The Russian genitive of negation in existential sentences

Abstract

Arrived-M.SG answer-NOM.M.SG from regiment 'There was an answer from the regiment.' The affirmative ADS and AES sentences differ (obligatorily) in the order of subject and verb, while in the negative sentences, where the difference between NDS and NES is marked by case, the word order can vary; we return to this important point later. Here are some more standard examples. 5 (3) a. NDS: Stok talyx vod ne nabljudalsja. Runoff-NOM.M.SG melted water NEG was.observed-M.SG 'No runoff of thawed snow was observed.' 6 b. NES: Stoka talyx vod ne nabljudalos'. Runoff-GEN.M.SG melted water NEG was.observed-N.SG 'No runoff of thawed snow was observed.' (= There was no runoff.) (4) a. NDS: Moroz ne èuvstvovalsja. Frost-NOM.M.SG NEG be.felt-M.SG 'The frost was not felt.' (E.g. we were dressed warmly). b. NES: Moroza ne èuvstvovalos'. Frost-GEN.M.SG NEG be.felt-N.SG 'No frost was felt (there was no frost).' (5) a. NDS: *(#) Somnenija ne byli. 7 Doubts-NOM.N.PL NEG were-N.PL b. NES: Somnenij ne bylo. Doubts-GEN.N.PL NEG were-N.SG 'There were no doubts.' (6) a. NDS: Lena ne pela. Lena-NOM.F.SG NEG sang-F.SG 'Lena didn't sing.' b. NES: *(#) Leny ne pelo. Lena-GEN.F.SG NEG sang-N.SG 10 The most common term in Russian corresponding to Babby's "existential sentences" is bytijnye predloženija; see Arutjunova (1976, 1997), Arutjunova and Širjaev (1983). The contrasting term "declarative" is not widespread in the English-language literature, and is perhaps not the best choice. The Russian alternative preferred by Arutjunova and Paduèeva is "sobytijnye" predloženija, 'eventive sentences'.

Existentials and Locatives in Romance Dialects of Italy

“…Dialects of type (i) abide by the latter requirement. In fact, they even deny the control of agreement to the argument of inverse and deictic 10 Observe in passing that since in type (iii) dialects the agreement alternations occur in structures with the same perspectival centre, namely existentials, these dialects support our claim that agreement in Romance there sentences should not be captured in terms of a perspectival change in the sense of Borschev and Partee (1998, 2002a, 2002b. The rationale of these alternations is clearly provided by discourse.…”

“…In concomitance with negation, the pivot may take genitive case, as is notoriously the case with the Russian genitive of negation (Babby 1980, Borschev and Partee 1998, 2002a, 2002b, Partee and Borschev 2007.…”

“…For enquiries concerning use outside the scope of the licence terms, please contact academic.permissions@oup.com. facts of inverse and deictic locatives could be analysed as the result of a perspectival change, in the sense of Borschev and Partee (1998, 2002a, 2002b. In Borschev and Partee's analysis, an existence/location situation includes a THING and a LOCation, and it may be structured as either centred on the THING or centred on the LOCation.…”

“…In particular, it could be argued that the agreement facts of inverse and deictic locatives should be analysed as the result of a perspectival change, in the sense of Borschev and Partee (1998, 2002a, 2002b. We do not pursue this hypothesis because it does not capture the evidence discussed in sections 2.4.1 and 2.4.2, which supports the distinction of inverse and deictic locatives from existentials (see }3.4.3 for a more in-depth discussion of this point).…”

Case Choice in Russian Genitive/Nominative Absence Constructions

“…Babby describes sentences of the type мамы не было на работе as "locative", a subtype of a negated declarative sentence, and not "existential", since, unlike the negated existential sentences, this type of sentence allows for a definite subject. Borschev and Partee (1998a;2002) argue that these "locative" быть sentences can be interpreted as existential, since existence is always relevant to a locus; according to this analysis, быть sentences are existential.…”