Concord in Russian close appositional constructions: a quantitative study

Abstract

The paper discusses case concord in Russian appositional constructions, which manifests itself in optional case concord of the proper name (v rek-e_LOC Don-e_LOC/ v rek-e_LOC Don_NOM ‘in the river Don’). The study provides an in-depth corpus analysis of more than 15,000 examples, using a logistic regression statistical model to predict the choice between presence and absence of concord. The results indicate concord is most likely to occur in constructions with structurally simple and frequent proper names that exhibit adjectival properties and match the common noun in grammatical gender. Proper names with the Goal semantic role show concord with a higher probability than proper names with other roles. It is proposed that all relevant factors refer to frequency or convenience. A diachronic investigation shows that concord has become a much less preferred option over time. It is argued that concord is of low functional significance, therefore its gradual loss over time is expected.