Articles

The article presents a comparative analysis of the semantic portraits of the singer and the cultural hero Wainamoinen in two English translations of the epic “Kalevala” made by William Forsell Kirby and John Martin Crawford. Following a certain algorithm, the different-structured nominations of the hero are classified and subjected to component analysis, through which an inventory of semes and semes’ specifiers is fixed, which allows to identify isomorphic and allomorphic characteristics in the portraits of the hero. The study shows that the dominant position in the semantic portrait of Wainamoinen is occupied by the so-called song space of the hero, since singing is the main activity of Wainamoinen by means of which he influences the surrounding world. The semantic portrait of Wainamoinen is a four-level structure, including nominations (1) characterizing him as a singer, (2) characterizing his singing, (3) characterizing the process of his singing and (4) characterizing functions of his singing. The study also demonstrates an importance of nominations which have the structure of a sentence and super-phrasal unity. They allow to fix additional semes in lexical nominations. The article concludes that the semantic allomorphs of Wainamoinen’s portrait characteristics are determined by both linguistic aspects (the choice of the source text for translation: original text in the Finnish language and the interlinear translation in German) and extralinguistic aspects: differences between British and American lingua cultures and personal preferences of each translator.

The article presents the results of a linguopragmatic study of explicit and implicit means used by journalists of law-related corporate mass media to model the positive image of a modern Russian lawyer. The author observes that at present there is a social need to replace deeply rooted negative stereotypes about lawyers/advocates in the collective consciousness, since it is the representatives of the law who form patterns of law-abiding behavior. Mass media play a significant role in forming images of lawyers whom many Russian citizens rarely meet in person. Analyzed interviews with lawyers and lawyer biographies enable the recipients to learn more not only about the professional activities but also about personal life and inner world of lawyers, thus, demonstrating a great potential in modeling their images. The article highlights and analyzes three aspects that, in the author’s opinion, are of greatest importance for creating a positive image of a lawyer in modern Russian society

The article is devoted to the analysis of the effectiveness of the use of specific English-language alliteration in Russian-language ergonyms and advertising slogans. The purpose of this work is to determine the degree of emotional impact of this stylistic device on native Russian speakers and, as a result, its effectiveness for use in creating ergonyms and advertising slogans in the Russian language. The objectives of this study include the analysis of differences in approaches to the definition of the stylistic device “alliteration” in the English-speaking and Russianspeaking linguistic traditions; collection and analysis of Russian-language ergonyms and advertising slogans, built on the basis of specific English alliteration, by the method of continuous sampling. The research also looks into the functions of alliteration techniques in the Russian-language ergonyms and slogans, includes a sociolinguistic survey in the form of a questionnaire among 125 native speakers of the Russian language aged 18 to 40, of different professions, with University degrees.

The paper provides examples of Russian-language names and advertising slogans created using specific English alliteration. The results of the study indicate that specific English alliteration plays a role in promoting the attractive and aesthetic functions through ergonyms. The analysis of the sociolinguistic questionnaire showed that in five out of the seven proposed categories, the survey participants preferred ergonyms and advertising slogans created using this technique. Taking into account the results of the study it can be concluded, that today a specific English alliteration is an effective linguistic technique used in the Russian language for creating ergonyms and advertising slogans.

The article examines cultural standards of modesty in the Russian and Chinese languages. The study is based on dictionaries and text corpora of two languages. The purpose of the work is to determine universal and nationally specific features in the formation of cultural standards of modesty in the Russian and Chinese languages. The object of the study is modesty as a traditional value of Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures. Modesty is encoded using cultural standards that reflect the essential features of modesty as a sociocultural value that characterizes Russian and Chinese cultures. The study found that in the Russian language, modesty, which is predominantly gender-based, is mainly associated with the image of a girl (woman). Modesty as a universal human quality is realized contradictorily: 1) “the modesty of a hero, a real person” and 2) “the modesty of a quiet, timid, dependent person.” In Chinese linguistic culture, “modesty” occupies a strong position, and its “standard” implementation, determined by the ideas of Confucius, is an integral part not only of etiquette, but also the worldview of the Chinese. In the Chinese language, the “standard” implementation of modesty, defined by the ideas of Confucius, is an integral part of etiquette. The Chinese modesty system is associated with natural objects and plant images that are of great importance to Chinese culture. The results of this study can be used in lexicographic practice and in teaching Russian and Chinese languages.

