Articles

The article examines the problem of interlanguage idiomaticity from the translation studies perspective. The concept of idiomatic translation is clarified; such type of translation is viewed as a process of inter-language transfer of the original semantic and pragmatic content, which follows the lexical, lexical-grammatical, pragmatic rules for the compatibility of linguistic elements in the target language and takes into account the selectivity of this language in expressing the complex meanings of language units. The article summarizes the possibilities of overcoming translation literalism and inter-language interference. It is shown that the concept of idiomatic translation embraces both the implied-meaning relationships between the source and the target messages (their equivalence, genre-stylistic, sociocultural and pragmatic correspondences) and the form of expression in the target message which is to adhere to the usage conventions of the target language. Using the example of the Russian translation of George Orwell’s essay “The Prevention of Literature,” the author analyzes translation solutions for the selection of inter-language correspondences for syntagmatically related units of different types (idioms, clichés, collocations) that require idiomatic ways of expressing complex lexical and lexical-grammatical meanings by means of the target language. Particular attention is paid to the problem of expressing context-dependent and evaluative connotations of idioms and collocations in the process of idiomatic translation.

The article presents the analysis of the research in the field of informatization of linguistic education. At the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FFLAS) Lomonosov Moscow State University within the framework of the declared direction two research projects are performed. On the one hand, theoretical foundations for the development of tutoring institute in the national e ducation system as a key condition for successful digitalization of the educational process are being developed; on the other hand, methods of implementation of the latest technologies, including those based on and using neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI), are being piloted. The article names the lecture, special and interfaculty courses offered by the FFLAS, as well as two master’s and two supplementary programs aimed at the formation of professional information and communication competence of all participants of the educational process.

Integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into learning takes place at various levels of education. This process includes the design of multimodal didactic material, development of language skills, control and assessment, mining and analysis of educational data, prediction of learning outcomes. It is important not to skip any of these steps so that AI is implemented not only for providing access to information and the execution of routine test tasks, but also for contributing of real transformation in education. In teaching foreign languages today, various technical solutions based on AI are used, such as voice assistants; smart tutors; social and educational bots; automatic systems for assessment and editing of written texts; recommendation systems; intelligent foreign language teaching systems, etc. The objective of this article is to consider innovative approaches to language teaching based on using intelligent learning systems, as well as to analyze the design features of these systems. The concept of personalized learning, which is about adapting the organization, content and pace of learning to the individual needs of students, plays a key role in the design and development of intelligent learning systems. Intelligent learning systems and smart tutors can automatically adapt and create personalized educational material for various disciplines, taking into account the target audience, level of foreign language proficiency, professional and educational goals, intended learning outcomes through multimodal clustering and recommendation systems, automatic text processing and image recognition. The three main components underlying such systems include a domain model, a learner model, and a methodological model. Effective teaching approaches, such as providing feedback, assessment, reflection and recommendations for students, are important components of intelligent learning systems

The article discusses the necessity to refocus teaching pluricentric foreign languages from linguistic and cultural features in the traditional countries onto the specifics of varieties considered to be non-native for their users participating in a wide international / intercultural communication. East Asian varieties are a good example of such a phenomenon. For an unprepared communicator it is quite challenging to perceive and comprehend varieties of this type — challenges occur at all levels of language structure: phonographic, grammatical, lexico-semantic, and discourse-pragmatic. The ways to solve these problems include raising students’ awareness of the existence of the varieties of a pluricentric language, i.e., the World Englishes paradigm; receptive training of Asian English speech comprehension; awareness of challenges in understanding students’ own (Russian) variety of English (or another pluricentric language) for communicators using other varieties; studying translingual literature written by authors of Chinese (or other Asian) origin; listening and reading mass media in the variety; training intermediary translation from the variety into Russian, and acquiring the basis of intercultural literacy. All these ways are relevant not only for teaching Russian students; they will also help in teaching Chinese students whose number has been increasing at our universities

