The Case Assignment on Predicate Nouns Database allows you to calculate the frequencies of nominative and instrumental predicate nouns with the copula byt´. The query will return results showing percentages for each of the competing forms within the set of examples selected. For each time period the percentage of nominative and the percentage of instrumental forms is given. The percentages are accompanied by the raw numbers of examples extracted from the corpus. Queries may be specified with respect to time periods, individual authors, as well as morphological, syntactic and semantic parameters. Where necessary, help texts, explaining particular parameters are provided. To read these texts, hover over the question mark near the search parameter label. To modify your query, go to a respective box and select a new value (or values). All other parameters from your previous query will remain unchanged.
By default, the query will return results from the entire 200 century period covered by the database. Alternatively, you can create composite time periods based on the 20-year or 50-year slices. 50 years: This gives the figures divided into four 50-year slices from 1801 to 2000. 20 years: This gives the figures divided into ten 20-year slices from 1801 to 2000. The drop down menus allow you to combine several consecutive periods into one period. Select one of the two options: 50 years or 20 years and then specify the start and end dates. Statistics will be returned in one column for the period specified. For example, the 80-year period running from the beginning of 1861 to the end of 1940 can be examined by selecting the 20-year option and specifying From 1861-1980 To 1921-1940.
Animate nouns refer to humans (including humans in kinship relations) and non-humans (such as animals and supernatural creatures) and contrast with nouns that refer to inanimate entities. Refine your search by selecting a subset of all predicate nouns based on their animacy.
Nouns are semantically classified as concrete nouns (e.g. house), abstract nouns (e.g. friendship), mass nouns (e.g. milk) and collective nouns (e.g. furniture). Refine your search by selecting a subset of all predicate nouns based on their semantics.
Count nouns denote entities and abstract concepts that that are bounded physically and /or logically and may co-occur with numeral quantifiers (e.g., derevo ‘tree’, derevnja ‘village’, ideja ‘idea’, poezdka ‘trip’). Non-count nouns – these denote entities and abstract concepts that are unbounded physically and /or logically and normally do not co-occur with numeral quantifiers (e.g., dno ‘bottom’, pšenica ‘wheat’, svet ‘light’, poèzija ‘poetry’, myšlenie ‘thinking’ ). Refine your search by selecting a subset of all predicate nouns based on their countability.
Past, future and imperative forms are marked through affixation. Conditional meaning is expressed by a combination of the past tense form of the copula byt´ ‘to be ’ with subordinating conjunction čtoby or the particle by. Refine your search by selecting a subset of finite verbs.Non-finite Nominative – instrumental variation with the predicate noun is observed with some non-finite verbs. Refine your search by selecting a subset of non-finite verb forms.
The word order in construction with predicate nouns may vary in terms of the relative position of the verb, the predicate noun, and any nominal modifiers. Refine your search by restricting the order of the sentence constituents.
The order V-NP(predicate) occurs when the copula byt´ ‘to be’ is followed by the predicate noun phrase. This type includes clauses with overt subjects, clauses with omitted subjects, imperative clauses, impersonal constructions, secondary predicates (namely gerunds) and participles.
If the predicate noun phrase is the topic and the subject is the comment, the neutral word order is predicate noun phrase-verb. The subject follows the verb.
If the predicate noun phrase is emphasized as a whole it precedes the verb. The subject in such emphatic sentences (if it is not omitted) may occur in various positions in the clause.
If the noun phrase includes modifiers (e.g. adjectives), these precede the noun under neutral word order. To emphasize the modifier, it may be placed after the noun. This transposition often occurs with semantically bleached nouns (for example, čelovek ‘person’).
A predicate noun phrase which includes a noun with a modifier (for example adjective or a possessive pronoun) may be discontinuous ssuch that the noun and modifier are separated by other sentence components, including the verb. The order Modifier-V-N occurs when the modifier of the predicate noun precedes the verb and the predicate noun itself follows it.
A predicate noun phrase which includes a noun with a modifier (for example adjective or a possessive pronoun) may be discontinuous such that the noun and modifier are separated by other sentence components, including the verb. The order N-V-Modifier occurs when the predicate noun precedes the verb while its modifier follows the verb.
Semantically bleached predicate nouns such as čelovek ‘person’, mužčina ‘man’ and ženščina ‘woman’ can occur with modifiers to predicate properties. In such sentences the modifier's semantics is important for the interpretation of the predicate whereas the nouns themselves are semantically insignificant. Refine your query by searching only for examples with semantically bleached nouns, or exclude examples with this property from your results.
The extent of the property expressed by the predicate noun phrase may be restricted temporally by adverbs (e.g. 'yesterday...'), an adverbial (e.g. 'in my childhood...') or a subordinate clause with temporal meaning (e.g. 'when he was a doctor...'). Refine your query by searching only for examples with temporally restricted meaning, or exclude examples with this property from your results.
The author search function allows you to restrict the results returned to those examples found in works of individual or multiple authors. Leave all author names unselected to return results form the entire corpus.
To view the results of previous statistical studies on the phenomena in question, click the Statistics button at the the bottom of the form. Use a Select button to refer to a particular author, and then select a row with a conditioning factor (or with a combination of factors) for which you would like to see statistics. Please note that only one author may be selected at a time. Statistics are structured as in the original source.
