Talk:Lexical gap

Missing inflection

For example the Russian word 'dno' in the meaning of bottom (of a river) does not have the plural form.

This is wrong. The word 'dno' ("дно") does have the plural form which is "донья". Unfortunately many Russians do not know it. As an example of missed inflections in Russian I'd suggest defective verbs like "победить" (to win), "убедить" (to convince) lacking the first-person singular form in the present(-future) tense (various constructions like "I'll try to convince you" are used instead). Some verbs are never used in this form because it coincides with another verb: e.g. "дерзить" (to be impudent) has the same first-person singular form as that of "держать" (to hold). Another example would be famous combinations like 22 days/scissors ("22 сутки/ножницы") which cannot be said in Russian.

Bioberg 18:08, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unforntately many modern Russians who happen to know the word "донья" do not know that it applies only to the meaning "a bottom of the barrel" or other container. `'Míkka 20:48, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]