Russian Adjectives and Methods for Denoting Object Features in Languages

Abstract

The article is addressed to philology teachers working in multicultural classes or groups wishing to increase their linguistic and didactic competence. The aim was to compare the features of adjectives and ways of expressing the attributes of an object in Russian and some other languages of the Russian Federation. During the study, descriptive and comparative methods were used. The article compares morphological properties, lexical and grammatical categories as well as the features of functional homonymy of adjectives in Russian and Khakass languages; syncretism of Russian adjectives such as отцов (father’s) and Сашин (Sasha’s) with nouns is revealed; linguistic experiments related to adjectives are proposed. As a result of the analysis, methods of linguistic reflection of ‘qualitative’ and ‘relative’ attributes of an object are described. In Russian, these attributes are expressed primarily by adjectives. In addition, the former (‘qualitative’) can be conveyed by nouns (milk porridge / porridge in milk), while the latter (relative, individual colour features) – by verbs: Небо синее / Небо синеет (The sky is blue / The sky is getting blue). In some languages, for example, Nanaj and Nivkh, relative features are conveyed only by specific nouns, while all qualitative features are conveyed by verbs. In conclusion, the property of linguistic selectivity is revealed, which implies that identical realities can be expressed using various linguistic means. As a result, these realities will be perceived differently by the speakers of different languages.