Hamburg account. The meaning of the phraseological unit Hamburg count in various fields

"The Hamburg Account" is the name of a collection of literary critical articles by Viktor Shklovsky published in 1928. In the brief programmatic article that opens the collection, the author himself explains the meaning of the book's title: " Hamburg score - extremely important concept. All wrestlers, when they fight, cheat and lie down on their shoulder blades on the orders of the entrepreneur. Once a year, wrestlers gather in a Hamburg tavern. They fight behind closed doors and curtained windows. Long, ugly and hard. Here the true classes of fighters are established - so as not to be wasted". According to A.P. Chudakov, commentator modern edition books, real basis this plot became for Shklovsky oral history circus wrestler Ivan Poddubny. However, it is much more likely that the author of the expression “Hamburg score” belongs to Shklovsky himself. Immediately became a catchphrase, especially fashionable in literary environment, expression " Hamburg account " serves as the equivalent of an impartial assessment of something without discounts or concessions, with extreme demands. It is possible that the no less popular phraseological unit " by and large", which has the same meaning, is nothing more than a transformation of Shklovsky's idea. For the first time in literature, the phrase "by by and large" is found in the novel "Fulfillment of Desires" (1935), created by Veniamin Kaverin, a writer close to Shklovsky's circle. And today the expression " By Hamburg account " is a contamination of two phraseological units invented by writers.

Critic Irina Rodnyanskaya in the article “Hamburg hedgehog in the fog” ( New world.- 2001.- No. 3), dedicated to the problems of literary strategies today, notes: “Shklovsky could have been pleased - almost like Dostoevsky, who was proud of enriching the Russian language with the verb “to shy away.” The expression “Hamburg account” separated from the parable he told in the 20s and went around the world in an undoubted and generally understood meaning. so long ago, even the most colorful Duma deputy publicly threatened to judge someone “on the big Hamburg score." They laughed at the deputy in unison. But in vain. It is useful to listen to people's understandings. Our character innocently contaminated the "Hamburg score" and the "big score", believing that It’s lying somewhere nearby, and he’s not the only one who’s imagined it for a long time.

"Hamburg account"(has become commonly understood) is a large aesthetic account in literature and art. Identification of the first, second, and last places on the scale of the genuine, the present. "Big" - because it opposes the "small" accounts conducted by officialdom, groups, parties in the interests of their situational needs. "Big" - because it appeals to the "big time", in whose epochal contours the fog will dissipate, burst bubble and everything will fall into place. A connoisseur who attracts the “Hamburg score” acts as a guesser, an oracle, listening to the noise of great time, comparing signals from there with his aesthetic instrument.”

The legend told by the writer was not confirmed. Historians of Hamburg and modern restaurant owners know nothing about the wrestling competitions that allegedly took place in the old days in a Hamburg tavern. K.V. Dushenko believes that the “Hamburg account” is Shklovsky’s own expression. Doubts are added by the fact that I. M. Poddubny, whose age was significant for the plot of his story, was only 53 years old in 1924, and he actually fought until he was 70.

Viktor Shklovsky’s definition of a place “near the carpet” for Mikhail Bulgakov was perceived by the latter as offensive, hinting at the clown who entertained the audience at the circus at the carpet. This complicated the relationship between the two writers. However, not everyone saw the hint of a clown. Thus, in a letter to literary critic Stanislav Rassadin, Viktor Konetsky expressed a different understanding of Shklovsky’s ranking of writers:

Once again I came across V.B. Shklovsky’s reproach to Bulgakov: “at the carpet” (that is, he is taken out of the game!). This is a kind of mass psychosis, because the expression means a high compliment and a prediction of the “Hamburg struggle” and victory in it. This was written “near the carpet” in 1924. The book was published in 1928. It seems to me that the expression should be understood:
1. Bulgakov has already arrived in Hamburg. But Serafimovich or Veresaev can’t even get close to there.
2. Bulgakov is already STANDING at the mat, because he has been admitted to the competition aerobatics(this is in 1924!).
3. Khlebnikov has already left the carpet, because he has already won.

