THE STRUCTURE OF RUSSIAN NUMERAL PHRASES

Abstract

Because of the complexity of case assignment in Russian numeral phrases, their internal structure is the subject of much debate in linguistic circles. The main question concerns the status of the numeral that is, is the numeral the head of a phrase or a modifier of some sort? Superficially, it would appear that the numeral varies in its behavior, at times acting more head-like, and at other times more modifier-like. This paper will review three proposed structures for the Russian numeral phrase, showing how each proposal is at least partially inadequate. A new, preliminary proposal will be presented at the end which appears to adequately account for the data Finally, it will be shown that some very basic issues in Case Theory still need to be resolved, and specific deficits in this realm will be pointed out.