Volume 24, Nº 3 (2024)
Articles
An attempt of a systematic approach to the typology of supportive communicative units
Resumo
In the article the author explains the necessity to work out a systematic approach to the description of communicative units of real life communication. The article presents an attempt to solve the problem of classifying the units belonging to the secondary communication level. Based on the previously suggested principles and methods of identifying communicative discourse units, the author provides definitions of primary and secondary (supportive) units. Also, the author defi nes typological structural, semantic and functional properties of supportive communicative units, analyzes typological properties of three supportive units: discourse markers, dialogue reaction markers and dialogue repetitions, and gives definitions of these units which correlate with the current state in modern linguistics. The functional and quantitative analysis of three spheres of communication (colloquial, media and spoken academic discourses) shows the balance of primary and secondary units in these spoken discourses. It is proved that all three spoken discourses demonstrate a specific level of the interaction of informative, regulative and organizational “vectors of communication” which can be regarded as a certain functional-pragmatic characteristic of the discourse. Spoken academic discourse demonstrates the highest proportion of supportive communicative units. Colloquial discourse uses mainly dialogue reaction markers and dialogue repetitions, media discourse – discourse markers and dialogue reaction markers, academic discourse – discourse markers. Taking into consideration the modern situation of studying supportive units the author singles out several problematic issues and outlines the prospects of their studying: namely, making up intentional-communicative dictionaries of Russian discourse, using theoretical and practical research results for the communication of a human being with artificial intelligence. In the conclusion the author emphasizes the role of supportive units as means of increasing communication efficiency and claims the importance of dealing with theoretical and methodological issues of supportive units’ usage within linguistic ecology.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):242-249
242-249
Specific features of interpretation focuses in media discourse: Cognitive approach
Resumo
The article examines the specific features of how the interpretation focuses are implemented in the description of a political event by news publications of different ideological bents from the perspective of the cognitive approach. This approach allows to identify factors and cognitive mechanisms aimed at processing information and its interpretation, taking into account the intentions of the author of the news publication. The purpose of the study is to determine the specific features of interpretation focuses in media discourse. The research has established the significance of the factor “friend or foe” and a number of cognitive mechanisms on the basis of which the author’s interpretation focuses are realized. The following cognitive mechanisms are identified: the mechanism of frame recurrence, gradation, repetition, opposition, perspectivization, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, conceptual metaphtonymy, conceptual comparison. As a specific feature of the implementation of the author’s interpretation focus, it is determined that the author of the liberal publication activates all the identified cognitive mechanisms, and the highest frequency of use is characteristic of the mechanisms of gradation and conceptual metaphor. In general, this author is characterized by a high intensity of negative tonality, which is realized by all identifi ed cognitive mechanisms. The author of a conservative publication does not activate the mechanism of conceptual comparison. It has also been established that the mechanisms of gradation, repetition, perspectivization, and conceptual metonymy are in demand for the implementation of various interpretation focuses. Along with this, cases of joint implementation of some cognitive mechanisms have also been identified. These facts indicate the dynamics of the author’s interpretive activity in media discourse. The prospect of the study lies in the possibility of using the obtained results as a cognitive basis for the formation of interpretation focuses in media discourse on the analysis of other political events, as well as on the material of other languages.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):250-256
250-256
Trends in the neologization of verbal vocabulary in the late 20th – early 21st centuries
Resumo