4. Babel has already taken part in the fight, but, according to V.B.Sh., he is a lightweight. Gorky is often out of shape, that is, they can simply strangle him on the carpet - he is already old.

Shklovsky later admitted his prologue was incorrect.

Spreading

Thanks to the book of the same name by Viktor Shklovsky, the expression “Hamburg account”, which became widespread in the Russian language, became popular and popular not only among writers, but also much wider. In particular, psychologists use it to identify the real, and not the official, place of an individual in the status hierarchy.

...First of all, the “Hamburg account” is relevant when a practicing social psychologist works with small groups, determining their current state and development trajectory, identifying the causes of low functionality of both obvious and potential conflicts...

Harry Walter, Dr. philological sciences, professor at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald.

Outside the Russian language, this expression causes difficulties in translation due to the absence of the concept in other languages ​​and the polysemy of the Russian word " check" Douglas Robinson (English) Russian offers three options: English. The Hamburg Score, The Hamburg Rankings, The Hamburg Account for the title of Shklovsky's work, noting that English. score, rankings better describe the allusion to wrestling competitions, but Richard Sheldon (eng. Richard Sheldon) used English when translating. account.

There is an assumption that, due to association with the “Hamburg account” of Viktor Shklovsky, the expression “by and large”, which later appeared in the novel “Fulfillment of Desires” by Veniamin Kaverin, became popular.

Notes

  1. Hamburg account (undefined) (National Encyclopedia of Psychology). vocabulary.ru. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  2. Shklovsky V. Hamburg account and by and large // Issue. culture of speech / Academician. Sciences of the USSR. Institute of Rus. language Ch. ed. S. I. Ozhegov. - M.: Nauka, 1965. - Issue. 6. - pp. 129-131. - 241 p. - 8500 copies.
  3. Shklovsky V. Hamburg account. - L.: Publishing house of writers in Leningrad, 1928. - P. 5. - 247 p. - 4000 copies.
  4. Myagkov B. S. Bulgakovskaya Moscow. - M.: Mosk. worker, 1993. - pp. 120-126. - 222 s. - ISBN 5-239-01439-6.
  5. Griboyedov's House // Bulgakov Encyclopedia/ B.V. Sokolov. - M.: Lokid: Myth, 1996. - P. 191-198. - 592 s. - ISBN 5-320-00143-6. - ISBN 5-87214-028-3.
  6. According to the Hamburg account // encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions / [author-comp. Vadim Serov]. - M.: Lockid Press, 2004. - 877, p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-320-00323-4.
  7. Dushenko K. V. Dictionary of modern quotes: 4300 current quotes and expressions of the 20th century, their sources, authors, dating. - M.: Agraf, 1997. - P. 406. - 628, p. - ISBN 5-7784-0031-4.
  8. Poddubny Ivan Maksimovich / V. I. Linder // Peru - Semi-trailer. - M.: Bolshaya Russian encyclopedia, 2014. - pp. 541-542. - (Big Russian Encyclopedia: [in 35 volumes] / chief ed. Yu. S. Osipov; 2004-2017, vol. 26). - ISBN 978-5-85270-363-7.
  9. Belozerskaya-Bulgakova L. E. Oh, the honey of memories. - Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ardis, 1979. - P. 45. - 134 p. - ISBN 0-88233-318-6.
  10. Konetsky V.V. Echo: (Around and around letters from readers). - 2nd ed., rev. and additional - St. Petersburg. : Blitz, 2001. - pp. 324-325. - 453, p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-86789-142-9.
  11. Putin hat da noch eine Hamburger Rechnung offen(German). Die Welt (24.10.2014). Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  12. Walter Harry. About two “German” eponyms in the Russian language (Hamburg account; Whoever is late is punished by history) (undefined) . Problems of history, philology, culture (2011). Retrieved September 12, 2017.

The concept " Hamburg account", which has become widespread in the Russian language, means identifying the real, and not the official, place of an individual in the status hierarchy. The expression "pay the Hamburg bill" means "pay fairly."

