Olga Kagan – författare

Advanced Russian Through History is a Russian reader for students working towards advanced and superior level proficiency in Russian. The book consists of thirty-six chapters focusing on the history of Russia, from Kievan Rus' to the post-Soviet era. Each chapter is accompanied by a corresponding minilecture and related learning tasks on the Web. The learning tasks are designed to promote students' abilities to understand and produce argument in the style of scholarly discourse, both in speech and in writing.

Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced is a vibrant and modern course designed to help students achieve advanced proficiency in Russian. Offering a flexible modular approach structured around contemporary themes, the course further develops reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills while also expanding the student’s cultural literacy. Key features include:Structured chapters presenting a wide assortment of readings that include blogs, forums and surveys as well as opinion pieces and commentaries. Each text is accompanied by assignments with increasing levels of difficulty.Authentic and up-to-date readings, video and audio excerpts covering a range of relevant social and cultural topics, including Demography, Youth Culture, Politics and Society, Economics and Globalization.Video clips from news programs that are used not only to develop listening comprehension but also introduce students to contemporary Russian society. Particular attention to helping students acquire advanced vocabulary and the ability to converse, discuss and argue about issues with extended paragraph-length discourse.Special focus on the development of strong listening and reading comprehension skills, ensuring that students understand the ideas and supporting details in narrative and descriptive texts and connected discourse.A free companion website at https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/138848 offering student and instructor video and audio resources, sample syllabi and tests as well as additional materials.Written by a highly experienced author team that has co-authored the first year Russian textbook Beginner’s Russian (2010) and the second-year textbook V Puti (2005). Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced will be an essential resource for undergraduate students in their third and fourth year of Russian language study. It is also suitable for heritage learners of Russian who have mastered literacy and are familiar with the grammatical structure of Russian.

"… focuses on issues at the forefront of heritage language teaching and research. Its state-of-the-art presentation will make this volume a standard reference book for investigators, teachers, and students. It will also generate further research and discussion, thereby advancing the field."María Carreira, California State University – Long Beach, United States"In our multilingual and multicultural society there is an undeniable need to address issues of bilingualism, language maintenance, literacy development, and language policy. The subject of this book is timely…. It has potential to make a truly significant contribution to the field."María Cecilia Colombi, University of California – Davis, United StatesThis volume presents a multidisciplinary perspective on teaching heritage language learners. Contributors from theoretical and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, psychology, educational policy, and pedagogy specialists explore policy and societal issues, present linguistic case studies, and discuss curricular issues, offering both research and hands-on innovation. - The term "heritage language speaker" refers to an individual exposed to a language spoken at home but who is educated primarily in English. Research and curriculum design in heritage language education is just beginning. Heritage language pedagogy, including research associated with the attrition, maintenance, and growth of heritage language proficiency, is rapidly becoming a field in its own right within foreign language education. This book fills a current gap in both theory and pedagogy in this emerging field. It is a significant contribution to the goals of formulating theory, developing informed classroom practices, and creating enlightened programs for students who bring home-language knowledge into the classroom.Heritage Language Education: A New Field Emerging is dedicated to Professor Russell Campbell (1927-2003), who was instrumental in advocating for the creation of the field of heritage language education.

"… focuses on issues at the forefront of heritage language teaching and research. Its state-of-the-art presentation will make this volume a standard reference book for investigators, teachers, and students. It will also generate further research and discussion, thereby advancing the field."María Carreira, California State University – Long Beach, United States"In our multilingual and multicultural society there is an undeniable need to address issues of bilingualism, language maintenance, literacy development, and language policy. The subject of this book is timely…. It has potential to make a truly significant contribution to the field."María Cecilia Colombi, University of California – Davis, United StatesThis volume presents a multidisciplinary perspective on teaching heritage language learners. Contributors from theoretical and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, psychology, educational policy, and pedagogy specialists explore policy and societal issues, present linguistic case studies, and discuss curricular issues, offering both research and hands-on innovation. - The term "heritage language speaker" refers to an individual exposed to a language spoken at home but who is educated primarily in English. Research and curriculum design in heritage language education is just beginning. Heritage language pedagogy, including research associated with the attrition, maintenance, and growth of heritage language proficiency, is rapidly becoming a field in its own right within foreign language education. This book fills a current gap in both theory and pedagogy in this emerging field. It is a significant contribution to the goals of formulating theory, developing informed classroom practices, and creating enlightened programs for students who bring home-language knowledge into the classroom.Heritage Language Education: A New Field Emerging is dedicated to Professor Russell Campbell (1927-2003), who was instrumental in advocating for the creation of the field of heritage language education.

