Moscow University Bulletin. Series 19. Linguistics and Intercultural Communication. 2021. 2.

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.

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 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 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 article is devoted to the problem of the emergence of new words, and together with them concepts and new symbols in the language. The semantic meanings of words may symbolize different concepts in different linguistic cultures. A special role in this process belongs to the cognitive functions of the language, while communication and cognition exist in the indissoluble connection and depend directly on cultural-historical, socio-political, economic, industrial characteristics of the society.

The article discusses the problem of productivity in culture and language in its positive (derivative) and negative (secondary) aspects. The author focuses on the role of derivative (secondary) mental and linguistic structures from the perspective of a cognitive approach. He analyses secondary functions, elements, systems, as well as the principles and mechanisms of their formation in the contexts of conceptual and language derivation and in terms of two main trends in language change: conceptual-linguistic (the structure and content change in the encyclopedic and linguistic knowledge) and formal-linguistic (new language units and expressions construction). The author argues the positive or negative effect of productivity regarding the nature of the associated processes of manipulation by primary verbal structures, taking into account the collective and individual aspects of these processes, as well as from the point of view of the primary and secondary interpretation of the world and knowledge of the world in language. As an example of the positive aspect of productivity the author considers creativity, the emergence of new meaning, the reproduction of any ideas in a new form and connects it with the construction of new knowledge about the world of the collective level or with re-structuring of the previously obtained knowledge. To the negative aspects the author attributes the processes of manipulation by verbal and non-verbal structures using illegal or not entirely legal means which are manifested in plagiarism, compilation of parts of the works of other authors, non-legitimate borrowings, kitsch in culture, science and language.

L1 learning consists not only in acquiring phonological, grammatical, lexical, etc. prescriptions of a Saussurean ‘langue’ as a system of signs, but also in subconscious inferences concerning prototypical usage and creativity measures of linguistic signs actually used by adult native speakers in communication. L2 acquisition by adults differs from L1 acquisition due to practical limitations. Multilingual text corpora are helpful as a means of overcoming this deficit of information. Non-native speakers relying on statistics of the right-hand and left-hand contexts of lexical items, and not only on frequency of separate lexical items, can measure the degree of creativity of original texts and of their own linguistic production in a foreign language. Thus, the English phrase ‘highly likely’ is used in English texts rather differently from the way it is cited and understood outside English texts proper, e. g. in Russian mass media. The paper analyzes statistics and semantics of the contexts of the English expression ‘highly likely’ and its synonyms in a big English corpus of original texts. Thus, in my English corpus, ‘highly likely’ is less frequent than ‘highly unlikely’, which signals negative rather than positive expectations of the propositions supplied with such hedges. These and similar data are compared with the use of their correspondences in a big Russian corpus of original texts. Pragmatic and semantic differences of these expressions in Russian and in English have to do with expectations, connotations and ‘implied inferences’ not always immediately perceived by Russian speakers citing the fashionable English phrase in their Russian discourse. The Russian transliteration of the English phrase, and not the literal translation, may be the only adequate way of rendering irony in trans-cultural communication.

The study of the phenomenon of plurality / diversity is a relevant topic related to the interaction of language, society and culture cf. the concept of “multiple modernities”; “multiple sociality”; “multiple person”, “plurality of culture and language”, etc. The phenomenon of plurality / diversity in language and culture has several interpretations and terms corresponding to these interpretations, which are close but not identical to those adopted in Russian and French-speaking scientific literature: pluriculturalism / plurilingualism; multiculturalism / multilingualism; pluriculturalisme/plurilinguisme; multiculturalisme / multilinguisme. Considering the concepts of D.V. Ivanov, Z. Bauman, B. Lahir V. Feussi, M. Bernardot et al., the article discusses the concept of multiple heterogeneous formations reflected in the language, the components of which do not have clear boundaries and freely flow into one another. The article examines the functioning and interconnection of a number of French lexemes: pluralité, diversité, hétérogénéité, mobilité, mobiliser, motilité, immobilité, hybridité, métissage, mélange, liquidité, fluidification. It is confirmed that these lexemes are interconnected and form a “linguistic node”, reflecting / forming the factor of plurality in the discourse about modernity, which is developing in the context of globalization and glocalization. As a research perspective, an assumption is made about the allocation of discrete “territories” in the streams of words, terms and concepts, including the sphere of language education.