The Hamburg Account" is the title of a collection of literary critical articles by Viktor Shklovsky, published in 1928. In the brief programmatic article that opens the collection, the author himself explains the meaning of the book's title: "The Hamburg Account is an extremely important concept. All wrestlers, when they fight, cheat and lie down on their shoulder blades on the orders of the entrepreneur. Once a year, wrestlers gather in a Hamburg tavern. They fight behind closed doors and curtained windows. Long, ugly and hard. Here the true classes of wrestlers are established, so as not to be wasted." According to A.P. Chudakov, a commentator on the modern edition of the book, the real basis for this plot was for Shklovsky the oral story of the circus wrestler Ivan Poddubny. However, it is much more likely that the authorship of the expression "Hamburg score "belongs to Shklovsky himself. Immediately becoming a catchphrase, especially fashionable in the literary community, the expression "Hamburg account" serves as the equivalent of an impartial assessment of something without discounts or concessions, with the utmost demands. It is possible that the no less popular phraseological unit "by and large" having the same meaning, is nothing more than a transformation of Shklovsky’s idea. For the first time in literature, the phrase “by and large” is found in the novel “Fulfillment of Desires” (1935), created by Veniamin Kaverin, a writer close to Shklovsky’s circle. And today everything More often in our speech we hear the expression “according to the Hamburg account” - a contamination of two phraseological units invented by writers.
Critic Irina Rodnyanskaya, in her article “The Hamburg Hedgehog in the Fog” (New World. - 2001. - No. 3), dedicated to the problems of literary strategies of today, notes: “Shklovsky could be pleased - almost like Dostoevsky, who was proud of enriching the Russian language with the verb “to be embarrassed” ". The expression "Hamburg score" separated from the parable he told in the 20s and went around the world in an undoubted and generally understood meaning. Not so long ago, even the most colorful Duma deputy publicly threatened to judge someone "on the big Hamburg score." Over the deputy We laughed together. But in vain. It is useful to listen to popular understandings. Our character innocently contaminated the “Hamburg account” and the “big account”, believing that it lay somewhere nearby. Yes, he is not the only one who has imagined this for a long time.

The “Hamburg account” (it has become commonly understood) is a great aesthetic account in literature and art. Identification of the first, second and last places on the scale of the genuine, the present. “Big” - because it opposes “small” accounts maintained by officialdom, groups, parties in the interests of their situational needs. “Big” - because it appeals to the “big time”, in whose epochal contours the fog will clear, soap bubbles will burst and everything will fall into place. A connoisseur who attracts the “Hamburg score” acts as a guesser, an oracle, listening to the noise of great time, comparing signals from there with his aesthetic instrument.”

The expression “Hamburg score” meant the intention of Russian circus wrestlers late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century to identify the truly powerful among oneself. Usually in the circus arena the winner of the fight was determined in advance - by agreement. But once a year, wrestlers, supposedly meeting far from the public and employers in a Hamburg tavern, found out in a fair fight which of them was actually stronger than the others.

The Hamburg count is an extremely important concept.
All wrestlers, when they fight, cheat and lie down on their shoulder blades on the orders of the entrepreneur.
Once a year, wrestlers gather in a Hamburg tavern.
They fight behind closed doors and curtained windows.
Long, ugly and hard.
Here the true classes of fighters are established, so as not to get shortchanged.
The Hamburg count is essential in literature.
According to the Hamburg account, there are no Serafimovich and Veresaev.
They don't make it to the city.
In Hamburg - Bulgakov at the carpet.
Babel is a lightweight.
Gorky is doubtful (often out of shape).

Khlebnikov was a champion.

Victor Shklovsky. Hamburg account. L. 1928

Viktor Shklovsky’s definition of a place “near the carpet” for Mikhail Bulgakov was offensive because of the allusion to the clown who entertained the audience at the circus at the carpet. This caused complications in the relationship between the two writers. It is known that Shklovsky later changed his mind.

