Page 538 - Актуальные проблемы обучения русскому языку XIII

Modern Russian orthography also contains the principle of differential writing
(semantic principle), according to which word's writing depends on its lexical meaning. For
example: ожёг (verb) and ожог (noun), компания (group of people) and кампания (event),
бал (formal dance party) and балл (grading unit).
Along with mentioned principles, it is important to also mention principles of
compound, separate and hyphenating writing principles: complex words are written as a
compound or hyphenated word, while words combinations are written separately.
Thus, the diversity of Russian orthography's rules is explained, on one hand, by the
features of phonetic and grammatic structures of Russian language and the specifics of its
developement and, on the other hand, by the interactions with other Slavic and non-Slavic
languages.
It is important to differentiate orthographic and typographical errors.
Typographical error (typo) is the of error related to the typography, to the means of
writing system that fixate the relations between the sounds of spoken language and letters
that represent them.
Different slips of the pen and typos that are made because of the writer's inaccuracy
or hasty writing are considered typographical errors. The most popular typographical errors
are: letter skipping; letter scrambling; wrong letter instead of the correct one; extra letters.
Grammatical error is an error in the structure of language unit. It is an error in the
structure of either word, phrase or sentence; it is a violation of any grammatical norms. Note
that in “Methodical recommendations...”, the term “grammatical norm” implies an
morphological derivation norm, along with morphological and syntactic ones.
Grammatical error, unlike the orthographic one, can be made in both written and
spoken languages. Not only can it be seen but also heard: стережат; бегу по дорожке,
ведущую в сад; ляжь; уверенность в победу.
The most typical grammatical errors are the ones that are related to the usage of
verbs (incorrect personal verb form composition; incorrect usage of aspectual-temporal verb
forms), verb forms (errors in the usage of active and passive participles; errors in the gerund
composition), adverbs (incorrect adverb composition), particles (unjustified repeat). These
errors are usually related to the violation of grammar's patterns and rules and occur because
of the influence of vernacular language and dialect.
Moreover, grammatic-synctatic errors, such as the violation of subject-predicate
agreement, unjustified skip of subject or incorrect composition of complex sentence, can
also be considered typical.
Speech error is the type of error that lies not in the structure of language unit, but in
its usage. Most often speech error is related to the word usage. Most of the times, it is
related to the underdevelopement of examinee's language: pleonasm, tautology, clichés;
unpromted usage of colloquial language, dialect, jargon; unsuccesful usage of expressions,
“bureaucratese”, paronym mixture; errors in the pronounciation of homonyms, antonyms,
synonyms; polysemy that is not cleared by the conext.
Unlike the grammatical error, which can be identified without context, speech error
can only be identified if given context.
Factual error is the distortion of facts or brought up facts that either contradict the
reality or were incorrectly stated (facts about writer's or character's biography, dates,
surnames, authorship of mentioned works etc.).
Not only the full distortion (substitution) of fact, but also its exaggeration or
understatement, is considered a factual error.
We gave a brief characteristic of the most common errors encountered in examinees'
essays. Despite the transparency and clarity of given formulations, members of expert

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