Russian Correspondences to Swedish Bipartite Comitatives

Abstract

The present parallel corpus investigation shows that the Russian correspondences to Swedish bipartite comitatives — med- ‘with’-constructions with the structure [med + NP + PP] — can largely be predicted from the presence and positions of NPs referring to inalienable body parts in the constructions. When a Swedish bipartite med-construction contains an inalienable in the first (subject) part of the bipartite med-construction: [med + NPinalienable + P + NP], perfective converb constructions constitute the most frequent Russian correspondence. When there is an alienable NP in the first part and an inalienable NP in the PP part: [med + NPalienable + P + NPinalienable], by contrast, the Swedish bipartite med-constructions frequently correspond to Russian comitative (s+instrumental) constructions. The study shows two more important correspondence types: bare instrumental constructions expressing manner and finite constructions expressing condition or temporal condition. These four Russian correspondence types (converb constructions, s+instrumental constructions, bare instrumental constructions and finite constructions) represent four different ontological types, as they mark relations between the matrix and eventualities (states/temporary properties) entities, manners, and states of affairs, respectively.