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vy- and dtcm (dc-) are the most likely roots to elicit the ligature, then come quantifiers vyju- and dnjhjq. Other roots, even if they have the same phonological structure, are less likely to use the ligature: cj vyjq ( c vyjq) ‘with me’ > cj vyjubvb (±c vyjubvb) ‘with many’, (±cj vyj;tcndjv) c vyj;tcndjv ‘with a set’ > ( cj vytybtv), c vytybtv ‘with the opinion’, c vyjujktnybv ‘with manyyeared’.

The use of {o} also depends on the phonological structure of the potential cluster at the juncture of preposition and word. Two considerations are relevant. First, inasmuch as the ligature compensates for a shortage of vowels, the vowelless prepositions d, c, r use the ligature more than those that have a vowel, such as yfl, bp, jn, gjl; disyllabic gthtl is the least likely of all (only gthtlj vyjq). The ligature is likely to occur before roots that lack a vowel (in oblique cases): kj,/k,- ‘forehead’, hjn/hn- ‘mouth’, ltym/ly- ‘day’, ljy/ly- ‘bottom’, cjy/cy- ‘dream’. Second, the nature of the potential cluster is relevant. The ligature dissimilatively separates consonants that are similar in place and/or manner of articulation (cj cwtys ‘from the stage’, rj {hbcne ‘to Christ’). Some combinations are illustrated in Table 4.4.20

The ligature vowel is preserved in Slavonic idioms: dj bvz ‘in the name’, dj bp,t;fybt ‘in avoidance of ’ (otherwise: d bcnjhb/ ‘into history’, d bp,eire ‘into the hut’), dj ukfdt ‘at the head of ’ (otherwise: d ukfdyjv ‘in the main’).

J(,(j)) has three forms. Plain j is the most general form. At the opposite extreme, j,j occurs only in: j,j vyt ‘about me’, j,j dctv ‘about everything’, j,j kmlt ‘about the ice’ (or now, j kmlt). J, occurs with a following vowel, regardless of what part of speech the word belongs to: j, эnjv ‘about that’, j, j[hfyt ‘about a guard’, j, jgfcyjq ntyltywbb ‘about a dangerous tendency’, j, euhjpt ‘about a threat’, j, bpj,bkbb ‘about an abundance’. Words beginning with Cyrillic ≤t≥ are pronounced with [j] before the vowel. In recognition of this consonantal [j], words beginning in ≤t≥ take j rather than j, by a ratio of seven to one: j tt ceotcndjdfybb ‘about its existence’, j tlbycndt ‘about unity’, though gthtgbcrf j, theylt ‘correspondence about nonsense’, ljrkfl j, tuj ecnfyjdrt

‘report about its installation’. There are exceptions, in both directions, that relate to idiomaticity. J, occurs in idioms: rfr hs,f j, k=l ‘like a fish out of water [against ice]’. But the consonant in j, can fail to appear before b when it is the first vowel of a participle, an unidiomatic combination: j bvt/ob[cz htpthdf[ ‘about the available reserves’.

4.2.3 Case government

A preposition determines the case of the noun phrase with which it combines. Many prepositions govern only one case. Different prepositions that govern the

20 Examples primarily from the Uppsala Corpus.

180A Reference Grammar of Russian

same case have some similarity in meaning. The exposition below is organized according to cases.

Dative: The primary preposition r is the dative preposition par excellence: it presents the locus (the dative noun) as a goal or final destination for change in the position of the mobile entity; it governs the dative and only the dative.

A number of newer prepositions govern the dative (djghtr∫ ‘contrary to’, ,kfujlfhz´ ‘thanks to’, cjukƒcyj ‘consistent with’, cjjnd†ncndtyyj ‘corresponding to’, yfpkj´ ‘in spite’). The dative expresses a directed relationship between the missile and the locus.

The primary preposition gj occurs with three or arguably four cases. In its old meaning of distribution over space or time, it used the dative: gj ekbwt ‘along (different points in) the street’, gj chtlfv ‘on (successive, one-after-another) Wednesdays’. When a missile is distributed in groups of a certain quantity -- one, two, thirty, etc. -- gj once took the dative, which still occurs with units: gj (jlyjve) rfhfylfie ‘one pencil per . . .’ (§4.3.11).

Genitive: Primary prepositions governing the genitive portray a missile in the vicinity of the locus, but the contact is less than complete in some way. Lj expresses an approach to the locus that falls short of the destination, while lkz, more abstractly, states a modal destination -- the locus is something whose wellbeing is intended to be affected. C ‘from off ’, bp ‘out of ’, jn ‘away from’ indicate the removal of a missile from the vicinity of the locus, as do the compound prepositions bp-pf ‘out from behind’ and bp-gjl ‘out from under’. E ‘nearby, chez’ reports a relation in the neighborhood, or sphere of influence, of the locus.

