- •Contents
- •1 Russian
- •1.1 The Russian language
- •1.1.1 Russian then and now
- •1.1.2 Levels of language
- •1.2 Describing Russian grammar
- •1.2.1 Conventions of notation
- •1.2.2 Abbreviations
- •1.2.3 Dictionaries and grammars
- •1.2.4 Statistics and corpora
- •1.2.5 Strategies of describing Russian grammar
- •1.2.6 Two fundamental concepts of (Russian) grammar
- •1.3 Writing Russian
- •1.3.1 The Russian Cyrillic alphabet
- •1.3.2 A brief history of the Cyrillic alphabet
- •1.3.3 Etymology of letters
- •1.3.4 How the Cyrillic alphabet works (basics)
- •1.3.5 How the Cyrillic alphabet works (refinements)
- •1.3.6 How the Cyrillic alphabet works (lexical idiosyncrasies)
- •1.3.7 Transliteration
- •2 Sounds
- •2.1 Sounds
- •2.2 Vowels
- •2.2.1 Stressed vowels
- •2.2.3 Vowel duration
- •2.2.4 Unstressed vowels
- •2.2.5 Unpaired consonants [ˇs ˇz c] and unstressed vocalism
- •2.2.6 Post-tonic soft vocalism
- •2.2.7 Unstressed vowels in sequence
- •2.2.8 Unstressed vowels in borrowings
- •2.3 Consonants
- •2.3.1 Classification of consonants
- •2.3.2 Palatalization of consonants
- •2.3.3 The distribution of palatalized consonants
- •2.3.4 Palatalization assimilation
- •2.3.5 The glide [j]
- •2.3.6 Affricates
- •2.3.7 Soft palatal fricatives
- •2.3.8 Geminate consonants
- •2.3.9 Voicing of consonants
- •2.4 Phonological variation
- •2.4.1 General
- •2.4.2 Phonological variation: idiomaticity
- •2.4.3 Phonological variation: systemic factors
- •2.4.4 Phonological variation: phonostylistics and Old Muscovite pronunciation
- •2.5 Morpholexical alternations
- •2.5.1 Preliminaries
- •2.5.2 Consonant grades
- •2.5.3 Types of softness
- •2.5.4 Vowel grades
- •2.5.5 Morphophonemic {o}
- •3 Inflectional morphology
- •3.1 Introduction
- •3.2 Conjugation of verbs
- •3.2.1 Verbal categories
- •3.2.2 Conjugation classes
- •3.2.3 Stress patterns
- •3.2.4 Conjugation classes: I-Conjugation
- •3.2.5 Conjugation classes: suffixed E-Conjugation
- •3.2.6 Conjugation classes: quasisuffixed E-Conjugation
- •3.2.7 Stress in verbs: retrospective
- •3.2.8 Irregularities in conjugation
- •3.2.9 Secondary imperfectivization
- •3.3 Declension of pronouns
- •3.3.1 Personal pronouns
- •3.3.2 Third-person pronouns
- •3.3.3 Determiners (demonstrative, possessive, adjectival pronouns)
- •3.4 Quantifiers
- •3.5 Adjectives
- •3.5.1 Adjectives
- •3.5.2 Predicative (‘‘short”) adjectives
- •3.5.3 Mixed adjectives and surnames
- •3.5.4 Comparatives and superlatives
- •3.6 Declension of nouns
- •3.6.1 Categories and declension classes of nouns
- •3.6.2 Hard, soft, and unpaired declensions
- •3.6.3 Accentual patterns
- •3.6.8 Declension and gender of gradation
- •3.6.9 Accentual paradigms
- •3.7 Complications in declension
- •3.7.1 Indeclinable common nouns
- •3.7.2 Acronyms
- •3.7.3 Compounds
- •3.7.4 Appositives
- •3.7.5 Names
- •4 Arguments
- •4.1 Argument phrases
- •4.1.1 Basics
- •4.1.2 Reference of arguments
- •4.1.3 Morphological categories of nouns: gender
- •4.1.4 Gender: unpaired ‘‘masculine” nouns
- •4.1.5 Gender: common gender
- •4.1.6 Morphological categories of nouns: animacy
- •4.1.7 Morphological categories of nouns: number
- •4.1.8 Number: pluralia tantum, singularia tantum
- •4.1.9 Number: figurative uses of number
- •4.1.10 Morphological categories of nouns: case
- •4.2 Prepositions
- •4.2.1 Preliminaries
- •4.2.2 Ligature {o}
- •4.2.3 Case government
- •4.3 Quantifiers
- •4.3.1 Preliminaries
- •4.3.2 General numerals
- •4.3.3 Paucal numerals
- •4.3.5 Preposed quantified noun
