The abstract noun genitive / accusative case choice in transitive verbs under negation (corpus study of constructions with verbs davat', nakhodit', obnaruzhivat')

The object case choice in transitive verbs under negation is one of problem questions in modern Russian linguistics. Modern grammars and reference books in Russian recommend to use abstract nouns in negative constructions in the genitive case. The reason for the recommendation is the stable character of constructions with abstract nouns for the firmer stability inside of the construction. But the reason could be not only in the construction stability. One of the alternative reasons is that many constructions with abstract nouns constitute descriptive predicates (ne daet otveta = ne otvechaet [gives no answer = does not answer]). In such a construction the semantics of the action is expressed by a noun, and grammatical characteristics are expressed by a verb-compensator which plays a supporting role. Since the function of semantic and grammatical meaning expression in descriptive predicates is distributed between parts of the construction, the relationship between them is as strong as the link between form and content in any language sign. In other words, two constructions overlap: the negative and the descriptive predicates. Hence the predominance of examples with the genitive case takes place. The genitive case ending in noun in this case is a way to demarcate the construction "ne [not] + verb + noun", while its beginning is marked by a negative particle. A verb and a noun in a descriptive predicate refer to the same subject. That is why these structures with descriptive predicates are referred to as one-subject constructions. The same mechanism works in constructions like ne nakhodit otveta [does not find an answer]: they can also be replaced by a single verb, but in a passive form; this is the same descriptive predicate, but "reverse", "conversive". The verb and the noun in the "conversive" descriptive predicate, like in the ordinary one, belong to the same subject, but the subject is the object rather than the subject. The accusative case in descriptive predicates under negation can be considered as a consequence of the tendency to analytism in language. The construction begins to be considered by native speakers not as a whole, but as parts that are brought together. Therefore, there is no need to mark the boundaries of the construction, its elements are much more important. Negative constructions with a verb and an abstract noun do not constitute a descriptive predicate (ne uslyshal otveta [did not hear the answer]), the genitive case is a consequence of non-existence presupposition: if no response is heard, it probably does not exist. At the same time, the verb and the noun refer to different subjects: one subject responds while the other one hears the answer. These constructions are referred to as two-subject constructions. The accusative case appears in two-subject constructions when the author wants to mark the referential status of an object. The study deals with examples taken from the National Corpus of the Russian Language for 2000-2015 with verbs davat' [give], nakhodit' [find] and obnaruzhivat' [discover] that in combination with abstract nouns allow both types of the construction. The examples of both groups mostly contain genitive nouns, but it is caused by different reasons, like accusative ones.

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