"Svetilo" more or less awkward than "Zvezda"?

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

I certainly understand that trying to express in Russian a phrase like 
"American star" in reference to a male actor ("amerikansk-... zvezda"?) 
is awkward to the Russian ear.  I'm reminded of French, which has two 
different words for "star":   "etoile" and "vedette."  (Ironically, both are 
feminine, which may not improve the situation for gallic native speakers...)

So let me raise the same question about a different Russian word for 
"luminary" (or perhaps "star"), namely, SVETILO.  

How would a Russian native speaker handle "Mr Pitt is an American 
luminary" with the word "svetilo"?  Would it be as awkward as "zvezda"?  
Less so?  Or even more so?

S Novym godom,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri 11 Jan 16:49:56 CST 2008
From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU>  
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU> 

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:33:53 -0500
From: Charles Byrd <byrdc at UGA.EDU> 
Subject: кинозвезда [kinozvezda] 

I'm afraid I didn't have an answer for a beginning language-learner's questions: 
Is this term applicable to male stars?  Can it absorb masculine gender, like 
"плакса" [plaksa]?  Which of the following, if any, is acceptable? 

1)Брад Питт - известный американский кинозвезда. 
 [Brad Pitt - izvestnyi amerikanskii kinozvezda.] 
2)Брад Питт - известная американская кинозвезда. 
 [Brad Pitt - izvestnaia amerikanskaia kinozvezda.] 

Thanks, 
Charles Byrd, 
Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies 
The University of Georgia 
Athens, GA  30602-6797 
(706) 583-8160   byrdc at uga.edu 
_________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:03:36 +0300
From: Denis Akhapkin <denis at DA2938.SPB.EDU> 
Subject: Re: кинозвезда [kinozvezda] 

Формально второй вариант корректен - согласование должно быть 
грамматическим, а не смысловым. 
Правда, говорящие будут стараться избегать подобной конструкции, но 
она возможна - даже в заголовках газет: 
http://don.aif.ru/issues/640/11_01 

Первый вариант - безусловная ошибка. 

Formal'no vtoroj variant korrekten - soglasovanie dolzhno byt' 
grammaticheskim, a ne smyslovym. 
Pravda, govoriashchie budut starat'sia izbegat' podobnoj konstrukcii, 
no ona vozmozhna - dazhe v zagolovkah gazet: 
http://don.aif.ru/issues/640/11_01 

Pervyj variant - bezuslovnaia oshibka. 
__________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:39:31 -0800
From: William Nickell <bnickell at UCSC.EDU> 
Subject: Re: кинозвезда [kinozvezda] 

Google:
"американский кинозвезда" = 0 hits
"американская кинозвезда" produces over 5,000.   
In the first few pages there is one reference to a man (Виктор  
МЕРИНОВ — американская кинозвезда.) but  
all the rest to women, suggesting that the collocation sounds strange  
to the Russian ear and is avoided?  (I'm not a linguist).

Google is great for usage questions
Bill Nickell
________________________________________________________________

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