8 The Russian Adjective 217The possessive adjective has some inflections which are phonologically distinct
from other adjectives (though the paradigm shape is as for other adjectives); it has
no distinct short forms. The important point about syntax is that these possessive
adjectives can readily control a personal pronoun:
(28) I Jur-in-a masina zagom-et bez
and Jur-POSS-FEM.SG.NOM car.FEM-sc.NOM stand.idle-3.se without
nego v Gigatli
3.MASC.SG.GEN in Gigatli
'and Yura's car is standing idle without him in Gigatli'
Borscev 2001, Zajazykom, p. 70
In (28) nego 'him' is masculine singular because the possessive adjective is derived
from a masculine singular noun. This is the only control possibility of the posses-
sive adjective in Modern Russian, though formerly it had greater control possibil-
ities (see Corbett 1987 for examples, and for the remarkable case of Upper Serbian,
where the possessive adjective is an agreement controller, controlling attributive
modifiers).
In terms of usage, the distribution of the possessive adjective is also noteworthy.
Its main area of use is in colloquial use within the family and other close groups
(Koptjevskaja-Tamm and Smelev 1994 discuss its competition with the genitive).
It also has an interesting specialized role in providing specialist terms in learned
domains; examples include adamovo jabloko 'Adam's apple' and pifagorova te.ore.ma
'Pythagoras' theorem' (Brauer 1986).10.15. INTENSIFICATION
Various intensifies have adjectival properties, for instance: takoj 'such a', kakoj 'what
a' (see example (3)), and the superlative marker samyj 'the most' (see §5 above). As
noted for samyj 'the most', even when intensifying an adjective, these forms agree
as adjectives with the head noun.10.16. MODALITY
Dolzen 'must' indicates primarily deontic modality (for extended discussion see
Chvany 1975); it is used exclusively in the short form, its long form now having the
meaning 'due':
(29) On dolzen rabotat'
3.SG.MASC niUSt.3.SG.MASC WOrklNFINITIVE
'he must work'
The adjectival noun dolznoe exists, and this is used when the instrumental is required
in raising constructions. It is reasonable to treat mozno 'may, can' as a defective ad-
jective; it occurs only in the predicate, with 'non-canonical' subjects, but allows eto
'this', as in eto mozno 'this is possible'.