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ERIC Number: ED112691
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1975-Oct
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Theory vs. Taxonomy: On Teaching 'Syntactically Irregular' Verbs in Russian.
Plewes, S. Frank
This paper suggests methods for teaching the Russian verbs that govern what are loosely termed "objects" in oblique cases. The case government of such verbs is not necessarily an individual irregularity. Definite patterns emerge, both morphological and semantic, to facilitate grouping these verbs into classes. Russian verbs requiring genitive objects are examined first. Such verbs fall into two major semantic groups, each defined as the semantically polar opposite of the other. It is demonstrated that the groups share an underlying and very abstract semantic feature along the lines of Jakobson's theory of the semantic invariance of case. Verbs governing the dative are then examined. Some of these are examined from the viewpoint of "extended indirect objects," while others are seen as statives requiring a dative referent or addressee. Certain morphological similarities of these verbs are noted. Finally, some instrumental-governing verbs are examined as an extension of the agent/instrument categories of passive sentences, and a few others are assigned the more general meaning "use as if it were an instrument." It is concluded that the application of semantic groupings such as these, of varying degrees of abstraction, is an effective way of pedagogically systematizing an otherwise apparently unsystematic body of data. (Author/TL)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (Atlanta, Georgia, October 9, 1975)