The Use of Non-Prepositional Case in the Old Russian NP: Structure and Changes by Hanne Martine Eckhoff (review)

Abstract

Reviews Eckhoff,Hanne Martine. 7The Use ofNfon-Prepositional Casein theOldRussianNP. Structure and Changes.Meddelelser, 85. Slavisk-BaltiskAvdeling, Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo, 200I. I48 pp. Tables. Notes. References. Index. Price unknown. THE aims of this work, the author tells us, are: to provide a synchronic descriptionof the syntaxof the Old Russian noun phrase (NP) at three stages of development; to undertakea diachronic analysis of the role of case in the Old Russian NP; to explore the roots and progress of change. The texts surveyed are a varied and valid sample from I000-I200 (the Kiev period), I 200- I400 (periodof decay duringthe Mongolian invasions),and I400- I630 (period of unification under Moscow). Genres represented include legal, hagiographic,homiletic and narrativetexts. Eckhoff's analysis of the material employs a model devised by M. A. K. Halliday as part of a total syntactic frameworkcalled functional grammar. The noun phrase is treated as having a simple logical structure,consisting of head and modifier; its experiental structure, we are told, is linear, and is divided into six different types of elements: Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier,Thing and Qualifier,with the Thing as the semanticcore of the NP. These are notional categories with no perceptible grounding in phonology or morphology, which the traditional philologist may suspect of doubtful analyticalvalidityand dubiousinferentialvalue. The subtlety required in applying the system is illustrated by 'materne mleko' (example no. 2.17), 'mother's milk', where the adjective is to be classifiedas Deictic if referringto an identifiablemother but Classifierif used in a general sense; the answer depends on the researcher's reading of the context. Each numbered example is given the same three-line layout: phrase quoted, explanatoryparsing,editorialinterpretation.The latteris exemplified by 'sosudy zelejnyja' (3.I 25), rendered by the functional 'vessels with gunpowder', in preference to the literal 'gunpowder vessels' or the free idiomatic 'powder barrels'.To justify classificationas metaphoricallypossessiveDeictic , the phrase 'gnevnyjtvojplamen"isrenderedas 'theflameof your wrath'(2.9); without re-readingIlarion'sSermon onLaw andGrace,one feelsthat 'thy wrathful flame' would be an adequate, if not preferable alternative. However, function must overrideother considerationsin thiswork. One is grateful to the author for the collation and classification of this material, with its strikingrevelation of the multiple semantic functions of the denominal adjective: 'zertvena krov' (2. I), 'zavist' Ijudejska'(2. I), 'gnevnyj plamen" (2.9), 'svjascenniceskijcin' (2.20), and its competition with genitive and dative constructions. Many of the examples have, in form and content, the flavourof Church Slavonic devotional literature.Whether these are to be regarded as authentic representativesof the Old Russian state of affairsis a difficultproblem, beyond the reasonable scope of this work. Eckhoffadmits the possible role of language contact, in particularof Greek and Old Church Slavonic, but also of Uralic. It will be interesting to see the results of any furtherresearchshe undertakesin thisfield. REVIEWS 303 Most of the material used has come from fairly recent twentieth-century editions. Among the few nineteenth-century sources cited is Archimandrit Leonid, Povest'o Cargrade(jegoosnovanii i vzjatiiTurkami v 1453 godu),Saint Petersburg, i886. This is the source of a quotation referring to Mefodij Patoromskj (2.28) here rendered as 'Methodius of Patorom'. Sreznevskij, Gudzijand othershave the more orthodox formPatarskij, denoting the fourthcentury bishop Methodius of Patara in Lycia, who wrote a work called The Banquet, modelled on Plato's Symposium, extolling Christian virginity. Archimandrite Leonid or his informant may have deformed the surname by the ingestion of an alien morpheme, namely the genitive plural inflection-on in GreekPataron. London H. LEEMING Smyth, Sarah and Crosbie, Elena V. RUS'. A Comprehensive Course in Russian. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002. xvii + 697 pp. Figures. Tables. Illustrations.Indexes. ?95.oo; ?34.95. Accompanying cassette, ? i6.95. IT is a truism of foreign language teaching that there is no such thing as the perfect textbook. Teachers of all languages are accustomed to skip or adapt the contents of their course manuals and supplement them with their own materials. For a less commonly taught language such as Russian where the choice of textbooks is comparatively limited, these practices are routine, especially for the university language tutor, for whom materials aimed at GCSE learners or business travellersare not suitable. It is surelywith this in mind that Sarah Smyth and...