Russian possessive question

[Robert De Lossa]

One question is whether this also is the formulation for _attestaty_
originating in the RSFSR; if so, then Olga Yokoyama's distinctions are
probably the best explanation. However, it's worth remembering that in
Ukrainian there is not the same distinction between 3 pers. joho/svij as
with Russian ego/svoj; it varies in grammars and among informants, some
speakers and grammars attempt to put forward Russian-style distinctions,
but they fall away in actual speech for almost all regions. There is
nothing marked about the Ukrainian here, perhaps the Russian formulation is
misinformed by the Ukrainian?

--Robert De Lossa

>I recently saw an Attestat zrelosti. It contains the line:
>Nastojashchij attestat daet ego vladel'cu pravo postuplenija v vysshie
>uchebnye zavedenija Sojuza SSR.
>And the same thing in Ukrainian, since this was from the Ukr. SSR:
>Cej atestat daje joho vlasnykovi pravo vstupu v vyshchi uchbovi zaklady
>Sojuzu RSR.
>Can someone tell me why it is "ego vladel'cu/joho vlasnykovi" and not
>"svoemu vladel'cu/svojemu vlasnykovi"?
>

____________________________________________________
From:
Robert De Lossa
Managing Editor, Harvard Series/Papers in Ukrainian Studies
Publications Office
Ukrainian Research Institute
Harvard University
1583 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
617-496-8768 tel. 617-495-8097 fax.
"rdelossa at fas.harvard.edu"