Structures comparatives en russe, le cas particulier des structures en čem - tem

The aim of this article is to examine the comparative correlative structure in Russian that is equivalent to the English construction The more you eat, the more you get fat. The correlation is established between two comparatives, which are introduced by two explicit lexical items cem - tem that correspond respectively to the instrumental case of cto 'what/that'and to 'that'. We demonstrate that existing analyses, which treat the element cem in terms of relative pronoun or conjunction, are not sufficient and that the relative nature of cem is questionable. We also argue that the relationship between the two correlated parts cannot be reduced to pure coordination or subordination. Some alternatives are proposed.