The article considers the emphatic patterns of syntactic structures used for highlighting communicatively relevant elements in promotional discourse with a strong persuasive effect. The research was conducted on the material of 19 automobile promotional brochures containing valuable information about automobile brands and their manufacturers for the target audience. The aim of the research was to study emphatic structures occurring in the English promotional discourse and determine the most frequently used types of emphasis. The study found that the emphatic displacement towards the anaphoric syntactic position occurred most frequently for underlining semantically relevant speech elements. The anaphoric emphasis is intended for the rhematization of thematic parts, which, nevertheless, does not diminish the significance of the cataphoric position, being traditionally occupied by the rheme. In addition, the syntactic emphasis was actively accompanied by discursive intensifier words, which, according to the quantitative data, were used in the middle of the emphatic sentences most frequently, thus fulfilling the function of retaining attention in continuation of the emphatic beginning. Due to the rheme displacement and discursive words, the entire emphatic structure becomes in the focus of readers’ attention against the background of surrounding discourse. The most common syntactic means of emphasis, in descending order, are the following: fronting, pseudo-cleft and cleft sentences, inversion, elaborative, introductory and duplicative sentences. The results of the research can be used for teaching linguistic text analysis and applied aspects of linguistics to students specializing in linguistics and professional English to students majoring in advertising and PR.

The article examines the processes associated with the formation of the French designation system using the example of the name L’Hexagone and its interrelationships with other names: la France, la Gaule, la V-me République, etc. Taking into account the works of A.V. Superanskaya, R.A. Ageeva, G.S. Dorzhieva, G. Bashlyar, A. Dose, A. Dorion and others, the examination of linguistic and sociolinguistic data found in dictionaries, artistic, journalistic and scientific writings, as well as on Internet sites, is conducted. The purpose of the article is to establish the place of the Hexagone name in the French polyonym system and to qualify the associations underlying this name. It is shown that among them is the image of a regular geometric figure (circle, square, six- and octagon) with geopolitical, ideological and aesthetic connotations. A number of connotations bring this image closer to the “lived space” in the understanding of G. Bachelard and the metaphor of the container space of J. Lakoff and M. Johnson. The variability of the designations of France, forming a system of polyonyms and reflecting the development of a sense of identity of the French, is emphasized. A manifestation of this feeling is the sensory perception of the space of collective identity as harmonious and protected, which is manifested, in particular, in the name L’Hexagone.

The article briefly describes the milestones of the life and scientific work of Vladimir Vladimirovich Zakharov (09/13/1953–12/05/2023) — head of the Department of German Language and Culture at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Regional Studies (Lomonosov Moscow State University), Academician of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences. Various aspects of his activities are considered: as a military interpreter and translator, a historian and an archivist, an organizer, and a teacher. Some key works of the scientist in various fields of military historical science are briefly analyzed: Soviet-German military, political, cultural etc. relations in the 20th century, economic aspects of the Second World War, the history of Russian and German intelligence agencies, issues of restitution of cultural and artistic values, etc. An important place in the article is given to the coverage of V.V. Zakharov’s works devoted to the activities of the Office of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SWAG) and the military intelligence. The article highlights V.V. Zakharov’s significant contribution to the introduction into scientific circulation of a large number of previously unknown archival documents on various aspects of military historical science. The author also draws attention to V.V. Zakharov’s pedagogical and organizational activities in higher educational and scientific institutions in Russia, as well as his educational and methodological works

While there is a vast literature on translation transformations and techniques, little attention among Russian researchers is paid to the omission. The article attempts to contribute to the debate by analyzing the omission as a translation technique, as well as verb omission examples when translating a literary text from Russian into French. The omission means elimination of a source text (ST) element while translating into target text. The omission can occur at the semantic or structural-semantic levels. The latter implies not only semantic but also syntactic changes. The omission can be due to the redundancy of an element in the ST. Redundancy in ST can be caused by the structural features of the source language, repetition of information in the text or by the opportunity to extract information from the situational context. The analysis of examples of verb omission taken from the translations into French of the novel Oblomov written by Ivan Goncharov showed that the use of this technique in relation to Russian verbs obeys the general patterns of the use of omission listed above: a French translator can omit a verb and use a more economical construction allowed by the norms of the French language; can translate one verb from two ST verbs with the same meaning; can eliminate the original verb if it’s meaning can be derived from the situational context. However, the original verb can convey stylistic meanings that are important in the work; if this verb is omitted, stylistic meanings disappear.

