How does context determine when to use formal or informal Russian

Context determines the use of formal or informal Russian mainly based on social relationship, status, setting, and level of politeness expected between speakers. Formal Russian is used when addressing strangers, elders, superiors, or in official and professional settings to show respect and maintain social distance. Informal Russian is used among friends, close family members, and peers where familiarity and equality are assumed.

Key factors influencing the choice include:

• The form of address pronouns: formal “Вы” (Vy) vs. informal “ты” (ty).
• The social context, such as business, academic, or intimate settings.
• The age and hierarchical position of the interlocutors.
• The mood and type of speech act, like imperatives, which may differ in formality.
• The degree of politeness or respect required in communication.

Studies highlight that Russian uses specific possessive and verbal forms to mark formality/informality, and that this choice is also influenced by nuanced pragmatic factors like speaker-hearer orientation and politeness strategies. ^{1, 2, 3}

In summary, the context defines whether Russian speakers should use formal or informal language based on social distance, respect, and the nature of the interaction.

References

• Reflexives and politeness: possessive pronouns in Russian imperative sentences

• Learner Perception of Formal and Informal Pronouns in Russian.

• Formal and Informal Russian Invitation: Context and Politeness Strategies

• USE OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION ELEMENTS IN THE ORGANISATION OF STUDENTS’ INDEPENDENT WORK

• FORMAL AND SEMANTIC MODIFICATIONS OF RUSSIAN BORROWINGS AS MATERIAL FOR FORMING COMPLEX LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

• Conflict Resolution Strategies in Public Procurement: The Role of Informal Relations and Trust in Courts

• Русские места памяти в современном Харбине: имперские смыслы и советские символы

• Heritage speaker pragmatics

• The formal and the informal: exploring ‘Ukrainian’ education in Ukraine, scenes from Odessa

• Blacklisting in Russian Public Procurement: How it Doesn’t Work

• On pragmatic perception: do learners of Russian perceive the sociocultural weight of the address pronouns?

• Russian Official Reflection in Russian Language Winged Units

• ‘Official Tears’: Signs of Sociocultural Type ‘Official’ According to the National Corpus of the Russian Language

• Communicative Value of Stylistic Variants in Russian Punctuation: A Guide for English Speakers

• Russian English and what it is not

• The Use of English, Russian and Tatar Etiquette Words and Expressions in Speech Situations of Greeting and Farewell

• Peculiarities Of Language And Style Of Texts For Construction Workers

• The Algorithmic Inflection of Russian and Generation of Grammatically Correct Text

• Translation as a tool in linguistic analysis

• Russian definitional generic sentences

• MODERN ASPECTS OF STUDYING RUSSIAN TERMINOLOGY BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT THE PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT IN A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

• Machine Translation to Control Formality Features in the Target Language

• Actual problems of terminological system development of new state administration

• Modern Romanization of Russian Toponyms per UN Technical Reference: Phonological and Orthographic Analysis

• Politeness as a feature: so important and so rare.

• Forms of Address and their Meaning in Contrast in Polish and Russian Languages