THE PROBLEM OF INTERPRETING IMPERSONAL STRUCTURES IN TEACHING RFL TO AN AZERBAIJANI AUDIENCE

The article offers the author's interpretation of the impersonal structures of the Russian language when teaching RFL to an Azerbaijani audience. It is noted that the impersonal structures of the Russian language, as sign structures of Russian grammar, are difficult to master by Azerbaijani students due to their very little identity in the Azerbaijani language. Consequently, the relevance of studying the grammatical category of impersonality as one of the aspects of teaching RFL does not cause any special comments. The author provides a brief comparative analysis of impersonal structures and ways of expressing the subject of action and the predicate in the indicated constructions of both languages. Examples of interpretation of Russian impersonal constructions in the Azerbaijani language will allow RFL teachers to fill some gaps in the study of specific categories of the Russian language in RFL classes in foreign audiences.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В статье предлагается авторская интерпретация безличных структур русского языка в процессе преподавании РКИ для азербайджанской аудитории. Отмечается, что безличные структуры русского языка как знаковые конструкции русской грамматики трудно усваиваются азербайджанскими обучающимися в силу их очень малой идентичности в контексте азербайджанского языка. Следовательно, актуальность исследования грамматической категории безличности в качестве одного из аспектов преподавания РКИ не вызывает особых замечаний. Автором приводится краткий сравнительный анализ безличных структур и способов выражения субъекта действия и сказуемого в указанных конструкциях обоих языков. Примеры интерпретации русских безличных конструкций на азербайджанском языке позволят преподавателям РКИ восполнить некоторые пробелы в изучении специфических категорий русского языка на занятиях по РКИ в иностранной аудитории.

Keywords: impersonal constructions, predicate, subject of action, semantic subject, Russian as a foreign language, Azerbaijani language, explicitly expressed subject, category of impersonality.

Ключевые слова: безличные конструкции, предикат, субъект действия, семантическое подлежащее, русский язык как иностранный, азербайджанский язык, эксплицитно выраженное подлежащее, категория безличности.

As is well known, the Russian language, as one of the world’s languages, is characterized by a system of specific and advanced grammatical structures that often lack exact or similar parallels in many other languages, including Azerbaijani. The Russian verb changes in tenses and aspects, has case forms, and can function as a full member of a sentence even without a personal pronoun or subject of action. Due to the presence of a specific grammatical system, which is different from that of the Azerbaijani language, Russian is considered a difficult language for Azerbaijanis to learn and comprehend. Nevertheless, despite the multi-level and multi-component nature of the Russian grammatical system, it possesses clear grammatical rules and norms that somewhat facilitate its learning as a foreign language.

In the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language (henceforth – RFL), especially in the Azerbaijani context, perhaps one of the most challenging and least understood aspects for Azerbaijani students has been the formation and usage of impersonal structures in connected speech (i.e., sentences without explicitly stated subjects, in fact referring to impersonal, generalized-personal, absolute-personal, and indefinite-personal constructions), a problem which still persists today. Unlike Russian, Azerbaijani does have impersonal structures, but they are not as developed or productive from a communicative and pragmatic perspective. Moreover, “the syntactic characteristics of the Russian language are such that the predicate, expressed by an adverbial or impersonal verb, does not depend on the subject of the action, expressed in one of the instrumental cases” [1, p. 21]. Therefore, the difficulty in interpreting these constructions complicates the understanding of sequential Russian speech in which such segments occur.

Impersonal structures, although belonging to the domain of "free grammar" (as defined by N.D. Arutyunova), are not dictated by the structure of the language but rather represent a free choice by the speaker. However, their acquisition is of great significance in the process of mastering sequential Russian speech. As correctly noted by L.P. Kojevnikova, “the active presence of impersonal constructions in Russian is confirmed by a multitude of sentences based on the impersonal use of personal verbs. Let’s take, for example, the verb 'нести' // 'daşımaq / aparmaq' which can represent various impersonal expressions through word-formation models.” "Лодку отнесло ветром к берегу", "Куда меня занесло", "Куда вас несёт на эти рифы" и подобные [2, с. 91]. In other words, one of the key requirements for teaching Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) to Azerbaijani students is the necessity of developing their sentence-building skills, which dictates the importance of explaining impersonal structures in the Russian language, as these constructions create the greatest difficulty in fully and rationally mastering Russian. Today, the topic of impersonal structures in Russian is the subject of numerous studies by both classical Russian grammarians and modern syntacticians (such as A.M. Peshkovskii, V.V. Vinogradov, N.D. Arutyunova, P.A. Lekant, E.M. Galkina-Fedoruk, L.A. Arkhipova, D.A. Sinkevich, Y.A. Sedelnikov, L.P. Kojevnikova, Y.S. Skoblikov, etc.), which confirms the relevance and special significance of studying these structures. "It is believed that the ancestors of modern sentences are two of the most ancient binomial (two-member) sentences, and they are the prototypes of modern syntactic units. One type contains the name of the active action that combines with the object of the action, while the other contains the name of the situation or state that combines with the subject of that case" [3, p. 244].

