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Cardinal numeral constructions and the category of animacy in Russian

Количественные нумеративные конструкции и категория одушевленности в русском языке

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Abstract

The Russian cardinal numeral construction presents symptomatic variations of behavior with respect to the category of animacy. The present paper addresses these variations using data from the Russian National Corpus and the Internet and in it the following conclusion is drawn: the numeral construction is an important fragment of Russian grammar in which the category of animacy is not completely grammaticalized, which means that it conserves its semantic status.

The variations presented by numeral constructions thus allow for the postulating of a centre—periphery organization for the category of animacy in Russian. There are at least three factors that interact with each other when a choice between the inanimate and the animate construction is made: the semantics of the verbs or of the constructions as a whole, the referential status of the quantified noun, and the semantics of the latter.

Аннотация

Русская нумеративная конструкция с количественными числительными характеризуется симптоматичной вариативностью в отношении категории одушевленности. В статье анализируется эта вариативность на материале Национального корпуса русского языка и данных Рунета и делается следующий вывод: нумеративные конструкции остаются важным фрагментом русской грамматической системы, в которой одушевленность не полностью грамматикализована и, тем самым, сохраняет свой семантический статус.

Вариативность нумеративных конструкций в данном отношении позволяет утверждать, что категория одушевленности в русском языке является радиальной и обладает центром и периферией. На выбор конструкции (одушевленной vs. неодушевленной) влияют по крайней мере следующие факторы: семантика подчиняющего глагола или конструкции в целом, референциальный статус квантифицированного имени и семантика последнего.

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Notes

  1. “Konstrukcija Num + S v russkom jazyke—ėto svoeobraznyj utkonos, t.e. lingvističeskoe jajcekladuščee mlekopitajuščee […].” (Mel’čuk 1985, 80).

  2. One of the reviewers pointed out to the fact that I claim to use the RNC but only cite few examples in my paper. It is important to underline that the RNC is of limited use for such type of studies as mine, i.e. those that investigate grammatical variation and tendencies and use not only standard, but also substandard material.

  3. For a detailed account, see Mel’čuk (1985).

  4. Simple numerals pjat’ ‘five’ and similar belong to noun declension class 3 (as feminine nouns mat’ ‘mother’, sol’ ‘salt’, etc. having zero ending in nominative sg. case), but don’t have plural forms. This clearly explains their non-agreement with animate nouns in accusative case, but does not seem to preclude the account that I propose in what follows. According to Grannes (1986, 114), animate forms (acc = gen) of these numerals are, however, attested in texts of the 17th and 18th centuries, cf. pjati čelovek pobil do smerti ‘beat five persons to death’. These forms are completely out of use in modern Russian.

    Numerals sorok ‘forty’, devjanosto ‘ninety’, sto ‘hundred’, dvesti ‘two hundred’, trista ‘three hundred’, četyresta ‘four hundred’, pjat’sot – devjat’sot ‘five hundred – nine hundred’ belong to idiosyncratic declension paradigms, while the numeral tysjača belongs to class 2 (see Pesetsky 2010, 79 for discussion and further references). Note that the numerals dvesti, trista, and četyresta theoretically can agree with animate nouns in the accusative case, though in the modern language they practically never do so (cf. Mel’čuk 1985, 204).

  5. http://netjob3.narod.ru/referrals.html (Accessed 1 December 2011).

  6. http://www.ekhoplanet.ru/society_1956_4543 (Accessed 11 June 2012).

  7. http://irogoto.blog.ru/18522598.html. Soxranennaja kopija, 18 dek. 2007 (Accessed 30 August 2010).

  8. http://mornixuur.livejournal.com/214782.html (Accessed 30 November 2011).

  9. When it is preceded by a quantifier, the noun čelovek is usually translated as ‘people’, as will be done in the translations in this article.

  10. Note however that the form čelovek 1) induces agreement in case and number of the external modifier (participle vyšedšix); 2) induces semantic agreement in number of the predicative adjective obyčnymi.

  11. http://behappier.ru/content/view/2/1/ (Accessed 30 November 2011).

  12. http://history.myriads.ru (Accessed 11 June 2012).

  13. http://www.rpgazeta.ru/index2.php3?path=htm/2009/28&source=8005 (Accessed 1 December 2011).

  14. http://www.kinopoisk.ru/level/79/user/1/comment/111956/ (Accessed 1 December 2011).

