Re: Inspirational languages

H. S. Teoh wrote:


| On Mon, Jan 15, 2007 at 11:18:05AM +0100, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
| > H. S. Teoh skrev:
| > >Я люблю учить русски.
| > Shouldn't that be _uchit'sja_? (_j_ /j/ != _y_ /i\/ :-)
|
| Well, according to my textbook, учить is used for elementary and
| secondary education, or to adult aquisition of a specific skill, whereas
| учиться generally refers to higher education, or to mean "to study"
| without reference to the subject of study.

I think something is wrong with this explanation, but I cannot understand
what.
I'd better give you examples of the correct Russian.

Я учу химию. - I learn Chemistry (in the secondary school).
Я изучаю химию. - I study Chemistry (at the university).
Я учусь в школе. - I go to school.
Я учусь в университете. - I study at the university.
Я обучаюсь сапожному ремеслу. - I learn shoe mender's trade.
Я учу сестру читать. - I teach [my] sister how to read.
Я учу детей истории. (clumsy, a bit archaic) = Я обучаю
детей истории. - I
teach kids history.
Я учу их чтению. (ditto) = Я обучаю их чтению. - I teach them reading.
Я учусь читать по-русски. - I learn how to read Russian.
Я преподаю химию студентам первого курса. - I
teach Chemistry to the
freshers.
Я преподаю историю ученикам пятого класса. =
Я читаю историю в пятом
классе. - I teach History to the 5th Form pupils.

| Учить can mean both "to teach" and "to learn", the distinction being
| drawn by the case of the nouns: "to teach" having the learner in the
| accusative case and the subject in the dative, whereas "to learn" having
| the subject in the accusative case (and the learner in the nominative).

Верно. См. выше. -- That's true. See above.

| Having said all this, though, I did make a mistake: the spelling русски
| is only valid following the prefix по- (e.g., to speak *in Russian*).
| The correct phrase should be: Я люблю учить русский язык.  Well, I hope
| that's the right expression. :-) Yitzik, please correct me if I'm wrong.

This time you are 100% right. But it's better to use the verb _нравиться_
"like" instead of _любить_ "love": _Мне нравится учить
русский язык._

===========================
Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:

|  > Having said all this, though, I did make a mistake: the
|  > spelling русски is only valid following the prefix
|  > по- (e.g., to speak *in Russian*).
|
| Whotsit coming from I wonder? The old locative of a short
| adjective perhaps?

Hmm. Never thought about that. It's a productive model for adverbs meaning
"in a certain manner": По-английски "in English"/"as Englishmen do",
по-стахановски "as a Stakhanovite", по-коммунистически "in the way the true
Communists do".

Locative has completely merged with a number of other prepositional forms
(mainly borrowed from dative), except of a limited number of 2nd declension
masculine nouns: в лесу "in the forest", в шкафу "in the wardrobe", в раю
"in the paradise" vs. о лесе "about the forest", о шкафе "about the
wardrobe", о рае "about the paradise" (both forms as s.c.
"Prepositional/Sixth Case", cf. в столе "in the table" and о столе "about
the table"). FYI, in Ukraine it is all the way round: the prep. forms merged
with locative!

| At least я учусь русский язык is what my
| teacher keeps saying! :-)

I disqualify him. He is ... hmm ... [E~kO~p@"tA~].

-- Yitzik

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