Why is it so difficult to explain impersonal constructions to Azerbaijani audiences? Firstly, on one hand, the absence of a clearly expressed subject of the action, and on the other hand, the presence of a semantic subject of the action expressed in the instrumental case, makes it difficult to properly interpret and understand in Azerbaijani. Secondly, although these constructions are not productive from a communicative-pragmatic perspective, they are active and relevant from a syntactic standpoint. Thirdly, considering the active connection between language and culture, and the theory of cognitive relations between language and the culture of the people speaking it, impersonal structures are a kind of expression of the cognitive and speech-mental "form" of Russian linguistic thinking. Fourthly, impersonal constructions are a unique reflection of the Russian national linguistic landscape.

For Azerbaijani learners of Russian as a foreign (or non-native) language, the particular difficulty lies in those structures in which, to some extent, the presence of a subject of action is implied, but this action, process, or state is expressed through an impersonal verb. For example, it is very difficult for Azerbaijani audiences to understand the difference between the following constructions: "Я должен читать книгу" // "Мне нужно читать книгу". Therefore, the RFL teacher should explain the formal aspect of these constructions using examples. In this case, translation does not help, because both constructions are translated into Azerbaijani with the help of a personal sentence: "Я должен читать книгу" / "Мне нужно читать книгу" // “Mən gərək kitab oxuyam” = "Я должен читать книгу" = “I need to read a book”; here, “mən” / "I (am)" is the subject. Furthermore, "there has been an increase in the use of impersonal sentences in modern Russian. This is often associated with the general tendency of nominal forms replacing verbal forms. Based on this, impersonal sentences seem to be a very important research object in lessons on learning Russian as a foreign language at all levels" [3, p. 243]. Therefore, the RFL teacher must clarify the subtle difference and explain the difference between the use of personal and impersonal sentence structures depending on the speech situation. In this regard, we will examine some of the common cases of using impersonal structures in Russian in comparison with similar constructions in Azerbaijani. Impersonal constructions without a predicative verb do not cause any particular issues in terms of interpretation in Azerbaijani ("Утро"; "Морозная ночь" // “Səhərdir”; “Şaxtalı gecədir” // “It is morning”; “It is a frosty night” etc., as these constructions are almost identical in both languages). Here, only verb constructions indicating an action will be considered:

A) Impersonal structures in Russian that do not have a direct or exact equivalent in Azerbaijani. These are usually constructions semantically related to natural phenomena, for example: "На улице темнеет"; "Здесь уже вечереет"; "Холодает"; "Светлеет"; "Через неделю будет светать уже совсем рано", "Пахнет травой" and others. While these constructions are syntactically and grammatically acceptable in Russian and easily understood by native speakers of Russian, they are difficult to learn for Azerbaijanis since there is no direct equivalent in their native language. When these constructions are translated into Azerbaijani, they always require the subject of the action. Compare: "На улице темнеет" // “Küçədə hava qaralır”; "Светлеет" // “Hava işıqlanır”; "Через неделю будет светать уже совсем рано" // “Bir həftədən sonra hava daha tez işıqlanacaq”; here, “hava” // «погода» // “hava” is the subject. Or: «Пахнет травой» // “Ot iyi gəlir”; here, "ot" = «трава» = “grass” is in the singular nominative case and serves as the subject. In Azerbaijani, while it is theoretically possible to use the construction “İşıqlanır” = «Светлеет» = “It’s getting light” (since it is clear from the context that we are talking about the weather in both languages), it is not commonly used in Azerbaijani speech. However, on the other hand, there are constructions that are not even theoretically possible to use, such as “Qaralır” // «Темнеет» // “It’s getting dark.”

