ABSTRACT
Of all linguistic processes, grammatical change proceeds at the slowest pace. However, a momentous social or political event may accelerate change. One such event was the declaration of independence by Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This led to uncertainty and controversy over the preposition-в or на?—to be combined with the word Украин́а ‘Ukraine’, which alone of all the Soviet Socialist Republics had been used with на (felt by some Ukrainians to be demeaning) throughout the Soviet period (see Section 5.7.2).
