La proposition élidée en russe

Abstract

Ellipsis of the Preposition in Contemporary Russian In noun phrases either coordinated by juxtaposition or by means of coordinating conjunctions, the preposition introducing each Noun Phrase is always present before the first, whereas it can be dropped before the second. Our study shows that the semantic value of the ellipsis depends on the type of coordination used: by collocation or through coordinating conjunction, so that we have to consider four different patterns; moreover, with coordination through coordinating conjunction the non-ellipsis of the preposition is stylistically marked. From another standpoint the ellipsis of the préposition in coordinated NP’s allows us better to define for contemporary Russian compound semantical units, comparable to composita of the «dvandva» type (see xleb-soľ). It play s the role of a semantic-syntactic marker, in the same way as univerbation, composition, or agreement of the prepositive attributive with the first noun in a string of two or more coordinated nouns. Finally, in can be considered that the development of ellipsis of the preposition in coordinated NP’s reminds us in some way of its being dropped before the determined term inside NP’s where the preposition was formerly used twice (see s samoj s xozjajkoj) or in some colloquial word-combinations. All these facts do not agree with the so-called «analytic tendency» of contemporary Russian.