Case in Russian: A sign-oriented approach

199 Pages·2015·1.291 MB·English

by  Alexandra Beytenbrat

Case in Russian
Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics (SFSL)
issn 1385-7916
Taking the broadest and most general definitions of the terms functional and structural,
this series aims to present linguistic and interdisciplinary research that relates language
structure – at any level of analysis from phonology to discourse – to broader functional
considerations, whether cognitive, communicative, pragmatic or sociocultural. Preference
will be given to studies that focus on data from actual discourse, whether speech, writing
or other nonvocal medium.
The series was formerly known as Linguistic & Literary Studies in Eastern Europe (LLSEE).
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/sfsl
Founding Editor Honorary Editors
John Odmark Eva Hajičová Petr Sgall
Charles University Charles University
General Editors
Yishai Tobin Bob de Jonge
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Groningen University
Editorial Board
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald James A. Matisoff
La Trobe University University of California, Berkeley
Joan L. Bybee Jim Miller
University of New Mexico Emeritus, University of Edinburgh
Ellen Contini-Morava Marianne Mithun
University of Virginia University of California, at Santa Barbara
Nicholas Evans Lawrence J. Raphael
University of Melbourne CUNY and Adelphi University
Victor A. Friedman Olga Mišeska Tomić
University of Chicago Leiden University
Anatoly Liberman Olga T. Yokoyama
University of Minnesota UCLA
Volume 70
Case in Russian. A sign-oriented approach
by Alexandra Beytenbrat
Case in Russian
A sign-oriented approach
Alexandra Beytenbrat
Petr Sgall
Charles University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/sfsl.70
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2015019272 (print) / 2015022885 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 1580 2 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6816 7 (e-book)
© 2015 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
To my professor, Yishai Tobin,
who cured my addiction to Syntax
and never gave up on me

Table of contents
Abbreviations xi
Transliteration xiii
Introduction 1
1. Preliminaries 1
2. The scope of this study 4
3. Outline of the volume 6
Chapter 1
Columbia School theory 7
1.1 The definition of language 7
1.2 The human factor 7
1.3 The linguistic sign 8
1.3.1 Grammatical system 9
1.4 Invariant meaning vs. message 11
1.5 Methods of validation 13
1.6 Summary 14
Chapter 2
Previous analyses of case 17
2.1 Sentence-oriented theories 18
2.1.1 Traditional view 19
2.1.2 Modern syntactic approaches 22
2.1.2.1 Case Grammar 23
2.1.2.2 Case theory in Government and Binding 26
2.1.2.3 Case in the Minimalist Program 30
2.1.2.4 Case in Lexical-Funtional Grammar 32
2.1.3 Semantic approaches 35
2.1.3.1 Cognitive approach 35
2.1.3.2 Natural Semantic Metalanguage 41
2.1.3.3 Formal semantics 43
viii Case in Russian: A sign-oriented approach
2.2 Sign-oriented theories 46
2.2.1 Jakobsonian School 46
2.2.2 Case in Columbia School Theory 47
2.3 Summary 51
Chapter 3
The System of Contribution 53
3.1 The nominative – HIGH CONTRIBUTOR 56
3.2 The accusative – LOW CONTRIBUTOR 61
3.3 The dative – MID CONTRIBUTOR 64
3.3.1 Types of verbs with the dative case 66
3.3.2 Dative of possession 73
3.4 Additional data 75
3.4.1 Nominative-dative alternation 75
3.4.2 Nominative-accusative alternation 76
3.4.3 Dative-accusative alternation 77
3.5 Summary 80
Chapter 4
The System of Involvement 81
4.1 The genitive – Direct Involvement 83
4.1.1 The genitive: Possession and relationship 84
4.1.2 The genitive: Quantity 86
4.1.3 The partitive genitive 87
4.1.4 The genitive of negation 88
4.1.5 Verbs that “govern” the genitive case 90
4.1.6 Adjectives with the genitive case 94
4.2 The instrumental case 94
4.2.1 The instrumental as predicate 101
4.2.2 Verbs that “govern” the instrumental 102
4.2.3 Adjectives that “govern” the instrumental 103
4.3 The locative case 104
4.4 Summary 105
Chapter 5
Cases and prepositions 107
5.1 The System of Contribution and prepositions 109
5.1.1 The nominative and prepositions 109
Table of contents ix
5.1.2 Prepositional dative vs. prepositional accusative 110
5.1.2.1 Preposition k ‘to, towards, by, for, on,
on the occasion of’ 111
5.1.2.2 Prepositions čerez ‘across, through’ and skvoz’
‘through’ 114
5.1.2.3 Preposition pro ‘about, for’ 116
5.2 The System of Involvement and prepositions 118
5.2.1 Prepositional genitive 119
5.2.1.1 Bez ‘without’ and krome ‘except’ 119
5.2.1.2 Dlâ ‘for’ and radi ‘for the sake of’ 120
5.2.1.3 Do ‘until, up to’ 122
5.2.1.4 Preposition u ‘at, by, of, with’ 123
5.2.1.5 Iz ‘from’ and ot ‘from’ 124
5.2.2 Prepositional instrumental 127
5.2.2.1 Nad ‘above, at, over’ 127
5.2.2.2 Pered ‘before, in front of’ 128
5.2.3 The locative case 129
5.2.3.1 Pri ‘near, at, by’ 129
5.3 Preposition po ‘along, by, according to, on, over, around, about,
up to, after’ 130
5.3.1 Po + dative 131
5.3.2 Po + accusative 134
5.3.3 Po + locative 135
5.4 Preposition s ‘with, as, after, from, off, since, because of, about,
the size of’ 137
5.4.1 S + genitive 137
5.4.2 S + accusative 141
5.4.3 S + instrumental 141
5.5 Summary 145
Chapter 6
Text analysis 147
6.1 Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 147
6.2 “He and She” by Chekhov 153
6.3 “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Tolstoy 154
6.3.1 Chapter 2 154
6.3.2 Chapter 3 156
6.3.3 Chapter 7 157