Our Language And Foreign Languages (On The Content Of The Magazine “Hardworking Bee”

Abstract

A.P. Sumarokov had no official status of a scientist. However, he was an active participant in all philological scientific discussions of the mid-18th century. One of the main tasks of this period was to normalize the Russian language, to develop requirements for its stylistic system, to identify the place of the Russian language among other languages, to find out its roots and ways of development. The object of this study is four articles of the magazine "Hardworking Bee" (1759): "On the extermination of other people's words from the Russian language" (January), "On the native words of the Russian language" (February), "To the typographical typesetters" (May), "On the copyists" (December). Alexander Sumarokov, an outstanding Russian playwright, poet and public figure, was the publisher of the first Russian privately owned monthly magazine. The magazine provided an opportunity for artistic and journalistic reception of many pressing problems of the mid-18th century. The problem of this paper is the meaning and role of the Russian language in the history and culture of the Russian people, the need to learn Russian and foreign languages. Sumarokov's system of views on the Russian and foreign languages is presented using the descriptive method. The language material was collected by means of the continuous sampling method. Linguocultural analysis implied studying the language of the mid-18th century as a phenomenon of Russian culture. The result of the study was a representative material that reflected the linguistic aspects of the views of Sumarokov, writer and publisher of "The Hardworking Bee".