V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context is a multi-level textbook program for learners of Russian that develops proficiency across the four language skills while building intercultural knowledge and competence.The third edition of this highly successful program presents grammar, vocabulary, culture, music, film, and literature within the context of diverse Russian-speaking communities around the world. All of these components reinforce Russian culture and history, enabling students to understand the Russian language in context. V Puti now includes projects and other activities in each chapter that offer many more opportunities to practice and demonstrate communicative competence. The V Puti course also includes V Puti: Student Activities Manual and a companion website containing a wealth of resources and activities for both instructors and learners.The flexible, modular structure of V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context and the accompanying Student Activities Manual is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of Russian programs and learners at intermediate or advanced level.

V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context is a multi-level textbook program for learners of Russian that develops proficiency across the four language skills while building intercultural knowledge and competence.The third edition of this highly successful program presents grammar, vocabulary, culture, music, film, and literature within the context of diverse Russian-speaking communities around the world. All of these components reinforce Russian culture and history, enabling students to understand the Russian language in context. V Puti now includes projects and other activities in each chapter that offer many more opportunities to practice and demonstrate communicative competence. The V Puti course also includes V Puti: Student Activities Manual and a companion website containing a wealth of resources and activities for both instructors and learners.The flexible, modular structure of V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context and the accompanying Student Activities Manual is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of Russian programs and learners at intermediate or advanced level.

V Puti: Student Activities Manual is an integral part of the V Puti course and is designed for use alongside V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context. The structure matches the main textbook and provides a wealth of exercises and activities, either for class use or homework. This third edition offers a wider variety of exercises and activities which incorporate more recent language pedagogies.This highly successful program assists in the development of learners’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills by presenting realistic settings, situations, and contexts. It consists of 12 chapters offering conversational exercises, various readings (biographies, poems, literature, and historical texts), and grammatical explanations and practice. All of these components reinforce Russian culture and history which enable students to understand the Russian language in context. The companion website to this course offers a wealth of resources and activities for both instructors and learners.The flexible, modular structure of the V Puti course is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of Russian programs and learners at intermediate or advanced level.

V Puti: Student Activities Manual is an integral part of the V Puti course and is designed for use alongside V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context. The structure matches the main textbook and provides a wealth of exercises and activities, either for class use or homework. This third edition offers a wider variety of exercises and activities which incorporate more recent language pedagogies.This highly successful program assists in the development of learners’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills by presenting realistic settings, situations, and contexts. It consists of 12 chapters offering conversational exercises, various readings (biographies, poems, literature, and historical texts), and grammatical explanations and practice. All of these components reinforce Russian culture and history which enable students to understand the Russian language in context. The companion website to this course offers a wealth of resources and activities for both instructors and learners.The flexible, modular structure of the V Puti course is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of Russian programs and learners at intermediate or advanced level.

Verbal prefixes in Slavic languages remain an intricate and puzzling phenomenon, raising questions about whether their behavior is governed by a systematic pattern, and if their attachment is subject to any kind of uniform semantic system. Olga Kagan offers a new unified analysis of Russian verbal prefixes which combines a formal semantic approach with detailed discussion of data. The book addresses two vital issues, both of which play an important role in modern linguistic research: the role of scalarity in natural language and, more specifically, within the verbal domain; and Slavic verbal prefixation. Accessibly written and illustrated with numerous examples, Scalarity in the Verbal Domain is important reading for researchers and students of formal semantics, cognitive linguistics and Slavic languages.

Verbal prefixes in Slavic languages remain an intricate and puzzling phenomenon, raising questions about whether their behavior is governed by a systematic pattern, and if their attachment is subject to any kind of uniform semantic system. Olga Kagan offers a new unified analysis of Russian verbal prefixes which combines a formal semantic approach with detailed discussion of data. The book addresses two vital issues, both of which play an important role in modern linguistic research: the role of scalarity in natural language and, more specifically, within the verbal domain; and Slavic verbal prefixation. Accessibly written and illustrated with numerous examples, Scalarity in the Verbal Domain is important reading for researchers and students of formal semantics, cognitive linguistics and Slavic languages.

