Polish equatives as symmetrical structures 79
In the Minimalist Program, a new functional head is posited only if there are good
grounds to confirm its existence. Since no such grounds seem to exist to support the
presence of EqP, we refrain from advocating its existence in Polish equatives.
- Symmetrical structure of Polish equatives
This section puts forward another alternative with respect to the structural representa-
tion of Polish equatives. It is based on the postulation of a symmetrical structure for
Polish equatives, and is deeply rooted in Pereltsvaig’s (2001, 2007) proposal for similar
sentences in Russian. Therefore, in Section 5.1 Pereltsvaig’s analysis is first overviewed.
Afterwards, in Section 5.2 an attempt is made to adopt her analysis to Polish data. Hav-
ing presented some shortcomings of Pereltsvaig’s analysis when applied to Polish data,
we offer a new account for Polish equatives.
5.1 Pereltsvaig’s (2001, 2007) analysis
Pereltsvaig analyses equative sentences, such as (31), in Russian in terms of a ‘bare’
small clause, provided in (32):^17 ,^18
(31) Oleg byl durak.
Oleg.nom was fool.nom
‘Oleg was a fool.’ (Pereltsvaig 2001: 16)
(32) TP
DP T′DPDPTDPdurakbylOlegiti- The corresponding Polish sentence, provided in (i) below, is not equative, but predica-
tional.
(i) Oleg był dureń.
Oleg.nom was fool.nom
‘Oleg was a fool.’
- The criticism of the symmetrical structure for equatives can be found in den Dikken
(2006), who argues, inter alia, that sentences such as (31) are not equative in Russian.