"Question about vaccination" and "be able to analyze": what happens with prepositions in Russian

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We figure out why function words are increasingly appearing where they should not, and how to put them in place.

A preposition is a service linguistic element that connects words in phrases. It does not seem to be such an important linguistic unit as, say, a noun or a verb, therefore it is less noticeable.

At the same time, the choice of a certain variant from the service parts of speech often stylistically colors the phrase. For example, it is believed that the preposition “pro” has a colloquial character (as opposed to the neutral “o”), and “in connection with” gives the message an official-business tone.

And even if prepositions are not as significant as independent parts of speech, curious changes also occur with them in the language.

Some pretexts replace others for no reason

Among these, "po" is very popular now. There are often phrases like “we need to decide about finances” instead of “we need to decide about finances” or “information on vaccinations” instead of “information about vaccinations”.

Such constructions arose among officials, and are now common in the language of the media, in the oral statements of government officials, politicians, financiers, and businessmen. However, the use of "po" in such cases has a tinge of bureaucracy, therefore, in casual speech, as a rule, it is better not to use it.

Another pretext that strives to take someone else's place is “for”. It is often used instead of "o". You can hear phrases like “I want to talk about problems” instead of “I want to talk about problems”. However, the verbs "talk", "talk", "tell" are used with the prepositions "about" and "about".

Also popular is the option “for” and with the word “miss”: “miss the child” instead of “miss the child”, which is also wrong. Probably, the preposition "for" in such situations appeared in Russian speech under the influence of southern dialects and the Ukrainian language.

Another example of the use of the wrong preposition is the expression "in the district." There are, of course, patterns in the use of "on" and "in". In particular, "in" is used in relation to closed spaces ("in the chest", "in the house"), and "on" - in relation to open spaces ("on the shore", "on the square").

However, this logic does not work 100% of the time. Compare: "at the factory", "at the post office", "in the park", "in the woods." There are also cases when both pretexts are acceptable: “in the kitchen” and “in the kitchen”, “in the field” and “on the field”, “in the apartment” and “in the apartment” (this option is used when talking about rented housing).

The compatibility of the prepositions "in" and "on" with certain words is explained solely by tradition. Perhaps the popularity of the wrong "in the neighborhood" is due to some rethinking of the spatial meaning. Firstly, the district is not such a closed territory, and secondly, we have it “on the street”. But so far only the "in the region" option is considered competent.

Prepositions appear where they shouldn't be

Now in vogue expressions where verbs are replaced by nouns with the preposition "in". For example, they say “to be able to analyze”, meaning “to be able to analyze”; "Try to dance" - "try to dance"; To be able to do marketing - to be able to do marketing. These are new constructions for our language, they are not considered normative at the moment.

However, there are also more familiar, well-established expressions in which prepositions suddenly appear. For example, "for" is increasingly used in expressions like "explain for your thought." Although the verb "explain" in this case should not be accompanied by the preposition: "explain your thought."

Also, many people use the phrase “to assert about something”. But it is correct - "to assert something", the preposition "about" is not needed here. The same thing happens with phrases like “discussing a new collection”, while the correct variant is “discussing a new collection”.

Prepositions are followed by words in the wrong case

And here the above-mentioned preposition "by" stands out. It has many meanings, but more often they make mistakes with the case of the subsequent noun in one of them. “Rest when you return,” “throw it away after the expiration date,” “call when you arrive” - that's right. When it comes to performing one action after another, the prepositional case should be used after the preposition "by", not the dative ("on return").

Another preposition from the official sphere, with which they are confused in the declension of words, is "according to". Often after it, a noun is used in the genitive case - "according to the order", but the correct one here is the dative - "according to the order."

The same story happens with the preposition "according to". Often after it comes the genitive case - "in accordance with beliefs", which is not true. This preposition governs the dative case - "in accordance with your convictions", as well as the instrumental - "in accordance with this."