This thesis focuses on Russian case syntax, more particularly on variable verbal government (rection) in the period 1800-1840. Variable rectional patterns in two major groups are examined: non-prepositional and prepositional rection. The period under examination coincides with the establishment of the literary norm.
As the aim is to examine the usage of the spoken language among the educated classes in Nineteenth-Century Russia, an extensive body of material consisting of letters, diaries, memoirs and plays has been used.
An important place is assigned to the historical background of the rection of the verbs examined. The reasons for variation between case forms are analysed and contrasted with the conclusions of nineteenth-century philologists. Various factors which influenced Russian verbal rection during this period, including the syntactic influence of French, are analysed. This has never been done before in a systematic way.
Conclusions about the predominant as the more infrequent rectional patterns are supported by statistics on the incidence of all the various rectional patterns.
The study shows that:
- the majority of verbs during this period had modern rectional patterns;
- the obvious cases of variation were exhibited in the period 1800-1820;
- the exhibited variation was in most cases inherited from earlier epochs.