  15. “Pri sočetanii oduševl. suščestvitel’nyx s sostavnymi čislitel’nymi, okančivajuščimisja na dva, tri, četyre, vozmožny dva varianta: knižnyj, ustarevajuščij tipa proėkzamenovat’ dvadcat’ dvux studentov i normativnyj—proėkzamenovat’ dvadcat’ dva studenta.” (Russkaja grammatika, http://rusgram.narod.ru/1366-1383.html). Cf. also the comment posted on the Internet portal Gramota.ru (http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/buro/?page=4144).

  16. “Pri literaturnoj forme dostavit’ dvadcat’ dva passažira (v konstrukcijax s sostavnymi čislitel’nymi, okančivajuščimisja na dva, tri, četyre, vinitel’nyj padež soxranjaet formu imenitel’nogo nezavisimo ot kategorii oduševlennosti) suščestvuet razgovornaja forma dostavit’ dvadcat’ dvux passažirov.” (Rozental’ 1998, http://evartist.narod.ru/text1/57.htm).

  17. http://www.gazetanv.ru/article/?id=5537 (Accessed 10 October 2009).

  18. http://www.gazeta.spb.ru/21743-0/ (Accessed 9 October 2009).

  19. http://oevrope.ru/na-shakhte-rudna-pogib-shakhter-2153/ (Accessed 9 October 2009).

  20. http://www.bibliotekar.ru/istoria-rossii/213.htm (Accessed 9 October 2009).

  21. L. Rubinštein. Červjak v Kremle. http://grani.ru/Culture/essay/rubinstein/m.182614.html (Accessed 14 October 2010).

  22. It is the only example containing a digital numeric form used in the present paper. Mel’čuk (1985, 105, 175, 378, 427) mentions the fact that the digital numeric form, while it is widely used in print, sometimes cannot be pronounced using standard normative Russian. See also (29)–(33) and the discussion below.

  23. A detailed analysis of numeral declension lies beyond the scope of the present paper, but see, for example, Mel’čuk (1985).

  24. Mel’čuk (1985) ascribes special quantitative meaning to the preposition na in this constructions.

  25. http://neboley.com.ua/ru/family/2011/10/21/25211 (Accessed 1 September 2011).

  26. http://lenta.ru/news/2011/04/06/number/ (Accessed 1 September 2011).

  27. http://www.ieml.ru/institute/struct/faculties/law/newsarchive.html (Accessed 1 September 2011).

  28. http://www.niann.ru/?id=355517 (Accessed 1 September 2011).

  29. http://www.tula.rodgor.ru/news/t_gorod_oblast/26327/register.html (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  30. http://kp.ru/daily/24518/666739/ (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  31. (http://www.pro-soblazn.ru/soblazn/podruga-revnuet-k-parnu.html (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  32. http://www.nmosk.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5676 (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  33. http://deita.ru/society/dalnij-vostok_08.04.2006_53746_v-priamurje-na-dvukh-tigrov-stalo-bolshe.html?print (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  34. http://www.bmockbe.ru/events/?ID=5722 (Accessed 2 September 2011).

  35. http://www.ruop.ru/novaya-derevnya.html/3 (Accessed 12 February 2012).

  36. http://www.ruboman.ru/ruboman.ru-tov.html (Accessed 12 February 2012).

  37. http://www.nn.ru/community/hobby/flirt/?do=read&thread=945781&topic_id=18978951&archive=1 (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  38. http://oracul-new.narod.ru/15/008.htm (Accessed 29 October 2012).

  39. http://vk.com/event32882355 (Accessed 20 February 2012).

  40. http://www.newsland.ru/news/detail/id/753498/ (Accessed 25 February 2012).

  41. http://veter-tlt.ru/index.php/abzakovo (Accessed 25 February 2012).

  42. http://www.rektech.ru/i-mba/germ-1.htm (Acessed 25 February 2012).

  43. http://life.ng.ru/education/2000-02-11/4_college.html (Accessed 29 October 2012).

  44. http://mon.gov.ru/press/smi/3594,print/ (Accessed 25 February 2012).

  45. http://newansy.ru/article/208 (Accessed 25 February 2012).

  46. http://www.skidokmaster.com/details/view/292/ (Accessed 10 December 2011).

