Structural licensing of sentential complements: evidence from Russian noun-complement constructions

Abstract

In this paper I discuss restrictions on the realization of sentential complements of nouns on the basis of the distribution očto-clauses in Russian. I propose an account for these restrictions in which sentential complements of nouns are introduced by a silent preposition necessitated by the structural Case requirement of sentential complements. The observed restrictions follow from the licensing conditions on predication imposed by the silent preposition, which, as I argue, is interpreted as a relation of possession (of propositional content). These licensing conditions are satisfied only in those environments where the complement-taking noun projects a (logophorically controlled) implicit argument, which can serve as the subject for predication. If the proposed account is correct, it provides evidence for the θ-theoretic (Visibility) approach to the Case Filter, which entails that sentential arguments require structural Case licensing.

Keywords

• sentential complements
• nominalization
• silent prepositions
• predication
• implicit arguments