No subject

[valentina apresjan]

Oh no!

MOJ den' rozhdenja! Only like that. It's a very common mistake indeed to put
the verb in neuter, but this is a mistake anyway. In fact, I would say this
is prostorechie. I think the way the neuter form of the verb occurs, is that
the neuter noun "rozhdenie" somehow influences the speakers and they think
the whole phrase is neuter.

Valentina

On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 4:48 AM, John Hope <hadjiabrek at yahoo.com> wrote:

> SEELANGTSY!
>
> I appeal to your collective wisdom with a grammar question.  Today a young
> native speaker newly arrived from Moscow used the phrase день рождения было
> (den' rozhdeniia bylo).  She spelled the phrase день рождения correctly on
> the board, keeping the genitive, but used the neuter verb form.  When I
> suggested that this was grammatically incorrect, she told me that nobody now
> would say "den' rozhdeniia byl" or "moi den' rozhdeniia".
>
> I'd just chalk this up to "kids today," but when I asked an older native
> speaker, this one a Ph.D.-holding professional teacher of Russian, I was
> told that, when using the possessive pronoun, моё день рожденье (moe den'
> rozhden'e) is preferable, i.e. using the neuter form and the uninflected
> rozhden'e (precisely that, not рождение / rozhdenie).  I confess, I am
> unable to understand how such a construction is possible grammatically.  I
> agree that it is widely encountered (as a Google search demonstrates), but
> correct?
>
> Another, older native speaker and professional linguist told me he'd never
> heard моё день рожденье before, and said that it звучит дико.  I'm inclined
> to agree, but not being a native speaker myself I hesitate.  Is anyone able
> to explain to me by what grammatical understanding the uninflected form and
> neuter modifier may be considered correct?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> John P. Hope
> Colgate University
>
>
>
>
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