This paper gives an insight into the major outcomes of the 2019–2023 MSU research project on investigating mediation as a language-and-culture bound communicative mode and as a new objective of modern tertiary language education in Russia. Mediation skills are thought to be of primary importance for the Russian academic elite’s intercultural communication in the world facing the war of values in which the academic elite is expected to act as a promoter of the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, able to preserve cultural heritage and counteract modern cultural vandalism, cultural imperialism and the policy of cancel culture whenever the latter happen to be in society. The paper starts with some introductory notes on the importance of the 21-st century terminology changes in language pedagogy because of a paradigmatic shift from traditional language skills as objectives of language education to 4 modes of communication (reception, production, interaction and mediation). It discusses the outcomes of the 2016–2021 international research projects on updating CEFR descriptors and on sharing pedagogical experiences in teaching and evaluating mediation skills. The author finds it necessary to rethink these research outcomes with a focus on the needs, objectives and training content of mediation education for different types of learners or trainees (MD / PhD students, PhD researchers of different ranks) and offers a linguodidactic vision of establishing a framework for a) teaching master’s degree students and PhD students to mediate a text & b) teaching university researchers/teachers to mediate concepts and to mediate communication. This conceptual framework is based on the 2018–2022 research results of several studies carried out to identify MD and PhD students’ needs to act as mediators in international academic settings, the needs, readiness and abilities of Humanities scholars to act as pluricultural mediators while participating in international scientific & educational communication.

The paper discusses culture-specific communicative features of official Russian, British, American, and Cypriot universities websites. The research focuses on context models of collective authors. The contribution deals with specific type of discourse which (following contemporary tendencies in discourse analysis) is referred to as “active effect discourse”. The study relies on interdisciplinary data provided by various spheres relevant to the issue under consideration. Thus, the study provides an overview of trends and tendencies in the development of modern education, outlines techniques used for online promotion of educational programs, describes specific features of communication environment. The paper analyses the structure and the content of official university websites, outlines verbal means used by collective authors of the texts under consideration in order to appeal to the target audience, and conducts analysis of culture-specific meanings conveyed through these means. The article also outlines prospects for future research on communication style adopted by the collective author of promotional texts functioning in digital learning environment.

The article examines the role of key words in the artistic organization of a literary work on the basis of Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. It has been discovered that the most frequently used lexical units in the text are adjectives with negative evaluative connotations: monstrous, horrible, dreadful, hideous and such like. Among them monstrous stands out as the main key word in spite of the fact that its frequency of occurrence is lower than that of its ‘synonyms’: 25 vs 48, 43, 32 times respectively. In fact, monstrous meets other criteria that seem to be essential in the case of key words. It appears in all significant episodes of the novel; it is characterized by lexical polyphony, great collocational potential, a variety of contextual links and due to the component “morally wrong” in its semantics is connected with the author’s global purport. It is also shown that the ‘intuitive’ linguopoetic analysis of key words can be supported by modern computer programs, like Sketch Engine, which work with text corpora .

The purpose of the paper is to point out some theoretical problems concerning the so-called textual inclusions, with their deep intertextuality and ability to generate new texts. Such approach gives a new impetus to outlining the ways of their possible role in the derivational mythological history, semiotic cultural memory and traditions. The cognitive aspects of these texts are analyzed, the chain links are constructed. Much attention is paid to the classification of the different types of the intertextual inclusions, specifically emphasizing their role in changing and reframing the reader’s cognitive system. The paper allows the author to take into account the interdisciplinary aspect of the cognitive linguistics linked with other interdisciplinary sciences.

