Businessmen and Ballerinas Take Different Forms: A Strategic Resource for Acquiring Russian Vocabulary and Morphology

Included in the tasks facing a language learner is the acquisition of a lexicon and a grammar. However, when the target language has inflectional morphology, these two parts of the language-learning task intersect in the paradigms of grammatical word forms because each open-class lexeme has a number of forms that allow it to express various combinations of grammatical categories. Among major world languages, Russian is relatively highly inflected, meaning that the challenges of acquiring vocabulary are compounded by the need to master the inflectional morphology. Even a modest basic vocabulary of a few thousand inflected lexemes has over a hundred thousand associated word forms. Recent research (Janda and Tyers 2018, described in more detail below) suggests that there could be an advantage to learning only a handful of high-frequency forms for each lexeme. Section 2 reviews distributional facts about paradigms, their theoretical implications, and the results of a computational experiment that simulates the learning of Russian paradigms either in their entirety or based only on the most frequent word forms. Section 3 presents a free public net-based resource, the Strategic Mastery of Russian Tool (SMARTool), which takes up the challenge of providing strategic input for second-language (L2) learning of Russian vocabulary. The design functions and some pedagogical applications of the SMARTool are detailed. Conclusions are offered in Section 4

The Big Challenges with Small Numerals in Russian: Linguistic Complexity and Corpus Evidence

KonferansebidragThe Big Challenges with Small Numerals in Russian: Linguistic Complexity and Corpus Evidence Russian numerals are famous for their syntactic complexity. We examine the behavior of four Russian paucal numerals poltora 'one and a half', dva 'two', tri 'three', četyre 'four' and the quantifier oba 'both'. These small numerals can admit variation in the forms of the words that collocate with them, as shown in Table 1. Nouns can appear in both Nominative plural and Genitive singular, modifiers can appear in both Nominative plural and Genitive plural and be found in three positions (preposed, post-numeral, and post-nominal), and predicates can appear in both Plural and Neuter Singular forms either preceding or following the phrase. Research questions: Are all logically possible combinations of modifiers attested? To what extent do speakers accept modifiers of different cases in the same construction? Are predicates in the singular and plural equally probable? Is word order relevant? To what extent is the situation changing? Are modifiers in the nominative on an increase, or are genitive modifiers winning out? Is gender a driving force behind the changes? Evidence: Our study on data from the Russian National Corpus indicates dramatic change over the past two centuries (see Figure 1). Notably, feminine nouns behave differently, so gender seems to play a key role. Furthermore, prosody is also relevant. Most feminine nouns have the same form in the Genitive singular and Nominative plural, but for some nouns (e.g. straná 'country') it is possible to establish which form is used, because they have different stress placements (indicated by accent marks): stranýGen sg vs. strányNom pl. While the form of the quantified noun is clearly of importance for the morphosyntax of numeral phrases, this issue has not been investigated systematically, presumably due to the lack of accentuated corpora. However, the Russian National Corpus now has an accentuated subcorpus. Our study suggests that there is considerable variation among speakers and that nominative plural forms may be on the increase. Theoretical implications: In addition to filling a knowledge gap about the distribution of forms in Russian numeral phrases, this study contributes to ongoing debates about linguistic complexity

The long and the short of it: Russian predicate adjectives with zero copula

The present article presents an empirical investigation of the choice between so-called long (e.g., prostoj ‘simple’) and short (e.g., prost ‘simple’) forms of predicate adjectives in Rus- sian, based on data from the syntactic subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus. The data under scrutiny suggest that short forms represent the dominant option for predicate adjec- tives. It is proposed that long forms are descriptions of thematic participants in sentences with no complement, while short forms may take complements and describe both partici- pants (thematic and rhematic) and situations. Within the “space of competition” where both long and short forms are well attested, it is argued that the choice of form to some extent depends on subject type, gender/number, and frequency. On the methodological level, the approach adopted in the present study may be extended to other cases of competition in mor- phosyntax. It is suggested that one should first “peel off” contexts where (nearly) categorical rules are at work, before one undertakes a statistical analysis of the “space of competition”

Prefix variation as a challenge to Russian aspectual pairs : are завязнуть and увязнуть ‘get stuck’ the same or different?

