- •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
380A Reference Grammar of Russian
[40]{jhjij, xnj <jhz yt dblbn эnb[ rybu. Jy ,s ghtpbhfk vtyz pf jncencndbt bynthtcjd.
It’s a good thing Boria doesn’t see these books. [If he were to see them] He would despise me for an absence of interests.
[41]Ntgthm ntv rybufv wtys ,s yt ,skj.
Now such books would be priceless [if they could be found].
There is also a sense in which the use of ,s in a single clause could be understood as inviting a conditional interpretation (§6.2.7).
6.2.4 Dependent irrealis mood: possibility, volitive, optative
Clauses with the conjunction xnj,s are used as complements of various predicates describing necessity ([42]) or the speaker’s will ([43]) or wishes ([44]). These matrix predicates can take infinitives when the subject of the imposed event matches the argument of the main clause on whom the obligation is imposed. Xnj,s is used when the subject of the embedded clause is not the same as the matrix argument.
[42]J,zpfntkmyj yflj, xnj,s vepsrf ,skf b xnj,s gtkb. It’s absolutely necessary that there be music and singing.
[43]Hjlbntkb yt [jntkb, xnj,s jy etp;fk.
Our parents didn’t want that he should leave.
[44]Dkflbvbh [kjgjnfk, xnj,s tve ;ehyfks pfrfpsdfkb.
Vladimir tried to arrange that they should order journals for him.
The irrealis mood is justified in that the situation is not actual; rather, it is deemed necessary or desirable by some authority.
6.2.5 Dependent irrealis mood: epistemology
Certain matrix predicates comment on the nature of the information reported by an embedded predicate: some indicate how certain the information is (rfpƒnmcz ‘seem’, bpd†cnyj ‘known’, cjdthi†yyj ytd†hyj ‘completely untrue’) or how strong the speaker’s commitment to the information is (cjvytdƒnmcz ‘doubt’, yt d†hbncz ‘it’s hard to believe’, pyƒnm ‘know’, cxbnƒnm ‘think, consider’) or what the speaker’s attitude to the information is (hƒljdfnmcz ‘be pleased’, ,jz´nmcz ‘be afraid’, djc[bn∫nmcz ‘become ecstatic’). Other predicates indicate that the information derives from the speaker’s observation (d∫ltnm ‘see’, ckßifnm ‘hear’, yf,k/lƒnm ‘observe’). Information can be passed on by the primary (external) speaker from a secondary (internal) speaker. In all these instances, the internal history of the embedded clause is epistemologically less than completely certain.
In such clauses Russian generally uses the conjunction xnj with the indicative mood, but xnj,s can be used if the matrix clause is laden with negation (ytkmpz
Mood, tense, and aspect 381
crfpfnm, xnj,s ‘it would impossible to say that’) or dread (,jznmcz, xnj,s yt ‘be afraid, lest’):
[45]Yf Ctyyjq gkjoflb z xnj-nj yt gjvy/, xnj,s ghjlfdfkjcm ctyj. On Haymarket Square, I somehow don’t recall that any hay got sold.
[46]Dshfcnfkf jyf ytkmpz crfpfnm xnj,s rhfcfdbwtq. She grew up to be what you couldn’t call a beauty.
[47]Ybrjulf yt gjdth/, xnj,s Rfnz ,skf cnerfxrjq!
I will never believe that Katia could have been an informer!
[48]Z dctulf ,jzkcz, xnj,s vfnm ult-yb,elm b rjve-yb,elm yt gj;fkjdfkfcm yf vtyz.
I was always afraid lest mother complain about me somewhere and to someone.
When xnj,s is used, it indicates the primary speaker’s profound doubt or fear about the embedded history. Xnj is a more universal and neutral way of formulating the information.
6.2.6 Dependent irrealis mood: reference
A relative clause turns a predication into a property of an argument. That property can be descriptive of an entity whose identity is already established or it can be definitional of an entity not yet established in the discourse as a known individual. In a definitional relative clause, the particle ,s signals that the entity is quite hypothetical:
[49]Ctqxfc e;t ybrjuj yt jcnfkjcm, rnj pyfk ,s nfr ,kbprj Ktjyblf <jhbcjdbxf d gjdctlytdyjq ;bpyb, rfr ljdtkjcm vyt.
Now there is no one left who might have known Leonid Borisovich as intimately in his daily life, as I had the chance to.
6.2.7 Independent irrealis moods
The particle ,s can be used in independent clauses, in two ways.5
First, ,s can be used in independent clauses in combination with predicates that are already modal -- predicates that comment on possibility, ability, necessity, desirability, epistemology.
[50]Z [jntkf ,s<irr> pfnryenm eib, yj yt htif/cm.
I wanted to stuff my ears, but I can’t make up my mind.
The particle has the effect of softening the modality. Usually the situation is counterfactual: in [50], the girl does not actually dare to stuff her ears.
