Previously Proposed Accounts

Abstract

This chapter reviews a range of previously proposed analyses of non-canonical genitive case. It includes a discussion of both syntactic and semantic approaches. Some of these approaches concentrate on Genitive of Negation only, while others contribute a unified analysis of two or three types of genitive case. Among the accounts that will be considered is Bailyn’s (Genitive of negation is obligatory. In: Browne W, Dornisch E, Kondrashova N, Zec D (eds), Annual workshop on formal approaches to Slavic linguistics: the Cornell meeting. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications, 2007) influential configurational analysis, according to which genitive, accusative and nominative cases are assigned in distinct syntactic positions, with the Neg(ation) head being responsible for the assignment of Genitive of Negation. The chapter further reviews Harves’ (Genitive of negation and the syntax of scope. In: van Koppen M, Thrift E, van der Torre EJ, Zimmerman M (eds), Proceedings of ConSOLE 9, pp 96–110, 2002a; Unaccusative syntax in Russian. PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 2002b) configurational analysis, which is followed by a discussion of advantages and shortcomings of the configurational approach. I then turn to the Empty Quantifier approach developed by Pesetsky (Paths and categories. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, 1982). According to this account, both Partitive Genitive and Genitive of Negation are assigned by a phonologically empty quantifier. Additional analyses discussed in the chapter include Bailyn’s (The case of Q. In: Arnaudova O et al. (eds) Annual workshop on formal approaches to Slavic linguistics 12. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Clubs/nels/jbailyn/JFBailyn.html. 2004) unified account of genitive case, Pereltsvaig’s (Genitive of negation in Russian. In:Proceedings of IATL 13, pp 167–190, 1998; The genitive of negation and aspect in Russian. In: Rose Y, Steele J (eds), McGill working papers in linguistics 14: 111–140, 1999) approach that relates the choice of case under negation to the notion of referentiality, Neidle’s (The role of case in Russian syntax. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988) account that is based on the [Quantifying] feature and Borshev and Partee’s Perspectival Center approach to the genitive / nominative alternation under negation. The last section addresses the question of whether Genitive of Negation can be assigned to arguments of unaccusative verbs but not of unergative ones.