- •4.3.6 Complex numerals
- •4.3.7 Fractions
- •4.3.8 Collectives
- •4.3.9 Approximates
- •4.3.10 Numerative (counting) forms of selected nouns
- •4.3.12 Quantifier (numeral) cline
- •4.4 Internal arguments and modifiers
- •4.4.1 General
- •4.4.2 Possessors
- •4.4.3 Possessive adjectives of unique nouns
- •4.4.4 Agreement of adjectives and participles
- •4.4.5 Relative clauses
- •4.4.6 Participles
- •4.4.7 Comparatives
- •4.4.8 Event nouns: introduction
- •4.4.9 Semantics of event nouns
- •4.4.10 Arguments of event nouns
- •4.5 Reference in text: nouns, pronouns, and ellipsis
- •4.5.1 Basics
- •4.5.2 Common nouns in text
- •4.5.3 Third-person pronouns
- •4.5.4 Ellipsis (‘‘zero” pronouns)
- •4.5.5 Second-person pronouns and address
- •4.5.6 Names
- •4.6 Demonstrative pronouns
- •4.7 Reflexive pronouns
- •4.7.1 Basics
- •4.7.2 Autonomous arguments
- •4.7.3 Non-immediate sites
- •4.7.4 Special predicate--argument relations: existential, quantifying, modal, experiential predicates
- •4.7.5 Unattached reflexives
- •4.7.6 Special predicate--argument relations: direct objects
- •4.7.7 Special predicate--argument relations: passives
- •4.7.8 Autonomous domains: event argument phrases
- •4.7.9 Autonomous domains: non-finite verbs
- •4.7.12 Retrospective on reflexives
- •4.8 Quantifying pronouns and adjectives
- •4.8.1 Preliminaries: interrogatives as indefinite pronouns
- •4.8.7 Summary
- •4.8.9 Universal adjectives
- •5 Predicates and arguments
- •5.1 Predicates and arguments
- •5.1.1 Predicates and arguments, in general
- •5.1.2 Predicate aspectuality and modality
- •5.1.3 Aspectuality and modality in context
- •5.1.4 Predicate information structure
- •5.1.5 Information structure in context
- •5.1.6 The concept of subject and the concept of object
- •5.1.7 Typology of predicates
- •5.2 Predicative adjectives and nouns
- •5.2.1 General
- •5.2.2 Modal co-predicates
- •5.2.3 Aspectual co-predicates
- •5.2.4 Aspectual and modal copular predicatives
- •5.2.5 Copular constructions: instrumental
- •5.2.6 Copular adjectives: predicative (short) form vs. nominative (long) form
- •5.2.9 Predicatives in non-finite clauses
- •5.2.10 Summary: case usage in predicatives
- •5.3 Quantifying predicates and genitive subjects
- •5.3.1 Basics
- •5.3.2 Clausal quantifiers and subject quantifying genitive
- •5.3.3 Subject quantifying genitive without quantifiers
- •5.3.4 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: basic paradigm
- •5.3.5 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: predicates
- •5.3.6 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: reference
- •5.3.8 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: predicates and reference
- •5.3.9 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: context
- •5.3.10 Existential predication and the subject genitive of negation: summary
- •5.4 Quantified (genitive) objects
- •5.4.1 Basics
- •5.4.2 Governed genitive
- •5.4.3 Partitive and metric genitive
- •5.4.4 Object genitive of negation
- •5.4.5 Genitive objects: summary
- •5.5 Secondary genitives and secondary locatives
- •5.5.1 Basics
- •5.5.2 Secondary genitive
- •5.5.3 Secondary locative
- •5.6 Instrumental case
- •5.6.1 Basics
- •5.6.2 Modal instrumentals
- •5.6.3 Aspectual instrumentals
- •5.6.4 Agentive instrumentals
- •5.6.5 Summary
- •5.7 Case: context and variants
- •5.7.1 Jakobson’s case system: general
- •5.7.2 Jakobson’s case system: the analysis
- •5.7.3 Syncretism
- •5.7.4 Secondary genitive and secondary locative as cases?
