4

Arguments

4.1 Argument phrases

4.1.1 Basics

Predications are made up of various constituents: predicates, arguments (subject, direct object, domain, etc.), and arguments of time and circumstance.

The simplest and most familiar argument phrases are plain nouns or pronouns, but argument phrases are not always so simple. Nouns can be combined with modifiers -- adjectives, participles, relative clauses -- and result in phrases which are more complex than a bare noun but which are nevertheless equivalent to a noun. Nouns can have their own arguments -- possessors or arguments that correspond to the arguments of predicates (subjects, objects, domains). Moreover, argument phrases can be combined with quantifiers or prepositions to form larger phrases, which in turn are equivalent to simpler argument phrases. Pronouns, seemingly minimal units, occur in the sites of arguments where nouns might occur. Part of the discussion below, then, concerns the internal structure of argument phrases: how argument phrases are put together out of nouns and other constituents.

Nouns and pronouns express case and number. Nouns belong to one or another of three genders. Gender, an intrinsic property of lexical items, is discussed here in this chapter (§§4.1.3--6), as is number, an operation that modifies the shape of nouns (§§4.1.7--9). Case is imposed on nominal elements by the syntactic context -- by prepositions (§4.2) and by predicates (§5). The functions of case are summarized schematically here (§4.1.10).

4.1.2 Reference of arguments

The r e f e r e n t i a l e x p o n e n t of argument phrases -- a noun or pronoun -- names or refers to entities, whether persons, places, concrete things, masses of stuff, abstract essences, or happenings presented as entities.

Naming or referring to entities involves a number of processes at once, which can be grouped into two levels. The first is quantification. At the minimum, using a noun or pronoun establishes that there exists something worth talking

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about, and using a noun or pronoun names at least some minimal property. In some instances, this rather minimal e x i s t e n t i a l q u a n t i f i c a t i o n is all that using a noun accomplishes. For example,

[1]Dkflbvbh tve hfccrfpfk, xnj e ytuj tcnm vkflibq ,hfn. Vladimir told him that he had a younger brother.

establishes the existence of an individual that fits the formula of being a younger brother.1 This kind of minimal reference will be termed e s s e n t i a l reference below, motivated in that what is known or relevant is that an entity manifests an essence (equivalently, belongs to a type), but little more is known about the entity as an individual. Essential reference is not marked consistently by any single device or referential exponent. Rather, it is a value, a sense, that arises in certain contexts, especially in contexts such as existential sentences ([1]). Additionally, essential reference is relevant to: the choice of relative pronoun, rnj´ vs. rjnj´hsq (§4.4.5), reflexive pronouns (§4.7), case choice with negated predicates (§§5.3, 5.4), animate accusative with approximate quantifiers (§4.3.9), ordinary numerals (ldƒ) vs. collectives (ldj´t) (§4.3.8), possessive adjectives vs. genitives (§4.4.3).

Alternatively, a noun i n d i v i d u a t e s not only when it establishes that there is an individual entity belonging to a type, but also when some properties of the individual are known that differentiate it from other members of the class.

[2]Ntnz Cfif exbkf vtyz b vjb[ vkflib[ ctcnth. Aunt Sasha taught me and my younger sisters.

In [2], the younger sisters are already known and differentiated from other sisters of other speakers, and this predication adds an additional property that holds of them (that they received instruction). The layer of quantification, then, includes the distinction between essential vs. individuated reference. This layer also includes number.

The second layer is contextual. To have knowledge about an individual, it is relevant to know on what occasions that individual exists, whether in all times and possibilities or only some. Thus reference has a temporal and modal side. It is also relevant to know what speaker is responsible for identifying the entity. And there is a textual side. Pronouns in particular indicate that an individual is known outside of whatever is being said at the moment; there might well be other properties that are already known about an individual. Pronouns tell

1 “Essential” reference derives from Donnellan’s (1966) “attributive” meaning of referring expressions. As Donnellan observed, in Smith’s murderer must be insane, all we know about this individual is that he fits the formula ‘whosoever was responsible for the death of Smith’. On the notion of definiteness as it applies to Russian, see Revzin 1973[b], Chvany 1983.

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the addressee how to find the source of information about the individual: the personal pronoun z´ ‘I’ says the individual is the speaker, while an ordinary thirdperson pronoun such as jyƒ ‘she’ says the individual is a salient entity of the feminine gender presumed to be known to the addressee (from the recent text, from the shared knowledge of speaker and addressee). Thus the second layer of reference is contextual. Pronouns in particular have the task of keeping track of individuals on the contextual level.

4.1.3 Morphological categories of nouns: gender

Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. A given noun belongs to one and only one gender, and does not change its form and become a noun of a different gender. The gender of a noun is revealed in agreement, when an adjective adopts a different form depending on the noun it modifies. Gender is further revealed in the past tense of verbs (when the noun happens to be the subject) and in the gender of relative pronouns and third-person pronouns. Gender in nouns is, then, a partition of the lexicon; it is a latent lexical property that is revealed as s y n t a c t i c gender in adjectives and, additionally, in verbs and pronouns.

