Articles

The article examines the ethnocultural features of the teacher’s image, identified on the basis of the analysis of linguistic data of the Russian and Chinese languages. The study was carried out on the material of dictionaries and text corpora of the two languages. The purpose of the work is to determine the general and national-specific features in the formation of the teacher’s image in the Russian and Chinese languages. The object of the study is the definitions of the words eacher / female teacher in the dictionaries of the Russian and Chinese languages, as well as comparisons, proverbs, sayings, precedent statements about the teacher in the Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures. National-cultural coding of the teacher’s image also occurs with the help of a number of cultural standards that differently reflect the dominant features of this concept as a socio-cultural value characterizing Russian and Chinese cultures. The study revealed that in Russian the words teacher and female teacher differ in their evaluative and value-based conceptualization. By established tradition, education in contemporary Russian schools is predominantly associated with the image of a woman, that is, the female teacher. In Chinese culture, the teacher in gender terms is traditionally often described as a man, a noble man. In Chinese culture and its linguistic reflection, the image of the teacher occupies a strong, unshakable position, determined by the ideas of Confucius. In Russian linguoculture, the image of the teacher receives additional connotations due to socio-economic factors. The results of this study can be used in lexicographic practice and in teaching Russian and Chinese.

The commemorative discourse of the state leader, reflecting the memorial culture of the national audience, is a conceptual and linguistic unity capable of determining the vectors of national ideology and the social existence logic. The study focuses on the commemorative acts of Philip VI’s institutional communication, their communicative parameters and discursive components. The present article attempts to identify the verbalisation peculiarities of the intentionally conditioned linguocognitive patterns of memory in the Philip VI’s institutional discourse at the level of selected linguistic means (linguistic forms and strategies), as well as to determine the principles of mnemic content selection that justify its modification. The research is carried out taking into account the theoretical approaches adopted in the memory studies and linguomnemology. Public commemoration as a basic component of the monarch’s communicative practice is considered to be a purposeful state policy aimed at actualizing a reference event/name in the national collective memory.

This article explores cognitive strategies for translating Russian medical terminology into Chinese. The aim of the study is to identify and classify approaches that ensure precise and conceptually adequate rendering of medical terms in the context of linguistic and cultural asymmetry. The research employs methods of cognitive and contrastive analysis, translation studies approaches, examination of lexical formation models, as well as analysis of corpus data and medical reference materials. The study investigates four key mechanisms of term formation: word formation, terminologization of common language units, abbreviation, and metaphorization. For each mechanism, relevant cognitive translation strategies are identified, including conceptual expansion, explicative calquing, and the construction of cross-linguistic terminological maps that reflect differences in cognitive models. Special attention is given to challenges arising from the translation of homonymous and latent metaphorical units, as well as culturally marked terms. The article introduces the concept of conceptual adaptation—the process of integrating a medical concept into a different linguistic and cultural worldview, based on cognitive models such as frames and prototype schemas. The findings confirm that high-quality medical translation is only possible through the integration of linguistic knowledge, a cognitive approach to meaning modeling, and professional understanding of the specialized domain. The proposed strategies may be applied in translator training programs and in the practice of medical and scientific translation between Russian and Chinese.

The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of problems arising during the translation of feature films related to differences in cultural-historical contexts and sociolinguistic specificities across different countries. It examines mechanisms for transferring intertextual phenomena present in movies as well as processes involved in forming and functioning ideologemes— key symbolic constructs representing fundamental ethnic cultural values. Special attention is given to preserving the uniqueness of national cultural components in language transfer since adaptation often leads to loss of important ethnocultural characteristics. Specific examples of unsuccessful translation solutions applied to Russian and Italian films are provided, emphasizing the necessity of taking into account conceptual cultural specificity and developing effective methodologies for translating audiovisual materials that adequately preserve the author’s artistic intent. The findings highlight the importance of further development of theory and practice in analyzing cinema within modern global cultural environments. This research will be valuable for specialists working on issues concerning intercultural communication, linguistic-cultural studies, and translation science.

The paper examines interdiscursivity in fiction and focuses on the inclusion of Latin entomosemisms (insect names) which indicate the name of the species and their genus. The study shows that these inclusions are not uncommon in fiction, in particular in adventure, science fiction and autobiographical prose. The analyzed material shows that Latin names do not always emphasize the scientific nature of the text, but can also impart grotesqueness and irony to it. In addition, it is noted that this technique is more typical of the prose of the 19th and 20th centuries, rather than of contemporary literature.

