Prostorechie (fwd)

[Romanov Artemi]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 1996 10:50:19 -0600 (MDT)
From: Romanov Artemi <romanov at spot.Colorado.EDU>
To: Ralph Cleminson <CLEMINSO at ceu.hu>
Cc: Multiple recipients of list SEELANGS <SEELANGS at CUNYVM>
Subject: Re: Prostorechie


As a term in lexicography "prostorechie" was used for the first time in a
dictionary compiled
by Nordstet in 1782.

Since then it has been used in all major Russian dictionaries, but Ralph
is absolutely right when he says that the boundaries of prostorechie
are not clearly marked.

Some Russian scholars defined prostorechie as "formy osobogo literaturnogo
stilia, otlichaiushegosia neprinuzhdennostiu, oproshchennostiu,
emotsional'no-otsenochnymi elementami" (Vinokur, Rahmanova), others
believed that it is "osobyi tip rechi, ... stoiachshii za predelami
literaturnogo iazyka" (Barannikova), and yet others feel it is a mixture
of "literaturnoi normy i vedushih osobennostei mestnoi dialektnoi sistemy"
(Kolesov).

These different approaches are reflected in practical lexicography. For
instance, "rabotiaga" is defined by some dictionaries as "prostorechie" by
others as "razgovornoe".

However a more recent tendency in Russian lexigraphy is to reserve
"prostorechie" for non-normative words and expressions, and use
"razgovornoe" or "expressivno-razgovornoe" for words like "rabotiaga" ( I rely
on the opinion of Galina Skliarevskaya, the head of the
Department of Lexicography, Institut Iazykoznaniia, Russian Academy of
Science - she published a couple of articles on this issue).

Artemi Romanov

Assistant professor
Department of Germanic & Slavic
University of Colorado at Boulder