The materials examined here consist of 121 Russian letters dating from 1700-1715. The present study aims to  define a stage in linguistic evolution and analyze the morphological heterogeneity in the textual corpus. The letters are divided into three categories: private, semiofficial, and official. All nomina (substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals) are registered and their occurrences processed statistically case by grammatical case. The focus is on linguistic features where a choice is possible and variation is in evidence. Conservatism asserts itself primarily in strongly standardized texts such as the official correspondence, while  phonetic spelling reflecting akanie and dialectally influenced syncretism between different cases (e.g., the GDLsg) is observable mainly in the private letters, which consitute the least standardized category. There is a trend break among u-genitives and u-locatives, where our findings indicate that the u-ending is losing ground. A statistically established correlation between declensional type and the presence/absence of a coordinated adjunct is noted in the instrumental plural of masculine o-, jo-stems. The choice of the archaizing Ipl-ending suggests that repetition of the –mi- element is perceived to be redundant. In the singular paradigm of the adjective the feminine instrumental forms are strongly conservative, and the modern short ending occurs in only a few instances. In the nominative plural the modern ending –ye, -ie dominates for all cases and in all letter categories. The use of samyj for the comparative degree is not particularly prominent in these 18th-century letters. Because this descriptive comparison type developed in the 17th century, its use could have been expected to rise in the 18th, but our materials do not indicate any such increase. With few exceptions, pronouns generally display forms corresponding to modern usage. One notable deviation is the occurrence of a pronoun with an adjectival ending in the genitive singular (tago), but it is an idiosyncratic feature. Numerals for the most part correspond to modern usage, although their low frequency does not invite generalizations. / <p>978-91-86071-61-5 (del 1), 978-91-86071--62-2 (del 2), 978-91-86071-63-9 (del 1-2)</p>

The study investigates prediction factors of children's proficiency in Russian among children from Russian-speaking families in Saskatchewan. For that purpose, 5-7 year old children and their parents were interviewed about their language use, proficiency, and language attitudes, as well as children's Russian language proficiency was measured and compared to monolingual children in Russia.

TITLE: Words of Old Church Slavonic Origin in Contemporary Russian Language AUTHOR: Jitka Peschel DEPARTMENT: Department of Russian studies and didactics SUPERVISOR: doc. PhDr. Lilia Nazarenko, CSc. ABSTRACT: This diploma thesis researches words of Old Church Slavonic origin in contemporary Russian language. The aim is to provide a comprehensive analysis of these words in the Russian language. The diploma thesis is divided into three parts. The first part describes the origin of the Old Church Slavonic language, its arrival in Russia, its influence on the Russian language, the penetration of the Old Church Slavonic words in the Russian language, as well as the development of the Russian standard language. The other two parts are dedicated to words of Old Church Slavonic origin in contemporary Russian language. The second part analyses the phonetic, morphological, semantic and stylistic aspects of these words. The third part is focused on the differences in meaning of Old Church Slavonic words having Russian equivalents and semantic processes by which words of Old Church Slavonic origin passed. The appendix includes a list of words occurring in the thesis. KEYWORDS: lexikology, loanword, Old Church Slavonic, Russian language

The object of this study is a translation from Polish to Russian of the Polish historian Maciej Stryjkowski’s Kronika Polska, Litewska, Żmódzka i wszystkiej Rusi, made at the Diplomatic Chancellery in Moscow in 1673–79. The original of the chronicle, which relates the origin and early history of the Slavs, was published in 1582. This Russian translation, as well as the other East Slavic translations that are also discussed here, is preserved only in manuscripts, and only small excerpts have previously been published. In the thesis, the twelve extant manuscripts of the 1673–79 translation are described and divided into three groups based on variant readings. It also includes an edition of three chapters of the translation, based on a manuscript kept in Uppsala University Library. There was no standardized written language in 17th-century Russia. Instead, there were several co-existing norms, and the choice depended on the text genre. This study shows that the language of the edited chapters contains both originally Church Slavonic and East Slavic linguistic features, distributed in a way that is typical of the so-called hybrid register. Furthermore, some features vary greatly between manuscripts and between scribes within the manuscripts, which shows that the hybrid register allowed a certain degree of variation. The translation was probably the joint work of several translators. Some minor changes were made in the text during the translation work, syntactic structures not found in the Polish original were occasionally used to emphasize the bookish character of the text, and measurements, names etc. were adapted to Russian norms. Nevertheless, influence from the Polish original can sometimes be noticed on the lexical and syntactic levels. All in all, this thesis is a comprehensive study of the language of the translated chronicle, which is a representative 17th-century text.

