Chukovsky vs. Little padons

Periodically, discussions about the purity of the Russian language flare up on Habré. It is foolish to believe that this problem has become relevant only now. I would like to acquaint you with the views of Kornei Chukovsky on this topic, which he shared in his book Living as Life: About the Russian Language .




According to the author himself, the book is written to destroy "the illusion that the language is built on the basis of straightforward, elementary common sense." Language "always obeys the laws of its internal logic, - a sophisticated, changeable, whimsical language, forever updated and immortal like life." And most importantly, the purity of the language - not just a language problem.
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The book is devoted to the analysis of imaginary and genuine diseases of the Russian language. At the time of Chukovsky, she was relevant and did not lose a bit even after 40 years.

Korney Chukovsky sees the seven main problems of the Russian language that concern his readers: foreigners, vulgarisms, weediness with dialects and vice versa, their expulsion from their speech, sanctimonious tastes, clerical and complex words.

Some of these problems today are exhausted. I think that complex words that were carried away in the Soviet era, for example, the deformity of Obluprpromproducts , died on their own. Only viable human constructions remained: TYUZ, ZAGS, VUZ , and all sorts of scrubs (school worker) have long been forgotten.

He managed to reconcile me with the word manager : “not that language is really strong, original, rich, which fearfully shies away from every alien word, but the one who, having taken this alien word, creatively transforms it, self-dominatingly subordinating its own will, own aesthetic tastes and requirements so that the word takes on a new, expressive form that it did not have in its language. ”

Chukovsky helped me to understand why I am cool about the padonkoff language: “this is a struggle not against the word, but against what is behind it: against spiritual emptiness, against an attempt to silence the holes of thought and conscience”.

I am amused by the chapter where the author speaks about the language of youth. I was surprised that the word dude in our understanding for more than 40 years, or before our zhzhot sounded like soot . I also found an attractive phrase: “Let's meet on Tverbul at Pampushkin” , which means Tverskoy Boulevard at the Pushkin Monument. However, Chukovsky believes that this vocabulary is determined by the "low level of spiritual culture," although he immediately cites several reasonable arguments against.

And, one of the main problems, the bureaucracy, which is now blooming and flourishing. I was upset that, reading some examples, I did not find anything terrible in them, so used to it. It is regrettable that he is popular outside the bureaucratic environment: in business, study, science, etc. Textbooks are constantly coming across, consisting of 90% of bulky common phrases. I myself try to avoid stupid unnecessary constructions in business, especially in personal correspondence, taking into account the above, with regard to, it is impossible not to mention others. According to Chukovsky, behind the clerk hides "disregard for the fate of people and things." This sample language kills and does not allow to convey even the “most sincere, unfeigned feeling”. To defeat him will turn out only "expelling bureaucracy from human relations and everyday life."

Probably, it is already clear that I liked the book “Living as Life”. This is a wonderful, terribly interesting, comprehensive and relevant work that I can, with a clear conscience, recommend to anyone who loves the Russian language. She made me pay more attention to what and how I speak and write, and what feelings and attitudes lie behind this.

"In it [Russian] all tones and shades, all transitions of sounds from the hardest to the most gentle and soft, it is limitless and can, alive as life, be enriched every minute." Gogol