The article deals with the problem of language neologization on the example of suffixal verbal neologisms that appeared in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. The process of neologization occurs in a language with varying degrees of intensity in different language periods. In the late 20th – early 21st centuries, the language is replenished with a large number of neologisms due to extralinguistic factors – significant changes taking place in society. Dictionaries of neologisms were taken as research material: “Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language in the late 20th century: language changes”, a three-volume dictionary-reference book on press and literature materials of the 1990s of the 20th century “New words and meanings”, dictionary materials “New in the Russian vocabulary” 2015–2022, “Dictionary of the internet language.ru”. The process of forming new verbs in the period under review is quite active. Neological suffixal verbal vocabulary is represented by word-forming neologisms, which are based on the Russian-language stems, on borrowings already assimilated by the Russian language, as well as on words that came directly from the English language. At the turn of the millennium, the vocabulary was most often replenished by verbs of the functional-semantic field of activity and behavior. A characteristic feature of the Russian language in the late 20th – early 21st centuries is the formation of suffixal verbal neologisms from proper names: both Russian and foreign ones. In addition, the article shows that new suffixal formations enter word-production relations, thereby becoming a productive base for prefixed verbs of various modifications, as well as relations of homonymy and word-formation variation
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):257-263
257-263
Telescoping as a specific type of word formation in modern English (based on Internet resources)
Resumo
The article studies an unusual type of shortening known in English linguistics as telescope words. It is well known that Lewis Carroll was the first to introduce this new type of shortening and defined it using the term telescope words. It was one of his purposes to create a pun. Later this type of word formation proved to be highly productive in the English language. Some linguists suggest that this phenomenon is based on an incidental slip of the tongue and blending of one or two sounds of the full prototype’s clipped components in free speech. Other linguists believe that telescope words are simply blends, but it is not exactly so because the two groups are different from the point of view of their formation. Telescoping is a two-stage process which involves clipping of the final part of the fi rst component of a two-word group and the initial component of the second on the second stage. Unlike blending these parts of a new formation are joined by a morphemic seam. The empiric evidence suggests that telescope shortenings are widely used not only in fiction, but also in slang, advertising slogans and mass media. They are usually a part of the intended pun. It is worth mentioning that the Russian language borrows a lot of English words, many of which get assimilated on different levels and then enrich its vocabulary. Nowadays among English borrowings there appear some telescope words, which are used to nominate new objects and phenomena of reality. One of such examples is the widely used telescope word of the English origin – glamping. Telescoping as a special type of lexical shortening (clipping) was borrowed by the Russian language, resulting in the formation of some Russian telescope words, for example, банкомат (ATM), паркомат (parking meter) and some other words.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):264-270
264-270
Linguistic markers of extraversion/introversion of a personality in the translation text: Setting a problem
Resumo
The article studies linguistic markers of extraversion/introversion of the translator’s linguistic personality and identifies their influence on the production of a high-quality balanced translation text. The material for this study was the poetic text of V. S. Vysotskiy “The One Who Didn’t Shoot”, created in the 1970s. The article presents an analysis of the translations of this text into French and English, made by Russian and foreign translators. The concept of translation space by L. V. Kushnina was chosen as the research methodology, according to which the balanced translation is produced as a result of the synergetic interaction of heterogeneous meanings, which involves the increment of new meanings naturally perceived by the recipients of the receiving culture. This process occurs in the mind of the translator, who, according to his innate psychological characteristics, belongs to either an introverted or an extroverted psychological type. The research is relevant since this aspect of the analysis of the translator’s linguistic personality is understudied. The study is based on the idea that the written translation contains “traces” of a psychological type – linguistic markers. The purpose of the article is to identify and interpret linguistic markers that characterize an introverted and an extroverted translator. As a result of the study, it has been established that, in combination with other characteristics of the translator’s linguistic personality (national-cultural affiliation, gender, professional competencies, skill, knowledge of the source and host cultures, ability to empathize, etc.), the psychological type has a certain influence on both the process and the result of the translation. The study showed a general trend that requires verification using text corpus material.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):271-278
271-278
A character of modern drama in the aspect of communicative strategy of self-presentation (based on the oeuvre of Nikolay Kolyada)
Resumo
