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Word Order in Russian

  Tags: Syntax | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Русский Post Reply
Siberiano
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 Message 1 of 4
19 March 2010 at 10:39am | IP Logged 
I've found a couple of articles in Russian on word order:

Синтаксис современного русского языка
It explains might be useful for the learners as it explains the structure of sentences. There are no instructions though, but I hope this can be helpful.

Порядок слов (in general)
In this one this paragraph might be of value:
Quote:
Один и тот же основной смысл может выражаться с помощью разных порядков слов, причем изменение порядка может выражать актуализацию, т.е. указывать на те компоненты значения, которые наиболее тесно связаны с отношениями говорящего и слушающего. В английском языке, например, перестановка личной формы сказуемого левее подлежащего передает значение вопроса: He is intelligent "Он умён", но Is he intelligent? "Умён ли он?". В русском языке порядок слов является одним из средств выражения так называемого актуального членения предложения, т.е. его деления на тему (исходный пункт сообщения) и рему (сообщаемое), ср. [Отец пришёл](тема)[в пять часов](рема) и [В пять часов](тема)[пришёл отец](рема). Применительно к предложению часто различают прямой порядок слов и обратный (или инвертированный) порядок слов, возникающий при особых условиях, обычно при выражении актуализации.


From here I've read the rule "new information comes the last in the sentence". This makes sense.

Там мы увидели машину. "машину" is new, not mentioned before.

He caught a cold. Он подхватил простуду. Similar.

He won't come as he has the flu.
Он сегодня не придёт, потому что болеет гриппом.
"не придёт" is new information, "гриппом" is new too.

Гриппом он заболел. - hmm... well, here Гриппом is a direct object, but since it stands before the verb, it is strongly emphasised.

Алиса съела гриб [и торчит]. (Alice ate a mushroom [and is high])
Алиса гриб съела. Alice ate the mushroom. New and important info comes the last. Here the important is "ate".

Looks like if an object is definite, or mentioned before, you shouldn't put it the last.

But I've made up an example when a not new object comes last:
[Миша давно обещал вернуть мне диск.] И в воскресенье он принёс его.
Quite long, but this is the shortest sentence that's sensible and doesn't sound childish.
The structure is: Adv S Adv V O. O is already known, but comes last, and since the new info is "принёс", it has logical accent. If "его" were before "принёс", there would be a noteable (for cursive) emphasis on "принёс".

Still in this joke, the 1st and the 2nd sentences violate the rules I told above. Cursive means logical accent:
Идёт медведь по лесу ночью. Видит: машина горит. Сел в неё и сгорел.

Edited by Siberiano on 19 March 2010 at 11:20am

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yenome
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 Message 2 of 4
22 March 2010 at 4:53am | IP Logged 
Word order is different in speech because you can put a heavier accent on any word you want.
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Siberiano
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 Message 3 of 4
27 March 2010 at 10:54pm | IP Logged 
True.

I'm also guilty of mixing up words because I start a sentence, omit something, then feel it has to be said, and say it in the middle of other words :) Like "принеси и положи из шкафа книгу на стол".
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yenome
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 Message 4 of 4
28 March 2010 at 1:03am | IP Logged 
That's one of the nice things about Russian. When you do that in English, you have to start the sentence over. It's enough to cause OCD.


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