The reference system in non-literary varieties of Russian

Abstract

AbstractThe term ‘non-literary varieties of Russian’ refers to Russian spoken by people with little or no exposure to the literary language be it through schools, newspapers, radio, or extensive personal contacts. The coding means participating in the reference system of non-literary Russian include: bare nouns and bare nominal expressions, i.e. adjectives, numerals, quantifiers; pronouns; a three-gender system; a two-number system; coding of the person, number, and gender of the subject on the verb in the present tense; coding of the number and gender of the subject on the verb in the past tense; demonstratives; and a case system applying to all nominal categories including pronouns, demonstratives, and quantifiers. Some of these coding means are dedicated means of coding references, such as the gender system, coding on the verb, nouns, pronouns, and demonstratives, and others are dedicated coding means for other functions. Some of the functions within the reference system include no instructions to identify the referent and an unknown human and unknown non-human participant in the proposition. The number of functions through which the subject participant can be identified is larger than the number of functions through which the object participant can be identified. With respect to the reference coded within noun phrases, the non-literary variety of Russian is unique in that the system of determiners instructs the listener to identify the referent as relevant to current discourse based on the content of the preceding discourse. The traditional distinction between ‘proximate’ and ‘remote’ does not account for the function of determiners.