1 origins of the russian referential system: alternative scenarios andrej a. kibrik (institute of...

1

Origins of the Russian referential system:

Alternative scenarios

Andrej A. Kibrik (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences,

and Lomonosov Moscow State University)[email protected]

SLE 2012Stockholm, August 31

mailto:[email protected]

2

Referential system

Reduced referential devices free pronouns, bound pronouns, zero

Patterns of their discourse use In this talk:

only subject reference

3

Relevance

Referential system is among the basic grammatical properties of a language

It has important bearing upon many other features: categories of person, number, gender use of finite and non-finite verb forms pronouns as a lexical class clause-internal syntax argumenthood syntax of complex sentence ...........................

4

WALS composer: Dryer and Siewierska

Consistent languages: free, bound, zero

5

Familiar facts: ‘he plays/played’

Zero Japanese Ø asonda

Free pronoun English he played

Free pronoun ~ zero

Mandarin tā~Ø zà wánshuă ne

Inflection (bound pronoun)

Latin lūd-it

Bound pronoun Spoken French

i-žu (graphic il joue)

Free pronoun plus inflection (agreement)

German er spiel-t

Reduced referential devices

6

The Germanic system

Found in German, and in a vestigial way in English

Free pronouns plus less than referential person inflection

Its rise is usually attributed to the spread of the V2 principle

Independent pronouns “came to be used obligatorily to avoid declarative sentences with initial verbs” (Siewierska 2004: 272)

Borrowed into French and Rhaeto-Romance

7

Siewierska’s syntactic agreement

Person inflection, not occurring without a free referential form

“Extremely well represented among the languages of Western Europe” (Siewierska 2004: 268) many Germanic French and Rhaeto-Romance Russian (partially)

Outside Europe, only among several languages of Oceania 3 Austronesian 4 non-Austronesian

8

In a first approximation

The Russian (and generally East Slavic) system is similar to Germanic

And very different from other Slavic old Slavic

• Old Church Slavic• Old Russian

West Slavic South Slavic

9

From Andersen’s “The tinder box”

English Polish Russian“I should like very much to see her,”

“Chciałbym ją zobaczyć”

“Ėx, kak by na nee pogljadet’ ”,

thought the soldier <…>

– pomyślał-ø żołnierz <…>

– dumal-ø soldat <…>

However, he passed a very pleasant time;

Tymczasem więc pędził-ø wesołe życie,

Žil-ø on teper’ kuda kak veselo:

Ø went to the theatre, chadzał-ø do teatru, xodil-ø v teatry,

Ø drove in the king's garden,

zwiedzał-ø ogród królewski,

vyezžal-ø na progulki v korolevskij sad

and Ø gave a great deal of money to the poor,

a biednym dawał-ø zawsze dużo pieniędzy,

i mnogo deneg razdaval-ø bednjakam,

which was very good of him;

co było bardzo ładnie z jego strony:

i xorošo delal-ø!

he remembered what it had been in olden times to be without a shilling.

pamiętał-ø bowiem z dawnych czasów, jak to niedobrze być bez grosza!

Ved’ on po sebe znal-ø, kakovo sidet’ bez groša v karmane.

10

From Andersen’s “The tinder box”

German Polish Russian“Ich möchte sie wohl sehen!” “Chciałbym ją zobaczyć” “Ėx, kak by na nee

pogljadet’ ”,

dachte der Soldat <...> – pomyślał-ø żołnierz <…>

– dumal-ø soldat <…>

Nun lebte er recht lustig, Tymczasem więc pędził-ø wesołe życie,

Žil-ø on teper’ kuda kak veselo:

Ø besuchte das Theater, chadzał-ø do teatru, xodil-ø v teatry,

Ø fuhr-ø in des Königs Garten zwiedzał-ø ogród królewski,

vyezžal-ø na progulki v korolevskij sad

und Ø gab-ø den Armen viel Geld,

a biednym dawał-ø zawsze dużo pieniędzy,

i mnogo deneg razdaval-ø bednjakam,

und das war hübsch von ihm; co było bardzo ładnie z jego strony:

i xorošo delal-ø!

er wusste noch von früheren Zeiten her, wie schlimm es ist, nicht einen Groschen zu besitzen!

pamiętał-ø bowiem z dawnych czasów, jak to niedobrze być bez grosza!

Ved’ on po sebe znal-ø, kakovo sidet’ bez groša v karmane.

11

The conundrum

The Germanic referential system is exotic But its roots are understood Its influence upon certain Romance languages is also clear The East Slavic system, unlike other Slavic, is quite similar Can it be that the Germanic system was borrowed into East

Slavic failing to affect West and South Slavic, with which Germanic

was in a more intense and direct contact? specifically, leaping over Polish?