The article analyzes the unique manifestation of one of the communicative speech strategies – the strategy of self-presentation, which, “at the suggestion” of the author, is quite actively implemented in modern plays by their characters. The analysis is based on the work of Nikolay Kolyada (the play Wedge-Wagon from the dramatic diptych Two Plus Two). The fact that the characters in the plays are imbued with this kind of speech-behavioral lines is essentially determined by the parameters of drama as a literary genre, which significantly limit the “presence” of the author in the work, and somewhat narrow the possibilities for the manifestation of the characters in it (as compared to the character of prose, in particular). In a communicative-speech strategy implemented in the process of unfolding the dramatic action, at different stages of its implementation various communicative-speech tactics can be actualized, the choice of which (both at the conscious and subconscious levels) is determined primarily by the communicative goals of the addressee; however, it is unconditionally influenced by the type of the linguistic personality of the communicator, as well as his emotional and psychological state in a specific communication situation. In the process of communicative interaction, the communicator’s speech-behavioral line can transform (sometimes quite signifi cantly), and therefore at diff erent stages of communication certain tactics (set of tactics) are actualized. The list of communicative speech tactics currently identified can be supplemented and/or clarifi ed by means of considering the text of modern drama discourses from the perspective of communicative stylistics as well, which in this case seem to be very “valuable” research material.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):279-287
279-287
Semantics of the entomonym abelha / bee in Portuguese poetry
Resumo
The paper examines a complex of figurative meanings of the entomonym “abelha” (“bee”), manifested in the space of the Portuguese poetic text of the 19th–20th centuries. The purpose of the work is to trace the transformation of the image and its semantic increments. We used methods of contextual, stylistic, semantic analysis and linguistic and cultural commentary. The material includes poems by Almeida Garret, Guerra Junqueiro, Antonio Nobre, Fernando Pessoa, Sofi a de Mello, José Saramago, Fernando Echevarría, etc. The bee is one of the few insects that are evaluated mostly positively in the Portuguese language worldview. However, specific individual authors’ figurative associations diff er in their originality, significantly expanding and complementing the corresponding concept. So, a swarm of bees symbolizes both a sensibly organized collective work, and a gang of naughty schoolboys (G. Junqueiro). At the same time, a separate bee, along with diligence in work, is associated with a thirst for life and creativity (S. de Mello), the birth of rhymes swarming in the mind, boiling thoughts (J. Saramago) and the fervor of love (J. Saramago, A. Garret). The fl ight of a bee over blooming gardens is often likened in Portuguese poetry to the craving of a man for a woman, and the bees themselves become an allegory of sparkling glances (E. de Castro), also of lips and kisses – thanks to the association with honey. Sounds’ similes are important as well: they are guitar chords, fado melodies (A. Nobre). The vast variability of poetic interpretations of the bee’s image is cemented into a single whole by the idea of intensity: diligent collective work, ardent love, a passionate desire to live and create (thirst for life), a powerful creative upsurge, irrepressible frolic of children, deep and rich (thick) sounds of fado in silence, the inviting shine of bright eyes. The image of a bee, reinterpreted in Portuguese poems, is distinguished by a variety of associative foundations, originality and versatility. Having undergone significant transformations in poetic discourse, the updated semantic palette of this entomonym enriches the imagery of the Portuguese language.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):288-295
288-295
Features of the functioning of numerals in the substandard lexicon of the African American social and ethnic dialect
Resumo
Language, as an essential means of communication, is a constantly evolving system of sign units. It develops in accordance with established rules and laws, reflecting the living dynamics of society. Reflecting the character of the people, their thinking, culture, each language forms its own mechanism for expressing quantity. Addressing the problems of studying the number structure within a separate social and communicative system in close connection with the surrounding reality is relevant today. The purpose of this work is to study the specifics of the use of numerals in the vocabulary of the African American population of the United States. The research material was substandard lexical units with the numeral name component, obtained from English-language text sources: explanatory dictionaries of the American version of English, general American and African American slang, texts of musical compositions, Internet resources. The works of E. I. Putyatina, Yu. V. Bopp on the consideration of numerals, J. Dillard, J. Smitherman on the study of the African American Social and Ethnic Dialect formed the theoretical and methodological basis of this work. The methods of empirical observation and continuous sampling, statistical and contextual analysis are used in the work to identify functional, historical, socio-cultural aspects of the use of numerals in the colloquial speech of African Americans. The analysis of the expression of the potential of numerals shows the prominence of the manifestation of informational, influencing and conspiratorial functions. The results suggest that, thanks to metaphorical transference, numerals can be used to express evaluative values, expanding their function in the language.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):296-301
