Complex Event Nominals in Russian: Properties and Readings

Derived nominals in Russian and many other languages come in types with different interpretations, different relations to the underlying verb and different argument realizations. This paper argues for an approach to these distinctions along the following lines: • In order to make sense of the nominalization data the first task is to distinguish between result nominals, Simple Event Nominals (SENs) and Complex Event Nominals (CENs, Grimshaw 1990). This includes a discussion of the argument structure of the underlying verbs, of the derived nominals and their various argument realizations; • The second task is to clarify the origin of different readings of CENs, like 'manner of action', 'fact', 'event'. I contest the idea that argument realization is crucial in determining the various readings (Padučeva 1980, 1984). Instead, my claim (following Vendler 1967) is that context is the only factor relevant to the interpretation; • It is the status of the nominal as a CEN or result nominal that will in turn determine how the various arguments may be realized. The context determination of the available reading extends to all possible noun phrases in a given context. It turns out that in any context (i.e., reading) a CEN may occur in any argument realization.