Olympiad in linguistics assignments of past years. Olympiad in Linguistics. International Olympiad in Linguistics

Moscow Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics- the annual Olympiad for schoolchildren, held in Moscow by two universities - Moscow State University and Russian State Humanitarian University. In 2008, two rounds were held - on the 16th and 30th of November. The award ceremony took place on December 21 at Moscow State University.

In 2006, the Olympiad became a regional one - not only residents of Moscow, but also residents of other cities and towns can take part in it.

History of the Olympiad

The Olympics owes its existence to A. N. Zhurinsky. While still a 3rd year student at the Department of Structural and Applied Linguistics of the Philological Faculty of Moscow State University, A. N. Zhurinsky proposed to hold an Olympiad in linguistics for high school students. The tradition of holding mathematical Olympiads at Moscow State University that had developed by that time became something like a starting point for the linguistic Olympiad; but linguists, unlike mathematicians, did not yet have experience in composing problems for schoolchildren. A corpus of problems for the first Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics and Mathematics (calling the very first Olympiad traditional, its organizers expressed their confidence in further success) A. N. Zhurinsky prepared together with V. V. Raskin and B. Yu. Gorodetsky.

The history of the Olympiad begins in 1965, when, on the orders of the rector of Moscow State University I. G. Petrovsky and with the active participation of V. A. Uspensky, the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University held the First Olympiad. The time of the event changed several times - the Olympics were held either in late autumn or in spring. But in 1993, the Organizing Committee of the XXIV Olympiad finally decided to postpone the deadline to the end of November: firstly, Olympiads in school subjects and secondly, graduate students are busy preparing for admission and often simply do not have time to come.

Six years - from 1982 to 1988 - The Olympiads were not held due to the liquidation in 1982 of the Department of Structural and Applied Linguistics. In the spring of 1988, the so-called zero Olympiad took place, at which old problems were offered to schoolchildren. And since 1989, the Olympics are again held regularly, every year. In 1989-1991 it is organized jointly by Moscow State University, MGIAI - Moscow State Institute of History and Archives - and the Institute of Foreign Languages. Maurice Thorez (now MSLU). In 1991, on the basis of MGIAI, the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) was created; the Faculty of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (FTiPL) appears. Moscow State Linguistic University withdraws from participating in the organization of the Olympiad in 1991, and since that time it has been held jointly by the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University and the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Russian State University for the Humanities.

Participants of the Olympiad

Any student can participate in the Olympiad, but as a rule, these are schoolchildren from grades 6 to 11, students of technical or humanitarian specialties. All participants are divided into four categories - participants in grades 8 and below, participants in grades 9, 10 and 11.

Participation in the Olympiad does not require a preliminary application. It is only necessary to find out the date of the first round this year (it appears on the website of the Olympiad closer to November, and is also reported at the Lomonosov Tournament) and the venue (usually Moscow State University).

Holding the Olympiad

The Olympiad is held in two rounds with a break of 14 days (2 weeks). First, on Sunday from 10:00 to 15:00, children write the Olympiad in the first humanitarian building of Moscow State University. They are given brochures with tasks. As a rule, 5 tasks are intended for participants from one parallel. The tasks in the booklet vary in difficulty (the older the students, the more difficult the tasks are offered to them), some of the tasks are designed for several grades. In the second round there is also task 0 for knowledge of languages. Two weeks after the first round, on Saturday evening, the analysis of problems takes place, and the next day - the second round, already at the Russian State University for the Humanities. After two or three weeks, the tasks of the second round are analyzed and rewarded. During the Olympiad, children are offered sandwiches and tea.

Tasks

The tasks of the Olympiad belong to the type of “self-sufficient linguistic task”, about which A. N. Zhurinsky wrote. Examples:

Similar problems are also used for the Lomonosov Tournament linguistics competition.

The languages ​​used by participants to answer task 0 are sometimes both languages ​​invented by the participants themselves (then it becomes difficult to check the correctness of the solution) and programming languages ​​(in most cases, errors occur during compilation or interpretation).

