Russian sentences kak sidel na kushetke, tak i pokatilsja so smekhu: semantic and syntactic properties

The article describes a syntactic structure insufficiently explored in the study of Russian grammar: the combination kak… tak i, expressing a continuing action or state in which one and the same argument (the common subject) is involved. The author proposes to treat the semantics of this correlative structure as a special kind of relation of analogy. It will be shown specifically that the meaning of this structure results from a combination of different semantic and syntactic factors: i) correlation of semantic, aspectual and temporal characteristics of the predicates of the subordinate and the main clauses; ii) semantic and syntactic functions of the correlates kak… tak i; iii) the specific type of syntactic construction. When these conditions are not met, the sentences with kak… tak i acquire other meanings, namely, that of qualitative or temporal analogy, of quick shift from one situation to another or of temporal conditionality.