Summer Institute 2000 Participants
Anne Keown
PhD candidate, Slavic Languages and Literatures, UNC-CH
Writeup of Russian Case Book talk by Laura Janda and Steven Clancy
Anne Keown
In this session, Laura Janda (UNC-CH) and Steven Clancy (U of Chicago) discussed The Case Book for Russian (soon to be published by Slavica). The book and accompanying CD provide thorough explanations of all the uses of each case in Russian. Case meanings are illustrated through examples of real Russian taken from a variety of sources, such as newspapers, magazines, and novels. During the talk, Laura outlined the approach she takes in describing case function in the book: rather than simply listing functions of case, as many traditional grammars do, she describes the functions of case as coherent, interrelated wholes.
Steven gave a demonstration of the interactive CD version of the book. From the CD, each example in the text can be heard in both a male and female Russian voice. In addition, there are a variety of exercises in which students can practice single- and multiple- case usage. These, too, have an auditory component; students can listen to the exercises in both a male and female voice. After the demonstration was over, the participants were able to play around with the CD and textbook.