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria are kept secret. It is rather difficult to say what should be in the "ideal" solution to the problem. But it is clear that answers without explanation score low. The solution of problems of a higher class is evaluated (however, it is not clear how much this affects the results overall standings; Undoubtedly, the best solutions for this can be issued). No points are awarded for solving lower-level problems.

Rewarding

The traditional element of the award is the reading of the minutes of the jury meeting. The award takes place in two stages. First, prizes are awarded for excellent or good solutions to individual problems (usually the authors of the problems give prizes, if they are present in the room). Then the participants are rewarded for the amount of results achieved. There are four categories of total awards - a commendable review and diplomas of three degrees. The prizes are dictionaries, language textbooks, books on linguistics (sometimes quite rare and therefore valuable). The prize of solving sympathies is also awarded to the author of the best problem in the opinion of schoolchildren.

Elements of mathematics in problems

Tasks for mathematics as such are given implicitly, in conjunction with linguistics. For example, the numerals of a language are given and it is required to determine the patterns in this language, the establishment of which requires mathematics. However, it should be noted that solutions to problems sometimes need to be justified, making inferences, proving the correctness of the solution - approximately the same as it happens when proving the solution of a mathematical problem.

Compilation of tasks

Tasks are written throughout the year. Typically the task path is:

1. To the author of the task, who notices interesting fact(or several such facts) in some language (or languages), the idea comes to write a problem. He, collecting material (doing research, coping with grammars and dictionaries, working with native speakers), writes a draft of the problem.

2. If the author of the draft is not a member of the task committee of the Olympiad (PC), then he sends the draft to one of its members (for example, I. B. Itkin). A member of the SC may not accept the task (if he understands that the task is impossible in principle on this material, or if such a phenomenon has already been “puzzled”), may edit it or send it to the author for revision, expressing his comments and wishes, or may immediately send in the "portfolio" of the SC, if the task, in his opinion, is good.

3. If the issue is in the "portfolio" of the SC, this means that the issue will be considered at the meeting (s) of the SC, at which several members of the SC will jointly edit it (if they decide that the issue "has the right to life"). As a result, the ZK decides what the final version of the problem will look like, which Olympiad the problem will go to (except for the Moscow Olympiad itself, the problem can be sent to the International Olympiad, to the Summer Linguistic School Olympiad, to the linguistics competition of the Lomonosov Tournament or to the Russian Bear cub competition) And for what classes it will be intended.

4. A month or two before the Olympiad, the chairman of the ZK or one of its members draws up layouts of brochures with the tasks of this Olympiad.

Olympiad LLS

A similar Olympiad in linguistics is also held at the Summer Linguistic School. The Olympiad receives an intermediate number (in July 2008 there was the 38.5th Olympiad at the LLS, in November-December 2008 the Moscow Olympiad had the 39th serial number). The composition of the organizers of both Olympiads is very similar. Among the differences, it is necessary to mention the excellent division into classes (grades 10-11 solve the same problems, the student’s class is determined by the class that the student completed before school), distribution of problems on A4 sheets (unlike brochures at the main Olympiad), the presence of only one round, small deadline for checking tasks (the Olympiad is held in the middle of the school, the awards are held at the end, and the school session lasts 9-11 days).

Olympics in St. Petersburg

At the same time as the Moscow Olympiad on almost the same problems, the Olympiad is also held in St. Petersburg.

see also

Links and notes

In 2013/14 academic year XLIV Moscow Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics is held in January-March 2014.

Olympics dates
- January 19-21 (until 23:30) : qualifying (zero) round (remote)
- February 9th: I round (full-time)
- 2nd of March: II round (full-time)

Qualifying round

Registration for qualifying round:
http://info.olimpiada.ru/news/2232

The qualifying round is held remotely (online) and is mandatory for participation in the I and II rounds. See the regulations and questions-and-answers (links below) for more details.

Participants 2013/14

Participated in the qualifying round 1835 schoolchildren.

Translated to The final stage 591 people.

