Articles

The article attempts to establish a connection between the linguistic theories of F.F. Fortunatov and A.A. Potebnya. It is known that in nouns that name people and animals important to humans, the grammatical meanings of gender indicate their biological sex. As for the nouns that name inanimate objects, as well as some other animals, their grammatical meanings of gender for quite a long time were estimated by linguists as relics of an ancient form of thinking incomprehensible to modern people. However, if we consider the grammatical meanings of gender as a component of the inner form of the word, it becomes clear that when creating words, the meanings of the masculine gender were used to indicate the presence of such properties in objects that are inherent in male beings, such as their relatively greater activity, larger size, greater strength and greater independence. In turn, feminine grammatical meanings reflected the absence of these properties. The article emphasizes the similarity between the grammatical meanings of gender of nouns and the inner forms of words in their traditional lexicological understanding: (1) in different languages, the names of the same objects can have different grammatical gender meanings, (2) at the time of the appearance of a word, its inner form indicate the connection between the word and its lexical meaning, but over time inner forms can be obscured or lost, (3) like the traditional inner forms, the grammatical meanings of gender can either represent one of the components of the lexical meaning of the word, or may be part of its connotations.

Interdisciplinary research in the field of consciousness and ways of its representation using verbal and nonverbal codes seems to be particularly fruitful at the intersection of linguistics and philosophy, psychology and biology, medicine and neuroscience. Linguistic consciousness is considered in the works of E.S. Kubryakova (2012), R.I. Pavilionis (1983), L.S. Vygodsky (2018), A.N. Leontiev (1975). The information theories of consciousness in philosophy are analyzed in the works of D.A. Fodor (1987), F. Dretske (1981), D.I. Dubrovsky (2015), D. Chalmers (2013). The information theory of consciousness is applied as the basis of the conception of the spiral development of the meaning of a proper name. The concept of onomastic knowledge is analyzed, the conceptual complex structures, which serve as a basis for the mental representations of onomastic knowledge, are given. The concept of onomastic consciousness is introduced as part of the linguistic consciousness responsible for the formation and development of onomastic competence. The definition of onomastic competence is given as the ability to encode information using proper names, both of individualizing and characterizing nature, as well as the ability to manipulate proper names in all variety of systemic and discursive functions to achieve the goal of communication. The analysis of the cognitive-functional specifics of proper names is given on the examples of the novels “Piranesi” by S. Clark and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” by Q. Tarantino. The specifics of the proper name as an objectifier of consciousness and onomastic competence as an indicator of the formation and development of onomastic consciousness are analyzed. According to the information theory of consciousness, onomastic consciousness determines the meaning of proper names.

The paper deals with the feature of verbal and visual semiotic systems peculiar to historical discourse. The relevance of the research is determined by the necessity to identify the correlation of verbal and visual means used by historians in the transmission of information. The methodology of the article is based on the research works of home and foreign scholars. The methods that have been used in the research are: the method of discursive analysis, the method of linguistic analysis, the method of interpretive analysis. As a result of the analysis of historical discourse it has been established that the appeal to various semiotic systems facilitates and streamlines the assimilation of information about the events of the historical past of mankind, preserving the memory of them in the images proposed by the historians. History, which is not given to historians in their immediate experience, is reconstructed by them by means of different semiotic systems. The verbal code reinforced by the visual one sets a certain perception of historical events as they are viewed by historians. In historical discourse, the use of different semiotic systems in the transmission of the most significant historical events is necessary to attract the attention of recipients to them in order to change not only their perception, but also to transform the basic dominants of their mental space, in which the events of the historical past that are not reproduced in experience are reconstructed.

