In this section we focus not so much on the grammar of Russian, as on the language needed to talk about the grammar of Russian. The authors of this textbook have learnt from experience that students' ability to learn a language in an academic context in part depends on their level of understanding of the linguistic operations they are putting into action. We have assumed that all students taking up Russian in a University department have some prior knowledge of a Western European language. We therefore use examples and to ensure that what the students are learning about Russian can be contextualised in what they know about other languages. Students should be alerted to the fact that they are not expected to learn about languages they have not come across before. The reason so many languages have been included in this section is to attempt to ensure that all students will be able to root their investigations into how languages operate in a language that they have already studied. Ignore all reference to languages you are not familiar with.

The main areas discussed in this section are:

Morphology: the study of the smallest units of language which carry meaning (morphemes); the analysis and classification of these units of meaning and the effect of their combination within a single word.