Arguments 233
Table 4.11 Names
form	example	mode, individual, properties / stylistic connotation
У	Cfif	address with	or reference to given individual, with
		private properties / intimate
И	Fktrcfylh	reference to given individual as if not an addressee, with
		private properties / less intimate than У
J	Fylhttdbx	address / folk, uncultured (jocular)
ИJ	Fktrcfylh Fylhttdbx	address with B; reference to introduced or given individual /
		(formal) addressee
У	Cfif Ghjrjamtd	reference to introduced individual / as if intimate addressee
И	Fktrcfylh Ghjrjamtd	reference to introduced individual with open public
		properties, episode onset or coda / formal or bureaucratic
И	Fktrcfylh Fylhttdbx	reference to introduced individual with public properties,
	Ghjrjamtd	text onset or coda / formal or bureaucratic, pompous
	Ghjrjamtd	address with	or B; reference to given individual with
		specific, partial (episodic) properties / neutral

4.6 Demonstrative pronouns

4.6.1 Э njn

The two demonstrative pronouns of Russian, in one way or another, point out entities.63 Únjn is p r o x i m a l , pointing to something relatively near or known in the discourse. Nj´n is d i s t a l , pointing to something less near or less known, though nj´n is used in quite specific functions.64 A demonstrative adopts the gender--number and case of the noun which it modifies. A demonstrative can be used without an explicit head noun, as an argument, and agree with the intended referent.65 The neuter singular forms …nj and nj´ have developed specialized uses that go beyond the narrow sense of pointing to a specific entity.

A familiar and basic function of demonstratives is to point to entities that are present in the speech situation, such as, for example, the coffee pot (called a inérf) in [238].

63Comment. In the literature on reference, the task is often taken to be to describe how “we can identify an object by means of a referring expression” (Lyons 1977:648); demonstratives are assumed to differentiate one individual from a set of comparable individuals. This view presumes that individuals are given and waiting to be pointed to. In fact, a demonstrative creates the individual for the current discourse; the background from which the individual is selected is not necessarily a universe of analogous elements. On Russian demonstratives, see Paducheva 1985, Kresin 1994 ([242], [243], [244]), Grenoble 1998.

64Weiss 1988 documents asymmetries in the usage of the two pronouns.

65On the anaphoric use of demonstratives, see Berger and Weiss 1987; Weiss 1988, 1989.

234 A Reference Grammar of Russian

[238] F rfr hf,jnftn эnf inerf // pyfxbn ye;yj ghjxbo . . . ghjxbobdfnm rf;le/ lshjxre.

And how does this thing work // I get it, you have to clean out every hole.

In [238], by using the demonstrative and the minimal class name (inérf), the speaker takes an object in the domain of the external reality of the speech situation and moves it into the domain of speech. Similarly, by using the demonstrative in [239], the speaker brings the article of clothing, which is in the speaker’s visual field, into speech:

[239] Ktyrf, f ns эnj gkfnmt d эnjv ujle cibkf bkb d ghjikjv? Lenka, that dress -- was it this year you sewed it, or last year?

In both [238] and [239], the function of the demonstrative is not so much to differentiate these specific tokens (this thing or this dress) from other possible entities of their class (from other things or other dresses) as to select these entities in one domain -- here, the real-world situation in which the activity of speech is embedded -- and establish them as entities that can be discussed in speech.

Demonstratives also operate in the domain of text, pointing from the current discussion to the domain of the prior discussion. Recall that bare nouns without a demonstrative can easily be used in Russian to refer back to unique individuals (´pthj in [4.213] and gkfnj´ in [4.214]). For example, in the narrative of a hiking expedition in the Crimea ([240]), the narrator first asserts that they entered what she calls a canyon:

[240]F yf cktle/obq ltym e;t djikb d yfcnjzobq rfymjy // Vs c Vfhbyjq dthyekbcm r h/rpfrfv / f jyb gjikb lfkmit // B jyb dsikb . . . ghjikb rfymjy yfcrdjpm

The next day we entered a real canyon // Marina and I went back to the backpacks / while they went on // And they came out . . . they went through the whole canyon

When the hike becomes difficult, the party divides, and the speaker’s husband and a friend continue. Throughout this episode, the ravine is a known entity with a constant property; it is the site of a challenging hike. Here no demonstrative is used. In the continuation in [241],

