Thread: Russian word order confusion?

Originally Posted by chaika

Russian word order is more flexible, English is pretty inflexible. In Russian you put the new information (what you want to stress is new to your reader or listener) at the end of a sentence. In English we have to use different methods. In the below, the new information is underlined.

Ваня читает книгу. Vanya is reading a book. This is the unmarked sentence, meaning no particular emphasis on anything. It answers the question Что делает Ваня?
Книгу читает Ваня. It is Vanya (not Dima) who is reading a book. Кто читает книгу?
Ваня книгу читает. Vanya is reading a book (not burning it). Что делает Ваня.
Читает книгу Ваня. A book is being read by Vanya. Кто читает книгу?
Читает Ваня книгу. Vanya is reading a book (not a magazine). Что читает Ваня?
I think these are right. Maybe native speakers could correct anything that seems wrong.

Well, that makes sense, but you're stretching it I think. For example, if I wanted to empasize that it's Vanya who is reading a book I would most likely just say Ваня читает книгу but I would put more stress on the word Ваня, would make it higher in pitch, rather than saying читает книгу Ваня in flat intonation

Originally Posted by iCake

Well, that makes sense, but you're stretching it I think. For example, if I wanted to empasize that it's Vanya who is reading a book I would most likely just say Ваня читает книгу but I would put more stress on the word Ваня, would make it higher in pitch, rather than saying читает книгу Ваня in flat intonation

Immagine a teacher in the classroom:

"А теперь книгу читает Ваня!"
______


Я купил шкаф.
В шкаф я повесил свой любимый костюм.
И этот мой костюм сожрала чертова моль.
Моль я потравил дихлофосом.
Теперь мой новый шкаф воняет.
А костюм пришлось выкинуть.

You may ask "What the hell is this for". The idea is that in the sentence we have information already known (1) and new information (2), or the part where we know what the sentence is about (1), and the part where the further statement about this entity is givven (2). The first part is called topic, the second part is called comment. Now if you look at the examples again you will see how topic turns into comment and takes the place at the begining of each sentence. Also the topic part can be ommited often.

- Что ты купил?
- (я купил) Шкаф. Повесил (в шкаф) свой любимый костюм. А его моль сожрала. Потравил (моль) дихлофосом. Теперь (в шкафу) воняет.
- А что с костюмом?
- (костюм) пришлось выкинуть.

Originally Posted by Hoax

Immagine a teacher in the classroom:

"А теперь книгу читает Ваня!"
______


Я купил шкаф.
В шкаф я повесил свой любимый костюм.
И этот мой костюм сожрала чертова моль.
Моль я потравил дихлофосом.
Теперь мой новый шкаф воняет.
А костюм пришлось выкинуть.

You may ask "What the hell is this for". The idea is that in the sentence we have information already known (1) and new information (2), or the part where we know what the sentence is about (1), and the part where the further statement about this entity is givven (2). The first part is called topic, the second part is called comment. Now if you look at the examples again you will see how topic turns into comment and takes the place at the begining of each sentence. Also the topic part can be ommited often.

- Что ты купил?
- (я купил) Шкаф. Повесил (в шкаф) свой любимый костюм. А его моль сожрала. Потравил (моль) дихлофосом. Теперь (в шкафу) воняет.
- А что с костюмом?
- (костюм) пришлось выкинуть.

Who said that I didn't agree with that? More than that I said that this thing makes sense. I just wanted to point out that the word order is not the only instrument we use to emphasize something. There is also intonation, word stresses as opposed to syllable stresses and so on, But again this thing generally works, that's true

Originally Posted by iCake

Who said that I didn't agree with that? More than that I said that this thing makes sense. I just wanted to point out that the word order is not the only instrument we use to emphasize something. There is also intonation, word stresses as opposed to syllable stresses and so on, But again this thing generally works, that's true

Who said that i told it to you and not to the people learning language? For you it was the first part before the line, just an example to show that all depends on a situation :P