B) Impersonal structures in Russian with corresponding counterparts in Azerbaijani, but whose use in Azerbaijani is considered illogical in a communicative context. These are constructions that can be translated into Azerbaijani with a certain degree of accuracy, but they are rarely used in Azerbaijani speech. For example: «Ивану не сиделось дома»; «Анне нездоровится»; «Ей не хотелось играть в шахматы», «Машину занесло на серпантине», and many others. In these constructions, the main component of the sentence, especially when there is a negation in the sentence, requires a directional object in the case of the dative. Although these sentences can theoretically be translated into Azerbaijani, in practice, such constructions often have a colloquial or even dialectal character. Compare: «Ивану не сиделось дома» // ‘İvanın evdə oturmağı gəlmirdi,’ «Ей не хотелось играть в шахматы» // ‘Onun şahmat oynamağı gəlmirdi.’ In Azerbaijani, it would be more linguistically correct to convey these constructions in subject-based, personal sentence structures: ‘İvan evdə otura bilmirdi’ // literally: «Иван не мог сидеть дома»; ‘O, şahmat oynamaq istəmirdi’ // literally: «Он не хотел играть в шахматы» (the underlined components are the subject, the agents of the action).

C) Impersonal structures in Russian that have a corresponding counterpart in Azerbaijani, and their use in Azerbaijani is grammatically normative. These Russian constructions often feature a neutral (middle) gender passive verbal adjective. For example: «Заявление рассмотрено», «Комната затеплено», «План действия давно уже разработана», «Кошка утром накормлена», «Стены раскрашены голубым цветом» and others. Unlike Russian, in Azerbaijani, these structures are conveyed impersonal, but with the help of verbs. Compare: «Заявление рассмотрено» = ‘Ərizəyə baxılmışdır’ = ‘The application has been reviewed’; «План действия давно уже разработана» = ‘Hərəkətlər planı çoxdan hazırlanmışdır’ = ‘The action plan has long been prepared’; «Стены раскрашены голубым цветом» = ‘Divarlar mavi rəngə boyanılmışdır’ = ‘The walls are painted blue’; «Везде зазеленело» = ‘Hər yer yaşıllaşıb’ = ‘Everywhere is turning green’ and so on.

D) Impersonal structures with reflexive verbs in Russian that have no direct equivalent in Azerbaijani, Examples: «В снежную погоду не работается», «В такую ночь не хочется идти домой», «Без крепкого кофе роман не пишется» and so on. In Azerbaijani, these constructions are conveyed by a different method, and while it is not possible to directly translate the first two sentences into impersonal structures, the last sentence has a certain analogy in Azerbaijani, in which impersonal constructions are used to a certain extent. However, the structure and type of all these sentences in Russian are the same. Compare: «В снежную погоду не работается» // ‘Qarlı havada işləmək istəmirsən’// ‘You don’t want to work in snowy weather’; «В такую ночь не хочется идти домой» // ‘Bu cür gecədə evə getmək istəmirsən’// ‘You don’t want to go home on a night like this.’

The feature of these constructions in Azerbaijani is that “In Azerbaijani, such sentences are conveyed using a ‘frame construction’: even though the syntactic subject is not expressed in the sentence, the semantic subject is still indirectly conveyed with the ending of the predicative verb” [1, p. 20]. In other words, the verb ending of the predicate points to the existence of an unexpressed personal pronoun, meaning that the verb's ending indicates the existence of the subject of the action. Compare: (“mən”) “istəmirəm” / «я не хочу»; (“sən”) “istəmirsən” / «он (она) не хочет»; (“onlar”) “istəmirlər” / «они не хотят».

As for sentences like «Без крепкого кофе роман не пишется» // “Tünd qəhvəsiz roman yazılmır”, they are translated into Azerbaijani using an impersonal construction: “Tünd qəhvəsiz roman yazılmır”. Here, we can observe the full analogy of impersonal constructions in both languages.

To present the picture of the use of the category of impersonality in the grammatical structure of Russian and Azerbaijani more comprehensively, we consider it appropriate to make a brief comparative analysis of the ways of expressing predicates in impersonal structures:

- In Russian, impersonal verbs are used in sentences like: «Уже светлеет», «Отцу сегодня нездоровится», «Быстро вечереет» and so on. In Azerbaijani, these constructions are usually conveyed through sentences with a known subject expressed as a personal subject. For example: “Artıq hava işıqlanır” // literally: «Уже погода светлеет» // “The weather is getting brighter now”; “Atam bu gün özünü yaxşı hiss etmir” // literally: «Отец чувствует себя нехорошо» // “Atam bu gün özünü yaxşı hiss etmir; “Tez hava qaralır” // literally: «Погода быстро вечереет» // ‘İt is getting dark quickly’ and so on. It should be noted that ‘the differences observed in the interpretation of the semantics of impersonal verbs are not only in the different methods of interpretation in various dictionaries, but also in the number of meanings they emphasize, as well as in the various forms of the same verb shown as synonyms for a given word.’ [5, p. 71]

