Re: Commas and prepositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladi
1) As for the commas, just an opinion. It seems, as far as I hear, that the phonetical meaning of commas in Russian is rather irrelevant, not the faintest stop. In read texts I see that the reader goes over them not caring in most of cases. It is like this, or may be it is a rather drastic opinion ?
Commas are used for disambiguation of the meaning which may have several without them. And they ARE used for marking pauses, also enumerations, for separating parts of a composite sentences (as far as I know, a semicolon is used in English for similar purposes), and several other cases. Thus, speaker doesn't always have to make a pause while speaking. Also the classical example: "казнить нельзя помиловать" - a life can depend on a single comma :)
Quote:
2) Односложные предлоги о, на, за, до, по, про не имеют ударение и образуют с последующим словом одно фонетическое слово.
В некоторых случаях может наблюдаться переход ударение на предлог: на-год, по-воду, за-городом.
Being the Russian phonetical rules, this is quite a joke. I ask: is there any way of knowing when these некоторыe случаи are present ? Or it is only matter of usages ?
I can only suggest to listen Russian speech. I can't even think of where to start in explaining this. :( Listen and practice. It's not so big a mistake to begin with (if you put a stress on a preposition I mean). Russians do that sometimes though I have to say that mostly by chance or a tongue slip.
Re: Commas and prepositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramil
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladi
1) As for the commas, just an opinion. It seems, as far as I hear, that the phonetical meaning of commas in Russian is rather irrelevant, not the faintest stop. In read texts I see that the reader goes over them not caring in most of cases. It is like this, or may be it is a rather drastic opinion ?
Commas are used for disambiguation of the meaning which may have several without them. And they ARE used for marking pauses, also enumerations, for separating parts of a composite sentences (as far as I know, a semicolon is used in English for similar purposes), and several other cases. Thus, speaker doesn't always have to make a pause while speaking. Also the classical example: "казнить нельзя помиловать" - a life can depend on a single comma :)
Quote:
2) Односложные предлоги о, на, за, до, по, про не имеют ударение и образуют с последующим словом одно фонетическое слово.
В некоторых случаях может наблюдаться переход ударение на предлог: на-год, по-воду, за-городом.
Being the Russian phonetical rules, this is quite a joke. I ask: is there any way of knowing when these некоторыe случаи are present ? Or it is only matter of usages ?
I can only suggest to listen Russian speech. I can't even think of where to start in explaining this. :( Listen and practice. It's not so big a mistake to begin with (if you put a stress on a preposition I mean). Russians do that sometimes though I have to say that mostly by chance or a tongue slip.
Isn't it always something fell на пол?
Re: Commas and prepositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by challenger
Isn't it always something fell на пол?
на пол is used with the same frequency.
Re: Commas and prepositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramil
Quote:
Originally Posted by challenger
Isn't it always something fell на пол?
на п
ол is used with the same frequency.
Bummer.
Re: Commas and prepositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramil
Also the classical example: "казнить нельзя помиловать" - a life can depend on a single comma :)
Yes, using comma in Russian you should be very careful, since it is as serious as Ramil said. But what about English? As I've been noticing, in many cases where in Russian I must use comma, in English it isn't compulsory. Could you please give me a link where this problem is considered?
Thank You.
Re: Commas and prepositions
Re: Commas and prepositions
Look at this photo I made today:
http://s006.radikal.ru/i214/1002/07/8f3391851431.jpg
That is the same case as in «казнить нельзя помиловать». I first read this as «Внимание! Опасно! Машины у здания! Не ставить сосульки и снег!»