Russian Function Words: Meanings and Use
Russian Function Words: Meanings and Use

Author: Marina Rojavin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-26

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0429657145

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Russian Function Words: Meanings and Use is a collection of 463 prepositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections, and parenthetical words. This book provides a semantic, syntactic, and stylistic analysis of each word, accompanying the explanation with examples of the word’s usage in discourse in contemporary, everyday Russian and analogous translations into English. Consequently, it allows users to develop an understanding of contemporary grammatical, lexical, and stylistic norms, with the aim of mastering these critical words. This book also includes a multitude of idioms and sayings that users will learn to use in the appropriate context. Intermediate and advanced students, instructors, and translators will find this a useful supplement to their existing resources. It also serves as a helpful reference for independent learners at all levels.

Russian Syntax for Advanced Students
Russian Syntax for Advanced Students

Author: Marina Rojavin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-05-30

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1000582620

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Russian Syntax for Advanced Students is a textbook which illuminates relationships between words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Using this book, students will acquire conscious knowledge of how words function in various syntactical constructions as applied to discourse, such as specific verbal situations, based not only on the underlying linguistic phenomena, but also on the content of sociolinguistic situations. The book helps develop communicative skills for advanced mastery and constantly emphasizes the importance of accuracy in the use of syntactic structures. Russian Syntax is designed primarily as a textbook for classroom use for intermediate-high and advanced-level students. The text is also suitable for independent study by graduate students in linguistics or pedagogy, as well as being a valuable reference for instructors.

The Way of the Linguist
The Way of the Linguist

Author: Steve Kaufmann

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2005-11

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1420873296

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The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.

Type Noun Constructions in Slavic, Germanic and Romance Languages
Type Noun Constructions in Slavic, Germanic and Romance Languages

Author: Wiltrud Mihatsch

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-04-27

Total Pages: 648

ISBN-13: 3110701162

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This volume is the first dedicated to the comprehensive, in-depth analysis of constructions with nouns like ‘type’ and ‘sort’. It focuses on type noun constructions in Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages, integrating the different descriptive traditions that had been developed for each language family. As a result, a greater variety of type noun constructions is revealed than in the hitherto more fragmented literature. But attention is also drawn to the cross-linguistic similarity of the new pragmatic meanings, such as ad hoc and approximative categorization, hedging, focus and filler uses, and the new grammatical functions in NPs (e.g. phoric uses), clauses (e.g. adverbial uses) and complex sentences (e.g. quotatives). The volume offers survey chapters of type noun constructions in each language family as well as contributions focusing on specific aspects in one or two languages, such as their grammar, semantics and pragmatics, diachronic development, discursive and sociolinguistic variety. These complementary methodologies elucidate the unique cross-linguistic field of type noun constructions both descriptively and theoretically. Hence, this volume can also serve as a model for similar surveys in other functional domains.

A Grammar of Udihe
A Grammar of Udihe

Author: Irina Nikolaeva

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-05-12

Total Pages: 1008

ISBN-13: 3110849038

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The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

The Chain of Being and Having in Slavic
The Chain of Being and Having in Slavic

Author: Steven J. Clancy

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-12-22

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 9027287422

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The complex diachronic and synchronic status of the concepts be and have can be understood only with consideration of their full range of constructions and functions. Data from modern Slavic languages (Russian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian) provides a window into zero copulas, non-verbal have expressions, and verbal constructions. From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, be and have are analyzed in terms of a blended prototype model, wherein existence/copula for be and possession/relationship for have are inseparably combined. These concepts are related to each other in their functions and meanings and serve as organizing principles in a conceptual network of semantic neighbors, including give, take, get, become, make, and verbs of position and motion. Renewal and replacement of be and have occur through processes of polysemization and suppletization involving lexical items in this network. Topics include polysemy, suppletion, tense/mood auxiliaries, modality, causatives, evidentiality, function words, contact phenomena, syntactic calques, and idiomatic constructions.

The Chain of Being and Having in Slavic
The Chain of Being and Having in Slavic

Author: Steven J. Clancy

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 9027205892

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The complex diachronic and synchronic status of the concepts "be" and "have" can be understood only with consideration of their full range of constructions and functions. Data from modern Slavic languages (Russian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian) provides a window into zero copulas, non-verbal "have" expressions, and verbal constructions. From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, "be" and "have" are analyzed in terms of a blended prototype model, wherein existence/copula for "be" and possession/relationship for "have" are inseparably combined. These concepts are related to each other in their functions and meanings and serve as organizing principles in a conceptual network of semantic neighbors, including "give, take, get, become, make," and verbs of position and motion. Renewal and replacement of "be" and "have" occur through processes of polysemization and suppletization involving lexical items in this network. Topics include polysemy, suppletion, tense/mood auxiliaries, modality, causatives, evidentiality, function words, contact phenomena, syntactic calques, and idiomatic constructions.

Second Language Acquisition: The Basics
Second Language Acquisition: The Basics

Author: Gregory D. Keating

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-09-16

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 1317394593

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Starting from the premise that language instruction should be informed by how humans learn language, this module on second language acquisition (SLA) aims to provide teachers at any level with a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the key findings about how second languages are learned in adulthood. This module explores a variety of topics including the mechanisms in the mind responsible for language acquisition, the roles that input and output play in acquisition, and how language develops in the learner’s mind over time. Furthermore, the module explores the many factors believed to impact the outcome of SLA, such as the role of the native language, individual differences in aptitude and motivation, and age of acquisition. Please visit the series companion website for more information: http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781315679594/

The Origin of Language and Consciousness
The Origin of Language and Consciousness

Author: Nikolai S. Rozov

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-06-24

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 3031306309

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This book presents an evolutionary theory of the origin and step-by-step development of linguistic structures and cognitive abilities from the early stages of anthropogenesis to the Upper Paleolithic. Emphasizing the social nature of the human mind and using an extended version of C.Hempel's explanatory logic, the author proves that language and consciousness emerged and evolved through the daily efforts of our ancestors to overcome mutual misunderstandings in increasingly complex social orders with increasing tasks on memory, thinking, and normative regulation of behavior, with the addition of new and new communicative concerns. The book addresses questions such as the following: What unique social conditions led to the emergence of the first protosyllables and protowords? What steps enabled the crossing of the "linguistic Rubicon" (between animal communication and human speech)? Why were syllables and phonemes needed? How did our ancestors overcome the difficulties of misunderstanding? How, when, and why did ancient people learn to speak in turns? Why did they begin to talk about past and distant events? What is consciousness and how did it evolve along with language? How many original languages were there and why are there roughly 200 philas (language macrofamilies)? How and why did the number of languages and the degree of their complexity change in pre-written history? Did the Romance languages really evolve from Latin? Accordingly, the book will appeal to scholars in various disciplines who are interested in a better understanding of the cognitive aspects of anthropogenesis and the ancient origins of language and consciousness.