The position in the utterance and the melodic realisation of object and reflexive pronouns in classical modern literary Russian
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Olivier Azam
Abstract
The numerous studies on word order and intonation in modern Russian have primarily focused on the “weightiest” elements in the utterance, appearing to almost systematically ignore the pronouns. Yet these are among the most common words in a language. The absence of rules governing their use, in a language in which word order, though unfixed, is in no way arbitrary, poses a serious problem for the non-native speaker. By focusing on the position of object and reflexive pronouns, the current study aims to respond to this absence of critical work by presenting, in the light of the metainformative theory of centres of attention, the criteria which determine the enunciator’s choice of a particular word order and prosodic realisation. We generally distinguish two groups of pronouns complements (differentiated only by the prosodic criteria in modern Russian, though they are also morphologically distinct in Old Russian.) In place of this traditional binary opposition (tonic pronouns versus atonic pronouns) which has limited practical use, the current study proposes a more precise opposition of three types of expressed pronouns – stressed, tonic and atonic – to which must be added elliptical pronouns, particularly common in Russian. This new distinction allows a more nuanced analysis of utterances, which in turn renders it possible to prove the degree to which pragmatic strategy, word order, intonational curve and the tonic of the latter are closely linked in modern lliterary Russian.
Abstract
The numerous studies on word order and intonation in modern Russian have primarily focused on the “weightiest” elements in the utterance, appearing to almost systematically ignore the pronouns. Yet these are among the most common words in a language. The absence of rules governing their use, in a language in which word order, though unfixed, is in no way arbitrary, poses a serious problem for the non-native speaker. By focusing on the position of object and reflexive pronouns, the current study aims to respond to this absence of critical work by presenting, in the light of the metainformative theory of centres of attention, the criteria which determine the enunciator’s choice of a particular word order and prosodic realisation. We generally distinguish two groups of pronouns complements (differentiated only by the prosodic criteria in modern Russian, though they are also morphologically distinct in Old Russian.) In place of this traditional binary opposition (tonic pronouns versus atonic pronouns) which has limited practical use, the current study proposes a more precise opposition of three types of expressed pronouns – stressed, tonic and atonic – to which must be added elliptical pronouns, particularly common in Russian. This new distinction allows a more nuanced analysis of utterances, which in turn renders it possible to prove the degree to which pragmatic strategy, word order, intonational curve and the tonic of the latter are closely linked in modern lliterary Russian.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part 1. Associative semantics and meta-informative centering
- Roles and anchors of semantic situations 3
- Frames of semantic situations 21
- Grounding of the meta-informative status of utterances 41
- Attention-centered information in language 59
-
Part 2. Neuropsychological evidence for the MIC theory
- Semantic and episodic memory by reference to the ontological grounding of the old and new meta-informative status 103
- Tracing the role of memory and attention for the meta-informative validation of utterances 121
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Part 3. Meta-informative centering in languages
- It -clefts in the meta-informative structure of the utterance in Modern and Present-day English 145
- Discourse coherence and referent identification of subject ellipsis in Japanese 167
- Structure of centre of attention in a multi-party conversation in Japanese 183
- Verbal aspect in Slavic languages between semantics and pragmatics 193
- The position in the utterance and the melodic realisation of object and reflexive pronouns in classical modern literary Russian 231
- Accented and unaccented pronouns in Ancient Greek 259
- Personal subject pronouns and the meta-informative centering of utterances in classical Latin 285
- Glossary of defined terminology 297
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part 1. Associative semantics and meta-informative centering
- Roles and anchors of semantic situations 3
- Frames of semantic situations 21
- Grounding of the meta-informative status of utterances 41
- Attention-centered information in language 59
-
Part 2. Neuropsychological evidence for the MIC theory
- Semantic and episodic memory by reference to the ontological grounding of the old and new meta-informative status 103
- Tracing the role of memory and attention for the meta-informative validation of utterances 121
-
Part 3. Meta-informative centering in languages
- It -clefts in the meta-informative structure of the utterance in Modern and Present-day English 145
- Discourse coherence and referent identification of subject ellipsis in Japanese 167
- Structure of centre of attention in a multi-party conversation in Japanese 183
- Verbal aspect in Slavic languages between semantics and pragmatics 193
- The position in the utterance and the melodic realisation of object and reflexive pronouns in classical modern literary Russian 231
- Accented and unaccented pronouns in Ancient Greek 259
- Personal subject pronouns and the meta-informative centering of utterances in classical Latin 285
- Glossary of defined terminology 297
- Index 303
