Reflexives and politeness: possessive pronouns in Russian imperative sentences.
In Russian, a specialized reflexive possessive pronoun must be used to indicate coreference between the possessor and the subject. However, it has been observed that in the first and second person plural, the reflexivization rule is often violated, and a non-reflexive possessive is used for subject...
| Published in: | Russian Linguistics Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 1 - 35 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
6/10/2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=177775404&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 177775404 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 03043487 3W1 jtl: Russian Linguistics issn: 03043487 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 6/10/2024 vid: 48 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 177775404 10.1007/s11185-024-09297-0 ppf: 1 ppct: 34 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.4MB tig: atl: Reflexives and politeness: possessive pronouns in Russian imperative sentences. aug: au: Perevozchikova, Tatiana affil: https://ror.org/03a1kwz48 Slavic Department, University of Tübingen, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074, Tübingen, Germany su: Pronouns Courtesy Random forest algorithms Verbs sug: subj: Pronouns Courtesy Random forest algorithms Verbs ab: In Russian, a specialized reflexive possessive pronoun must be used to indicate coreference between the possessor and the subject. However, it has been observed that in the first and second person plural, the reflexivization rule is often violated, and a non-reflexive possessive is used for subject coreference. Existing studies do not distinguish between singular formal and plural informal readings in the second person, assuming no difference between the two contexts. Furthermore, there is limited knowledge regarding the use of possessives in imperative contexts, as previous research has primarily focused on indicatives. This article aims to investigate the use of possessive pronouns in both formal and informal imperative contexts by addressing two questions. First, how often is a non-reflexive possessive used to indicate coreference with the subject in Russian imperative sentences? Second, what combination of semantic and pragmatic factors allows its use? Apart from the semantic factors that are well documented in the existing literature (referentiality, animacy and alienability of the possessum), we will consider three pragmatic dimensions of politeness that have not been considered so far: form or address (informal t y / formal V y ), type of imperative (speaker- / hearer-oriented) and verbal aspect (perfective / imperfective). The study analyzed the use of possessive pronouns in imperatives in the spoken subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus using generalized linear mixed models and random forests. The findings suggest that the choice of possessive is strongly influenced by the form of address (t y / V y ). When addressing the listener with the informal t y , a reflexive possessive is almost exclusively used. When addressing the listener with the formal V y , both possessives are used equally often. The choice between them depends on several factors, including the referentiality and alienability of the possessum, the type of imperative, and the verbal aspect. The non-reflexive form is preferred when the possessum is referential, the imperative is speaker-oriented, and, to a lesser extent, when the possessum is alienable and the verb is in the perfective aspect. Additionally, some verbs such as 'give' and 'show' strongly prefer a non-reflexive possessive. The results suggest that a reflexive possessive has become the default for subject coreference in Russian second person singular informal contexts. In formal contexts, however, the change is still ongoing, and a non-reflexive possessive is used to express the referential uniqueness of the possessum and to convey negative politeness towards the addressee. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Russian Linguistics is a copyright of Springer, 2024. All Rights Reserved. item: Russian Linguistics holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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