- •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
334 A Reference Grammar of Russian
5.6 Instrumental case
5.6.1 Basics
The instrumental is the one case other than the genitive that is used in a wide range of contexts. Though heterogeneous, these contexts have some similarities and connections.44
5.6.2 Modal instrumentals
Closest to the use of the instrumental for predicatives (§5.2) is the use of the instrumental to state a simile, dsnm djkrjv ‘howl like a wolf’ or to name a function of an individual, hf,jnfnm by;tythjv ‘work as an engineer’. In both uses, the construction identifies the subject entity as being like unto a certain type (‘wolf’, ‘engineer’) in some respect, but stops short of saying that it is to be identified completely as belonging to that type.
Certain idiomatic phrases with the instrumental case describe the medium of an event -- the location ([268]) or time ([269--70]).
[268]Ljhjuf ikf nj ktcjv<ins> , nj gjkzvb<ins> , xthtp lthtdyb b ctkf.
The road went through the forest, over fields, through villages and settlements.
[269]Gjt[fkb ghjljnhzljdws relf-nj d etpl ljcnfdfnm [kt,, b b[ cgzob[ yjxm/<ins> e,bkb.
The provision brigades went off into the hinterlands to get grain, and then they were killed at night as they slept.
[270]F d Dtkbrbq xtndthu gjckt cke;,s ldtyflwfnb tdfyutkbq pdtplyjq yjxm/<ins> vs ytckb pf;;tyyst cdtxb.
And on Maundy Thursday after the service of the Twelve Gospels we carried lit candles through the starry night.
The instrumentals identify a type of medium in which a certain activity is appropriate -- a type of road in [268], a type of time (nighttime, with overtones of mystery in [269--70]).45
5.6.3 Aspectual instrumentals
A characteristic feature of Russian is the use of the instrumental with predicates that describe activities in which a human agent moves a body part of the subject or an immediate extension of the body: vf[yenm {herjq nhzgrjq} ‘wave
{with the hand a rag}’, nhzcnb {ujkjdjq herjq gbcnjktnjv} ‘shake with
44 The contexts discriminated by Jakobson 1936/1971[b], 1958/1971[b] have been decomposed into syntactic structures by Worth 1958, restated by Wierzbicka 1980, and translated into cognitive grammar by Janda 1993.
45Giusti Fici 1989:64: the instrumental “est fonctionnel par rapport au mouvement de passage en soi, et [. . .] il sert à le caract†riser.”
Predicates and arguments 335
{the head hand a pistol}’. The body part is synecdochic to the aspectuality (change) of the predicate. When the mobile entity is a separate, external entity, rather than a body part or an extension of a body part, these predicates are transitive and use the accusative for the mobile entity:
[271]Jlyb wtkjdfkb tt, lheubt vjkxf nhzckb here<acc> . Some kissed her, others silently shook her hand.
Many of these predicates are intrinsically cyclical, and so form semelfactive perfectives in {-nu-}: vf[ƒnm ‘wave [continuously, repeatedly]’, vf[yénm ‘give a single wave’. Some have reflexive transforms in which the mobile entity is the subject: herb nhzcencz ‘hands shake’, vs nhzckbcm ‘we shook’. The full range of constructions is attested with ld∫ufnm(cz) ‘move’. It uses the instrumental for synecdochic parts ([272]), the accusative for separate entities ([273]), the reflexive transform for spontaneous motion of body parts ([274]) or autonomous agents ([275]):
[272]Z ldbufk kjrnzvb<ins> d ,jrf.
I moved (with) my elbows into people’s sides.
[273]Rnj-nj cnfk gkzcfnm, ldbufkb c ievjv vt,tkm<acc> . Some started to dance, they moved the furniture noisily.
[274]Tuj otrb<nom> ,scnhj ldbufkbcm. His cheeks moved quickly.
[275]Jyf<nom> pf;ukf e;t cdtxb b ntgthm ldbufkfcm r cnjke.
She had already lit the candles and now was moving towards the table.
Other predicates use the instrumental in a similar fashion, although they do not have the same range of options as nhzcn∫(cm), ld∫ufnm(cz). Some predicates occur only with a synecdochic body part, and therefore consistently use the instrumental: vbufnm\vbuyenm ukfpfvb ‘blink with the eyes’. Verbs reporting the emission of a sensory signal express the locus of the signal in the instrumental, crhbgtkb djhjnjv ‘they squeaked with the winch’, rjgsnf ,ktcntkb gjlrjdfvb
‘the hoofs gleamed with the horseshoes’, ,ktcnbn kfrjv yjdtymrfz ,fkfkfqrf ‘the new balalaika gleams with lacquer’, or else the locus of the signal is nominative, crhbgtkb rjktcf ‘wheels squeaked’, pe,s ,ktcntkb ‘her teeth gleamed’. Similar is gƒ[yenm ‘smell’. Its instrumental is metonymic to the general aspectuality of the predicate, which is the emission of a smell: gf[ytn {lsvjv jdwfvb cdt;tcnm/ vtljv ctyjv} ‘it smells of {smoke sheep freshness honey hay}’.
A small set of verbs that report launching projectiles (vtnƒnm\vtnyénm ‘toss’, ,hj´cbnm/,hjcƒnm ‘throw’, idshz´nm\idshyénm ‘chuck’) can take either the accusative ([276--77]) or the instrumental ([278]):
336A Reference Grammar of Russian
[276]Bp gjxnjdjuj dfujyf rblfkb vtijr<acc> c gbcmvfvb b ufptnfvb.