The purpose of the paper is to discuss and point out the urgent necessity to constantly introduce modern linguistic methods into classrooms when teaching foreign languages at a university level. In particular, one of the problems, which characterises modern educational environment as far as professional linguistic training is concerned, comes as a result of both constant upgrading of professional standards and changes in communication media and environment. One possible way to address the problem is to introduce into the process analytical methods based on shared theoretical foundations in psychological and pedagogical sciences as well as in philology. The paper illustrates the step-by-step analysis of the British polycode (multimodal) text heavily loaded with double meanings. The latter require students’ cultural awareness. As the basic theoretical ground, C. Jung’s archetypes were chosen. When applied to lexicographic data, “Macbeth” by W. Shakespeare and British political cartoon by J. Gillray, this theory allowed to demonstrate the changes. Thus, the archetype of the Sage (Old Wizard) became blended with the image of the witch, which also obtained certain archetypical features. The research offers etymological analysis of the key lexemes. All these further serve as the ground for constructing problem-based tasks, aimed at developing polycode competence and cultural awareness of students in the course of their professional linguistic training. Some experimental data are also provided.

The article presents the corpus-assisted research of the functional potential of the colon in the Russian-French language pair. For the data description, a three-part structure was determined. Following that structural model, a contrastive analysis of the colon was performed in order to uncover and then describe its functional potential in the studied language pair, which allowed to solve the following tasks: 1) to calculate the frequency of the colon in the compared languages; 2) to clarify its functional potential there; 3) to identify the zones of functional symmetry and asymmetry. The main information tool is a supracorpora database that stores parallel texts from the Russian National Corpus. It allows for generating the search queries to process the punctuation component in parallel texts. Corpus-based contrastive studies of punctuation are directly related to current challenges i n computer science. They are essential for designing a range of modern AI-based information products, particularly next-generation voice assistants. Additionally, their findings will contribute to improving machine translation technologies. They will aid in calibrating and refining the training of machine translation systems to account for punctuation differences between source and target languages. Moreover, these results will be of use in advancing AI-driven subtitling technologies.

The article discusses emergence and development of words whose roots have been borrowed from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and have undergone further derivation in Russian. The author argues that this is an intermediary case between loanwords and foreign words that have not yet fully assimilated in the recipient language. The article provides for the semantic classification of East Asian loan roots, loanword classification into parts of speech among which are not only nouns but also many adjectives and even some verbs and adverbs. Semantic development of several derivatives is dwelt on. Characteristics and roles of affixes in East Asian loanwords are discussed. Variant forms of some derivatives are also a focus of this study, as well as the reasons for variability. In conclusion, the author draws attention to the mediating role of global English that brings in new concepts to other languages and cultures. These concepts, when verbalized, get local forms thanks to the derivational means of the recipient language.

Today the need to teach a foreign language in the context of a dialogue of cultures and civilizations is obvious. Therefore, a deep linguodidactic study of culture-specific aspects of a studied language is necessary. Idioms, as a storage of a culture’s memory and means of increasing expressiveness of a statement, are an important part of a student’s linguistic repertoire on the level of communicative proficiency C1-C1+. That level generally corresponds to the level of Master’s degree students majoring in ‘Linguistics’. 

This paper gives an insight into developing Master’s degree students’ idiomatic competence, as well as clarifies the term ‘idiomatic competence’ for the field of higher education. Linguodidactic analysis of 10 student books on idioms shows a lack of problem-solving tasks. In addition, the necessity of implementing communicative training for contextually acceptable use of idiomatic expressions in professional oral and written foreign language speech is substantiated. In the end, the author presents methodological fundamentals for idiomatic enrichment of Master’s degree students’ public speech, and describes the principles of organizing a system of interconnected cultural and linguocultural problem-solving tasks and assignments.

The article discusses the changes in the state final certification program for students in the field of “Linguistics,” profile “Intercultural Communication,” that occurred in the 2023-2024 academic year. In the context of globalization and the increasing significance of intercultural communication, the relevance of using portfolios as an assessment tool is emphasized, as it allows for an expanded testing construct and a deeper reflection of students’ knowledge and skills. A detailed description of the new structure of the state final exam is provided, which includes all communicative activities: reception, mediation, interaction, as well as production, representing both oral and written speech. These changes are aimed at developing comprehensive skills in students that are necessary for successful interaction in a multilingual environment.

The article also addresses changes in the procedures and assessment criteria, which allow for a more objective evaluation of students’ achievements. Key stages of the exam preparation course are analyzed in detail, highlighting potential organizational, methodological, and psychological challenges that both students and instructors may encounter. The experience of conducting the exam is summarized, including feedback from the subject-examining commission and students, as well as a discussion of the impact of format changes on learning and exam preparation, underscoring the importance of adapting the educational process to contemporary requirements.