If yes, through what specific sociolinguistic scenario? If not, why are the systems so similar?

12

In this talk

Characterize the Russian referential system and its peculiarities

Suggest hypotheses on the rise of this rather convoluted system

13

The Russian (East Slavic) system of subject reference: further details

Variation:• On igra-et ~ Igra-et

‘He plays’he play-Pres.3Sg play-Pres.3Sg

• Ø Igra-et ??

Split inflection: Non-past: person-number Past: gender-number

• On igra-l-ø ~ Igra-l-ø ‘He played’he play-Past-MSg play-Past-MSg

inflection = bound pronoun

14

Natural examplesA on sejčas ne u neë živ-ët …But he now not at her live-Pres.3SgBut he does not live at hers now…

S”exa-l-ø … Dom snima-etmove-Past-MSg house rent-Pres.3SgHe has moved… He is renting a house(Pavlova 2011)

The frequency difference (Kibrik 1996, Grenoble 2001, Seo 2001, Zdorenko 2009) : pronoun + inflection (pattern 1): between 2/3 and 3/4 just inflection (pattern 2): between 1/4 and 1/3

Pattern 1 (dominant) is very Germanic-like Pattern 2 (secondary but still strong) is traditional IE, shared by other Slavic Inflection is often the only overt bearer of the referential function Inflectional markers, unlike Germanic, clearly deserve the status of ancillary

referential devices This system can thus be characterized as the Germanic pattern with a

strong old Indo-European accent

Pattern 1: free pronoun +

inflection

Pattern 2:

inflectionNB: no person inflection in the

past

15

Flexibility of RussianLuke 19, 12-15

OCS <...> и быстъ егда сѧ възвратиRussian Synodal И когда возвратился

Russian Averintsev

И вот когда он возвратился

English When he was returned

OCS <...> и рече а пригласѧтъ емоу рабы тыRussian Synodal велел призвать к себе рабов тех

Russian Averintsev

велел он вызвать к себе тех слуг

English then he commanded these servants to be called unto him,

OCS имъ же дастъ съреброRussian Synodal которым дал серебро

Russian Averintsev

которым дал деньги

English to whom he had given the money.

OCS: referential inflection

16



Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




English: pronoun

17



Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




English: pronoun

“Synodal Russian” mimicking OCS

18



Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




Russian Averintsev




English: pronoun

“Regular Russian”: free pronoun + referential

inflection (pattern 1) VS referential inflection

(pattern 2)

“Synodal Russian” mimicking OCS

19

Germanic and Slavic: Typological assessment

German Polish Russian

Ref. device

Free pronoun

Inflection (=bound pronoun)

(free pronoun +)referential inflection

Peculiarities

Non-referential inflection

Split: nonpast: person-number past: gender-number

Typicality Exotic Very common Highly unusual

20

Rise of the Russian (East Slavic) referential system

Old Russian: like other conservative IE Gradual change to the modern system Timing :

The quasi-Germanic pattern came to dominate around the 16th century (Borkovskij and Kuznecov 1963, Ivanov 1982, Choo 2003, Madariaga 2008, Eckhoff and Meyer 2011)

Two possible sources internal evolution external influences

21

Scenario of internal evolution (Kibrik 2004, 2011)

In Old Russian (as well as in Old Polish) old synthetic past tenses (aorist, imperfect) were gradually replaced by the old analytic perfect:

da-l-ъ jes-mь ‘I gave’give-Pf-MSg be.Pres-1Sg

da-l-ъ [jes-tь ] ‘he gave’give-Pf-MSg be.Pres-3Sg

In the 3rd person, the copula began disappearing very early, the resulting absence semiotically opposed to the 1st and 2nd persons

Later on, in late Old Russian (unlike Polish), all person-marked copulae disappeared and subject person became indistinguishable in the past tense clauses

This paved the way to the expansion of personal pronouns use First in the past, later in the non-past tense

22

Stages of RussianOCS, early Old Russian

Middle-late Old Russian (11th – 15th century)

Modern Russian (from the 17th century)

Perfect/past, 1Sg.M ‘I gave’ 3Sg.M ‘he

gave’

dalъ jesmьdalъ jestь

dalъ jesmь (~ ja dalъ)dalъ — (~ onъ

dalъ)

ja dal-øon dal-ø

Perfect New past Past

Present, 3Sg ‘he gives’

da-etь daetь (~ onъ daetь) on daët

This pattern, shared with Polish, is materially different from old synthetic past tenses, but systemically it is equivalent:verb inflection distinguishes subject persons

This pattern is completely different:subject person is encoded in free pronouns

NB: The Middle-Late Old Russian column indicates the use outside of contrastive subject contexts (Zaliznjak 2008: 248 ff.)