Fable is the oldest literary genre, fundamentally studied by the humanities, but, at the same time, its relevance in modern life is obvious, and the prospects for its development have not been sufficiently studied. Fable is an international genre, but it is deeply national. A comparative study of languages and cultures is especially promising if we take into consideration their common foundations. French and Russian fables (La Fontaine and Krylov) are a clear illustration of this thesis. Using the most common universal subjects, fabulists inevitably develop the most nationally specific features of their linguistic cultures. This is the deep dialectic of their creativity. Lafontaine and Krylov are one of the key figures in Russian and French linguocultures. Their archetypal influence on the further development of not only literary processes, but also the general cultural dialogue between France and Russia is very strong. The “healthy” spirit of these writers, their “common sense” in the highest sense of this phrase make their heritage highly relevant today, when both Russian and French cultures in some way are increasingly striving for so-called traditional values. The French and Russian fabulists with their creativity seem to build a positive perspective for the development of our cultures.

This article continues the series of publications on the “active” grammar of the Russian language. The grammar of the “active” type, included in the socio-cultural context, makes it possible to identify and describe choice patterns of certain forms of actants depending on the meaning which the speaking (writing) subject aims to express. The research was conducted in the direction from the meaning of the verb to the expression form of its actant positions. This article is devoted to the role identification of the evaluative component of the meaning ‘shame’ of the verbs in the realization of syntagmatic properties within the actant structure. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how the subject’s negative assessment of his actions affects the way of designation of verbal actants. Analysis of the actant structure of ‘shame’ verbs has shown that the evaluative component requires a special arrangement of actants, one of which is the object of evaluation, and the second designates a witness, a real or potential eyewitness to an event unpleasant for the subject. The way these positions are formalized depends on the meaning of the verb, on the characteristics of the objects themselves, and on the value attitudes of the culture. In Russian culture, the “position of responsibility” is understood as a position for a person or a group of persons who occupy a higher position in the social, family or intellectual hierarchy than the subject. The “status” of Russian culture is indirectly reflected in verb syntagmatics.

The article describes the role of grammar in the development of new terms and meanings in the English language. As applied to scientific texts in most recognized journals published in 2020, scientific English is shown to differ from General English in that it contains grammatical metaphor that adds weight and authority to the message and functions as a tool for generating new terms and meanings. The article discusses the definition of grammatical metaphor, its place in a sentence and reasons for its use. Grammatically metaphorical discourse with altered word order sounds clear, concise and meaningful. With changes in life and new developments in science due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) there appear new lexical forms in scientific publications that are grammatically metaphorical. As new terms, they get via mass media into General English opening up new horizons in its development.

In his play created in 2017 Ivan Vyrypaev presents his view of modern Euro- pean society, and specifically of the problems and difficulties that the intelligentsia in Western Europe is experiencing, discussing and trying to solve today. The play is limited to one day of a scientific humanitarian conference taking place in Copenhagen. All actions of the characters are exclusively verbal: they make reports, ask questions, discuss. As a result, a general image of a European intellectual is created on the stage and includes the social status, way of life, relationships within the community, ideology, and worldview. Among the common features of the linguistic construction of the characters, one should mention the frequent use of the pronoun “I”, emotionalism and arguing ad hominem which is not characteristic of scientific discourse. Besides, in the characters’ speech, we have revealed special formulas of politeness, including forms of address, expressions of apology and gratitude and clichés used in scientific presentations and discussions. A distinctive feature is the skillful use of rhetorical devices by all the characters. The high frequency of the words man, life, god, truth, freedom reflects the main topics of the play. The imagological approach used in this study presupposes an interest to the author’s special vision, which obviously reflects the image of a scientific conference on humanitarian issues that a part of the Russian creative intelligentsia has. In addition, it is important to take into account that Ivan Vyrypaev uses this plot to present his philosophical views.

