Articles

The paper deals with absurdity treated as the absence of meaning in the situation where the meaning should be present. Four communicative types of absurdity have been singled out (ontological, fideistic, problem oriented and comical), the first one is an emotional protest against the loss of the meaning of life, the second one is based upon the principal incomprehensibility of the reasons of existence, the third one signifies the necessity of solving a problem in a radically new way, and the fourth one makes people turn upside down standard routines of everyday life. Four modes of absurdity as a cognitive obstacle have been specified: ostensive absurdity is understood as a collision between the known and the given situation, logical absurdity is a rational incongruity between descriptions or propositions, semantic absurdity may be qualified as blurring of the standard meaning of a linguistic unit and unlimited extension of its associative potential, pragmatic absurdity signals the impossibility of understanding why people behave in a particular way. Three functions of absurdity have been described: its destructive function expresses the speaker’s intention to break the common stereotypes of communication, its ritual function serves as a password uniting the group identity, its ludic function consists in a replacement of a natural interpretation of the situation by an unexpected interpretation. Relevant features of absurdity may be characterized as deviations from common sense, or from rational approach to reality, or from congruity of interpretative scenarios.

The paper presents a study of cross-modal iconicity which is viewed as a semiotic process of mutual assimilation of signs from different modalities via similarity. The research questions are as follows: Are there differences in cross-modal iconicity that can be observed between discourses with different combinations of semiotic systems and channels? How is iconicity revealed across signs belonging to verbal and non-verbal modalities in oral speech with gestures and in written texts with visual components. Relying on multimodal discourse analyses, the author investigates the interplay of verbal and non-verbal (gestural and pictorial) modalities and compares iconicity in two types of Russian and English discourse — spoken discourse (narratives, descriptions of paintings, and recipes) and written discourse (hybrid texts for news apps). It is demonstrated that irrespective of the type of discourse cross-modal iconicity follows the general principles outlined earlier for iconicity in language — i.e., “form mimes form and structure”, and “form mimes form”. The specific nature of iconicity in the two types of discourse (i.e., “form mimes function”) is linked to the character of semiotic heterogeneity, and, for the news app texts, to the affordances of the gadget, namely, to the scroll technology that determines the vertical movement of the main story, the limited nature of hypertextuality, and the compression of some parts of discourse into headings.

The article concentrates on the study of the contact of two cultures within the triad ‘real world — mental models — world of language’. Each of the worlds is viewed through the dichotomy ‘universal vs culture-specific’. The main emphasis is on the cognitive mechanisms underlying intercultural dialogue. We come to the conclusion that at the level of cognitive systems of two cultures the mechanisms of interactive alignment and inference are prevailing, at the level of mental spaces of the participants of the dialogue the mechanism of conceptual integration is at work. The contact of two cultures involves three mental spaces: 1) the mental space of one’s own culture; 2) the mental space of “other” culture; 3) integrated intercultural mental space. The latter inherits the roles and qualities of the two input mental spaces. The integrated mental space has its own emerging structure. Each of the three mental spaces is structured by its own frame. The third mental space is a result of the conceptual blending. This mental space is at the basis of intercultural discourse. The frame of this mental space structures and builds intercultural discourse. It helps to understand other culture, to infer conceptual information and find corresponding linguistic representations in each of the two cultures. All the above mentioned cognitive mechanisms providing the basis of two cultures contact involve knowledge of mental cultural models.

The paper is devoted to the survey of chronological classifications that had been offered by the cognitive and communicative approaches to the theory of generation boundaries. These include sorting out two types of data: 1) Russian generational chronology consisting of siх generations according to the classification by V. Radayev (2019): “generation of mobilization” (1941–1955); “generation of Thaw” (1956–1963); “generation of stagnancy” (1964–1984), “generation of reforms” (1985–1999); “millennials” (2000–2016), “centennials” (reached the stage of emerging adulthood after 2017). 2) American generational chronology consisting of four generations according to the classification by J.M. Twenge: Baby-boomers (1946–1964); generation Х (1965–1979); millennials (1980–1994); centennials or I-Genners (Internet generation) (1995–2012). On the basis of these, we outline some social and cultural characteristics of the two great cultures and their young New Generation representatives.

