Breadth of mind, strong imagination, and active soul make up a genius (on the birth anniversary of Emiliya Agafonovna Balalykina)

L.R. Akhmerova^*, V.A. Kosova^**, E.S. Palekha ^***

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: ^*lavolkins15@mail.ru, ^**vera_kosova@mail.ru, ^***katerina.paleha@gmail.com

Received April 21, 2017

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Abstract

This paper marks the birth anniversary of Doctor of Philology, Honored Scholar of the Republic of Tatarstan Emiliya Agafonovna Balalykina (b. 1937). Her long research and teaching work is associated mainly with the Kazan University. However, E.A. Balalykina is also a very famous researcher far beyond the borders of Russia. Her studies on language history, modern Russian language, and comparative linguistics are distinguished for an innovative approach to the analyzed linguistic phenomena, as well as by the profundity and importance of the obtained results. Here, an attempt has been made to describe the life of an extraordinary person by offering an insight into the main periods and events of her life, to show the profundity of her research results in Russian (modern and historical) and comparative-historical word formation. At the Balto-Slavic background (with involvement of all Slavic languages and Lithuanian language, which is most valuable for such comparison), the key reasons for affinity of the languages at the level of word formation, which is often inconsistent with their genetic affinity, were identified, thereby suggesting that certain Slavic and Baltic languages can be divided into groups based on the similarity in the development of adjective formation types. The origin of certain adjectival morphemes was revealed, which is not in line with the traditional views on this problem. Furthermore, the idea of Professor V.M. Markov on the necessity to single out a new branch of Russian studies, grammatical lexicology, was further developed. To make this idea a reality, the grammatical contradictions in the modern Russian language and the “dead ends” in nominal declension and word formation associated with them were studied. In conclusion, a list of publications (papers, abstracts, and conference proceedings) of the recent 10 years covering the urgent problems of grammar and lexicology and candidate and doctoral dissertations defended under the guidance of E.A. Balalykina has been provided. The main areas of research of E.A. Balalykina and her followers have been discussed: Russian and comparative-historical word formation, semantic word formation, enantiosemy, grammatical lexicology. E.A. Balalykina has been characterized as a brilliant lecturer and speaker, good organizer, talented and loyal leader, skillful storyteller, wise mentor, and strong human with a kind heart.

Keywords: Emiliya Agafonovna Balalykina, Russian scholar, Kazan University, Kazan School of Linguistics, Balto-Slavic language relations, word formation, metamorphoses of Russian word

Figure Captions

Photo 1. E.A. Balalykina (on the left) near a model of the Kazan University during the May 1 demonstration, 1958.

Photo 2. E.A. Balalykina (wearing the white dress) with students of the Russian-Tatar Department of the History and Philology Faculty of the Kazan State University, summer dialectological practicum.

Photo 3. The department of Russian Language of the History and Philology Faculty of the Kazan State University, November 18, 1976. From left to right: in the first row – Rumiya Ainetdinovna Yunaleeva, Tat'yana Mikhailovna Nikolaeva, Zel'fa Mazitovna Al'mukhamedova, Galina Georgievna Polishchuk (a colleague from the Saratov State University), Irina Eduardovna Eselevich, Klara Fominichna Filippenko, Vladimir Borisovich Borodatov; in the second row – Lyaisen Ravilevna Abdulkhakova, Tat'yana Vasil'evna Savintseva, Nina Dmitrievna Orlova, Neonila Evgen'evna Markar'yan, Mariya Fominichna Moiseenko, Emiliya Agafonovna Balalykina, Al'mira Askhatovna Aminova, Nina Aleksandrovna Koposova, Dinara Sharifovna Shaikhaidarova; in the third row – Margarita Mikhailovna Petrova, Larisa Semenovna Kusyumova, Kamil' Rakhimovich Galiullin, Anisa Sharifzyanovna Akhmetzyanova, Galina Pavlovna Slesareva, Ravza Ekzamovna Kul'sharipova, Liliya Saf'yanovna Burganova.