In the full-time round I at Moscow State University took part 356 schoolchildren.

Organizers and cities

Full-time rounds of the Olympiad are simultaneously held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and a number of other cities. The participant chooses the most convenient city (cities) for participation in the face-to-face round when registering for the qualifying round. The list of host cities can be changed by decision of the Organizing Committee.

For those who for some reason cannot take part in face-to-face tours, at the same time as face-to-face tours correspondence I and II rounds. To participate in correspondence rounds, it is required to successfully pass the qualifying (zero) round. Correspondence tours are held out of main competition, their participants cannot apply for diplomas of face-to-face rounds.

On November 22, Moscow will host the anniversary, XL Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics for schoolchildren in grades 8–11, open to everyone. In St. Petersburg, this Olympiad is the 14th. Participants will solve specially designed tasks simulating the activities of scientists. Having the opportunity to get acquainted with what linguists do, many are surprised how much it differs from what is studied in school.

In the 60s, linguistics was one of the most popular sciences, along with cybernetics. Linguists wanted to make the science of language formalizable, using mathematical methods bring it closer to the exact sciences. To new approach became the property of a larger circle of people, and in order to attract fresh, interested forces to this science, it was decided to create a Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics for schoolchildren. At the origins of the Olympiad were Andrey Anatolyevich Zaliznyak, now an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in 2007 he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation for his outstanding contribution to the development of linguistics), Vladimir Andreevich Uspensky, professor at Moscow State University, since 1995 head of the Department of Mathematical Logic and Theory of Algorithms of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Alfred Naumovich Zhurinsky, specialist in African languages, and many other prominent linguists and mathematicians.

Specially for the Olympiad in Linguistics, a special type of problem was invented, from the usual analogies, most of all reminiscent of logical mathematical problems. Analyzing the material of a native or, conversely, a completely unknown language presented in a linguistic task, one can independently discover interesting linguistic phenomena. An important feature of such tasks is their self-sufficiency: for solving it is not necessary to use any dictionaries, grammars, or scientific literature - one must rely only on logical thinking, linguistic intuition and the material given in the task. The first traditional Olympiad in linguistics and mathematics, where schoolchildren had the opportunity to try their hand at solving such problems, was held in Moscow in 1965.

For non-specialists, the science of language - linguistics - is associated primarily with the school course of the Russian language (and, to some extent, foreign languages), which seems to many to be one of the most boring subjects. From the school science of language, only an infinite number of rules often remain in memory, often contradicting each other, which had to be learned by heart. After school, most people think, at best, that the science of language is about answering questions like "what syllable is stressed in the word calling?”, “how to transfer the word abstract?”, “is the word written one by one together, separately or through a hyphen? and “how to put commas in a complex sentence?”.

Of course, linguists also deal with questions of the norm (“how is it right?”), But the main thing that interests them is how the language works in general. And people who are not directly related to this science usually do not know about this side of linguistics. Therefore, schoolchildren, having encountered unusual tasks at a linguistic Olympiad for the first time, completely different from what they study at school, are pleasantly surprised, and some are struck to the very heart, and after solving such problems, they remain interested in linguistics for life.

Let's try and solve a simple linguistic problem (author - A. N. Zhurinsky).

The words are given in Swahili (East Africa) and their translations into Russian in a different order:
mtu, mbuzi, mgeni, jito, jitu, kibuzi
giant, goat, guest, goat, man, big river
Exercise. Set which translation corresponds to each word.
Decision.(The text is made pale for the convenience of those who want to solve the problem on their own. Select it with the mouse to read.)
All words in Swahili are easily divided into two parts. It can be assumed that these parts are morphemes, the shortest language units that have meaning. Let's see what combinations of morphemes are found in the problem:
-buzi -geni -to -tu
ji- + +
ki- +
m- + + +
Now we need to establish what each morpheme means. Russian translations will help us with this. The meanings of ‘guest’, ‘goat’, ‘river’, ‘man’ are clearly distinguished in them. You can also classify them on another basis and distinguish words with an augmentative and diminutive meaning, as well as neutral words. Let's build a table:
The only thing left to figure out is how to rearrange the rows and columns in two tables so that one table overlaps the other. It is not difficult to do this, and as a result we get the answer:
m- - neutral, ji- - magnifying, ki- - diminutive value; -buzi- goat, -geni- the guest, -to- river , -tu- Human.
mtu- Human, mbuzi- goat, mgeni- the guest, jito- big river jitu- giant, kibuzi- goat.