- •5.8 Voice: reflexive verbs, passive participles
- •5.8.1 Basics
- •5.8.2 Functional equivalents of passive
- •5.8.3 Reflexive verbs
- •5.8.4 Present passive participles
- •5.8.5 Past passive participles
- •5.8.6 Passives and near-passives
- •5.9 Agreement
- •5.9.1 Basics
- •5.9.2 Agreement with implicit arguments, complications
- •5.9.3 Agreement with overt arguments: special contexts
- •5.9.4 Agreement with conjoined nouns
- •5.9.5 Agreement with comitative phrases
- •5.9.6 Agreement with quantifier phrases
- •5.10 Subordinate clauses and infinitives
- •5.10.1 Basics
- •5.10.2 Finite clauses
- •5.10.4 The free infinitive construction (without overt modal)
- •5.10.5 The free infinitive construction (with negative existential pronouns)
- •5.10.6 The dative-with-infinitive construction (overt modal)
- •5.10.7 Infinitives with modal hosts (nominative subject)
- •5.10.8 Infinitives with hosts of intentional modality (nominative subject)
- •5.10.9 Infinitives with aspectual hosts (nominative subject)
- •5.10.10 Infinitives with hosts of imposed modality (accusative or dative object)
- •5.10.11 Final constructions
- •5.10.12 Summary of infinitive constructions
- •6 Mood, tense, and aspect
- •6.1 States and change, times, alternatives
- •6.2 Mood
- •6.2.1 Modality in general
- •6.2.2 Mands and the imperative
- •6.2.3 Conditional constructions
- •6.2.4 Dependent irrealis mood: possibility, volitive, optative
- •6.2.5 Dependent irrealis mood: epistemology
- •6.2.6 Dependent irrealis mood: reference
- •6.2.7 Independent irrealis moods
- •6.2.8 Syntax and semantics of modal predicates
- •6.3 Tense
- •6.3.1 Predicates and times, in general
- •6.3.2 Tense in finite adjectival and adverbial clauses
- •6.3.3 Tense in argument clauses
- •6.3.4 Shifts of perspective in tense: historical present
- •6.3.5 Shifts of perspective in tense: resultative
- •6.3.6 Tense in participles
- •6.3.7 Aspectual-temporal-modal particles
- •6.4 Aspect and lexicon
- •6.4.1 Aspect made simple
- •6.4.2 Tests for aspect membership
- •6.4.3 Aspect and morphology: the core strategy
- •6.4.4 Aspect and morphology: other strategies and groups
- •6.4.5 Aspect pairs
- •6.4.6 Intrinsic lexical aspect
- •6.4.7 Verbs of motion
- •6.5 Aspect and context
- •6.5.1 Preliminaries
- •6.5.2 Past ‘‘aoristic” narrative: perfective
- •6.5.3 Retrospective (‘‘perfect”) contexts: perfective and imperfective
- •6.5.4 The essentialist context: imperfective
- •6.5.5 Progressive context: imperfective
- •6.5.6 Durative context: imperfective
- •6.5.7 Iterative context: imperfective
- •6.5.8 The future context: perfective and imperfective
- •6.5.9 Exemplary potential context: perfective
- •6.5.10 Infinitive contexts: perfective and imperfective
- •6.5.11 Retrospective on aspect
- •6.6 Temporal adverbs
- •6.6.1 Temporal adverbs
- •6.6.2 Measured intervals
- •6.6.3 Time units
- •6.6.4 Time units: variations on the basic patterns
- •6.6.14 Frequency
- •6.6.15 Some lexical adverbs
- •6.6.16 Conjunctions
- •6.6.17 Summary
- •7 The presentation of information
- •7.1 Basics
- •7.2 Intonation
- •7.2.1 Basics
- •7.2.2 Intonation contours
- •7.3 Word order
- •7.3.1 General
- •7.3.6 Word order without subjects
- •7.3.7 Summary of word-order patterns of predicates and arguments
- •7.3.8 Emphatic stress and word order
- •7.3.9 Word order within argument phrases
- •7.3.10 Word order in speech
- •7.4 Negation
- •7.4.1 Preliminaries
- •7.4.2 Distribution and scope of negation
- •7.4.3 Negation and other phenomena
- •7.5 Questions
- •7.5.1 Preliminaries
- •7.5.2 Content questions
- •7.5.3 Polarity questions and answers
- •7.6 Lexical information operators
- •7.6.1 Conjunctions
- •7.6.2 Contrastive conjunctions
- •Bibliography
- •Index
Predicates and arguments 327
nouns referring to animates are generally accusative. In the most general terms, the accusative is appropriate to the extent that the negated situation is only one among many things that might be said about the object entity.
