On the Relational Meaning of Russian Instrumental

On the Relational Meaning of Russian InstrumentalAuthor(s): Silvia LuraghiSource: La Linguistique, Vol. 22, Fasc. 2 (1986), pp. 53-61Published by: Presses Universitaires de FranceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30248532 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 02:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Presses Universitaires de France is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to LaLinguistique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 02:34:21 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=puf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/30248532?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


On the relational meaning of Russian instrumental

Silvia LURAGHI

Universith di Torino

I. As a functional moneme,1 the Russian instrumental can indicate a wide

range of different functions. The aim of the present paper is to give an interpretation of the instrumental

case in modern standard Russian,2 based on the assumption that functional monemes of the same type, such as case endings, are best understood from the

point of view of the system of relations holding among them. For this purpose, I have divided my work as follows: paragraphs 2 through 7

are devoted to the explanation of some principles that I consider necessary for the analysis of case systems. In paragraphs 8 through I8 I have applied these

principles, using the example of the Russian instrumental.

2. My first assumption in dealing with cases is that they convey a relational

meaning, which is syntagmatically realised through the different functions which they can fill in specific utterances, and paradigmatically defined within a given case system.

Cases are indicators of relations holding between the lexical moneme with which they are coupled and some other entity in a given clause. I will call the two members of this relation second and first correlate. The second correlate is defined as the noun phrase marked by a specific case ending (or, as in the

English examples below, by a particular preposition).3 As first correlate, I under- stand the predicative core to which the second correlate is attached.

This means that in a sentence such as: (I) Mary is sitting at her table, the noun phrase at her table is the second correlate, attached to the clausal structure

Mary is sitting, which is, therefore, the first correlate. The preposition at is the indicator of the particular kind of relation. In the case of nominal dependency, as in (2) Mary's book, the head noun book will be understood as first correlate, while the noun in the genitive Mary's is the second correlate ('s is of course the indicator of the relation).

i. For the terminology I conform here to Andre Martinet, A Functional View of Language, Oxford, Oxford U.P., 1962.

2. I have been using for reference the latest edition of the Russkaja Grammatika, Moskva, Akademija Nauk, I982. The most thorough and up to date study devoted to the Russian instrumental is, to my knowledge, the one by Anna Wierzbicka, The Case for Surface Case, Ann Arbor, Karoma, I98o, to which I also refer for some of my examples.

3. Cases and prepositions are, of course, to be understood as belonging to the same class of functionals, see Martinet, Functional View, p. 45-46. La Linguistique, vol. 22, fasc. 2/t986



54 Silvia Luraghi

My main claim about functionals (here to be applied to cases) is that the relational meaning4 of each functional, which allows it to indicate a number of different functions, can be described in terms of relational features.

In a previous study5 I proposed, following recent works on prepositions,6 that these features should be "presupposition", "concomitance" and "trans- formation", which I am now willing to substitute with "non-coincidence".

3. I will now explain what I mean by the three notions which I have just introduced.

Functional monemes selecting "presupposition" (abbr. "P") indicate that the lexical moneme with which they are coupled has as its referent a concept which is per se implied by the first correlate. Examples of such functionals can be indicators of motion away from something (implying overcoming of a preceding stage), agent or cause (preceding an effect chronologically or logically), adnomi- nal genitive (viewing the head of the genitive noun phrase as formerly acquired knowledge), partitive (presupposing a totality conceived as divisible), standard of comparison (conceived as a model for establishing difference).

Functional monemes selecting "concomitance" (abbr. "CON") are indicators of a particular situation, in which both correlates are simultaneously implied in a process or an action, spacially (location) or functionally (means), or conceptually (manner).

Functional monemes selecting "non-coincidence" (abbr. "COI") have the

property of denying the second correlate a central role in the action or process in which it is involved. Conversely, they point to the existence of another participant, to which a more central role is assigned. Examples of this kind are to be found in agent phrases with passive verbs (the agent being syntactically marginal, as opposed to the subject-patient), comitatives (the second correlate is sub- ordered, rather than apposed to the first), ablatives (the source is marginal with respect to the goal), determinations of means (which is subordinated to a more agentive participant).