Many root and prefixal prepositions take the genitive. Like the primary prepositions that take the genitive, they also present a situation in which the missile is located in the vicinity of the locus but does not come into complete contact: dlj´km ‘alongside’, d,kbp∫ ‘near to’, gjchtl∫ ‘in the middle of ’. V†;le ‘between’, though it generally uses the instrumental, still uses the genitive to express a position between two paired and parallel entities (vt;le cnhjr ‘between the lines’, vt;le cndjkjd cjcty ‘between the trunks of the pines’).

Locative: Prepositions that use the locative establish that the mobile entity is in contact with the locus: d ‘in, at’, location at a punctual locus; yf ‘on, at’, location on a surface; j, location in contact in a space encompassing the locus; ghb ‘in the presence of ’, coincidence and contact, as opposed to absence of coincidence, in a domain; the domain can be spatial (ghb ujhjlcrb[ ljvf[ ‘with city houses’, ghb cnfywbb ‘at the station’) or temporal-modal (ghb Trfnthbyt ‘during the time of Catherine the Great’, ghb gjuheprt ‘during loading’, ghb yjdjkeybb ‘during a new

Arguments 181

moon’). Gj ‘upon, after’ with the locative expresses location in the immediate temporal and causal wake of some event (gj ghbtplt ‘upon arrival’).

Only the oldest, primary, prepositions take the locative. D and yf take another case along with the locative. When the missile moves toward and comes into contact with the locus, d and yf govern the accusative. J(,) does as well, in the sense of contact against a surface: djkys hfp,bdf/ncz j crfks ‘waves beat against the cliffs’. The distributive sense of gj with the dative was mentioned above.

Instrumental: The instrumental is used with c in the sense of contact with the locus; and more than mere contact, c means that the missile and the locus play similar roles in the state or event.

The instrumental is used with four prepositions that express position on one of the planes of a three-dimensional object: yfl ‘on top of ’ and its opposite gjl ‘underneath’, pf ‘behind’ and its opposite gthtl ‘in front of ’. Only primary prepositions can take the instrumental, except for vt;le.

Accusative: Few prepositions use the accusative exclusively: ghj ‘through’, xthtp ‘through, over’, crdj´pm ‘through’. Newer prepositions do not adopt the accusative.

The accusative expresses motion with d, yf, j, which otherwise take the locative. In a similar fashion, the prepositions that take the instrumental to describe static position on the perimeter of the locus -- yfl, gjl, pf, gthtl -- once expressed motion towards by using the accusative, but this usage has been fading. Gthtl and yfl take the instrumental: Z dcnfk gthtl ybv<ins> yf rjktyb<acc> ‘I kneeled before him on my knees’ (where yf rjktyb has the accusative of motion), gjlyznm yfl tt ujkjdjq<ins> dtytw ‘to raise the wreath over her head’. Gjl can still take the accusative: pfktpfkb gjl rhjdfnb<acc> ‘[they] crawled under the beds’; z b[ rkfk gjl vfnhfc<acc> ‘I placed them under the mattress’; idiomatic gjgflfnmcz gjl here ‘to come under the hand of ’; jyf ikf gjl here c ybv ‘she walked arm- in-arm with him’. With pf, the instrumental expresses either a static position behind the locus, [jlbk pf yt/ ‘he walked behind her’, or adopting a position behind the locus, rnj-nj gj,t;fk r rfkbnrt, jy ,hjcbkcz pf ybv<ins> ‘someone ran up to the gate, he hurried after him’ (though: gthtctcnm pf lheujq cnjk<acc> ‘to sit at another table’).

Gjl and pf use the accusative in a range of idioms. With gjl with the accusative, the locus can be understood as a model for the missile (gjl vhfvjh<acc> ‘like, as if marble’), as an adapted function (j,jheljdfkb gjl ntfnh<acc> ‘they fixed it as a theater’, cyzkb gjl lfxe<acc> ‘they rented it to serve as a dacha’), as a framework for an activity (gtkb gjl ubnfhe<acc> ‘they sang to the guitar’; gjl hfcrfns<acc> fgkjlbcvtynjd ‘to torrents of applause’), or as a boundary

cgbxre<acc>

182A Reference Grammar of Russian

of incomplete approach (gjl gznmltczn<acc> ‘coming up on fifty years of age’; gjl rjytw<acc> gbcmvf ‘near the end of the letter’). Pf uses the accusative to express: modal cause (dbyf pf ytelfxb<acc> ‘fault for the failures’); on behalf of, in exchange for ([kjgjnfnm pf ;tyobye<acc> ‘to make efforts on behalf of the woman’; lzlz gjkexbk pf jgthtnne<acc> yt,jkmijq ujyjhfh ‘uncle received a small payment for the operetta’); interval of time or space over which something significant happens (pf ytcrjkmrj<acc> vbyen ‘over the course of several minutes’; pf ytcrjkmrj<acc> ifujd dbltkcz lsv ‘at a distance of several steps

smoke was visible’; pf xfc<acc> lj j,tlf ‘an hour before dinner’; pf nhb<acc> ljvf lj eukf ‘three houses before the corner’).

