Articles

The paper analyzes the use and translation of zoometaphor in political media and Internet discourse. Translation of zoometaphors is discussed based on an English fable about the Donkey, Tiger and Lion. The research has revealed that in British English the word donkey metaphorically objectivizes the semes of ‘pomposity’ and ‘stubbornness’; in American English, like in Russian, the semes of ‘stupidity’ and ‘stubbornness’. However, the Chinese English discourse reveals a new meaning — ‘humbly doing hard work’, which is similar to the Russian derived verb ishachit ‘to drudge’. Meanwhile, a Chinese English context can be either negative and positive when the semes ‘without tiredness’ and ‘perseverance’ are activated. The word lion creates a metaphoric image due to the semes ‘power’ and ‘majesty’. British and Indian Englishes, as well as Chinese English reveal one more meaning — ‘power guard’. The word tiger as a metaphor has traditionally activated the semes of ‘danger’, ‘aggressiveness’, and ‘force’, but nowadays in the Asian context it has the positive seme ‘rapid development’ and the negative ‘high-ranking corruption’. The article compares the participation of these words in making phraseological units used in the political discourse and points to the challenges they present in translating to Russian. The paper concludes that it is a cultural underpinning that causes most problems in translating pluricentric English.

This paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the linguistic means of expressing ‘high self-esteem’ with the unit ‘face’ on the basis of the analysis of lexemes, phraseological units, proverbs extracted from explanatory and phraseological dictionaries of the Russian and Chinese languages. The methods used in the study include descriptive analytical method, definition, comparative analysis. The authors introduce the results of the research revealing that in both languages one of the meanings of the word “face” is associated with high self-esteem. But the difference is that in the 16-18 centuries in Russian the meaning of ‘face’ included ‘dignity, honor’, which is the key concept of ‘high self-esteem’, however, now this meaning is fixed only in Russian idioms. The word “face” in Chinese can express a whole range of meanings: ‘self-esteem’, ‘the desire to have a positive public opinion of oneself’, ‘the desire to achieve success in order to occupy a higher position in society’ . It not only includes the semantic component ‘dignity’, but also the additional meaning ‘vanity’ . Thus, “face” in modern Chinese is one of the most important means of expressing a person’s high self-esteem.

The object of discourse is an extraordinary person with all his creations, which is constantly replenished by reviews of every subsequent generation of spectators revealing their attitude to the author and his works. The legacy of the great Spanish artist Salvador Dali is a unique asset of the world artistic culture, which has come under scrutiny not only by his contemporaries, but also by a wide audience, art historians, scientists, film critics, literary scholars, poets and writers of the following generations. Due to the fact that the works of the great artist involve countless acts of interpretation and revision, and form an open space around the hitherto unsolved questions by the creator himself, the authors of the article proceed from the assumption that the discourse about Salvador Dali will continue to be enriched in the future cultural and historical context by the works of representatives of art and science. The present article focuses on the discourse about Salvador Dali and his creations, which has been named the Dalinian discourse in the Spanish-language art tradition. The subject of the research are texts written by Dali himself, his friends, and artists, as well as those written by the representatives of other sciences dwelling on the creations of the artist. The article attempts to systematise the main corpus of texts in Spanish about Dali’s visual and literary work and to present its typology.

The article is devoted to the designations in the language of cultural references that form and reflect the sense of identity of its bearers. Among them is the image of “your own space”, which is marked and formed with the help of special words related to both language and culture. Taking into account the works of F. Brodel, P. Nora, R.A. Budagov, L. Febvre, A. Rey, M. Ozouf, etc., the concept of “forcewords” (mots-force / lieux de force), having a long history, reflecting the culture and values of the collective, possessing emotional power and historically changeable, is substantiated. On the material of dictionaries, scientific, science fiction and fiction texts, Internet sites, two poles of representations of the Frenchmen about themselves are established. The first is marked by lexemes associated with civil society (Patrie — Nation — Etat / Nation, Contract, Drapeau; Republique). The second one is reconstructed in the article on the basis of the lexemes Pays, Paysages, Terroirs, Villages, Langues (plural) and is associated with the values of private life, the idea of the native land, local and family memory. Using the example of these lexemes, it is revealed that the nature of force words and the direction of their development are not data once and for all: in some circumstances, the identifying function of the word develops, in others, the force word weakens and loses its emotional impact and ability to be an identity marker.

The article is devoted to the question of the relationship between timbre and syntax in different functional styles of speech. The methodological basis for investigating the mutual influence of syntax (the level of conditioned constructions) and timbre (the level of inductive wholeness) is selected and explained. When considering the notion of “intentionality” within the framework of the direction of phenomenology, it becomes obvious that timbre should be understood as a hierarchy of communication elements, which creates the desired sound taking into account the invariants already available in consciousness. The timbre forms not only direct, syntactic links, but also expressive components contained in both the structure and semantics of the parts of a particular speech work. In order to create convenience and maximum objectivity of analysis when describing syntactic features of works of various functional styles, a specific range of consideration is set within the framework of this study — from the level of simple morphological relations to the level of hypertext unities. The field of analysis is represented as a simple target, where the core is the zone of wellknown standardized types of syntactic links, zone-2 is the space of links existing in the form of visible repetitions (anaphora, epiphora, refrain, syntactic repetitions), zone-3 is the zone of links of all existing linking elements within the text, which is difficult to interpret objectively (links fixed by ritual). The final part of this study presents an example of analyzing a poetic text in English and its translation into Russian in order to demonstrate the close relationship between syntax and timbre at different levels of the hierarchy.

