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, journals’). Of more interest and importance, however, is the enigmatic use of genitive plural also in combinations with the numerals 2-4, which otherwise take the genitive singular. It is suggested that numerals take two arguments, 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.