The overgeneration problem and the case of semipredicatives in Russian 19
b. Ivan prišel čtoby tancevat’ odin/odnomu.
Ivan.nom arrived so_that dance.inf alone.nom/dat
‘Ivan arrived in order to dance alone.’
(12) Ona dostatočno vzroslaja, čtoby sama vse ponimat’.
she.nom enough grown_up so_that self.nom all understand.inf
‘She is grown up enough to understand everything herself.’
(13) Ty uže dostatočno bol’šaja, čtoby sama/samoj
you already enough big so_that self.nom/dat
xodit’ v kino.
go.inf to cinema
‘You are old enough to go to the movies on your own.’
With his important empirical study, Landau (2008) demonstrated the reality of varia-
tion.^5 While the SD is never possible with simple subject OC and agreement is never
possible in the absence of an obligatory controller, elsewhere judgments are mixed.
Here is a summary of his data:
(14) a. Ona poprosila ego ne ezdit’ tuda
she.nom asked he.acc not travel.inf there
odnogo/odnomu zavtra.
alone.acc/dat tomorrow
‘She asked him not to travel there alone tomorrow.’
Judgments: acc — 60%; dat — 90%
b. Ivan vstal čtoby pogovorit’
Ivan.nom stood_up so_that speak.inf
sam/samomu s tolpoj.
self.nom/dat with crowd.inst
‘Ivan stood up to speak to the crowd on his own.’
Judgments:^6 nom — 60%; dat — 93%
- Witkoś (2010) ran a questionnaire with comparable Polish examples. He reports that,
although Polish is generally similar to Russian, agreement is never possible with object control. - Compare (14b) with (i), without čtoby, where Landau confirms that agreement is obligatory:
(i) Ivan vstal pogovorit’ sam/samomu s tolpoj.
Ivan.nom stood_up speak.inf self.nom/dat with crowd
‘Ivan stood up to speak to the crowd on his own.’