30 



Negation(continued) 



Bh IleTpOB? HeT. "Are you Petrov?" "No." 



TaM HGT CTOJIOB. "There are no tables there. 



In the last example there is illustrated the use of the genitive case after hbt , as is the 

 situation also after verbs negated with He. 



The M_. . .w. . which mean "both. . .and. . . " in positive statements become hm. . .hh. . . 

 "neither 77. nor. , ." in negative statements. 



Double Negation 



In contrast to the situation in standard English, the doubling of negative words 

 serves only to intensify the negation. An example: 



fl HHKOrfla HMKOWy HM^erO He flasaJI. "I never gave anything to anybody." 



[lit.: I never to nobody nothing didn't give.] 



This repetition of negatives is also a feature of sub -standard English, and the English 

 sentence in brackets above would be, with a different word -order, no stranger to the 

 ears of English-speakers. 



Questions 



Questions are formed in Russian by the use of question words("who", "when", etc.), 

 by placing the verb before the subject with or without the question particle Jra, or by 

 using the statement order with question intonation(Spoken Russian) . 



statement: Oh SHaST ypOK. "He knows the lesson." 



Question: KtO 3HaeT ypOK? "Vftio knows the lesson." 



SnaeT JIM oh ypOH? "Does he know the lesson?" 



BnaeT oh ypoH? 



Oh 3HaeT ypon? [Spoken Russian] " 



JIM, which indicates a question, appears in second position in the sentence or in third, if 

 the verb is negated; in indirect questions jim may best be translated by "whether". 



fl He snaiO, npHfleT JIH Ona. "I don't know, whether she'll come." 



Use of CBoK, CBoe, cboa , . . . 



The usage of this possessive adjective may best be shown by the following series of 

 short statements: 



fl fleJiaiO \ "I do _my work." 



Th fleJiaenib I -You do your work." 



OH/OHa/OHO fleJiaeT I "He/She/It does his/her/its work." 



\ CBOK) pa6oTy. 



Mh flBJiaeM ( "V;e do our work." 



Bh flBJiaeTe \ "You do your work." 



Ohk flBJiaiOT I "They do their work." 



Russian distinguishes explicitly between "his" and "his own", "her" and "her own", "their" 

 and "their own". Observe the following contrasts: 



Oh flBJiaeT arc paSOTy. "He is doing his[i.e. another's] work." 



Oh flBJiaeT CBOK) pafiOTy. ■ "He " " his(-own) work." 



Ona HaflesaeT ee. injinny. "She puts on her[i.e. another's] hat." 



Ona HaflBBaeT CBOK) lUJIflny. "She " " her(-own) hat." 