Two key issues in Russian linguistics are the traditional assumptions that (a) the aspect system presents ‘pairs’ of verbs that are perfective vs. imperfective, and that (b) since the lexical meanings of the two verbs that form a pair are identical, the affix that marks aspect has no semantic content. In relation to prefixed perfectives, this approach can be called the Empty Prefix Hypothesis. The alternative approach, which can be called the Overlap Hypothesis, suggests that semantic emptiness is an illusion created by an overlap in the meanings of the base verb and the prefix. A long-standing debate over these two hypotheses remains unresolved. We address this debate via a phenomenon that has not previously been investigated in a thorough manner, namely prefix variation. Prefix variation is present when an imperfective base verb forms two or more aspectual partner verbs with the same lexical meaning, as illustrated by the two verbs завязнуть and увязнуть in our title. We present a detailed empirical analysis, showing that prefix variation is both frequent and systematic in Russian, and that our results support the Overlap Hypothesis.Русская аспектуальная система традиционно описывается через видовые пары глаголов. Поскольку предполагается, что лексические значения глаголов совершенного и несовершенного вида в паре тождественны, аффикс, который маркирует вид, не несет иного значения, кроме аспектуального. В отношении к приставочным парам этот подход может быть назван гипотезой о пустых приставках. Альтернативный подход, который можно назвать гипотезой о наложении значений, предполагает, что семантическая пустота является иллюзией, возникающей из-за того, что значения мотивирующего глагола и приставки перекрываются. Длительный спор по поводу этих двух гипотез остается неразрешенным. Обращаясь к этой проблеме, мы анализируем феномен, который до сих пор не получил полного и системного рассмотрения, а именно, вариативность приставок в видовых парах. Такая вариативность имеет место, если бесприставочный глагол несовершенного вида образует с помощью различных приставок две или более видовых пар c близким лексическим значением, ср. завязнуть и увязнуть. Представляя детальный эмпирический анализ, мы показываем, что приставочная вариативность – частотное и системное явление в русском языке, и что наши результаты подтверждают гипотезу о наложении значений

Norwegian agreement clashes on the football field

Kibrik 2019 argues that a cognition-to-form approach to agreement is superior to the traditional form-to-form approach that is fraught with problems. We concur that it makes more sense to examine agreement from the perspective of cognitive representation and present a small study of how the semantics of adjectives contributes to the use of singular vs. plural agreement with Norwegian collective nouns naming football teams

UPAYA GURU DALAM MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR SISWA MATA PELAJARAN IPA PADA POKOK BAHASAN PERUBAHANWUJUD BENDA DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN MODEL PEMBELAJARAN INKUIRI (PTK di Kelas IVMI Al Washliyah Perbutulan Kecamatan Sumber Kabupaten Cirebon)

Yuyun Yuniah : Siswa kelas IV MI Al Washliyah Perbutulan Kecamatan Sumber Kabupaten Cirebon, pada hasil nilai ulangan harian IPA pada pokok bahasan perubahan wujud benda, masih banyak siswa yang tidak tuntas belajar, 21 dari 30 siswa nilainya masih di bawah KKM (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal). Nilai KKM IPA kelas IV tahun ajaran 2012/2013 adalah 70. Siswa kelas IV juga memiliki karakteristik aktivitas siswa yang pasif, yaitu siswa kurang komunikatif dengan guru dan teman sekelasnya. Selama pembelajaran IPA, keterlibatan siswa jarang di libatkan dalam praktikum. Untuk mengatasi permasalahan ini, maka diperlukan suatu model pembelajaran yang banyak melibatkan siswa sehingga dapat meningkatkan aktivitas hasil dan ketuntasan belajar siswa. Salah satu model yang digunakan adalah model inkuiri pada pembelajaran IPA. Pengajaran berdasarkan inkuiri adalah suatu strategi yang berpusat pada siswa di mana kelompok siswa inkuiri kedalam suatu isu atau mencari jawabanjawaban terhadap isi pertanyaan melalui suatu prosedur yang digariskan secara jelas dan struktural kelompok. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah (1) Untuk mengkaji keberhasilan penerapan model inkuiri, pada proses pembelajaran IPA pada pokok bahasan perubahan wujud benda di kelas IV, MI Al Washliyah Perbutulan. (2) Untuk mengkaji hasil belajar siswa kelas IV MI Al Washliyah Perbutulan pada pelajaran Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam pada pokok bahasan perubahan wujud benda. (3) Seberapa besar pengaruh penggunaan inkuiri, dengan hasil dan ketuntasan belajar siswa pada pelajaran Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam pada pokok bahasan perubahan wujud benda di kelas IV MI Al Washliyah Perbutulan. Peneliti ini dilakukan di kelas IV MI Al Washliyah Perbutulan Kecamatan Sumber Kabupaten Cirebon, semester ganjil tahun 2012/2013 yang berjumlah 30 siswa dengan menggunakan desain penelitian tindakan kelas dalam dua siklus. Tiap-tiap siklus terdiri dari empat tahap yaitu perencanaan, pelaksanaan tindakan, pengamatan dan refleksi. Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan cara observasi, wawancara dan penilaian hasil belajar. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian diperoleh nilai rata-rata hasil belajar siswa pada siklus I adalah 61,33 dan siklus II adalah 79. Secara umum dapat disimpulkan bahwa pembelajaran inkuiri dapat meningkatkan aktivitas siswa

