Книг пять vs Книг – пять: валентностный анализ(Knig pjat' vs Knig – pjat': A Valency Analysis)

Abstract

This study is an attempt to perform a valency analysis of two Russian constructions which differ only on the suprasegmental level: the noun phrase knig pjat' (‘approximately five books') and the sentence Knig - pjat' (‘As to books, there are five of them'). In the semantic representation of the NP the additional meaning indicated in the translation is accounted for by the introduction of a suprasegmental one-place predicate <INV> (inversion), taking the numeral as its argument. In the sentence, the pause signals a contrastive meaning (‘books, as opposed to, for instance, jour- nals'). Of more interest and importance, however, is the enigmatic use of genitive plural also in combinations with the numerals 2-4, which other- wise take the genitive singular. It is suggested that numerals take two ar- guments, one naming the actual set of, for instance, five books, the other naming the set of all possible books. As a rule, the bigger set is expressed by means of a preposition phrase, but in this particular construction it is expressed by the initial genitive plural form.