5.5 Secondary genitives and secondary locatives
5.5.1 Basics
For most nouns of Declension<Ia> the genitive ends in {-a}. In addition to this “primary” genitive (or gen1), certain nouns have the possibility of using a “secondary” genitive (or gen2) that ends in {-u}.39 Also, certain nouns of Declension<Ia> use a secondary locative form (loc2) ending in stressed {-ú} instead of the expected locative form {-e} (loc1). For some nouns of Declension<IIIa> there is variation in the place of the stress in the locative case form. For the nouns that have the variation, the unstressed {-i} is used in the same contexts as the primary locative loc1 of Declension<Ia>, while the ending with the vowel stressed {-í} is used in contexts analogous to those in which the loc2 in {-ú} is used.
The uses to which the secondary case forms are put are among the regular functions of the genitive and locative cases: the secondary cases are indeed genitives and locatives. Both secondary case forms are restricted to a small number of lexical items. For some lexical items, these secondary forms are quite stable, for others less so. Over time, the secondary cases are gradually becoming more restricted.
5.5.2 Secondary genitive
Gen2 is used most freely with mass nouns designating solids or fluids, portions of which can be detached and manipulated -- measured, purchased, consumed. It is used with appreciable frequency only with approximately a half-dozen such nouns, with less frequency with another dozen. Diminutives retain gen2 well. With other nouns, gen2 is residual.
[248]Nouns in Declension<Ia> using gen2
SUBSTANCES AND FLUIDS [more frequently]: xƒq ‘tea’, cƒ[fh ‘sugar’ , cs´ h ‘cheese’, c´yg ‘soup’, v=l ‘honey’, nf,ƒr ‘tobacco’, rdƒc ‘kvass’40
39Overview and statistical information in Krysin 1974:165--73, 246--49 (gen2), 174--79, 250--51 (loc2).
40In the study of Krysin (1974:169), the commonplace comestibles cƒ[fh and xƒq ranked lower than half a dozen other nouns: rdƒc (75%), ndjhj´u (59%), nf,ƒr (51%), kƒr (50%), cs´ h (49%), dj´cr (48%), and only then cƒ[fh (44%), xƒq (42%). The low rank reflects how the questionnaire was constructed. The first six were used only with the verb reg∫nm, the most favorable context for gen2. Cƒ[fh and xƒq were tested in other contexts, some of which discourage gen2 (dsgbnm cnfrfy rhtgrjuj xf/<gen2> ‘drink a glass of strong tea’ -- unfavorable; ghjvsiktyyjcnm dsgecnbkf ,jkmit cf[fhe<gen2> ‘industry produced more sugar’ -- very unlikely). In a contemporary search on the
328 A Reference Grammar of Russian
SUBSTANCES AND FLUIDS [less frequently]: dj´cr ‘wax’, rbgznj´r ‘boiling water’, rjymz´r ‘cognac’, rj´hv ‘food, fodder’, i=kr ‘silk’, ´yrcec ‘vinegar’, g†htw ‘pepper’, gjhj´[ ‘powder’, l=ujnm (l=un/) ‘pitch, tar’, kƒr ‘lacquer’, rthjc∫y ‘kerosene’, ndjhj´u
‘cheese’
DIMINUTIVES OF MASS NOUNS [frequent]: vtlj´r ‘honey’, rdfcj´r ‘kvass’ ETHERS [unusual]: dj´ple[ ‘air’, ghjcnj´h ‘space’
EVENTS [residual]: cv†[ ‘laughter’, dplj´h ‘nonsense’, iév ‘noise’, cnhƒ[ ‘fear, terror’
Gen2 is occasionally used with borrowings ([249], on Washoe’s sign language):
[249] Pyfr: Gbnm |
Sign: Drink |
Jgbcfybt: Herf c;fnf d rekfr, ,jkmijq |
Description: Hand balled into a fist, |
gfktw rfcftncz hnf. |
forefinger touching the mouth |
Rjyntrcn: Ghjcbn djls, ktrfhcndf, |
Context: Asks for water, medicine, |
kbvjyfle<gen2> . Ghjcz |
lemonade. Asking for lemonade, |
kbvjyfle<gen2> , xfcnj rjv,bybhetn cj |
often combines with the sign for |
pyfrjv ≤ckflrbq≥. |
“sweet”. |
The extension to borrowings such as ijrjkƒl ‘chocolate’, l;†v ‘jam’, or kbvjyƒl ‘lemonade’ suggests that gen2 has been mildly productive, but overall, its use is being curtailed. Very recent borrowings such as qjuéhn ‘yogurt’ are unlikely to develop gen2.
