So-called independent infinitives in Russian: The construction of the form Ètogo mne ne ponjatʹ ‘It is impossible for me to understand this’

Igor Mel'čuk

doi:10.31261/NEO.2025.37.09

Published: 2025-12-31

2025

So-called independent infinitives in Russian: The construction of the form Ètogo mne ne ponjatʹ ‘It is impossible for me to understand this’

Igor Mel'čuk

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.31261/NEO.2025.37.09

Abstract

The paper considers the Russian construction of the form “NDAT bytʹ ne VINF”—one of several so-called “independent infinitive constructions.” This construction represents two syntactically discontinuous idioms: [X-u] ˹bytʹI.1 … ne˺11 [Y-nutʹ] ‘It is/was/will be impossible that X has done Y’ and [X-u] ˹bytʹI.1 … ne˺12 [Y-atʹ] ‘It will be impossible that X does Y’. The paper describes two illustrative sentences containing these idioms, giving and discussing their formal representations on the semantic, deep-syntactic and surface-syntactic levels; it also presents the lexical entries for both idioms with detailed linguistic comments. The problems of the “independent infinitives” in Russian and of phraseologically bound lexemes are discussed.

Keywords:

Russian , syntax , phraseology , independent infinitive , discontinuous idioms , lexical entries of idioms , phraseologically bound lexemes

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Mel'čuk, I. (2025). So-called independent infinitives in Russian: The construction of the form Ètogo mne ne ponjatʹ ‘It is impossible for me to understand this’. Neophilologica, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.31261/NEO.2025.37.09

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