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Russian syntax

  Tags: Syntax | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
arodriguez66
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Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 1 of 6
28 September 2009 at 5:40pm | IP Logged 
In my Russian learning, all the books and materials that I got say that the word order
doesn't matter. However, I found this website that says that the word order should be:
subject, adverb, verb, and complement Now I am confused! What do I'm missing? That's the
link ... is in Spanish

http://www.aulafacil.com/Ruso/Lecciones ... 1-ruso.htm

Any help pleeeaaassseee!
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gdoyle1990
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 Message 2 of 6
02 October 2009 at 5:20am | IP Logged 
Well word order doesn't technically matter, but the traditional order for words is SVO...words can be placed in a different order for emphasis. It is like in English when one says "I am here" and "Here I am". Both phrases have the same technical meaning, but the word order in the second phrase puts emphasis on "here".
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Volte
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 Message 3 of 6
02 October 2009 at 10:00am | IP Logged 
It's pretty much as gdoyle1990 says. Russian grants major flexibility in word order, and this does get used, especially to show emphasis in the written language (in the spoken language, this is often done by changing emphasis rather than word order).

As gdoyle1990 said, there is a default word order of sorts; this default is much more commonly deviated from than in English or Spanish, and these deviations are an integral part of the language, but it exists.

The word order does matter, because shifting emphasis can occasionally change meaning or connotation; at a minimum, it changes emphasis. However, several (and sometimes any) word orders can be correct for most things which aren't fixed phrases.

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SII
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 Message 4 of 6
02 October 2009 at 10:54am | IP Logged 
arodriguez66 wrote:
In my Russian learning, all the books and materials that I got say that the word order
doesn't matter. However, I found this website that says that the word order should be:
subject, adverb, verb, and complement Now I am confused! What do I'm missing? That's the
link ... is in Spanish

http://www.aulafacil.com/Ruso/Lecciones ... 1-ruso.htm

Any help pleeeaaassseee!


Hmm... I don't know Spanish and don't read the site. But this word order is incorrect. 1) When they write about a subject and a complement, they must write about a predicate, a attribute, an adverbial modifier -- not an adverb and a verb. For example, a verb can be used as a subject and as s predicate; an adverb -- as an adverbial modifier. 2) Russian has almost full free word order. There is possible to say about the preferred/"standard" word order, but we (Russians) use the "non-standard" orders very often.
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Leopejo
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 Message 5 of 6
02 October 2009 at 11:09am | IP Logged 
SII wrote:
1) When they write about a subject and a complement, they must write about a predicate, a attribute, an adverbial modifier -- not an adverb and a verb. For example, a verb can be used as a subject and as s predicate; an adverb -- as an adverbial modifier. 2) Russian has almost full free word order. There is possible to say about the preferred/"standard" word order, but we (Russians) use the "non-standard" orders very often.

I think he meant a phrase like Я хорошо говорю по-русски. Literally subject, adverb, verb, (indirect) complement.
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SII
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 Message 6 of 6
02 October 2009 at 10:40pm | IP Logged 
Leopejo wrote:
I think he meant a phrase like Я хорошо говорю по-русски. Literally subject, adverb, verb, (indirect) complement.


I think, this is the confusion in terminology. It is correct to say about this sentence either "subject, adverbial modifier, predicate, complement" (i.e. to say about the functions of these words in this sentence) or "pronoun, adverb, verb, adverb" (i.e. to enumerate parts of speech used in the sentence). But when we speak about syntax we must say about word's functions in sentences. For example, if we say "verb" about word "говорю" in this sentence, we say nothing about function of the word in the sentence because verbs can be predicate (as in the sentence) or subject ("бежать в гору тяжело").


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