Ukrainian impersonals and negation -Reply

[Zenon M. Feszczak]

>>>>>>>>>>
Dear colleagues:

Me again.  I can't seem to find any discussion in the literature, so I ask you
 out there.

It's been documented that the GEN of negation in Ukrainian (and Russian) is on
 the wane.  I suspect that this especially the case with Ukrainian impersonals
 in which the predicate ends in -no or -to.  Wieczorek's recent
(1994) book discusses this a little.  That is, are sentences like

     Tserkvy ne zbudovano.  'Church-GEN not built.'

acceptable in modern Ukrainian.  Are they giving way to sentences like the
 following one?

     Tserkvu ne zbudovano.  'Church-ACC ...'

Thanks in advance for replies.  --Loren (billings at mailer.fsu.edu)

<<<<<<<<<<

Hello -
I'm not sure whether you wanted a private response to this,
but since this is an interesting issue (hopefully) to
other readers, I'll respond to the list.

Yes, the first form (genitive case = rodyvyj vidminok,
for the genitive of negation) is the more correct form
according to the strict rules of grammar.  However, the
second looser form is certainly acceptable, and heard in
conversation.

However, in a more direct negative grammatical
construction, it's still more proper to use the
genitive of negation:

My buduvaly tserkvu (accusative)
My ne buduvaly tserkvy (genitive of negation)

Any ideas as to the origins of the genitive of negation?
I would assume it's a form of redundancy to emphasize
the negative content of the sentence, that is, to more
clearly differentiate from the positive form.

Zenon M. Feszczak
Slavophile
University of Pennsylvania