Question 1

How does the reporting phrase По словам work here, and why is основателя in the genitive case?

Accepted Answer

По словам literally translates to "by the words [of]". To indicate whose words they are, Russian uses the genitive case. So, основателя is the genitive form of основатель (founder). This is the standard structure for attributing statements to a noun, unlike the по- adverbs (like по-моему) which are used for pronouns.

Question 2

Does ведомство refer to a standard department within a business?

Accepted Answer

Usually no. Ведомство specifically refers to a government agency, state department, or administrative authority. If you were talking about a department within a private company, you would normally use отдел.

Question 3

We've learned that negated verbs often take the imperfective aspect. Why is the perfective заметило used here?

Accepted Answer

While the imperfective with не is common for stating that an action simply never took place, the perfective with не is used when someone specifically failed to achieve a result on a particular occasion. Here, the department failed to spot this specific initiative.

Question 4

Why is эту инициативу in the accusative case, rather than taking the "genitive of negation" since the verb is negated?

Accepted Answer

While negated verbs often force their direct object into the genitive case, it's not a strict rule. When the object is specific and explicitly pointed out (like here, with эту - "this"), the accusative case is often preferred. It emphasizes that the initiative definitely exists, even though the agency missed it.

По словам основателя, ведомство не заметило эту инициативу.

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