Ebook: Russian Handbook of Spoken Usage

The intent of the handbook is to present a collection of detailed
information about the Russian language, especially the colloquial language. Most of
the information is not assembled elsewhere in English. Much of it is not available
in Russian sources in any form that is at all convenient for reference. The
principal focus of this work is on words and phrases that serve some grammatical
purpose rather than refer to a concept, the words and phrases that are components
of constructions rather than vocabulary items. They are important because they
often determine the tenor of the whole sentence, but are generally not given enough
attention because they are on the border between grammar and vocabulary. In other
words , their value is syntactic and modal. The book is not meant as a simple
compilation of idioms, but as a lexicon of constructions.