Russian for the Scientist and Mathematician

222 Pages·1984·6.427 MB·English

by  Clive A. Croxton

Russian
for the Scientist and
Mathematician
Clive A. Croxton
Russian for the
Scientist and
Mathematician
CLIVE A. CROXTON
Department of Mathematics,
University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
A Wiley-Interscience Publication
JOHN WILEY & SONS LIMITED
Chichester • New York • Brisbane • Toronto • Singapore
Copyright © 1985 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:
Croxton, Clive A. (Clive Anthony)
Russian for the scientist and mathematician.
‘A Wiley-Interscience publication.'
Includes index.
1. Russian language—Technical Russian. 2. Russian language—Text-books for foreign
speakers—English. I. Title.
PG2120.S3C74 1984 491.782421 '0245 83-10209
ISBN 0 471 90260 8
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
Croxton, Clive A.
Russian for the scientist and mathematician.
1. Russian language
I. Title
491.784)0245 PG2112
ISBN 0 471 90260 8
Printed in Great Britain by J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd., Bristol
To
Neil Hall
Contents
Preface ................................................................................................ xi
Glossary of Grammatical Terms............................................................ xiii
Chapter 1 The Russian Alphabet and Pronunciation........................ 1
1.1 Introduction......................................................................... 1
1.2 The Russian alphabet.......................................................... 1
1.3 Stress..................................................................................... 3
1.4 Pronunciation exercises...................................................... 3
1.5 Cognates ............................................................................. 6
1.6 The chemical elements ...................................................... 8
Chapter 2 The Noun ........................................................................... 10
2.1 The English noun: inflection.............................................. 10
2.2 The Russian noun: inflection.............................................. 12
2.3 Gender of the Russian n o u n .............................................. 12
2.4 Case and grammatical function.......................................... 14
2.5 The inflections..................................................................... 15
2.6 Vowel mutation ................................................................. 16
2.7 Some important irregularities .......................................... 18
2.8 The partitive genitive .......................................................... 21
Chapter 3 The Preposition................................................................. 22
3.1 Introduction......................................................................... 22
3.2 Cases adopted by the prepositions ................................... 22
Chapter 4 The Adjective ................................................................. 26
4.1 Introduction......................................................................... 26
4.2 The attributive use of the adjective: adjectival inflection . 26
4.3 The predicative use of the adjective: short forms . . . . 28
4.4 The comparative and superlative degrees ....................... 30
Chapter 5 The Pronoun....................... 33
5.1 Introduction......................................................................... 33
5.2 The personal pronouns ...................................................... 34
5.3 The possessive pronouns .................................................. 34
vii
viii
Chapter 6 The Verb ................................................................................. 38
6.1 Introduction................................................................................. 38
6.2 The verb быть to be ................................................................ 39
6.3 Aspect of the Russian verb ................................................... 41
6.4 The indicative mood ................................................................ 43
6.5 Perfectivization of the verb ................................................... 46
6.6 The verbs of motion ................................................................ 52
6.7 The conditional-subjunctive mood ........................................ 53
6.8 Verbs ending in -ся: the reflexive.......................................... 54
6.9 Principal verb forms ................................................................ 54
6.10 Cases adopted by particular verbs ........................................ 58
6.11 Passages for translation ........................................................... 61
Гравитационная линза (astrophysics)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Горизонты биологии (biology)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Chapter 7 The Adverb ..................................................................... 72
7.1 Introduction................................................. 72
7.2 The principal adverbial forms .......................................... 72
7.3 Passages for translation ...................................................... 73
Явлёние ядерной прецессии нейтронов (physics)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Синтеза ДНК (molecular biology)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Chapter 8 The Participles................................................................. 85
8.1 Introduction......................................................................... 85
8.2 The verbal adjective ......................................................... 85
8.3 The verbal adverb ............................................................. 88
8.4 Passages for translation ...................................................... 89
Чёрные дыры (astrophysics)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Явлёние модуляции интенсйвности гидроксйльного
излучёния вёрхней атмосфёры внутренними
гравитационными волнами (atmospheric physics)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Chapter 9 The Numerals ................................................................. 101
9.1 Introduction......................................................................... 101
9.2 The cardinal numerals ...................................................... 101
9.3 Collective numerals............................................................. 105
9.4 The ordinal numerals......................................................... 106
9.5 The fractions ..................................................................... 107
9.6 Expressions of tim e............................................................. 107
IX
9.7 Passages for translation....................................................... 108
Генетическая технология (genetics)
Vocabulary, commentary, translation
Какую форму имеет... вселенная? (astronomy)
Vocabulary, translation
Chapter 10 Word Formation and Technical Nomenclature . . . . 119
10.1 Introduction......................................................................... 119
10.2 Noun-forming suffixes ...................................................... 119
10.3 Productive roots ................................................................. 120
10.4 Passages for translation...................................................... 123