The article discusses literary travels in the historical period of the Tang Dynasty, which entered the history of the country as a period of flourishing culture — science, painting, literature, and especially poetry. Two great Chinese poets Li Bo and Du Fu created during this period. Literary and cultural-geographical approaches to the study of travelogues developed in Western, Chinese and Russian literary geography are presented. The historical and cultural contexts of literary travels are discussed. The cultural and historical specificity of the travelogues of the Tang Dynasty period is that many of them were made not out of interest in learning new lands and cultures, but out of necessity. For the most part, the authors of travelogues were applicants for the position of an official who had to submit a literary work at the state exam. Routes, vehicles, stopping places and other elements of travel are analyzed. The role of literary travel in the development of literature of the period under consideration is discussed. Special attention is paid to the anisotropy, or the disparity of different directions, of the cultural space of China of this historical epoch. This is due to the historically low cultural status of Southern China compared to other regions. Travelogue materials reflect this cultural phenomenon well.

The paper examines ecolinguistics as a new trend in linguistics, resulting from the study of language and the environment. The article’s relevance is determined by the insufficient amount of works on ecolinguistics and its subsystems. The purpose of the study is to establish particularities of interlinguistic communication, studied within the framework of ecolinguistics, the idea of which originated at the end of the 19th century and got its prominence at present. The research methodology is based on the theoretical works of the most prominent domestic and foreign scholars. Ecolinguistics is the result of the interaction of academic disciplines including linguistics, philosophy, psychology and cognitive studies. The formation of ecolinguistics takes place in such domains as cultural, political and scientific spheres, revealing various aspects of language interaction with the thinking process and the surroundings. The study of ecolinguistics’ evolution and functioning requires a comprehensive approach. The scope of the study includes studying ecolinguistics, clarifying the origins of this branch, presenting it in a generalized form, as well as the peculiarities of translation aimed at preserving the purity of the target language. As a donor language, English considerably enlarges the vocabulary of every language it interacts with. This is manifested in the digital translation, facilitating the process of new words, nomenclatural formations and abbreviations dissemination. The study has shown that the use of digital technologies developing in the digital world ensures the entry of the linguistic personality into the unified system of ecological space. It is concluded that lexical and grammatical units of different languages can peacefully coexist in one text without violating the integrity and harmony. It contributes to the effective interlinguistic communication determined by the ecospace of a particular language.

The present paper belongs to a series of articles with a focus on ethnospecific concepts and identity construction in multicultural fiction from a cognitive- functional perspective. It seeks to take a new look on ethnospecific concepts, namely those which belong to an author’s idioconceptual subsystem, the latter being understood as a unique configuration of concepts in one’s mind, and constitute cognitive matrices. In accordance with N.N. Boldyrev’s research, the term «cognitive matrix» is used to denote a system of interconnected cognitive contexts which open onto different conceptual domains. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the potential of using cognitive-matrix analysis to reveal the connections between the cognitive contexts in the structure of an ethnospecific concept which unfold in a work of fiction, as well as the conceptual domains they are related to, on the one hand, and the many facets of an author’s cultural identity on the other. The paper outlines the results of the cognitive-matrix analysis of the concept BISON as represented in the novel “A Grandmother Begins the Story” by M. Porter, a Canadian writer of Métis background. Detail is given on several cognitive contexts in the structure of the concept in question pertaining to the following conceptual domains: NATURE, HISTORY, SPIRITUAL CULTURE, SPACE, TIME. The results obtained show that the ways in which the ethnospecific concept BISON functions in the text under consideration are affiliated with the writer’s identity and allow her not only to implement her creative ideas but also actualize her cultural identity in fiction.

This article deals with the comparative study of the old age designation in Russian and Chinese phraseology. The subject of research in this paper are phraseological units of Russian and Chinese, in which the object of description is the age of an elderly person. The main research methods used in the article are the methods of definitions, field, linguocultural and comparative analyses. The aim of the paper lies in identification of similar and distinctive perceptions of an elderly person from the point of view of representatives of Russian and Chinese linguocultures. The paper analyses the plane of expression and the plane of the content of Russian and Chinese phraseological units, as well as cultural and linguistic features of those units. The scientific novelty of this study reveals itself in the fact that for the first time the phraseological means of elderly age representation of a person in Russian and Chinese linguocultures have been defined; for the first time the phraseosemantic microfield ‘old age’ in Russian and Chinese have been presented and compared. The results of the study make it possible to represent similarities and differences of the old age conceptualization by means of Russian and Chinese phraseology and to identify the features of the microfield ‘old age’ of the languages compared.

