Russian Language Studies in North America

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A unique collection of research papers representing current directions in Russian language studies in Canada and the United States.

‘Russian Language Studies in North America: New Perspectives from Theoretical and Applied Linguistics’ offers a unique collection of research papers representing current directions in Russian language studies in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, Slavic and Russian studies in these countries have centered around literature, history, politics and culture. This volume reflects recent changes in Russian studies by focusing on language structure, language use and teaching methodology. The volume brings together several generations of scholars, from young promising researchers to those with long-established reputations in the field.

List of Tables and Figures; Introduction – Veronika Makarova; PART ONE: LANGUAGE STRUCTURES AND THEIR INTERFACE; 1. Phonetics. Tracing Emotions in Russian Vowels – Veronika Makarova and Valery A. Petrushin; 2. Phonology. Vowel–Zero Alternations in Russian Prepositions: Prosodic Constituency and Productivity – Lev Blumenfeld; 3. Morphology and Lexicology Interface. Latest Russian Neologisms: The Next Step towards Analytism? – Julia Rochtchina; 4. Syntax. Bi-nominative Sentences in Russian – Igor Mel’čuk; 5. Psycholinguistics. The Effect of Grammatical Gender in Russian Spoken-Word Recognition – Irina A. Sekerina; PART TWO: APPLIED LINGUISTIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS; 6. Communicative Language Teaching and Russian: The Current State of the Field – William J. Comer; 7. Low-Proficiency Heritage Speakers of Russian: Their Interlanguage System as a Basis for Fast Language (Re)Building – Alla Smyslova; 8. Superior Speakers or “Super” Russian: OPI Guidelines Revisited – Ludmila Isurin; 9. Who Am I?: Cultural Identities among Russian-Speaking Immigrants of the Third (and Fourth?) Wave and their Effects on Language Attitudes – David R. Andrews; 10. Russian Language History in Canada. Doukhobor Internal and External Migrations: Effects on Language Development and Structure – Gunter Schaarschmidt; Afterword – Veronika Makarova; Index