The article examines the Italian commedia dell’arte as one of the components of the cultural heritage of Italy and the theater festival “International Day of Com- media dell’arte” as an information channel for promoting the cultural and historical national heritage of Italy to two addressees - the national and world communities. The article provides a brief description of the theatrical performances of the 2019 festival; it analyzes as well the thematic, dramatic, regional and linguistic specifics of the comedies selected for the event, identifies the main objectives of the festival on the national and international stage. In terms of intercultural communication, the author analyzes the difference in the presentation of the Italian commedia dell’arte in Italy and in foreign countries, respectively, reveals different approaches to positioning cultural and historical heritage depending on the addressee. The article identifies three general tendencies in the positioning of the commedia dell’arte: outside Italy, the classical staging of the commedia dell’arte prevails in order to familiarize foreign audiences with the tradition of the theater of masks; on the territory of Italy on stage they prefer to experiment with traditional scenes from the commedia dell’arte in order to update the historical message of comedy in today’s social realities, as well as to maximally involve young Italians, future carriers of national cultural memory, in the actualization of the historical tradition; workshops for modeling comedy masks should preserve the traditional theatrical tradition, which is on the way of “extinction”, and also serve as an incentive for modern Italians to tactilely experience the comedy del arte as something tangible, material, belonging to them.

The article is devoted to the gender aspect of literary studies based on the works of the French writer and poetess Christine de Pisan (1364–1430).

The attitude towards “masculine” and “feminine” behavior has dominated for many centuries and has not lost its influence in modern society. The privilege of the patriarchal view in traditional culture also applies to the traditional cultural text. The development of gender studies in the second half of the twentieth century contributed to the interpretation of gender as a discursive phenomenon by its nature. These studies enhanced the differentiation of texts as cultural phenomena into “masculine” and “feminine” types in modern philosophical and cultural studies. The purpose of the study is to identify and explain the features of discursive practices as a reflection of specific female subjectivity. The article analyzes the main features of “masculine” and “feminine” discourse. The concept of “feminine writing” (écriture féminine, H. Cixous’s term), “feminine style of writing” (Derrida’s term) are specified, special attention is paid to the issues of representation and constructiveness of the subject. A specific nature of the discourse on female identity is analyzed using the works of Christina de Pisan as an example, who laid the foundation for the tradition of women’s essays in support of female representatives (“Book of Fortune’s Transformation” (Le Livre de la Mutation de Fortune, 1403); “The Book of the City of Ladies” (Le livre de la Cité des Dames, 1405). The conclusion is made about the interconnection between the intellectual side of women’s identity and the issues of women’s education in this type of discourse, where women’s education is a necessary condition for the transition of women from the role of an object to the role of a subject of culture.

The article focuses on the research of the sources, artistic distinctiveness, symbolism and functions of humorous play imagery of Death in Mexican and Mexican-American cultures based on mythology, folklore, music, traditional food, crafts and different forms of mass culture (caricatures, advertisement, internet, puppet installations). The concept of “La Muerte Sonriente” is regarded as a synthesis of the following historical and cultural components: the ancient Mesoamerican tradition of veneration of the Death as a deity and the idea of duality; the traditions of Medieval Europe (carnival forms, the macabre dance and Catholic traditions of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day); the art of J.G. Posada and its development in Mexican folklore. The author comes to the conclusion, that the humorous play imagery of Death being a key “expression of Mexican spirit” has the following functions in Mexican and Chicano cultures: the transmission of the traditional worldview and values, the actualization of family and historical memory, establishing live connection with ancestors, as well as educating, ritual, entertaining, advertising and identity functions. The concept of “La Muerte Sonriente” has a special significance for Mexican-Americans in the process of their ethno-cultural identification, in marking borders of Chicano world in the national culture of the USA and in the actualization of a cultural dialogue with the motherland.

The language captures the historical and cultural picture of the world, because without words it is impossible either to describe an object, or to preserve the memory of it. Language as a keeper and translator of cultural and historical values operates with a vast baggage of various means for the nomination of new objects, their description and representation. A proper name acts as one of the means of verbalizing new knowledge, and a form of representation of knowledge accumulated in the language as a whole. Onyms have encyclopedic meaning, which makes it possible to incorporate a large amount of information, but an adequate understanding of the information conveyed by the name depends on the background knowledge of the recipient. A proper name can be considered as a code with the help of which the author’s communicative message is verbalized; it realizes the cognitive, communicative, expressive, axiological and password functions in the text. For a comprehensive study of the functioning of the onomastic code of culture in the literary text, the work of Lev Kassil “Get ready, Your Highness!” was analyzed. This work is saturated with the realities of the corresponding era, and proper names in it sometimes represent social practices characteristic of that time. Onyms are used to represent one’s social status, indicate a political situation, not only identify a person, but also draw patterns of behavior typical of a given era. For an adequate perception of the work, it is necessary to decode the encyclopedic and socio-cultural information presented in proper names. The implementation of the coding function by the name is aimed at the semantic disclosure of the potential of the semantic development of a proper name, its use as a universal linguistic unit capable of simultaneously activating the function of linguistic economy and the function of multilevel interpretation.

