Derek Offord - Using Russian - A Guide to Contemporary Usage

And as for the whole culture centred on site www . . . com [a pornographic website], I’m not going to say anything about it because I’m sure you’re just not ready for it:)) But that’s where the future’s at:)

Well there are lots of things like that and one really shouldn’t dismiss that sort of approach to language on the internet out of hand, when it would be really 69

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Passages illustrating register

worthwhile to bring them out into the open:) And this hasn’t got anything to do with being like a yokel out of the depths of Russia either:)

P.S. there are of course also kids on the net for whom a complex sentence is three simple ones without a single comma:) That’s not what I‘ve been talking about of course. What I’ve got in mind is changes in language without distorting the sense and comprehensibility [of it] .

This text is a message sent as an email to an officially funded Russian website devoted to maintenance of linguistic standards. The author

(who is a male, as the masculine form of the verb in the second

sentence of the post scriptum indicates) is addressing the subject of linguistic usage on the internet. At the same time he self-consciously uses his message to illustrate distinctive features of the email register.

Layout, punctuation, vocabulary, syntax and style, and to a lesser extent orthography, all impart to the message a characteristically informal tone which, given the nature of the site to which the message is

addressed, is challenging and slightly subversive.

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layout

As an email, the text is preceded by an indication of the subject,

author and date. It closes, as a letter also might, with a post

scriptum .

r The author strives to accommodate each idea within a single sentence, as he says people try to do when communicating on the internet

(16–17). This habit may lend sentences a rather rambling nature (see especially the fourth and sixth sentences; compare the participants in the chatroom conversation at 2.2 above). Moreover, a sentence may itself constitute a separate paragraph. This is the case with the first five sentences of the message, and in the next three paragraphs too the

material which follows the opening sentence is not much more than

an appended afterthought.

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punctuation

The author relies mainly on commas or многото´чиe (three dots) to

indicate pauses in his train of thought, avoiding the use of colons and semi-colons.

r More often than not he omits the full stop, thus adhering to what he says is normal practice on the internet (16).

r In lieu of full stops he very frequently uses the expressive device of the emoticon, or smiley (6, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28), another habit characteristic of informal language on the internet to which he draws attention (17–18).

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vocabulary

Internet terminology: интeрнe´т (4), онлa´йн (10), виртуa´льный (10), чaт (12), смa´йлик (18), сaйт (20) and the abbreviated form инe´тe (27).

r Colloquial forms: По-моéму (14), к примe´ру (14), бу´хнуть (18),

нaвeрнякa´ (21), отмa´хивaться (24).

r Diminutive forms: словe´чки (10), глуби´нкa (25).

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2.13

Language of the internet

r Particles (see 5.4): ну (20, 23); a (20); post-positive -то (but not preceded in the text by the standard hyphen; 21); жe (27, 29).

r The demotic form чё (i.e. что) and the slang word фуфлоín the

opening question (3).

r The interjection: ох (25).

syntax

r Syntax is simple. Only one simple subordinating conjunction, тaк кaк

(21), is used in the message. Links between ideas are established, if they are explicitly established at all, by use of the coordinating conjunctions и (e.g. 5, 17) and a (24).

r The dominant syntactic technique is use of a simple copula, stated or understood, e.g. Ba´ши нeздоро´выe идe´и . . . нe в си´лaх (5); поучи´тeльнeй бы´ло бы проaнaлизи´ровaть (7); э´то си´льно

рaспрострaнeно´, (12–13); э´то то´жe нe´что (18–19); бу´дущee то

и´мeнно тaм (21–2); Э´то . . . нe то´ . . . (28–9).

r Ellipsis (see 11.13): я про то´, in which some verb such as говори´ть is understood (10–11; it should be noted that the preposition про is

colloquial as well).

r Other colloquial expressions, e.g. пря´мо кaк я щaс (18), кaк рaз (29), and the colloquial transition word кстa´ти (18).

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style

The author follows the casual practices of ordinary speech. For

instance, he makes no attempt to avoid repetition, resorting more than once to the same or similar words or expressions: крa´йнe (4, 16); (нe) имe´ю в виду´(10, 29); к примe´ру (14), нaпримe´р (15); вообщe´ (20), в

о´бщeм (23); сто´ит (23), сто´ило бы (25); конe´чно жe (27, 29).

r He seems also wilfully to cultivate an unpolished style. The phrases Hу

a о цe´лой культу´рe (20) and освeти´ть их ох кaк сто´ило бы (25) seem particularly inelegant on account of the ugly succession of vowel

sounds ( u, a, o ) in the first and the grotesque combination of ikh and okh in the second.

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orthography

The author refers to the practice of spelling words in a way that reflects actual pronunciation as a fact of linguistic life on the internet (11–13).

He also commends this practice himself (14–15) and demonstrates it

by his spelling of сeйчa´с as щaс (18–19). All the same, the author’s innovations in spelling are actually very limited. In general his

orthography is careful and correct (cf. the careless and casual

orthography of the passage from a chatroom in 2.2 above).

r Nor is the use of capitals in this message unconventional. After all, each new sentence begins with a capital letter (except the first sentence of the post scriptum , which in any case the author may deem to have begun with the abbreviation ‘P.S.’). Capitals are even used for the first letter of possessive and personal pronouns (Ba´ши, Bы) denoting the

addressee(s) of the message, as is conventional in formal

correspondence (5, 21; see 7.17).

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Passages illustrating register

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absence of

Features of the higher formal registers are not altogether absent. There formal features

is, for instance, a present active participle, состоя´щee (28), and a reflexive verb used in passive sense, стa´вятся (16). However, there is a notable dearth of such features, there being no examples of gerunds, present passive participles, threading of cases, subordinating

conjunctions or complex prepositional phrases.

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3 Problems of meaning: Russian words

This chapter lists some of the Russian words that give difficulty to the English-speaking student. The difficulty may arise for any one of

several reasons. For example, the Russian word may have a wide range of meaning. It may be easily confused with some other Russian word

or words. It may be deceptively similar to some English word. It may occur in a plural form whereas its English equivalent occurs in a

singular form or vice versa. Or it may denote some phenomenon or