When passing the exam (Russian language), problems for students can be different. This is mainly due to difficulties in substantiating certain aspects of the topics proposed for writing. Further in the article, the correct use of various arguments will be considered.
General information
Various difficulties in the exam are caused not so much by the student's lack of any information on the topic. Most likely, the student cannot apply the information he has properly. For this reason, the necessary statements are not fully justified or not in the way that is necessary in order to successfully complete the task. First, statements should be formed, and then the corresponding justifications for them - problems and arguments. The Russian language is very multifaceted. All statements and justifications must carry a certain semantic load. Further in the article, various topics and arguments will be considered.
The problem of the Russian language
Preservation of vocabulary is the task of every person. The problems of the Russian language are revealed in various works. Reasoning on this topic can be found in both classical and modern prose. In the works, the authors also put forward arguments. The problem of the Russian language, for example, is revealed in the work of Knyshev. In it, the author speaks in a humorous way about lovers of borrowed words. His work "O great and mighty Russian is the absurdity of speech oversaturated with these elements. M. Krongauz reveals a related topic. According to the author, the problems of the modern Russian language are the oversaturation of speech with words associated with the Internet, fashion, youth movements. In his book, he expresses his point of view.The title of the work speaks for itself: "The Russian language is on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
We think in Russian. We read books and watch films where the characters speak Russian. We are so accustomed to the Russian language that we even believe in some common misconceptions about it.
Russian language is dying
The Russian language has died many times already. The death of the Russian language was discussed at the beginning of the 19th century. It is significant that the dialogue was often conducted in French.
The death of the Russian language has been spoken of practically since its birth, since theoretically the modern Russian language was born only together with the Grammar of 1755 by Mikhail Lomonosov. Prior to this, the term "Russian language" was not widely used in scientific terminology. There was Old Russian, Old Russian and Great Russian languages.
A great contribution to the birth of the Russian language was made by Peter the Great, who simplified the Old Russian language.
Lomonosov commented on this as follows: “Under Peter the Great, not only boyars and boyars, but also letters, threw off their wide fur coats and dressed up in summer clothes.”
As soon as the language began to be codified, talk immediately began that it was dying. They continue today. And the language lives and develops.
The Russian language suffers from the dominance of foreign words
The Russian language does not suffer and did not suffer from the dominance of foreign words. A large percentage of the words we use daily are of foreign origin. The tea is Chinese, the pot is French, the guitar is Italian, the flag is Dutch.
Russia's main allies are the army and navy. One word is of French origin, the other is of Dutch origin. Are you really suffering from this?
Russian language is richer in words
Every language has a passive and an active lexicon. If the first can be very large, then the second is always less than it, at best, ten times. 
The vocabulary of the Russian language according to the dictionary of Vladimir Dahl is about 200,000 words, English - according to the Oxford Dictionary - also 200,000 words. However, not all words are included in the active lexicon.
Pushkin has the largest dictionary of the language of the Russian people. It includes approximately 25,000 lexemes. Shakespeare possessed approximately the same vocabulary (in English). At the same time, Shakespeare is also the author of 1700 neologisms that have taken root in the language.
The Big Academic Dictionary, the so-called BAS, contains 131,257 words. It is impossible to say that at least one-fifth of this "reserve" is included in our active lexicon.
In the bottom line, the average person needs 6,000 words to communicate.
We do not speak the language of Pushkin
Another common misconception: we speak the language of Pushkin. In fact, Pushkin spoke, that is, communicated in society, for the most part in French. No wonder he was still called "Frenchman" in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Of course, he communicated with his serfs in Russian, but we cannot establish exactly how this happened.
It is impossible not to note Pushkin's amazing language in correspondence, which is closer to living speech than the language of literary works. Judging by it, we can say that Pushkin's language is very figurative and rich. This is an excerpt from Pushkin's letter to Alexander Turgenev: “I am very sorry that I did not say goodbye to either you or both Mirabeau. Here is a message to Orlov as a keepsake; take it into your paternal pocket, print it in your own printing house and give one copy to the fiery pet of Bellona, at the throne to a loyal citizen.
