| The dissertation combines ideas of Minimalist Syntax and Distributed Morphology. It shows that the proper division of labor between syntax and morphology and their proper interaction give interesting results in analyzing various long-standing problems of Russian grammar. One of the main conceptions of the Distributed Morphology theory, the idea of Late Vocabulary Insertion, has proven to be very productive in the analysis of Russian numeral expressions undertaken in the third part of Chapter 3.;Chapter 2 considers prepositions in Russian and other languages. Taking into account the role of formal features in the Minimalist model, it is shown that the category of prepositions is not operative in the syntax, but results instead from Vocabulary Insertion with Fission of a feature complex supplied to the Morphological component from the syntax.;This work leads to a simple conclusion: the basic facts of Russian grammar and their linguistically interesting description, have been claimed resist formal description, actually provide a strong argument for such an approach. Once we examine them from the standpoint of the Minimalist Program, we can resolve various long-standing problems in Slavic syntax and morphology in a satisfactory and exciting way. |
