Экспрессивные конструкции и валентности оценочных существительных
Expressive constructions and valencies of estimated nouns

Summary/Abstract: Two types of expressive (exclamative) constructions are considered: (a) propositional constructions: Ты не представляешь, как я испугался!; ‘You have no idea how scared I am!’; (b) evaluative constructions: Ужас как я испугался!. ‘How frightened I was!’. Both constructions include an exclamative (expressive) clause (Ужас как я испугался! ‘How frightened I was!’) and a frame component: (a) Ty ne predstavlyaesh’ ‘Ты не представляешь / Ты не знаешь’ ‘you do not know’ and others, (b) ужас ‘horror’, беда‘trouble’, прелесть ‘lovely’, чудо ‘miracle’, не могу ‘I can’t’, сил нет ‘I have no strength’ and others. In construction (a), the mental verb has a syntactic propositional valency, which is filled with a subordinate clause. In construction (b), a similar clause is not subordinate, the frame component (ужас ‘horror’, беда ‘trouble’, прелесть ‘lovely’, чудо ‘miracle’) has no syntactic propositional valency. Arguments: evaluative words subordinate clauses with conjunctions, but not with relative pronouns: Ужас в том, что он плохо учится‘The horror is that he studies poorly’ vs. *Ужас в том, как он плохо учится ‘The horror is how poorly he studies’; other framework components of the evaluative construction (не могу ‘I cannot’, cf.: Есть кашу – не мог ‘I want to eat – I can’t’; sil net ‘I have no strength’; interjections Ah, Uh) do not have propositional valency in the form of a subordinate clause at all. The construction (b) was formed as a result of moving evaluative component from postposition to preposition: Как я испугался Ужас!→Ужас как я испугался. ‘How frightened I was!’. The final phase of the evolution of frame components in expressive constructions is interjection.

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