How to express approximative inversion in Russian with long prepositions

[Loren A. Billings]

Dear colleagues:

I would like to test the acceptability of certain constructions involving
prosodically heavy prepositions with approximative inversion in Russian.
I write to you because my own informants cannot authoritatively respond
to these particular data (for reasons which I cannot tell you now, or
else I'll probably unduly influence your responses).  I will provide
sets of examples.  Kindly respond with whichever one you prefer.  If, for
some reason, you don't accept either one, kindly try to judge whether one
or the other is preferable (i.e., _dopustimo_) and add how YOU would say
it yourself.  In some examples you must look at the English gloss to be
sure to use the right meaning, when there can be two of them:

(1a)  otnositel'no ochkov tridtsati i govorit' ne stoit
(1b)  ochkov otnositel'no tridtsati i govorit' ne stoit

      'It is not even worth having a discussion regarding about 30 points.'

(2a)  okolo sosen desiati
(2b)  sosen okolo desiati

      'approximately ten pine trees'

(3a)  okolo sosen desiati
(3b)  sosen okolo desiati

      'NEAR approximately ten pine trees'

Be sure to keep the two meanings in (2) and (3) separate.  (I know that
there're other ways of saying all of these.  I am testing whether one can
also express these sentences in this way.)  I use the Library of Congress
transliteration in each.  I will post a summary of what I find out.  I will
also include the sources of these examples.  (I do not include them here
because I don't wish to influence your responses.)  Kindly e-mail me
directly instead of responding to the list; I will cite all respondents
unless they request anonymity.  Thank you.

Loren Billings
billings at princeton.edu
billings at pucc.bitnet