The phenomenon of case has long been a central topic of study in linguistics. While the majority of the literature so far has been on the syntax of case, semantics also has a crucial role to play in how case operates. This book investigates the relationship between semantics and case-marking in the languages of the world, exploring a range of phenomena in which case-assignment is affected by (or affects) meaning. By bringing together data from a wide range of languages, representing different language families, a cross-linguistic picture emerges of the correlation between case and meaning. Different approaches to the phenomena are considered, including both syntactic and semantic analyses, and the question is raised as to whether case can be treated as meaningful, ultimately helping us shed light on the broader connections between grammar and meaning and, moreover, grammar and the human cognition.

The phenomenon of case has long been a central topic of study in linguistics. While the majority of the literature so far has been on the syntax of case, semantics also has a crucial role to play in how case operates. This book investigates the relationship between semantics and case-marking in the languages of the world, exploring a range of phenomena in which case-assignment is affected by (or affects) meaning. By bringing together data from a wide range of languages, representing different language families, a cross-linguistic picture emerges of the correlation between case and meaning. Different approaches to the phenomena are considered, including both syntactic and semantic analyses, and the question is raised as to whether case can be treated as meaningful, ultimately helping us shed light on the broader connections between grammar and meaning and, moreover, grammar and the human cognition.

Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced is a vibrant and modern course designed to help students achieve advanced proficiency in Russian. Offering a flexible modular approach structured around contemporary themes, the course further develops reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills while also expanding the student’s cultural literacy. Key features include:Structured chapters presenting a wide assortment of readings that include blogs, forums and surveys as well as opinion pieces and commentaries. Each text is accompanied by assignments with increasing levels of difficulty.Authentic and up-to-date readings, video and audio excerpts covering a range of relevant social and cultural topics, including Demography, Youth Culture, Politics and Society, Economics and Globalization.Video clips from news programs that are used not only to develop listening comprehension but also introduce students to contemporary Russian society. Particular attention to helping students acquire advanced vocabulary and the ability to converse, discuss and argue about issues with extended paragraph-length discourse.Special focus on the development of strong listening and reading comprehension skills, ensuring that students understand the ideas and supporting details in narrative and descriptive texts and connected discourse.A free companion website at https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/138848 offering student and instructor video and audio resources, sample syllabi and tests as well as additional materials.Written by a highly experienced author team that has co-authored the first year Russian textbook Beginner’s Russian (2010) and the second-year textbook V Puti (2005). Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced will be an essential resource for undergraduate students in their third and fourth year of Russian language study. It is also suitable for heritage learners of Russian who have mastered literacy and are familiar with the grammatical structure of Russian.

The genitive/accusative opposition in Slavic languages is a decades-old linguistic conundrum. Shedding new light on this perplexing object-case alternation in Russian, this volume analyzes two variants of genitive objects that alternate with accusative complements—the genitive of negation and the intensional genitive. The author contends that these variants are manifestations of the same phenomenon, and thus require an integrated analysis. Further, that the choice of case is sensitive to factors that fuse semantics and pragmatics, and that the genitive case is assigned to objects denoting properties at the same time as they lack commitment to existence.Kagan’s subtle analysis accounts for the complex relations between case-marking and other properties, such as definiteness, specificity, number and aspect. It also reveals a correlation between the genitive case and the subjunctive mood, and relates her overarching subject matter to other instances of differential object-marking.

The genitive/accusative opposition in Slavic languages is a decades-old linguistic conundrum. Shedding new light on this perplexing object-case alternation in Russian, this volume analyzes two variants of genitive objects that alternate with accusative complements—the genitive of negation and the intensional genitive. The author contends that these variants are manifestations of the same phenomenon, and thus require an integrated analysis. Further, that the choice of case is sensitive to factors that fuse semantics and pragmatics, and that the genitive case is assigned to objects denoting properties at the same time as they lack commitment to existence.Kagan’s subtle analysis accounts for the complex relations between case-marking and other properties, such as definiteness, specificity, number and aspect. It also reveals a correlation between the genitive case and the subjunctive mood, and relates her overarching subject matter to other instances of differential object-marking.