The Features of Phrases in the Interlanguage of Chinese Students Studying Russian

Chzhen Qianmin Postgraduate student, Department of Russian Language and its Teaching Methods, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 123290, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, 39k1 Shmitovsky Ave. toujie@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Viktor Mikhailovich Shaklein Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of the Russian language and its teaching methods, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10k2, office 524 vmshaklein@bk.ru

IntroductionRussian Russian language students and Russian Chinese language students are constantly increasing due to the close economic, political and cultural contacts between Russia and China.

In the process of mastering a second foreign language, students create their own individual language system, which researchers have called "interlanguage" ^{[15, p. 210]}.

Most of the previous research on interlanguage has focused on phonetic and syntactic aspects. Less attention is paid to the lexical part of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian. That is why the study of the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is important and relevant.

To achieve the purpose of the study, it is necessary to perform the following tasks:

1) consider the research related to the term "interlanguage", compare the concepts of interlanguage in the publications of various specialists and find similarities and differences in their judgments;

2) systematize and analyze the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.

The following research methods are used to perform the tasks: corpus text analysis method, descriptive method, distributive analysis method, oppositional method, formalization method, comparative analysis method, etc..

Russian Russian language students are interested in studying the peculiarities of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students due to the fact that in the language materials collected by the authors from classroom tests (oral and written) developed by teachers and homework assignments among two groups of Chinese philology students studying Russian at the Faculty of Philology at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, certain patterns and specific features are manifested.

The practical significance lies in the fact that the research materials can be used in universities of the humanities in the study of courses and seminars on practical, comparative terminology "interlanguage". Russian Russian At the same time, the results of the study provide useful suggestions in the process of educational and methodological activities - in classes on teaching the Russian language, especially in classes on teaching Chinese students Russian. The achieved results of the research can be used in the process of compiling textbooks and teaching materials on the discipline of the Russian language or applied linguistics.

The main partThe term "interlanguage" was first proposed by the American linguist L. Selinker: "interlanguage refers to the separation of a second language learner system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target languages" ^{[15, p. 210]}.

In other words, "interlanguage means a language system that occupies the status of an intermediary between the native and the studied languages" ^{[13, 2017, p. 171]}. Before L. Selinker defined the term "interlanguage" in Russian and foreign linguistics, most researchers considered this linguistic phenomenon as linguistic errors. 

The theory of interlanguage originated and developed in the USA, then, "in the second half of the twentieth century, this theory began to arouse interest among Russian and foreign researchers, since it shows the development of interlanguage in accordance with specific, but at the same time similar laws of the development of "natural", natural languages" ^{[7, p. 297]}.

According to A.O. Ovsyannikov, "the interlanguage is characterized by instability, variability: in terms of diachrony, we are talking either about progress, with a gradual approach to the norm of the studied language, or about regression associated with the gradual loss of skills and automatisms; in terms of synchrony, variability manifests itself primarily at the level of implementation of linguistic competence, depending on the type speech activity" ^{[9, p. 106]}.

The inter-language specialist A.Ya. Jafarova means "a phenomenon, such as a personal pidgin, which can develop into an entrenched form in the absence of correction by the teacher" ^{[3, p. 36]}. From her point of view, "the interlanguage is perceived by the teacher as a natural step towards the formation of a more complete knowledge of the language" [ibid.].

N.V. Loseva, L.N. Metelskaya give the following definition of the term "interlanguage" – "the individual language system of the student, which is formed in his mind when learning a non-native language and is in an intermediate state between the native language and the foreign language being studied" ^{[8, p. 73]}.

Having studied the works devoted to the concept of an interlanguage in Russian linguistics, O.V. Starinina emphasizes that an interlanguage is "a so–called intermediate language formed in the mind of a foreign language learner, different from the language that is present in the mind of its native speaker" ^{[12, p. 112]}. In her opinion, "the interlanguage is a springboard between the native language and the studied one, the transfer of language experience, in which the native language plays an important role" [ibid.].

According to N.N. Rogoznaya, "the linguistic system of the interlanguage is relatively independent and includes elements and units of both native and non-native languages in its structure" ^{[11, p. 61]}.

Having examined the definitions of the interlanguage of Russian and foreign researchers, we can see that the concept of the term "interlanguage", which came to Russian linguistics in the late 90s of the XX century, is the same as in foreign linguistics. At the beginning of the XXI century, the theory of interlanguage began to gradually develop in Russian linguistics. From the beginning of this century to the present day, a number of works by such Russian researchers as A.V. Bagdueva, S.A. Deryabina, A.A. Zalevskaya, E.A. Kostina, E.V. Loginov, N.V. Losev, Z.G. Proshina, N.N. Rogoznaya, O.V. Starinina, V.M. are devoted to the phenomenon of interlanguage. Shaklein et al . ^{[1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 10; 11; 12; 13]}. The study of the works of these scientists formed the theoretical basis of this study.

