No smile, no grammatical error. Pushkin: grammatical errors

Then the students, after a “mistake” in a school essay, assure: “This is my author’s mark. Why is Leo Tolstoy allowed, but I’m not?” Natalya Leonidovna Shilova, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the department of Russian literature and journalism of PetrSU, discussed the possibility of classics making “mistakes” at a lecture at the philological club “New Word”.

The teacher identified the following violations of literary norms: deviations at the level of stress (“The music is already tired of thundering; / The crowd is busy with the mazurka” A.S. Pushkin), spelling (“ It happened, he's still in bed: / They bring notes to him” A.S. Pushkin), combinations of words/style (“ The gray day creeps lazily, / And they chatter unbearably / THE WALL CLOCK IS ON THE WALL / With their tongue tirelessly” A.A. Fet), punctuation (“And so on - All these little joys surprise me<…>“It’s difficult to explain, and the main thing is not to fake it…” D. Kerouac).

Everyone is perplexed: “Is this a typo, a writer’s mistake, or a deliberate deviation from the norm?” Errors by the authors themselves in the texts occur, but not often. It’s easier to “calculate” a typo: a university teacher advises opening an academic publication (collection of works) and comparing the spelling. But if this is not a mistake or a typo, there is only one excuse left: “author’s mark.” Is this true? And if so, then why do you need to do this? Do A.S. Pushkin and L.N. Tolstoy really not know the rules of the Russian language, and their vocabulary is so poor that it does not allow them to choose synonymous expressions?

Natalya Leonidovna explains this phenomenon this way: “Many things that we today classify as errors were in fact the norm for writing or pronunciation in the same 19th century. Words of this kind are not errors, but an outdated norm.” The lecturer gives the following example: in the above-mentioned lines from A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” (“Music is tired of thundering…”), the word music has an emphasis that is unusual for us. The fact is that the word “music” came from the Greek language and gained popularity in Russia thanks to the Polish language, in which the emphasis is most often placed on the penultimate syllable. Subsequently, the stress changed its position due to the influence of German culture (emphasis on the first syllable).

Sometimes an outdated norm manifests itself in the form of writing. “If you take “War and Peace” in old editions, you will see the following phrase: “I argue with your husband too; I don’t understand why he wants ITTI to go to war.” It will be written there exactly like this: with a T. The spelling changed after the reform of the 60th year of the 20th century, when the current norms of speech were established,” explains the teacher.

The second explanation for the author’s “mistakes” is this: “Modern science distinguishes three forms of language: colloquial, literary and poetic. Literary language is the official form of written language. And poetic language is the language in which literary texts are written. Violation of the norm is the rule of poetic language. That is, literary texts are never written in the “correct” language.” An explanation for the conscious commission of mistakes by writers can be the words of Jan Mukarzowski: “Poetic language, as it were, flaunts its form, inviting the addressee of the poetic message to realize or intuitively feel the causes and consequences of choosing exactly this (sometimes unusual or at least unexpected), and not any other way of expression; Moreover, the external ordinariness of poetic language, which sometimes occurs, is itself perceived against the background of expectations of unusual form as a special aesthetic device.” It turns out that the author's mistakes are not mistakes at all, but only the writer's tools to give the text an unusual, definite and specific form. “The function of poetic language is the expression of new meanings,” says Natalya Leonidovna.

Is it possible to talk about language and not remember Pushkin? After all, the modern Russian literary language owes so much to him! And if we are to remember Pushkin here, then we need to start with the lines from the third chapter of “Eugene Onegin”:

Like rosy lips without a smile,
No grammatical error
I don't like Russian speech.

Wonderful lines. And it would be against our dictionary. After all, even if Pushkin did not object to mistakes... But let's figure out what Pushkin objected to. In the next stanza he writes:

Incorrect, careless babble,
Inaccurate pronunciation of speeches...

Let us also quote Alexander Sergeevich, especially since it is a pleasure to quote him and this quote is quite interesting.

I’ve been publishing for 16 years now, and critics have noticed 5 grammatical errors in my poems (and rightly so):

1. stopped the gaze to remote communities

2. on topic mountains (crown)

3. warrior instead of howled

4. was refused instead of he was refused

5. abbot instead of abbot

I was always sincerely grateful to them and always corrected the noticed place. I write much more incorrectly in prose, and I speak even worse...

