"Видом не видывал, слыхом не слыхивал..." Duplicate Verbal Constructions in Russian Speech
Russian duplicate constructions (DC) are being analyzed in the article as the problem of teaching Russian as a foreign language. These forms are difficult for foreigners - it is obvious from such examples as <i>*Мы ходуном ходили по городу, *Моя книга пропала пропадом, * Тихон боялся, что матушка поедом съест Катерину </i>. There is a tradition to consider DC as a linguistic relic, a splinter of Russian linguistic system, but when being together they create an impressive picture connected to various sides of our life. The article gives a classification of DC, a description of peculiarities of sentences with various semantic types of DС, analysis of the most typical mistakes being made by foreigners, defines features of modern usage of DC.