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Table 5.5 Predicative (short) form vs. nominative (long) form

	predicative (“short”) form	nominative (“long”) form
subject entity	defined individual	token of type or defined
		individual
property	manifested by degrees, opposed to other	manifested in binary
	possible properties or values of the	(either-or) fashion
	property

time-worlds	accidental property, which is potentially
	different depending on circumstances

necessary property, which holds at any time, in any circumstance

speaker	property observable by any speaker	judgment of current speaker
context	property interacts with (conflicts with,	no attention to interaction
	causes, is caused by, exists despite)	with other properties
	other states or events
register	mark of written register, less frequent	mark of colloquial register
	in speech

5.3 Quantifying predicates and genitive subjects

5.3.1 Basics

Russian has various constructions that involve quantification -- arguments can be quantified and predicates quantify arguments. Quantifying predicates are those that measure quantity against an implicit standard: they report some as opposed to none, or none as opposed to some, or quite a bit relative to what was expected. With certain predicates, arguments that correspond to nominative subjects of intransitive verbs can appear in the genitive.

5.3.2 Clausal quantifiers and subject quantifying genitive

It will be useful to place genitive subjects in the broader context of quantifying expressions and quantifying predicates. Explicit quantifiers -- from numerals such as nh∫ ‘three’, cj´hjr ‘forty’ through approximates such as vyj´uj ‘much’, crj´kmrj ‘how much’, v†ymit ‘less’ -- participate in a network of related constructions. The more indefinite the quantifier, and the more the focus is on the quantifier, the more the verb is likely to use neuter third-person singular agreement (§5.9).

Quantifiers can combine with a noun to make an argument (§4.2). Quantifier arguments can occur in most argument positions -- as subjects, as indirect

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objects, as temporal adverbs, and so on. Quantifier arguments are especially frequent as the aspectual argument of existential predicates -- be in its existential sense ([92]) or prefixed perfectives reporting the accumulation of a quantity of something ([93--94]):

[92]<skj vyjuj pyfrjvs[ bp ujhjlcrb[ ;bntktq.

There were many acquaintances from among the inhabitants of the city.

[93]Gjyft[fkj vyjuj ;ehyfkbcnjd, j;blfz j,sxys[ jnrhjdtybq. There arrived many journalists, anticipating the usual revelations.

[94]Yf nhtnmtv rehct yf,hfkjcm dctuj xtnsht cneltynf. There gathered only four students for the third year.

The quantifier and noun can be separated on opposite sides of the verb, in either order:

[95]Vjyf[jd jcnfkjcm dctuj gznthj.

Of monks there remained only a group of five.

[96]Vyjuj e yfc ,skj xthys[ lytq. Many were our rainy days.

[97]Cneltynjd yf nhtnmtv rehct yf,hfkjcm dctuj xtnsht. There gathered only four students for the third year.

A noun that is split from a paucal numeral must be genitive plural, not singular (§4.2). Another sign of the partial autonomy of noun and quantifier is that the split quantifier can itself contain a generic classifier noun:

[98]Lj,hjdjkmwtd yf,hfkjcm 504 xtkjdtrf. Of volunteers there gathered 504 people.

Quantifier arguments formed with comparatives or certain prepositions (distributive gj, approximate lj ‘up to’, ´rjkj ‘around’, gjl ‘coming up on’) can be used as subjects ([99]) or objects ([100]), especially with quantifying predicates ([101]):14

[99]D rf;ljt ecf;bdfkjcm gj ldtyflwfnm dphjcks[. In each coach would sit a dozen adults.

[100]F dctuj 58-z cnfnmz gjue,bkf, cjukfcyj gjlcxtnfv pfgflys[ bcnjhbrjd, ,jktt ldflwfnb vbkkbjyjd ytdbyys[ k/ltq . . .

And in all Paragraph 58 caused up to 20 million innocent people to perish, according to the counts of Western historians.

[101]Yf,t;fkj ,jktt ldflwfnb эnb[ cnfheitr.

There gathered more than twenty of those old ladies.

Other kinds of phrases or nouns have been impressed into service as quantifiers:

14 Babby 1984, Garde 1989.

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[102]Yfhjle yf ujhs njkgbkjcm gjkysv-gjkyj. People crowded the mountains full up.

[103]Yfhjle {yf,hfkjcm<nt> / yf,hfkfcm<fem> } nmvf-nmveofz. Of people there gathered legions.

In this construction, a verb can be in the neuter singular, failing to reflect the etymological feminine gender of nmvƒ-nmvéofz ‘legions’, ghj´gfcnm ‘abyss’.

5.3.3 Subject quantifying genitive without quantifiers

The extreme form of quantifying constructions is that in which there is no explicit quantifier and the argument corresponding to a subject is expressed in the genitive. Bare genitives occur with verbs stating accumulation or distribution of quantities ([104--8]):

[104]Yfgjkpkj dczrjuj k/lf<gen> d ujhjl Fpjd.

