A clausal embedding argument for small syntax of Russian nominalizations

This talk presents a novel (to my knowledge) observation that certain Russian clause-embedding verbs either fully cannot form deverbal nominalizations or cannot retain their clause-embedding capacities when nominalized. This is quite puzzling under the mainstream phrasal layering approach to nominalizations, but the major alternative (the small syntax account of Wood 2023) does not seem to provide an account either. My goal is to do so: first, I establish that the class of such “defective” verbs is defined by the size of their clausal complement (namely, they take vP/VoiceP-size non-finite clauses) and then I argue that non-finite clauses of this size cannot compose with nominals, unlike TP- and CP-size clauses. The analysis crucially relies on the small syntax approach since the phrasal layering view would assume the clauses to compose with the root directly. Time permitting, I will also wrestle with existing arguments in favor of a phrasal layering approach to Russian nominalizations (Tatevosov & Pazel’skaya 2008).