Thread: покрывать собой

Originally Posted by Soft sign

The verb «покрывать» (“to cover”) is trivalent: ‘S covers O with I’.

Though you can easily see that in all cases of usage "покрывать" with I it has very different meaning, namely it means an action "S is putting I onto O" while without I it means a static state "S is positioned on O". Mixing those two constructions is just wrong and weird in my feeling. "Forests are putting themselves on..."?

Originally Posted by it-ogo

"Forests are putting themselves on..."?

«Звук произносится» is literally “Sound pronounces itself”. The same thing.
This is a feature of Russian grammar, this is not wrong.
(IMHO)

Originally Posted by Soft sign

«Звук произносится» is literally “Sound pronounces itself”. The same thing.
This is a feature of Russian grammar, this is not wrong.
(IMHO)

My point is: it is correct grammatically but wrong semantically. "Земли покрываются лесами" and "Леса покрывают земли" mean different things. First is a process, second is a condition (mostly).

Originally Posted by it-ogo

My point is: it is correct grammatically but wrong semantically. "Земли покрываются лесами" and "Леса покрывают земли" mean different things. First is a process, second is a condition (mostly).

Yes, you're right.
«Земли покрываются лесами» is definitely a process.
«Леса покрывают земли» — either condition or process.
«Леса покрывают собой земли» — either condition or process.

In other words, in this sentence, if one aims to apply the verb in an accurate way, one not only needs the accusative, but the instrumental as well (Чем покрвывает ... ?). The answer would be собой.

Makes sense now. Interesting case. Thx for further explanations.

Originally Posted by Cumulus

In other words, in this sentence, if one aims to apply the verb in an accurate way, one not only needs the accusative, but the instrumental as well

"Собой" is not required. It's optional provided that it is correct. I think we only can use "собой" if "покрывает" means that something lays on something else and covers it. In the example sentence it has a slightly different meaning. It means that something is spread over all area.

Aight, I'll bear in mind that it remains optional under certain circumstances. Thx.