Any interpretation training programme aspiring to excellence must be closely connected with the professional world and make effective use of innovative teaching methods, cooperation with external stakeholders, and modern technologies in order to ensure a high quality of learning. This paper focuses on the different aspects of ‘quality’ in light of the advent of new technologies and the changing nature of the interpreting profession. Interpretation training programmes must learn today how to prepare a widely employable interpreter to survive the pressures of the professional world. A scenario-based approach, that simulates work-like situations, is effective in interpretation training. The paper will focus on mock conferences, as its most effective teaching practice. Mock conferences help to enhance the authenticity and diversity of lifelike situations in class, provide the students with contextualised practice that helps to develop non-linguistic competences. The latest technologies, e.g. ICTs, AI, etc., offer a new degree of automation to all professional language mediation activities, calling for a rethinking of the interpreter’s skillset. The future will accommodate both artificial and human interpreting, and the bar for humans will be raised. The interpretation students must learn how to use the latest technologies for the benefit of the client. A new, augmented interpreter profile includes the combination of the classical competences (interpretation, language and cultural, interpersonal, ethical, etc.) and technological competences which must be used for the benefit of the client and the events at which the interpreter works. The paper also explores the value added by human interpretation to communication, such as depth of message comprehension, teamwork, shared responsibility and liability and, most importantly, the value of the ‘interpreter who cares’.

The article deals with the mechanisms of generation and functioning of spontaneous speech and their influence on the interpreter’s spontaneous speech during simultaneous interpreting. The subject of the research is spontaneous speech in simultaneous interpretation, the object of research is functional notional types of oral speech which serve as the foundation for the algorithm of expressing the main idea of the message. Depending on the functional notional type of spontaneous speech that can be considered as the dominant one in the source message, the interpreter faces different challenges. Following the original message too closely may lead to an abundance of self-corrections, repetitions, slips of the tongue in the interpreter’s spontaneous speech, which, together with confusing syntactic constructions, make it difficult for the audience to understand the target message. Interpreting simultaneously at a higher cognitive level within the model of comparative cognitive transformations, which takes into account algorithms of expressing the main idea, the interpreter can produce a more coherent and smooth spontaneous speech in the target language based on the cognitive essence as a result of thought transformation of the original message. Pragmatic orientation of spontaneous speech predetermines methods of compression as a tool of pragmatic adaptation of the original message within the cognitive pragmatic circle of oral communication, which can be extrapolated to different functional styles of speech and types of discourse.

This article presents a review of the monograph titled “Constructions of Threat in Pre-electoral Discourse. Linguocognitive Analysis of papers and programs of the 2018 presidential campaign” by A.A. Romanov and O.V. Novosyolova. The authors examined different factors related to pre-election communication, such as cognitive-discursive, psycholinguistic, and pragmalinguistic factors. They analyzed representative material and used topical linguistic analysis methods, including Diatone, an automated program for analyzing textual data in pre-election communication. They also examined the emotional-suggestive impact of pre-election programmes. Prof. A.A. Romanov and O.V. Novosyolova’s monograph is topical since it is grounded upon present-day trends of conducting linguistic analysis on the basis of one of the genres of political discourse in a comprehensive manner. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it is the first time such a massive investigation has been completed. The results of the book under study significantly contribute to further development of various linguistic theories, such as pragmalinguistics, speech act theory, functional semantics, communication theory as well as political discourse, cognitive semantics, and communicative-pragmatic constructivism. The practical value of this research is evident in the sphere of political linguistics as well as in teaching courses such as “Topical Issues of Present-day Linguistics”, “Methods of Linguistic Analysis”, “Modern Political Discourse”. It also contributes to integration of new courses into programmes that explore interaction between language and thinking, language and speech, and language and society from a political science perspective.

The academic program of the course is based on the author’s many years of experience in theoretical and field research on ethnic cultures of Russia and in teaching the course “Cultures of the peoples of Russia” to students of the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Moscow State University. The interdisciplinary and comparative approaches served as the theoretical foundation of this course. Thematically, the material is grouped according to the types of cultures of the peoples of Russia: semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen of the north; nomads of the steppes and mountains; settled mountaineers of the Caucasus; settled inhabitants of the plains; diasporas of the peoples of the near abroad, far from their ancestral homelands. To create a comprehensive picture of the studied peoples, the main attention is focused on the continuity of culture in the following way: from autochthonous traditions to modern professional art (ethnic literature, music, painting, and cinema). Different types of ethnic art and literature are regarded in the context of the processes of cultural identification of peoples in the context of globalization.