C with the accusative expresses an approximate measurement: c ytltk/<acc>

-lheue/ ‘for a week or maybe two’; dpvf[yekf xthysvb htcybwfvb (rf;lfz cj njkobyjq) ‘she fluttered her eyelashes (each the thickness of a

matchstick)’.

Gj uses the accusative to express the final, inclusive boundary of an interval of time or motion: c jctyb 1927 gj dtcye<acc> 1929-uj ujlf ‘from the fall of 1927 through the spring of 1929’, gj lheue/ cnjhjye<acc> ‘over on the opposite side’. Gj has come to use the accusative in its distributive sense with most numerals other than single units.

Nominative: While it might seem inconceivable to use the nominative case with prepositions, what is apparently the nominative case is used in two idioms: xnj эnj pf theylf<nom> ‘what is that for nonsense’ and dsqnb d k/lb<nom> ‘go among the people’ (the nouns are not fixed). In the latter, the nominative, if it is that, is a residual carry-over from a time when complements of prepositions had not yet adopted the merger of accusative and genitive with animates.

4.2.4 The use of yf and d

D and yf both express the location of a missile in contact with the locus. To a large extent, the choice between the two is determined by the meaning of the noun that names the locus. D can be considered the more general. Yf expresses contact of a missile with a physical locus conceived of as a surface, as something more than a one-dimensional point and as less than a three-dimensional container: yf Эkm,hect ‘on Elbrus’, yf cntyf[ ‘on the walls’, yf Ctdthyjv Rfdrfpt

‘in the Northern Caucasus’, yf dthfylt ‘on the veranda’, yf ekbwt ‘on the street’, yf fkmgbqcrb[ keuf[ ‘in alpine meadows’, yf gjke ‘on the floor’, yf gkfnj ‘on the plateau’, yf gthbathbb ‘on the periphery’, yf hfpys[ rjynbytynf[ ‘on various continents’, yf Keyt ‘on the moon’, yf dnjhjv эnf;t ‘on the second floor’, yf nhfdt ‘on the grass’, yf rkfl,bot ‘in the graveyard’, yf Vfhct ‘on Mars’, yf vfktymrjv jcnhjdt ‘on a small island’, yf yfib[ эrhfyf[ ‘on our movie

Arguments 183

screens’. Layered surfaces take yf: yf lyt ‘on the bottom’, yf gjdth[yjcnb ‘on the surface’.

By association, the locus of yf, being a surface, is a place where activity occurs: yf ,fpfht ‘at the bazaar’, yf djrpfkt ‘at the station’, yf gjxnt ‘at the post office’, yf cjkywt ‘on the sun’, yf genb ‘on the journey’, yf hsyrt ‘at the market’, yf Rfhtkmcrjv ahjynt ‘on the Karelian front’, yf cjdtcnb ‘on one’s conscience’. Often the sense of activity overshadows the physical location: yf ajhevt ‘at the forum’, yf atcnbdfkt ‘at the festival’, yf cj,hfybz[ nhelzob[cz ‘at meetings of workers’, yf pfctlfybb ‘at the meeting’, yf ytlfdytq ghtvmtht ‘at a recent premiere’. Eras are also sites where events occur: yf ghjnz;tybb ‘throughout the course’, yf gthds[ gjhf[ ‘at the beginning’, yf эnjq cnflbb ‘at this stage’, yf ysytiytv эnfgt ‘at the current stage’, yf cnfhjcnb ‘in old age’. Thus, yf expresses location on a surface, and, abstractly, the site of activity.

External body parts are surfaces where activity occurs or missiles come into contact with the person: c cevrjq yf ,jre ‘with a purse on the side’, he;mt yf gktxt ‘a rifle on the shoulder’, yf ,tlht ‘on the hip’, yf tt cgbyt ‘on her back’, yf tuj ujkjdt ‘on his head’, yf ukfpf[ ‘in the eyes’, yf cj,cndtyyjq ireht ‘on one’s own skin, risk’.

