Russian grammar


'''Russian grammar''' encompasses: The Russian language has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place. The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language. NOTE 1. For an introductory overview, please see the discussion in the Russian language article. NOTE 2. In the discussion below, various terms are used in the meaning they have in the standard Russian discussions of historical grammar. In particular, aorist, imperfect, etc. are considered verbal tenses rather than aspects, because ancient examples of them are attested for both perfective and imperfective verbs.

Morphology

Nominal

Nouns

Nominal declension is subject to six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and locative or prepositional), in two numbers (singular and plural), and obeying absolutely grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). A vocative form is preserved for words and names of religious import, as Боже/boZE/ "God", etc. The adjectives, pronouns, and the first two cardinal numbers further vary by gender. Old Russian also had a third number, the dual, but except for its use in the nominative and accusative cases with the numbers two, three and four, eg. (''два стула''/dva stula/, "two chairs", recategorized today as a genitive singular), it has been lost. In Russian there are three declension types. The first declension is used for masculine and neuter nouns. The second declension is used for most feminine nouns. The third declension is used for feminine nouns ending in ь and for neuter nouns ending in мя. First Declension - Masculine Nouns Nouns ending in a consonant are marked in the following table with -0- (thus no ending). Singular Nominative -0- -ь -й -ий Genitive -а -я -я -ия Dative -у -ю -ю -ию Accusative -0- / -а -ь / -я -й / -я -ий / ия Instrumental -ом -ем (3) -ем (3) -ием Prepositional -е -е -е -ии Plural Nominative -ы (1) -и -и -ии Genitive -ов (2) -ей -ев (3) -иев Dative -ам -ям -ям -иям Accusative -ы (1)/ ов -и / ей -и / ев (3) -ии / иев Instrumental -ами -ями -ями -иями Prepositional -ах -ях -ях -иях Notes: First Declension - Neuter Nouns Singular Nominative -о (1) -е (2) Genitive -а -я Dative -у -ю Accusative -о (1) -е (2) Instrumental -ом (1) -ем (2) Prepositional -е -е (3) Plural Nominative -а -ия Genitive -0- -ий Dative -ам -ям Accusative -а -я Instrumental -ами -ями Prepositional -ах -ях Second Declension - (Mostly) Feminine Nouns Singular Nominative -а -я -ия Genitive -ы (1) -и -ии Dative -е -е -ии Accusative -у -ы -ию Instrumental -ой (2) -ей (3) -ией Prepositional -е -е -ии Plural Nominative -ы (1) -и -ии Genitive -0- -ь -ий Dative -ам -ям -иям Accusative -ы(1) / -0- -и / ь -ии / ий Instrumental -ами -ями -иями Prepositional -ах -ях -иях Third Declension Singular (feminine) (neuter) Nominative -ь -мя Genitive -и -мени Dative -и -мени Accusative -ь -ям Instrumental -ью -менем Prepositional -и -мени Plural Nominative -и -мена Genitive -ей -мён Dative -ям -менам Accusative -и / ей -мена Instrumental -ями -менами Prepositional -ях -менях

Articles

There are no articles in the Russian language, definite or indefinite.

Adjectives

Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. Declension Singular (masculine) (neuter) (feminine) Nominative -ый -ое -ая Accusative -ый / ого -ое / ого -ую Genitive -ого -ого -ой Dative -ому -ому -ой Instrumental -ым -ым -ой Prepositional -ом -ом -ой Plural Nominative -ые Accusative -ые / ых Genitive -ых Dative -ым Instrumental -ыми Prepositional -ых Russian differentiates between hard-stem (as above) and soft-stem adjectives. Note the following:

Pronouns

Numbers

Verbs

Verbal conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and two simple tenses (present/future and past), with periphrastic forms for the future and subjunctive, as well as imperative forms and present/past participles, distinguished by adjectival and adverbial usage. There are two voices, active and middle/passive, which is constructed by the addition of a reflexive suffix -ся/сь/-s'a/-s'/ to the active form. An interesting feature is that the past tense is actually made to agree in gender with the subject, for it is the participle in an originally periphrastic perfect tense formed with the present of быть /b1t'/,"to be", which is now omitted except for rare archaic effect, usually in set phrases (''откуда есть пошла русская земля''/otkuda jest' poSla russkaja zeml'a/, "whence is come the Russian land", the opening of the Primary Chronicle in modern spelling). Verbal inflection today is considerably simpler than in Old Russian. The ancient aorist, imperfect, and (periphrastic) pluperfect tenses have been lost, though the aorist sporadically occurs in secular literature as late as the second half of the eighteenth century, and survives as an odd form in direct narration (''а он пойди да скажи''/a on pojdi da skaZ1/, etc., exactly equivalent to the English colloquial "so he goes and says"), recategorized as a usage of the imperative. The loss of three of the former six tenses has been offset by the development, as in other Slavic languages, of verbal aspect. Most verbs come in pairs, one with imperfective or continuous connotation, the other with perfective or completed, usually formed with a (prepositional) prefix, but occasionally using a different root. The present tense of the verb быть/b1t'/, "to be", is today normally used only in the third-person singular, and, very formally, in the third person plural. As late as the nineteenth century, the full conjugation, which today is used only for extreme effect, was somewhat more natural: forms occur in the Synodal Bible, in Dostoevsky and in the bylinas (''былины''/b1l'in1/) or oral folk-epics, which were transcribed at that time. The paradigm shows as well as anything else the Indo-European affinity of Russian: >"I am">>есмь||/jes'm'/||sum
-
"thou art" еси /jes'i/ es
"he, she, it is" есть /jes't'/ est
"we are" есмы /jesm1/ sumus
"you are" есте /jes't'e/ estis
"they are" суть /sut'/ sunt