This article presents a comparative analysis of criticism of conventional academic history, formulated in E. Wolfe’s book “Europe and the People Without History” and Dipesh Chakrabarty’s “Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference”. Critics address positivism, eurocentrism, progressivism, and stadial history, which Chakrabarty refers to as “historicism”. In the first part, the author explains the meaning of Chakrabarty’s concept of “historicism” and summarizes Wolfe’s description of conventional history, which fits in this concept. The second part focuses on the various elements of their criticism. In the third part we present quotes that showcase how both scholars strive to write history outside of the confines of the historicist paradigm.

Foreign languages have always occupied a prominent place in Russia and Russian culture. Despite the apparent isolation from the outside world, Russia has always been closely connected with this world. And not only through obvious trade and political relations, but also by spiritual and cultural ties. The first significant reason for the spread of foreign languages in society was the adoption of Christianity, which brought not only a new faith, but the Greek language along with theological books. The entire subsequent history of the formation and development of the country, all the key historical epochs and events in Russia are in one way or another connected with the problem of the outside world, primarily with the European one — even in those cases, quite frequent in Russian history, when this world was rejected, criticized and was considered a necessary evil, from which it was preferable to fence off with some kind of curtain. Over time, all new foreign languages spread in society, sometimes even entering into conflict: Latin with Greek in the theological field, German with French in the political field, French with English in the literary field. In certain historical periods, for example, in the first half of the 19th century, foreign languages even supplanted the native in a certain social environment and became a reason for unrest regarding the loss of national identity. And sometimes, such as during the Soviet era, these languages were deemed “dead languages”, serving solely as a tribute to tradition and a tool for reading. However, they always retained their important role, opening up new horizons for the Russian people and connecting them with the outside world.

The article explores adaptation as a means of rendering fictional realia. Fictional realia (also known as quasi-realia and irrealia) are understood as a special kind of linguistic realia (culture-specific items) that exist within the genre of speculative fiction. These lexical units describe various aspects of fictional worlds: flora, fauna, everyday life, social and political structure, etc. Adaptation in general is defined as a specific form of intercultural and interlingual mediation that relies heavily on capabilities and necessities of a target audience. Unlike regular translation, adaptation does not necessarily strive to preserve formal and, in some cases, semantic features of the original text. Adaption can be used for different purposes: to make a text more comprehensible to a target audience, to influence a reader in a specific way, etc. When it comes to rendering fictional realia, adaptation can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, it can be defined as adaptation of fictional objects, concepts, and phenomena to reality (when fictional realia are replaced by their real counterparts). And secondly, it can be understood as linguacultural adaptation that is conditioned by cultural and linguistic differences between an original and a target audience. The article primarily focuses on the second type of fictional realia adaptation. The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood are used as source material for the study. The article draws connections between fictional realia adaptation and creation of new fictional realia (a means of rendering fictional realia that can be defined as either giving a new name to an existing fictional realia or introduction of a completely new fictional realia).

Under the explanatory indicators of the meanings of unknown words, we mean such a way of revealing the meanings of words that are incomprehensible or obscure to readers, when the author accompanies these words with an explanatory comment. The purpose of this work is to analyze various ways of using explanatory indicators in the translation of F. Abramov’s novel “Two Winters and Three Summers” into English. In the course of the work, the following was established. Firstly, explanatory indicators are the most effective indicators of the meanings of unknown words, however, as a rule, they are used only in such literary texts that do not create the illusion of reflecting the events described by any of the characters and are clearly addressed to uninformed readers. Secondly, an effective way to translate Russian unknown words into English is practical transcription, it can preserve the phonetic features of the Russian language. Practical transcription is not used independently; explanatory indicators of meanings are often accompanied in translations by practical transcription. Thirdly, explanatory indicators can be used in the translated text in one of three ways: (1) replacing the Russian unknown words with a description of the meaning of the word in the translation (i.e., semantic translation); (2) replacement of the Russian unknown words in the translation with an approximate English equivalent, after which the meaning of the word is specified by means of a semantic translation; (3) replacement of the Russian unknown words with a practical transcription in the translation, followed by an explanatory commentary on the word.

