a comprehensive russian grammar (blackwell)

Introductory comments 187 167 Use of the short form to denote temporary state 188 170 Delimitation of meaning by the oblique case of a noun 172 Delimitation by a subordinate clause or an

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

General Editor: Glanville Price

The Blackwell Reference Grammars are essential companions for students of modern languages at senior secondary school and undergraduate level The volumes provide

a comprehensive survey of the grammar of each language and include plentiful examples The series will cover the major European languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.

Advisory Editor for previous editions: Michael J de K Holman

A Comprehensive Spanish Grammar

Jacques de Bruyne Adapted, with additional material, by Christopher J Pountain

A Comprehensive Welsh Grammar

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A Spanish Grammar Workbook

Esther Santamaría Iglesias

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

Third Edition

Terence Wade

Revised and updated by David Gillespie

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

Edition history: Blackwell Publishers Ltd (1e, 1992 and 2e, 2000)

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007 Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wade, Terence Leslie Brian.

A comprehensive Russian grammar / Terence Wade ; edited by David Gillespie – 3rd ed., rev and expanded.

p cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-3639-6 (pbk : alk paper)

1 Russian language–Grammar I Gillespie, David II Title.

PG2106.W33 2010

491.782 ′421–dc22

2010021924

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Set in 10.5/12pt Times by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Printed in Singapore

