Slavic Languages and Literatures | Advanced Russian Syntax and Stylistics
R501 | ALL | Staff

Class objective:
The principal objective is to give students an overview of Russian
communicative styles and to make them familiar with their
syntactical  and semantic
configurations. A focus of the class is the analysis of the primary
sources. English
translations are banned from this course, all references are given
to the original. Texts
Each thematical issue
includes exercises, individual oral presentations,  and written
summaries of the subject.
For every thematic cluster, every student  will be asked to make one
formal in-class
presentation of approx. 10 mins.  length. and to produce its written
summary of approx. 4
pages length. The final grade  for the course is cumulative. Grades
are based upon the
following rationale: Quizzes and weekly discussions--25% Oral
presentations--25% Written
summaries --25%  each. The final take-home exam --25% of the final

The main thematic clusters of the course:
1. Dominant functional styles of contemporaty Russian  Texts and
textbooks:  D. Rozental', Prakticheskaia stilistika, R-501
2. Russian colloquial styles: varieties of emotional and evaluative
connotations in Russian phraseology  Texts and textbooks: Rozental',
R-501 collection.
3. Poetic discourse vs the academic style. System of poetic tropes.
Professional terminology of various literary approaches. R-501
4. Compound and coordinated sentences Stylistical synonymy.
5. Stylistical patterns of contemporary Russian media (radio, TV,
newspapers.) Prepositions and conjunctions in  time-spatial
constructions.  Rozental', R-501 collection.
6. Literary stylization. R-501 collection
7. Varieties of Russian rhetorical styles  R-501 collection.