Particle -sya in Russian: mystery, or defunct grammatical relation?*

Abstract

In this paper, through the framework of Relational Grammar (RG), I indicate how the appearance of the Russian particle -sya is syntactically predictable in a much broader range of instances than has been generally thought. Due to limitations of space, the discussions here are too brief to give a thorough accounting of every instance of -sya. However, I believe that the processes and principles outlined here can be applied to all instances successfully.