Contingency, Contiguity, and Capacity: On the Meaning of the Instrumental Case Marking in Copular Predicative Constructions in Russian
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Date
2020-12-08
Authors
Tretiak, Valeriia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This study investigates the use of the Instrumental case marking in copular predicative constructions in Russian. The study endeavors to explain why the case marking whose prototypical meaning cross-linguistically is that of an instrument, occurs with predicative nominals (nouns and adjectives), what meaning it has in predicative constructions, and how this meaning resonates with the rest of the Instrumental meanings in the language. While cross-linguistically the Instrumental case marking is notoriously known for a wide array of meanings and functions, only in Slavic and Baltic languages it is used to mark predicative nominals. On a broader scale, I use the Russian Instrumental case marking as a case study to examine the internal organization of a complex grammatical category.
The study uses the prototype model based on Wittgenstein’s (1953) family resemblance to establish semantic relatedness among the various meanings of the Instrumental case marking. The study also proposes a general meaning of the Instrumental case marking, which I define in cognitive terms as relations of contingency and contiguity.
Using evidence from Early East Slavic manuscripts, the study demonstrates that the Instrumental case marking in predicative constructions has as its semantic source the Instrumental case marking in similative constructions. I propose that besides denoting the manner of motion, the referent of the Instrumental noun phrase in similative constructions also denotes a new capacity of the subject referent which emerges when the subject referent metaphorically adopts the most salient features associated with the referent of the Instrumental noun phrase, that is, its particular manner of motion. This emerging capacity is contiguous with and contingent on the specific mode of acting.
In predicative constructions, the referent of the Instrumental noun phrase is a capacity, as opposed to an inherent or essential property, of the subject referent and is realized through acting/ performance. That acting/ performance is crucial in delimitating Nominative vs. Instrumental-marked properties in predicative constructions is supported by the semantic unacceptability of the Instrumental case marking in instances where the implied acting is negated in the conjunct clause.
Capacity is a role which has its designated function and purpose. Function links the meaning “capacity” with the meaning “instrument”. Inasmuch as function is what delimitates instruments from other physical objects, function is what tells apart, respectively, capacities from properties in Instrumental vs. Nominative predicative constructions.
That all the individual meanings of the Russian Instrumental case marking, including its meaning in predicative constructions, are interrelated and form a coherent grammatical category is further corroborated by the analysis of Instrumental constructions with predicative nouns and adjectives.