| This dissertation studies the development of the Old Russian short form active participle into the Modern Russian adverbial participle (also known as gerund or verbal adverb), although it draws from data in a number of languages, including English and French. In Russian and English, adverbial participles are found in two distinct syntactic constructions. The first type of adverbial participle is a bare predicate adjunct, a PrP predicate (i.e., having neither structural subject nor IP) that is vertically bound by an immediately dominating matrix predicate at the matrix VP level. Vertical binding is necessary with the bare predicate adjunct because it does not subcategorize for a dedicated subject and is required to satisfy its external theta-role.;Adverbial participles which are not bare predicate adjuncts are shown to be absolute constructions; that is, they are non-finite IP constituents in [Spec EP] of the matrix clause, a position also occupied by external topics and some subordinate clauses. As absolutes, these adverbial participles subcategorize for a dedicated subject and have a syntactic structure similar to that of traditional absolutes, although their subject (in Modern Russian) is null. It is demonstrated that these adverbial participles are assigned Semantic Case as a result of their adverbial status and that they are controlled logophorically by a discourse role. The [+Agr] feature of adverbial participles in English. Old Russian, and other languages allows them to assign Case to their subjects.;The study concludes that the Modern Russian adverbial participle developed from the Old Russian short form active participle through a process of three distinct reanalyses: First, absolutes that were paratactically linked to the main clause in Old Russian were reanalyzed as hypotactic absolutes---absolutes located in matrix [Spec EP]. Second, postposed absolutes were reanalyzed as bare predicate adjuncts. Third, the [+Agr] in the feature matrix of the absolute adverbial participle was reanalyzed as [-Agr], rendering overt subjects illicit in Modern Russian absolute constructions. |
