Specific restrictions on the use of byt’-passive in Russian: The reality restriction

RHEMA. 2023. No. 4. P. 101–116.

A. Letuchiy

The article focuses on  a  specific restriction on  the  use of  Russian past

passive forms with an  auxiliary (byl postroen ‘was built’, byla svarena ‘was

cooked’) in  embedded clauses. These forms are  known to  differ from

forms without an  auxiliary (postroen ‘is/was built’, svarena ‘is/was cooked’)

by the absence of resultative meaning component. However, it turns out that

other restrictions exist: forms with byt’ in embedded clauses disfavor irreality

and repeatedness contexts. I explain this saying that in general, forms with

an explicit for of byt’ prefer to be used when the situation has taken place

in reality (this generalization also excludes repeated action contexts, because

they do  not refer to  a  specific realized situation). I  make a  preliminary

conclusion that this generalization also manifests itself in  independentc lauses. No  reality-based restrictions are  valid for passive forms without an auxiliary.

Keywords: ирреальность, повторяемость, пассивный залог, irrealis, passive voice, repeatedness