Having solved this problem, we actually did what linguists do when studying little-studied languages: taking material completely unfamiliar to us, we analyzed its internal structure, understood some patterns of the Swahili language, and were even able to partially describe the grammar of this language (after all, we figured out how Swahili prefixes are used!).

But, of course, a linguist can deal not only with exotic languages, but also with his own language, as well as with the universal properties of all human languages. Such studies can also be modeled in linguistic tasks.

Let's take a more complicated problem as an example (author - B. L. Iomdin).

Pairs of similar verbs are given:
accuse - accuse
promise - promise
order - command
beg - beg
advise - advise
It is known that in each pair the first verb has a feature that the second verb does not have.
Exercise 1. Determine what the feature is.
Task 2. Among the verbs listed below, find those that also have this feature: extort, threaten, forbid, to swear, scream, approve, refuse, take away, dedicate, lose, to scold, give up, demand.
Task 3. Think of two more verbs that have the same feature.
Let's try to put these verbs in the first person singular of the present tense, and this will immediately allow us to find the answer. It turns out that with the help of the first verb of each pair, one can not only describe the action that he calls, but also perform it. For example, in order to accuse someone, you can say "I accuse you of betrayal", but the verb reproach you can’t use it like that (you can say “I reproach you for idleness”, but then it will not be a reproach itself, but only a description of a reproach expressed in completely different words). To give an order, you can say "I order you to deliver this report to the emperor", but you cannot say "I command you". This interesting feature some verbs were discovered in 1955 by the English philosopher John Austin, who called such verbs performative.
Of the verbs listed in task 2, the performatives are the verbs forbid, to swear, approve, refuse, dedicate, give up, demand, and non-performative - extort, threaten, scream, take away, lose, to scold.
There are a lot of such verbs: for example, completing task 3, you can remember the verbs thank, want, clarify. But, of course, in the language they are an absolute minority: they are mostly verbs of speech (with rare exceptions, such as, for example, give up), and not every verb of speech is performative (for example, the verb speak- non-performative).

And although we solved this problem using the material of the Russian language, we discovered a phenomenon that is common to all languages ​​of the world: it is clear that there are performative verbs in any language.

So linguistic tasks are an excellent testing ground in order to get acquainted with linguistics and its methods. This year the Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics will be held for the 40th time. The only short break came in the mid-1980s, when the department of structural (now theoretical) and applied linguistics of the philological faculty of Moscow State University, which was organizing the Olympiad, was closed. In 1988, the Olympiad was held by the Moscow State Institute of History and Archives (now the Russian State Humanitarian University), and since 1989, the recreated Department of Structural and Applied Linguistics of Moscow State University has joined in its holding.

For the last 14 years, the Olympiad has been held simultaneously in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And in 2003 there was also International Olympiad in linguistics. The 7th International Olympiad, which took place in August 2009, was attended by representatives of 17 countries, which, in turn, also organize their own Olympiads in linguistics.

(Philological Faculty of Moscow State University).
5) Olympiad page on the RSUH website.
6) About the history of the Olympiad.
7) On linguistic tasks.
8) Linguistics for schoolchildren.

Alexander Pipersky


The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State Humanitarian University holds various linguistic competitions and olympiads. These competitions differ in the level of difficulty of tasks and the number of participants.

Most mass competition(in 2012, almost 3 million schoolchildren took part in it) - All-Russian competition "Russian Bear Cub - Linguistics for All". The central organizing committee of this competition is located in Kirov, and the Institute of Linguistics provides scientific and methodological guidance to the competition and prepares the tasks of the competition.

