Historical grammar of the Russian language. Learning the history of the language

Grammar is perhaps one of the first sciences about the language, its origins lie in the works of ancient Indian philologists. This term was also used in ancient Greece as a discipline studying the rules of writing and reading. It is from these two traditions that originates both European and Russian grammar.

Grammar - a section of linguistics

The historical grammar of the Russian language is a subsection of the general grammar, the subject of investigation of which is text and word formation, i.e. The formal side of the language. As already seen from the title, this is a section of linguistics responsible for the correct use of language in speech and writing. Hence, such derived words as "literate" and "literacy", which are semantically related to the letter, the correct word.

Grammar establishes connections between words and segments of speech, and also regulates the formation of words and language constructs. She studies the formal side of the language - its grammatical structure. In this case, the object of her research varies from the morpheme (the smallest significant unit of language) to the text (the largest independent part of the language system).

Usually the grammar includes two sections of linguistics: morphology and syntax. The former studies the word in its grammatical meaning, the second - constructions of words. In addition, orthoepsis, vocabulary, phonetics, graphics, spelling of the Russian language are closely related to grammar, including the historical one.

Unity of grammatical and lexical

Do not forget about the inextricable link between grammar and vocabulary, the form and content of the utterance. Sometimes the lexical meaning of a word causes its grammatical attributes, and sometimes vice versa.

For historical grammar, the interrelations of vocabulary and grammar will be important. For example, phraseological units are formed through the process of lexicalization: the grammatical form is fixed in the language as an immutable and separately significant lexical unit. Grammatikalizatsiya, on the contrary, affirms the word as a grammatical indicator, translating it into the category of affixes and auxiliary words.

Examples of polysemantic words in Russian are also a consequence of the interaction of historical grammar and vocabulary. Not always new words in the language are formed by increment of units: with the development of society, the meaning of the word may become outdated and acquire a new or additional meaning.

With the course of history, the language is transformed, ordering the order of its elements, - the system becomes clearer and simpler. However, in order to understand this, it is necessary to have an idea of those historical processes that occurred and occur in the language.

Origins of historical grammar

The historical grammar of the Russian language, as well as all Russian grammar, originates in the works of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, who dealt with questions of the relationship of the Russian language with other Slavic and European languages. Proceedings of the scientist have established grammar as a scientific discipline. Its flowering is in the XIX century and is associated with such names as Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov, Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky and Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev.

"Historical grammar of the Russian language" by Valery Vasilyevich Ivanov is already a modern stage in the development of linguistic science. His book was published in the 80s of the last century and is still considered an authoritative manual for students of philological faculties.

Subject of study

Now historical grammar is one of the sections of linguistics that describes the patterns of historical changes in the structure of the language both at the level of sounds and words, and at the level of complex syntactic constructions. And the interest of science is written and spoken (dialect) speech. The latter even made a greater contribution to the construction of the language system.

The above mentioned VV Ivanov focuses attention on the fact that historical grammar reflects the dynamic process of transformation of the linguistic system in time. Language develops according to its laws and internal rules of its separate sections (phonetics, syntax, morphology and others).

Grammar of the Russian language by FI Buslaev

Since historical grammar is a discipline studied in higher education, it is worth mentioning the main works and textbooks on this topic.

"The historical grammar of the Russian language" by Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev was a weighty contribution to the works on this topic. By and large, he is a pioneer in the method of comparative linguistics. The innovation of the approach is that the author explains the transformations taking place in modern language with reliance on related languages. It is from the confluence of Old Russian, Old Slavonic and other Slavic languages that a modern literary equivalent was formed.

The author not only builds patterns in the grammatical structure of language, but searches for their causes in the origin of words. For Buslaev, the history of the language serves as an aid in an attempt to understand those phenomena that are recognized by modern linguistics as exceptions.

Ivanov. Historical grammar of the Russian language

Buslaeva's work is concluded in two parts: the first is devoted to sounds and words, that is, morphology, the second - to syntax. Thus, the number of parts of the book corresponds to the number of sections of the grammar.

The Soviet linguist V.V. Ivanov's allowance, intended for students of philology, has a different structure. The author separately considers the origin of the Russian language and the peculiarities of its interaction with related Slavic languages. The textbook traces the history of the development of various elements of the language - from sounds to syntactic constructions. Separately, the history of the origin and development of each part of speech is given.

Historical grammar of the Russian language for schoolchildren

The Russian language course does not include hours for studying historical grammar: the program is aimed at mastering the modern literary language, rather than deepening its history. However, with this approach, the Russian language turns into a boring subject, the main purpose of which is cramming rules and various paradigms. How much easier and more understandable will be the language, if you reveal its past! It is necessary to understand that language is not a frozen block, but a constantly changing system: like a living organism, it lives and develops.

There are several ways to include historical grammar in the school Russian language. First, it is the holding of separate lessons on the topic. Secondly, the principle of historicism can accompany the course of the usual lesson as additional material for the program. Examples of polysemantic words in the Russian language, features of phonetics and alternating vowels - these and many other topics will become much more understandable if we explain them with the help of conclusions and observations of historical grammar.

It should also not be forgotten that the course of literature does not do without the help of the history of the language, especially when acquainting oneself with the monuments of Old Russian writing. For example, "The Lay of Igor's Host" not only abounds with outdated and incomprehensible words in the text, but the name itself requires a separate historical commentary.

The merit of historical grammar

Knowledge of the facts of historical grammar makes it possible to take a more meaningful approach to the study of language. Moreover, it becomes clearer even when reading the schemes and paradigms of its representatives. To write and speak competently, it is not necessary to learn a lot of rules and exceptions by heart - the historical grammar of the Russian language will help to understand the processes occurring in it logically.