German and Russian adjectives

German and Russian adjective usage bears some (for me) unexpected
similarities.

Russian adjectives have a long form for attributive use and a short
form for predicative use. German adjectives are inflected when
used attributively, but uninflected when used predicatively.

The neuter short form of the adjective serves as the corresponding
adverb in Russian. Same for the uninflected adjective in German.

Russian uses the neuter short form for compounding purposes, German
again the uninflected adjective:

Black Sea Chyornoye more Schwarzes Meer
Black Sea Fleet Chyornomorskiy flot Schwarzmeerflotte

Is this a natural parallel development? Simple conservation of old
Indo-European usage?

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Estimation of latin words in German
    ... German seems to have rather strict linguistic ... Are either of you talking about the English I am familiar with? ... since a majority of polysyllabic adjectives in ... Oliver Cromm was looking at the etymology too. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: German and Russian adjectives
    ... > German and Russian adjective usage bears some unexpected ... > Russian adjectives have a long form for attributive use and a short ... > Russian uses the neuter short form for compounding purposes, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: German and Russian adjectives
    ... >> German and Russian adjective usage bears some unexpected ... >> Russian adjectives have a long form for attributive use and a short ... >> Russian uses the neuter short form for compounding purposes, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Russian, left-branching?
    ... From a German point of view it feels remarkably unremarkable. ... German gained or English lost this construction? ... participles are not as adjective-like in English as they are in German. ... Maybe adjectives are not expected to have complements. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Estimation of latin words in German
    ... German seems to have rather strict linguistic ... Are either of you talking about the English I am familiar with? ... since a majority of polysyllabic adjectives in ... Romance vocabulary, ...
    (sci.lang)
Quantcast