Linguistics of information and psychological warfare explores various strategies, tactics and methods of information and psychological warfare that are meant to be verbalized in political media discourse. Special importance should be attached to manifold methods of ideological influence and manipulation of public consciousness, among which semantic manipulation represents a subject for particular scrutiny. This method implies “careful selection of words that cause either positive or negative associations and thus affect the overall perception of information”. Obviously, such lexical units that have contextually determined negative or positive connotations and generate corresponding associations include, among others, ideologemes. Thus, ideologically-bound units are an integral linguistic component of information and psychological warfare. Due to their inherent semantic ambivalence and a high degree of associativity, ideologemes become an effective tool of semantic manipulation, which can give a definitive advantage to one of the parties in the ideological struggle. Moreover, ideologemes represent an undeniable challenge for simultaneous interpreters, who turn out to become immediate participants in the unfolding information and psychological war on a par with leading politicians who are supposed to voice the official position of the state.

The article provides a study of the components of gender neutrality, which are reflected in textbooks on the English language. As an aspect of political correctness, the concept of gender neutrality in English began to develop in the second half of the last century, and, as a result, various national and international organisations began to issue guidelines on the use of gender-neutral language. The focus of these guidelines is mainly on the use of gender-neutral grammatical and lexical strategies, as well as avoiding the use of gender stereotypes. Foreign researchers in the field of TESOL consider that teachers of English should not only use these strategies in the classroom, but also analyse the materials used in the classroom according to the aforementioned criteria, as well as pay attention to the equal representation of male and female characters, personalities and case names. The article analyses 10 text-books on the English language compiled by Russian and foreign authors for their compliance with the criteria of gender neutrality. In conclusion, the article presents the results of the content analysis and concludes that it is possible to make special recommendations for authors-compilers of English-language educational literature, which would take into account some aspects of gender neutrality.

The current article focuses on the methodical aspect of providing instructional materials for teaching Chinese as a second language within an intercultural educational paradigm as a part of an effective coping strategy for students with learning difficulties. Acquiring communicative competence plays a crucial role in language learning and teaching. Therefore, competency-based approach is suggested to define the major principles of designing innovative instructional materials for students acquiring bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The article discusses the experience in teaching 1st – 3rd year students majoring in Linguistics and Intercultural Communication and focuses on topical issues related to resolving difficulties that students encounter while studying. According to the survey performed among students studying Chinese as a second language, a comparatively low level of communicative competence was demonstrated. Didactic analysis proved the lack of tasks aimed at developing pragmatic component of communicative competence in the textbooks used in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The author outlines a set of methodical principles for creating instructional materials aimed at acquiring communicative competence.

The article explores the existing linguo-didactic terms “phonetic competence”, “phonological competence”, “phonetic-phonological competence” in Russian scientific literature and defines the phenomenon within this work. The authors draw a line between phonological competence development in university students of linguistic and non-linguistic majors, as well as between productive and receptive phonological skills development considering the status of English as a lingua franca. The article reviews the main parameters of phonological competence assessment outlined in academic literature – intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness – in diachrony in order to define their relationship and suggest their translations for using in the Russian academic literature.

In The Travnic Chronicle by Yugoslavian author Ivo Andrich the reader follows the fate of the French consul Daville, his family and his colleagues who arrived in the small Bosnian town of Travnic in 1806. Thus, there is a conflict of cultural traditions of the West and the East here. One of the lines of that conflict is a conflict of two eating habits, the French one and the Bosnian one. The author of the article set a task of establishing the criteria of how to compare them. For this purpose, an analysis of the French culinary books, which reflect the relevant historical time, has been made. The result is the conclusion that members of the French society who had arrived in Travnik were used to tender, light, velvety, melting-in-the-mouth, fragrant, not too greasy food. Dishes typical of the French cuisine were fluffy smooth cooked using lard, butter, dairy cream, sour cream. Each dish had a certain sauce to go with it. Food was flavoured mainly with local herbs but in minimum quantities. Beef and pork prevailed among types of meat. Menus, even for children, had wines on them. Wine was an ingredient of many sauces. Coffee, which originated in Turkey, was served together with milk, dairy cream, liquors, and strong drinks. The identified and singled out reference positions will further assist in comparing the French cuisine with the Bosnian one and showing to what degree the problems encountered by the character of the novel, a native of Paris, who happened to be in Bosnia at the time, were the result of his personal eating preferences or presented a naturally determined conflict of cultures.