Nouns are partitioned into declensional classes, or m o r p h o l o g i c a l gender, which matches syntactic gender often but not always. Nouns in Declension<Ia> -- those with no ending in the nominative singular and {-a} in the genitive singular -- are syntactically masculine; adjectives that modify such nouns and past-tense verbs of which they are subjects adopt masculine form. Nouns in Declension<Ib> -- those ending in a vowel in the nominative singular and {-a} in the genitive singular -- are neuter. Declension<III> for all intents and purposes is feminine; other than feminine nouns, it includes only one masculine noun (génm ‘road’) and less than a dozen neuter nouns (those, like dh†vz ‘time’, ending in -vz in the nominative singular). Nouns in Declension<II> are generally feminine, with the significant exception of nouns that can refer to male human beings (lz´lz ‘uncle’, celmz´ ‘judge’, Cth=;f, Fk=if, <j´hz). Overall, then, there is a high degree of correspondence between morphological gender (or declension class) and the syntactic gender of a noun (or agreement patterns in adjectives and verbs).

For most nouns there is no motivation for gender in the real world. But with nouns that refer to people or animals, gender is not just an arbitrary lexical idiosyncrasy; the syntactic gender relates to the sex (or r e f e r e n t i a l gender) of the entity. There is more than one possibility. Many nouns that define people and animals as members of groups come in pairs related by derivation that differ in gender: ex∫ntkm/ex∫ntkmybwf ‘teacher’, xtvgbj´y/xtvgbj´yrf ‘champion’, cjc†l/cjc†lrf ‘neighbor’, gtycbjy†h/gtycbjy†hrf ‘pensioner’, dj´kr/djkx∫wf ‘wolf ’.

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In such pairs, both nouns are stylistically neutral. With other words, the feminine has overtones of condescension to derogation: gjэn†ccf ‘(lady) poet’, dhfx∫[f ‘doctor’, rjhh†rnjhif ‘copy editor’, ,b,kbjn†rfhif ‘librarian’. The masculine in [3] is grandiose, the feminine in [4] familiar.

[3]Kjwvfyjv ryb;yjuj vjhz yfpsdf/n ,b,kbjntrfhz Afbye F. Pilot of the sea of books is what people call the librarian A. Faina.

[4]Gj lheue/ cnjhjye jrjirf cbltkf ,b,kbjntrfhif Dthf Bkmbybxyf. On the other side of the window was sitting the librarian Vera Ilinichna.

Next, there are nouns for which masculine and feminine forms exist, but the forms are not parallel because the feminine form refers to a different social status (utythƒkmif ‘general’s wife’), or to occupations that differ markedly in social status depending on the gender (ctrhtnƒhif ‘secretary’, vfntvfn∫xrf ‘student of math’, frei†hrf ‘midwife’), or to occupations stereotypically associated with women (ntktajy∫cnrf ‘telephone operator’, lj∫kmobwf ‘milkmaid’, vtlctcnhƒ ‘nurse’). Finally, some occupations are named by a single word form belonging to Declension<Ia>: dhƒx ‘doctor’, ghtpbl†yn ‘president’.

The use of paired nouns lacking strong stylistic overtones -- ex∫ntkm/ ex∫ntkmybwf ‘teacher’, gbcƒntkm/gbcƒntkmybwf ‘writer’ -- depends on context.2 Three contexts can be distinguished. The first context is that in which the individual members of the group are not distinguished, and sex is irrelevant or indeterminate. The masculine form is used in reference to a potentially mixed plural group ([5], [6]) or to any arbitrary single representative of a mixed or indeterminate group ([7], [8]):

[5]E ghbitkmwtd ,skb cdtnkst jndjhjns vt[f yf itt, [fhfrnthyst lkz cntgys[ djkrjd.

The new arrivals had light folds of fur, as is characteristic of steppe wolves.

[6]Jkmuf Ybrjkftdyf Vfckjdf, exbntkmybwf heccrjuj zpsrf, d vjtv rkfcct yt ghtgjlfdfkf, yj tckb rnj-kb,j bp exbntktq pf,jktdfk, jyf tuj pfvtyzkf b wtksq ehjr j xtv-nj hfccrfpsdfkf.

Olga Nikolaevna Maslova, teacher of the Russian language, did not actually teach in my class, but if some or another of the teachers fell ill, she would replace him and tell stories for the whole lesson.

[7]Nfkfynkbdsq exbntkm czltn c ltnmvb gjl lthtdj, b djpybrytn xelj.

A talented teacher can sit down with children under a tree, and a miracle will happen.

[8]Jyf dctulf ujnjdf ,skf pfvtybnm pf,jktdituj exbntkz.

She was already ready to substitute for a teacher who had fallen ill.

2 Recently Mozdzierz 1999, Yokoyama 1999.