Introduction

7 Non-palatalization of consonants in some loan words 9

10 Effect of a soft consonant on a vowel in the preceding syllable 10

14 The pronunciation of double consonants 13

Punctuation

21 The full stop, exclamation mark and question mark 20

The Noun

Word formation

29 Word formation in the noun III: suffixation 34

37 Indeclinable place names 60

56 Nouns whose genitive plural is identical with the

57 Stress patterns in first-declension masculine nouns 83

59 First declension: nouns in -е, -ье, -ё, -ьё 86

60 Stress patterns in the plural of neuter nouns 87

Contents vii

69 Declension of first names 95

72 Apposition in the names of publications, towns etc 97

87 The genitive and accusative after negated verbs 112

93 The dative as the logical subject of an infinitive 121

95 The instrumental in constructions denoting movements

98 Use of the instrumental to denote similarity 124

101 The instrumental of dimension 125

Diminutive and Augmentative Nouns

111 Use of personal instead of possessive pronouns 135

118 The possessive pronouns мой, твой, наш, ваш 141

120 The reflexive possessive pronoun свой, сво, своё, сво! 142

121 Declension of the interrogative/relative pronouns 144

124 Other functions of the interrogative/relative pronouns 149

125 Declension of the demonstrative pronouns тот, тот,

150

Contents ix

130 Declension of the determinative pronouns сам, смый, весь,

133 The negative pronouns

137 The ‘potential’ negative pronouns нкого, нчего 159

138 The indefinite pronouns

The Long Form of the Adjective

148 Formation of adjectives from nouns: the suffixes -н-,

149 Adjectival endings with specific meanings 173

156 Use of the long adjective with predicative meaning 179

157 Some uses of singular and plural adjectives 180

The Short Form of the Adjective

159 Endings of the short form of the adjective 182

161 The buffer vowels -е-, -о- and -ё- in the masculine short form 184

163 Masculine short forms of adjectives in -енный 186

165 Divergence in stress between masculine, neuter and

166 The short form: usage Introductory comments 187

167 Use of the short form to denote temporary state 188

170 Delimitation of meaning by the oblique case of a noun

172 Delimitation by a subordinate clause or an infinitive 192

173 The short form as predicate to infinitives, verbal nouns

175 Position of the short form of the adjective 193

The Comparative Degree of the Adjective

176 The comparative degree Introductory comments 193

181 The short-form comparative in predicative meaning 199

183 The short-form comparative in attributive meaning 201

184 Other functions of the short-form comparative 202

Contents xi

The Superlative Degree of the Adjective

The Numeral

Cardinal, Collective and Indefinite Numerals

196 Agreement of oblique cases of numerals полтор/полтор*

197

Special Functions of Numerals

205 Cardinals and ordinals in fractions and decimals 230

212 Infinitive-preterite stem and present-future stem 240

215 First-conjugation verbs with stems ending in a vowel 242

216 First-conjugation verbs with consonant stems I 244

217 First-conjugation verbs with consonant stems II: verbs

in -ать with consonant mutation throughout conjugation 246

218 First-conjugation verbs with consonant stems III: verbs

219 Mobile stress in the conjugation of first-conjugation verbs 250

221 Present-future endings in the second conjugation 252

222 Consonant change in the conjugation of

225 Deficiencies in the conjugation of certain verbs 256

229 Verbs with no imperative or a little-used imperative 261

231 Verbs with no -л in the masculine past tense 262

233 Formation of the future (imperfective and perfective) 266

Contents xiii

239 Formation of the perfective by prefixation 272

243 Formation of verbal aspects by internal modification 275

244 The formation of imperfectives from prefixed

245 Vowel mutation in secondary imperfective verbs 277

246 Secondary imperfectives based on second-conjugation verbs 277

247 Consonant mutation in secondary imperfectives based on

248 Secondary imperfectives based on monosyllabic verbs 279

249 Submeanings of some prefixed imperfectives 280

250 The differentiation of aspect by conjugation 281

252 Verbs which are reflexive in the imperfective aspect only 282

258 Use of the imperfective past to express a ‘statement of fact’ 300

259 Use of the imperfective past to denote an action and

260 Aspectival usage when emphasis is on the identity of

261 Use of the imperfective past to denote a forthcoming event 305

266 Use of the future to express repeated actions 308

270 Use of the imperative in the context of a single action 311

271 Use of the imperative to exhort and invite 311

274 Use of the perfective imperative with repeated actions 314

275 Use of the future and the infinitive to express peremptory

276 Aspect in the infinitive Introductory comments 314

277 Use of the infinitive to denote habitual actions 315

278 Use of the imperfective infinitive after verbs of beginning,

280 A request to perform/not to perform an action 318

Reflexive Verbs

290 Reflexive verbs which express feelings and attitudes 325

292 Reflexive verbs that emphasize thoroughness 325

293 Reflexive verbs that denote potential to perform an action 326

Impersonal Constructions

294 Use of impersonal constructions to denote natural processes 326

295 Impersonal constructions with an animate accusative or dative 327

Contents xv

296 Impersonal constructions involving an external force 327