Present-future tense

There are two forms used to conjugate the present tense of imperfective verbs and the future tense of perfective verbs. The first conjugation is used in verb stems ending in a consonant, -у, or -о, or in -а when not preceded by a sibilant: The second conjugation is used in verb stems ending in -и or -е, or in -а when preceded by a sibilant:

Infinitive

Imperative

Irregular verbs

Word formation

Russian has on hand a set of prefixes, prepositional and adverbial in nature, as well as diminutive, augmentative, and frequentative suffixes and infixes. All of these can be stacked one upon the other, to produce multiple derivatives of a given word. Participles and other inflexional forms may also have a special connotation. For example:
мысль /m1sl'/ "thought"
мыслишка /m1sl'iSka/ "a petty or cute thought"
мыслище /m1sl'iS'e/ "a thought of fundamental import"
мысление /m1sl'en'je/ "thought; abstract thinking, ratiocination"
мыслить /m1sl'it'/ "to think (as to cogitate)"
смысл /sm1sl/ "meaning"
осмыслить /osm1sl/it'/ "to comprehend; to rationalize"
переосмыслить /p'er'eosm1sl'it'/ "to reassess"
переосмысливать /p'er'eosm1sl'ivat'/ "to be in the process of reassessing (something)"
переосмысливаемый /p'er'eosm1sl'ivajem1j/ "(something) in the process of being considered in a new light"
бессмыслица /b'essm1sl'itsa/ "nonsense"
обессмыслить /ob'essm1sl'it'/ "to render meaningless"
бессмысленный /b'essm1sl'enn1j/ "meaningless"
обессмысленный /ob'essm1sl'enn1j/ "rendered meaningless"
необессмысленный /n'eob'essm1sl'enn1j/ "not yet rendered meaningless"
Russian has also proved friendly to agglutinative compounds. As an extreme case:
металлоломообеспечение /m'etallolomoob'esp'etS'en'je/ "provision of scrap iron"
металлоломообеспеченный /m'etallolomoob'esp'etS'enn1j/ "well supplied with scrap iron"
Purists (as Ushakov in the preface to his dictionary) frown on such words. But here is the name of a street in St. Petersburg:
Каменноостровский проспект /kamennoostrovsk'ij prosp'ekt/ "Stone Island Avenue"
Some linguists have suggested that Russian agglutination stems from Church Slavonic. In the twentieth century, abbreviated components appeared in the compound:
управдом /upravdom/=''управляющий домом'' /upravl'ajuS'ij domom/ "residence manager"

Fundamental sentence structure

Coordination

Subordination

Syntax

The basic word order, both in conversation and the written language, is Subject Verb Object. Because the relations are marked by declension, however, a certain latitude is allowed, and all the permutations can be used. Primary emphasis tends to be initial, with a slightly weaker emphasis at the end.

Negation

Unlike English, Latin, and various other languages, Russian allows multiple negatives, as in никто никогда никому ничего не прощает /n'ikto n'ikogda n'ikomu n'itS'evo n'e proS'ajet/ "No-one ever forgives anything to anyone" (literally, "no-one never to no-one nothing not forgives").

Coordination

Common coordinating conjunctions include: The distinction between и and а is important. The и implies a following complemental state that does not oppose the antecedent. The а implies a following state that acts in opposition to the antecedent, but more weakly than но "but". Song of Igor, 1790's]]
они уехали,
и мы уезжаем 		/on'i ujexal'i
i m1 ujeZ'ajem/ 		they have departed
and we are departing
они уехали,
а мы уезжаем 		/on'i ujexali
a m1 ujeZ'ajem/ 		they have departed,
while (but) we are (still) departing
они уехали,
но мы приезжаем 		/on'i ujexal'i
no m1 pr'ijeZ'ajem/ 		they have departed,
but we are arriving
The distinction between и and а developed after the mediaeval period; originally, и and а were closer in meaning. The unpunctuated ending of the Song of Igor illustrates the potential confusion. The final five words in modern spelling, князьям слава а дружине аминь /knaz'jam slava a druZine am'in'/ can be understood either as "Glory to the princes and to their host! Amen." or "Glory to the princes, and amen (R.I.P.) to their troops". Although majority opinion is definitely with the first interpretation, there is no full consensus. The psychological difference between the two is quite obvious.

Subordination

Subordinating conjuctions, adverbs, or adverbial phrases include: In general, there are fewer subordinate clauses than in English, because the participles (''причастие'' /pr'itSas't'je/) and adverbial participles (''деепричастие'' /d'ejepr'itSas't'je/) often take the place of a relative pronoun/verb combination. For example:
Вот человек,
потерявший надежду. 		/vot tS'elov'ek
pot'er'avSij nad'eZdu/ 		Here (is) a man
who has lost (all) hope.
[lit. having lost hope]
Гуляя по городу, всегда
останавливаюсь у Ростральных колонн. 		/gul'aja po gorodu vs'egda
ostanavl'ivajus' u rostral'n1x kolonn/ 		When I go for a walk in the city, I always
pause by the Rostral Columns.
[lit. Walking in the city, I...]

Absolute construction

Despite the inflexional nature of Russian there is no equivalent in the modern language to the English nominative absolute or the Latin ablative absolute contruction. The old language had an absolute construction, with the noun put into the dative. Like so many other archaisms, it is retained in Church Slavonic. Among the last known examples in literary Russian occurs in Radishchevs Journey from Petersburg to Moscow ('Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву'' /put'eSestv'ije iz p'et'erburga v moskvu/), 1790:

Inflectional usage

Case

Tense and aspect

Vernacular/dialectal features

See also

Category:Russian language

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