- Using a personal verb in an impersonal meaning, such as: «Из комнаты несет запахом розы», «Темнеет», «Дома прервало трубу» and so on. In Azerbaijani, these are expressed in different ways (using personal verbs or the connecting verb ‘gəlir.’) Similar structures can also be found in Azerbaijani. For example: «Из комнаты несет запахом розы» = ‘Otaqdan qızılgül ətri gəlir’ // ‘The room smells of roses’; «Дома прервало трубу» = ‘Evdə boru deşildi’ // ‘A pipe burst in the house’; Exception: «Темнеет», but theoretically, ‘Qaralır’/ ‘İt is getting dark’ construction is also possible, but ‘Hava qaralır’ = «Погода темнеет» = ‘The weather is getting dark’ is more logical.

- In Russian, using «быть» / ‘to be’ (especially in the negative form) and «нет» / ‘yox’ / ‘no’ such as: «У Антона нет времени», «Друзей у Егора не было», «Расставаться с ней было трудно», etc. In Azerbaijani, these constructions may seem like impersonal structures, but in their structure, there are two types of ‘complex subjects.’ For example: «У Антона нет времени» = ‘Antonun vaxtı yoxdur’ // ‘Anton doesn’t have time’; «Друзей у Егора не было» = ‘Yeqorun dostları yox idi’ // ‘Yegor hadn’t friends’; in these constructions, ‘Antonun vaxtı’ (literally: «время Антона») and ‘Yeqorun dostları’ (literally: «друзья Егора») are noun phrases in Azerbaijani, which are actually type III determinative noun phrases, and these are considered with her complex subjects in the sentence. In the sentence «Расставаться с ней было трудно» / ‘Onunla ayrılmaq çox çətin idi,’ the phrase ‘Onunla ayrılmaq’ (noun + infinitive) functions as a complex subject in Azerbaijani. The phrase ‘(literally: «с ней расставаться»).’

This also includes Russian impersonal constructions involving auxiliary verbs like ‘lazımdır’ = “нужно” / ‘need to’ used in personal form. Compare: «Нужно действовать немедленно» / ‘Cəld hərəkət etmək lazımdır’; «Нужно победить во что бы то не стало» / ‘Nəyin bəhanəsinə olsa da qalib gəlmək lazımdır’; «Надо изучить инструкцию по эксплуатации» / ‘İstismar haqda təlimatı oxumaq lazımdır’; «Надо вернуться назад» / ‘Geriyə qayıtmaq lazımdır’ (The mentioned components function as a complex subject.)

- In Russian, impersonal constructions can also use linking verbs and short passive adjectives, for example: «В комнате было прибрано», «Петиция была рассмотрена еще вчера», «Штаб был перемещен в другое место». These constructions have exact equivalents in Azerbaijani and are presented as impersonal sentences. Compare: «В комнате было прибрано» = “Otaq səliqəyə salınmışdır” = “The room has been cleaned”; «Петиция была рассмотрена еще вчера» = “Müraciətə hələ dünən baxılmışdır” = “The petition was reviewed yesterday”; «Штаб был перемещен в другое место» = “Qərargah başqa yerə köçürülmüşdür” = “The headquarters was relocated to another place”.

From the examples above, we can conclude that many Russian impersonal structures are translated into Azerbaijani using constructions where the subject is explicitly mentioned. Naturally, some Russian constructions undergo structural-semantic transformations in Azerbaijani, while others are expressed differently due to the differences in sentence structure. In Azerbaijani, only a small number of impersonal structures, especially those involving short passive adjectives and the auxiliary verbs «нужен», «надо», are translated with precise structural-semantic equivalence.

Theoretically possible impersonal constructions in Azerbaijani may not be used in everyday speech or might be expressions found in dialects. As I.V. Maltsev noted, this issue “is likely not purely methodological or linguistic. The ability for a foreign student to express their thoughts in the way Russian speakers expect probably requires time and numerous instances of usage” [3, p. 245].

In other words, when an analogous personal sentence is available, the preference for impersonal constructions arises due to the necessity of eliminating the explicit subject and attribute carrier in speech. The difficulty in interpreting Russian impersonal structures through Azerbaijani (except for the aforementioned structural-grammatical reasons) also lies in the fact that “the number of impersonal sentences is not only connected with the ever-developing and improving forms of thought and expanding descriptive tools but also ultimately related to various grammatical processes that increase the content of speech” [4, p. 307]."

References:

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