Small clauses in modern Bulgarian.

Abstract

The present thesis entitled Small Clauses in Modern Bulgarian discusses representatives of the "small clause" (SC) construction in a Slavic language that has not been sufficiently studied by current linguistic theory. The thesis is organized as follows: Chapter 1. SCs according to Existing Analyses. Chapter 2. Modern Bulgarian Small Clauses: the Data. Chapter 3. Modern Bulgarian with AP, NP, and PP Predicates. Chapter 4. Modern Bulgarian Adjunct Participial SCs. Chapter 5. Summary and Conclusions. Chapter 1 is a review of the relevant literature on SCs. It summarizes analyses arguing against the existence of SCs, concentrating mainly on Williams (1983 & elsewhere); analyses in favor of the constituency and XP status of SCs, namely Stowell (1983 & 1991), as well as proposals supporting or stemming from Stowell's initial analysis made by Safir (1983) and Contreras (1987); analyses of Romance absolute participials by Belletti (1990) and de Miguel (1992), where SCs are treated as sentential categories. Chapter 2 reviews the typology of Modern Bulgarian (MB) SCs, taking into consideration the members of the SC predicate and the SC subject paradigm, as well as the distribution of SCs in the sentence. Chapter 3 analyses in greater detail SCs with adjectival, nominal, and prepositional predicates. Chapter 4 concentrates on participial SCs in adjunct positions. Evidence is provided for the existence of functional projections above VP: ASPP, AGRP, $\Sigma$P, CP, but not TP or ModalP. Chapter 5 recapitulates the main points of the preceding discussion, making suggestions for further research. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)