  47. http://www.rusib.ru/tury/cheapest/cheapest_79.html (Accessed 10 September 2011).

  48. Yanko (2004, 77) cites several examples containing a different word in this construction, e.g., On sidel v kresle za dva zritelja ot menja ‘He sat two places [lit. spectators] away from me’. However, all her examples are self-made, and I could not find even one actual example of this type with a word other than čelovek.

  49. http://www.erlib.com/Михаил_Булгаков/Ханский_огонь/1/ (Accessed 29 February 2012).

  50. For more details see Mel’čuk (1985, 443–444).

  51. http://portamur.ru/days_hero/detail.php?ID=125297&PAGEN_2=2 (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  52. http://www.master-dive.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12?rb_v=viewtopic&f=4&t=12 (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  53. http://elenabelkina.moikrug.ru/ (Accessed 1 March 2012).

  54. Original spelling and punctuation are preserved.

  55. http://www.effman.orangeninja.ru/536 (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  56. Stenogramma teleperedači ‘Materik’, 16 oktjabrja 2003 g., TVC. http://www.materik.ru/institute/library/stenogram/detail.php?ID=3937 (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  57. http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/elections2011/debates/mironov_vs_udaltsov.shtml (Accessed 9 March 2012).

  58. http://vk.com/event28767678 (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  59. D. Alxazov. Skazka novoj Rossii. http://www.proshkolu.ru/user/alhaz/blog/29544/ (Accessed 7 March 2012).

  60. http://openysheva-sv.livejournal.com/188803.html (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  61. For detailed analysis of semantics and syntax of the verb imet’ see Mikaelian (2005).

  62. http://babymania.ru/phpbb2/viewforum.php?f=46 (Accessed 2 March 2012).

  63. http://www.fresher.ru/2011/11/04/odin-portret-iz-500-raznyx-fotografij/ (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  64. Original spelling and punctuation are preserved.

  65. http://detinochi.build2.ru/viewtopic.php?id=65 (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  66. http://anbuforce.clan.su/forum/16-472-1 (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  67. A. Adamovič. Karateli. http://readr.ru/ales-adamovich-karateli.html?page=35#ixzz1oeYiGkYw (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  68. N. Danilova, A. Černyx. Sovremennyj Ėrmitaž, ili Muzej v ėpoxu massovogo obščestva. Neprikosnovennyj zapas, 4(54), 2007. http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2007/54/da20.html.

  69. http://gentelev.livejournal.com/427735.html?thread=2010583 (Accessed 8 March 2012).

  70. http://www.nailclub.ru/forum/archive/index.php/t-2282-p-10.html (Accessed 9 March 2012).

  71. http://pravdapskov.ru/rubric/33/6153 (Accessed 11 November 2010).

  72. http://pravda-news.ru/topic/343.html (Accessed 12 November 2011).

  73. http://chibasik.livejournal.com/103526.html (Accessed 9 March 2012).

  74. http://moskva.bezformata.ru/listnews/dtp-na-yuge-moskvi/1221587/ (Accessed 9 March 2012).

  75. http://www.ulov.ru/forum/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=372588&page=&vc=1 (Accessed 9 March 2012).

  76. The only case where the inanimate pattern is consistently used outside numeral phrases are the constructions like <idti> v soldaty ‘enroll in the army’ (lit. ‘go to soldiers’) (see Mel’čuk 1985, 461–490 for a discussion of case in these constructions).

    Besides, we know that, following the expression of one of my reviewers, animacy has a ‘fuzzy boundary’: nouns denoting small exotic animals, such as krevetka ‘shrimp’, ustrica ‘oyster’, krab ‘crab’ can both behave as animate and inanimate, especially when used to denote food, cf. Ja ne em ustricy/ustric ‘I don’t eat oysters’.

  77. See Mel’čuk (1985, 199) for a more detailed hierarchy within the class of nouns designating animals.

  78. On the words čelovek as classifier, or numerativ see Mel’čuk (1985, 209, 382).

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  1. The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA

    Irina Mikaelian

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  1. Irina Mikaelian
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Correspondence to Irina Mikaelian.

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I am thankful to Anna A. Zalizniak, David Pesetsky, and the anonymous reviewers for their time and comments.

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Mikaelian, I. Cardinal numeral constructions and the category of animacy in Russian. Russ Linguist 37, 71–90 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-012-9105-3

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