Out of the postal car they would toss a bag with letters and newspapers.
[277]Yt cgjcj,ys[ ,hjcfnm rfvyb<acc> ltntq djhjys ybrjulf yt ,jzkbcm. Children incapable of throwing stones were never feared by crows.
[278]:tyobys heufkb rjnf, ht,znbirb rblfkb rfvyzvb<ins> . The women cursed the cat, the lads chucked stones.
The accusative reports a directed change in the aspectual argument, the instrumental a type of activity affecting the missile, such as the pelting with stones that befell the tomcat ([278]).
And there are also instrumentals that specify the nature of the mobile entity that affects an (accusative) patient of a transitive predicate, as in cyf,l∫nm/cyf,;ƒnm ‘provide’: jyf cgjcj,yf cyf,;fnm эktrnhjэythubtq<ins> ujhjl
‘it is capable of providing a city with electrical energy’, cyf,;tybt athv nt[ybrjq<ins> ‘provision of farms with technology’. This is the normal valence of this verb and of verbs like pf,∫nm: pf,bdfkb hs,jq ,jxrb<ins> ‘they stuffed barrels with fish’, or [279]:
[279]Ubvyfcnthrb pfcntuyekb yf dct geujdbws b yf,bkb cjkjvjq<ins> . They buttoned their coats all the way up and stuffed them with straw.
This and similar verbs sometimes use an alternate valence, in which the mobile entity is accusative and the domain is a (directional) prepositional phrase: yflj pf,bnm d uytplf lthtdzyyst ghj,rb<acc> b dyjdm ghbrhenbnm iehegfvb gtnkb
‘you have to drive wooden plugs into the holes and screw in the hinges again’.
5.6.4 Agentive instrumentals
Consistent with its name, the instrumental case is used to express instruments -- that is, metonymic extensions of the subject’s agentivity:
[280]F. Rfhgjd gthtitk kbyb/ if[vfnyjuj эrdfnjhf dnjhsv cdjbv rjytv<ins> . A. Karpov crossed the chess equator with his other knight.
The instrumental case can be used (though in practice infrequently) to express the displaced agent of a passive construction (§5.8). The instrumental is used in a construction somewhat like a passive, in which a transitive verb in the neuter singular lacks a subject and reports an act of nature that affects the patient, expressed in the accusative. The instrumental expresses the metonymic force of the event’s agentivity:
[281]Rjvyfne pfkbkj djljq<ins> . The room got flooded by water.
[282]Vtyz cbkmyj elfhbkj njrjv<ins> . I got a hard shock.
|
|
Predicates and arguments 337 |
Table 5.13 Types of instrumental constructions |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
context |
example |
interpretation |
|
|
|
predicative |
,snm ghbdktrfntkmysv<ins> ‘be |
property holds in one predicate |
|
attractive’; ghbqnb |
history, fails to holds in a |
|
hfpjxfhjdfyysv<ins> ‘arrive |
parallel history in another |
|
disillusioned’ |
time-world |
simile |
dsnm djkrjv<ins> ‘howl like a wolf ’ |
predicate history holds in |
|
|
imagined world of comparison, |
|
|
though not in actual world |
medium |
t[fnm {ktcjv<ins> yjxm/<ins> } |
medium in which event, as type, |
(location / time) |
‘travel {through the forest at |
is embedded |
|
night}’ |
|
manner |
ujdjhbnm htprbv njyjv<ins> ‘speak |
entity characteristic of activity as |
|
in a harsh tone’ |
type of activity |
aspectual |
nhzcnb herjq<ins> ‘shake a hand’, |
entity synecdochic to aspectuality |
|
,ktcntnm evjv<ins> ‘shine by |
|
|
means of the mind’, ,hjcbnm |
|
|
rfvyzvb<ins> ‘throw stones’, |
|
|
cyf,;bnm ujhjl эythubtq<ins> |
|
|
‘provide the city with energy’ |
|
instrument |
gthtqnb kbyb/ rjytv<ins> ‘cross the |
entity synecdochic to agentivity |
|
line with the knight’ |
|
pseudo-passive of |
rjvyfne pfkbkj djljq ‘the room |
entity synecdochic to agentivity |
natural force |
got flooded by water’ |
|
passive agent |
,thtuf pf[dfxtys lfxyjq |
entity synecdochic to agentivity |
|
ge,kbrjq<ins> ‘the shores were |
|
|
occupied by the dacha-goers’ |
|
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|
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|
An instrumental is often used to express the manner of an activity:
[283]U. Rfcgfhjd xtnrbvb vfytdhfvb<ins> abueh dsyelbk hfpvty b jn,bk fnfre.
G. Kasparov with precise movements of the pieces forced a trade and repelled the attack.
Here the instrumental seems to be intermediate between an instrument in the strict sense and a circumstantial instrumental like yj´xm/ ‘at night’.
5.6.5 Summary
The basic uses of instrumental are summarized in Table 5.13, with examples. In predicative constructions (§5.2) the instrumental case imputes two alternative predicate histories. In one the property holds, in another, the property does not. More broadly, the instrumental can be said to manipulate two situations. It both differentiates them and also connects them as part of a larger picture. In