Pushkin's letters come out with comments, because for us, native speakers of the modern language, they are not always clear. Pushkin's language is occasional, so one cannot say that modern language is Pushkin's language. It can be recognized that we speak a completely different language, less rich and vibrant.
The Russian language developed independently
No language develops on its own. If we are talking about the Russian literary language, then it has undergone the influence of other languages throughout its history. So, among the most famous influences, one can name the strongest French influence that the Russian language experienced in the 19th century.
Nikolai Karamzin changed the syntax of the Russian language in the manner of French, Leo Tolstoy wrote in French almost a quarter of the volume of his famous novel. The Gallic influence on the Russian language was recorded even in the segment of the vernacular (from the vernacular "sharomyzhnik" to the "car" and "machine gun" familiar to us today). Many in Russian and borrowings from other languages.
However, speaking about the influence of other languages on Russian, we need to talk not so much about the borrowing of words, but about the influence in terms of syntax, the internal structure of the text. If we talk about times closer, then Russian literature already in the 20th century was influenced by such Anglo-lovers as Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Nabokov. Almost all poets have been influenced by Brodsky's poetics since the late 1980s. And not everyone benefited from this influence.
Linguists came to such disappointing conclusions after analyzing a study conducted by the Living Languages Institute with the support of the National Geographic Society. According to Associate Professor at Smarthmore College David Harrison, about half of the languages exist only in oral form and can be easily forgotten. Some endangered languages disappear in a moment after the death of their last speaker. It is estimated that 80% of the world's population are native speakers of 80 major languages, while 3.5 thousand minor languages are native to only 0.2% of earthlings.
“The rate of language extinction that we are seeing is unprecedented in human history,” says Harrison. - More than 40% of the world's languages can be included in the Linguistic Red Book. As for flora and fauna, 8% of plant species and 18% of mammal species are threatened with extinction - not so much compared to languages!
According to Harrison and Anderson, globalization and migration are the main culprits. Economic reasons force people to leave their native villages and go to cities, where they wean themselves from their native speech, using generally accepted languages in their work. Responsibility for the disappearance of languages, according to scientists, lies partly with children. In particular, a child who speaks both Maya and Spanish ends up opting for the Spanish he hears at school and on television.
Thus, small languages are being squeezed out and absorbed by such giant languages as English, Chinese and Russian. Scientists have named five "hot spots" where languages are threatened with extinction: northern Australia, Central America, the southwestern United States, British Columbia and eastern Siberia. Anderson estimates that it takes three to four years and up to £200,000 to work on a full scientific record of a language. “There are people and communities who ask us for help to save their languages,” he notes. “We would have money, but we don’t have enough money.”
The problem of disappearing languages did not, of course, arise this week. As a professor at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities told Expert Online Yakov Testelec, as early as the 19th century, scientists were interested in this issue. Serious attention to the topic was attracted in the last decades of the last century. With the question of why languages are disappearing and how to deal with it, Expert Online turned to professional linguists.
According to experts, languages have always disappeared - this is a constant phenomenon. However, new ones also appeared in parallel - from the interaction of peoples and tribes. Now, under exactly the same circumstances, new languages do not appear, but the old ones disappear at a catastrophic rate. “Most often this happens because the speakers of such rare languages do not appreciate them, at best it is used only in the family. Such a language is seen as a hindrance to a career, social life, and personal growth. Everyone is now trying to learn prestigious languages that contribute to vertical mobility,” Yakov Testelets explains to Expert Online the factors behind the disappearance of languages. According to him, healthy languages are those spoken by children. “If the children understand, but they themselves no longer speak, this is the first call. If only old people speak, then this is most likely the end, ”the professor notes. In our country, the most difficult situation is now with endangered languages in Siberia and the Far East.
