The Role of Information Structure in the Choice of the Complement Clause type in Russian (on the basis of Chto-Clauses)

The present study is devoted to the experimental verification of the category of givenness and newness as factors influencing the choice of sentential actants (SA) in the conditions of alternating constructions with the subordinate chto- and to, chto-clauses. In [Kobozeva 2013], the hypothesis about different discursive statuses of sentential actants introduced by to, chto- and chto-clauses is put forward. Sentential actants with chto represents new information, whereas to, chto introduces given one. To test the influence of givenness-factor on the choice of the SA form, two experiments are conducted separately for the problem of text production (1) and perception (2) on a sample of 8 verbs with the alternation of SA. On the basis of previous summarized studies, the factor of factivity and transitivity of verbs and their possible interaction with the information structure are additionally considered. According to the results of experiments, the hypothesis about the connection of to, chto-clauses with contextual givenness is confirmed with a weak effect of factivity and transitivity. For a separate group of experimental verbs, the influence of their semantics is revealed, and a significant interaction between the method of constructing given contexts (entailment/coreference to the discursive antecedent) and the choice of SA is detected.