grammar query

[Richard Robin]

We considered including koe- in Golosa... for about two seconds. Bill Mahota is
exactly right ("Koe- has acquired additonal semantic marking; it is often used
when the speaker doesn't want to tell exactly what s/he is talking about, but
wants his/her interlocutor to know that the something/someone/etc. exists.").
But since koe- and -to overlap a great deal and koe- has an additional
non-neutral nuance, it's pretty obvious that in active control koe- is a
luxury. (The only textbook I've ever seen it in is Dawson, Bidwell, Humesky's
Modern Russian II, 1963.) Keep in mind that you're lucky if you can get
students to use -nibud' properly (as opposed to -to) AND decline the
accompanying pronoun at the same time. I would say that koe- is pushing it.
...Until people go to Russia for in country study, that is.

Emily Tall wrote:

> Can someone tell me why none of the new Russian textbooks include "koe-"
> when they treat indefinite particles? I learned about "koe-" during the
> IREX teacher exchange in MOscow but have never seen that material included
> in textbooks. Thanks! Emily Tall

--
Richard Robin - http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~rrobin
Chair, German and Slavic Dept.
The George Washington University
WASHINGTON, DC 20052
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