Kremls språkkrig

Source at https://www.nordnorskdebatt.no/.Når den russiske presidenten taler, er det om å gjøre å virke samlende innad og samtidig så splid blant motstanderens støttespillere i Vesten. Kreml har lyktes bedre med det første enn med det andre

Empirically determined strategic input and gamification in mastering Russian word forms

Source at https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rlj/We propose two designs to gamify second language (L2) learning of Russian inflectional morphology: Treasure Hunt and Story Time. The goal of these designs is to focus learning on high-frequency word forms that are most strategic and effective for L2 acquisition in a way that stimulates engagement and builds lifelong learning skills. These two gamification designs emerged from a student focus group that was convened to propose implementations for the SMARTool (see Section 3). After an initial brainstorming session, the ideas were further developed by the instructor, honed by the students, and tested in class. Students have also contributed to and commented on the contents of this article. In Section 2 we briefly identify the problem, namely, the enormous number of paradigm forms potentially present in Russian paradigms and their skewed distribution. We cite research showing that inflectional morphology is a major hurdle for L2 learners but not for native speakers, who use only a fraction of the potential forms and can easily understand and produce forms that they have never encountered. Furthermore, evidence demonstrates that learning can be enhanced by strategically concentrating on the highest-frequency forms. Access to the highest-frequency forms of over 3,000 lexemes is provided by the SMARTool described in Section 3, but that resource is relatively static, meaning that more guidance is needed on how to implement this tool in the classroom and in self-study. Our two proposed designs are presented in Section 4 (Treasure Hunt) and Section 5 (Story Time). Conclusions are offered in Section 6

Is the police certain-sg or certain-pl? Adjective agreement on collective nouns in Norwegian

Source at https://journals.lub.lu.se/anf.Dette er en empirisk studie av adjektivkongruens i norsk. We undersøker setninger med et kollektivt substantiv som subjekt og et predikativt adjektiv i singular eller plural. Med utgangspunkt i data fra to elektroniske korpora og en informantundersøkelse viser vi at pluralkongruens er utbredt i setninger av den typen vi analyserer. Følgende faktorer kan knyttes til valget mellom singular og plural: animatum, subjektets semantikk, avstand mellom subjekt og predikativt adjektiv, adjektiv vs. partisipp og adjektivets evne til å indikere agentivitet. Korpusdataene analyseres ved hjelp av en logistisk regresjonsamodell.This is an empirical study of adjectival agreement in Norwegian. We investigate sentences with a collective noun as a subject and a predicative adjective in the singular or plural. On the basis of data from two corpora and a survey, we demonstrate that plural agreement is widespread in Norwegian sentences of the relevant type. The following fac- tors are shown to be significantly associated with the choice between singular and plural: animacy and semantic type of subject, distance between subject and predicative adjective, adjective vs. participle, and the adjective’s role as an indicator of agency. The corpus data are analyzed by means of a logistic regression model