Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Mexico, 2005. / "May, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-180). Also available online.

The thesis shows the approaches of cognitive grammar to the description and analysis of case category's functioning in Czech and Russian languages. Attention is limited to the cognitive grammar as it interpreted by American linguist R. Langacker. Cognitive researches on Slavic languages by L. Janda are also crucial for this diploma. From this point of view the thesis's author studies the interferential phenomena which are typical for Russian-language speakers when they use the Czech language. In other words, by means of conceptual apparatus relevant to cognitive grammar author explains the different use of case category in both these languages. Keywords Cognitive grammar, case, interference, Czech language, Russian language

The thesis deals with the use of video media in the teaching of the Russian language. The first theoretical part is focused on informational and communications technologies in the education environment, especially to the video itself as a didactic instrument. The principles and techniques of working with the video as in didactic manner when teaching a foreign language are there described. The second practical part of the diploma thesis deals with the actual research in elementary and high schools. Russian animated TV series Masha and the Bear is used in Russian language lessons and then the didactic potential of this series is evaluated. Teachers' attitudes to using video in Russian language teaching is also examined with the results based on a questionnaire survey. KEYWORDS: Russian language, teaching, ICT, video, Masha and the Bear

This diploma thesis deals with the attitude of pupils and teachers towards Russian as the second foreign language in the Czech school environment. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the role of Russian in the contemporary world, the history and the current position of teaching the language at Czech schools. What is also described are the linguodidactic and psycholinguistic aspects of foreign language teaching. The practical part of the thesis analyzes the data gained via a questionnaire survey focusing primarily on the aspects of the pupils' motivation to studying Russian and their expectations. It also deals with the attitude of teachers towards teaching Russian as the second foreign language. The main aim of the thesis is to clearly prove or prove false statements about what types of pupils choose Russian and why. The thesis discovers that the most frequent reasons for the choice of Russian as the second foreign language are the simplicity of Russian (resemblance to Czech) and its euphoniousness and language attractiveness. The analysis of the gained data proves false the statement that Russian is chosen primarily by the pupils who dislike foreign languages. On the other hand, it proves the statement that it is often chosen by pupils with special educational needs. The survey also...

In this dissertation, I examine metaphorical expressions of biblical and sacral origin (bibleisms) that occur in Russian narrative literary texts. The interpretation of bibleisms is carried out within the framework of interaction theories of metaphor, making it possible to account for the use of bibleisms in Modern Russian, and for the role of their original meanings in the development of their new metaphorical associations. This is viewed as a set of intertextual relationships between the biblical and sacral texts, the Modern Russian language and the literary texts in which the expressions occur. Different types of metaphor are distinguished in terms of interaction theory. This has implications for the translation of bibleisms. It is demonstrated that in different interactive situations, the same bibleism can be referred to different types of metaphor, and hence the translation procedure may only be determined by taking into account the metaphorical language in each individual case. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Theory of Literature)

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cet ouvrage défend une « thèse » au plein sens du mot. Celle-ci vise à modifier radicalement la conception traditionnelle de la dérivation lexicale en russe moderne, qui ne retient que deux modes de dérivation et deux seuls : la préfixation et la suffixation. La thèse défend l’idée qu’aux côtés de ces deux procédés, il en existe un troisième, qui opère à l’aide d’un signifiant discontinu, que certains linguistes appellent « circonfixe » et qui est appelé ici « confixe ». La thèse met en évidence les incohérences de l’approche traditionnelle qui considère comme relevant de le catégorie préfixo-suffixale ou préfixo-postfixale des mots tels que le substantif masculin podokonnik (pod+ok(o)n+nik : ‘sous’ + ‘fenêtre’ + ‘objet’ = appui de fenêtre) ou le verbe nabegat’sja (‘saturation’ + ‘courir’ + ‘réfléchi’ = ‘courir tout son soûl’). La thèse met en évidence que nous avons affaire ici aux confixes <pod-…-nik> pour le premier mot, <na-…-sja> pour le second. L’argumentation s’appuie sur un vaste matériau fourni par les dictionnaires historiques et contemporains. L’abondance des données a imposé de limiter les investigations aux substantifs et aux verbes. L’examen diachronique démontre que les confixes (morphèmes discontinus) se sont installés progressivement dans le système dérivationnel. En russe moderne, la confixation constitue un procédé dérivationnel désormais autonome et productif. / This work defends the « thesis » in the full sense of the word. It is aimed at the radical revision of the traditional concept of lexical derivation in moderne Russian, which keeps only two modes of derivation and two only ones : prefixation and suffixation. The dissertation defends the idea that besides these two ways of word-formation, there is the third – word-formation by means of a discontinuous morpheme, which some linguists call “Circonfixe” and which is called here “Confixe”. The dissertation highlights the contradictions of the traditional approach which considers nouns such as podokonnik (pod + ok(o)n +nik : ‘under’ + ‘window’ + ‘object’ = window sill) or verbs like nabegat’sja (‘satiation’ + ‘to run’ + ‘reflexive’ = ‘to be run’) as prefixally-suffixal or prefixally-postfixal formations. It underlines that we are dealing here with confixes <pod-…-nik> for the first word, <na-…-sja> for the second. Argumentation is based on a large material taken from the historical and contemporary dictionaries. The abundance of the collected data imposed to limit the research to nouns and verbs. The diachronic examination proves that confixes (discontinuous morphemes) have gradually taken their place in word-formation system. In moderne Russian confixation is really an independent way of word-formation.