Although quite a few researchers have pointed to the significance of the childhood theme in Tsvetaeva’s work, no systematic analysis of her work has been done from this perspective. Nor have her childhood reminiscences been treated as a thematically consistent whole, but have rather been read as instances of the poet’s prose in general. The present study examines Marina Tsvetaeva’s memories of childhood in the context of her work and in the context of the cultural and political reality to which these reminiscences refer and in which they were written—i.e., Russia around the turn of the century and the Russian émigré world of 1930–1937. In the introductory investigation of the presence of the childhood theme in Tsvetaeva’s oeuvre, it is found that idealization of the naive, innocent state is a relatively constant feature and that the childhood memories can be read as a culmination of this set of motives. It is also stated that Tsvetaeva’s continuous striving in her poetry away from the world, out of time, is an integral part of the childhood thematics. This tendency is traced, in connection with the childhood theme, to the influence of writers of the late Russian Symbolist movement as well as to Boris Pasternak and Rainer Maria Rilke—all with roots in literary Romanticism. Childhood is moreover found to be something of a key theme that reveals fundamental differences in the relation to memory and language among the authors of Russian modernism. In Tsvetaeva' s case it is shown that her childhood memories contain the romantic essence of her aesthetics. The study also touches upon the symbolic and allegorical dimension of the texts—Tsvetaeva’s “otherspeak” in her prose. It is shown that the central scenes of these texts can be read as illustrations of an artistic and linguistic experience. In this regard the author’s narrative of childhood also appears to have been a suitable medium for articulating controversial aesthetic statements and taking a stand for an historical past and literary tradition that at the time seemed doomed to oblivion.

This paper is dedicated to surveying the present situation and the spread of the new Russian politeness phenomenon (NRP), and its evaluation and assessment by Russian native speakers in respect to the inter-cultural aspects of new Russian politeness. In terms of pragmatic change, the question is whether NRP is a short-lived linguistic fad or whether it is a thorough change in Russian pragmatic behaviour we are dealing with. The following paper is intended to show some empirical results of this survey of observations and responses relating to the spread and acceptance of politeness phenomena. Furthermore, the focus is on emotional evaluation, rational interpretation, and the spread of these phenomena into non-commercial communication domains. The informants' assessments prove remarkably heterogeneous and offer a variety of reactions, ranging from rejection and pejorative evaluation as communicative ballast to enthusiastic acceptance. The rational evaluations can be subsumed under westernisation and commercialisation of discourse - two aspects of globalisation which is seen as the implementation of forms of the free market economy. On the other hand, we also find a semantic interpretation as an expression of individualisation of discourse. It can finally be observed that while some respondents even diagnosed a decrease in politeness since its climax in the late 1990s, a possible mixture of genuinely Russian politeness (characterised by warmth, openness, spontaneity, taking an interest in others, etc.; positive politeness, Brown & Levinson 1987) with Western non-intrusive politeness (negative politeness, Brown & Levinson 1987) was also predicted, which I regard as the most optimistic future scenario. (author´s abstract) / Series: WU Online Papers in International Business Communication / Series One: Intercultural Communication and Language Learning