4. There is, moreover, a number of monemes, such as direct object indicators, which do not select any relational feature, their specific functional value being indicated by the semantic features of the verb. Within this framework, this is also the case with indirect object indicators, inasmuch as indirect objects are obligatorily required by specific verbs (i.e. trivalent verbs). Some evidence for this claim may be gained by the existence of double object constructions, such as (3) John gave Mary the book, which also occur in languages, such as Latin or ancient Greek, in which free word order prevents one from assuming that case marking is specified by word order itself.

Direct object and indirect object indicators differ from each other in that

4. See Martinet, Functional View, p. 95-96. 5. Silvia Luraghi, Proposte per lo studio sistematico di preposizioni e morfemi

casuali, Studi italiani di linguistica teorica e applica, XI, 1982, p. 35-67. 6. Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti, Appunti per una storia comparata dei sintagmi

preposizionali semitici, Annali dell'Istituto Orientale di .Napoli, XXXIV, 1974, P. 161-215 and F. A. Pennacchietti, Indicazioni preliminari sul sistema preposizionale dell'eblaita, in Luigi Cagni (a cura di), La lingua di Ebla, Napoli, Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1981, p. 291-319.



On the relational meaning 55

the latter select a specific oriented reference (that I am going to discuss below), while the former get all their relational meaning directly from the verb.

5. As I mentioned above, a further concept which I will be using is oriented reference in the relation between the correlates.

There is a basic difference separating functionals which select "+CON" from the others. As the former imply that the two correlates are simultaneously involved in a process or an action, they do not express any kind of orientation. For instance, in sentences (i) Mary is sitting at her table and (4) Mary lives with her parents, neither correlate shows any logical priority for the development of the action.

On the contrary, in sentences (5) the apple has been eaten by Mary and (6) Mary is talking to John, the action is viewed as having a specific orientation. In sentence (5), the second correlate, i.e. the agent phrase by Mary (selecting "+P"), is a logical prius to the first correlate. In sentence (6), the second correlate, to John, represents the goal of the first correlate. Thus, one can view oriented

bt/ to reference in the above examples as follows: I <- II I -- II.

This explains why functionals such as English to are usually exploited for

expressing motion toward something, while functionals such as English by often indicate the priority of the second correlate, as an agent or a cause.7

6. To sum up, functional monemes can be firstly divided into two sub-sets: a) functionals which select "-CON"; b) functionals which select "+CON". Sub-set a) is further divided into subsets a1) functionals which do not select any relational feature, and can (but not necessarily must) express oriented reference of the type I-+ II / a2) functionals which select "+P" and indicate oriented reference of the type I <-<II. Sub-set b) is further divided into sub- sets

bl) functionals which select "+CON" and "-COI", b2) functionals

selecting "+CON" and "+COI". I must still stress that the feature "+P" has an intimate link with the notion of oriented reference of the type I - -II, so that functionals in sub-sets a,) and a2) are further differentiated by the selection of "COI".

I give here a graphic representation of the system which I have been working out in the preceding paragraphs:

a2) b1)

'I .

II << + CON 0 <<- COI

< + P <( + CON>> < + COI > << + COI >

I - - II

a,) b,)

7. Functionals of this type are often used to convey the notion of ablativity, see Luraghi, Proposte per lo studio sistematico, p. 54-



56 Silvia Luraghi

7. The examples that I have given above for the sake of explanation do not

imply that the same function be necessarily indicated by functionals selecting the same features in every language.8 There are language specific rules according to which a particular relation can be viewed from different perspectives, and therefore be indicated by means of different functionals. Furthermore, within the same language one function can be indicated, optionally, by different functionals. Thus, while English can only have 0 as direct object indicator, Russian can have both the accusative and the genitive. In so doing, Russian offers an opportunity of regarding the direct object in two different ways, as in (7) daj mne xleb "give me (the) bread"; (8) daj mne xleba "give me some bread".