Свёрх-сверхгиганты (astrophysics)
Translation
Звёздная эволюция (astrophysics)
Translation
Горизонты биологии (biology)
Translation
Answers to the Exercises ........................................................................ 137
Russian-English Vocabulary ................................................................ 149
Index 207
Preface
The objectives of a scientific grammar such as this differ so widely from those
of a standard Russian language grammar that the temptation to lapse into the
linguistically exhaustive approach of the conventional grammar has to be
consciously resisted throughout. It has to be firmly borne in mind that the
reader’s primary concern is the technical content of the Russian text, not the
language itself, and that translation from Russian into English is the objective,
and not vice versa.
Bearing these requirements in mind, a science Russian grammar has to be
pitched so as not to be dauntingly exhaustive in its approach, yet adequate
for its purpose: the problem reduces essentially to one of what to omit, what
to include and what to presume. Of course, the precise selection will never
satisfy the linguistic cognoscenti, but then this book has been written for the
scientist, not the linguist. There are in existence a number of science Russian
grammars which presume on the part of the reader an unrealistically high
level of linguistic commitment and enthusiasm for the language per se, which
I believe largely misconstrues the original purpose of the text. A science
grammar which aims to anticipate every linguistic difficulty, irregularity, idio­
matic expression and turn of phrase, apart from making oppressively heavy
going of the language, greatly underestimates the intelligence and ability of
the reader, armed with a basic grasp of the language, to sort out local difficulties
for himself.
The material in this book is based on a course of approximately 25 lectures
given to undergraduates, postgraduates and research workers across the whole
range of scientific and mathematical disciplines. The exercises and texts for
translation form an integral part of the course, serving not only to illustrate
grammatical points made in the text, but also to introduce additional secondary
features of the language. These, in conjunction with the translations and
commentaries help consolidate the reader’s ‘feel’ for the language. It was felt
that the provision of annotated translations was particularly important, pro­
vided that they were used sensibly, particularly for the purposes of self-
instruction, yet rarely if ever do these seem to appear in other scientific Russian
grammars.
Acquisition of vocabulary by means of gradual accumulation is encouraged
here; high frequency words are introduced early and repetitively; however,
the reader will require access to a good scientific dictionary. Most of the words
required for the texts and translations in this book are included in a fairly
xi
xii
substantial vocabulary at the back of the book, and the reader is encouraged
from the outset to familiarize himself with the use of dictionary and vocabulary
lists. Fortunately for the scientist, many Russian technical terms are transliter­
ated virtually unmodified. These and other cognates and the recognition of
productive stems and roots enable the scientist to extract the technical content
fairly readily, even on the basis of a relatively restricted non-technical
vocabulary. One final point concerning the development of vocabulary is the
emphasis on pronunciation, particularly in the early stages of the book, as an
aid in the memorization and indeed recognition of words and cognates. It
would be unwise to proceed before a reasonable ability to pronounce the
words has been achieved, although for present purposes the correct rendition
of stress is of secondary importance.
Of course, nothing less than a complete grammar can hope to anticipate the
many irregularities, idiomatic expressions and other peculiarities which charac­
terize any language. However, the reader should be able to recognize these as
and when they occur, and in conjunction with a good dictionary and the tables
in this book, overcome any local difficulties in an otherwise relatively smooth
grammatical sea.
The production of this book has depended upon the support and encourage­
ment of a number of friends, colleagues and institutions. I am particularly
indebted to the Royal Society, London, for financial support during the
preparation of the manuscript whilst on sabbatical leave at the Department
of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London. It is a pleasure
once again to thank my friend and colleague Dr Paul Barnes and his wife for
their generous hospitality during my stay here. I should particularly like to
thank Noel Thomsen for countless discussions and appraisals based on his
experience of language teaching, and to express my appreciation of the
enthusiasm with which the staff and students at the University of Newcastle,
New South Wales, Australia, have responded to this Russian course.
Inevitably one benefits from preceding texts in the field, and two technical
grammars ‘Russian for the Mathematician’ by S. H. Gould (Springer-Verlag)
and ‘Scientific Russian’ by George E. Condoyannis (John Wiley) warrant
particular mention. I am indebted to both these books for their assistance in
the initial planning of the present text and subsequently as useful sources of
reference.
Finally, I wish to express my deep personal gratitude to Neil Hall, whose
constant support and encouragement over recent difficult months has ensured
this book’s appearance. His contribution ‘between the lines’ has been such
that to dedicate this book to him is an inadequate, but nevertheless deeply
felt appreciation of my indebtedness to him.
London, July 1982 Clive A. Croxton
Glossary of Grammatical Terms
accusative a specific example of case; generally represents the
direct object of the verb (Chapter 2)
active the general form of the verb in which the action is
performed by the subject (Chapter 6)
adjective word used to express the quality or limit of a noun;
Adjectives may be used either attributively, e.g. ‘an
easy problem’, ‘a slow train’, or predicatively, e.g.
‘this problem is easy\ ‘that train was slow\ the
weather has become unbearable’ (Chapter 4)
adverb word used to modify or extend the sense of a verb,
adjective, or another adverb: ‘He spoke quickly’
(Chapter 7)
aspect generally indicates the state of completion, determin­
ism or specificity of the verb (Section 6.3)
attributive see under adjective
cardinal applied to numerals: one, two, three, etc. (Chapter 9)
case grammatical function of a noun and/or adjective in
the sentence, generally characterized by a specific
modification (inflection) of its ending (Chapter 2)
collective of numerals, expressing groupings of objects or
persons: a pair, a quartet (Section 9.3)
comparative the first degree of comparison of an adjective, e.g.
faster, better, or in compound form more + adj. (see
also superlative) (Section 4.4)
conditional mood of verb expressing a condition: ‘I would if ...’
(Section 6.7)
conjunction word used to join clauses: and, but, so, etc.
dative a specific example of case; generally represents the
indirect object of the verb (Chapter 2)
direct object the principal object of the verb: ‘He read the book’;
generally rendered by the accusative case
feminine see under gender
xiii