Now it is clear that Pushkin, when he ironically spoke about his love for language errors, had in mind, of course, oral speech. And we, too, did not express any special complaints about oral speech in our dictionary: most of the examples given were taken from newspaper and magazine publications or from prepared and pre-recorded television and radio reports (after all, such reports are an analogue of written speech).

But let's return to Pushkin. Language does not stand still - it is a living organism that is constantly changing, and more than a century and a half has passed since Pushkin’s time, and many former norms have fallen out of use. And even in Pushkin’s speech today we hear archaisms - outdated words and phrases that no one uses. But still, we can find a lot of instructive things in Pushkin’s lessons. Let us give another quote in which Alexander Sergeevich rebuffs a critic whose language claims against the poet turned out to be unfounded.

I don’t want to quarrel for two centuries

seemed wrong to the critics. What does the grammar say? That an active verb, controlled by a negative particle, no longer requires the accusative, but the genitive case. For example: I Not I'm writing poems. But in my example the verb quarrel we control not a particle Not, and with a verb Want.Ergo The rule doesn't apply here. Take, for example, the following sentence: I Not I can let you start writing... poetry, and certainly not poems. Is it really possible that the electrical force of a negative particle must pass through this entire chain of verbs and be reflected in a noun? Don't think.

The words written by Pushkin almost two centuries ago are still relevant today. We have two proposals: I couldn't buy bread And I didn't buy bread. We are far from sure that everyone follows Pushkin’s recommendations and is able to correctly place cases in sentences like those given above. Let's still remember the general rule that Pushkin used: if a negative particle refers to a transitive verb, then the noun following it is placed in the genitive case (I haven't heard this song before) if the negation refers to another verb, then the noun is placed in the accusative case (I couldn't listen to this song).

Well, our speech is replete with mistakes, but there are differences between mistakes. In live speech they cannot be avoided. In addition, the overwhelming majority of errors are of no interest to us, because they - these errors - are strictly individual. But we are interested in typical, repeating errors - we tried to show them here. They are well organized and you will find them in the corresponding dictionary entries. But there are errors, although typical, that are difficult to systematize, so we decided to take them outside the scope of the dictionary and present them simply as linguistic curiosities, but the curiosities are instructive because they reflect erroneous ideas about what is and is not possible in the language. Let us repeat that we gleaned these errors mainly from those sources that seem to be called upon to maintain the purity of language - from newspapers, magazines, radio, television.

How much has already been said about the fact that participial phrases must be treated with great caution, but things are still there... As a rule, they must relate to the subject and be consistent with it. Here are examples of incorrect use of participial phrases: Upon learning of this, he had a heart attack or As if by agreement, none of them the administration was not there. To correct these absurdities, it is enough to change the sentences as follows: When he found out about this, he had a heart attack or The administration, as if by agreement, was absent. In the first sentence we replaced the participial phrase with a subordinate clause, and in the second we kept the participial phrase, but the word administration made subject.

Another common mistake is using perfect verbs in continuous situations. Perfect verbs by their nature cannot denote a continuous action. And in fact, we say: The girl jumped rope for fifteen minutes, but it would hardly occur to anyone to say: The girl jumped rope for fifteen minutes. This seemingly obvious rule is constantly broken. Here is a phrase that is probably familiar to all Russians who own a TV: With every sip of Coldrex Hot Rem you will feel relief. The author of the text of this advertisement is clearly not familiar with the rule we have given. And in fact, in this sentence there is an extension of the action: from with every sip, which means that there are several sips and the action is extended at least as long as the hero of the commercial drinks his medicine. But then the advertising text should sound like this: C With every sip of Coldrex Hot Rem you will feel relief.

Here's another example: For twenty years, Mandelstam's work was consigned to oblivion. But the phrase was forgotten does not imply duration, the necessity of which follows from the preposition for. If the author had said: Mandelstam's work was consigned to oblivion for twenty years, then the situation would change radically, since in this case the verb should not convey a continuous action. And in fact, if we talk I have transferred this document to the archives for safekeeping, then perfect verb conveyed as in the example with Mandelstam’s work, he calls a one-time action, and storage is long-term, as in our example oblivion is long-term.

And finally, here are examples of another typical misuse of perfect verbs. All sorts of culinary recipes are full of such mistakes: Mix all ingredients and boil for ten minutes or Fry in a frying pan for five minutes. Unacceptable! It will be correct: Mix all ingredients and boil for ten minutes And Fry in a pan for five minutes.