5 See Garde 1963, which deals exhaustively with all uses of ,s ([51], [52]).
382 A Reference Grammar of Russian
Second, the irrealis mood can be used without any overt support from the context: in [51], to express a suggestion; in [52], to express a deliberation, a wish.
[51]Ds ,s jnlj[yekb, ntnz Hfz.
You ought to rest a bit, Aunt Raia.
[52]Xtcnyjt ckjdj, z, yt pflevsdfzcm, e,bkf ,s эnjuj nbgf.
Honest to God, I’d kill that guy without giving it a second thought.
This independent usage seems restricted and infrequent in the twentieth century.
The independent irrealis mood expressing a wish has become idiomatized with phrases such as nj´kmrj ,s ‘if only’ or k∫im ,s ‘if only’:
[53]Jy yfxbyftn ltrkfvbhjdfnm jxtym lkbyyst cnb[b, b exbntkm ujnjd gjcnfdbnm tve k/,e/ jnvtnre, kbim ,s jy pfvjkxfk.
He starts declaiming very long poems, and the teacher is ready to give him any grade, if only he’ll shut up.
6.2.8 Syntax and semantics of modal predicates
The syntax and semantics of the small set of predicates that have modal content deserve further study, but their core properties can be outlined as follows.
There is a basic syntactic difference splitting these predicates, and that syntactic difference is correlated with a semantic difference. Yƒlj ‘be necessary’, ytkmpz´ ‘be impossible, inappropriate’, and vj´;yj ‘possible’ are all impersonal. The modality they report is a fact about the world in general, and the modality would have force for anyone who happened to be in the situation. The force of this general modality may be directed to a specific individual in context, expressed in the dative as a domain (a goal) for the force of the obligation.
[54]Z c,bkcz c ljhjub. Yfxfkj ntvytnm. Nz;tksq h/rpfr jnnzubdfk gktxb. F blnb yflj ,skj j,zpfntkmyj. B ghjlerns ghbytcnb, b zdbnmcz djdhtvz.
I lost my way. It began to get dark. The heavy backpack tugged on my shoulders. And yet it was absolutely necessary to go. To bring the goods, to appear on time.
In [54], the obligation is a general rule, though it applies to a specific individual: to achieve a certain goal (delivering the goods), anyone would have to act in a certain way.
Vj´;yj, which also has impersonal syntax, is concerned with the conditions under which something is possible. The possibility is universal -- it could apply to anyone:
[55]Yf ujhe vj;yj dcrfhf,rfnmcz gtirjv, yj vj;yj t[fnm b yf nhfvdft.
It is possible to scramble up on foot, but it is also possible to go on the tram.
Mood, tense, and aspect 383
[56]Jcdjtybt ;fyhf vj;yj yfqnb tot d ≤Ckflrjq ;bpyb≥.
It’s possible to see the mastery of the genre already in La dolce vita.
Djpvj´;yj ‘possible’ is concerned with whether the possibility exists at all ([57]).
[57]B[ jcdjtybt djpvj;yj njkmrj ghb dscjrjghjatccbjyfkmyjv gjl[jlt. Mastery of them is possible [at all] only with a thoroughly professional approach.
In contrast to these impersonal predicates, lj´k;ty and vj´xm are personal: they usually have a subject in the nominative case. They report an obligation (lj´k;ty) or possibility (vj´xm), which is presented not as a universal obligation or possibility, but as a function of the individual who is the subject. In [58],
[58]Tckb vtyz dspjden, z ljk;ty ytvtlktyyj djpdhfofnmcz d Vjcrde. If they call me, I have to return to Moscow immediately.
the obligation is not a general law, but a specific constraint that binds the speaker. Lj´k;ty is an individuated obligation that arises from specific circumstances; it is negotiated, discussed, adjusted to a given individual. Lj´k;ty is also used for predictions:
[59]Gfhj[jl ljk;ty ghbqnb xthtp ldf xfcf.
The steamship was due to arrive two hours later.
Vj´xm is a possibility that arises for a given individual because of the properties of that individual, under specific circumstances: in [60], if the speaker takes a certain route, then some unpleasantness might arise:
[60]<kb;t dctuj ,skj blnb gj Djhjyt;crjq, yj nfv z vju dcnhtnbnm pyfrjvs[, vfkmxbirb vjukb vtyz pfcvtznm.
It was closer to go by way of Voronezh Road, but that way I might meet acquaintances, and the boys might make fun of me.
Vj´xm ‘can, may’, the only true verb among these modal predicates, has a perfective partner cvj´xm ‘come to be able, permitted’, which reports the inception of possibility over a restricted occasion. Thus lj´k;ty and vj´xm, which are personal rather than impersonal in their syntax, treat modality as a function of the individual rather than as a general rule.
The interaction of negation and modality is elusive in any language. Under negation, yt yƒlj ‘not necessary’ states absence of necessity of an activity, or even more, that the event should not occur in the present or should not have occurred in the past ([61]). Ytkmpz´ categorically prohibits an event that was anticipated to be possible ([62]):