296-301
Semantic range of the concept “reader” in contemporary Russian culture
Resumo
Negative transformations associated with the culture of reading in the 21st century are generally recognized. First of all, and not without reason, the reader of fi ction comes into the fi eld of vision of philologists and teachers. The goal of the article is to analyze the modern range of meanings of the concept “reader” against the backdrop of the established reader’s image in the collective (proverbial) folk memory. The author is interested in the problem of institutionalization of the Russian reader. The question to what extent the dynamic typology of the Russian reader of the fi rst third of the 19th century, proposed by V. G. Belinsky in his series of articles “The Works of Alexander Pushkin”, reveals the universality of its foundations and can help in understanding the processes occurring with the reader and the reading of fi ction at present, deserves close attention. In the history of the reader’s perception of the art of the word, there is a moving balance and conflict of stubbornly inertial and assertively proactive principles. Respected followers of established, habitual aesthetic values and supporters of new forms and new content in verbal art have become unfailing participants of social and artistic life. They are most often obediently heeded by the overwhelming majority of traditionalists and fashion followers. Nowadays, readers of different ages and different aesthetic backgrounds are actively exploring the network space with its huge hypertext and interactive capabilities. The semantic range of the concept “reader” is enriched with new meanings: a reader of fi ction – a regular user of the Internet; an active reader longing for critical and analytical self-realization; a reader trying to entrust his or her immediate impressions of what he or she has read to the public space; a reader who has taken up writing his or her own poetic and prose texts and is patiently awaiting responses to them. Runet, in its own way, brings back to life the collective notions of the “reading public” and “mass reader”, familiar for the past epochs.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):302-308
302-308
The English photoekphrastic detective novel of the second half of the 20th century (A. Christie, T. Findlеy): Tradition and innovation
Resumo
The article examines the development of such a genre variety as the photoeкphrastic detective, embracing the period of the 1950s to the 1980s of the 20th century. The paper reveals the genre-forming potential of photographic eкphrasis, presented in the texts in the form of photograph descriptions found in classical detective literature (analyzed on the bases of A. Christie’s novel Mrs McGinty’s Dead, 1952) and its postmodernist version – in T. Findlay’s novel The Telling of Lies: A Mystery, 1986. Photography in the novels by A. Christie and T. Findlay helps the detectives (H. Poirot and Vanessa Van Horn, respectively) in the process of investigating a crime, but the degree of its being solved remains different. This is explained by the writer’s understanding of photography as an artifact, primarily determined by the general cultural situation. In the fi rst instance, a photograph acts as a document characterized by the unambiguous force of evidence, it allows to fi nd and punish the perpetrator; in the second one, the photograph acts as a visual artifact that challenges the photo-detective: its interpretation being ambiguous and directly connected with the narrative of the Other. The investigation in the novel The Telling of Lies is accompanied by Vanessa’s traumatic memories of her past during the Second World War, refl ected in her diary, which actualizes the confessional discourse. The interweaving of various kinds of stories in the novel – detective and personal – contributes to the actualization of major social, historical and philosophical issues. Thus, as a result of the conducted research, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that the postmodern photo-ekphrastic detective is engaged in a dialogue with the classical detective tradition and at the same time promptly reacts to the changing social, historical, political conditions, which cannot but infl uence the transformation of its genre structure.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):309-318
309-318
A North-American small town as a topos of Robertson Davis’s and Stephen King’s novels (Fifth Business and Revival)
Resumo
Stephen King’s novel Revival (2014) takes after Robertson Davies’s novel Fifth Business (1975), the first book of the Deptford trilogy, although the name of the Canadian writer is significantly missing from the list of King’s acknowledgements. The paper is focused on the comparative analysis of the two novels, the starting point being the category of “fi fth business” borrowed by S. King from R. Davis. A comparative analysis of the topos of a small town in the texts of both authors is undertaken to show that for both Davis and King the category of the “fi fth business” acquires a structure-generating function: the foregrounding of a walk-on, a “little man” as a semantic center correlates with the main topos of both novels. It is concluded that such sociological features of small-town life as cohesion of the community life, empathy towards neighbors, relative eventlessness and scarcity of social dynamics (according to R. Wuthnow) influence the plotline, temporal structure, narrative strategies and character interactions. Besides, the topos of a small town induces specific modes of psychological analysis: Stephen King explores town folk’s behavior in critical situations, while Robertson Davies traces the process of individuation of his personages. Small-town life as the central theme also leads to a remarkable synthesis of religious pursuits and the intermediary quality as the environment in which they are actualized