8. In the next paragraphs I will briefly survey the contexts in which the Russian instrumental can show up; I will try to explain its occurrences in terms of the relational features discussed above.

For reasons of clarity, I will divide the uses of the instrumental as follows: means (par. 9); "object" with transitive verbs (par. io); "object" with reflexive verbs of emotion (par. i I); modality (par. 12); agent of passive verbs (par. 13); predicative (par. 14); locative (par. i5).'

I will argue that the participant marked by the instrumental case is always in some way involved in a process or an action, simultaneously with the first

correlate, thus selecting "+CON", but that the most relevant fact is that it

always takes a marginal position; i.e. the feature most pertinent to its description seems to be "+COI".10

9. Typical examples of an instrumental of means are: (9) my pilem avtorutkoj ili karandalom "we are writing with a/the pen or with a/the pencil"; (Io) oni

priexali poezdom "they came by train"; (I I) oni nagruzili telegu uglem "they loaded the cart with coal". Also the occurrence of an instrumental with reflexive verbs, such as obllest cja "to eat oneself full" in (12) deti obllelisl slivami "the children ate themselves full with plums" can be explained as functioning as a means. What is relevant here, as well as in sentence (I I), is the fact that the instrumental

phrase cannot be determined through the use of quantifiers or qualifiers, such as

possessives. One does not find, e.g., ( 3) deti obllelicl pjat u kilogramami sliv "the children ate themselves full with five kilos of plums" (see par. 16 for discussion).

One also finds an instrumental with verbs which indicate actions typically performed with parts of the body (14) Ivan po.al plecami "John shrugged his

shoulders"; (I5) Petr kivnul golovoj "Peter nodded his head". Clearly, the part of the body are viewed as means in these occurrences; however, cross-linguitic evidence points toward a (at least in part) lexically conditioned use of the

8. This is stressed also in Martinet, Functional View, p. 58. 9. My study has been limited to the analysis of the use of the instrumental as a

simple case. Therefore, there will be no mention of instrumental in prepositional phrases. io. The notion of concomitance has also been introduced by Hansjakob Seiler,

The Principle of Concomitance: Instrumental, Comitative, Collective, Foundations of Language, XII/2, 1974, p 213-247. In the view of the Author, this feature applies only to a sub-set of functionals selecting "+ CON" within my framework, namely, to those

which also select "+ COI". Therefore, his notion of concomitance is quite close to what I am calling here non-coincidence.




instrumental, which one can explain by the notion of inherent possession."1 Parts of the body are conceived as necessarily concomitant with the main participant (in our examples, the subject); therefore, the feature "+ CON" may be of particular relevance here. Notice, furthermore, that inherent possession of something which is part of a whole also implies its marginality with regard to

the whole entity itself. Thus, also the feature "+COI" may be involved in the choice of the instrumental case in sentences (14) and (15), with verbs that are otherwise transitive.13

Io. The notion of marginality is also conveyed by the instrumental case in some occurrences, in which it can substitute for the accusative of the direct object: (16) on Ivyrjal kamnjami "he was throwing stones" which has as its accusative counterpart (17) on vyrjal kamni "he was throwing stones". Quantifiers again are not allowed with the instrumental in such utterances.

The use of the instrumental has as its consequence the demotion of a central participant to a marginal position, thus putting particular emphasis on the verb itself.13 Sentence (16) can therefore be paraphrased "as he was using stones for performing the action of throwing".

iI. This last consideration about the demotion of the direct object helps in understanding the obligatoriness of the instrumental with reflexive verbs denoting states of emotion: (18) ja ofenl interesujus' staryx knigami "I am very interested in ancient books"; (i9) Ivan ljubuetIsja kartinoj "John admires the/a picture". Reflexive verbs stress the direct involvement of the first participant (the subject) in the on-going process. Of course, these verbs are intransitive, so one could not expect an accusative to show up with them; however, the instrumental is chosen, instead of another functional moneme,14 owing to its possible use as an indicator of demoted direct object, so that the reflexiveness of the verb acquires greater emphasis.