The possible contexts in which gen2 appears are these: (a) in the partitive sense of the genitive, with verbs reporting transfer (reg∫nm ‘buy’, ghtlkj;∫nm ‘to offer’) or consumption (ds´ gbnm ‘drink down’, c(†cnm ‘eat up’); (b) with negation, often emphatic, especially negation of the same verbs that could elicit gen2 in its partitive sense; (c) with approximate quantifiers and quantifying predicates (cnj´kmrj ‘so much’, [dfnƒtn ‘suffices’); (d) domestic measures of quantity (cf[fhe<gen2> rk/yen cfve/ rhjitxre ‘of sugar they put in a small pinch’; lfkf tq recjr gbhjuf b xfire xf/<gen2> ‘she gave her a piece of pie and a cup of tea’; gjkkbnhjdfz ,fyrf vtle<gen2> ‘a half-liter tub of honey’; ,tksq kjvnbr cshe<gen2> ‘a white chunk of cheese’; exceptionally ghbdtp wtksq xtvjlfy jn,jhyjuj, leibcnjuj b rhtgxfqituj nf,fre<gen2> ‘I brought a whole suitcase’s worth of select, pungent, dark tobacco’); (e) with specific quantifiers (gznm rbkjuhfvv nf,fre<gen2>); and (f) residually, as idioms with prepositions (cj cnhf[e<gen2> ‘from fear’, stylistically marked, ,tp cf[fhe<gen2> ‘without a dose of sugar’, and certain fixed phrases, ∫p ljve<gen2> ‘away from home’ vs. bp lj´vf<gen1> ‘from out of the building of the house’. Descriptive modifiers reduce the likelihood of using gen2: dsgbk xf/<gen2> is nearly universal (97%) while dsgbk rhtgrjuj xf/<gen2> is not
web (<02.XI.02>) of collocations with the infinitive regbnm, xf/ and nf,fre scored well over 50 percent; cf[fhe and csh were around 50 percent; other nouns occurred too infrequently to allow even impressionistic judgments about frequency.
Predicates and arguments 329
(55%).41 Contexts that are then excluded from using gen2 are prepositions (except some residual idioms), transitive verbs other than verbs reporting transfer or consumption when they take the genitive under negation, and adnominal genitives: gznyf xfz<gen1> ‘spots of tea’, ,tctlf pf gbnmtv xfz<gen1> ‘a conversation while drinking tea’, e/nysq pfgf[ nf,frf<gen1> ‘the pleasant aroma of tobacco’.
It is often said that gen2 can always be replaced by gen1, and in a sense that is true. Gen2 forms are above all genitive; these contexts are all contexts in which gen1 can be used. Yet when gen2 is possible, it contributes an extra nuance. Gen2 is most natural in contexts in which the predicate detaches and defines a recognizable quantum of the mass; the event creates a dose, a portion -- with the intention or result that the dose of the mass can be manipulated in a conventional, domestic way. For this reason, gen2 is most frequent in collocations such as gjg∫nm xƒ/<gen2>, understood as a ritualized event:
[250]{jhjij gthtjltnmcz d ce[jt, gjpfdnhfrfnm, gjgbnm xf/<gen2> , jnlj[yenm.