There crawled into the city of Azov all manner of people.

[105]Gjyft[fkj ;ehyfkbcnjd<gen> . There arrived many journalists.

[106]F yfhjle<gen> yf ekbwt dct ghb,sdfkj.

There kept being more and more people on the street.

[107]D gjcktly// ytltk/ cytue<gen> gjlcsgfkj. Over the past week some snow has sprinkled down.

[108]Tckb , utythfk dbltk, xnj dfc<gen> nen yf,bkjcm, rfr ctkmltq d ,jxrt, jy ,s ybrfr yt hfphtibk nfrjt rfnfymt.

If the general had seen how you had been stuffed like sardines in a barrel, he would never have allowed the excursion.

Though similar to the construction with an overt quantifier, the construction with a bare genitive subject without a quantifier focuses more on the existence of the quantity beyond expectations. The subject is usually essential in reference (in [105], ‘there arrived a quantity of that which can be defined as journalists’). For this reason, the subject does not readily support grammatical operations requiring an individuated entity, such as an adverbial participle ([109], unlike [93] above with an overt quantifier) or reflexive pronouns ([110]):15

[109]? Gjyft[fkj ;ehyfkbcnjd, j;blfz<dee> j,sxys[ jnrhjdtybq. [There arrived many journalists, anticipating the usual revelations.]

[110]? Ujcntq gjyft[fkj yf cdjb[ vfibyf[. [There came many guests in their cars.]

A bare genitive subject can be used with existential be to assert a surprising quantity of a noun, in a folksy construction with a distinctive intonation (IC6) that rises sharply on the mass noun and remains high ([111--12]):

15 Polinsky 1994 ([110]).

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[111]B yfhjle<gen> ,skj, b cvt[e<gen> ,skj! There were many people, much laughter!

[112]-- Ye ,tks[-nj nfv e yfc djj,ot ytn.

--Nen ,skj ,tks[<gen> !

--Well white ones [mushrooms] we didn’t have any of these.

--Oh, there were white ones all right!

[113]Vj;tn, vyt cdj,jls<gen> jcnfkjcm kbim yf vtczw. Possibly, for me there remained freedom only for a month.

Thus given quantification in the context, the subject can be expressed as a bare genitive. It is important to note, however, that the construction with the bare genitive has an idiomatic character, and is less frequent than these examples might suggest. The bare genitive is used much more with certain nouns (notably yfhj´l ‘people, folk’) than others. Even with the quantifying predicates illustrated above, it is more common to use overt quantifiers. To indulge in an anecdotal

ˇ

comparison with Czech: Karel Capek’s R.U.R. at one point comments on the legions of robots, using a bare genitive with a quantifying verb: jich<gen> pˇribylo ‘so many have come’. Russian translations use an overt quantifier: cbks yt,tcyst, crjkmrj b[! ‘heavens above, how many of them there are!’.

There is a small set of quantifying predicates -- [dfn∫nm/[dfnƒnm ‘be sufficient’, ljcnƒnm/ljcnfdƒnm ‘become available to someone’, and non-verbal ljcnƒcnjxyj ‘be enough’ -- that regularly take the genitive.16 A dative or e<\gen> can specify the domain or sphere of influence on which quantity is evaluated.

[114]Эnb[ gecnzrjd<gen> vyt [dfnbkj yf dc/ ;bpym. Of such trifles I’ve had enough for a lifetime.

[115]“Vjkxbim? -- cghfibdfkb tt ukfpf. -- Vjkxb, vjkxb . . . Gjcvjnhbv, yfcrjkmrj nt,z<gen> [dfnbn.”

So you’re silent? -- asked her eyes. -- Go ahead, don’t say anything . . . We’ll just see for how long you’ll endure.

[116]E ytuj yt ,skj ybrjuj, j rjv ,s ljcnfkj ;tkfybz<gen> hfpvsikznm. He had no one about whom there might come any desire to wonder.

[117]Lkz cjj,hfpbntkmyjuj xbnfntkz dgjkyt ljcnfnjxyj nfrb[ lfyys[<gen> , xnj,s yfqnb nht,etvsq vfnthbfk.

For a resourceful reader, such facts are completely sufficient to allow him to find the requisite material.

[118]Jdjotq<gen> ljk;yj [dfnbnm yf dc/ pbve.

The vegetables are supposed to suffice for the whole winter.

The need for a genitive subject can be passed through a modal auxiliary (ljk;yj´ ‘should be’ in [118]). In a pinch, an active participle ([119]) or adverbial participle

16Ljcnƒnm also has a transitive valence, with a nominative agent and accusative patient, as in Vfnm ljcnfkf ;ehyfk ‘mother got the magazine’, and a reflexive intransitive based on the transitive, as in cfgjub ljcnfkbcm tve ‘the boots came to him’.