8 The Russian Adjective 209(15) Vs-e star-oe plox-o, vs-e
all-NEUT.SG old-(Lp)NEUT.SG bad-(sp).NEUT.SG all-NEUT.SG
nov-oe xoros-o
neW-(Lp)NEUT.SGgOod-(sp).NEUT.SG
'all the old (all that is old) is bad, all the new is good'
Uppsala corpus, text XGGROIOI
Finally, morphological adjectives maybe lexicalized as nouns, to varying degrees
(see §11.2).7.4. SECOND ARGUMENT
Several adjectives can take a second argument, either in an oblique case, or with
a preposition: polnyj (plus genitive) 'full of, blagodarnyj (plus dative) grateful to',
poxozij (plus na plus accusative) 'similar to'. Such adjectives, when in copula com-
plement function, are likely to appear in the short form (§7.1). If an adjective with
a second argument occurs within the noun phrase it is usually postposed (§7.2).
A very few adjectives can take an accusative (without preposition) when in their
default form (neuter singular short form): nuzno 'necessary', slysno 'audible', and
vidno 'visible' are examples.
7.5. PARAMETER OF COMPARISON
The means of forming comparatives were described in §5. Given a synthetic com-
parative, the object of comparison is normally in the genitive case (as in (14)
above). The alternative is cem 'than plus the noun phrase in the case justified by its
syntactic position. If the comparative is in attributive position (hence it is analyt-
ic), only cem 'than' is possible.7.6. AGREEMENT WITH HYBRID CONTROLLERS
This agreement phenomenon is of special relevance here, because it gives a delicate
measure of the position of the adjective in comparison with noun and verb. Com-
rie (1975:406) claimed that verb and noun represent two poles of a continuum 'with
individual languages having different specific categories along this continuum'. His
evidence was drawn from plural pronouns used politely of a single interlocutor.
These are often hybrid controllers, that is, the agreements they take depend in part
on the target. Comrie's data demonstrated that syntactic (formal) agreement is most
likely when the target is a verb, then for the participle, then for the adjective, and is
least likely for the noun. A detailed investigation of the Slavonic family confirmed
Comrie's claim (Corbett 1983:56; 1998). Russian is of particular interest preciselybe-
cause of the two adjectival forms. With honorific vy, non-past verbs, the past parti-
ciple, and the short form adjective show syntactic agreement:
(16) Vy vid-ite
2.PL see-2.PL
'you see'