297 Expression of other meanings (chance, sufficiency etc.) 328

298 Constructions with the second-person singular 329

299 Constructions with the third-person plural 329

The Passive Voice

301 The passive expressed by imperfective reflexive verbs 331

302 Passive meaning expressed by third-person plural verbs 331

303 Perfective reflexives with passive meaning 332

The Conditional and Subjunctive Moods

304 The conditional mood Introductory comments 333

306 Use of (1) the imperative and (2) the preposition без to

307 Use of the particle бы to express desire 335

308 Use of the subjunctive to express wish or desire 335

313 The expression of obligation and necessity 341

314 The expression of possibility or potential 343

Verbs of Motion

315 Unidirectional and multidirectional verbs of motion 345

320 Functions of unidirectional verbs of motion 348

321 Unidirectional verbs in frequentative contexts 349

322 Functions of multidirectional verbs of motion 350

323 Use of the past tense of a multidirectional verb to denote

324 The verbs нест!, нос!ть; вест!, вод!ть; везт!, воз!ть 353

330 Figurative and idiomatic uses of verbs of motion 357

333 Spelling rules in the formation of compound verbs of motion 360

335 Use of the imperfective past of a compound verb of motion

336 Figurative and idiomatic uses of compound verbs of motion 362

337 Perfectives in с- based on multidirectional verbs 363

338 Perfectives in за-, из- and на- based on multidirectional

Participles

344 The imperfective passive participle Formation 368

345 Stress in the imperfective passive participle 369

346 Verbs which have no imperfective passive participle 369

347 Formation of passive participles from secondary

imperfectives whose primaries have no participle 370

348 The perfective passive participle Introductory comments 370

350 Stress in the participles from дать and its compounds 371

Contents xvii

351 Formation of the long-form (attributive) participle from verbs

356 Long-form participles from verbs in -ти, -чь, -зть, -сть 375

361 Agreement of long-form participle and noun 380

371 Compensation for the lack of an imperfective gerund 388

372 The perfective gerund: formation (verbs in -ть, -сть

374 Perfective gerunds with alternative forms in -я/-а 389

375 Gerunds from perfective verbs in -ти and -сть 389

376 Gerunds from perfective verbs in -чь and -зть 390

378 Special features of constructions with gerunds 392

379 Reversal of the sequence of actions expressed by main verb

The Adverb

395 Indefinite adverbs (adverbs in -то, -нибудь, -либо and кBе-) 409

396 The negative adverbs нигд, никуд, ниоткда, никогд,

411

397 The negative adverbs нгде, нкуда, нкогда, ноткуда,

399 Variant forms of some comparative adverbs 414

404 The buffer vowel -о 418

407 Prepositions derived from nouns and verbs 422

Spatial Prepositions

408 В and на + prepositional/accusative, из/с + genitive 422

409 The use of в and на with geographical terminology and

the names of organizations, buildings and parts of buildings 424

410 Nouns which may be used with в and на, but with

412 Uses of в and на when the dependent noun denotes an

413 В and на: extension of the spatial meanings 433

Prepositions that Denote the Position of an Object in Relation to Another Object (Behind, in Front of, Below, on Top of etc.), or

Movement to or from that Position

вдBль, внA, внутрO, внIтрь, вокрIг, мOмо + genitive 439

Prepositions that Denote Spatial Closeness to an Object,

Movement Towards or Away from an Object, or Distance

Prepositions that Denote Along, Across, Through a Spatial Area

The Use of Prepositions to Denote Action in Relation to

Various Time Limits

434 The use of с + genitive, до + genitive/по + accusative

435 Use of к + dative and под + accusative to denote

436 Use of в/за + accusative to denote the time taken to

437 Use of в + accusative to denote the period during which

438 Use of на + accusative to denote the time for which

439 Use of prepositions to denote sequence in time

440 Temporal prepositional phrases as attributes to nouns:

Other Meanings

444 Prepositions that denote the object of feelings and attitudes 465

447 Concessive meanings expressed by prepositions 472

448 По + dative/accusative in distributive meaning 473

Other Important Meanings Expressed by Prepositions

465 Temporal conjunctions Introductory comments 498

466 Temporal conjunctions which render ‘before’, ‘after’,

The Particle

469 The position of the particle in the sentence 506

470 The use of particles to impart different nuances of meaning 506

471 Some of the principal meanings expressed by particles 507

474 The aggregation of particles for increased emphasis 517

Word Order

481 Sentences that contain more than one adverb or

482 The position of the noun or pronoun in impersonal

483 The position of particles in the sentence 531

The Comprehensive Russian Grammar is meant for English-speaking

pupils and students of Russian at the post-introductory stage It is also areference aid for teachers, translators and interpreters and others who usethe language in a professional capacity

The first new reference grammar of Russian to have been published in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, it is based on personal research and observation, long experience of teaching Russian at all levels from beginners up to the Honours Degree and the Civil Service Interpretership,and on a close study of reference materials by Russian, British andAmerican linguists