23

Alternative hypothesis

Widely held view on the causal relations between diachronic changes (Ivanov 1982: 100 ff., Zaliznjak 1995: 153): subject pronouns expanded the domain of

their use, which made the person-marked copulae redundant and eventually led to their fall

But why would subject pronouns expand their use? This is typologically very unusual

24

Evidence of the Old Novgorod birchbark letters (www.gramoty.ru)

The first 50 letters (Zaliznjak 1995: 223 ff.) – 11th and the first half of the 12th century

Proportion of the patterns dalъ jesmь and ja dalъ – 18:5

Proportion of the patterns daetь and onъ daetь – 23:1

This probably supports the hypothesis that the expansion of subject pronouns started in the past tense and only later spread to the non-past tense

And, therefore, it is likely that the fall of person-marked copulae led to the expansion of subject pronouns, rather then the other way around

http://www.gramoty.ru/

25

Modern Russian

Hypothesis: the quantitative difference can still be observed in modern Russian: significantly more clauses without a pronominal subject in the non-past tenses

Pavlova 2011, a corpus study: results provide moderate support to this hypothesis

With subject pronoun

Without subject pronoun

Non-past 56% 44%

Past 67% 33%

Levshina (2012) performed a statistical analysis (multiple statistic regression) on Pavlova’s (2010) data

and concluded that the past tense does significantly increase the chance of using a subject pronoun (only in the main clauses)

26

© Yuri Koryakov

Potential external influences

F i n

n o

– U

g r i

cF i n n o – U

g r i c

T

u

r

k

i

c

G e

r m a

n i

c

West Slavic

B a l t i c

27

Closest candidates for external influence

Finno-Ugric Sergej Esenin:

“Rus got lost amidst the Mordva and Chud”

Turkic “Grattez le russe et vous verrez le tartare”

28

Finno-Ugric

Kuznecova (ed.) 2012 Mordvin-Erzya, Shoksha dialect Meadow Mari, Old Toryal variety Udmurt, Besermyan dialect Komi-Zyrian, Pechora dialect

Markus and Rozhanskij 2011, 2012 Vod Ingrian

29

Mordvin-Erzya er’e-st’ jon-sta <...>

live-PRT.3PL good-EL‘They lived good’

l’ad-st syn’ er’a-ma t’et’e-t’ marhtaremain-PRT.3PL they live-NZR father-DEF.GENtogether‘The remained to live with the father’

i vot er’e-t’and here live-PRS.3PL‘And so they live’

i vaga syn’ vanu-sy-z’ ...and now they see-PRS-3O.3PL.S‘And now they see...’

Pattern 1: free pronoun + bound pronoun

Pattern 2: bound pronoun

30

Ingrian (1885)

kuin möˆ nüD mää-mmä kottī how we now go-1PL home.ILL ‘How do we go home now?’

nüD taba-mma tämä-n veljä-n now kill-1PL this-GEN brother-GEN ‘Now we kill this brother’

Pattern 2: bound pronoun

Pattern 1: free pronoun + bound pronoun

31

Finno-Ugric

Wide attestation of the Russian-style system frequently: just inflection (more) frequently: free pronouns + inflection

This might be the native F-U pattern More likely, this is a result of recent Russian

influence (p.c. Finno-Ugric linguists: T. Agranat, F. Rozhanskij, massive code mixing) and/or Germanic influence in the Finnic languages

More work is needed for clarification It would be useful to include the Samoyedic

evidence into the picture And look for insight into Finno-Ugric/Uralic

syntactic reconstruction

32

Turkic

Fully-fledged bound pronoun languagesRunic Turkic (8th century), Kononov

1980: 228

arqïš ïd-maz-ø tejin sülä-di-mcaravan send-Fut.Neg-3 because campaign-Past-1Sg

‘Since he would not send caravans (with tribute), I campaigned against him’

33

Mishar Tatar (Lyutikova and Tatevosov eds. 2000 ms.) “Letter to the daughter”

mInča-nI tübän IčtagIsteambath-ACC lower end

kIrmaj rinat-lar-I-n-da ker-ä-m,Nickname Rinat-PL-3-OBL-LOC enter-ST.IPFV-1.SG ‘I go to the Rinat’s steambath at the lower end’

niček jäš-i-sen?how live-ST-2.SG ‘How are you?’

