Trivia questions (continued)

[Alexei Lebedev]

Thanks to the following for replying quickly to my query:

Steve Blackwell, Glenn Thobe, and Alexei Lebedev.

I forward Alexei's response to the list because <a> it appears not to have
been sent to SEELANGS directly, <b> it is the type of answers I was looking
for (i.e., explaining the compositional meaning of the adjective+noun(s)
_slovosochetaniia_), <c> I'd like to keep others with exactly the same
ideas from having to duplicate these, and <d> I wan to encourage others to
add to (or dispute) these interpretations if applicable.

First, however, a couple comments of clarification:

<1>  I do not need assistance with the non-boldfaced portions of my query.
That is, I am reasonably familiar with the general meaning of the _s_+ACC
construction throughout the past couple hundred years of standard Russian
(and some dialects and other Slavic languages like Polish and Ukrainian).
What I need to understand is the meaning of these _slovosocetaniia_ (word
groups).

<2>  One of the other respondents added that _izvestn-_ can mean 'certain'.
I haven't been to any dictionaries since reading this comment (which came
from either Steve or Glenn, I can't recall which, I'm sorry to say).  Any
other references to this meaning would be appreciated (I'll be looking in
Dal', Ozhegov, and _Svodnyi slovar' ..._ for starters, as well as some
smaller dictionaries.

Now to what Alexei has to say, for which I am most appreciative (which I've
edited slightly):
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Here are two more recalcitrant examples:
>
> 2>  Vo sne on videl tsvetushchie vishni i bol'shikh, s" [sic.] vorob'ia,
> MONASTYRSKIKH MUKH.  [In Zolotova's 1988 _Sintaksicheskii slovar'_, citing
> "Vs. Ivanov" (no further citation)]

> 3>  Podliubovavshis' na period nyneshnego goda, kotoryi  byl neobyknovenno
> khorosh,--rannie teliata byli S MUZHITSKUIU KOROVU ... Levin velel vynesti
> im ... Koryto [<   an article by Saikiev, citing only "L. Tolstoi"]
>
> I have tried, so far in vain, to determine what  _monastyrskaia mukha_ and
> _muzhitskaia korova_ mean, by looking in several dictionaries under both the
> adjective part and the noun part.  Any assistance any of you can provide
> would be greatly appreciated.  --Loren Billings (billings at princeton.edu)

Hi,

The _monastyrskaia mukha_ is the fly who lives around the monastery.  The idea
is that the life in a monastery is peaceful, calm and quiet, and undisturbed
 flies
have managed to grow as big as _vorobej_

The _muzhitskaia korova_ is just the peasant's cow (_muzhik_ = peasant).
Mr. Levin (from Anna Karenina) saw the calves who were as big as peasant' cows.
Note that the peasants were usually unable to breed and to feed their cows
properly and their cows were not very big and healthy.

Hope this helps,
Alexei.

PS I can't answer you other question about "the well-known tambur-mazhor".
I think your idea of referring to the popular person is right, but this
person may not exsist in reallity.  Just the personages are comparing
something with the person they both know.

Thanks again to all three (and to any others, in advance,  who care to add
to this discussion.  --Loren Billings (billings at princeton.edu)