Genitive Under Negation

Historically across Slavic languages, negative sentences shifted direct objects from the accusative to the genitive case—a phenomenon known as the Slavic genitive (словенски генитив).

In contemporary standard Serbian, this syntactic shift has largely retreated from ordinary transitive verbs in everyday speech. The default direct object of a negated transitive verb is in the accusative case:
• Не читам ову књигу. (I am not reading this book. [Accusative])
• Нисмо добили одговор. (We did not receive an answer. [Accusative])

Sociolinguistic Note: While Croatian standard registers actively cultivate the Slavic genitive in formal prose across a wider variety of transitive verbs (e.g., Ne vidim svrhe), standard Serbian strongly favors the ordinary accusative with standard transitive verbs (Не видим сврху), treating broader use of the Slavic genitive with everyday verbs as marked, bookish, or archaic.

When is the genitive under negation standard and productive in Serbian?

1. The Verb 'Немати' — Impersonal vs. Personal Constructions:
It is essential to distinguish between impersonal existential нема and personal transitive немати:
• Impersonal Existential 'нема': In existential sentences indicating absence or non-existence, нема obligatorily governs the genitive for all nouns, whether countable or uncountable, concrete or abstract:
– Нема наде. (There is no hope.)
– Нема оловке на столу. (There is no pencil on the table.)
– Нема аутомобила на улици. (There are no cars on the street.)
• Personal Transitive 'немати': When a subject lacks something, the case depends on the type of noun:
– Concrete, countable nouns regularly take the standard accusative: Немам оловку (I don't have a pencil), Он нема ауто (He doesn't have a car).
– Abstract and mass nouns readily take the genitive: Немамо избора (We have no choice), Немам новца (I have no money), Немам времена (I have no time). Note that mass nouns like време frequently appear in the partitive genitive in affirmative sentences as well (Имам времена), so such phrasing is not solely a negative-triggered shift.

2. Scalar Minimality and Emphatic Negation: The genitive remains productive across other transitive verbs when paired with the emphatic particle ни ('not even a...', 'not a single...') or scalar minimizers denoting complete absence:
• Није изустио ни речи. (He did not utter even a single word.)
• У пустој шуми нисмо срели живе душе. (In the desolate forest we did not meet a living soul.)

Note on Pronouns: Unlike the bare particle ни + noun, negative determiners such as ниједан or никакав regularly take the accusative in modern Serbian (e.g., Нисам направио никакву грешку, Нисмо нашли ниједан доказ), not the genitive.

3. Fixed Idiomatic Collocations: Several lexicalized set phrases preserve the genitive under negation:
• не скидати ока са некога (to not take one's eyes off someone)
• не наћи места (to find no peace / to be unsettled)
• не дати мира (to give no peace)

Important Distinctions to Keep in Mind:
• The Animate Accusative Trap: Do not confuse the genitive under negation with masculine animate nouns. In Serbian, masculine animate nouns share syncretic accusative and genitive singular endings (e.g., Нисам видео Марка, Он нема пса). These forms represent the ordinary animate accusative, not a genitive triggered by negation.
• Inherent Lexical Government vs. Negation: Verbs whose lexical valence inherently demands a genitive complement (e.g., бојати се, плашити се, стидети се) always take the genitive regardless of polarity (e.g., Не бојим се тога / никога). This is governed directly by verb valence, not sentential negation.
• Partitive Uses: Set collocations like немати појма (to have no clue) overlap with the partitive genitive, which also occurs in questions and affirmative expressions (Имаш ли појма?).
• Neuter Pronouns: In modern Serbian, bare neuter demonstrative and indefinite pronouns default almost exclusively to the accusative under negation (Не знам то, Нисам видео ништа). Genitive forms without modification (Не знам тога, Нисам видео ничега) sound archaic or heavily affected; however, the genitive remains natural when modified by an adjective (e.g., Нисам видео ничега новог).