Sujets

• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Linguistics

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783080779
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Russian Language Studies
in North AmericaRussian Language Studies
in North America
New Perspectives from Theoretical
and Applied Linguistics
Edited by
Veronika MakarovaAnthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2012
by ANTHEM PRESS
75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
© 2012 Veronika Makarova editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters © individual contributors
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russian language studies in North America : new perspectives from theoretical and
applied linguistics / edited by Veronika Makarova.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-85728-784-7 (alk. paper) – ISBN 0-85728-784-2 (alk. paper)
1. Russian language–Phonology. 2. Russian language–Study and teaching–Canada.
3. Russian language–Study and teaching–United States. 4. Russian language–Spoken
Russian–Canada. 5. Russian language–Spoken Russian–United States. 6. Linguistics–
Research–Canada. 7. Linguistics–Research–United States. I. Makarova, Veronika.
PG2131.R87 2012
491.707'07–dc23
2012004987
ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 784 7 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 0 85728 784 2 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an eBook.CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures vii
Introduction xi
Veronika Makarova
Part One Language Structures and their Interface
1. Phonetics. Tracing Emotions in Russian Vowels 3
Veronika Makarova and Valery A. Petrushin
2. Phonology. Vowel–Zero Alternations in Russian Prepositions:
Prosodic Constituency and Productivity 43
Lev Blumenfeld
3. Morphology and Lexicology Interface. Latest Russian
Neologisms: The Next Step towards Analytism? 71
Julia Rochtchina
4. Syntax. Bi-nominative Sentences in Russian 85
Igor Mel’čuk
5. Psycholinguistics. The Effect of Grammatical Gender in
Russian Spoken-Word Recognition 107
Irina A. Sekerina
Part Two Applied Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Analysis
6. Communicative Language Teaching and Russian: The Current
State of the Field 133
William J. Comer
7. Low-Proficiency Heritage Speakers of Russian: Their
Interlanguage System as a Basis for Fast Language (Re)Building 161
Alla Smyslovavi RUSSIAN LANGUAGE STUDIES IN NORTH AMERICA
8. Superior Speakers or “Super” Russian: OPI Guidelines Revisited 193
Ludmila Isurin
9. Who Am I?: Cultural Identities among Russian-Speaking
Immigrants of the Third (and Fourth?) Wave and their Effects
on Language Attitudes 215
David R. Andrews
10. Russian Language History in Canada. Doukhobor Internal
and External Migrations: Effects on Language Development
and Structure 235
Gunter Schaarschmidt
Afterword 261
Veronika Makarova
Index 265LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables
Table 1.1 Descriptive statistics for unstressed vowels
(mean/std) and p-value for one-way analysis
of variance; N = 3891 10
Table 1.2 Descriptive statistics for stressed vowels
(mean/std) and p-value for one-way analysis
of variance; N = 1393 11
Table 1.3 Descriptive statistics for accented vowels
(mean/std) and p-value for one-way analysis
of variance; N = 325 12
Table 1.4 Vowel duration across emotional states 26
Table 1.5 Energy across emotional states 28
Table 1.6 F0 across emotive states, in Hz 29
Table 4.1 Properties of the six lexemes of the verb BYT´ ‘be’ 100
Table 5.1 Experiment 1: The mean proportion of fixations
to the target in Regions 1, 2 and 3 (%) 119
Table 5.2 Experiment 2: The mean proportions of fixations
to target and competitor in Regions 1, 2 and 3 (%) 125
Table 6.1 Preprogram OPI scores by percentage of students
at each level of study 140
Table 6.2 Varieties of input and input comprehension checks 144
Table 6.3 Types and distribution of communicative activities 147
Table 6.4 Tutions of language-focused activities 148
Table 8.1 OPI assessment criteria 199viii RUSSIAN LANGUAGE STUDIES IN NORTH AMERICA
Table 8.2 Analysis of narrative samples 204
Table 8.3 descriptiv206
Table 8.4 Circumlocution across the groups 209
Figures
Figure 1.1 Waveforms and pitch contours of an exclamatory
utterance produced with different emotions
by a female speaker 7
Figure 1.2 Average durations of vowels in neutral and
emotive speech modes in the unstressed,
stressed and accented vowels datasets 13
Figure 1.3 Average energy of vowels in neutral and
emotive speech modes in the unstressed,
stressed and accented vowels datasets 15
Figure 1.4 Average F0 values of vowels in neutral and
emotive speech modes in the unstressed,
stressed and accented vowels datasets 17
Figure 1.5 Average F0 derivative values in neutral and
emotive speech modes in the unstressed,
stressed and accented vowels datasets 19
Figure 1.6 Spectral profiles for vowels extracted from
speech portraying the following emotions:
anger, fear, happiness, neutral and surprise 23
Figure 1.7 F1 and F2 of the stressed vowels 30
Figure 2.1 Syllable structure of a phrase s straxom (with fear) 52
Figure 3.1 A collage representing text samples that
reflect the emerging of a new ‘double orthography’
system in Russian 76
Figure 5.1 The two types of visual display in
Experiment 1 (no cohorts) 114
Figure 5.2 Experiment 1: The probability of fixating the
target (red car) and color competitor (red squirrel)
over three regions in the same-gender condition,
as a function of word order (%) 121 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix
Figure 5.3 The two types of visual display in
Experiment 1 (cohorts) 122
Figure 5.4 Experiment 2: The probability of fixating the
target (orange jar) and competitors (orange bow/fan)
over three regions as a factor of cohort/no-cohort
condition (%) 126
Figure 6.1 Structured input activity 154
Figure 7.1 First classifications of heritage speakers in the USA 163
Figure 7.2 Distribution of contexts for cases across pre-course
essays (%) 177
Figure 7.3 Distribution of nouns, modifiers and personal
pronouns case by case across pre-course essays (%) 177
Figure 8.1 Cohesion in narration 204
Figure 10.1 Doukhobor settlements near the Moloc ˇna River
in Tavria, Russia 238
Figure 10.2 Doukhobor settlements in the Caucasus, Russia 240
Figure 10.3 Early Doukhobor settlements in Saskatchewan 243
Figure 10.4 Doukhobor settlements in British Columbia 245INTRODUCTION
Veronika Makarova
University of Saskatchewan
This book is a unique collection of research papers representing current
directions in Russian language studies in Canada and the United States. The
book is integrated thematically by its focus on Russian language structure and
dynamics, as well as by the regional themes pertinent to the maintenance and
acquisition of the Russian language in the US and Canada. Traditionally,
Slavic and Russian studies in these countries have involved mostly literature,
history, politics and culture. This collection of research papers reflects recent
changes in Russian studies with a focus on language structure, language use,
pedagogy and teaching methodology. At least four major trends are responsible
for these changes.
First, the rapid economic and social changes in Russia that occurred
after the collapse of the Soviet Union in combination with the development
of information technology have trigged an unprecedented change in the
language structure and use, which now attracts the attention of linguists
(e.g., Ryazanova-Clarke and Wade 1999). The lexical system of modern
Russian is characterized “by an increased instability of the boundaries
between the centre and the periphery” (Ryazanova-Clarke and Wade 1999,
75), i.e., some words from the periphery are moving into the center, while some
central words are marginalized. Words change their meanings and undergo
re-connotation; the morphological word formation system is extremely active;
new loan words appear in abundance; and the grammatical system registers
changes in preposition use, acquires a larger class of indeclinables and displays
a growing tendency towards analyticity (Ryazanova-Clarke and Wade 1999).
Second, the Russian language remains one of the world’s top ten languages
in terms of its number of speakers, and is gaining new ground in sociolinguistic
research. On the one hand, the controversies surrounding the new status of
Russian diasporas and of the Russian language in the former republics of the xii RUSSIAN LANGUAGE STUDIES IN NORTH AMERICA
Soviet Union have attracted the attention of linguists (e.g., Korth 2005; Wylegal