The approach is descriptive throughout, and rules of usage are constantlymeasured against current practice as reflected in contemporary journalisticand literary sources It is entirely practical in conception and design andhas no pretensions to theoretical disquisition Particular emphasis is laid

on problems which are of especial difficulty for the English speaker.The grammar provides comprehensive guidance to usage, with exhaustivetabulated material and succinct explanations It is presented in 484 sectionswhich are further subdivided to take account of finer points of usage Itprovides mainstream rules for quick reference, as well as access to thesubtleties of the language for those who need more detailed information.The intention is to provide the essential facts of the language and to tackle perennial problems such as adverbs and pronouns in -то and -нибудь, agreement, animacy, conjugation, declension, gerunds, long and short adjectives, numerals, participles, the partitive genitive, verbs ofmotion, and so on, as well as problems which have often received less

attention: the gender of acronyms, alphabetisms, soft-sign nouns, thedifferences between в/на and other key prepositions, and between тжеand ткже, the use of capital letters, particles, the principles of word order etc Treatment of verbal aspect differentiates usage in the past, future,imperative and infinitive, thus throwing the rules into sharper relief.Special emphasis is given to stress patterns.

Ease of reference is assured by comprehensive indexing of subjectheadings and Russian words, and by general adherence to the alphabeticprinciple throughout

Preface to the Second Edition

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar was first published in 1992, since when

the book has been reprinted eight times, on most occasions with minor

amendments The present, second, edition of the Grammar takes account

of the very considerable changes, both social and linguistic, that have takenplace in the post-Soviet period

The transliteration system of the Library of Congress has been added to

those enumerated in section 1, but that of the British Standards Institute

continues to be used throughout the Grammar.

Amendments have been made to sections dealing with all parts of speech,with pronunciation, the noun, the adjective, the verb and the prepositionmost affected

There are three entirely new, substantial sections on word formation in

the Russian noun These comprise sections 27 (general), 28 (prefixation) and 29 (suffixation), the sections that formerly bore these numbers having

been conflated with earlier sections to make room for the new material.These sections have not been curtailed in any way

Some sections on pronunciation have been amplified by additional examples,sometimes involving new lexis, e.g прнтер ‘printer’, Интернт ‘Internet’and экстраснс ‘psychic’ in section 7 Changes have also been made to sections 12, 13, and 15 (on the pronunciation of -чн-, consonants omitted

in pronunciation, and stress, respectively)

Section 17 (on the use of capital and small letters in titles and names)

has been completely rewritten in the light of changes that have occurredover the past few years Many of the changes involve new names such

as Россйская Федерция ‘Russian Federation’ and Совт Федерции

‘Council of the Federation’, but historicisms such as Совтский Соз

‘Soviet Union’ will clearly remain current for some time to come and havebeen retained Other changes result from new official attitudes, affecting,for example, the spelling of the names of deities

Other amended sections on the noun take account of recent neologisms,e.g флппи ‘floppy disk’, папарцци ‘paparazzi’ (section 36), ВИЧ

‘HIV’, СКВ ‘freely-convertible currency’ (section 40), забасткм

‘strike committee’ (section 42), etc Most amendments have grammatical

implications, e.g the genitive plurals байт ‘byte’ and бит ‘bit’ (section

56), the plurals технолгии ‘technologies’ and эконмики ‘economies’

(section 48), the use of the accusative case in заказл вин ‘ordered some

wine’ (section 83), and so on, others reflect name changes of the past

decade (e.g the replacement of the former place name Кров ‘Kirov’,

section 71).

Amendments to the sections on adjectives also reflect changes innomenclature, e.g д)мский ‘Duma’ (adj.), or amplify extant categories,e.g лзинговый ‘leasing’ (adj.) (both section 148).

Changes to the sections on the verb include an increase in the number

of biaspectuals with alternative perfectives (e.g профинансровать ‘to

finance’, section 237), and the amplification of other sections.

