LINGUIST List 15.2012

Wed Jul 7 2004

Qs: Secondary Predicates; Russian Church Slavonic

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Toru Ishii, Secondary Predicates in English
2. Yuri Koryakov, Church Slavonic currently used

Dear All,

 I'm working on 'secondary predicates' in English.
 First, it's been pointed out that there is a restriction on the
order among secondary predicates. For example, as shown in (1), the
secondary predicate 'raw', which modifies the object 'meat,' must
precede 'drunk', which modifies the subject 'John'. That's why (1a)
is OK, but (1b) is bad:

(1) (Under the reading where 'raw' modifies 'the meat', and 'drunk'
modifies 'John.')
	a.	John ate the meat raw drunk. 
	b.	*John ate the meat drunk raw. 

Similarly, as shown in (2), the secondary predicate 'undressed', which
modifies 'the salad', must precede the secondary predicate 'naked',
which modifies 'John':

(2) (Under the reading where 'undressed' modifies 'the salad', and
'naked' modifies 'John'.)
	a.	John ate the salad undressed naked. 
	b.	*John ate the salad naked undressed. 

 If you agree with the above facts, I'd like to ask you whether the
same restriction can be observed in the following 'wh'-questions.
Can you see any difference in acceptability/naturalness between (1-2)
and (3-4):

(3) (Under the reading where 'raw' modifies 'which meat in the
refrigerator', and 'drunk' modifies 'John')
	a.	Which meat in the refrigerator did John eat raw drunk? 
	b.	Which meat in the refrigerator did John eat drunk raw? 

(4) (Under the reading where 'undressed' modifies 'which salad his
mother made', and 'naked' modifies 'John')
	a.	Which salad his mother made did John eat undressed naked? 
	b.	Which salad his mother made did John eat naked undressed?
 
What happens if we replace the 'which'-phrases by 'what'? Can you see
any difference in acceptability/naturalness between (3-4) and (5-6),
and between (1-2) and (5-6)?:

(5) (Under the reading where 'raw' modifies 'what', and 'drunk'
modifies 'John')
	a.	What did John eat raw drunk?
	b.	What did John eat drunk raw?

(6) (Under the reading where 'undressed' modifies 'what', and 'naked'
modifies 'John') 
	a. 	What did John eat undressed naked?
	b.	What did John eat naked undressed?

 Second, it's also been pointed out that a secondary predicate
cannot modify any element within a PP. For example, in (7), the
secondary predicates 'out of order' and 'clean' cannot modify 'my
computers' and 'the cloth' respectively, which appear with the PPs,
i.e. 'with my computers' and 'with the cloth':

(7)	a.	*I loaded your truck with my computers out of order. 
		('out of order' modifies 'my computers'.)
	b.	*My mother spread the table with the cloth clean.
		('clean' modifies 'the cloth'.)

I'd like to know whether the same restriction can be observed in
'wh'"-questions. Can you see any difference in
acceptability/naturalness between (7) and (8)?:

(8) 	a. 	Which computers did you load my truck with out of order?
('out of order' modifies 'which computers'.)
	b. 	Which cloth in the cabinet did your mother spread the table
with clean? ('clean' modifies 'which cloth in the cabinet'.)

What happens if we replace the 'which'-phrases by 'what'? Can you see
any difference between (8) and (9) and between (7) and (9)?:

(9) 	a. 	What did you load my truck with out of order? ('out of order'
modifies 'what'.)
	b. 	What did your mother spread the table with clean?
('clean' modifies 'what'.)

I'll post a summary if I get enough response. Thanks. 

Toru Ishii
Meiji University, Tokyo, JAPAN
E-mail: tishiikisc.meiji.ac.jp 

Subject-Language: English; Code: ENG 

Dear colleagues!

I tried to get information about peculiarities of modern Church
Slavonic in Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Ukraine (and in other
countries except Russia). I wonder if they differ from Russian variant
of CSlavonic and how much, how are they pronounced there and what is
functional disribution with modern languages. I especially interested
in ready answers or materials in Internet but references to printed
editions would be also useful.

Thank you in advance,
Yuri Koryakov 
Institute of Linguistics,
Moscow 

Subject-Language: Slavonic, Old Church; Code: SLN