Vehicles and the associated activity of locomotion are a special case. One can travel yf ,jhne ‘on board’, yf gfhfi/nf[ ‘by means of parachutes’, yf rjhf,kt ‘on the ship’, yf tuj dtkjcbgtlt ‘on his bicycle’, yf эktrnhbxrt ‘on the suburban train’, yf vfibyt ‘in a car’. Conveyances, however, can sometimes be viewed as containers in which missiles can be located: D vfibyt cbltkb gjkrjdybr b ktqntyfyn ‘in the car there sat a colonel and lieutenant’; vyt ghtlkj;bkb jlyj vtcnj d vfibyt ‘I was offered a place in the car’.

Thus to a large extent, the choice between d and yf is determined by the noun, though some nouns, like the words for conveyances, can use both prepositions. Ré[yz is another such noun. D re[yt makes the locus a unit of architecture. It can be one part of a whole that is opposed to other, analogous, parts of the whole:

[58]Nfrbv j,hfpjv, vs vjukb ujdjhbnm, xnj e yfc xtnsht rjvyfns. D gthdjq pf gthtujhjlrjq j,jcyjdfkbcm Dkflbvbh b z, d re[yt pf gtxrjq cgfkf Ktyf, d ,jkmijq rjvyfnt ;bkb j,t vjb cnfhibt ctcnhs.

Thus we could say we had four rooms. In the first behind the partition Vladimir and I were based, in the kitchen behind the stove slept Lena, and in the large room lived my older sisters.

Here the kitchen is one room, one unit in a set of rooms, each containing inhabitants. With d, the kitchen is one unit among many, and it can itself contain parts: d re[yt cnjzkj djctvm cnjkjd ‘in the kitchen there stood eight tables’. Thus using d re[yt is thinking in synecdoche -- in parts and wholes. Yf

184 A Reference Grammar of Russian

Table 4.5 Triplets with yf, d

location	motion towards	motion away
yf<\loc> , d<\loc>	yf<\acc> , d<\acc>	c<\gen> , bp<\gen> .
Vzcf yf ,fpfht<loc> yt ,skj.	--- Nfr ds gjqlbnt yf	Ntgthm yt yflj nfcrfnm c
‘There was no meat at the	,fpfh<acc> b regbnt ct,t	,fpfhf<gen> eujkm.
bazaar.’	lheujuj wsgktyrf.	‘Now it won’t be necessary to
	‘--- So go to the bazaar and	drag coal from the bazaar.’
	buy yourself another chick.’
K/lb cbltkb yf re[yt<loc> .	Dct[ enjr gthtcnhtkzk b	Hfplfkcz c re[yb<gen> tuj
‘People sat in the kitchen.’	ghbytc yf re[y/<acc> .	ujkjc.
	‘All the ducks he shot and	‘His voice rang out from the
	brought to the kitchen.’	kitchen.’
Dc/ djqye ;bkb jyb d	R dtxthe ghbt[fkb d ctkj	Dj dhtvz pfce[b ghbdtpkb
cjctlytv ctkt<loc> .	Dkflbvbhcrjt<acc> .	xeljndjhye/ brjye <j;mtq
‘The whole war they lived in	‘Towards evening we came to	vfnthb bp ctkf<gen> .
the next village.’	the village of Vladimirskoe.’	‘During the drought they
		brought the miraculous
		icon of the Mother of God
		from the village.’
D re[yt<loc> pf gtxrjq cgfkf	Gthtikb d re[y/<acc> .	Jyf ghbytckf bp re[yb<gen>
Ktyf.	‘They went into the kitchen.’	эktrnhbxtcre/ gkbnre.
‘Lena slept in the kitchen		‘She brought a hot-plate from
behind the stove.’		the kitchen.’

re[yt is a plane with no precise boundaries; it is a theater where life happens, as in [59] and Osip Mandelshtam’s poem [60]:

[59]B djn эnb xe;bt k/lb cbltkb yf re[yt, tkb, gbkb, cvjnhtkb cjxedcndtyyj, xnj-nj dcgjvbyfkb.

And those strangers sat in the kitchen, eating, drinking, looking sympathetically, recalling something.

[60]Vs c nj,jq yf re[yt gjcblbv. / Ckflrj gf[ytn ,tksq rthjcby.

Let’s you and I sit together in the kitchen. / With the sweet smell of white kerosene.

Both d and yf express static location. As noted above, the accusative expresses motion towards the locus. Corresponding to each sense is a distinct preposition governing the genitive, resulting in triplets (Table 4.5): c, removal from a surface, is paired with yf, location on or motion onto a surface, and bp, exit from a container, is paired with d, location in or motion into a container.