Section 404 on the buffer vowel -о in prepositions has been expanded, as

has section 424 on через and по in the meaning ‘across’, and section 451

on по with nouns that denote means of communication (по мобльному

‘on a mobile’, по фксу ‘by fax’), including variant usage in conjunctionwith телевдение ‘television’ The preposition пор+дка in the meaning

‘approximation’ has been added to section 445.

The bibliography has been expanded to include new dictionaries, grammarsand other works of the mid- to late 1990s, especially those specificallydescribing the language at the end of the twentieth century (Comrie, Stoneand Polinsky, Dulichenko, Karaulov, Kostomarov, Offord, Rakhmanova andSuzdal’tseva, Ryazanova-Clarke and Wade, Shaposhnikov and Zemskaya),

as well as new journals, newspapers, magazines and prose works

A glossary of grammatical terms has also been included in the newedition The table of contents and indexes have been revised to take account

of new material and revised pagination

TW, Glasgow 2000

Preface to the Third Edition

When Professor Terence Wade died in 2005, he was already well advanced

in his plans to produce a third edition of A Comprehensive Russian Grammar.

This would have included appendices on geographical terms, irregular verbs,irregular noun plurals, indeclinable nouns and abbreviations

Since it remains unclear just what form these appendices would take

I have chosen not to attempt to second-guess Indeed, it remains myconviction that Professor Wade’s grammar is the most comprehensive andilluminating of all Russian grammars currently available for student use

It would not be advisable to make it unwieldy or too detailed for its owngood!

My purpose in preparing the third edition is not to seek to emulateProfessor Wade’s ambition, but rather to enhance the status and significance

of the grammar throughout the scholarly world by consolidation and a fewselect additions I have been guided by Professor Wade’s own desire, inplanning the third edition, to ‘ensure that the essential balance of the book

is maintained’ I have therefore chosen to expand the sources and referencematerials used, including writers and texts from well-known modernRussian writers, as well as from the political and journalistic discourse

of post-Soviet Russia In only one or two cases have explanations been

‘tweaked’, but the grammar itself remains largely as Professor Wadepresented it in the first edition in 1992

I am indebted to colleagues from the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages of the University of Bath for their advice and support during my time spent working on this edition, and for theirinvaluable help with recent developments in the language, especially

vocabulary My fellow teachers Natasha Zhuravkina and Elena Kidd havebeen particularly helpful I would also like to thank staff and students ofMoscow State University who have studied on short courses at theUniversity of Bath in 2008 and 2009, especially Lidiia Polubichenko, ElenaAleksandrova and Maria Guzenko.

David Gillespie

Bath, November 2009

I wish to thank the following for advising on aspects of the book: NatalyaBogoslavskaya (University of Leeds), Sheelagh Graham (University ofStrathclyde), Larissa Ryazanova (Edinburgh University), who also read the page proofs, Professor Dennis Ward (University of Edinburgh), NijoleWhite (University of Strathclyde); also Dr Marina Kozyreva (Moscow andLeeds Universities) for reading through a late draft and writing a helpfulreport I am particularly grateful to my specialist readers, Dr R Bivon(University of Essex, formerly of the University of East Anglia) and

Dr Svetlana Miloslavskaya (Pushkin Institute, Moscow) for writing detailedreports at an early stage, thus enabling me to make substantial improvements

I also valued a lengthy consultation with Svetlana Miloslavskaya whichallowed me to make amendments to the final draft My editor, ProfessorMichael Holman (University of Leeds), supplied helpful and detailedcritical analyses of each chapter during the writing of the grammar and

I am most grateful to him for his support and encouragement and for the many insights that he provided I should also like to thank ProfessorGlanville Price (University College of Wales), general editor of Blackwell’sseries of grammars of European languages, for his comments on some earlychapters, particularly that on verbs Any errors are, of course, entirely theresponsibility of the author

I wish to thank my late mother, who first encouraged me to learn Russian.The book is dedicated to my wife, May, who bore with me throughout thethousands of hours and nine drafts that went into this grammar

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the publishers of the books I was able to consult (see bibliography): Akademiya nauk,Birmingham University, Collets International, CUP, Dover Publications,Durham University, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Hutchinson, Kniga, MGU,Nauka, Oliver and Boyd, OUP, Pan Books, Pergamon, Progress Publishers,Prosveshchenie, Russkii yazyk, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, University ofEast Anglia, University of London Press, Vysshaya shkola.