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):319-324
319-324
About the historical and cultural significance of Sibylle Lewitscharoff ’s work
Resumo
The presented article determines the place of the works of Sibylle Lewitscharoff , the winner of the 2013 Büchner Prize, in the modern German literature. Her literary fame is associated with important and controversial theses on the ways of European social and cultural development. Thus, in the book 36 Righteous People (1994), S. Lewitscharoff transformed the Hebrew legend about special people to whom humanity owes its existence, and gave her own interpretation of it in relation to the history of Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. Her novel Pong (1998) became a satirical projection on a progressive lifestyle. S. Lewitscharoff metaphorically showed the loss of the meanings of existence experienced by her contemporaries. The writer’s cultural skepticism was fully refl ected in the novel Consummatus (2006). The ancient context of refl ections is connected in the work with references to the national history of the twentieth and twenty-fi rst centuries. Thanks to this, the writer managed to expand the extensive metaphor of spiritual uncertainty, the cultural precariousness of modern existence. The playful nature of many of Lewitscharoff ’s texts does not hide the distinct separation of dark and light, divine and diabolical principles of life in them. At the same time, the writer is aware that the Christian doctrine in modern life is most often perceived as a formality, as a set of rituals and myths. Similarly, her public theses on the importance of the spiritual component of human existence often provoke sharp criticism from neoliberal publicists. In this regard, the fact that S.Levitscharoff was awarded the Buchner Prize is a landmark event that shows the importance of the presence of an author with an unambiguous moral position in the modern literary process.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):325-332
325-332
Mythopoetics in the novels of Sasha Sokolov: From the ontological myth of A School for Fools to the deconstruction of the myth of Palisandria
Resumo
The article examines mythopoetics in Sasha Sokolov’s novels A School for Fools and Palisandria. In the 20th century authors widely turn to neo-mythologism in its various manifestations – from the myth-making of prose writers and poets of the beginning of the century to the nationalfolklore type of mythologism in the prose of the era of stagnation. In Sokolov’s novels, the fi rst branch of the development of mythopoetics continues in the form of modernist myth in A School for Fools and postmodern deconstruction of myth in Palisandria. The article shows that Sokolov’s first and last novels have contrasting forms of mythology. In A School for Fools, via a cyclic chronotope, the author models the ontological myth of eternal return, in which the main mythologems are metamorphoses and the author’s mythologem of the Sender of the Wind. In this myth, the creator is the main character of the novel. In Palisandria the opposite process is observed – the dispelling of the myth of eternal return and the formation of the myth of “timelessness” through numerous simulacra-incarnations of the main character. The author of the article talks about the change in the principles of mythologization from the fi rst to the third novel – from the ontological myth of A School for Fools Sokolov comes to the deconstruction of myth and postmodern negation in Palisandria. Sokolov’s novels are deeply mythopoetic. In his work, Sokolov repeatedly turns to mythological images and allusions from classical myths, as well as literary archetypes. Based on all of the above, it can be argued that neomythologism is one of the main principles of Sokolov’s oeuvre. Using the example of Sasha Sokolov’s texts, the article shows one of the ways of transforming neomythologism from modernism to postmodernism.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):333-339
333-339
Images of Buddhist entities in L. A. Yuzefovich’s novel Campaign to Bar-Khoto
Resumo