These trends are confirmed by the senior researcher of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Tatyana Agranat.“In the era of globalization, it is impossible to use only your own regional language - you simply won’t survive,” the specialist says. According to her, if it goes on like this, many more languages will disappear - about 80%. “However, if you make an effort, then perhaps not much will disappear - about 50%,” she believes. Now, according to Agranat, there are from 3.5 thousand to 5 thousand languages on Earth.
The question is, is it worth fighting for the life of such languages? After all, there is a point of view that if a language disappears, then it means that it is not in demand by people, and therefore there is no need to save it. However, professional linguists strongly disagree. “Every language is a unique way of expressing human thoughts. With the disappearance of languages, a certain way of expressing thoughts disappears, thus our cultural heritage is also depleted,” says Tatyana Agranat. “From the point of view of linguistics, culture, ethnology, the disappearance of languages is a disaster,” confirms Testelets.
However, the efforts of specialists alone cannot be enough to save languages. If the language is not prestigious, then it will not be taught anyway. “Efforts must be made from all sides, including from native speakers. When we go on expeditions to small nations, we tell them - do not forget the language, teach children, sometimes it pays off,” says Agranat.
What languages hold the lead in the world today and what are the forecasts for the future? As the scientific supervisor of the Runov School told Expert Online Mikhail Gorelik, leadership will retain the English language for a long time, which is not surprising. “It is spoken by 450 million people, although even more people speak Chinese, it is also becoming a popular language. According to some reports, Spanish comes next, followed by French and German - they are spoken by approximately the same number of people (about a hundred million each). Although, according to my observations, recently French has been asked more often, ”says the philologist. And yet English will retain its leadership as an international language for a long time to come - as long as the American and British economies are strong.
All other languages, according to Gorelik, are unlikely to gain such powerful popularity as the languages of international communication. “Now China is rushing forward sharply. There are already even general education schools with the Chinese language. As for the rest, Japanese is quite popular. But it's more exotic. That is, people study it because they like it, and not because they are trying to use it for wide international communication,” the scientist is convinced.
Russian as a foreign language is also popular. “Most of the interest is shown by former compatriots who in the first or second generation forgot the language and would like to restore it. As for popularity among foreigners, there are more and more British, Americans, Germans who work here in large cities. They also want to know Russian. However, I do not yet see a boom in Russian as a foreign language. Although the Russian-speaking diaspora can seriously affect the growth in demand,” says the linguist.
In the long term, the alignment of linguistic forces will largely depend on the political situation. “For example, English “shot” only after the Second World War, before that French and German were in the lead. And then everything will depend on the political situation. On the territory of the former USSR, the primacy of the Russian language will remain for a long time,” says Testelets. “Most likely, the balance will be maintained. Practical considerations come into play here,” agrees Agranat. However, according to her, such a trend is already observed in Europe - with the dominance of "big" languages, small ones are being revived. Including in Russia.
Publication date: 04/17/2017
The problem of preserving the culture of the Russian language (the problem of clogging the language) - ready-made arguments
Possible theses:
- "Great and mighty" changes are necessary, despite the fact that it brings people inconvenience
- The change in the Russian language has a particularly painful effect on the lives of the older generation.
- Due to the appearance of new words in the language, it may be difficult to understand the interlocutor
- The Russian language is not in danger of dying, it is so flexible that it can adapt to any changes.
- Indeed, we cannot do without borrowed words, however, their excessive use greatly complicates the understanding of the text (speech)
- Using buzzwords, people clog up their speech, which makes it difficult to communicate between people.
- Excessive use of borrowed words clutters speech
In the book The Russian Language on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Maxim Krongauz says that our world is changing and therefore the emergence of new words, even borrowed ones, is a normal phenomenon. If the language does not change, it will cease to perform its functions. The linguist gives an interesting example: global warming has led to the fact that the Eskimos did not have enough words in the language to give names to animals moving to the polar regions of the globe.
