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This thesis examines linguistic similarities and differences between the Russian and Ukrainian languages regarding the word formation of adjectives referring to place names (toponyms). Using contrastive analysis for analyzing the database composed of approximately 1500 shared toponyms, information is presented revealing the use of appropriate derivational paradigms. Tables are provided illustrating important characteristics of toponym stem-endings and the acquisition of their corresponding suffixes. This information culminates in a better understanding of the proper use within each language for the 25 Russian and 18 Ukrainian suffixes used in the derivational models, and its application within language. Analyzing derivational paradigms of these two investigated languages, I found 15 similar and 7 different models resulting from the word formation process. This information brings a clearer picture for both languages on how derivational paradigms are used in the proper formation of adjectives.

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<p> The text presented here is a study of the editing and appropriation techniques of three constructivist films and their affect on narrative: Artavazd Peleshian's <i>Our Century,</i> Johan Grimonprez's <i>dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y</i> and Adam Curtis' <i>It Felt Like a Kiss.</i> An analysis of these techniques is done through the lens of the Russian Formalists, Victor Shklovsky and Mikhail Bakhtin and their respective concepts of defamiliarization and familiarization. Attention is paid to formal analysis in relation to historical context.</p>

This dissertation investigates intra-clausal relations, namely, the relations that obtain between the elements in a clause. This investigation is based on a detailed study of copular sentences in Russian and Italian. In particular, three types of intra-clausal relations are investigated here: phrase-structural relations, thematic relations, and case relations. / With respect to phrase-structural relations, it is argued that not all syntactic structures are asymmetrical. Rather, it is proposed that under certain conditions---when the two input phrases have the same features---Merge will result in a symmetrical structure. This requirement for matching features leads to a more parsimonious analysis of equative sentences where the interpretation derives directly from the syntactic structure, without postulating a special "identity copula". / As for thematic relations, it is claimed that there is no one-to-one correspondence between thematic positions and structural positions (contra the strong version of UTAH, Baker 1988). Instead, a more flexible theory of thematic relations is proposed. It is also proposed that theta-assignment is not a necessary condition for DP interpretation. Rather, a DP can be interpreted if it establishes a certain relationship with another theta-marked DP. This analysis extends to Left Dislocation, Pronoun Doubling and sound like -construction. / Finally, case relations are said to be tied to thematic relations. A version of the Visibility Condition is thus argued for. It is maintained that non-argument DPs---namely, those that are merged as neither complements nor specifiers of a lexical head---need not be case-marked in syntax at all and appear with the morphological default (i.e., nominative) marking. The alternative "agreement in case" analysis of NOM-NOM sentences is argued against; various conceptual and empirical problems for this analysis are identified and discussed. / The analysis developed in this dissertation accounts for a number of properties of copular sentences, including their interpretation, case-marking patterns, and such syntactic properties as extraction, inversion, binding possibilities and unaccusativity diagnostics.

This thesis is made of five different chapters. Chp 1: OPTIMAL FISCAL AND PUBLIC EXPENDITURE POLICY IN A TWO CLASS ECONOMY This paper deals with optimal taxation and provision of public goods in a two-class economy with non linear income and linear commodity taxes. As far as optimal taxation is concerned, we first show that with two private goods the good complementary with leisure should be taxed more heavily. Second the standard income tax rules are shown to be augmented by considerations for offsetting the distortions created on the commodity markets. As to the provision of public goods we extend recent results for a two class economy with public funds raised entirely by means of a non-linear income tax system. The standard Samuelson rule is modified by two additional terms related to the self selection constraint and to the revenue of indirect taxes. They are both shown to vanish when the agents' utility functions are weakly separable between public and private goods (taken together) and leisure. Chp 2: DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAX EVASION: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE The purpose of this selective survey of the literature on both income and commodity tax evasion is to show in which directions, the literature has evolved. Two main approaches are identified for both direct and indirect tax evasion literature. The so-called taxpayer's point of view approach which is basically an exercise of maximization under uncertainty and the so-called tax collector's point of view which is a refinement of the Mirrlees-Stiglitz approach to income taxation and of the Ramsey approach to commodity taxation. The current state of the art is such that both approaches share similar strengths and weaknesses. Chp 3: TAX STRUCTURE, TAX REFORM AND TAX EVASION In this paper we explore whether the shift from an ad valorem tax to a value added tax (which is a prerequisite to join the European Union) improves the "integrity" (number of people in the regular market) and the "efficiency" (total tax revenues) of the tax system. A model of two parallel (black and regular) markets is analyzed. The production in both the black and the regular market is divided in three stages: raw material, intermediate good and final good. Firstly, we prove that if an ad valorem tax is levied, at all stages of the regular market, any, even partial, tax reform towards VAT unequivocally increases integrity (the number of agents). Secondly, we prove that efficiency of the tax system is a direct function of its integrity. Therefore a tax reform from ad valorem to VAT seems justifiable under these two criteria. As a passing result, regular market consumers' welfare is shown to increase. Chp 4. A NOTE ON CORRUPTION, PRODUCTION AND SHORTAGE IN USSR AND RUSSIA Shleifer and Vishny, 1992 argue that privatization increases production and reduces shortage; Komai, 1979 argues that privatization reduces both production and shortage. The transition from USSR to Russia reduced both production and shortage. We argue that this is just the result of the shrinking of the loss-making sector (industrial sector) and the expansion of the profit-making sector (the service sector and namely trade and retailing). We also argue that the validity of Kornai's model is limited to those firms which are overproducing (i.e. more than the profit maximization quantity) and the validity of Shleifer and Vishny's model is limited to those firms which are underproducing. This reconciles two otherwise contradictory papers. Chp 5: LABOUR MARKET REALLOCATION AND RENT-SEEKING IN TRANSITION ECONOMY We present a simple two-sector model of the Russian labour market. Starting from a "full-employment" equilibrium with no search (the USSR), we analyze the path to the new equilibrium with unemployment and search (Russia). The links between the fraction of people searching, the wage differential and the hiring and firing probability of both sectors are investigated. A tentative way to compute these probabilities is proposed starting from recent (91-94) Russian data on unemployment and wages. It is shown that the wage differential across sectors rises with the strengthening of the entry barriers. It is argued that if no action is taken by the Authorities to fight unemployment and to reduce the wage differential across sectors (e.g. relaxing the entry barriers to the most productive sector), the market will react by developing, as an endogenous alternative to unemployment, a third sector which would act as a rent seeking one against the most productive sector. This will increase the outflow of workers from the least productive sector. Finally, it is shown that if the fraction of rent-seeking people attains a critical mass the above-mentioned policies may not be enough to rid the economy of the rent-seeking sector.

