Thread: A few questions about the genitive case... ?

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

Why, do you have this word in Russian as well? «интерлокютор», perhaps?

It's a useful word and it's sorely underused in the English language. We should start a campaign to bring it into common usage!

We have "собеседник", a quite usual word and a Russian-English dictionary translates it to you as "interlocutor" but English speakers seem more like to say - conversation partner, listener, person to talk to - as I take it.

Originally Posted by Romik

We have "собеседник", a quite usual word and a Russian-English dictionary translates it to you as "interlocutor" but English speakers seem more like to say - conversation partner, listener, person to talk to - as I take it.

Originally Posted by alexsms

Though, getting off topic a little bit...

Yes, I agree :]
Though Romik makes a good point about how interlocutor is understood in English.
An English speaker who uses interlocutor may just be utilizing their extensive vocabulary.
I've never come across that word in any english classes or books, so I would definitely say it's rarely used. But that doesnt mean people dont know about it at least. :]

Originally Posted by alexsms

The word 'interlocutor' is sorely underused in English. Красиво сказано, уважаемый Duck! В моём словаре даётся примечание, что слово 'interlocutor' - книжно-литературное (kind of bookish). Is it so? Though, getting off topic a little bit...

Yes, it is generally seen as a rather literary word. In fact I didn't even know this word existed until 2 or 3 years ago, and that was only because I was learning about the Platonic dialogues in my philosophy class. It just seems like a useful word that is hardly ever used, and there's no reason it shouldn't be used outside of literary contexts... other than the fact that your interlocutor might not know the word "interlocutor"

Originally Posted by Romik

conversation partner, listener, person to talk to

Yes, these expressions would be encountered more widely, but "conversational partner" and "person to talk to" aren't exactly concise, and "listener" doesn't have quite the same meaning. In fact, I think the most commonly used phrase is "the person [that] I/you/he/she/we/they am/are/is/was/were talking to", which is horribly un-concise.

(Derailing topics is getting to be a bad habit of mine...)

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

(Derailing topics is getting to be a bad habit of mine...)

Believe it or not, it's actually ok. :]

And as long as everything gets answered, who cares?

Originally Posted by OceanEyes

I had another question though.
When it comes to using the Genitive to express amounts and ownership, does it work with abstract subjects?
For example: "11 years of hard work", "2 years of sorrow" or "5 nights of dreamless sleep" "the eyes of the ocean"? (I wonder where that last one came from)

hard work, sorrow, dreamless sleep and ocean would all be in the Genitive correct?