12. Means and modality constitute a cognitive continuum in many languages, and it is far from exceptional that the same functional be used to indicate both functions.15

ii. On similar use of the instrumental in other Indo-European languages, see Bernard Delbriick, Ablativ, Localis, Instrumentalis, Berlin, 1867, p. 58-59. On the notion of inherent possession in such a use, see Hansjakob Seiler, Possession as an Operational Dimension, K6ln, A.K.U.P., I983, p. 82-83.

12. The verb poZat' does actually take an accusative object also with parts of the body, as in potatl ruky "to shake hands". The exceptional use of the instrumental in (14) may then concern some particular perspective in which the action is viewed.

13. This equals stating, with Roman Jakobson, Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre, Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Prague, VI, 1936, p. 240-288, that the instrumental is the "peripheral case" within the system. Notice that my notion of non-coincidence is similar, in some respects, to Jakobson's notion of periphericity. The notion of demotion, with regard to sentences such as (z6), (17) and (18) is referred to also in Wierzbicka, Case for Surface Case.

14. Jakobson, Beitrag, p. 271, observes that the instrumental stands opposite to the dative with verbs of emotion, on the basis of an cpposition: dative object=animate/ instrumental object= inanimate. However, this is true only for a very limited number of verbs, so that the opposition does not seem to be of particular relevance within the system.

15. See I. M. Schlesinger, Cognitive Structures and Semantic Deep Structures, Journal of Linguistics, XV, I979, p. 307-324 for a cross-linguistic study on this matter.



58 Silvia Luraghi

Sometimes, it can be difficult to clearly discriminate between the two:

(2o) ona pela tonkim goloskom "she was singing in a loud voice"; (21) mall&ik xarkal

krov~ju "the child was spitting blood "(use of quantifiers is again impossible here). The feature "+CON" is relevant to all utterances examined thus far,

with no need for further explanation, as it is in the nature of a means (or a

modality) to be simultaneously involved with (an) other participant(s) in a

process or action.

Examples in paragraphs Io and I i may be interpreted in the same perspective as those in paragraphs 9 and 12, in that the demoted object is conceived as the means or the modality conditioning the possible development of the action or the process expressed by the verb. Thus, the instrumental with verbs of emotion is viewed as the means by which a given state is achieved.

13. In this paragraph, I will try to demonstrate that the feature "+COI" is rich in implications in describing the relational meaning of the Russian instru-

mental, to a much greater extent than it is for instrumental indicators in other

languages. Let us first consider some kind of agent phrases: (22) okno bylo razbito Ivanom

"the window has been broken by John"; (23) okno bylo razbito kamnem "the window has been broken by/with a stone"; (24) Saiu pridavilo sosnoj "Alex (acc.) has been killed (neuter) by a pine". Now, the use of the same functional moneme to indicate both the means and the animate agent with passive verbs is quite unusual from a cross-linguistic point of view.s6 As a matter of fact, instrumental indicators more frequently convey the meaning of comitative, when coupled with lexemes selecting the feature of animacy. The comitative relation itself indicates that the second correlate takes part in an action, not as its source, but as concomitant with another participant, which is per se on the same hier- archic level, but in the meantime is viewed as being superposed to the second correlate, in the particular perspective given by the relational value of the functional moneme. This can be exemplified by comparing sentences (25) Mary goes to school with her friend and (26) Mary and her friend go to school.'7

In a sentence like (22), on the contrary, the instrumental is the indicator of the "logical" agent, i.e. the real source of the action. By the notion of concomi-

tance, one can state that functionals selecting "+CON" are involved in an action simultaneously with another participant, which, in the case of (22), is

clearly the subject-patient of the passive verb. The latter participant finds itself in the most prominent syntactic position in the sentence.18 As passive is the marked member in the opposition with active, it follows that, in the un-marked

(i.e. active) counterpart to (22), the subject position should be assigned to the

agent: (27) Ivan razbil okno "John has broken the window".