M. Krongauz popular science book "Russian language on the verge of a nervous breakdown"
In the book The Russian Language on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Maxim Krongauz came to the conclusion that significant changes in our language are mainly of concern to the older generation. There are too many new words, and they blur the boundaries of the literary language, which frightens and annoys people who are used to this language.
M. Krongauz popular science book "Russian language on the verge of a nervous breakdown"
M. Krongauz did not bypass this problem either. The linguist believes that concerns about the Russian language are groundless, but at the same time he notes that its rapid changes make it difficult for people to communicate, especially if they belong to different generations.
M. Krongauz popular science book "Russian language on the verge of a nervous breakdown"
The linguist M. Krongauz does not see a threat to the Russian language, reading that it is not afraid of either the flow of borrowings and jargon, or the changes that take place in it. The Russian language will “digest” all this, preserving something, discarding something, develop new norms, and stability will come in place of chaos.
A. Knyshev "On the air of news"
A. Knyshev does not hide his ironic attitude to the topic under discussion. Using the example of the story “On the air of news”, where the news anchor uses mostly borrowed words, which makes his speech extremely incomprehensible, he shows what will happen to the Russian language if we oversaturate it with “foreign words”.
A. Knyshev "On the air of news"
In a short story, A. Knyshev ridicules people who use mostly borrowed words to demonstrate their “modernity”. Using the example of a news anchor, whose monologue is difficult to read and almost impossible to understand, the satirist writer shows how ridiculous the speech of a person who runs after the fashion for words sounds.
A. Knyshev "On the air of news"
In A. Knyshev's story “On the air of news”, the host of the program cannot be understood, since his speech is oversaturated with borrowed words. Of course, by drawing the image of a modern speaker, the writer deliberately exaggerates, nevertheless, the humorous text once again proves that it is more difficult for people to understand the speaker if he uses too many borrowed words.
Real life example
The emergence of new, including borrowed, words is necessary. “Computer”, “smartphone”, “slow cooker” alarmed and confused people, but today we use these words more often than the original Russian “well” or “kalach”. It is even more difficult to imagine that once “car” and “TV” were incomprehensible to Russians, not to mention “potatoes”. The world is changing and language has to adapt so that people can understand each other.
“I booked a dentist on a tumorrow. My kids play on the street." Journalist Tatyana Khudyakova calls this anecdotal mixture of Russian and English the “Brighton Syndrome.” At the request of the portalSMshe understands how this peculiar dialect became popular in Brighton Beach and in other areas of the English-speaking countries where Russians live.SHOP IN BRIGHTON BEACH. INSTAGRAM FRAME @EGOAROUND
“Send or a whole letter?”
You must have seen this unforgettable video, the golden classic of YouTube. A resident of the city of Toronto (formerly Odessa), Zoya Vekselstein became not just an Internet star, but a symbol of a whole socio-cultural phenomenon called “Runglish”.
The term "Runglish" came from a simple merger: Russian + English. In 2000, this was the name of the language in which astronauts communicated on board the International Space Station. The word immediately became very popular. Later, this was jokingly called the “dialect”, which was spoken by immigrants from the USSR in English-speaking countries.
The undisputed capital of "Russian English" is located on Brighton Beach. This small area in south Brooklyn was a fashionable resort before the start of the Great Depression. With the advent of the economic crisis in the United States, luxurious life in Brighton ended, and instead of wealthy European tourists, the area began to be populated by impoverished immigrants.
The place is picturesque, right next to the Atlantic Ocean. Nevertheless, Brighton Beach has long remained a non-prestigious, hard-to-reach, criminal - and therefore a separate place. In fact, it became a zone of compact residence of immigrants from the USSR - it was thanks to them that the area was revived and expanded. And in the end it turned into a kind of enclave with its own infrastructure, lifestyle and language.
