Within the frameworks of a strategy session of the Total Dictation, a lecture by expert Natalia Koshkareva was held at SUSU. The audience was told about words of color designation in Russian and other languages of the world’s nations.
“How many colors are in a rainbow?” This is how Doctor of Philology Natalia Koshkareva entitled her lecture. Color designation is one of parameters of a language’s peculiarity, as there is variable number of words determining color in the world nations’ languages. Due to such lectures, people will better understand the work of linguists, will learn about various languages as well as how they exist and evolve. Natalia Koshkareva explained why she chose this precise topic.
“This is just a very interesting topic on the example of which it is possible to demonstrate the variety of languages and show that culture has a great influence at the languages that we speak as well as how we percept the world.”
The main goal is to tell that languages are manifold and each of them deserves to be studied. According to Chief Editor of Gramota.ru portal, Vladimir Pakhomov, such lectures are held to popularize literacy and the science about language and linguistics.
“I very much liked the lecture of Natalia Borisovna. A brilliant lecture! This is incredibly interesting, the way that different languages of the world interpret things that surround us. Basically, this is what linguists are talking about: there are no languages that are more or less developed, or more or less adjusted for describing the reality. Each language is unique; each one is inimitable. And today we had a visible proof of it, and this is great!”
Photographer of the Total Dictation, Igor Dyachenko, calls such events an “entering point”, because if the information obtained during a lecture excites interest, a person will aspire for further research of this topic and, perhaps, this will become a lifetime project.
“I love such lectures, when some interesting things are told using simple and understandable language. In a few words, the impression is great.”
Such lectures allow learning a lot of new things about languages, their history and specificity of their learning. The lectures are held in the course of a year all around Russia until the total dictation, and are available for all who interested.