And now a few curiosities for relief. These masterpieces of thought and the Russian language were not invented by the author of the dictionary - they, like everything else, were born by the writing brethren: The visiting star shared an unexpected full house. This phrase could be placed in the riddles section under the heading “What would this mean?” Here's another piece: A few minutes later. And here's one more thing: The Federal Assembly has not yet matured into a national body. This immortal creation can also be classified as a curiosity: He stood with his arms and legs at his sides. Let’s leave these pearls without comment, everything is clear here.

And here is the creation of another “master” of the language: We both know each other well. If the author of this absurdity had added to his creation, say, the words with Ivan Ivanovich, then there would be no complaints about his proposal. But the author wanted to say that he and a certain second person know each other well. And in this version the word both kills the author's idea outright. After all, proposals We know each other well quite enough to convey the idea that the author apparently wanted to convey to the readers. Here is another example of the same kind Both the old and the new method are no different from each other. Here the author's idea is completely emasculated by the fact that old And new methods first they are connected through two conjunctions “and”, and then they are compared with themselves. It would be necessary to say: The old method is no different from the new one. Or: Both the old and the new method are no different from the one being developed. But this is a completely different thought.

Sometimes the authors demonstrate a blatant ignorance of the Russian language. If they did not impose their mistakes on us through the media, then their ignorance would remain their own business. But the printed word, as we know, is a huge force, and after reading something in a newspaper or magazine, we often introduce it into our vocabulary. Well, let’s say these are some illiteracy images: Speak your question or The authorities tried to keep silent about this war. Of course it will be correct: Ask your question And The authorities tried to hush up information about this warrior.

Let's devote several layers to medical topics. Here, for example, is an unfortunately common expression: cut out the appendix. Without delving into the intricacies of the surgical profession, we note that appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, and cutting out inflammation is a thankless task; it is much easier to cut out the appendix - a branch of the cecum in which inflammation occurs that requires surgical intervention.

Here's another medical incident. Let's talk about the dangers of alcoholism- are offered to drinking citizens by those who know how to treat this scourge. The harm from alcoholism is certainly great, but it is harm to society, to those who surround the alcoholic. But apparently you need to talk to him about the dangers of alcohol (not alcoholism). After all, alcoholism is a disease, and for a person, “the harm of the disease” is a tautology, an “ugly deformity.”

The correct use of words means so much!

And here are other examples of journalistic professional unsuitability (if a journalist does not master the main tool of his craft - language, then his professional unsuitability, unfortunately, is obvious): At the rally there were calls that people like Sores should be shot(while not agreeing with the protesters in principle, we will still give a grammatically correct version: There were calls to shoot people like Sores. Or: Every now and then there are calls that we need to devalue the ruble. Well, of course, a literate person would say: Every now and then there are calls to devalue the ruble.

We have already talked about how much harm inept translators of American action films cause to the Russian language. Let us give two more examples, this time of a curious nature. Unfortunately, these examples once again confirm that the quality of the translations offered to us leaves much to be desired.

The film "Death on the Nile" based on the novel by Agatha Christie. One of the characters says the following phrase: “A small box only two inches in size.” Do you understand what we are talking about? Those who are more or less familiar with the English language know that the English inch means “inch”. Apparently, the translator does not belong to the category of those who are more or less familiar with the English language.

And one of the episodes of the film “The X-Files”. The hero leading the investigation looks into the face of the murdered man and says: “It seems he’s Caucasian.” What should the viewer think? That Chechen militants have reached America? What else is left for the poor, misled viewer? Let's do the work that the film translator should have done and look into the English-Russian dictionary. Caucasian (the very word spoken by the hero in the original) turns out to mean not only “Caucasian,” but also “belonging to the white race.” That is, the hero of the film only said that the murdered man was white, not black. And there was no mention of any Caucasians in America. Don't believe everything you hear.

And finally, another advertising masterpiece. “Let's play,” a cheerful voice calls on the children. “Let’s draw a cow with her eyes closed.” Do you think that the cow that children draw should have its eyes closed? No, no. Children are encouraged to draw a cow with their eyes closed. Is it really impossible for the author of this advertising text to convey such a simple idea? What is he doing in the advertising business then?