[241]Djn // Ntgthm . . . Ye vs dthyekbcm bp эnjuj rfymjyf / jgznm e;t cnfkj ntvytnm / vs hfp,bkb . . . jgznm gfkfnrb / gthtyjxtdfkb

So // Now . . . We came out of this canyon / again it had started to get dark / we broke out . . . the tents again / spent the night

the speaker uses a demonstrative to begin a new text segment (note Djn // Ntgthm . . . Ye). By using the demonstrative, the speaker indicates that the canyon

Arguments 235

now under discussion is, after all, the same canyon discussed in the prior text segment. In broader terms, demonstratives “point” in the sense that they connect an individual across two domains; they indicate that there is continuity of identity despite there being a shift from one domain to another.

Demonstratives can also be used to establish that there is a unique individual under discussion even when no individual was previously established. In particular, a demonstrative can turn a shapeless event or state -- gjcvjnh†k in [242], yfcneg∫kf nbibyƒ in [243] -- into something that can be discussed as an entity:

[242]Cnfkby gjcvjnhtk tve ghzvj d ukfpf. <elzuby pyfk, xnj jpyfxftn эnjn dpukzl: jy jpyfxftn ytljdthbt.

Stalin looked him straight in the eye. Budiagin knew what this look meant: it meant suspicion.

[243]Jy yt ecgtk jndtnbnm. Dlheu yfcnegbkf nbibyf, b d эnjq nbibyt Vfhr ecksifk ujkjc Cnfkbyf: <. . .>

He was about to reply when silence suddenly fell. In this silence Mark heard the voice of Stalin: <. . .>

The nouns used with demonstratives help define the class of entities to which the entity is thought to belong, at this point in the text. Sometimes a new noun is introduced to re-classify an individual which is already known in other respects.

[244]<elzuby tlbycndtyysq rfr-nj c ybv c,kbpbkcz. Hf,jxbq gfhtym bp Vjnjdbkb[b, jy dgthdst edbltk rfdrfpwf, gj;fktk эnjuj /;fybyf, pfckfyyjuj d [jkjlye/ Cb,bhm, d eckjdbz, cehjdjcnm rjnjhs[ dslth;bn b yt dczrbq heccrbq.

Budiagin had been the only one who managed somehow to get along with him [=Stalin]. A working-class lad from Motovilikha, as soon as he spotted the Caucasian, he felt sorry for this southerner banished to chilly Siberia, to ferocious conditions that not every Russian could endure.

As the noun places the individual in a new category -- those people who come from the Caucasus -- the demonstrative connects the new category (essence) to the prior mention.

The class of things to which a demonstrative points has some connection to the class named by the noun, but it does not have to match it exactly. In [245], for example,

[245] Z gjvy/ d ltncndt / yfif ,elrf jrfpfkfcm hzljv c Af,th;t / c rfrbv Af,th;t

/ z yt pyf/ / ,elrf ,skf / b djn / rfr ctqxfc gjvy/ / эnjn Af,th;t ghbitk / vjq jntw c ybv hfpujdfhbdfk / cbltkb d rjcn/vf[

236 A Reference Grammar of Russian

I remember in childhood / our booth turned out to be next to the Faberg†s’ / with which Faberg† / I don’t know / the booth was / and so / as I recall now / that Faberg† came / my father talked with him / they were sitting in their bathing suits

the function of the demonstrative is not to single out this Faberg† from other Faberg†s. The set is not people bearing the name Faberg†, but the inclusive hypernym of wealthy tourists that includes this particular person.

Thus using a demonstrative with a noun is a complex operation. A demonstrative points from the domain of the current discussion to some other domain, such as the real world surrounding speech, the adjacent text, or the set of comparable entities; there is continuity of reference -- the individual is the same -- in spite of the shift in domains.

4.6.2 Njn

Nj´n, more restricted than English that, has quite specific functions.

In speech, nj´n can indeed be used, in opposition to proximate …njn, to point to a distal object. In [246], the distal location is confirmed by the distal adverb dj´y:

[246]-- Njdfhbob, z r dfv c njq kfdjxrb.

Ghjcnj d njv djy ljvt tcnm cnjkjdfz.

--C ekbws?

--Lf. B vs htibkb ghzvj d gjhzlrt jxthtlb pf[jlbnm, dtlm gjreifnm dct [jnzn.

--F xtuj, ghfdbkmyj.

--Nfr xnj эnf kfdjxrf pf yfvb, f ds pf ytq, [jhjij?