The focus of research devoted to the study of a term as a scientific conceptual unit is currently moving to the consideration of its metaphorical nature, given that the processes of metaphorical term formation occur in different scientific fields constantly, but with varying degrees of intensity, which does not reduce the level of relevance of this topic. In the vocabulary of terminological systems, a large role belongs to word-forming elements or derivational formants (prefixes), thanks to which new lexical units are formed and thereby the conceptual-categorical sphere of science is re-encoded. The prefix gives the base of the word and its first, main meaning a new meaning, and antonym prefixes cannot, in theory, be combined in one word. It is all the more interesting, in our opinion, to pay attention to terms formed by a combination of prefixes and antonyms (deconstruction). These formants have great derivational potential; they create new terms and concepts, new metaphors, in a word, new formants of thought, as happened thanks to the concept of déconstruction, one of the basic ones in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. The purpose of the article is to consider the features of the derivational function of formant prefixes using the example of the terminological nest construction, which includes the terms reconstruction, déstruction, déconstruction.

The object of this article is mythonyms that move into another class of proper names — pragmatonyms or verbal trademarks. The subject of the article was chosen mythonyms from the ancient Greek poem “The Odyssey” by Homer, which are widely used in modern advertising and commercial practice in Italy to name various products: furniture, interior items, clothing, jewelry, food, technical and medical equipment. The purpose of the article is to refute the generally accepted idea that the meaning of an onym (in our case, a mythonym) is impoverished during transonymization into a verbal trademark. The article identified mythonyms from the Odyssey that most often become pragmatonyms — Odysseus, Penelope, Polyphemus. As a result of their analysis, it was demonstrated that peripheral semes of meaning that are not relevant in the mythonym are actualized in the Italian advertising discourse of 2000-2021. Thus, the semantic field of the mythonym, functioning as a trade name, expands and enriches, and not vice versa. The article highlighted the following updated components of meaning: Odysseus — masculinity and freedom, Penelope — thriftiness and beauty, Polyphemus — creative force in the service of man. In the last mythonym, the core meaning of “the destructive power of the savage” completely changed the meaning to “civilizational power of creation”, and the vector of assessment changed. In this case, advertising discourse reflects the linguistic and cultural tendency that exists in Southern Italy to master and appropriate the symbolic space of Mediterranean culture not so much through the figure of Odysseus, but through the Sicilian Polyphemus. The study used a two-stage corpus analysis method: a continuous sample of product names to identify mythonyms from the Odyssey (68 product names) and a representative sample of products with the names Odysseus, Penelope, Polyphemus.

We discuss theoretical issues connected with methodological construction of problem-solving tasks for development of polycode competence in the system of language tertiary education. As one of the salient genres of polycode texts we take British and American political cartoon and the process of its interpretation. Yet another object of discussion is formed by particular difficulties when we try to include this format into text analysis. It gives us grounds to single out key features of polycode texts, which make them different from traditional text format. Here we include lack of precise genre typology, combination of various semiotic codes, lacunas presence, clip character, specific nature of intertextual chains. We single out several stages in the process of polycode competence formation and development. In particular, problem-solving tasks aimed at identification and primary decoding of certain elements typical for any polycode text; problem-solving tasks aimed at interpretation of verbal and visual components; carrying out group project/group projects of scientific educational or scientific research, of cultural and discourse character; participation in culturally-oriented discussions; assessment of the level of student’s polycode competence formation when interpreting a certain genre of polycode text. In this article, we focus upon possible problem-solving tasks of the first two stages. As one of possible solutions, we suggest conceptual cognitive metaphor modelling and oppositions. The oppositions in this case are built on basic sociocultural values while metaphor modelling includes structural, orientational and ontological concepts, which can be further found out in various types of polycode texts. As possible advantages of this approach, we consider it giving ground for interdisciplinary connections in the course of professional foreign language training. It also enables to widen the scope of questions and topics discussed with students as well as introduce certain linguocultural and sociocultural phenomena. All this assists in building professional competence of a would-be specialist as far as foreign media and multimodal environment is concerned, including its destructive practices. We also describe results of the experimental work. As part of the experiment, we assessed student’s ability to recognise images, symbols, archetypes, linguocultural subjects and meanings, precedent phenomena, continuity of forms and structures, conceptual metaphors and models, conceptual oppositions, basic and transferred meanings, connotations.