I6. I have discussed this problem in Silvia Luraghi, On the Distribution of Ins- trumental and Agentive Markers for Human and Non-Human Agents of Passive Verbs in Some Indo-European Languages, forthcoming in Indogermanische Forschungen, XCI, 1986.

17. The difference between simple conjunctions such as and and comitative prepositions such as with is explained in Cristiano Castelfranchi, Domenico Parisi, Maurizio Crisari, "Con", in Mario Medici, Antonella Sangregorio (a cura di), Fenomeni morfologici e sintattici nell'italiano contemporaneo, Roma, Bulzoni, 1974, P. 27-33-

18. I am using here the terms agent and patient as referring to logical, i.e. semantic, functions; subject and object, on the contrary, are used to indicate syntactic functions.




In passive sentences, the instrumental case must be understood as an indicator of demotion, in that it indicates a demoted agent. As I will argue below, this

property of the instrumental is to be explained by the selection of "+COI"; moreover, the use of the instrumental as agent indicator in passive sentences is strictly related to its use as object indicator, in the examples quoted in paragraphs Io and I1.

Demotion is particularly stressed in sentence (24), in which the neuter form of the verb puts emphasis on non-intentionality and on the accidental character of the event. The occurrence of an instrumental here should be abnormal, given the fact that an inanimate means must in principle imply an agent.'9

All the occurrences in which the instrumental indicates demotion can be understood by the notion of indeterminacy. This can be shown as follows: a) object of transitive verbs (par. Io). The participant in the instrumental is non-coincident with the true direct object of the verb, which does not show up in the sentence. The verb acquires, consequently, an intransitive value; b) object of verbs of emotion (par. II). The participant in the instrumental is non- coincident with the goal of the process, which also occurs in the sentence, being co-referent with the grammatical subject. Co-reference of subject and

goal is indicated through the verbal voice; c) agent of passive verbs (par. 13). The participant in the instrumental is non-coincident with the most prominent syntactic position in the sentence, which is in turn occupied by the "logical" patient. The last instance differs from the previous two, because the notion of non-coincidence here applies to a syntactic relation, rather than to a semantic one.

14. The selection of "+COI" is fundamental in understanding the predicative instrumental. Examples of this function are: (28) ona byla/budet krasivoj "she was/will be beautiful"; (29) Ivan rabotaet u itellem "John is working as a teacher"; (30) mali iskoj pafel na zabod "as a child he entered a factory"; (31 ) junosa dufoj "young, in regard to his spirit"; (32) on vyl volkom "he shouted as a wolf".

Here, we clearly find "+ CON", as the second correlate is involved in the same process simultaneously with the first correlate. However, this assumption also holds for (33) ona - krasivaja "she is beautiful", in which, conversely, agreement between subject and predicative is obligatory.

In my view, the possible use of the instrumental as predicative is due to two factors. First, the quality attributed to the first correlate is rather accidental, and does not describe it completely: he is working as a teacher; he is young, in

regard to his spirit (but maybe he is old)20. Second, there is non-coincidence in time with what one can identify as the referent of the first correlate at the time of the utterance: she was beautiful (maybe she is not any longer).

Ig. This is also what would be required by the notion of concomitance. 20. The use of the instrumental in such an expression is rather old-fashioned. It

corresponds to the so-called instrumental of limitation in Indo-European languages, see Delbriick, Ablativ, p. 52-53. Notice that the use of predicative instrumental with the past and the future tenses of the verb to be is not obligatory. This means that we are faced with a semantic phenomenon, rather than with a syntactic rule. Agreement between the subject and its predicate can be used to the extent that the speaker wants to stress the inherence of a quality to a referent.