It would be good to change into dry clothes, have breakfast, drink some tea, relax.
In [251], the purchase defines the portion and its function (to be eaten):
[251]Pf[jntkjcm tcnm, b jy regbk cege<gen2> b ghbcnhjbkcz hzljv c ldevz rhfcfdbwfvb.
He wanted to eat, and so he bought some soup and set himself up next to two beauties.
Gen1 is used for the partitive sense if the idea of conventional portion is lacking, as in [252], where the mushroom-gatherer imagines buying types of things, not doses:
[252]Jyf ghbltn gthdjq d ktc, yf,thtn gjkye/ rjhpbye cfvs[ kexib[ uhb,jd, ghjlfcn b[ yf hsyrt, regbn ,tkjuj [kt,f<gen1> b cf[fhf<gen1> .
She’ll be the first in the forest, she’ll collect a full basket of the best mushrooms, sell them at the market, and buy some white bread and sugar.
With negation, gen2 is used when the corresponding positive sentence would otherwise use gen2: dsgbkb xf/ ‘they drank some tea, engaged in the ritual of tea-drinking’, yt dsgbkb xf/ ‘they did not have a chance to engage in the ritual of tea-drinking’. With y†n, gen1 denies the universal availability of sugar ([253]), while gen2 denies the existence of the requisite dose of sugar ([254]):
[253]Yt ,skj cf[fhf<gen1> , b c nheljv, pf ,jkmibt ltymub ljcnfdfkfcm cjkm. There was no sugar, and it was only with difficulty, for a lot of money, that salt could be acquired.
41 Whole web, <02.XI.02>.
330 A Reference Grammar of Russian
[254]Jyf vyt ghtlkj;bkf xfq, yj bpdbybkfcm, xnj e ytt ytn cf[fhe<gen2> b [kt, xthcndsq.
She offered me tea, but apologized that she did not have sugar and the bread was stale.
With quantifiers and quantifying predicates, gen2 is used again for actions that create conventional portions or conventional events: yfgbnmcz dtxthjv ujhzxtuj xf/<gen2> ‘drink all one wants of hot tea in the evening’; yfkbkf tve xf/<gen2> ‘she poured him (a portion of, a cup of) tea’, or doses of domestic comestibles:
[255]{kt,f -- recjxtr, f cf[fhe<gen2> cjdctv ytvyj;rj, c xfqye/ kj;txre.
Of bread, there was a small piece, and of sugar, very little, about a teaspoon’s worth.
Yfhj´l ‘people, folk’, unusual as a mass noun in that it refers to animate beings, is widely used as gen2 -- with an explicit quantifier ([256]) or even as subject genitive ([257]):
[256]Vyjuj yfhjle<gen2> ghjdj;fkj vjkjls[. Many people accompanied the young people.
[257]Yf ltcznm ktn yfhjle<gen2> [dfnbn. There are enough people for ten years.
To review: gen2 is most natural in events that report that a quantity of the mass is detached and manipulated in a conventional, even specifically a domestic, fashion.
5.5.3 Secondary locative
Loc2 in stressed {-ú} is used only with the two locative prepositions d and yf, but not with j, gj, ghb, prepositions that govern the locative case but whose meaning is less spatial. Less than two dozen nouns in Declension<Ia> use loc2 ([258]):
[258]Nouns in Declension<Ia> using loc2
d†nth ‘wind’, uhéyn ‘soil’, lé, ‘oak’, pé, ‘tooth’, rh/´r ‘hook’, k†c ‘forest’, v=l
‘honey’, vj´[ ‘moss’, vs´ c ‘cape’, j´ngecr ‘leave’, g∫h ‘feast’, cy†u ‘snow’, cj´r ‘juice’, cnj´u ‘haystack’, [k†d ‘livestock shed’, [j´kjl ‘cold’, w†[ ‘workshop’, xƒy ‘vat’, xƒq ‘tea’
The nouns listed in [258] use loc2 with different frequency. In the sociolinguistic survey conducted in the 1960s (Krysin 1974), the use of loc2 in d cytué ‘in the snow’ remained constant at 97 percent for speakers from the oldest cohort to the youngest. For other nouns, the percentage of speakers who used
Predicates and arguments 331
Table 5.11 Usage of loc2
|
oldest |
youngest |
|
|
|
|
cohort |
cohort |
tokens |
total |
percentage |
noun |
(%) |
(%) |
{-u} |
loc sg |
{-u} |
d cytue |
97 |
97 |
1050 |
1053 |
100 |
d wt[e |
41 |
37 |
91 |
321 |
28 |
d vtle |
35 |
22 |
47 |
68 |
69 |
d jngecre |
25 |
17 |
68 |
658 |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
= Krysin 1974
= http://www.lib.ru <04.VI.02>
loc2 declined slightly from the oldest to the youngest cohort (Table 5.11). The frequency of usage was checked on a website with extensive contemporary Russian texts (www.lib.ru) for four nouns (Table 5.11). The frequencies of usage are comparable to the figures recorded a quarter of a century ago, except with the idiom d vtlé.
