Grammatical/Phraseological Query

[Dean Worth]

Dear Tony and others,
        At the risk of immodesty, let me mention that there's an article on this
subject: "Vtoroj vinitel'nyj v sovremennom russkom literaturnom jazyke,"
_Liki jazyka. K 45-letiju nauchnoj dejatel'nosti E.A. Zemskoj_, Moscow,
1998, pp. 7-13, with references to some of the literature. Dean Worth


At 02:17 PM 4/26/00 -0500, you wrote:
>The Russian equivalent for "Astronaut Candidate" has me a bit puzzled as to
>its underlying grammar/phraseology, and I'm hoping someone out there might
>have an answer as to why this construction is used and why it is considered
>grammatically correct.
>
>The phrase is:  "kandidat v astronavty."  What's puzzling, of course, is the
>nominative plural ending on "astronavty."  I suspect it has to do with this
>being an elliptical construction, but I've not been able to find out the
>missing elements might be.  I suspect that there are other, non-space
>related, analogies and would be grateful for whatever light my fellow
>SEELANGers can shed on this.
>
>Please reply off list.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Tony Vanchu
>
>Dr. Anthony J. Vanchu
>Russian Language Program Director
>TTI/JSC Language Education Center
>Johnson Space Center
>Houston, TX
>(281) 483-0644
>
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