Is it the use of Dative vs Acc usativ e that clarifies the meaning of Учить?

[Mark Kingdom]

...and thus, YES, it seems to be the usage of Dative vs Accusative that
determines meaning?

Я учу стихотворени*ю*.  ....now has the meaning of, "I am teaching a
poem..." (to an unnamed person.)

Just clarifying.  Thanks in advance!

Mark




On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:08 PM, R. M. Cleminson <rmcleminson at post.sk>wrote:

> A quick look at the Russian National Corpus makes it quite clear that учить
> языку means to teach a language and учить язык means to learn a language.
>  There do not seem to be any instances of ambiguity.
>
> ----- Originálna správa -----
> Odosielateľ: "Mark Kingdom" <k2kingdom at GMAIL.COM>
> Komu: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Dátum: utorok, september 21, 2010 02:14:27
> Predmet: [SEELANGS] Is it the use of Dative vs Accusative that clarifies
>  the meaning of Учить?
>
> Hi All,
>
> Я *учу** *друга русскому языку.
>
> My sources tell me this sentence would translate as: I am *teaching *a
> friend Russian.
>
> Yet: Я *учу** *стихотворение.  This translates as, "I am *learning** *a
> poem."
>
> So, a sentence like this: Я учу русский язык.
>
> ...is it clear if I am *learning *it, or *teaching *it? I realize a greater
> context will clarify,
> but without such context, does it have dual meaning?
>
> Or does accusative vs dative clarify? For example:
>
> Я учу русскому языку.
>
> Does the dative case there somehow imply that now you are teaching an
> unnamed person
> the Russian language?
>
> I really despise this verb. (In a loving sort of way, of course.)
>
> Thanks all,
>
> Mark
>
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