With cy†u, loc2 is used almost exclusively. It specifies the kind of medium or location in which a state or activity is situated ([259--60]):42
[259]Jy c nheljv ,htk d cytue<loc2> xfcf ldf.
He wandered through the snow with difficulty for two hours.
[260]B tve gjxtve-nj nz;tktt ,skj ghtlcnfdbnm ct,t nt[ nht[ xtkjdtr, rjnjhst kt;fkb yf cytue<loc2> .
It was for some reason more difficult to imagine those three people lying on the snow.
At the opposite extreme, with j´ngecr, loc1 is now almost universal; it describes an official status ([261]). Loc2, when it is used, is an informal, less bureaucratic variant ([262]).
[261]Gjkj;tybt e ytt ,skj nhelysv. Vfnm c jnwjv d jngecrt<loc1> , ,f,eirf tkt [jlbn . . .
She has a difficult situation. Mother and father are on leave, grandma can hardly walk . . .
[262]-- Cflbcm b jnls[fq -- Ns dtlm d jngecre<loc2> . -- Sit down and rest -- after all you’re on leave.
42Loc1 can be used with cy†u if the noun is understood as an abstract repository of various properties manipulated by mental processes, as in Jakobson’s (1936/1971[b]) constructed example, :bdjgbcyjcnb d cytut ytn ‘there is nothing picturesque in snow’.
332 A Reference Grammar of Russian
With rhƒq, loc2 has become idiomatic; it is basically restricted to unique locations that have characteristic properties -- familiarity ([263]), remoteness ([264]), or extremeness ([265]):
[263] |
d yfitv rhf/<loc2> |
in our region |
[264] |
d cfvjv lfktrjv rhf/<loc2> |
in the most remote region |
[265] |
d nft;yjv rhf/<loc2> |
the taiga region |
In contrast, loc1 is used, for example, to differentiate one region from another (d Rhfcyjlfhcrjv rhft<loc2> ‘in the Krasnodar region’). In a similar fashion, d vjpué<loc2> ‘in the brain’ is used for the brain as seat of consciousness, d vj´put<loc1> for the physiological organ. D rheué<loc2> ‘in the circle’ means a context for something (d rheue<loc2> tuj bynthtcjd ‘in the confines of his interests’), especially a social context (d ctvtqyjv rheue<loc2> ‘in a family environment’, d rheue<loc2> nfywe/ob[ ‘among those who were dancing’). D rhéut<loc1> describes the geometric figure (c yfhfcnf/otq crjhjcnm/ dhfoftncz d rheut<loc1> ‘he spins in a circle with ever increasing speed’). In these three instances, the difference is very much lexical; rhf/´ and rheué evoke different senses of the nouns from rhƒt and rhéut.
W†[ ‘shop’ is one of the few nouns which has real variation in usage. Loc2 d wt[é, less bureaucratic than loc1, presumes that the properties of this locus are known and serves as a background for other events ([266]):
[266]Ghjikj ytvyjuj dhtvtyb, b Jkz dlheu gjxedcndjdfkf, xnj ,thtvtyyf <. . .> D wt[e<loc2> ;tyobys chfpe gjyzkb d xtv ltkj.
