Studi Slavistici XXIII (2026) 1
Articoli

Ty by videla ego lico! Free Conditional Constructions in Russian: A Case of Illocutionary Ambiguity

PDF (Italian)
  • Valentina Benigni
Valentina Benigni
Roma Tre University
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/Studi_Slavis-19770

Published 2026-07-02

Keywords

  • Russian,
  • illocutionary ambiguity,
  • free conditional constructions,
  • irrealis domain,
  • counterfactuality vs potentiality

Copyright (c) 2026 Valentina Benigni

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article investigates Russian free conditional constructions with the particle by, which, in the absence of explicit contextual or shared-knowledge cues, display systematic illocutionary ambiguity. A single utterance may express either regret for an unrealized action (counterfactual reading) or a suggestion, exhortation, or reproach addressed to the interlocutor (potential reading).

After outlining the theoretical background and data selection criteria, the study presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of free conditional constructions with second-person subjects, based on the Russian section of the multilingual OpenSubtitles18 corpus, which provides pragmatically rich semi-authentic dialogic data.

The analysis examines the interaction of clause type (declarative, exclamative, interrogative), verbal aspect (perfective vs. imperfective), and co(n)text, with particular attention to pragmatic alignment between speaker and addressee. A contrastive analysis with Italian – where counterfactuality and potentiality are grammatically distinguished – shows that Russian free conditionals systematically underdetermine illocutionary force, leaving it negotiable in discourse.

The findings support the view that such underdetermination functions as a pragmatic resource rather than a deficiency and argue for a contrastively informed, language-specific rethinking of speech-act taxonomy.

PDF (Italian)

References

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