Factors Influencing the Usage of a Third-Person Anaphoric Pronoun after the Indefinite Pronoun “Что-то (Something)”

The paper aims to identify the restrictions on the use of a third-person anaphoric pronoun after the indefinite pronoun “что-то (something)”. The article analyzes the results of a linguistic experiment during which Russian language bearers were asked to assess the correctness of pronoun “оно (it)” usage in the sentences containing anaphoric “оно (it)” with the antecedent “что-то (something)”. The author shows that respondents’ choices are determined by contextual characteristics of pronouns “что-то (something)” and “оно (it)”. These dependences are justified from a linguistic viewpoint. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that pronoun “что-то (something)” is considered as the antecedent of a third-person pronoun. The research findings are as follows: the author identifies the factors determining the use of anaphoric “оно (it)” after “что-то (something)” - subject position of a pronoun “что-то (something)” and perception of pronoun “оно (it)” referent as something mysterious and animated.