Photo 4. E.A. Balalykina during the meeting of the Academic Council of the History and Philology Faculty of the Kazan University, 1978. Next to her (on the left) – Valerii Nikolaevich Konovalov (from the collection of the Nikolay Lobachevsky Scientific Library of the Kazan Federal University, Yu.I Frolov's photo archive).

Photo 5. E.A. Balalykina with students from Poland during the Russian language lesson, Kazan, July 1978 (from the collection of the Nikolay Lobachevsky Scientific Library of the Kazan Federal University, Yu.I Frolov's photo archive).

Photo 6. E.A. Balalykina with the audience of the Russian language short-term courses from Hungary, Kazan, 1982.

Photo 7. E. A. Balalykina speaking in front of the Polish audience during the Pushkin's Night, Warsaw, 1987. Next to her (on the right) – Albert Bartoshevich, Professor of the Warsaw University.

Photo 8. E.A. Balalykina (on the right) with colleagues at the Volgograd State University, 2003. Next to her – Sof'ya Petrovna Lopushanskaya, the Chairperson of the Dissertation Council D. 212.029.05; second row (from left to right) – Svetlana Sergeevna Vaulina, Tat'yana Mikhailovna Nikolaeva, Elena Mikhailovna Sheptukhina, Oksana Anatol'evna Gorban'.

References

1. The Great Patriotic War through the Eyes of a Child. Dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of the Day of Leningrad's Liberation: [N. Doroshkevich's Interview with E.A. Balalykina]. Available at: http://kpfu.ru/velikaya-otechestvennaya-vojna-glazami-rebenka-71554.html. (In Russian)
2. Telishev V.F. Living Memories: Recollections of War Children. Balalykina E.A. Voina obozhgla menya v samom rannem detstve [The War Bunt Me in Early Childhood]. Pt. 1. Kazan, Kazan. Fed. Univ., 2013, pp. 8–10. (In Russian)
3. Belalaykina E.A. Nominal formations with the suffix *-in- in the Slavic and Baltic languages. Extended Abstract of Cand. Philol. Sci., Kazan, 1966. 28 p. (In Russian)
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5. Balalykina E.A. Balto-Slavic Linguistic Relatioship. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 1973. 144 p. (In Russian)
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9. Balalykina E.A. The World of Language and Languages of the World: Selected Works on the Russian Language and Balto-Slavic Relations. Kazan, Yaz, 2012. 319 p. (In Russian)
10. Balalykina E.A. The Word-Formation Structure of Adjectives in Slavic and Baltic Languages (Nominal Formations with the Indo-European Formants -*no-, -*to-, -*mo-, -*lo-). Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 1980. 144 p. (In Russian)
11. Balalykina E.A., Nikolaev G.A. Russian Word Formation. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 1985. 184 p. (In Russian)
12. Bałałykina E., Bartoszewicz A., Nikołajew G. Słowotwórstwo rosyjskie dla polaków. Warszawa, Państ. wydaw. nauk., 1990. 191 s. (In Polish)
13. Balalykina E.A. Modern Russian Language. Morphology. Pt. 1: Nouns. Adverbs. Category of State. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 2006. 172 p. Pt. 2: Verb. Auxiliary Parts of Speech. Exclamations. Modal Words. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 2010. 179 p. Pt. 3: Workbook. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 2010. 179 p. (In Russian)
14. Balalykina E.A. Russian Adjective Word Formation on the Baltic-Slavic Background. Kazan, Izd. Kazan. Univ., 2007. 270 p. (In Russian)
15. Balalykina E.A. Metamorphoses of Russian Word. Moscow, Flinta, Nauka, 2012. 260 p. (In Russian)

For citation: Akhmerova L.R., Kosova V.A., Palekha E.S. Breadth of mind, strong imagination, and active soul make up a genius (on the birth anniversary of Emiliya Agafonovna Balalykina). Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 5, pp. 1061–1078. (In Russian)

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