A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

✍ Scribed by Terence Wade et al.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Edition: 4
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The Comprehensive Russian Grammar is meant for Englishspeaking
pupils and students of Russian at the post‐introductory
stage. It is also a reference aid for teachers, translators and
interpreters and others who use the language in a professional
capacity.
The first new reference grammar of Russian to have been published
in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, it is based on personal
research and observation, long experience of teaching Russian at all
levels from beginners up to the Honours Degree and the Civil Service
Interpretership, and on a close study of reference materials by
Russian, British and American linguists.
The approach is descriptive throughout, and rules of usage are
constantly measured against current practice as reflected in
contemporary journalistic and literary sources. It is entirely practical
in conception and design and has no pretensions to theoretical
disquisition. Particular emphasis is laid on problems which are of
especial difficulty for the English speaker.
The grammar provides comprehensive guidance to usage, with
exhaustive tabulated material and succinct explanations. It is
presented in 484 sections which are further subdivided to take
account of finer points of usage. It provides mainstream rules for
quick reference, as well as access to the subtleties of the language for
those who need more detailed information.
The intention is to provide the essential facts of the language and to
tackle perennial problems such as adverbs and pronouns in ‐то and
‐нибудь, agreement, animacy, conjugation, declension, gerunds, long
and short adjectives, numerals, participles, the partitive genitive,
verbs of motion, and so on, as well as problems which have often
received less attention: the gender of acronyms, alphabetisms, softsign
nouns, the differences between в/на and other key prepositions,
and between тóже and тáкже, the use of capital letters, particles, the
principles of word order etc. Treatment of verbal aspect
differentiates usage in the past, future, imperative and infinitive,
thus throwing the rules into sharper relief. Special emphasis is given
to stress patterns.
Ease of reference is assured by comprehensive indexing of subject
headings and Russian words, and by general adherence to the
alphabetic principle throughout.