The next largest is the Linguistic Competition of the Tournament. M.V. Lomonosov, held in Moscow and more than a hundred other cities. Approximately 50,000 schoolchildren participate in it every year.

For schoolchildren who feel inclined to engage in linguistics, the Moscow Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics is held (at the same time, the Olympiad is held in St. Petersburg and some other cities, as well as online, according to the same program). In Moscow, about five hundred schoolchildren take part in the Olympiad every year.

Finally, . It gathers about a hundred schoolchildren from different countries. Moscow is usually represented by a team of 4 people selected based on the results of the Moscow Olympiad.

All-Russian competition "Russian bear cub - linguistics for everyone"

The contest "Russian Bear Cub - Linguistics for Everyone" is the younger brother of the popular international mathematical competition "Kangaroo - Mathematics for Everyone". The first Bear Cub was held in 2000 on the initiative of the Kirov Center additional education gifted schoolchildren with the support of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State Humanitarian University and the Russian Organizing Committee "Kangaroo".

Interest in the game grew explosively: if 64,000 schoolchildren participated in Bear Cub 2000, then a year later more than 259,000 schoolchildren from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia played in Bear Cub, and in 2012 - already almost 3 million schoolchildren out of 20 countries!

The mass character of "Bear Cub" has two reasons. First, it's available. The game is held directly in schools, takes only about an hour and a half, and everyone can participate in it; you do not need to write down the solutions - just choose one of the five proposed answers and mark its number on a special form; among the 30 tasks there are both difficult and very easy ones, so that almost every participant manages to correctly complete at least a few of them. Secondly, the compilers try to select tasks that require not only (and not so much) knowledge of the rules, but also a general culture, logic and reflection, and sometimes a sense of humor. After all, the main goal of the game is to show the beauty of the Russian language, to overcome the idea of ​​it as a formal and boring subject.

Linguistic competition of the Tournament. M.V. Lomonosov

International Olympiad in Linguistics

Since 2003, the International Linguistics Olympiad has been held every summer. The idea of ​​such an international Olympiad belongs to the teachers of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The twelfth Olympics took place in 2014 in Beijing, China.

Unlike all the Olympiads already mentioned, everyone who wants to can participate in the POL. To participate in the international Olympiad, a team of four people is selected - the winners of the Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics. From Russia, according to the already established tradition, two teams participate in the international Olympiad - the winners of the Olympics in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities.

Every year the number of participating countries is growing. If representatives of only 6 states took part in the first Olympiad in the Bulgarian Borovets, then during the twelfth Olympiad in Beijing, 39 teams from 28 countries competed with each other!

by the most mass competition is a competition-game "Russian bear cub -Linguistics for All”, it is held every year in November on the same day throughout Russia (and now also in 20 other countries) for schoolchildren in grades 2-11. Participants are offered sets of 30 test problems with five possible answers. The problems are quite small, but not all of them are easy to solve: the first 10 are really simple (they are 3 points), the next 10 are more difficult and are estimated at 4 points, well, and the last 10 five-point problems have a real Olympiad complexity, they can only be solved by the most prepared and smart. Mostly problems in Russian, but in each version, as a rule, there are one or two logical problems in other languages ​​that do not require knowledge of these languages ​​to solve.

The next largest is the linguistic competition of the Tournament. M. V. Lomonosov, which is held in Moscow, and in recent years in more than 30 cities at the end of September— early October for schoolchildren in grades 8-11 (but often seventh graders and sixth graders also come). The tasks for this competition are not made up of test ones, as for the "Bear cub", but of a completely different type.— so-called self-sufficient tasks. At the Tournament, the tasks are not very difficult, since the goal of the competition is— to involve schoolchildren in linguistics, to show them what linguistic tasks are. Those schoolchildren who liked to solve such problems then come to linguistic circles and to the Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics, which is held a month and a half after the Tournament. The organizers are considering the linguistic competition of the Tournamentthem. M.V. Lomonosov as a preliminary, zero round of the Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics.

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