The paper addresses decoding and interpretation of evaluative senses of diminutive and augmentative designations of person. The empirical corpus is constituted by the lexical units selected from lexicographic sources according to a number of criteria, among which are the following: a marker of person in the lexicographic definition, a morphological or syntactic marker of diminutivity and augmentativity in the lexical unit structure, a quantitative and qualitative evaluation marker in the definition, a connotational label. The methods of componential, structural, and linguocultural analysis as well as a descriptive method have been applied to bring into the open evaluative semantics of diminutives and augmentatives. Diminutive and augmentative designations of person are axiologically complicated. Alongside the meaning of diminution and augmentation they express emotional, evaluative, expressive, and stylistic connotations. Axiological potential of the vocabulary layer in question is of great importance for decoding the English speaking community values’ worldview. All diminutives and augmentatives of the corpus are ascertained to have a particular evaluative meaning. Ethical, aesthetic and intellectual evaluations are the most frequent, with emotional, hedonic and normative evaluations being less frequent. Behaviour, appearance, and intelligence are the most important bases for evaluating a person in the English cultural community. Diminutive and augmentative designations of person with rational-emotional and emotional semantics prevail, while designations with rational evaluation are few in number. Evaluative asymmetry also manifests itself in prevalence of pejorative diminutive and augmentative designations. Quantitative evaluation of diminutives and augmentatives is motivated by semantics of the root morpheme, morphological or syntactic marker and depends on the context of use.

The article is aimed at describing a number of certain recurrent features of Russian English in the academic, educational and literary domains of the written discourse in English created by the Russian speakers of English. The article argues that Russian culture, identity and academic traditions are verbalized through a range of translingual practices, starting with the transference of the Russian punctuation and sequence of presenting ideas, including lexical variety and Russian-English hybrids, and finishing with the “nativization and localization” [Platt, Weber and Ho, 1984: 2–3] of the common lexical units, terms, urbanonyms included, and even classic world literature, which is retranslated into Russian English from Russian (for instance, Andersen’s Thumbelina and Brothers Grimms’ Snow white). The combination of analyzed characteristic features invariably turns Russian English presented in the written discourse into a potent tool for the Russian identity construction recognizable both to the Russian and non-Russian speakers of English, specifically to those who are familiar with Russian culture and academic traditions. Yet, written discourse created via Russian English might mislead the speakers of other Englishes in case they have not been exposed to this particular variety on a regular basis.

Political speech (hereinafter PS) is a monological public speech of a political figure, which relies on a written text, the informative component of which is created at the lexico-grammatical level by the speechwriter, and the task of the politician is to ensure that the information is adequately understood by the listening audience. One way of doing this is to reduce the distance between the speaker and the audience. To achieve this “understanding”, the speaker uses the opportunities provided by the oral channel of communication both at the verbal level — the means of phonetic expression that create the prosody of the address — and at the non-verbal level — from body posture to gestures and eye expressions. In linguistics and psycholinguistics the synergetic interaction between prosody and kinesics is increasingly discussed today. How is this interaction realised in PS and what is its effectiveness? Is it possible to consider the realised PS as a multimodal speech utterance? In order to answer these questions this article examines the current approaches to the study of French PS presented in corpus linguistics [Goldman et al., 2009; Simon et al., 2010, 2013] and interdisciplinary linguistics [Kibrik, 2018; Guaitella, 2014] and discusses the relevance of their results to describe the prosody of address as a strategic component of PS.

The article is devoted to the study of models of training Russianists in China within the framework of “one belt and one path”. It examines the issues of testing, compiling textbooks, creating a system of academic subjects, forming the structure of the teaching staff in the Russian language in China. Recently, China’s cooperation with the countries of the Russian-speaking zone has reached a record high. Based on the current situation, teaching Russian in China should internationalize the concept of teaching, the model of teaching Russian, teaching materials, forms and types of testing, teaching staff and teaching methods. It is also necessary to constantly adjust the strategy of pedagogical activities to adapt China to external activities with the countries of the Russian-speaking zone. The article discusses such issues as the goal of training specialists in the Russian language, the system of subjects, testing, compilation of textbooks, the structure of the teaching staff in the Russian language in China.

The paper discusses the issues of a language teacher professional growth and improvement and increasing his/her competence in line with modern trends in education. It addresses the topic of self-development and its impact on the quality of teaching foreign languages. Self-development of language teaching staff is shown to be the main factor of their professional competence. The work provides a rationale for the relevance of the chosen topic and discusses the significance of teacher self-development in the modern world. Possible ways to improve his/her professional skills are considered. They involve a critical reflective analysis by the teacher of his/her professional competencies, the quality of teaching students a foreign language and prospects for personal growth. It is shown that the process of professional development should be ever-lasting, assume collegiality and provide mentoring within a single educational organization. Self-development and improvement of professional competence implies collaboration with foreign colleagues and experts in the professional field. The paper proposes a scheme of self-development for a language teacher, based on a reflective analysis of his/her professional competence and place in the profession.