In order not to end our dictionary on such a critical note, we will give one more quote from Pushkin: “Grammar does not prescribe laws to the language, but explains and approves its customs.” Let us not interrupt the connection of times and follow the customs established in the Russian language.

“Like rosy lips without a smile, without a grammatical error, I don’t like Russian speech,” wrote Pushkin. And, as always, the genius was right. There will definitely be some nice typos, slips of the tongue, some mistakes in every text written by a living person, this is normal. But sometimes our young ones write in such a way that it becomes impossible to recognize the word:
Knight instead of rummaging;
Patient instead of patient;
Sofetsky instead of Soviet.
These are some mistakes from our students' dictations in 2009. That year, internal university exams were canceled, and we recruited students only based on the results of the Unified State Exam.
Every year (for about 40 years now) teachers of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language of the Faculty of Journalism give dictations to first-year students in September to understand whether they will have to open a special elective on spelling. We do not have separate hours for punctuation and spelling as part of the compulsory course: it is believed that in 11 school years everything has already been learned and mastered. However, there are always about twenty people who need to improve their literacy.
In 2009, there were 188 out of 229. The number of errors in some works reached 80. The dictation itself, I want to note, is only 200 words, counting prepositions and conjunctions.
We grabbed our heads and began to beg the management to give us extra hours for spelling. The news of our misfortune leaked to the press. An interview with me appeared in MK, which I did not give. There was only a call from a correspondent and an invitation to talk. So I turned out to be the switchman and spent the whole year fighting with our education officials, who consistently accused me of:
firstly, I tried to double-check the results of the Unified State Exam (this is a crime that is punishable by law);
secondly, I used a very difficult text and dictated it deliberately quietly/loudly, swallowing all the letters and sounds;
thirdly, I myself put errors in all the work of the excellent students in the exam.
Oddly enough, the third accusation was the most difficult to refute. Although, of course, it was not only me who checked the dictations, but all the teachers - each in his own group.
The Teacher's Newspaper wrote a whole article about how, under the cover of darkness, I fill the perfect dictations of excellent students with errors. A kind of image of a maniac philologist raping other people’s beautiful works.
When on “Echo of Moscow” they asked me again if it was true that I myself inserted all the errors into the work, I proudly answered: “Yes, the true truth! I am an associate professor of the most famous department of stylistics in the country, a teacher at the most famous university in the country, and I did just that.” !" To which the presenter exclaimed with inimitable intonation: “In all 200 works?!”
- Yes!!! - I simply screamed in an inhuman voice. - I’m just terribly hardworking!!!
And they believed! I had to scold them all a little right away.
And the dictation was proven and deserved: students had already been successfully writing it for four years. None of the teachers conducting the dictation began to lisp or lisp. But the officials had to find the last one, and they demanded that the dictations of the poor students be given to them in order to start criminal cases regarding how they became excellent students with such mistakes. But I don’t play by these rules, I don’t hand over students to punitive authorities, and I promised to burn these evidence on Red Square in the presence of journalists. At that time, my reputation was already such that they believed me and retreated.
Then I began to closely study these tests, because of which a scandal broke out. It turned out that they contain a huge number of errors and... check everything, but not spelling. No, there are such questions, but if you don’t answer any of them, you still have a chance to get a positive assessment.
But the main thing is not this, the main thing is that poor schoolchildren now do not learn to write and formulate their thoughts, they only insert letters and check boxes. Teachers' salaries and the school's reputation directly depend on how students pass the Unified State Exam.
There is nothing terrible about the tests themselves. If they are bad, you can fix them. But it is absolutely immoral to reduce all learning to filling out forms with questions.
They say that the Internet influences literacy. Yes, there are a lot of errors in virtual texts. But what if you use networks and blogs for learning? A student can write on a special page about what worries and interests him, and friends and a literature teacher will comment. It seems to me that many high school students would like to learn how to write texts that are literate and attention-grabbing.
What am I talking about? Firstly, yesterday my students wrote their last dictation in the first year. And secondly, this vile acronym, which sounds like a gag, is creeping up on our children again. Happy new Unified State Exam, comrades! Happy new happiness!

Like ruddy lips without a smile, / Without a grammatical error / I don’t like Russian speech
From the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” (1823-1831) by A. S. Pushkin (chapter 3, stanza 28).
Quoted: as a humorous formula of self-consolation (apology) in the event of any mistake made against the rules of the Russian language.

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