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I have discovered that making a communicative wishing constructions (like in 'have a good trip' or 'merry Christmas') in Russian, they use different structures depending on perfectiveness/imperfectiveness of an action. E.g. an object to wish takes different case forms, either Instrumental or Genitive, depending on perfectiveness or imperfectiveness of an action:

  1. Счастливого Рождества! (Merry Xmas!) Хорошего Нового Года! ([have] a good NY!) Удачной поездки! (покупки, обновки, etc.) (= 'Have a nice journey/purchase/new clothes item, etc.) All the nouns are in Genitive (plus a mandatory adjective).

  2. С Рождеством! (Merry Xmas!)С Новым Годом! ([have] a good NY!)С возвращением (поездкой, покупкой, обновкой, etc.). (= '[what a] nice journey/purchase/new clothes item, etc.) All the nouns are in the Instrimentive case, no adjective (with the exception of 'New' in the 'New Year') are obligatory.

If we consider the event structures of the wishing phrases, we notice that the items from the Paragraph 2 describe future events, while the phrases from the Paragraph 1 describe, mostly, things yet-to-come.

It can be concluded therefore that there is a kind of 'tacit knowledge' in Russian regarding perfectiveness/imperfectiveness of events, which is not communicated by verbs, but rather by cases.

Is this the only example, or are there any other examples of 'tacit perfectiveness/imperfectiveness' of events which are not presented by verbs?

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  • What's the difference between your "future events" and "things yet-to-come?"
    – Alex B.
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 14:38
  • Event structures are marked by verbs and 'things-yet-to-come' are nouns.
    – Manjusri
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 20:28

1 Answer 1

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The main reason for the phrases in the Paragraph 1 to be in the Genitive case, and the phrases in the Paragraph 2 to have "c + the Instrumental case" pattern is that all those phrases are elliptical, the verbs are missing in them.

When we speak about a future event, we wish it will be happy, and the Russian for "I/we wish" is "желаю/желаем", this verb takes an object in the Genitive case. "Счастливого Рождества!" is short for "Желаю счастливого Рождества!"

When we speak about a past action, we can only congratulate with it, and the Russian for "I/we congratulate" is "поздравляю/поздравляем", this verb takes an object with the preposition "c" (with) followed by a noun in the Instrumental case. "С Рождеством!" is short for "Поздравляю с Рождеством!"

It depends only on the verb which is missing, which form the greeting takes, it is the verbs that can refer to the future or past, not noun phrases. Those events are, actually, presented by verbs.

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  • Both желать and поздравлять are imperfect verbs. Therefore, I think your answer is not satisfactory, because the perfectiveness/imperfectiveness in the examples is marked by noun cases, not by the legendary 'elliptical' phrases you have mentioned. Hence, the answer implicates inner logical contradictions and events are not described by verbs.
    – Manjusri
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 8:37
  • Only imperfective verbs are used in the present tense in Russian, the perfective counterparts of the verbs can mean only past or future. But if we use the perfective verbs here, the cases won't change, which means that the verbs, not the cases, bear the sense of perfectiveness/imperfectiveness: "Желаю счастливого Рождества!" vs. "Пожелаю счастливого Рождества!", "Поздравляю с Рождеством!" vs. "Поздравил с Рождеством."
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 9:49
  • This means that verbs don't make much difference, whilest the cases do. Hence, the perfectiveness in these phrases is marked by nouns, not by verbs.
    – Manjusri
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 10:48
  • If so, why both perfective and imperfective verbs can be used in the past and future in such sentences, with different aspect meaning? "Поздравил с Рождеством" is perfective, "Поздравлял с Рождеством" is undoubtedly imperfective.
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 12:44
  • Because event structures are marked with case endings, and because verbs don't embody event structure here, that's why.
    – Manjusri
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 15:50

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