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An adjective phrase that can be placed only before or only after the word or phrase it modifies is described as “premodif” (premodifier) or “postmodif” (postmodifier), respectively.

An adjective phrase that is used as a subject-complement with a plural subject only is listed in the pluraclass="underline" ОДНИМ МИРОМ МАЗАНЫ ‘tarred with the same brush’. An adjective phrase used as a subject- or object-complement is described similarly to a noun phrase used in these functions. For example, HE ЛИШНЕЕ (НЕ ЛИШНЕ) ‘it wouldn’t be (such) a bad idea (to do sth.)’ is described as:

[AdjP; subj-compl with быть0 (subj: usu. infin or a clause) or obj-compl with находить, считать (1st var. only, obj: usu. deverbal noun or infin)]

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Verb Phrases

A verb phrase is described as “VP” when it can be used in all or at least some finite and non-finite forms: ВЛЕЧЬ/ПОВЛЕЧЬ ЗА СОБОЙ что ‘lead to (sth.)’.

Verbal idioms that function as predicates require that a subject (and often an object or objects) be added to them to create a complete utterance. To help the user apply such idioms actively, the grammatical brackets indicate the type(s) of sub-ject(s) and, if relevant, object(s) with which the given idiom is used: human noun, personal or geographical name, animal noun, collective noun, concrete noun (understood as denoting a thing), abstract noun, infinitive, and clause. For example, B-196 ЛИТЬ ВОДУ НА МЕЛЬНИЦУ чью, кого ‘be grist to s.o.‘s mill’ has a human or abstract subject and is described as “VP; subj: human or abstr.” When an idiom can be used only with a specific thematic group or a limited number of nouns as subjects and/or objects, this restriction is indicated:

K-116 • КАШИ ПРОСЯТ... [VP; subj: a noun denoting heavy, sturdy footwear or individual parts of shoes.] s.o.‘s boots (shoes etc) are in bad condition, in need of repair. K-97 • СТАВИТЬ/ПОСТАВИТЬ НА КАРТУ что [VP; subj: human or collect; obj: abstr (usu. жизнь, честь etc)] to risk one’s life, reputation, security etc in the hope of winning or gaining sth.

Д-7 • ДАВАТЬ/ДАТЬ СЕБЯ ЗНАТЬ. [VP; subj: abstr or concr.] to manifest itself, become noticeable. P-170 • НА РОДУ НАПИСАНО. [AdjP; subj-compl with быть0 (subj: infin or a clause).] sth. is predestined, preordained for s.o.

Restrictions are provided for verb phrases and sentences that are used only or usually in the specified tense-aspect and/or person form(s):

K-117 • МАЛО КАШИ ЕЛ/СЪЕЛ. [.2nd or 3rd pers; past only.] one is (too) inexperienced, young etc (for sth.).

B-225 • НЕДОРОГО (НЕ ДОРОГО) ВОЗЬМЁТ.

[.fut only.] one will do sth. (sth. bad, reprehensible, as denoted by the preceding verb) readily, without hesitation. K-46 • КАМЕНЬ. С ДУШИ (С СЕРДЦА) СВАЛИЛСЯ у кого [.usu. past] s.o. experienced a sense of relief, felt liberated from his worries.

Some idioms are used only or predominantly in the generic «ты» form, perfective future. This feature is indicated in the grammatical brackets, along with the verb form itself:

K-35 • КАЛАЧОМ НЕ ЗАМАНИТЬ. [.usu. fut gener. 2nd pers sing не заманишь .] to be unable by any means to convince s.o. to go to some place or see s.o..

In those rare instances in which a verbal idiom consists of two verb forms, only one of which conjugates, the grammatical brackets specify “only verb conjugates”:

Д-329 • И ДУМАТЬ ЗАБЫТЬ. [.only забыть conjugates.] to stop thinking about s.o. or sth..

Some infinitival idioms do not act as regular verb phrases in that they do not conjugate and are used only as the complement of given predicates. The entries for such idioms indicate the type of predicates with which the idiom can be used. For example, С-318 ДВУХ СЛОВ СВЯЗАТЬ, which is not used as a regular verb phrase, is presented as follows:

С-318 • ДВУХ СЛОВ СВЯЗАТЬ не мочь, не уметь и

т.п. [VP; infin subj-compl with не мочь, не уметь (subj: human)] to be unable to speak or express one’s thoughts coherently .

Verb phrases that are often or most commonly used in the third-person plural with an omitted subject are described as “3rd pers pl with indef. refer.” For example, К-174 ПУСКАТЬ/ПУСТИТЬ КОЗЛА В ОГОРОД is such an idiom, and has the above grammatical description as well as the following illustrative pattern:

пустили козла в огород — they put the cow to mind the corn; they put the wolf in charge of the sheep.

Idioms Functioning as Adverbials

Idioms that function as adverbials are divided into two groups based on their function. The first group, labeled “adv” (adverbial), comprises adverbials of manner, time, space, degree, cause, etc. The second group, labeled “sent adv” (sentence adverbial), comprises adverbial idioms that refer to the sentence or clause as a whole and are syntactically more detached from the elements of the sentence than adverbials belonging to the first group. Sentence adverbials may do the following:

* Indicate a manner of speaking (МЯГКО ВЫРАЖАЯСЬ ‘putting it mildly’

* Express an emotion or a value judgment (К НЕСЧАСТЬЮ ‘unfortunately’; НА ДЕЛЕ ‘in deed’)

* Convey modality (ОТКРОВЕННО ГОВОРЯ ‘frankly speaking’)

* Anticipate the possibility that something might happen (ЧЕГО ДОБРОГО ‘for all one knows, s.o. (sth.) might.’)

* Emphasize a statement or one of its parts (ЕСЛИ ХОТИТЕ ‘if you will’; МОЖНО СКАЗАТЬ ‘one might say’)

* Play an organizing role in a text or speech in various ways:

1) by connecting two halves of a statement by means of a contrast (С ОДНОЙ СТОРОНЫ. С ДРУГОЙ СТОРОНЫ. ‘on the one hand. on the other [hand]’)

2) by marking a transition to a new topic (КСТАТИ СКАЗАТЬ ‘incidentally’)

3) by introducing a summary (В ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ ‘in conclusion’), a specification (К ПРИМЕРУ ‘for example’), a result (В РЕЗУЛЬТАТЕ ‘as a result’), and so forth.

Most of the idioms used as adverbials or sentence adverbials cannot change in form and are therefore described as “Invar; adv,” “Invar; sent adv,” “these forms only; adv,” or “these forms only; sent adv.”

The grammatical brackets note when an idiom functioning as an adverbial occurs only or mainly with one verbal aspect:

B-12 • ВДОЛЬ И ПОПЕРЁК. 1. [more often used with pfv verbs] .far and wide.

Г-48 • ВО ВСЕ ГЛАЗА. [.used with impfv verbs.] .all eyes.

There are some idiomatic Russian adverbials which, although positive in form and used with non-negated verbs, are negative in meaning; each such adverbial is described as “neg intensif” (negative intensifier). For example, разбираться. в чём КАК СВИНЬЯ В АПЕЛЬСИНАХ, literally ‘to under-

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stand sth. like a pig understands oranges’, means ‘to understand absolutely nothing (with regard to sth.)’.

Adverbials used only with a negated predicate are described as “used with negated verbs.” This group of idioms consists mainly of НИ idioms such as НИ ЗА КАКИЕ БЛАГА (В МИРЕ) ‘not for anything (in the world)’. The definitions for these idioms include an English negation (usually “not”), which corresponds to the combination of HE and НИ.