The article determines the new term intervarietal, or intermediary translation and explains why the need for integrating this type of translation into curricula has been enhanced today. The challenges of intervarietal translation are viewed in the framework of L. Smith’s theory of intelligibility in intercultural communication — in the aspect of form, semantics, and pragmatics. These problems are directly related to studying varieties of the pluricentric English language, though they are also significant for studying other pluricentric European languages. The most urgent need for today’s translation practice is in study East Asian Englishes, translation of which results in a number of mistakes, since translators from European languages do not know the specifics of Asian Romanizations, transfer features typical of Asian English users, or Asian cultures. Based on syllabi of the LMSU Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, we have shown the possibility of integrating studying these problems in translation curricula.

Eponymous terminology plays an important role in medicine: it is impossible to imagine an area of study in which there would not be used compound terms with an onomastic component or common nouns derived from onyms. Nevertheless, there is an ambiguous attitude towards eponymous terms in the scientific community. From the point of view of displaying linguistic and cultural-historical information, the most important function which is realized in the eponymous terms with an anthroponomic core is the commemorative function. The aim of this study is to analyze the commemorative function of the eponymous terms of clinical neurosciences (neurology and psychiatry). Practical material is taken from MedicineNet.com. During the study, using the method of continuous sampling, 155 eponymous terms were selected. The study made it possible to identify the following problems of the current state of the terminological system of neurology and psychiatry: the use of patients’ surnames as an eponymous component of the term along with the surnames of doctors; inaccuracy of information about the history of the study of diseases associated with the perpetuation in terms of the names of doctors who are not pioneers; the presence in the terminology of negatively colored onyms associated with the ideologists and accomplices of Nazism.

The article is devoted to the description of peculiarities of the structure of news text (media-text) in Internet discourse, which from the structural point of view is a complex communicative unity of text, hypertext, dynamic (static) image and sound, providing non-linear, multi-channel, multi-layered and multi-dimensional perception of the conceptual meaning of the text. A distinctive structural feature of a media text, the main function of which in today’s media space is to manipulate and shape the recipient’s opinion, is its shaping in accordance with the model of an advertising text, based on the key strategies of an advertising message construction. The purpose of this article is to analyze the structural characteristics of news text (media-text) as the main form of information and psychological impact realization. The authors conclude that a modern news text resorts to the use of rhetorical and organizational techniques to influence the target audience, using appropriate advertising techniques. Creating it, the addresser is guided by different linguopragmatic principles. A model of a media-text similar to an advertising text seems to be justified as it is a part of a unified consumer society, where advertising and online discourse have defined the main patterns of interaction between the addresser and the addressee.

The article deals with the problem of semantic perception of a poetic text, in which the reader’s attention is de-automized by such foregrounding technique as the defamiliarization of the inner form of the word. Relying on the methodological frameworks of creative linguistics and cognitive linguistics, the author of the article aims at describing the inner-form-defamiliarization technique in terms of its functioning in poetic speech. Particular attention is devoted to identifying the factors of verbal and conceptual creativity, which determine the possibility of speech conventions transformations in poetry. The article provides a terminological clarification of the notions of “the inner form of the language” and “the inner form of the word”; emphasis is placed on the importance of studying these phenomena from the non-conventional meaning construction perspective. It is shown that the technique of the inner form defamiliarization has a complex implementation in poetry and contributes to performing a number of interrelated functions of the poetic language — cognitive, expressive, poetic and metalinguistic. Based on the examples of Arkadii Dragomoshchenko’s essays from the book “Phosphorus” and Charles Bernstein’s essay-poem “Artifice of Absorption”, the linguo-creative intentions of the poets are reconstructed. The techniques of the inner form defamiliarization, typical of these poets, are described, including poetic etymologization of the word through its occasional definition; paronomasia; renomination and attribution of occasional formmeaning motivation to the word. The cognitive universality of linguo-creative techniques of the inner form defamiliarization is described in relation to general functional mechanisms for switching and developing verbal associations, which provide for the non-conventional meaning construction.