After analyzing and comparing the characteristic features of the interlanguage put forward by Russian researchers, V.M. Shaklein and Zheng Qianmin come to the conclusion that the interlanguage has such common features as consistency, individuality, dynamism ^{[14, p. 271]}. S.A. Deryabina notes that the individuality of the interlanguage "depends on the cognitive abilities of the individual, his experience in learning foreign languages, learning strategies, knowledge about the structure of the native language system, personality qualities" ^{[2, p. 57]}. N.N. Rogoznaya in one of her recent works summarizes such features of the interlanguage as: "1) independence; 2) phasing; 3) dynamism; 4) consistency; 5) regularity" ^{[11, p. 63]}.

1. Literal translation from the native language in the phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian. Under the influence of the native language, incorrect phrases are often used in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, which are literally translated from Chinese.

Table 1

Russian Russian examples of the literal translation of some stable phrases in the Russian language, in Chinese, in the interlanguage of Chinese students who study the Russian language

As can be seen from the examples, language habits in different languages differ significantly. It should be noted that to describe the same food in Russian and Chinese, different colors and adjectives are used. In the phrases listed in the table (Table 1.), in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, a literal translation from their native language, namely from Chinese, is manifested. Russian Russian-speaking Chinese students, in addition to the examples in the table (Table 1.), use phrases such as *wash clothes / wash laundry (in Russian it should be to wash clothes / wash underwear /), since in Chinese the verbs "wash" and "wash" are used transmitted in one word – ?.

2. Using a descriptive phrase instead of one word in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.Russian Russian students also use whole phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students, due to interference from their native language, in situations where only one word could be used in the Russian language.

Russian Russian, for example, the word "Chinese woman" is translated into Chinese as the phrases "the Chinese language" / "the Chinese language"– in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, formed by two words: * "Chinese girl / Chinese woman", which are considered grammatically correct, but do not correspond to the language habits of the language being studied (Russian). Similar phrases are often used in the inter-language of Chinese students, for example: * "Russian girl () / French girl () / Spanish girl ()", etc..

Along with this, in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, there are other descriptive phrases instead of one word in situations when the students' vocabulary did not have this word. For example, in the vocabulary of students from China, you can often find such phrases as in the following table (Table 2.):

Table 2

Examples of using a phrase instead of a single word in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Russian Russian is clearly visible from the examples presented in the table (Table 3.) that at some stage of mastering the Russian language in the vocabulary of Chinese students studying Russian, there are no words such as "foreigner", "beetroot", "borscht", "sweet potato", etc. Therefore, in order to achieve a communicative Russian Russian language learners, for example, use descriptive phrases in the interlanguage instead of one word, as it should be in Russian.  

3. The absence of a preposition or the use of an extra preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.

In Russian, the genitive case of nouns is used to describe objects. Due to interference from the native language or over-communication of the rules of the language being studied, prepositions are sometimes found where they should not be, or vice versa, they are absent where required. Examples of the absence of a preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian are presented in the following table:

Table 3

Examples of the absence of preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

    Based on the examples presented in the table (Table 3.), it can be concluded that the reason for the incorrect use of the genitive case or the absence of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is the re-communication of the rules of the language being studied or interference from their native language.

4. Incorrect choice of preposition in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.After analyzing the collected language materials, the authors notice that Chinese students studying Russian confuse prepositions "in" with "on"; "from" with "from", "with"; "after" with "through", since prepositions "in" and "on" are translated into Chinese the same way, namely "a"; prepositions "from", "from", "from" in Chinese are voiced with one word – "?"; as for prepositions "through" and "after", they are indicated in Chinese by one construction – "a......" Examples of incorrect use of prepositions in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian are given in the table (Table 4.):

Table 4

Examples of incorrect use of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

One of the reasons for the incorrect choice of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is interference from their native language.

Conclusion Analyzing the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, we can draw attention to the following conclusions:

1. As a result of the search for clarification of the definition of the term "interlanguage" in research in the coming years, common characteristic features of the interlanguage have been identified: consistency, individuality, dynamism, independence, regularity, etc.;

2. In the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, you can often see a direct literal translation from their native language, which especially concerns the description of colors, food names;

3. In the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, descriptive phrases are often used instead of one word, which is due to interference from their native language or due to the lack of suitable words in the vocabulary of students;  

Russian Russian 4. As a result of interference from the native language, the reinterpretation of the rules of the Russian language in the phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, prepositions are either absent or used when it is not required.;

5. Under the influence of the native language in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, prepositions that are not suitable in meaning are often chosen in phrases.

In the study of the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, some data are not considered from a dynamic point of view due to the limited time of collecting language materials. Russian Russian Further research opens the door to a comprehensive study of the development of the interlanguage and its interaction with the native and the studied languages at different stages of mastering the Russian language, in other words, it becomes possible to track the dynamic features of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.