Abstract
The paper deals with many problems related to our understanding of 19th-century Russian. Our main claim is that what may seem straightforward and nearly identical to the contemporary usage often displays significant difference in semantic and syntactic patterns. This difference, however, is usually ‘latent’, and special efforts are needed to unearth it. The paper is focused on one specific construction with a parenthetical govorju ja ‘I say’. It is shown that 19-century usage differs from what a modern speaker of Russian would expect, both semantically and syntactically.
Аннотация
Статья посвящена многообразным проблемам, связанным с интерпретацией русских текстов XIX века. Наш основной тезис состоит в том, что многое из того, что в этих текстах кажется простым и более или менее идентичным современному узусу, на самом деле скрывает существенные отличия в семантико-синтаксическом поведении, которые не всегда видны без специальных исследовательских усилий. Центральным материалом статьи является конструкция с вводным оборотом говорю я; показано, что его значение и структура в текстах XIX века существенно отличается от того, что мог бы ожидать современный носитель языка.
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Notes
Cf. the phenomenon of the ‘short-term semantic evolution’ discussed by Anna A. Zaliznjak. According to the author, it often leads to ‘misunderstanding of the text, which originates when the reader fails to recognize the semantic shift which had occurred in a word or a construction of her mother tongue, and interprets their meaning in contemporary terms’ (Zaliznjak 2013, p. 300).
Hereafter, we use the translation of Lermontov’s A hero of our time by J. H. Wisdom and Marr Murray (Gutenberg project: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/913/913-h/913-h.htm#link2H_4_0002).
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55024/55024-h/55024-h.htm (February 2018).
But also vocabulary as such, where, according to Viktor Živov, ‘semantic calquing combines with the processing of the semantics inherited from the earlier epochs’ (Živov 2009, p. 19), which is not covered in this research.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10321781v (March 2018).
According to Krongauz (2016, p. 51), ‘The original version of the meme contains several panes from The Walking Dead series representing the main character Rick Grimes and his son Carl; Rick gradually approaches Carl addressing him with an emotional speech’. However, the specific discourse usage of the name Carl is peculiar to the Russian reception of these scenes, and it emerged from Russian internet culture.
https://books.google.ru/ (March 2018).
Translated into Russian by Maria Kazas: Ferragus, predvoditel’ devorantov. In Onore Bal’zak, Sobranie sočinenij v 24 tomax. Tom 11: Čelovečeskaja komedija. Moskva, 1960, pp. 13–130.
https://books.google.ru/ (March 2018).
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The present study is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow.
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Plungian, V., Rakhilina, E. ‘I say …’: Some aspects of 19th-century Russian syntax. Russ Linguist 42, 123–136 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-018-9192-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11185-018-9192-x