The inevitable ...

[E Wayles Browne]

If we can safely extrapolate from Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian to
Russian, the answer is that the choice of verb depends on who
the subject is, not who the other participant is. Long ago I saw
a funny story about a cowboy who wanted to marry his horse:
z^elio se oz^eniti konjem. In Russian that would presumably
be: on xotel zhenit'sja na loshadi.
--
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> We all know there are two ways to "get married" in Russian--"vyiti zamuzh
> (za
> kogo)" if you're a woman, and "zhenitsya (na kom)" if you're a man.  It
> was
> inevitable: my students are now asking which verb is used when a man
> marries
> a man (etc.).  Help!
>
> Charles at Knox
>
> ---
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