Russian datives again:On the (im)possibility of the small clause analysis

In this paper I use the interpretation of the repetitive adverb opjat’ ‘again’ in Rus- sian to argue that ditransitive structures in this language do not involve a small clause structure (Kayne 1984; Beck & Johnson 2004; a.o.). Under the syntactic ap- proach to the semantics of repetitives that I adopt (von Stechow 1996; Beck 2005; a.o.), the interpretation of repetitives is determined by their attachment in the syn- tactic representation. I show that in Russian ditransitives, unlike in English ones (Beck & Johnson 2004), only the repetitive reading of ‘again’ is possible, and argue that no reason other than a difference in the syntactic structures of ditransitives in two languages can account for that. I also observe that unlike datives that are found in ditransitives, “higher” dative arguments and locative applicatives in Rus- sian can occur in constructions where there is a syntactic constituent denoting the resultant state, and thus the restitutive reading of repetitives is available