Simple Grammar Question

Thu Jun 18 23:10:41 UTC 2009

You are right: it not a simple question. There are actual multiple 
RULES for this, and those of us who treated “Spravochnik Rozenthalia” 
as a “livre d'échec” during exams in philological departments might 
still remember some of these rules☺ Generally, Genitive case makes 
negation stronger. Accusative “weakens” the negation.
Here are some of the rules. For more you might want to consult 
Rozhenthal.
T
ransitive verbs in negative forms require Genitive:
—when there is a so called “partitive Genitive” (food and drinks): On 
ne p’yot vina. Ona ne est miasa.
—with verbs of “feeling,” “perception,” “thinking,” and “desire”: On ne 
zhelal ee prisutstviia.
—if there is a particle NI or pronoun/adverb starting with NI (e.g. 
Nikogda).  e.g "My nikogda ne chuvstvuem strakha. My ne ispytyvaem ni 
maleishikh ugryzenij sovesti".
—With verbs “imet’,” “poluchat’,” “dostavat’.”: "On ne dostal biletov."
—with abstract nouns, such as “joy” or “hope”: "On ne pokazyvaet 
radosti. On ne teriaet nadezhdy."
—in set expressions, such as “ne davat’ khodu” (actually, here we have 
an irregular Genitive), as in “Eugene Onegin”: “Privychke miloi ne dal 
khodu.”
—in participle and verbal adverb constructions: “Ne d
oev buterbroda, on 
pobezhal na rabotu.”
—In infinitive constructions expressing strict prohibition: “Okon ne 
otkryvat’!”
There must be more, but I can’t remember now.

Accusative case is used with transitive verbs:
—the object is an animate noun, especially a proper name: “Ia ne 
liubliu Natal’iu.” “On ne zhaleet babushku i ne liubit mamu.”
—with inversion (object stands before the verb): “Knigu etu ia ne 
chital I chitat’ ne budu!”
—with “ne ochen’”: Ia ne ochen’ ponimaiu tekst.”
—if the object after the transitive verb is THIS specific object: “I ne 
bral den’gi, kotorye ty ostavil na stole.”
—with two negations: “Ty ne mozhesh’ ne pomnit’ etot roman.”
—in set expressions: “Iaitsa kuritsu ne uchat.”
—with the “-nedo” prefix: “nedouchit’ stikhotvorenie.”
I’m sure there is more, but once again, I don’t remember now.

Hope this helps.

Julia

----------------------------
Julia Trubikhina, PhD
New York University

-----Original Message-----
From: Alina Israeli <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Sent: Thu, Jun 18, 2009 6:39 pm
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Simple Grammar Question

This is a very complicated grammar question, worthy of a dissertation,
and so
me already have been written. 

Somewhere around the turn of the 20th century there was a change in 
norm
with negations in this phrase. We find in Chekhov: он не любит родины,
потому  что оставил там дурную память о себе
(http://az.lib.ru/c/chehow_a_p/text_0210.shtml) 

and certainly earlier: 

Волынской не любит жены своей
(http://az.lib.ru/l/lazhechnikow_i_i/text_0020.shtml) 

There is a split between concrete and/or specific vs. abstract and/or
general nouns, and a rather complicated view of what is concrete or
specific; литература is concrete, hence accusative now, just as жена 
and
родина. 

Огонь is general, non-specific, consequently 

Ум не любит огня, ибо всегда состязается с сердцем.
(lib.ru/RERIH/Rerih_Mir1.txt_Piece40.28) rather than огонь. 

Вода is more concrete, so the majority of examples we find are in
accusative: 

Ребенок не любит воду, но еще больше ненавидит дистанционное 
управление.
(zhurnal.lib.ru/i/inspektor_p/morskaylisisa.shtml) 

although genitive is not as dated as in the case of the wife: 

Господин Пунтила не любит воды, я это сразу понял.
(lib.ru/INPROZ/BREHT/breht3_4.txt_Piece40.02) 

And of course one could debate the meaning of любить (there are 
several)
and its influence on the choice of the case. 

Food is very complicated. 

не любит вина but не любит молоко 

не любит манной каши and манную кашу, but the first one is 10 times 
more
likely. 

не любит хлеб and хлеба, but the first one is 200 times more likely. 

Variativity suggested by Paul Gallagher would be nice, but it doesn't
always work: works for wine, but I
 doubt cream of wheat presupposes any
variativity (or is it my hatred of it?). I would expect multiple
varieties of bread, and yet accusative is preferred. 

Anyway, this is for another dissertation, or a paper. 

As much as I avoid examples from poetic language (I already once wrote
about it in conjunction with -to and -nibud'), this one — Я не люблю
фатального исхода. — fits: there hasn't been any outcome at the moment
the poet spoke, so this is an abstraction. 

AI 

Nola wrote: 

> I apologise for asking this Russian grammar question on this list, 
but so far, I can't get a satisfactory answer yet anywhere else.I have 
asked Russians, who know what should be said, but not why or about the 
rule which applies. 

> I am having trouble with a sentence which could have either genitive 
or accusative case applied to the last word. The Russian speakers told 
me to use the accusative case. Okay..I will, but I need to know a rule 
so that I can know when to choose accusative over genitive in others 
like this. 

> Анна Борисовна не любит литературу.( or литературы?) 

> Nola 

> 
0D
> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

>    

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