Bernhard Schlink’s novel “The Reader” belongs to the kind of works of fiction that are referred to as “remembrance and reminders” literature, thus this narrative fits into the commemorative discourse, particularly in the dimension explored by the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs. This pertains to the congruence of such concepts as individual memory and collective memory, or in other words, autobiographical and historical memory. Later, Halbwachs’s theory would be further developed by German Egyptologist Jan Assmann, who distinguished between “living” memory, which is born in the process of direct communication, and symbolically cultural, existing within the framework of societal representations. The idea of overlapping two memory types and the possibility of their “ratification” by the memory bearer was formulated by the French researcher in the book “Les Cadres Sociaux de la Memoire” a hundred years ago, in 1925. However, the relevance of this book is obvious today and more than at the time of its publication. B. Schlink’s novel becomes a vivid illustration of the problem of the rejection of the young generation of Germany in the first decade after World War II of collective memory in favor of individual memory, as well as an attempt to comprehend this socio-historical discourse. The aim of the work is to study the process of collective memory formation in post-war Germany depicted in the novel, refracted through the prism of personal perception of the cultural narrative.

M.Y. Lermontov’s poem “The Village”, published in 1841, presents two conceptually different geographical images — the image of a small Homeland (a picture-image) and the image of greater Russia (a map-image). However, a number of researchers of the poet’s work overlooked this distinction, assuming that the second image is merely a generalization of the first.

The article discusses the problem of figurative dichotomy, its origins and the fundamental difference between the two types of geographical images of the country conceived by the writer.

A picture-image, or a literary landscape, presupposes a vertical type of perception by the artist of the surrounding world (perception of a person standing on the ground). A literary landscape, unlike a painted landscape, is not a separate genre, although individual works of the so-called “nature lyrics” may have independent significance. An important spatial characteristic of the literary landscape is its pronounced locality: as a rule, it encompasses a range of several kilometers from the observer’s vantage point.

The map-image suggests a different type of perception of the surrounding world. This is an image of the world from above, from a bird’s-eye view. Therefore, this geographical image is bounded not by the limits of sight, but by the author’s thought.

While the landscape image represents the nearby world, the small homeland, the spatial image — or map-image — represents the vast expanse of greater Russia.

The research focuses on a pragmalinguistic analysis of popular legal discourse texts and identifying their communicative tonality determined by the communication situation and individual features of the speaker’s linguistic personality. It is revealed that the model tonality of the hybrid discourse under consideration is the informative communicative tonality, aimed at providing the non-expert addressee with patterns of behavior in specific legal situations. However, unlike the pre-programmed tonality of the basic legal discourse, the dominant tonality of popular legal discourse is often subject to re-accentuation. Thus, the invariant informative tonality can be combined with humorous, ideological, fascinative and other types of tonality as “overtones” of the dominant tonality. It is shown that irony based on the contrast between the explicit and implicit meanings of the author’s statement is the most frequent mode of re-accentuation in the texts of the discourse under analysis. A change in tonality, which engages the emotional memory, facilitates the perception by the non-expert addressee of complex specialized information during its linear unfolding in the text. The author also establishes a direct connection between the ideological tonality of popular legal discourse and Russian cultural values.

The article is devoted to the study of ideological modality in contemporary English press discourse. From a wide spectrum of modal-evaluative relations the category of ideological modality deals with the attitudes that reflect certain political views and ideological values. In press discourse this category is constituted on the basis of textual components, used to transmit ideologically charged meanings and interpretations, thus making it possible to describe objectively the level of ideological intensity of a text on the basis of the analysis of its linguistic and textual characteristics. The author analyzes the category of ideological modality within the theoretical frameworks of media linguistics, proceeding from the key definition of a media text as a consistent combination of verbal and media components actualized in a certain format and integrated by common message. The study of ideological modality has been conducted on the material of the news and analytical commentary texts from the British and American quality press representing different political orientation (liberal and conservative), which allows us to single out and describe substantial differences in the use of language means for the actualization of the category in question. On the verbal level, ways of expressing ideological modality embrace a wide spectrum of language means, including the use of evaluative words and word-combinations, lexical units with negative and positive connotations and ideologically charged nominations.

The phenomenon of a politician’s linguistic personality is of particular interest in modern political linguistics. The reference to the speech of the former Prime Minister of Great Britain Rishi Sunak, related to the sphere of political communication, is made, as it allows us to form an evaluative idea of the persuasiveness of a politician as a public figure. Th e object of this study is the use of hedge processing tools in the American political discourse. Hedges, representing an open set of speech fencing tools actualized in the context (lexical, grammatical, syntactic, stylistic, prosodic), are actively used by politicians in various genres and subgenres of political discourse and serve to more fully reveal the portrait of the linguistic personality. An appeal to the pragmatics of speech fencing tools as discursive markers of idiostyle in the structure of a specific linguistic personality allows us to identify various types of discursive markers in the idiodiscourse of the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and determine their communicative and pragmatic function. An analysis of the main discursive markers of speech fencing allowed us to conclude that the choice of one or another hedge marker is influenced by the personal characteristics of the politician, his psychological state, as well as the extralinguistic context.