There is an assumption that, due to association with the “Hamburg account”, Viktor Shklovsky became catchphrase“by and large”, which appeared later in Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “The Fulfillment of Desires”.

Spreading

The legend of Ivan Poddubny has not found documentary evidence; historians of Hamburg and modern restaurant owners know nothing about the wrestling competitions that took place in the Hamburg tavern on turn of the 19th century and XX centuries. Nevertheless, thanks to the book of the same name by Viktor Shklovsky, the expression “Hamburg account”, which became widespread in the Russian language, became popular and popular not only among writers, but also much wider.

Psychologists use it, in particular, to identify the real, and not the official, place of an individual in the status hierarchy.

...First of all, the “Hamburg account” is relevant when a practicing social psychologist works with small groups, determining their current state and development trajectory, identifying the causes of low functionality of both obvious and potential conflicts...

Outside the Russian language, this expression causes difficulties in translation due to the absence of the concept in other languages ​​and the polysemy of the Russian word " check" Douglas Robinson (English)Russian offers three options: English. The Hamburg Score/Rankings/Account for the title of Shklovsky's work, noting that English. score, rankings better describe the allusion to wrestling competitions, but Richard Sheldon used English when translating. account .

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Notes

Literature

  • Walter Harry.// Problems of history, philology, culture. - 2011. - No. 3. - pp. 199-204.
  • Jutta Limbach. Ausgewanderte Wörter. Eine Auswahl der interessantesten Beiträge zur internationalen Ausschreibung “Ausgewanderte Wörter”. In: Deutscher Sprachrat, Goethe-Institut (Hrsg.): Wörter wandern um die Welt. Hueber, Ismaning 2006 (3. Auflage 2008), ISBN 978-3-19-107891-1

Links

  • Victor Shklovsky. Hamburg account. - Leningrad: Publishing House of Writers in Leningrad, 1928. - 247 p. - 4000 copies.
  • Victor Shklovsky. Hamburg Account: Articles, Memoirs, Essays (1914 - 1933). - Moscow: Soviet writer, 1990. - 129 p.
  • Social Psychology. Dictionary / Under. ed. M. Yu. Kondratieva // Psychological Lexicon. Encyclopedic Dictionary in six volumes / Ed.-comp. L. A. Karpenko. Under general ed. A. V. Petrovsky. - M.: PER SE, 2006. - 176 p.

An excerpt characterizing the Hamburg account

The first shots had not yet sounded when others were heard, again and again, merging and interrupting one another.
Napoleon rode up with his retinue to the Shevardinsky redoubt and dismounted from his horse. The game has begun.

