Breakdown of Директор тоже наработался и наслушался пустого шума.
и
and
тоже
also
директор
director
пустой
empty
шум
noise
наработаться
to have one's fill of working
наслушаться
to listen to one's fill
Questions & Answers about Директор тоже наработался и наслушался пустого шума.
How do the prefix на- and postfix -ся change the meanings of the base verbs here?
The base verbs are работать (to work) and слушать (to listen). Adding the prefix на- and the postfix -ся creates a perfective verb meaning to do that action to the point of satiation, excess, or exhaustion. So наработался means he worked until he couldn't work anymore (had his fill of work), and наслушался means he listened until he had heard more than enough.
Why is пустого шума in the genitive case instead of the accusative?
Verbs formed with the на-...-ся pattern (meaning to do something to satiation) usually require their object to be in the genitive case. This acts like a partitive genitive, expressing an unquantifiable but large amount of something. He had his fill of empty noise (пустого шума).
Does the object пустого шума belong to both verbs in this sentence?
No, it only belongs to наслушался (heard his fill of). The verb наработался (had his fill of work) is intransitive and stands on its own. The sentence links two separate satiated actions: he worked to exhaustion, and he heard an excess of empty noise.
Does the на-...-ся structure always have a negative, exhausting meaning like in this sentence?
Not always. It can be either positive (doing something until happily satisfied) or negative (doing something until exhausted or sick of it). Here it feels negative because of the context—empty noise (пустого шума)—but you could just as easily say you listened to your favorite band until you were completely satisfied (наслушался).
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