Using vocal music in the foreign language classroom to teach language and culture can become the foundation of an approach specifically geared to encourage students to take charge of their own language learning, and thereby improve their overall language competencies. Many researchers have already noted that the usual classroom program of instruction does not provide sufficient exposure time for students to achieve a level much above the ACTFL Intermediate level. Most students who enter university language programs with plans to major in a language have certain expectations, usually elevated, and the problem is exacerbated by commercial products which promise that, “You will speak like a native in months!” The problem is compounded by the disappointment experienced when these high expectations are not met, and students cease trying before they approach the levels to which they originally aspired. One way to help students not go through this dismotivation phase of language learning, is to help them improve their language skills beyond that usually attainable through classroom instruction alone. Training in the use of learning strategies, increased time spent listening to authentic vocal music, and the anticipated personal satisfaction gained by attaining successful results can all be positively related to an increase in motivation. By introducing students to the music of Soviet bard/poet/actor Vladimir S. Vysotsky, early in their language-training career, and using his compositions as supplementary material in a syllabus, the Russian language teacher can provide versatile authentic language material. Selections from the prolific output of approximately 700 poems and songs by Vysotsky can be used to introduce: a) language forms, b) pronunciation, c) cultural idioms and contrast, d) historicalpolitical items, e) social customs, and f) literary works and characters. In the case of language learning and metacognitive strategies, ignorance is not bliss: ignorance is the destroyer. Students who become aware of the strategies available (e.g., memory, cognitive, compensation, affective, social, or metacognitive) and pleasurable ways to improve their own language competence are more likely to be encouraged to continue studying the language and more likely to devote the extra time to the endeavor. / text

In recent years, a number of empirical and conceptual studies about Project-Based Learning (PBL) have presented consistent arguments rationalizing this approach to language learning and teaching. The most common benefits attributed to project work in the second- and foreign-language settings have been located and described in recent research. However, only a few empirical studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of project work on language learning, and even fewer on specific language skills. This dissertation presents the results of a quasi-experimental research study that investigates the effect of incorporating a semester-long reading project into a third-semester Russian classroom and reports the measured effects of this experimental treatment on students’ reading comprehension, their reading habits and beliefs, perceived reading skills, and overall language proficiency. The dissertation provides data on a semester-long project allowing students to research a topic of their interest through a set of readings (which substituted for the textbook texts) with an ultimate goal of reporting their findings in the form of a newsletter article. The project entailed interconnected sets of sequenced tasks during which students are actively engaged in information gathering, processing, and reporting, with the ultimate goal of increased content knowledge and language mastery. The context for this project was primarily text-based (extensive readings served as a base for all activities and assignments), task-driven (creating an end-product in written form), collaborative, technology-enhanced (extensive use of the Internet), and individualized (students researched topics they were interested in). The results of the study demonstrate that students’ reading comprehension increased by using an integrated methodology where reading was taught through maximizing students’ previous knowledge of a subject matter of their interest and following the procedural model for interactive reading. Additionally, the results suggest that the project implementation had a positive effect on some reading habits and beliefs regarding foreign language (FL) learning, while no significant shifts were found in students’ perceived reading skills, or their overall language proficiency. / text

Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελεί μια προσπάθεια της μορφοσυντακτικής ανάλυσης των συνθέτων ουσιαστικών της Ρωσικής σύμφωνα με τα δεδομένα και συμπεράσματα που προέκυψαν από τις σύγχρονες μελέτες των συνθέτων της Ελληνικής και άλλων γλωσσών. Επίσης θα επιχειρήσουμε να κάνουμε ορισμένες υποθέσεις που αφορούν κάποια συστηματικά εμφανιζόμενα στοιχεία των συνθέτων ουσιαστικών της Ρωσικής, συγκρίνοντάς τα κυρίως με τα αντίστοιχα της Ελληνικής. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο αναφέρονται ορισμένα στοιχεία σχετικά με την παραγωγή και κλίση των συνθέτων ουσιαστικών της Ρωσικής σε σύγκριση με τα αντίστοιχα της Ελληνικής, ενώ δίνεται ο ορισμός της «κεφαλής» των Ρωσικών συνθέτων καθώς και οι βασικοί κανόνες τονισμού των συνθέτων. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο αναλύονται οι τύποι σύνθεσης, όπου το δεύτερο συνθετικό είναι ολόκληρη λέξη, δηλαδή οι τύποι που έχουν τη δομή [θέμα / λέξη + λέξη]. Το υποκεφάλαιο (3.3.) ασχολείται αποκλειστικά με σύνθετα τύπου [Ρήμα + Ουσιαστικό] 2 της Ρωσικής σε σύγκριση με τα σύνθετα αυτού του τύπου τα οποία προέρχονται από ορισμένες λατινογενούς γλώσσες (όπως τα Ιταλικά, τα Ισπανικά ή τα Γαλλικά) καθώς και και μια σλαβική, τη Σερβική γλώσσα. Το τέταρτο κεφάλαιο είναι εξολοκλήρου αφιερωμένο στη μελέτη των ρηματικών συνθέτων της Ρωσικής, δηλαδή των συνθέτων των οποίων το δεύτερο συνθετικό είναι ρηματικό παράγωγο με ή χωρίς παραγωγικό επίθημα. Στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο αναλύονται τα σύνθετα της Ρωσικής με το δεύτερο συνθετικό - παράγωγο ουσιαστικού με ή χωρίς παραγωγικό επίθημα, ενώ στο έκτο κεφάλαιο θα εξετάσουμε ορισμένα συνθετικά μέρη τα οποία φαίνονται να βρίσκονται στο στάδιο προσφυματοποίησης. Στο έβδομο κεφάλαιο αναλύεται το συνδετικό φωνήεν της Ρωσικής «-ο-» ως Δείκτης Σύνθεσης, σύμφωνα με το προτεινόμενο από την Α. Ράλλη μοντέλο (Ράλλη, 2005b, σελ. 16-20). Τέλος, στο όγδοο κεφάλαιο καταγράφονται τα βασικότερα συμπεράσματα τα οποία προέκυψαν από την παρούσα εργασία και το ένατο κεφάλαιο καταγράφει την ελλήνικη και την ξενόγλωσση βιβλιογραφία, η οποία χρησιμοποιήθηκε για τη μελέτη των συνθέτων. / -

The resolution of the language question--whether to maintain the mother tongue, shift to the mainstream language, or try to maintain two or more languages in the family--creates a lot of psychological complications and linguistic reflections. The present study explores how external variables and internal controversies affect the choice of language by an individual family member as well as the family as a whole unit, and how this choice, in its turn, impacts the relationships within the family.This study draws on the several theoretical domains of immigration, psychology, and language acquisition. Relying on these theoretical frameworks, the major findings are synthesized, and a paradigm of language choice at the family level is formulated.A mixed-method research design allows a broad outlook on the Russian-speaking immigrants, comparison of immigrants from the former Soviet Union with immigrants of other nationalities, and restricted and concentrated analysis at the family level. The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data set helps to address the quantitative part of this dissertation, while the qualitative part is based on in-depth case studies of four immigrant families.Building on the fundamental position that development happens as the result of the resolution of controversies, I suggest that there are four levels of controversy located in the language-choice model: societal, family, personal, and eventual outcomes of these three levels.Four "language choice" profiles, designated as "Amotivational," "Instrumental," "Intrinsic," and "Intrinsic Plus," have emerged out of the theoretical and research findings.The findings show that the crucial characteristics of the families who chose to maintain the mother tongue and foster bi-literacy in their children are the following: (1) a stress on knowing the country of origin and its culture; (2) a declared desire within the family that the children be different from the parents' perception of American children; (3) an emphasis by the parents on the children's "Russianness" and on the formation of that ethnic identity; and (4) an emphasis on a consistently realized, strong language policy at home.