Наблюдения върху някои английски и български безлични конструкции, изразяващи природни явления (Observation on some impersonal constructions expressing natural phenomena in

It is the aim of this paper to discuss some impersonal constructions expressing natural phenomena in English and Bulgarian. The approach is generative. For the English language we postulate the presence in the Base of one lexical entry specified by a number of semantic features. In the Deep Syntax we get two representations, one nominal and one verbal. Each of these contains the semantic content of the lexical entry plus a number of additional features. When a sentence of this type is generated all semantic features appear in the Deep Syntax. In Bulgarian in the Deep Syntax we also have two representations but the procedure of generating the verbal variant is a one-stage process while that of the noun takes two stages. Although at first glance the constructions in the two languages look different there are substantial similarities both in the Deep Syntax and in the process of generating.