Although by now the need to create a problem-oriented educational environment in higher education when mastering academic disciplines (including FL as a university subject) has already been proven both theoretically and experimentally, nevertheless, the Linguodidactic analysis of 100 syllabuses in a foreign language as an academic discipline and 100 FL course-books (written by Russian university teachers & published in 2019–2023) shows the lack of orientation among most of their authors towards its creation due to their lack of awareness of the linguodidactic foundations of modeling a problem-oriented educational environment in a university educational context, integrating communicative-approach, problembased approach and sociocultural approach in teaching & learning a foreign language as a tool of intercultural communication. The article briefly summarizes the results of scientific understanding of the problem-based approach in education, its general and specific features with the view to the linguodidactic interpretation of the concepts of “problem-based learning”, “problem-based teaching”, “problem-based mastering of the discipline” in relation to teaching a foreign language the learner and his/her socialization by means of a foreign language, gives a description of a system of interconnected cultural and linguocultural problem-solving tasks and assignments, problem-oriented types of learners’ monolingual and bilingual activities, creative types of university students’ verbal activities in co-learning languages, including recommendations for the methodological design of cultural problem-solving tasks, with which the teacher starts forming a problem-oriented educational environment in the FL classroom and outside it.

An ideologically-bound unit is a reference to a specific ideology that exists in the context of a particular epoch, and can be explored as an intrinsic element of the global vertical context. Undoubtedly, ideologemes represent a certain challenge for simultaneous interpreters who are not always able to adequately perceive the global vertical context of the source utterance and to properly convey the associative and connotative potential of these units. The present study is undertaken to pinpoint the peculiarities of the modern American political discourse, namely the public speeches of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and their simultaneous interpretation into Russian, carried out by media interpreters of “Voice of America”, an international multimedia news network of the USA. The research is aimed at identifying and comparing interpreting strategies employed to achieve the required level of rendition appropriateness and usability. The findings further reveal that the global vertical context of the source utterance and the communicative pragmatics of the interpreter-mediated event seem to impact the choice of an interpreting strategy that encompasses specific techniques. It is noteworthy that in order to render an ideologically-bound unit and its derivatives, an interpreter is expected to use corresponding equivalents in the target language, which do not distort the speaker’s intentions and voiced position, as well as convey the communicative effect of the source utterance and fit into the recipient’s ideological picture of the world.

V.N. Komissarov as a famous theoretician in the sphere of translation was introduced to his Chinese colleagues in 1984, when modern translation theory just started in China. For forty years now, his translation theories have been disseminated, adopted, and developed. V.N. Komissarov’s major works, including Questions of Translation Theory in Foreign Linguistics (1978), Linguistics of Translation (1980), Translation Theory (Linguistic Aspects) (1990) and Modern Translation Studies (1999), have been reviewed in Chinese academic journals. His last monograph, Modern Translation Studies (2004), was translated into Chinese. Chinese translation studies introduced his theoretical ideas in the sphere of translation, such as the nature of translation, translation equivalence, translation models, translation correspondences, translation norms, translation pragmatics, textological aspects of translation studies, cultural and sociological aspects of translation studies, translation teaching methodology, etc. Certain ideas, such as pragmatic translation adaptation, have been further developed. In general, V.N. Komissarov’s theoretical viewpoints have been studied and summarized in many scientific papers and various works, which contributed to the development of Chinese translation theory. Moreover, his translation thoughts are widely used by Chinese scholars for theoretical research and the training of future translators. Some of V.N. Komissarov’s views are applied to the study of the function of cultural translation, translation adaptation, the definition of translation, translation of the national style of speech and other theoretical problems. The scholar’s theory of translation is most often used to address a variety of issues in translation practice. The most influential theory is undoubtedly the theory of translation equivalence. While using this theory, numerous master theses and translation reports analyze issues in both fiction and information translation, as well as problems in interpretation and audiovisual translation.

Science popularization is undergoing significant transformations, including changes among popularizers themselves, which leads to the diversification of communication strategies and a shift in functional potential. The article deals with the strategies employed by the journalist author in the text of a book on law as a genre of popular science legal discourse. Two key popularization strategies that contribute to the implementation of the author’s communicative intention, and enable the agent not only to activate background knowledge of the target recipient, but also influence their axiological attitudes are analyzed and described. The right choice of popularization strategies makes special information accessible to the recipient and directly affects the effectiveness of the perception of a popular science text. The informative-explanatory strategy is used by the popularizer to interpret key legal concepts. The strategy of manipulative influence enables the agent to influence the target recipient by presenting special information from a certain angle. The conclusion is drawn that a contemporary popular science book on law does not only contribute to the public legal education but also shapes a reader’s ideology.