TW

Acknowledgements to the

Second Edition

I am grateful to Russian colleagues who have helped with the newedition, particularly Professor V G Kostomarov, Rector of the PushkinInstitute, Moscow, for allowing me to carry out research at the Institute

on a number of occasions

I wish to thank Professor G Corbett (University of Surrey) and Professor

B Scherr (Dartmouth College) for their valuable comments on the first

edition of the Grammar and suggestions for improving the second.

I also wish to express my thanks to Mrs Nijole White, my colleague atthe University of Strathclyde, who read the sections on word formation

in the Russian noun and gave valuable advice on presentation

I should also like to thank editorial and production staff at Blackwell: Tessa Harvey, Louise Spencely, Lorna Berrett, Brian Johnson, HelenRappaport, and proof reader Penny Dole for their work in producing thissecond edition of the book

Above all I am again indebted to my editor, Professor Michael Holman,

of the University of Leeds, who has supplied unstinting supportive andprofessional assistance throughout, especially in preparing the new sections

on word formation in the Russian noun

(1) The Russian Cyrillic alphabet contains 33 letters, including 20consonants, 10 vowels, a semi-consonant/semi-vowel (й), a hard sign (ъ)

and a soft sign (ь).

(2) There are a number of different systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet Three of these, that of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that of the British Standards Institution (BSI)

(whose system is used throughout this Grammar), and that of the Library

of Congress (LC) are listed alongside the Cyrillic alphabet, as well as theRussian names of the individual letters:

Cyrillic letters Letter name ISO BSI LC

and accents here

(b) The ligatures used over certain combinations of letters in the standard

LC system (u, t s) are often omitted by other users.

(c) An apostrophe (’) for the soft sign (ь) is used only in thebibliography

(d) The endings -ый/-ий are rendered as -y in names

2 The international phonetic alphabet (IPA)

The following symbols from the IPA are used in the Introduction for thephonetic transcription of Russian words

Vowels

o as the first vowel in игл [o2gla]

p as the first vowel in дыр [dp2ra]

q as in лес [Fqs]

v as the first vowel in одIн [v2Bin]

m as the first vowel in хорошB [xmrv2Ro]

(1) А is pronounced with the mouth opened a little wider than in the

pronunciation of ‘a’ in English ‘father’, e.g зал [zal] ‘hall’

(2) Э is pronounced like ‘e’ in ‘end’, but the mouth is opened a little wider

and the tongue is further from the palate than in articulating English ‘e’

in ‘end’, e.g Kто [2qtm] ‘this is’.

(3) У is pronounced with the tongue drawn back and the lips rounded

and protruding The sound is similar to but shorter than the vowel in ‘school’,e.g бук [buk] ‘beech’

(4) О is also pronounced with rounded and protruding lips, but to a lesser

extent than in the pronunciation of у The sound is similar to the vowel

in English ‘bought’, e.g бок [bok] ‘side’

(5) The vowel ы is pronounced with the tongue drawn back as in the

pronunciation of у, but with the lips spread, not rounded or protruding,

e.g сын [sfn] ‘son’.

(6) The vowels я [ja], е [jq], ё [jo] and ю [ju] are ‘iotated’ variants of

a, э, o and y (i.e they are pronounced like those vowels preceded by the sound [ j]) The vowel и resembles ‘ea’ in English ‘cheap’, but is a

‘closer’ sound, that is, the centre of the tongue is nearer to the hard palate in articulation, e.g мир [Gir] ‘world, peace’ After a preposition