The article deals with the analysis of the images of Buddhist entities and their functions in L. A. Yuzefovich’s novel Campaign to Bar-Khoto as part of a large research concerned with studying the “Buddhist text” of the modern Russian literature. The plot of Campaign to Bar-Khoto is a development of “Solodovnikov’s Notes” from the novel Prince of the Wind: in the new novel the writer focuses on and reinterprets those images and motifs (Buddist ones among them), which he created earlier, and the hero has a biography – including the religious one. The angry defenders of Buddhism (dharmapalas and dakinis) (or dark evil spirits who replaced them) and high light entities (buddhas and bodhisattvas) in this book outline the characters who come into contact with them in a specific way, express the complexities of their feelings (Lina’s tempting and conquering sensuality; Solodovnikov’s creative serenity), and partly determine their appearance (the uncertainty of Zunduy-gelun’s and Tsaganzhapov’s gait). They also act as metaphors to reveal the essence of ambiguous phenomena, such as, for example, the desire for national independence evolving into national pride, or the fascination with war and disgust for it. In addition, the Buddhist entities of Campaign to Bar-Khoto are symbols of a transcendent reality, contact with which is conditioned by the inner essence of the hero and at the same time changes his fate (posthumous possible accession to the wisdom of Prince Damdin; acceptance of the world filled with passions and sufferings by Solodovnikov, who plunges into the past and writes his memoirs). Finally, the high Buddhist entities, demonstrating the conventionality of their form and revealing their agential nature, transform the surrounding space in the novel, becoming part of the interior and landscape, light and radiance, dissolving earthly human contradictions. The article also draws a parallel between Leonid Yuzefovich’s novel and Vsevolod Ivanov’s story The Return of the Buddha in terms of the spiritual changes that occur to the protagonist: Solodovnikov and Professor Safonov, correlating with the high Buddhist image, acquire the ability to an otherworldly, supra-worldly view of reality.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):340-345
340-345
COVID-19 Pandemic in the media mirror: The issue of media influence
Resumo
This article deals with the study and analysis of the role of media as a tool for influencing mass consciousness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media researchers attempted to analyze the extent of media’s impact on recipients’ decisions, such as vaccine refusal, non-compliance with quarantine measures, and violation of other restrictions imposed during the global health crisis. One of the reasons for the destructive behavior of citizens in different countries was the infodemic – the oversaturation of the global media landscape with unreliable and unverified information. In these circumstances, the media had various tasks, from informing the audience about processes related to the new disease to promoting vaccination. This led to the media resorting to various models of influencing the audience, described in both classical theories of media influence and modern ones. The author of the article analyzed publications from the perspective of media influence, as well as research aimed at identifying the mechanisms of media influence on society during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the study, the author concludes that the influence of media on society is a structurally and functionally complex process influenced by numerous factors such as the information policies of specifi c media outlets, individual characteristics of journalists and information recipients, the political environment, etc. It was also established that during the pandemic, distortions in the communication process occur not randomly but according to specific models described in various theories of strong media influence, including the magic bullet theory, framing, agenda-setting, and others
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):346-353
346-353
Turkisms in the Russian language: The problem of assimilation and functioning in the concept of P. U. Bakirov
Resumo
The review is devoted to the monograph by Professor P. U. Bakirov of Termez State University “Turkic names of persons in the Russian language”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the university where the author works. The researcher focuses on the problem of mastering linguistic borrowings and the specific features of their functioning in the recipient language. The object of study is the Turkic vocabulary, which has a long history of being assimilated by the Russian language. The monograph, based on the material of the Turkisms of the thematic group “names of persons”, provides a comprehensive description of borrowed vocabulary in semantic, structural, word-formation, functional and stylistic aspects. By means of referring to lexicographic and textual sources, the author defi nes the composition of ethnonyms-Turkisms denoting the names of persons, shows the main features of their functioning in different periods of the history of the Russian language, identifies the specific characteristics of their phonetic and grammatical development in the system of the Russian language. P. U. Bakirov draws attention to the formation of systemic relations in the lexical and semantic subgroup of names of persons of Turkic origin, primarily polysemy and synonymy. Of particular interest are the sections containing a description of the word-formation potential of borrowings and the development of their phraseological connections. The book describes the dynamics of the formation of individual thematic groups of the studied lexico-semantic subsystem of Turkisms (names of persons by occupation, social status, kinship, behavior and character traits, in relation to religion, etc.). The complete list of Turkisms analyzed by the author of the monograph, presented in the Appendix, is organized according to the thematic classifi cation adopted in the monograph.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2024;24(3):354-357
354-357