PRESENTATION OF SINGULARIA AND PLURALIA TANTUM NOUNS IN A COURSE OF RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

This article considers singularia and pluralia tantum nouns; despite the absence of this topic in programs on teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL), it must be acknowledged that singularia tantum nouns constitute a significant layer of vocabulary and are quite commonly used, and pluralia tantum nouns are closely linked to cultural discourse and cannot be painlessly excluded from lexical system of the Russian language. Although this phenomenon has been thoroughly studied in classical editions of Russian grammar, problems of category of number and in particular singularia and pluralia tantum nouns are still widely discussed by modern linguists (as is noted, complex subjects can be designated both as forms of singular and forms of plural, therefore the three groups of nouns can be found: pluralia tantum (a single object indicated by plural: ворота), a full-numbered paradigm (one object is indicated by singular: ракушка), and nouns with a paradigm fluctuation (one object is indicated by both singular and plural: дверь / двери); there is a dramatic rise in the use of plural forms of many abstract nouns (риск, продажа) forming a crucial change in the development trend of Russian abstract noun number paradigms). We assume that in RFL teaching, it is important to follow the principles of step by step presentation of theoretical information on this topic (common singularia and pluralia tantum nouns, their grammatical properties, derivative characteristics; proper singularia and pluralia tantum nouns; synonymy, antonymy, and homonymy of singularia and pluralia tantum nouns; occasionalisms, etc.) to help students reach a higher level of Russian language proficiency.