The unique pseudo-dialect spoken in America by the so-called "sausage emigrants" has found its way into literature many times. Probably the most famous thing that has been written on this topic is Tatyana Tolstaya's essay "Hope and Support". Fragments of dialogues from there went to the people:
“America, year 1998, any city, Russian store.
Buyer to Seller: I'll have half a pound of swiss-lo-fet cottage cheese.
Seller: Ty! That's cheese!
Customer (surprised): Cheese?
Queue (impatiently): Cheese, cheese! Don't delay, people are waiting.
Customer (hesitantly): Well, hang half a pound of cheese.
Seller: Do you want to send a message or a whole letter?
The heroes of Vasily Aksenov's novel "The New Sweet Style" - Russian emigrants in America - speak in much the same way. The author even provided the book with detailed commentary-translations. There were such expressions: “shatapchik”, “fix a breakfast”, “how are you doing today” and so on. The book was written in 1998, and today would hardly need such detailed commentary: many of these parodic words have become quite commonplace in immigrant ghettos.
“They won’t choose what language to speak”
Russian language closes the top ten most common in the United States. In the country itself, according to the latest census, there are more than three million people of Russian origin. All of them (both immigrants from the Soviet republics and descendants of emigrants from the Russian Empire who were already born in the USA) are called Russians there, regardless of their real nationality.
It is generally accepted that there were four waves of emigration. The first was associated with the Russian-American company of 1799-1881. Enthusiasts came to America to develop new lands and establish settlements. The second began shortly before the revolution: Jews were leaving (from pogroms) and simply those who did not want to live in Russia under the new government. The third wave came in 1961-1986. These are defectors who refused to leave home during trips abroad, and political emigrants.
The fourth, most numerous wave began after perestroika. The Iron Curtain fell, and people began to leave the USSR en masse in search of a new life. Apparently, it was this wave that formed the strange language of the Russian emigration. After all, former citizens of the Soviet Union most often did not know any language other than Russian. In Soviet times, a foreign language was taught poorly: even an excellent student who memorized all the grammar could not speak a word of English.
Once in a new language environment, Russian Americans still gravitated towards the old one: they communicated mainly with each other, settled in the same areas, went to Russian shops, read Russian newspapers, got jobs for each other.
Which did not help the integration at all. It was also impossible to completely ignore English in America: signs, signs, labels, TV shows - all this, of course, in the official language of the state.
And so it turned out that our people naturally began to appropriate words from the dominant language - deftly embed them in their native Russian. For example, an English word was suddenly wedged into a Russian sentence, certain things received new names (highway, flat, carpark). Or they simply added a Russian suffix to the English word. Sometimes real cadavers were born.
Some verbs lost their original meaning and took on the one dictated by English usage. So, the verb “stand” turned into the equivalent of the English stay, and instead of the Russian “declare”, the mysterious “announce” appeared.
In general, the speech of immigrants began to sound as if they could not choose which language to speak, and they tried both. Half-forgotten Russian was superimposed by half-learned English. The habit of speaking Runglish (and even making signs in it) in Brighton Beach still persists.
A SIGN ON BRIGHTON BEACH. PHOTO: SERGEY ABASHIN
Is it curable?
Runglish does not always mean complete ignorance of the language. A person may try to form English sentences using memorized vocabulary and at the same time completely ignoring the language culture. Because of this, even grammatically flawless speech never sounds convincing enough to native speakers.
There is only one way to deal with this - try to synchronize thinking and the language that is currently being used.
If you are going to speak English, think in English. Getting started is not as difficult as it seems. Translate your gadget into English, watch movies and TV shows in the original, communicate more with native speakers.
And if you live in such a specific language environment as Brighton Beach, getting rid of the Russian-English dialect is not so easy. There is only one truly effective way out - out of the comfort zone. And the point in constructing a third language will simply disappear if you know the first two at a sufficiently good level.
