(Press-News.org) Researchers at HSE University analysed over 4,000 examples of Russian spoken by bilinguals for whom Russian is a second language, collected from seven regions of Russia. They found that most non-standard numeral constructions are influenced not only by the speakers’ native languages but also by how frequently these expressions occur in everyday speech. For example, common phrases like 'two hours' or 'five kilometres’ almost always match the standard literary form, while less familiar expressions—especially those involving the numbers numerals two to four or collective forms like dvoe and troe (used for referring to people)—often differ from the norm. The study has been published in International Journal of Bilingualism.
Russian numerals can be confusing not only for foreigners, but also for native speakers and bilinguals—those fluent in two or more languages. Some studies suggest that the grammar of a speaker’s first language—such as Nanai or Ulchi—can influence their acquisition of Russian. Other researchers, however, argue that the influence of the native language is just one of several factors.
Researchers at the HSE Linguistic Convergence Laboratory analysed how bilinguals from different regions of Russia use numerals in spoken Russian. The team processed seven collections of interviews recorded in Daghestan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Mari El, Karelia, and other regions. The sample included spontaneous speech from over 180 native speakers of 21 different languages. Each collection featured recordings of natural conversations in which participants responded to the researchers' questions and shared stories about themselves, their families, and the village life. Out of more than 7,000 numeral-containing phrases, the researchers selected approximately 4,000 for analysis, excluding constructions with ordinal numerals and oblique cases.
The results showed that non-standard realizations of numeral constructions in Russian are influenced not only by the native language but also by other factors such as the education level, age, and—most importantly—how frequently the expression is used in speech. The more familiar a phrase—such as 'two hours' or 'five kilometres'—the less likely it is to appear in a non-standard form. This supports the hypothesis that linguistic constructions are acquired not through formal rules but through regular usage.
Chiara Naccarato
'It cannot be said that bilinguals simply project the grammar of their native language onto Russian when they use it. Even if a native speaker grew up in an environment where numerals function differently than in Russian, it doesn’t mean they will consistently copy the structures of their native language when speaking Russian,' explains Chiara Naccarato, Research Fellow at the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and co-author of the paper.
Numerals from two to four, along with collective forms like dvoe and troe, proved particularly challenging for participants and were used in non-standard forms much more frequently.
The frequency of non-standard numeral constructions in the speech of bilinguals from different regions.
These findings are relevant not only to linguists but also to educators, as they highlight which areas of grammar require more attention. In the future, the authors plan to investigate other areas where the native language may—or may not—influence the Russian language acquisition.
The study was conducted with support from HSE University's Basic Research Programme within the framework of the Centres of Excellence project.
END
HSE linguists study how bilinguals use phrases with numerals in Russian
2025-06-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Cold winters halt the northward spread of species in a warming climate
2025-06-23
As the climate warms, many species are shifting northward into areas that were previously too cold for them. A new study on the wall brown butterfly, published in the scientific journal PNAS, shows that rapid evolution can aid this process – but only up to a point. Cold winters stop further expansion beyond certain climatic limits.
“Our results show that even though the butterflies adapt their life cycle as they move northwards, there are limits that evolution cannot easily overcome,” says Mats Ittonen, one of the lead authors of the study done by researchers at the Department of Zoology, Stockholm University.
The wall brown (Lasiommata ...
Study finds early signs of widespread coastal marsh decline
2025-06-23
Researchers have revealed the declining health of coastal marshes several years before visible signs of decline, providing an early warning and opportunity to protect an ecosystem that serves as the first line of defense against coastal flooding.
Scientists from Colorado State University, the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin developed a model to detect early signs of marsh decline using satellite observations. The model identified vulnerable marshes along Georgia’s coast by ...
Massive burps of carbon dioxide led to oxygen-less ocean environments in the deep past
2025-06-23
New research from the University of California, Davis, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Texas A&M University reveals that massive emissions, or burps, of carbon dioxide from natural earth systems led to significant decreases in ocean oxygen concentrations some 300 million years ago.
Combining geochemical analyses of sediment cores and advanced climate modeling, the study, published June 23 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights five periods when significant decreases in ocean oxygen levels (by 4% to 12%) coincided with significant increases ...
US muslims’ attitudes toward psychedelic therapy
2025-06-23
A new study in the peer-reviewed journal Psychedelic Medicine demonstrated in this sample that Muslims living in the United States (MLUS) showed moderate openness to psychedelics in mental health therapy. Click here to read the article now.
MLUS have a history of rejecting mental health services. Syed Fayzan Rab, MD, a researcher at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, and coauthors of the study, reported a weak negative correlation between rejection attitudes toward mental health and acceptance of psychedelics.
“Moderate openness to psychedelics ...
HSE scientists reveal how staying at alma mater can affect early-career researchers
2025-06-23
Many early-career scientists continue their academic careers at the same university where they studied, a practice known as academic inbreeding. A researcher at the HSE Institute of Education analysed the impact of academic inbreeding on publication activity in the natural sciences and mathematics. The study found that the impact is ambiguous and depends on various factors, including the university's geographical location, its financial resources, and the state of the regional academic employment market. A paper with the study findings has been published in Research Policy.
In Russia, nearly half of all PhD holders continue working ...
Durham University scientists reveal new cosmic insights as first Rubin Observatory images released
2025-06-23
-With images-
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has today released its long-awaited first images of the night sky, marking the beginning of the most ambitious astronomical survey in history – the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
This significant project, over two decades in the making, will provide an ultra-high-definition, time-lapse view of the southern sky over the next ten years, capturing the evolution of the Universe in motion.
Each night, the Rubin Observatory ...
Emotional and directional enabled programmable flexible haptic interface for enhanced cognition in disabled community
2025-06-23
Background
The advancements in tactile perception and feedback technologies have propelled the interaction between humans and the digital realm, spurring innovative applications across various fields, including virtual reality, augmented reality, disability assistance, and communication. At present, surface tactile feedback devices predominantly operate through two mechanisms: electrical stimulation and mechanical vibration. Electrical stimulation works by directly stimulating nerves with an electric current, ...
Music on the brain: exploring how songs boost memory
2025-06-23
Music improves mood and memory to such an extent that treatment strategies for diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia sometimes incorporate music. But how music boosts memory remains unclear. In a new JNeurosci paper, Kayla Clark, from Rice University, and Stephanie Leal, from University of California, Los Angeles, explored what features of music improve memory in humans.
After study participants viewed images of everyday experiences, the researchers played music and manipulated its features. Some features—like whether songs were happy or sad, or song familiarity—had ...
Non-contact and nanometer-scale measurement of shallow PN junction depth buried in Si wafers
2025-06-23
Si LSI manufacturing technology is essential as the foundation of modern society. However, there was no wafer-scale technology for rapid, non-destructive, and non-contact evaluation of the internal electric field distribution, carrier transport characteristics, defects, and high-speed response of devices, which are being miniaturized and made three-dimensional to achieve high-density integration of electronic devices.
In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, an international team of scientists ...
A unified approach to first principles calculations of Parton physics in hadrons
2025-06-23
Understanding the structure of hadrons, such as protons and neutrons, is currently one of the most important goals for researchers studying nuclear and particle physics. Hadrons consist of quarks and gluons, together called partons. The behavior of partons inside hadrons is described by mathematical tools called parton distribution functions (PDFs), which tell us the probability of finding partons carrying a fraction x of the hadron's total momentum. Until recently, PDFs were mainly determined by fitting data obtained from decades of high-energy experiments, a process known as phenomenological modeling. Recently, the interest in calculating PDFs from ...