--Comrades, I’ve come to you from that bench. Just wanted to let you know there’s a canteen in that building over there.

--On the street?

--Yes. We decided to go in, keeping the right order ’cause everyone wants a bit to eat.

--Good idea, why not?

--So this bench is after us, and you’re after them, okay?

Nj´n is used along with …njn in texts when two participants are under discussion and need to be distinguished. Únjn refers to the more prominent, nj´n to the less prominent referent.

[247]Vyjuj ktn cgecnz, ctcnhf Vfif crfpfkf Hbyt, xnj z ,sk d ytt dk/,kty. Эnf jxtym elbdbkfcm, gthtcghjcbkf Vfie, nf gjlndthlbkf, xnj jxtym cbkmyj, xnj ,tp gfvznb.

Years later, my sister Masha told Rina that I had been in love with her. This one [= Rina] acted surprised, quizzed Masha, and that one [= Masha] confirmed that yes, I had been completely, head-over-heels in love.

[248]Hbyf jxtym elbdbkfcm, gthtcghjcbkf Vfie, nf gjlndthlbkf, xnj <. . .>

Rina acted surprised, quizzed Masha, and that one [= Masha] confirmed that <. . .>

Thus nj´n selects out the more distal of two competing individuals.

Arguments 237

When there is no contrast between competing individuals, nj´n points to an entity perceived as remote from the current situation. Some examples:

[249]Yt pyf/, wtk kb njn fkm,jv.

[250]Itcnmltczn ktn ghjikj, f z yfrhtgrj pfgjvybk njn ljghjc.

[251]Ytlfdyj gthtxbnfk z njn cdjq c,jhybr jxthrjd.

[252]d njv rfat

[253]d njv (1929-jv) ujle

[254]Bp cjctlytuj dsikf cnfhe[f, jxtym gj[j;fz yf ne, rjnjhfz pltcm ;bkf gjkdtrf yfpfl. Z gjyzk, xnj эnj ,skf nf ltdjxrf-cjctlrf, ecgtdifz cjcnfhbnmcz.

I don’t know if that album is still intact.

Sixty years have passed, but I still clearly remember that interrogation. Not long ago I reread that collection of sketches of mine.

in that caf† [in Paris, long ago] in that year (of 1929)

From the adjacent house an old woman came out, very similar to that one who had lived here a half century ago. I understood that it was that neighbor girl, who had managed to grow old.

Nj´n in this sense becomes idiomatic: d n† dhtvtyƒ ‘in those times of yore [unlike now]’, d nj´n hƒp ‘on that occasion’, c nj´q cnjhjyß ‘from the other [not this] side’, nj´n cd†n ‘the other realm [death]’.

Combined with the adjective cƒvsq or the particle ;t (or both), nj´n confirms that the discussion still concerns the same individual discussed earlier, when other individuals might be imagined, or the participation of this individual is unexpected:

[255]Nfywez cnhj;fqit pfghtotyysq ajrcnhjn, pfdjlbkb jlye b ne ;t gkfcnbyre. Dancing the strictly forbidden foxtrot, we would put on one and the same record.

Similarly, …njn ;t reminds the addressee that the entity is the same, lest there be any doubt:

[256]Djn // F gjnjv vs yf эne ;t dthibye dvtcnt / gjlybvfkbcm / yf enhj yf cktle/ott

So // And then together up this very same peak / we climbed / on the following morning

Nj´n commonly initiates an upcoming relative clause that provides a description of the entity or entities that fit a formula (essential reference):

[257]Jlyf;ls Cthut/ gjrfpfkjcm, xnj jy yfitk bvtyyj ne ltdeire, rjnjhe/ bcrfk dc/ ;bpym.

Once it seemed to Sergei that he had found just the very girl he had been looking for all his life.

In this function nj´n is easily used without an overt head noun (§4.4.5):

238 A Reference Grammar of Russian

[258]Dkfcnb ghtcktljdfkb nt[, rnj rhtcnbk.

The authorities persecuted those who engaged in baptism.

Related is the use of neuter singular nj´ to provide a head for xnj clauses embedded as argument phrases when a preposition or oblique case is required in the matrix clause ([259]) (§5.10.2).

