большой полиглот

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

О, я большой полиглот и знаю очень большое количество языков.

It's a citation from "Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, Chapter 1. The words are said by Voland in responce to the question where he had learnt Russian. The utterance is grammatically correct but there are at least two inaccuracies in it, and it sounds rather bad.
The question: 1) what is wrong about this sentence, and 2) (more complicated) WHY is it uttered just this way? Thanks.

P.S. It's a most fascinating task from my past Russian C tutorial, and it seems interesting to offer it here.

Comments

[prosto-los.livejournal.com]

I'd say that "большой полиглот" sounds weird - just "полиглот" seems more natural, and "большое кол-во языков" is definitely wrong (just like "a large number of languages") - it should be "много языков" (as "many languages").

[oryx_and_crake]

"большое количество языков" is bad style (bureaucratese) but not exactly wrong. What is wrong with this sentence is a tautology : polyglot already means someone who knows a lot of languages, so if one says he is a polyglot then the second part of the sentence is completely redundant.

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

I think here it's not tautology but pleonasm, which is not always a grammatical or stylistic inaccuracy.

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

+1
you need the same root used twice or more for a tautology, here it's a case of pleonasm.

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

"большой полиглот" doesn´t sound well, you´re either a "полиглот" or not, you can hardly be a big one...

and I don´t like that the word ¨большой¨ is used twice.

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

sound GOOD (not WELL)
:-))

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

yeah, sure! *going red* THANX!

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

In order for it to sound normal it should be: "Я полиглот и знаю очень много языков."

Bulgakov used "большой полиглот" and "большое количество языков" to show Voland's fake "German" accent. As it will be clear later, Voland could speak without any accent at all.

BTW

[natha1ie.livejournal.com]

In German this person should be Woland (with W), 'cause single V sounds as "F".

Re: BTW

[ex-fractaliz864.livejournal.com]

Bulgakov meant that Voland's accent sounded like german, but it could be not german in reality.

Re: BTW

[ex-eugzol340.livejournal.com]

As I could remember, there was "W" in card he showed. But however I can't remebmer whether it was in the film or in the book =)

Re: BTW

[ex-blueskyfr438.livejournal.com]

It was in the book:
…поэт успел разглядеть на карточке напечатанное иностранными буквами слово “профессор” и начальную букву фамилии — двойное “В”.

Re: BTW

[ex-eugzol340.livejournal.com]

May be both then in the book and in the film =)

Re: BTW

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

In Arabic it's: فولاند
So? :)

Original German name for Satan is "Woland", to preserve it phonetically in Russian it was spelled "Воланд", so it should be "Voland" in English.

Working language of this community is English, not Russian nor German. :)

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

The conjecture about German accent is wrong: this is not the reason. Voland is speaking without the accent here.
большой полиглот: yes, большой is unnecessary here.
Thank you guys!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

He may be speaking without accent, but still purposefully mutilate the language...

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was partly the reason.

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

As long as we're picking apart language use, why did you thank everyone?

[sylviabarrett.livejournal.com]

It's not only большой that is unnecessary here. The second part of the sentence is also unnecessary. If you are полиглот that means that you know a lot of languages. So, the best varient, from the point of view of the Russian language is: Я полиглот. or Я знаю большое количество языков.

[schlagen.livejournal.com]

The idea is that people pick up on Woland's oddness through his language/accent. By constructing the sentence in a technically correct, but stylistically curious manner, it allows Bulgakov to distance the character from the rest, which is evidently important for the bigger questions in the story.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

To me, with these words, it's almost as if Voland is echoing the sentiments of Mephistopheles who says, "That bunch don't realise that they're in the presence of the devil, even when he has them by the collar."

"Yeah, I'm a great polyglot all right, and I know a great number of languages, too."

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

An intelligent remark. In fact, from this point you can perceive the irony of the situation.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Yes, Voland is amused by this bunch.

To quote Mephistopheles again, "She certainly senses that I am a genuis, perhaps even - the devil himself".

[lia910.livejournal.com]

Hmm... The edition of the book I have says "О, я вообще полиглот и знаю очень большое количество языков". So the sentence sounds quite ok. "Очень большое количество языков" is probably not nice but quite possible.
Marta, what is the right answer anyway (esp. to the second question)? What did your tutor say?

[arnold3.livejournal.com]

If you say "большой полиглот" it means that you don't know russian well,
but if Bulgakov says it, it means that his language is "богатый и образный".

[k48.livejournal.com]

I do not understand why everyone keeps saying that "bolshoy poliglot" is wrong. It's quite OK. You may say "он большой скряга", "он большой засранец", etc. Just emphatic meaning, nothing sounding wrong.

[arnold3.livejournal.com]

Maybe because he was "великий полиглот"?

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

Maybe because poly- already means 'many', so you needn't add 'big'.