Precedent texts and allusions
Precedent texts and allusions
Quoting without quoting: Быть или не быть, А Васька слу́шает да ест, a real Обломов.
⚡Key points
Прецедентный текст→a quotation every native recognises
А Васька слу́шает да ест→to ignore criticism and carry on (Krylov)
Рукописи не горя́т→true art does not perish (Bulgakov)
Обломов, Плюшкин→proper names turned into symbols
Allusion→evoke the source without quoting it in full
Quoting without quoting: allusion
A precedent text (прецедентный текст) is a quotation, title or name that every native recognises. It is used by allusion, sometimes transformed. Recognising them is a matter of cultural competence, the pinnacle of C2.
Famous quotations (прецедентные высказывания)
Quotations everyone knows
| Быть или не быть | Hamlet (Shakespeare) | the existential dilemma |
| А Васька слу́шает да ест | Krylov (fable) | to ignore reproaches and carry on |
| Рукописи не горя́т | Bulgakov | true art does not perish |
| Счастли́вые часо́в не наблюда́ют | Griboyedov | happy people do not notice time pass |
Use by allusion
1
Summon a well-known quotation
Тут, как говори́тся, быть или не быть. (Here it is, as they say, to be or not to be.)
А он — как Васька: слу́шает да ест. (And he is like the cat in the fable: he listens and carries on.)
Names turned into symbols
Symbolic characters
| Плюшкин | Gogol (Dead Souls) | a pathological miser |
| Обломов | Goncharov | an apathetic idler |
| Дон Кихот | Cervantes | an unrealistic idealist |
| Иуда | Bible | the traitor |
A proper name turned into a symbol
1
Name a trait by a character
Не будь Плюшкиным! (Do not be a miser!)
Хва́тит обломовщины. (Enough of this apathetic idleness.)
💡⚠️ The precedent text: a shared source
A precedent text (прецедентный текст) is a quotation, title or name that every native recognises and uses by allusion (sometimes transformed). It differs from крыла́тые выраже́ния (fixed expressions, C1): here the cultural source (Pushkin, Krylov, a film) is summoned.
Обломов = idleness made a symbol
Рукописи не горя́т (Bulgakov)
Dialogue: a discussion
Ле́наЯ ему́ всё объясня́ю, а он своё.
МаксКла́ссика: «а Васька слу́шает да ест».
Ле́наТо́чно! А сам — настоя́щий Обломов, лежи́т весь день.
МаксЗато́ мечта́ет. Пря́мо Дон Кихот.
Lena: I explain everything to him, and he does his own thing. — Max: A classic: “the cat listens and carries on eating”. — Lena: Exactly! And he himself is a real Oblomov, lying around all day. — Max: But he dreams. A real Don Quixote.