Returning from Prince Andrei to Gorki, Pierre, having ordered the horseman to prepare the horses and wake him up early in the morning, immediately fell asleep behind the partition, in the corner that Boris had given him.
When Pierre fully woke up the next morning, there was no one in the hut. Glass rattled in the small windows. The bereitor stood pushing him aside.
“Your Excellency, your Excellency, your Excellency...” the bereitor said stubbornly, without looking at Pierre and, apparently, having lost hope of waking him up, swinging him by the shoulder.
- What? Began? Is it time? - Pierre spoke, waking up.
“If you please hear the firing,” said the bereitor, a retired soldier, “all the gentlemen have already left, the most illustrious ones themselves have passed a long time ago.”
Pierre quickly got dressed and ran out onto the porch. It was clear, fresh, dewy and cheerful outside. The sun, having just broken out from behind the cloud that was obscuring it, splashed half-broken rays through the roofs of the opposite street, onto the dew-covered dust of the road, onto the walls of the houses, onto the windows of the fence and onto Pierre’s horses standing at the hut. The roar of the guns could be heard more clearly in the yard. An adjutant with a Cossack trotted down the street.
- It's time, Count, it's time! - shouted the adjutant.
Having ordered his horse to be led, Pierre walked down the street to the mound from which he had looked at the battlefield yesterday. On this mound there was a crowd of military men, and the French conversation of the staff could be heard, and the gray head of Kutuzov could be seen with his white cap with a red band and the gray back of his head, sunk into his shoulders. Kutuzov looked through the pipe ahead along the main road.
Entering the entrance steps to the mound, Pierre looked ahead of him and froze in admiration at the beauty of the spectacle. It was the same panorama that he had admired yesterday from this mound; but now this entire area was covered with troops and the smoke of gunfire, and the slanting rays of the bright sun, rising from behind, to the left of Pierre, threw upon it in the clear morning air a piercing light with a golden and pink tint and dark, long shadows. The distant forests that completed the panorama, as if carved from some precious yellow-green stone, were visible with their curved line of peaks on the horizon, and between them, behind Valuev, cut through the great Smolensk road, all covered with troops. Golden fields and copses glittered closer. Troops were visible everywhere - in front, right and left. It was all lively, majestic and unexpected; but what struck Pierre most of all was the view of the battlefield itself, Borodino and the ravine above Kolocheya on both sides of it.
Above Kolocha, in Borodino and on both sides of it, especially to the left, where in the marshy banks Voina flows into Kolocha, there was that fog that melts, blurs and shines through when the bright sun comes out and magically colors and outlines everything visible through it. This fog was joined by the smoke of shots, and through this fog and smoke the lightning of the morning light flashed everywhere - now on the water, now on the dew, now on the bayonets of the troops crowded along the banks and in Borodino. Through this fog one could see a white church, here and there the roofs of Borodin's huts, here and there solid masses of soldiers, here and there green boxes and cannons. And it all moved, or seemed to move, because fog and smoke stretched throughout this entire space. Both in this area of ​​the lowlands near Borodino, covered with fog, and outside it, above and especially to the left along the entire line, through forests, across fields, in the lowlands, on the tops of elevations, cannons, sometimes solitary, constantly appeared by themselves, out of nothing, sometimes in droves, sometimes sparse, sometimes frequent clubs smoke, which, swelling, growing, swirling, merging, could be seen throughout this space.
These smokes of gunfire and, strange to say, the sounds they made main beauty spectacles.
Puff! - suddenly a round, dense smoke was visible, playing with purple, gray and milky white colors, and boom! – the sound of this smoke was heard a second later.
“Poof poof” - two smokes rose, pushing and merging; and “boom boom” - the sounds confirmed what the eye saw.
Pierre looked back at the first smoke, which he left as a round dense ball, and already in its place there were balls of smoke stretching to the side, and poof... (with a stop) poof poof - three more, four more were born, and for each, with the same arrangements, boom... boom boom boom - beautiful, firm, true sounds answered. It seemed that these smokes were running, that they were standing, and forests, fields and shiny bayonets were running past them. On the left side, across the fields and bushes, these large smokes were constantly appearing with their solemn echoes, and closer still, in the valleys and forests, small gun smokes flared up, not having time to round off, and in the same way gave their little echoes. Tah ta ta tah - the guns crackled, although often, but incorrectly and poorly in comparison with gun shots.
Pierre wanted to be where these smokes were, these shiny bayonets and cannons, this movement, these sounds. He looked back at Kutuzov and his retinue to compare his impressions with others. Everyone was exactly like him, and, as it seemed to him, they were looking forward to the battlefield with the same feeling. All faces now shone with that hidden warmth (chaleur latente) of feeling that Pierre had noticed yesterday and which he understood completely after his conversation with Prince Andrei.
“Go, my dear, go, Christ is with you,” said Kutuzov, without taking his eyes off the battlefield, to the general standing next to him.
Having heard the order, this general walked past Pierre, towards the exit from the mound.
- To the crossing! – the general said coldly and sternly in response to one of the staff asking where he was going. “Both I and I,” thought Pierre and followed the general in the direction.
The general mounted the horse that the Cossack handed to him. Pierre approached his rider, who was holding the horses. Having asked which was quieter, Pierre climbed onto the horse, grabbed the mane, pressed the heels of his outstretched legs to the horse’s belly and, feeling that his glasses were falling off and that he was unable to take his hands off the mane and reins, galloped after the general, exciting the smiles of the staff, from the mound looking at him.

