On argument structure, focusing and modal sentence adverbials in Czech andRussian

Prototypical features of modal sentence adverbial constructions are analyze d and compared with the prototypical features of the so-called rhematizers such as only (focalizers or focus sensitive particles, cf. Hajicova 1995a; Koktova 1986; 1987; McCawley 1996; Boguslavskij 1985) in Czech and Russian sentences. The analysis is based on the assumption that the syntactic posit ion of the surface word order of arguments and adjuncts reflects (also in i ts relation to sentence prosody) the categorical representation of the cogn itive meaning of the sentence. In secondary cases, an adverbial of mood can also occur in the topic positi on of the sentence (i.e., in the leftmost position) without necessarily asc ribing the sentence an existential meaning as proposed for locative sentenc es by Babby (1980, 101). Following Hajicova (1995ab), it seems to be necess ary to distinguish between the "focus of a rhematizer," the "focus position of the adjuncts (adverbials)" and the "focus of the arguments." In addition, several Czech and Russian modal sentence adverbials and focali zers are discussed which exhibit interesting syntactic relations. The analy sis is based on the dichotomy of topic and focus articulation as developed in the tradition of Prague school (Firbas 1992; Hajicova, Partee, Sgall, in prep.), but it entails also some considerations on informational structure of adjuncts and arguments (Grimshaw 1991) as described in the Minimalist p rogram (Chomsky 1995; Kayne 1995; Kosta 1997). Also the notions of pragmati c ordering principle, of contextual boundness (Krifka 1995), of salience an d the hierarchy of communicative dynamism offer convenient tools for a suff iciently detailed description of the sentence structure of Czech and Russia n modal sentence adverbials.