The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian

<p>The construction "Nominative + Infinitive" is that in which the direct object of an infinitive verb appears in the nominative case. It is used widely in written Russian up to the early eighteenth century and survives in certain dialects. The main questions examined in this thesis...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dunn, J, Dunn, J. A.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 1979
Subjects:
_version_ 1826273315632709632
author Dunn, J
Dunn, J. A.
author_facet Dunn, J
Dunn, J. A.
author_sort Dunn, J
collection OXFORD
description <p>The construction "Nominative + Infinitive" is that in which the direct object of an infinitive verb appears in the nominative case. It is used widely in written Russian up to the early eighteenth century and survives in certain dialects. The main questions examined in this thesis concern: the origin of the construction in Russian; its syntactic and morphological limits; the levels of language in which it is used; the geographical distribution of the construction within the East Slavonic area; the development of the construction and its disappearance from the written language of Moscow.</p><p>Although the evidence on the first question is contradictory, it is suggested that the construction may have appeared in Russian shortly before the date of the earliest texts and may be due to a combination of factors. The nominative replaces only direct objects in the accusative, and in the original form of the construction the nominative-object is used only with independent infinitive verbs. Only feminine singular -a type and -i type nouns appear as nominative-objects Except where the language is strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic, the use of the construction appears to be independent of the level of language used.</p><p>Examples of the construction are found in Old Ukrainian documents and in modern South Russian dialects, and, although these are few and their usage differs from that found in North Russian sources (where the construction is well documented), it cannot be said that the construction has always been restricted to northern and central dialects. In almost every text both nominative and accusative are used for the direct object of independent infinitives, and often the choice of case seems to be random. From the sixteenth century, however, the accusative gradually becomes more frequent until it displaces the nominative from the written language.</p>
first_indexed 2024-03-06T22:26:20Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:56c66178-30bf-41f5-b515-993dd41aad33
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T22:26:20Z
publishDate 1979
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:56c66178-30bf-41f5-b515-993dd41aad332022-03-26T16:52:34ZThe construction nominative + infinitive in RussianThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:56c66178-30bf-41f5-b515-993dd41aad33Russian languageNounInfinitiveEnglishPolonsky Theses Digitisation Project1979Dunn, JDunn, J. A.<p>The construction "Nominative + Infinitive" is that in which the direct object of an infinitive verb appears in the nominative case. It is used widely in written Russian up to the early eighteenth century and survives in certain dialects. The main questions examined in this thesis concern: the origin of the construction in Russian; its syntactic and morphological limits; the levels of language in which it is used; the geographical distribution of the construction within the East Slavonic area; the development of the construction and its disappearance from the written language of Moscow.</p><p>Although the evidence on the first question is contradictory, it is suggested that the construction may have appeared in Russian shortly before the date of the earliest texts and may be due to a combination of factors. The nominative replaces only direct objects in the accusative, and in the original form of the construction the nominative-object is used only with independent infinitive verbs. Only feminine singular -a type and -i type nouns appear as nominative-objects Except where the language is strongly influenced by Old Church Slavonic, the use of the construction appears to be independent of the level of language used.</p><p>Examples of the construction are found in Old Ukrainian documents and in modern South Russian dialects, and, although these are few and their usage differs from that found in North Russian sources (where the construction is well documented), it cannot be said that the construction has always been restricted to northern and central dialects. In almost every text both nominative and accusative are used for the direct object of independent infinitives, and often the choice of case seems to be random. From the sixteenth century, however, the accusative gradually becomes more frequent until it displaces the nominative from the written language.</p>
spellingShingle Russian language
Noun
Infinitive
Dunn, J
Dunn, J. A.
The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title_full The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title_fullStr The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title_full_unstemmed The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title_short The construction nominative + infinitive in Russian
title_sort construction nominative infinitive in russian
topic Russian language
Noun
Infinitive
work_keys_str_mv AT dunnj theconstructionnominativeinfinitiveinrussian
AT dunnja theconstructionnominativeinfinitiveinrussian
AT dunnj constructionnominativeinfinitiveinrussian
AT dunnja constructionnominativeinfinitiveinrussian