60 Silvia Luraghi

I5. Sentence (32) is of particular interest, in that it also provides us with an example of an opposition of the instrumental to the genitive, based on "+ CON"/ "+ P".

The noun phrase volkom "as a wolf" describes a model to which the first correlate conforms in the course of an on-going action. Conversely, the status of the standard of comparison in a sentence such as (33) Pavel vyle svoego brata "Paul is taller then his brother" is completely different. The noun phrase svoego brata "than (lit. : of) his brother" is logically implied by the first correlate Pavel vyle "Paul is taller" (namely, it is implied by the occurrence of a compara- tive indicator). Consequently, the effect is opposite to that achieved by means of the instrumental volkom, in that the genitive functions as an indicator empha- sising difference.

16. The Russian instrumental is used for expressing location with reference to a continuous process: (34) idu polem "I am going through the field", (35) oni vstretilisl osenlju v

Pari.e "they met in Paris, during the fall".

It is noteworthy here, that these noun phrases again cannot be determined

by quantifiers (except by the adjective celyj "much"). The instrumental case in the above examples indicates that space and time

are conceived as the setting for an on-going action or process, which is described without particular reference to any specific point or moment.

I7. In this paragraph, I will discuss the notion of indeterminacy, which characterizes a number of contexts in which the Russian instrumental can occur.

As a first point, one must mention the fact that there is a rather clear-cut bipartition, between contexts in which the instrumental can be determined, and contexts in which it cannot. Actually, one can say (38) my pisem nasimi dvimja autorucki "we are writing with our two pens", while, as I mentioned in paragraph 9, (13) sounds quite unacceptable.

Now, if one comes to the specific contexts in which the instrumental does not allow determiners, it turns out that for most of them there is an alternative construction allowing a partitive genitive.21 For instance, the instrumental of the direct object in sentences such as (16), beside having a counterpart in (17) (par. Io), also has one in (39) on svyrial kamen "he was throwing some stones", in which the partitive genitive regards the direct object as a countable set of elements.

Here again, as is the case with comparison (par. 15), we find the opposition genitive/instrumental = "+P"/"+CON". The referent of the genitive noun phrase is conceived as an entity which can further be sub-divided into parts. On the contrary, the referent of the instrumental noun phrase is conceived as a whole which is involved in a process or an action as such, and therefore is indivisible.

21. The use of the genitive is very limited within temporal locatives; however, its use had originally been constrained by the occurrence of a determinative adjective. See Claude Robert, Contribution a l'etude de quelques compliments de temps en russe moderne, Paris, P.U.F., p. 44.




18. I would like to conclude my paper by summing up the fundamental

points that I have singled out, and that can explain the use of the Russian instrumental as an indicator of different functions.

The relational meaning of the Russian instrumental as a functional moneme is given by the selection of the following features: a / concomitance of the second correlate with the first, i.e. simult&neous involvement of the referent of the instrumental noun phrase in an action or a process together with (an) other

participant(s); b / non-coincidence of the two correlates with each other, i.e. logically the instrumental points to the existence of another participant, which is either syntactically or semantically more relevant, to which the instrumental itself is not co-referent.

With regard to the Russian case system one can state that: A) (deriving from "+-CON") the instrumental stands in a particular opposition to the

genitive, in that the latter describes its referent as a divisible entity, whereas the

instrumental describes it as indivisible whole; B) (deriving from "+COI") the instrumental can be the indicator of a demoted agent or a demoted direct

object; C) predicative instrumental indicates temporary or partial identification of the first correlate with the second. In so doing, it stands in an opposition to

the nominative and the accusative, again through the feature "COI", in that

the selection of "-COI" (by nominative and accusative) triggers agreement, indicating complete identification. Predicative instrumental also stands in an

opposition to the genitive, through the feature P, in that the selection of +P (by the genitive) emphasises difference, i.e. lack of identification.

Via Sobrero 21,

I o0144 Torino



On the Relational Meaning of Russian Instrumental

Documents

Transcript of On the Relational Meaning of Russian Instrumental