[259]Vs gjnjv dcnhtnbkb tot jlye uhegge rbtdkzy / nfr jyb nj;t tt jxtym djpytyfdbltkb / pf nj xnj jyf . . . ujdjhbkf bv / d Zknt ujkjktl

We subsequently met another group of people from Kiev / and they also took a dislike to her / on account of the fact that she told them / there was frost in Yalta.

4.6.3 Headless nj, э nj

The neuter singular forms …nj and nj´, used alone without a noun, have developed functions that go beyond their strictly demonstrative functions, although they are related.66

Both …nj and nj´ can refer back to whatever was being discussed in the previous discourse:

[260]Ye djn / pyfxbn ye vs ikb . . . nfv jxtym gjlybvfnmcz ,skj . . . ytvyj;txrj nz;tkjdfnj djn / e rjuj cthlwt yt jxtym [jhjitt / yj vyt rfr hfp эnj ,skj ytnhelyj

So well / I mean well we walked . . . you had to climb . . . just a bit difficult you see / for anyone whose heart isn’t so good / but for me this was not hard

A specialized variant is: x -- …nj y, which first names a topic and then makes an assertion:

[261]Gentitcndbt d Dtht/ -- эnj cdtnkjt djcgjvbyfybt vjtq /yjcnb. The trip to Vereia -- that is a sacred memory of my youth.

Nj´ used in this function makes the situation remote:

[262]C yfxfkf njuj 1929 ujlf z c,kbpbkcz c Kzktq Bkmbycrjq. Ytn-ytn, nj yt ,sk hjvfy.

From the beginning of that year of 1929 I grew close to Lialia Ilinskaia. No, no, that was no romance.

It could be noted that the neuter demonstrative usually comes before the copula, but the copula agrees with the noun that is introduced (masculine in [262], feminine above in [254]).

Headless nj´ has been lexicalized in various expressions and constructions, such as ,j´ktt njuj´ ‘even more than that’, njvé yfpƒl ‘ago’. The phrase f nj´ has

66 Weiss 1988, Junghanns 1996.

Arguments 239

become a discourse connective introducing the apodosis in conditionals:

[263]Fktif z nt,t yfkm/ / f nj ,eltn jxtym [jkjlysq

Alesha, I’m going to pour [coffee] for you now / or else it will be very cold

Repeated, it forms the notable idiom nj´ . . . , nj´ . . . ‘first one, then the other’:

[264]Yjxm/ yt lfdfkb gjrjz -- jnrhsdfkfcm ldthm, b nj jlyjuj, nj lheujuj dsrkbrfkb yf ljghjc.

At night they gave us no peace -- the door would open and they’d call in first one, then another for interrogation.

While headless nj´ has become a connective that links clauses in discourse, headless neuter …nj has also extended its functions, but in a different direction. The starting point is its deictic function of pointing to an entity (in the speech situation or in the text) and identifying it, such as the first token of …nj in [265]. From this, …nj has become an operator identifying something about the nature of the situation, such as who the agent was (second and third tokens in [265]):

[265] F -- Эnj ndjt ifvgfycrjt? Эnj ns	-- Is this your champagne? Are you
ghbytc?	the one who brought it?
V -- Ytn, эnj Kblf dxthf ghbytckf.	-- No, it was Lida who brought [it]
	yesterday.

Or …nj can identify some other participant, such as an object (first token in [266]) or even how the event as a whole is to be characterized (second token in [266]):

[266]-- Djn jyb, ghjktnfhbb, ghjktnfhbb!

Ghjrkznst!

Lf dtlm эnj yfv rhbxfn, yfc ghjrkbyf/n! Iehf b z gjikb vbvj cktle/otuj dfujyf. B jnnelf, edbltd yfc, dphsdfkbcm nt ;t pkj,yst rhbrb, ek/k/rfymt.

--Gjqltv j,hfnyj, -- crfpfk z Ieht . . .

--Yt j,hfofq dybvfybz, эnj rekfrjd dtpen, -- crfpfk Iehf ytdjpvenbvsv ujkjcjv.

--There they are, those proletarians, damned proletarians.

It was us they were shouting at, us they were cursing. Shura and I passed by the next car. And from there, once they saw us, came the same angry cries, hooting.

--Let’s go back, I said to Shura.

--Don’t pay any attention, what they’re doing is shipping off kulaks, -- said Shura in an imperturbable voice.

At this point …nj has become a sentential operator with the function of focusing; it does not have to have a specific argument position. The uses of …nj in [265--66] have become quite usual in colloquial Russian.