The general, whom Pierre was galloping after, went down the mountain, turned sharply to the left, and Pierre, having lost sight of him, galloped into the ranks of the infantry soldiers walking ahead of him. He tried to get out of them, now to the right, now to the left; but everywhere there were soldiers, with equally preoccupied faces, busy with some invisible, but obviously important matter. Everyone looked at this fat man in a white hat with the same dissatisfied, questioning look, who for some unknown reason was trampling them with his horse.
- Why is he driving in the middle of the battalion! – one shouted at him. Another pushed his horse with the butt, and Pierre, clinging to the bow and barely holding the darting horse, jumped out in front of the soldier, where there was more space.
There was a bridge ahead of him, and other soldiers stood at the bridge, shooting. Pierre drove up to them. Without knowing it, Pierre drove to the bridge over Kolocha, which was between Gorki and Borodino and which the French attacked in the first action of the battle (having occupied Borodino). Pierre saw that there was a bridge in front of him and that on both sides of the bridge and in the meadow, in those rows of lying hay that he had noticed yesterday, soldiers were doing something in the smoke; but, despite the incessant shooting that took place in this place, he did not think that this was the battlefield. He did not hear the sounds of bullets screaming from all sides, or shells flying over him, he did not see the enemy who was on the other side of the river, and for a long time he did not see the dead and wounded, although many fell not far from him. With a smile never leaving his face, he looked around him.

Linguists classify the expression “Hamburg count”, or “according to Hamburg count”, as phraseological units whose meaning is not equal to the sum of the meanings of the words. In other words, knowing what a “Hamburg” is and what a “count” is will not shed any light on the meaning of this phrase.

Intuitive understanding of expression based on context

However, the expression “Hamburg account”, or “according to the Hamburg account”, is usually intuitive from the context and is often equated with the phraseological unit “by and large”. In general, this is true, but only an intuitive understanding of a phraseological unit usually does not make it possible to freely use it in one’s own speech, since the boundaries of the meaning are not entirely clear, and secondly, there is always doubt about whether it is understood correctly and what it has relation to the city of Hamburg.

Knowledge of what a “Hamburg count” is, as well as the history of the origin of the phraseological unit, will help you understand the nuances of meaning and the specifics of using this expression.

Viktor Shklovsky on the etymology of the expression “Hamburg score”

The origin of phraseological units is closely connected with the name of the famous literary scholar and critic Viktor Shklovsky. His book is called “The Hamburg Account”. The meaning of the phraseological unit becomes clear after getting acquainted with the parable told by Shklovsky and explaining the title of the book.

The parable says that professional sports wrestlers never fight honestly, their task is to perform as ordered. They must lose (lie down) when the entrepreneur tells them to. This scam is for making money. However, every year in one of the taverns in Hamburg, wrestlers gather for a fair fight. Their fight takes place without spectators, from whom both the fight itself and how long, unaesthetic and difficult it really is for the wrestlers are hidden. At this non-spectacular event, it becomes clear which of the wrestlers is stronger and which is weaker.

This is done in order to find out the real value of each wrestler, regardless of where he occupies in the open arena.

"Hamburg Account" in literature

It is this struggle, hidden from everyone, in which official titles and titles are not important, that Shklovsky calls the “Hamburg score.” important in relation to literature, or more precisely, to what place a particular writer occupies in the literary arena. What the phraseological unit “Hamburg account” means for Viktor Shklovsky becomes clear from the use of the expression “according to the Hamburg account” in the text of his short article. “According to the Hamburg account, Serafi-movich and Veresa-ev are not there. They don’t make it to the city,” the author writes and then continues his allegory, saying that in Hamburg, that is, at hidden competitions where the true strength of a wrestler is revealed, Bulgakov would have found himself at the mat, Isaac Babel would act as a lightweight wrestler, the strength of Maxim Gorky would be questionable, since this “athlete” is not always in shape, but Velimir Khlebnikov would be a champion.