34

Baltic

The original Baltic system is not known Prussian is represented by texts with massive

syntactic influence of German (Toporov 2006: 83-84)

Among the modern languages, Lithuanian is closer to the conservative pattern, and Latvian to the Germanic/East Slavic pattern (cf. Dryer 2011)

Balode and Holvoet (2001: 10): “pervasive” German syntactic influence upon Latvian

Overall, it is unlikely that the modern Latvian system is inherited from old Baltic

Immediate contribution of the Baltic factor in the formation of the Russian system must be judged low

35

Germanic

Structurally, Germanic is a possible influence Typologically, it is a likely influence because of the

rarity of this system Historically, it is a plausible influence

Germanic was V2 already in the 6th century (Nielsen 2000) Later attested forms of Germanic were all V2 and used

subject pronouns (Faarlund 2001, 2008) Different timing for Old High German in Axel 2007, but

anyway by the 11th century the use of subject pronouns prevails

This hypothesis does not contradict the first hypothesis of internal development; they could have operated in conjunction

Is it also possible sociogeographically?

36

Analogy 1: Westernmost West Slavic

Sorbian and Kaszubian have developed the extensive use of subject pronouns

This is usually connected with German influence (Stone 1993 a, b)

In Kaszubian, similarity to Russian is enhanced due to the disappearance of copulae in the past

37

Kaszubian

jô jem chodzy-ł ~ jô chodzy-łI COP.1Sg walk-Pst I walk-Pst‘I walked’

literary, archaic form vernacular form(Dulichenko 2005: 392-393)

38

Analogy 2: heritage Russian speakers in English environment

Hollett 2011: Russian in Toronto heritage Russian speakers: the “just

inflection” pattern of subject reference is used 24% of the time

first generation speakers: 38%

Hollett attributes this difference to the intensive English contact in the case of the heritage speakers

39

Which Germanic variety? Old Norse

On the one hand, there was a strong cultural and political influence of the vikings upon Old Russia

• A large share of the Old Novgorod elite in the 11th-13th centuries was of viking descent (Gippius 2006)

On the other hand, the peak of the influence predates the time of the system shift by a few centuries

Not much Scandinavian linguistic influence is reported (cf. Dahl and Koptjevskaja-Tamm eds. 2001, Koivulehto 2002, Panzer 2002)

Low German Historically possible

• Beginning from the 13th century and onwards• Extensive German-Russian contact in the Hanseatic cities of

Novgorod and Riga (cf. Squires and Ferdinand 2002, Semenova 1977, Čekmonas 2001)

Quite likely• Sociolinguistic variables (who was bilingual, majority vs. minority,

age of acquisition, see Trudgill 2011), are yet to be specified

40

Sidorova 2012

Among the Old Russian documents, the earliest predominance of the subject pronoun pattern is attested in Polotsk letters in the 13th and 14th century

followed by Tver and Pskov, Novgorod (15th century) and finally Moscow (16th century) Note that Polotsk is situated on the same river as

Riga These letters attest to massive contact with Baltic

Germans Some documents are even written in German Further analysis of Old Russian documents, with

special attention to vernacular style

41

Integrated scenario Restructuring of the past tense morphology created the

prerequisites for the expansion of free subject pronouns Influence of contacting languages, using the free pronoun

pattern, enhanced the use of free pronouns Most likely, Germanic Perhaps, propelled by the Old Norse contact around the 11th

century Further propagated due to Hanseatic contacts in the Baltic

(13-17th c)• Through the bilingualism of the Russian minority in Riga, copying

the patterns of socially prestigious German?• Through the bilingualism of the German minority in Novgorod,

whose modified version of Russian was further imitated by native Russians?

Such combination of internal and external factors may have led to the modern Russian situation with its hybrid system

Shift to the new system started in the western area (Novgorod – Riga), later spread to the rest of the East Slavic territory

Direction for further study: Historical geography of the spread of the quasi-Germanic pattern throughout East Slavic

42

Heine’s (2008: 40) narrowing

“Such examples appear to be fairly common in situations of language contact: Speakers of the replica language select among the structural options that are available in their language the one that corresponds most closely to a structure they find in their model language. What “selection” means is that the option is used more frequently and acquires a wider range of contexts. In the end – that is, in extreme cases – this may turn out the only structure used, eliminating all the other options that used to be available”

43

Siewierska 2004: 273-274

“It is not always easy to determine whether a particular change in person marking is due to the influence of another language or to language-internal factors. <...> Consequently, some of the instances attributed to language contact <...> are necessarily of a speculative nature.”

44

Acknowledgements

Tatiana Agranat Aleksey Andronov Bernard Comrie Stephen Dickey Olga Fedorova Pavel Graschenkov Alex Holvoet Mikhail Kopotev Natalia Levshina Ekaterina Lyutikova Anna Pichxadze Fedor Rozhanskij

1 origins of the russian referential system: alternative scenarios andrej a. kibrik (institute of...

Documents