Idioms, NP position, and control: Evidence from Russian

This paper challenges the legitimacy of the idiom diagnostic, which has long seen employed in syntactic argumentation to distinguish movement from base generation. In response to [Burukina 2020], who reanalyses several Russian control predicates in terms of ECM (exceptional case marking) based on the idiom test, we question the necessity of the alternative analysis. We provide data from Russian that the idiom test would make implausible predictions for, should Burukina’s [2020] logic be followed through, and argue that idiomatic readings can be obtained in control environments, in line with the Constraint on Idiom Chunks [Bruening 2015].

Keywords: subject control, object control, ECM, idioms, syntax, Russian

If you like this, or have a question or a comment, then please  share or reply on Twitter, or  email me.