Transparency in Language and Discourse: A Model for Interdisciplinary Analysis

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The article points out the tendency to use highly specialized (terminological) vocabulary in modern public communication and proposes a model for interdisciplinary analysis of the new word entry into the Russian language and its functioning in different types of discourse. The explanation capability of the model, including the linguistic, axiological, cognitive (cognitive-communicative, cognitive-discursive, cognitive-psychological) aspects of analysis, is demonstrated on the example of its application to the study of the unit transparency. The ways of borrowing the word are noted: through the significant expansion of the lexical meaning under the influence of discourse (political, economic, legal, etc.) to the categorical one, associated with the processes of transmission, receipt of information and society’s response to the information occasion. The place of the word transparency in the synonymic series is determined: using the methods of lexicographic and component analysis the semantic differences of the words otkrytost (openness), dostupnost (accessibility), prozrachnost (transparency), publichnost (publicity), glasnost (disclosure), jasnost (clarity) are established. Applying the methods of contextual, logical-and-cognitive and cognitive-and-discursive analysis the data from the Russian National Corpus are studied to determine the discursive specificity in the meanings of the above mentioned synonyms, which are considered through subject-object and subject-subject relations in the process of informing and are described as the constituents in the structure of the category of transparency. The link between the linguomental phenomenon of transparency and related concepts of trust and equality is established. The authors distinguish between the voluntary and forced nature of data transfer and reception, emphasize the axiological and cognitive-and-psychological components of the information transfer in the process of group and/or mass communication. The universality of the model is proved. It has the potential for application to the consideration of other “key” issues, which reflect the mood and linguistic preferences of the epoch.