A little time passed, and Olia suddenly became aware that she was pregnant
<. . .> In the shop the women understood right away what was up.
(Understood in generic terms, as a type of livelihood, d wt[é<loc2> can also characterize a person: ;bpym d wt[e ghjikf ‘she had passed her life in the shop’.)
[267]Dct jyb hf,jnfkb d эrcgthbvtynfkmyjv wt[t<loc1> , ult cnhjbkbcm vjltkb. They all worked in an experimental shop where models were built.
D w†[t<loc1> is used as focal information, for example, to differentiate workshops ([267]).
For nouns of Declension<IIIa>, the difference between loc1 and loc2 is one of stress: loc1 j rhj´db but loc2 d rhjd∫. Stress on the ending in the locative case has begun to yield to stress on the stem, to judge by warnings in manuals of usage. As the stress changes, the stressed and unstressed variants can acquire different senses analogous to the senses of d rheué vs. d rhéut, etc. As shown in
Predicates and arguments 333
Table 5.12 Loc2 in Declension<IIIa>
bare noun and preposition |
novel collocation |
comment |
|
|
|
|
|
(a) d uke,∫ ‘at a depth’, d lfk∫ ‘at a |
d ytj,sryjd†yyjq lfk∫ ‘at |
consistent end stress, |
|
distance’, d rhjd∫ ‘in the blood’, d |
an unusual distance’ |
all contexts |
|
uhzp∫ ‘in filth’, d cty∫ ‘in the |
|
|
|
shade’, yf wtg∫ ‘on a chain’, yf jc∫ |
|
|
|
‘on the axis’, d yjx∫ ‘in the night’ |
|
|
|
(b) d/yf gtx∫ ‘in/on a stove’, d nty∫ ‘in |
d lj´vtyyjq g†x∫ ‘in a blast |
end stress in bare |
|
the shade’ |
furnace’; d эktrnhjg†xb |
noun, some variation |
|
|
‘in an electric oven’, d |
in novel collocations |
|
d cntg∫ ‘in the steppe’ yt d cn†gb |
gjken†y∫ ‘in half-shade’ |
|
|
d hfcr∫yeditqcz cn†g∫ ‘in |
|
|
|
[3 sources] |
the flung-out steppe’ |
|
|
d cdzp∫ ‘in connection’ [5 sources] |
d ythfphs´ dyjq cdz´p∫ |
|
|
d cdΩp∫ [1 source] |
‘in unbroken contact’ |
|
|
(c) d ctn∫ ‘in the network’ [1 source] |
[2 sources] |
|
|
d fyukjzps´ xyjq c†n∫ ‘on |
stem stress common in |
||
d c†n∫ [3 sources] d c†nb |
the English-language |
novel collocations, |
|
[1 source] |
net’ |
occasional in bare |
|
d otk∫ ‘in the slit’ [4 sources] d |
|
noun [substandard] |
|
|
|
|
|
o†k∫ [2 sources] |
|
|
|
(d) [only] ƒyutk dj gkjn∫ ‘angel in the |
d xtkjd†xtcrjq gkj´nb ‘in |
end stress only in |
|
flesh’ [usual] d gkj´nb ‘in the |
human form’ |
idioms |
|
flesh’ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
c†n∫, etc. = variation in the position of stress
Table 5.12,43 there is a gradation of possibilities: nouns that still have the end stress of loc2 consistently; nouns that have loc2 without modifier but occasional variation in novel collocations with modifiers; then nouns with variation between loc1 and loc2 in novel collocations, sometimes even in phrases with no modifiers; and nouns that have generalized loc1 (stem stress) except in fixed phrases. Over the very long term, the use of loc2 is on the decline, but each noun has its own preferences. Among nouns of Declension<Ia>, loc2 is still close to automatic with cy†u and k†c, but is little used now with most of the other nouns listed in [258]. Loc2 is also on the wane among nouns of Declension<IIIa>. When both variants are possible, loc1 is used for novel combinations that define a new individual on the spot, while loc2 presumes that the entity and its properties are familiar.
43 Sources: Rozental and Telenkova 1976, Ageenko and Zarva 1967, Gorbachevich 1973, Avanesov and Ozhegov 1959, Ozhegov 1989, Zalizniak 1977[a].