Murray John, Smyth Sarah. Intermediate Russian: a Grammar and Workbook

Routledge, 2001. — xviii, 217 pp. —ISBN: 0-203-18430-0This grammar and workbook is intended for learners of Russian at an intermediate stage or for those who want to refresh their knowledge of the grammar. It is suited for people studying on their own and for those participating in language courses. Intermediate Russian is not intended to replace a course book or indeed a reference grammar, but to be an additional resource for teachers and learners. The focus of this book is to provide scope for practising and consolidating Russian structures.Intermediate Russian is divided into three parts, each of which is made up of six units containing concise explanations of grammatical points which are illustrated and then tested in exercises. Alongside sentence-length exercises, which focus on particular grammatical points, all units contain at least one extended passage, enabling the student to engage with continuous text taken from a variety of genres.The main focus in Part 1 is on the norms of social interaction. The sample texts have been selected to illustrate the norms of interaction between various groups of people in both written and spoken discourse.In Part 2 you will find various genres of narratives: diary entries, memoirs, anecdotes, biographies, news reports. The main focus in this part is on the structuring of narratives, i.e. the telling of stories.Part 3 is dedicated to various ways of describing objects, people and events. Whereas in the previous part the focus was on narrative – which presupposes change and a certain dynamism – in this part the focus is both on the linguistic means available in Russian for conveying the static and on the features which characterise (as in a still) the participants and their environment.Acknowledgements.
Sources.
Lists of abbreviations.
Interacting.
Naming, greetings and congratulating.
Naming.
Functions: greetings and congratulating.
Letter etiquette.
Function: пусть.
Thanking, apologising, requesting and advising.
Thanking.
Apologising.
Asking a third party to do something: просить/попросить.
Giving advice: советовать/посоветовать.
Phone etiquette.
Possession, desire and making suggestions.
Expressing possession: у меня.
Expressing desire/subjunctive: чтобы.
Making suggestions: modals.
Verbal nouns: -ание, -ение.
Infinitive constructions: написать ей письмо?
Partitive genitive: налить вам водки?
Seeking and giving clarification.
The interrogative: какой.
Relative clauses 1: который, кто, что.
Softening the question.
Asking questions: ли.
Indefinite particles: -то and -нибудь.
Identifying and describing people.
Relative clauses 2: который, кто.
He who/whoever: тот, кто.
The interrogative and conjunction: как.
Going places.
Present tense usage of идти and ходить.
Present tense usage of ехать and ездить.
Past tense usage of идти and ходить.
Past tense usage of ехать and ездить.
Verbs of motion in the future: пойти and прийти.
‘If’ and ‘when’ (naming conditions): когда, если, как только.
Narrating.
Keeping a diary.
The sequencing of events.
Adverbs of time: когда, пока/пока не.
Punctuation, co-ordinating.
Aspects of verbs.
Expressing necessity: должен.
Aspects and verbs of motion.
Prefixed verbs of motion.
Word order: subject and predicate.
Memoirs.
Lexis: принимать/принять.
Prepositions denoting the sequencing of events in time.
Structuring of discourse using adverbs of time.
Word order: там, тогда.
Sequence of tenses: reported speech, thought or perception.
Aspects: use of the present tense in a narrative.
Figurative meanings of verbs of motion.
Punctuation: parenthetic words and expressions.
Naming places and objects.
Adverbs of degree: немного, etc.
Anecdote.
Adverbs of time.
Aspects: use of the present tense in narrative.
Prefixed verbs of motion: выйти and уйти.
Ellipsis.
Word order: subject and predicate.
Punctuation: nouns in apposition.
Adverbs of purpose: пойду запишусь, чтобы.
The comparative degree of adjectives.
Adverbs: гораздо.
Biographical sketch.
Lexis: владеть.
Adverbs of time: dates.
Adverbs of cause: по, за, из.
Aspects in biographies.
Lexis: verbs commonly used to express death.
Aspects: the prefixes по- and про-.
Past passive participle (short form).
Adverbs used as predicates.
Word order: adverbs of time.
Alphabetisms.
News items.
Adverbs of time: telling the time.
Approximation and exactitude.
Adverbs: ещё, ещё не, уже.
Aspects: past imperfective.
Word order: adverbs of time and adverbs of place.
Punctuation in co-ordination and subordination: commas and
embedded clauses.
Adverbs of cause: из-за, от.
Lexis: figurative uses of the verb приносить.
Narratives in the future.
Establishing and maintaining a relationship with one’s audience.
Fractions: половина.
Adverbs of purpose.
Word building: -ание, -ение.
Adverbs of time.
Aspects.
Describing.
Adjectives.
Adjectives: long and short form.
Word building: verbs from adjectives.
Adjectives: hard and soft.
Adjectives: compound.
Superlative degree of adjectives.
Short form neuter adjective/adverb as predicate.
Lexis: бывать.
Impersonal constructions.
Pronouns.
Structuring discourse: linking parts of speech.
The reflexive pronoun себя.
The reflexive possessive adjective свой.
The reflexive pronoun сам.
The reciprocal pronoun друг друга.
‘Any’ (любой).
‘The same’ (одно и то же).
Compound nouns and imperfective gerund.
Lexis and word building: compound nouns.
Imperfective gerund.
Lexis and idioms: wearing and wears.
Aspects and perfective gerund.
Aspects in foregrounding and backgrounding.
Irregular nouns.
Comparative degree of adverbs.
Perfective gerund.
Aspects in the past tense.
Negation and numerals.
Negative pronouns.
Negative adverbs: некогда/никогда.
Word building раз-/рас-.
Declension of numerals.
Participles.
Present active participle.
Past active participle.
Present participles as nouns.
Present participles as adjectives.
Key to exercises.