Proper use of ничто when answering

Question

This question might arise from a misunderstanding from my part, but here I am to solve it once and for all.

From my russian courses, I remember my classmates answering "ничего" to questions meaning "Nothing" or something similar.

Now, given that this is a genitive, where the nominative is ничто, what should I answer to a question like "что ты делаешь?"?

Also, what about a question like "what's wrong?".

When you ask what's wrong and get an answer "ничего", it means nothing's wrong. But you can also answer ничего when asked "How are you?" meaning "I'm OK" or "So-so". — Armen Tsirunyan, Jun 18 '12 at 18:01

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:26

7

Now, given that this is a genitive, where the nominative is ничто, what should I answer to a question like "что ты делаешь?"?

Normally you would put an object into accusative rather than nominative in this sentence:

Что ты делаешь? Свою работу / What are you doing? My job.

Ничто is a negative inanimate pronoun, which, according to the Russian grammar rules, requires a double negative (Я ничего не делаю / I'm doing nothing). A negative verb accepts an object in genitive (as well as accusative) where a positive verb would only accept an object in accusative.

Compare:

Кого он тебе дал? Одну собаку. А кого он дал тебе? Не дал ни одной собаки. (= не дал ни собаки, = не дал собаки, = не дал собаку)
Что он тебе дал? Один рубль. А что он дал тебе? Не дал ни одного рубля (= не дал ни рубля, = не дал рубля, = не дал рубль).

The latter forms (не дал рубль / не дал рубля) have a slight thematic/rhematic nuance: it's rouble he haven't given me / he haven't given me a rouble.

Also, what about a question like "what's wrong?".

Pronouns in genitive can also be what Rosenthal calls грамматические эквиваленты именительного падежа подлежащего (grammatical equivalents of subjects' nominative):

Ничего мне не идёт. There's nothing that fits me.
Пусть его идёт. Let him go.

The former sentence is literary, the latter is quite vernacular (though can be regarded an idiom).

The latter may sound quite peculiar, but it's heavily used both in the literature an in common speech:

Ну, уж это пусть его радуется как ему нравится: нам его жалеть нечего

Н. С. Лесков. Томленье духа (1890)

Пусть его купается в лучах славы.

Татьяна Устинова. Большое зло и мелкие пакости (2003)

Ничто would be properly used in the following cases:

To describe a philosophical category of nothing (where English word nullness or voidness would be used). Usually not declined: Киркегор "открыл в себе и в других безотчётный… страх… страх перед Ничто"
To oppose nominative and genitive in the same sentence: Ничто не возникает из ничего (Ничего не возникает из ничего is also grammatical though quite unclear).
In more formal speech, when using proper nominative instead of genitive acting as nominative: Что такое армия без крепкого тыла? Ничто. (Ничего would make the sentence more colloquial, though perfectly grammatical too)
In idioms: ничто не вечно под луной.

All examples are from the Russian Corpus.

edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:26

Community

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answered Jun 18 '12 at 10:55

Quassnoi

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Thank you! In the first examples, you never used "Ничто", could you include that in your examples so it's clearer? Thanks :) – Alenanno Jun 18 '12 at 11:05
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I am rather curious what "Пусть его идет" means? Russian equivalent of "Let him go" would be "Пусть уходит". Where the pronoun is implied. – Karlson Jun 18 '12 at 13:45
@Karlson: пусть идёт, пусть он идёт and пусть его идёт all mean the same (the latter implies vernacular connotations but heavily used both in literature and common speech) – Quassnoi Jun 18 '12 at 13:51
@Quassnoi Пусть идет, Пусть он идет could be used but it will never be used в Родительном или Винительном падежах to indicate an action that the subject has to take. If you have example of the use please provide them. – Karlson Jun 18 '12 at 14:24
@Karlson: added some quotes from the corpus. May I ask: are you a native Russian speaker? – Quassnoi Jun 18 '12 at 14:29
@Quassnoi Yes I am. – Karlson Jun 18 '12 at 14:41
@Quassnoi To me both quotes have an implied noun after "его". Second quote http://search.ruscorpora.ru/search.xml?env=alpha&mycorp=&mysent=&mysize=&mysentsize=&dpp=&spp=&spd=&text=lexform&mode=main&sort=gr_tagging&lang=ru&nodia=1&req=%CF%F3%F1%F2%FC+%E5%E3%EE+%EA%F3%EF%E0%E5%F2%F1%FF+%E2+%EB%F3%F7%E0%F5+%F1%EB%E0%E2%FB including preceding and following sentences suggest something derogatory. – Karlson Jun 18 '12 at 14:55
@Karlson: please note that I'm not inventing anything on my own here. The term грамматические эквиваленты именительного падежа подлежащего is from the Rosenthal's work Словарь лингвистических терминов. I'm citing: личные местоимения третьего лица в форме родительного падежа занимают позицию подлежащего. – Quassnoi Jun 18 '12 at 18:52
I'm a native speaker, but I can't remember if I ever heard "Пусть его идёт" in spoken language. Maybe it's widely used in some dialects, but I wouldn't say that it is widespread in common speech. – Malcolm Jun 19 '12 at 08:18
@Malcolm: My parents (a Belorussian and a Western Russian) used this in their speech, but I remember the first time I saw this in print: it was a Horace's verse used as an epigraph for "Study in Scarlet" by Conan Doyle: Пусть их освищут меня, говорит, но зато я в ладоши // Хлопаю дома себе как хочу, на сундук свой любуясь – Quassnoi Jun 19 '12 at 08:47
"Ничто" is rarely used in this form as it rarely take the place of the subject. The only context I can get from my head is "Никто и ничто не остановит нас" meaning "Absolutely nothing will stop us". Usually, Accusative form is used (никто/ничего) – permeakra Feb 04 '13 at 07:35
@Quassnoi et al: Пусть его радуется sounds a bit archaic but I can easily imagine I have seen it in L.N. Tolstoy's books. I would use Пусть себе радуется to the same meaning of the phrase, I think. Note, себе here is dative but with non-reflective pronoun genetive sounds better. – farfareast Feb 04 '13 at 21:59

Manjusri · Answer 2 · 2013-02-04T18:45:48.983

You may use it as a closed response to an answer suggesting broader reply whenever a) you wish to emphasise that you do not wish to continue a conversation and b) the question has been asked with a reference to a subject denoting a non-existential topic - both logically and grammatically. That is, ничто is used like a form of total negation (not to be confused with a partial negation, which is expressed with ничего), e.g.:

Что заставило их совершить столько идиотских поступков? (here что? is a subject-question, a form of complete/total negation, which does not imply any existential aspect).
Ничто.
Что тебе здесь нравится больше всего? (here что? is aspectually an existetial subject and therefore an answer can be used in genitive)
Ничего/ничто.
Что здесь оказалось полезно/полезным? (here что? is aspectually an existetial subject and therefore an answer can be used in genitive)
Ничего/ничто.
Что тебе может помешать?
Ничто.

Cf. with questions where что? is an object-question (accusative) requiring a genitive form of negative pronoun as an example of Finno-Ugric substratum. a mode of partial negation:

Что ты читаешь?
Ничего.
Что они (с)делали?
Ничего.
Что ты любишь?
Ничего.
Что тебе здесь пригодилось? (here что? is aspectually an existetial subject and therefore an answer can be used in genitive)
Ничего/ничто.

Proper use of ничто when answering

2 Answers2