On Russian concessive-adversative constructions with pronominal reduplication of the type «уж чем-чем, а этим его не удивишь»

This paper discusses the Russian construction consisting of two parts and containing a reduplicated interrogative/indefinite pronoun in the first part and a non-reduplicated statement in the second. The construction is used when the speaker does not know all possible instances, but is sure about a specific case. This is difficult for English speakers, since English lacks an analogous construction. The construction contains reduplicated pronouns alone or in prepositional phrases (with stylistics regulating whether the prepositional phrase is also reduplicated). The paper sets up three models of reduplication for phrases with and without prepositional phrases. The work of N.Yu. Shvedova, A. V. Velichko, and I. B. Levontina in this area is examined. This paper suggests that this construction is related to the concept of evidentiality, i.e. the speaker makes no claim of knowledge in the first part, but vouches for the veracity of the second part. It is shown that internet translation sites (e.g. Google and Yandex) have erroneous English translations for these constructions and have obviously not been programmed for them. The paper concludes by surveying the paradigms of the major types of reduplicated pronouns, with examples for each type. Particular attention is paid to paradigmatic cells which can be filled and those which are empty. Categories surveyed include nominal (что, кто), adjectival (какой, чей), and numerical (сколько) pronouns, either without prepositions, with reduplicated prepositions, or with non reduplicated prepositions; adverbial pronouns (как, где, куда, отдуда, когда) are examined, with the observation that causal pronouns (почему, отчего, зачем) do not participate in such reduplicated constructions.