The cultural space of any country, region or city is an open book, a special text, the “reading” of which is an exciting and important professional occupation for a linguist, geographer, culturologist. Indeed, it holds, and for novice researchers withholds, deep layers of history and culture. At the same time, the history of a city or country, expressed in monuments and toponyms, always carries symbolic connotations. A monument commemorating the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, even if it does not possess high artistic merit, is a symbol of the victory of our people over the dark forces. Thus, the massive destruction of monuments to Soviet heroes in Eastern Europe means not only the erasure of an important layer of collective memory, but also – symbolically – the rehabilitation of Nazism. This work is devoted to the analysis of changes in the geocultural space during 2015–2020 in The Southern United States in relation to new interpretations of Confederate cultural heritage.

This article deals with the issues related to the preservation of traditional culture in times of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today the world is mostly concerned about the biological aspects of the problem: when the pandemic will end, what the consequences will be, and how many people will survive. Another aspect that is given prominence is the economic effects, which for many nations are also connected with the issues of survival, prospects of massive impoverishment, unemployment and famine. Next on the scale of modern values comes the political dimension of the problem: not all country leaders and political systems have stood the test of a serious crisis. Finally, at the bottom of the list are cultural issues, “culture” understood in a broad sense as a way of life, traditions, mentality, communication patterns (both at the local and international level) of the world’s different peoples. Clearly, the crisis of “culture” does not immediately provoke any tragic outcomes – death, famine, disease – but it has far-reaching, delayed consequences, which, in a sense, are no less disastrous than biological, economic or political ones. These issues are discussed in this article.

The article examines the color values of the French language through the prism of gender issues and the processes taking place in the modern French society. The gender semantics of color designations is studied from the point of view of biological and socio-cultural characteristics of men and women, as well as taking into account marketing communications aimed at creating “male” and “female” color names for consumer goods. Cultural and social changes are reflected in the color category, in particular, in the gender semantics of the color of everyday goods. The article analyzes the color nominations of cosmetics and cars from the point of view of gender stereotypes that are introduced into the minds of consumers according to sociocultural norms that determine the psychological qualities, behaviors and activities of a person. Marketers and designers use gender differences when nominating a new color shade of a product in order to maximize its compliance with the value priorities of the consumer, which are changing in the context of globalization and reducing the differentiation of the social roles of men and women. In order to interpret the gender semantics of color values, the article presents the results of a free associative psycholinguistic experiment, during which the presence of values was recorded, both coinciding in the representation of men and women, and demonstrating the features of associative fields in conceptual pictures of the world.

The author examines compositional and stylistic features of law-related posts as a cross-genre of popular legal discourse, functioning in a virtual setting. Posts comprise hybridity of different types and levels. The combination of verbal and non-verbal elements makes posts polycode and enhances the impact of the online media text on the target audience. Legal terms and professional expressions are implanted into the texts of posts (linear hybridization). Much attention is given to multiple intertextual connections, represented by the use of allusions and cross-genre inclusions. Elements of institutional and personal discourse are intertwined, which is characteristic of virtual discourse. A mention is made of verbal indicators of popular legal discourse, which enables the reader/listener to easily identify and typologize the communicative situation as law-related. A wide variety of figurative and evaluative tools (emotionally colored words, fashionable words, metaphors, rhetorical questions, etc.) is employed by text authors to make a profound emotional impact on the target audience. The main goal of the articles of the post genre which belongs to computer-mediated popular legal discourse is to popularize the law and convince the audience to follow its norms, which determines the choice of appropriate discourse strategies and tactics.

The article deals with the issue of the British pronunciation norm and the changes in it in the course of the last few decades. Both segmental and suprasegmental features of phonation are considered with the aim of describing the most noticeable phenomena that characterize Standard Southern British as the norm of today and distinguish it from Received Pronunciation as the norm of the past. A comparative study of several pronouncing dictionaries starting from the earliest one published at the end of the 19th century to the latest one has made it possible to verify the changes in the phonemic as well as the phonetic composition of words. A large corpus of authentic recorded speech has been subjected to analysis through the prism of observations made by British phoneticians concerning the recent changes in the articulation of vowels and consonants. A few most obvious changes in the pitch movement of British English have been commented upon as their influence on the Russian language is impossible to ignore. No less important was the issue of the system of terminology used when describing the British pronunciation standard: as it reflects the changing nature of the norm, its overview helped to clarify the nature of the changes themselves.