Syntax

Syntactic actants

Actant 1: whose skin it is
(a) Genitive
(b) Possessive
Кожа девочки шелушилась. The little girl's skin was peeling.
Его восхищала её нежная кожа. Her soft skin enraptured him.
NB When the word кожа functions as a subject and does not have a descriptive modifier, the construction кожа у + Genitive is often preferred to (a) and (b), above:
Кожа у девочки шелушилась. The little girl's skin was peeling.
Actant 2: where the skin is
(a) на + Prepositional or Locative
(b) Genitive
Кожа на руках у неё была грубая от постоянной стирки. The skin on her hands was chapped from constantly doing laundry by hand.
Кожа рук у неё была грубая от постоянной стирки. The skin on her hands was chapped from constantly doing laundry by hand.