The study focuses on the works of J. Ortega y Gasset, in which the Spanish philosopher offers a new vision of Linguistics analyzed from the point of view of Anthropology, Discourse Theory and Philosophy and first presented by him in 1938. Ortega’s bibliography contains articles in which he develops ideas relevant to Philological science, objecting to Saussure and criticizing Structuralism as the dominant research paradigm at that time. The subject of the research paper is the J. Ortega y Gasset’s ideology about the language and speech nature, formalized in the concepts called New Linguistics and Theory of Utterance, as well as the author’s views on the new approaches to the study of Philology (New Philology) and Grammar (New Grammar). In his works, the Spanish philosopher examines the dynamic nature of language and speech in its projection onto the speaker and substantiates the need to take into account the communicative intention and the communicative context, thereby anticipating the scientific research of the founders of the Speech Act Theory and Discourse Analysis J. Austin, J. Searle and Teun A. Van Dijk. The article makes an attempt to describe and systematize the main ideas introduced by J. Ortega y Gasset, relevant to such areas of modern Linguistics as Pragmatics and Text Linguistics.

The article is a review of the collective monograph authored by the Siberian Federal University scholars — Koptseva N.P., Kolesnik M.A., Leshchinskaya N.M., Samarina D.N. “Russian cultural identity in the Fine Arts of the 19th — early 20th century”. The researchers examined the features of Russian cultural identity construction in the works by V.G. Perov, I.Ya. Bilibin, M.V. Nesterov and B.M. Kustodiev. The relevance of the book lies in the fact that it is the first of its kind in the series of scientific art criticism and cultural literature “Russian Culture”. The scientific novelty of the monograph consists in the philosophical and art criticism analysis of religious philosophy as a source of cultural identity, in the substantiation of new theoretical concepts such as area-critical and area-romantic styles. The results of the presented work contribute to the study of the process of constructing Russian cultural identity from the standpoint of God-seeking in works of fine art of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The practical value of the book lies in the systematization of the basic content of Russian cultural identity and the establishment of a connection with the key concepts of Russian religious philosophy, including the ideas of Russian Orthodoxy, Slavophilism, the concept of Sophia — the Wisdom of God in the interpretation of V.S. Solovyov, the application of the sociology of imagination in the study of mythology, symbolism, semiotics of signs, visual perception of painting. The results of the research outlined in the book can be used in teaching courses on the history and theory of Russian culture as well as in the creation of special courses and programmes based on the relationship between culture, philosophy, Religious Studies and literature.

The article focuses on the study of the peculiarities of interpretation of Greek myth in the Afro-Brazilian cultural space using the material of the film “Black Orpheus” directed by M. Camus, based on the play “Orfeu da Conceição” by Vinicius de Moraes. The author traces the origins of the appeal to the image of Orpheus in the works of Camus and Moraes, and reveals the connection with the French dramatic tradition and cinema. M. Camus transforms the Greek story through the prism of the culture of the Afro-Brazilian population of Rio de Janeiro — the inhabitants of the favelas. The film brings to the fore the musical component of the myth, with the help of which the originality of the Afro-Brazilian tradition and carnival practices of Latin America are revealed. Orpheus in the film appears as a tram driver, singer and leader of a samba school. His image combines the Dionysian principle (the carnival tradition into which Orpheus is “inscribed”) and the Apollonian (expressed in lyrical songs and cultural codes of bossa nova). The carnival “building” of mythological reality allows us to touch the spiritual layers of the Brazilian tradition — the syncretic cult of Candomble. The space of the Macumba ritual symbolizes the Kingdom of Hades, in which dialogue with Eurydice is carried out through musical magic that opens doors between the worlds. The passage through the Kingdom of the Dead represents a rite of passage in which the hero dies and is reincarnated in a new form: in the finale, Orpheus “transfers” his musical gift to the boy, symbolically gaining new life in him. The interpretation of the ancient Greek plot in the space of Afro-Brazilian carnival practices helps to reveal the civilizational specificity of Latin America and Orfeus as an “eternal image” that embodies the divine gift of love, the magic of music, and eternal existence through a change of forms.

