326A Reference Grammar of Russian

The genitive is more usual, but the accusative is possible if there is partial memory. Example [247] contrasts the one fact the speaker fails to recall (the name) with the positive memory of other facts about the individual (background, interests).

[247]D jlyjv bp fynbrdfhys[ vfufpbyjd Vjcrds dtkbrbq ryzpm, -- tuj bvz<acc> yt gjvy/, -- pyfnjr uhfd/h, jy bcrfk nfv xtuj-yb,elm lkz cdjtq rjkktrwbb -- hfccvjnhtk ytljeybxnj;tyyst ghbpyfrb ghbyflkt;yjcnb uhfd/h Hevzywtdcrjve vept/.

In one of the antique stores in Moscow a grand prince (his name I don’t remember -- he was a connoisseur of engravings, he was looking for something for his collection) -- discovered the still not completely obliterated traces of the fact that the engravings had belonged to the Rumiantsevsky Museum.

5.4.5 Genitive objects: summary

Negation always allows the possibility that the alternative possible state of affairs could be envisaged, but the alternative can be more or less prominent. When a transitive verb is negated, the genitive is appropriate to the extent that the import is to negate the whole event unconditionally. For this reason, the genitive is appropriate when the opposite polarity of the predicate is irrelevant or precluded. Emphatic negation entertains but dismisses alternative states of affairs; in gerunds and participles, the currently reported property is presupposed, positive alternatives being deemed irrelevant. At the level of argument reference, the genitive is appropriate when the object has essential reference -- when it cannot be defined independently of the currently reported property, as is the case with abstract and plural nouns, and all there is to say about the object is that something fitting the definition of being a such and such does not participate in the event.

The accusative is appropriate with negated transitive verbs to the extent that the opposite, positive, polarity of the predicate is entertained or implicitly asserted, as it is with certain phrases (x´ynm yt) or with modalities in which the opposite polarity is kept in view (in questions, counterfactuals, expectations in context). When the current negated situation is not the only situation that might be reported of the world, the communicative focus goes to the contrast of polarities, and the negation of the event (and the failure of the object’s participation) are no longer unconditional. At the level of the argument, the accusative is appropriate to the extent that the reference of the argument is individuated. When the object is individuated, it is relevant to the text in ways that go beyond the current negative proposition, and the negative situation being reported can be viewed as a property of the individual named by the object, rather than as a property of the verb and object as a whole. For this reason, proper names and