In the era of glocalization, the effectiveness of university teachers’ research activities largely depends on their translation competences and capabilities required for undertaking research and presenting research findings in intercultural scientific settings. The paper highlights the fact that a modern university teacher (who is not a professional translator) is much involved in translation/interpretation activities as an amateur translator who uses translation for his research purposes and, thus, needs an appropriate level of translation education. The author suggests that the notion of “translation education of a university teacher-researcher” (as an amateur translator and mediator) should be conceptualized on the basis of a linguo-didactic consideration and interpretation of the EU’s four level competency-based profiles of the researcher depending on his status rank, the presence / absence of an academic degree and professional research responsibilities. The paper describes the linguo-didactic technology of developing translation and mediation indicators for evaluating the university teacher’s abilities and capacities to achieve a communication and research success in the glocalized multilingual & multicultural context of “Open Science. Open innovations. Open to the world”.

Telecollaboration is known to have several forms. This article concentrates on teletandem, i.e. tandem realised via telecommunications. Tandem method of learning languages means mutual free exchange of language knowledge: two native speakers agree between themselves to teach each other their mother tongues. In the course of their tandem interaction they constantly rotate their functions of teacher and learner. Their collaboration is absolutely autonomous: they are independent of any institution and free of any financial obligation to each other. They are equal and equally interested in successful learning their partner’s language (principles of reciprocity and parity of languages). MSU (Russia) and VCU (USA) adapted the initial tandem method to enhance their students’ compulsory/mandatory foreign language learning (English and Russian, accordingly) under their curriculum. The tandem-partners communicate via ICT (t-Tandem). Free independent tandem is transformed into institutional (i.e. included into the students’ curricula as an elective learning activity). The autonomy of tandem learning is preserved but in a slightly restricted way due to the necessity to evaluate its successfulness. A suitable for both sides structure of teletandem was worked out, which includes three stages: an introductory videoconference for MSU and VCU students’ acquaintance and making tandems; task-based autonomous learning in tandems resulting in the preparation of Power Point presentations on a developed theme and a final wrap-up videoconference with students’ showing their presentation for common discussion. The survey conducted among the students on their completing the project resulted in valuable observation, which made it possible to identify positive and negative factors in project implementation and outline the prospects for its improvement.

This article aims at analyzing some ways of providing effective feedback and organizing reflective activities in online learning of foreign languages. Feedback and reflection make it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the work of students, the effectiveness and efficiency of the educational strategies and tasks used, make it possible to build an individual student’s route to overcome difficulties, compensate for errors and improve learning outcomes. The concept of feedback and reflection is considered as a mechanism for increasing student motivation, it helps create an interactive educational online environment, regulating and adjusting the learning process. The authors analyze the didactic potential of digital tools and mobile tools used to develop reflexive and communicative skills of students, provide some practical tips on organizing reflexive activity in online classes, highlight the stages of reflexive activity, the prerequisites for providing effective feedback. The didactic potential of digital tools allows educators to provide quick, targeted and timely feedback, to organize reflection, to introduce the elements of gamification into the educational process, to save the results of polls and votes, to conduct an effective analysis of positive and negative results, on the basis of which the teacher can make changes in his own pedagogical activity, and in the educational activity of students.

The present paper deals with some aspects connected with the selection of the translation strategies represented in different Bible versions. The view according to which the piety towards the sacred content of the Holy Writ and the danger of its possible distortion stimulated the tradition of the literal translation and led quite often to the literality, archaization, etc., is widely spread among the specialists, although at the same time the great role of the Bible translations as the means of the formation and development of the many literary languages is also recognized. On the other hand, besides the pure linguistic aspect as such, the strategy of the different Bible translators could also touch the substantial part of the original due to different pragmatic reasons. This is particularly evident in so-called ‘modern translations’. This process has been influenced by the appearance of the new translation theories. In turn, ‘pragmatics’ itself may have a different character and be related with different sides of the text: from the methods of the representation of the so-called cultural words (‘realia’) to the interpretation consistent with the norms and principles accepted by the translation organizers and the target audience.