In Chinese, verb aspect is expressed by verbs in combination with various linguistic means. Based on the difference between the verb aspect system of Russian and Chinese languages and the possible expressions of verb aspect in Russian, this paper aims to predict possible errors in the use of Russian verb aspect. In order to check the correctness of our analysis, a special diagnostic test was conducted. The test results show that the errors made by Chinese students primarily do not stem from the influence of their native language, but from the fact that students are not able to assess the situation, cannot find or even see certain reference points, available signals, directly indicating the use of this or that verb aspect. Errors are explained by elementary ignorance of the verb forms, especially in such cases as брать — взять, ловить — поймать and ignorance of the formation of the verb form itself, for example, the formation of the imperative form, etc. This is the result of insufficient training of students. In this case, the problem is not in students, but, firstly, in the complexity of the topic itself, and, secondly, in the method of teaching. We believe that it is necessary to give students a clear scheme of verb aspect meanings and identify those signals that can help students choose the type of a verb adequate to the situation of communication; the course of studying the verb aspect should be long enough, because strong and stable skills of the correct use of verb aspect are formed only as a result of gradual and regular work on the types of the verb, made over a long period of time. The results of this work can also serve as a starting point for determining not only the content of verb types teaching exercises, but also for developing methodological recommendations for them.

This article discusses the challenges and solutions for teaching Russian as a second language to students in China. It analyzes Russian and Chinese language teaching materials and identifies the factors that contribute to the low level of proficiency among Chinese students. The article proposes several solutions, including taking into account cultural differences and adopting teaching methods similar to those used in Chinese educational institutions.

The article is devoted to the period of the origin of Russian textbook studies in foreign languages, a significant contribution to the formation of which was made by Professor of Imperial Moscow University Ivan Andreevich Нeim (1759–1821), an encyclopedic scholar, teacher, and public figure. The article provides a brief description of the professional scientific and pedagogical biography of I.A. Нeim, who was at different periods of his academic activity not only a professor, but also the first Dean of the Faculty of Philology and the Rector of the University. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the structural and substantive characteristics of the first edition of the textbook by I.A. Heim “Russian Grammar for Germans” in 1789 (German: “Russische Sprachlehre für Deutsche”). Variant features of the metalanguage of the book in the field of translation of terms, as well as units at the graphical, orthographic, morphological and lexical levels are revealed. The content of the book, on the one hand, includes a theoretical description of the structure of the Russian language (in German), on the other hand, it is practical in nature, which is manifested in the absence of a large number of definitions, the presence of sections on teaching phonetics, a mini-dictionary and bilingual dialogues on everyday topics. The analysis of the textbook provides us with insights into the formation of textbook studies at the end of the 18th century and enables us to discuss the creation and development of prototypes of a modern tutorial book and phrase book of foreign languages.

Using paremiological dictionaries as an example, the article considers new approaches and trends emerging in modern English lexicography in connection with its digitalisation. From the initial scanned versions of authoritative paper dictionaries, e-lexicography is increasingly moving towards the development of pro ducts specifically designed for use on computers and mobile devices, a frequent first step in this process being the use of the resources of national linguistic corpora, followed by the creation of independent paremiological corpora. The creation of e-dictionaries is gradually becoming a separate lexicographic trend with its own subject and object of research. The present study has revealed a number of characteristics of English-language electronic paremiological dictionaries, such as: growing connection with language teaching; increasing unprofessionalism of compilers of Internet reference resources, leading to their unreliability; extending influence of the so-called “non-native speakers” of English; expanding range of non-verbal resources of elexicography, which are capable of performing some scientific tasks that are beyond the reach of traditional paper dictionaries (for example, dictionary fixation of the threefold structural-content-functional topological invariant of frequently reproduced memorable phrases). Professional lexicographers need to learn how to use the new possibilities of the modern electronic and digital era to the best advantage, combining the necessary linguistic, digital and design competences at a professional rather than amateur level.