One of the areas where the expression “Hamburg account” is used is economic. The etymology and meaning of the phraseological unit are such that it can be used in the sense that they are built on honest, open principles, when all parties to the contract are equal both formally and in essence.

"The Hamburg Account" in literary criticism

As can be seen from the retelling of Shklovsky’s short article, the Hamburg score is important in literature, as in sports. The meaning of phraseological units in context literary criticism is that in literature, as in wrestling, any figure can be evaluated according to two systems. For the first, the official “alignment” of forces is important, and for the second, the real one. In the first case, formal indicators of the success of the author and work are important in literature, and in the second, his real scale of talent is important.

Of course, in literature it is much more difficult to find out which writers “don’t make it to the city” and who is the champion than in sports. Ultimately, according to the Hamburg account, only time can evaluate a writer and a work, but what is meant is that when evaluating a literary phenomenon, it is important not to follow momentary criteria, but to look at it as if it existed outside of time.

"Hamburg Account" in various fields of culture and art

Since the time of Shklovsky (and his book was written in 1928), in many spheres of culture it has become familiar expression"Hamburg account". The meaning of phraseological units has expanded. Most often, an assessment “according to the Hamburg account” means an assessment cultural phenomenon or a cultural figure, regardless of any opinions, official recognition, awards, prizes awarded, popularity and fame.

Thus, a scientist, by coincidence of circumstances, may not have a high scientific title - not be an academician, not even a professor, but just an associate professor, not hold a position leadership positions, not to participate in official events, but “according to Hamburg standards,” that is, in reality, to be an interesting scientist, whose thoughts, works and achievements are really important for science.

This approach to evaluation is possible not only in relation to a person, but also, for example, to a book. One book can be published by a major publishing house with a circulation of ten thousand copies, widely known among readers, have a lot of fans, and a TV series can be made based on it, but according to the Hamburg account, this is just a commercial project or a temporary, momentary phenomenon. Another book may be published in a small provincial publishing house with a circulation of five hundred copies and known only to a small circle of readers, receiving negative reviews from critics, but by Hamburg standards it may turn out to be a truly talented work.

Allegorical meaning of the expression “Hamburg score”

However, these are not all possible meanings of the expression “Hamburg score”. The meaning of phraseological units in modern language even wider. It is used when they want to talk about the real, honest price of something, about true position of things. You can judge and evaluate according to the Hamburg score not only phenomena and cultural figures, but also your actions, relationships in the family, relationships between people, events in the country, etc. - in a word, everything that can have a formal, official side and an actual, true.

Examples of the use of the expression “Hamburg bill”

The specificity of a phraseological unit is such that even with a clear understanding of its meaning, its use can cause problems, since examples of grammatical “fitting” of an expression into a phrase are required. There really aren’t many grammatical and syntactic options:

  • Pelevin is a strong satirist and a very successful commercial project, a successful writer, but, according to the Hamburg account, then this is emptiness, like all the phenomena of postmodernism.
  • He is very willing to talk in the most different topics, but in front of Ivan Ivanovich he becomes silent: he understands that, according to the Hamburg account, all his knowledge is superficial.
  • I trust this vet. He will never say too much or give advice if he does not understand the situation. He works according to the Hamburg account, his goal is not to pretend that he understands everything, but to save the animal and not harm it.
  • Of course, they won this match. But, according to the Hamburg account, they played poorly. They were just lucky. This was their day.

Appropriate and inappropriate contexts

A phraseological unit is one that, if its meaning is transparent, is used freely and promptly in its use. The same thing happens with the expression “Hamburg score”: the origin and meaning of the words are transparent. This means that you can safely experiment. However, in in this case you should beware of using the expression even in cases where it is well understood what a Hamburg account is.

The fact is that this expression itself is intended for conversation “according to the Hamburg account” and resists ordinary, everyday, unimportant topics and contexts. It will be inappropriate when talking about whether the birthday party went well, whether the cake was a success, or what level of service was in the cafe. In these situations, the expression “Hamburg score” is not redundant only if everyday events for some reason are important in someone’s life or are significant for the life of a city or country.