, adjectives and adverbs occur in several syntactic functions, among others as adjuncts (i.e. as ‘secondary predicates’ and as adverbials) and, in copula clauses, as (primary) predicates. The choice between adjective and adverb is governed by certain syntacto-semantic factors: adjectives in these syntactic positions usually occur with orientation towards a noun phrase that denotes a first-order entity (i.e. an ‘object’ or a person), whereas adverbs usually exhibit orientation towards a higher-order entity (i.e. an event or a proposition). Adverbs denoting a lack of clothing, however, seem to be—at least to a certain degree—an exception to this rule, since they occur with semantic orientation towards personal referents in—seemingly free—variation with corresponding adjectival forms. This paper investigates these cases of morphosyntactic variation, examining to what extent they are indeed instances of free variation and how far semiotic factors like transparency and indexicality influence the choice of either adjective or adverb.