<p> While Joseph Stalin is commonly reviled in the West as a murderous tyrant who committed egregious human rights abuses against millions of his own people, in Russia he is often positively viewed as the symbol of Soviet-era stability and state power. How can there be such a disparity in perspectives? Utilizing an ethnographic approach, extensive interview data, and critical discourse analysis, this study concludes that the political elite in Russia are able to control and manipulate historical discourse about the Stalinist period in order to create a version of the past that bolsters their own political preferences. Appropriating the Stalinist discourse, they minimize or ignore outright crimes of the Soviet period, and instead focus on positive aspects of Stalin's rule, such as leading the Soviet Union to victory in the Second World War. Advancing concepts of 'preventive' and 'comprehensive' co-optation, this study analyzes how the political elite in Russia inhibit the emergence of groups that provide alternate narratives or narratives that contradict the elite-driven discourse, while promoting message-friendly groups that bolster elite preferences. Bringing the resources of the state to bear, the Russian elite are able to co-opt multiple avenues of discourse formulation and dissemination. Elite-sponsored discourse positions Stalin as a symbol of a strong, centralized state that was capable of many achievements, enabling favorable portrayals of Stalin as part of a tradition of harsh rulers in Russian history, along the lines of Peter the Great. Implicitly, this strong state discourse is used to legitimize the return of authoritarianism that Russia has experienced. </p>

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Cubo-Futurlsm is defined both in terms of the development of Cubist and Futurist styles of painting by the Russian avant-garde artists Liubov Popova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Olga Rozanova and Ivan Puni between 1912 and 1915, and in terms of the reworking and transformation of' these two movements against the unique Russian cultural background into a new non-objective art after 1915. The Russian artistic and cultural context, including Ouspensky and the fourth dimension and the linguistic theories of the Futurist poets Alexei Kruchenykh and Vellmlr Khlebnikov concerning a transratlona]. language (zaum), played a vital role for a number of artists in their move into non-objective painting and construction. Zaum influenced the reworking of Cubist collage by Malevich, Puni and Rozanova, and the abstract collages and reliefs of Rozanova and Puni are defined as visual equivalents to the new logic "broader than sense" envisaged by zaum. As part of the Russian cultural context, indigenous art forms also acted as possible stimuli for the development of a non-objective painterly style. The abstract potential which artists saw in the icon was exploited by Puni in his non-objective reliefs of 1915-c1919, and the principles of decoration in Islamic Architecture may be seen as an important source for Popova's painterly architectonics of 19 16-18. After 1916, the principles of non-objective painting, established fran an examination of Cubism and Futurism, were applied to tasks of design and the theatre. Puni, Rozanova and Udaitsova designed household and fashion items, and Alexandra Exter and Alexandr Vesnin completed set and costume designs for several productions in the Moscow Kamerny Theatre between 1916 and 1922. In their attempt to articulate a dynamic spatial environment, the principles for these designs derived from earlier Cubo-Futurist experiments in painting.