L’étude du lexème nu prend en compte : les représentations des participants de l’interlocution ; le domaine commun de connaissance entre eux et l’engagement sur un parcours vers une représentation résultante.L’énonciateur de nu place l’intercompréhension au centre de l’échange. L’intercompréhension suppose la mise en référence du discours dans un domaine de connaissance commun.Le schéma type du mécanisme du lexème nu est l’engagement sur un parcours vers une représentation commune. Ce schéma connaît cinq variations, marquées par la syntaxe et exprimant des valeurs précises.La première variation est l’acceptation de la représentation de l’énonciataire comme représentation résultante ; la deuxième traduit une mise en doute de l’engagement sur un parcours vers une représentation résultante (orientation rhétorique) ; la troisième signifie la nécessité d’un engagement dirigé vers la représentation de l’énonciateur comme représentation résultante ; la quatrième indique l’engagement mutuel des porteurs de représentations vers un compromis ; enfin, la cinquième variation met en évidence l’incompatibilité des représentations mises en concurrence.L’une des conséquences de l’étude est le rejet de la notion de mot parasite. Le lexème nu est intégralement un mot du discours.Le travail s’appuie sur la langue contemporaine saisie dans un important corpus littéraire : chaque remarque est illustrée par un exemple situé dans un contexte large. / This study of the enunciative mechanism of the lexeme nu is based on three elements of speech: competing representations, a shared field of knowledge and the initiation of a progression towards a “result representation” (which implies the presence of what Gustave Guillaume calls operative time).The enunciator of the lexeme places mutual understanding at the heart of the exchange. Mutual understanding is linked to the referencing of discourse in a shared field of knowledge. The typical pattern of the enunciative mechanism of the lexeme nu is the initiation of a progression towards a result representation. This pattern can lead to five variations, which are indicated by syntax and which produce precise values.The first variation contains an acceptance of the listener’s representation as a result representation ; the second variation (nu ?) expresses doubt concerning the commitment to a progression towards the result representation (this is the rhetorical aspect) ; the third variation indicates the need to commit to the enunciator’s representation as the result representation ; the fourth indicates that both the carriers of representation commit to a compromise (nu-ka) ; and the fifth variation (nu i) highlights the incompatibility of the competing representations.These conceptions of the lexeme justify a rejection of its description as a parasite word. The lexeme nu is a discourse marker. This research approaches contemporary Russian through a large number of literary texts: each analysis is illustrated by an example which is situated in a large cotext.

The purpose of this research was to test the predictions of the Accessibility Hierarchy (AH) theory (Keenan & Comrie, 1977) applying it to the Russian language. According to this theory, relative clauses (RC) are acquired in a fixed unidirectional order: from subject (S) - the highest (unmarked) and more susceptible to relativization position - to object of comparative (OCOM) - the lowest (marked) and less susceptible to relativization position. Since some researchers (Hamilton, 1994) claim that the AH is multidirectional rather than unidirectional, this study takes into consideration these findings as well. The present study attempts to determine (a) if learners of the Russian language are able to make generalizations about more unmarked RC positions after receiving instruction only on a relatively marked relative clause position (in this study it is OPR - object of a preposition), and (b) if instruction on unmarked relative clause position facilitates learners' ability to generalize that learning to marked relative clauses. Participants of the study were Brigham Young University students studying Russian as a second language. Two groups, the basic treatment group (BG) and the complex treatment group (CG) with a total of fifty-four subjects, completed pretests and posttests, each of which included two elicitation tasks: a combination test (CT) and a grammaticality judgment test (GJT). Both groups received instruction between the tests. The BG received instruction on the subject (S), the direct object (DO), and the indirect object (IO) RC positions. The CG received instruction only on the OPR position. Three types of error, incorrect adjacency, incorrect morphological RC ending, and pronoun retention, were analyzed separately. In addition, the CT investigated the acquisition of pied-piping structure in the OPR and GEN types. The results of the research support Hamilton's (1994) findings and suggest that generalization is clearly not unidirectional. Regardless of type of instruction the subjects of both groups generalized their learning in both directions.

The current study examines the effect of repeated reading aloud upon speaking fluency. Because there is little evidence in the literature that the practice of repeated reading aloud can have a positive effect upon speaking fluency, the primary goal of this study was to investigate this relationship further. For the purposes of the study, speaking fluency was defined as fluidity and smoothness of speech with little pausing and hesitation. It is measured by evaluating the following fluency features: speech rate, number of pauses, length of pauses, phonation/time ratio, and articulation rate. The repeated measures experimental design of the study involved current and former Brigham Young University students learning Russian as a foreign language. They were divided into two groups: control and experimental. The participants in the experimental group performed repeated reading aloud activities daily, while those in the control group read the same passages silently. All participants took weekly speaking tests consisting of simple speaking prompts. The final post-test included both reading aloud and speaking tests. The speech samples collected from the tests were evaluated using computer-based analysis as well as scores from three raters who are native speakers of the Russian language. The statistical analysis and comparison of these scores revealed mixed results. The rater scores did not exhibit any statistically significant difference between the groups, which could be attributed to overall low inter-rater reliability and short duration of the experiment. On the other hand, the computer-generated scores for mean length of pauses, phonation/time ratio, and speech rate of the experimental group were better than those of the control group. This difference proved to be statistically significant based on the results of one-way and repeated measures ANOVA analyses. Unfortunately because of the high attrition rate and short duration of the study, these results cannot be generalized. Therefore further research is necessary to confirm or reject these findings