Chuvash Language Research Articles

HIGHER HISTORICAL EDUCATION IN CHUVASHIA (1967–1991): TO THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

Modern development of the state in general and the educational system in particular is largely predetermined by the events of the past, which inevitably become part of history. In the context of historical education modernization, which took place in the country at the beginning of the 21st century, it is necessary to study more deeply the existing experience of creating specialized faculties and teaching history on their basis within higher educational institutions. Historical education in the territory of Chuvashia began to be implemented in the 1930. In the period from 1930 to 1967, the Chuvash State Pedagogical Institute was engaged in the formation of professional historical personnel. From 1967, a new stage in the development of higher historical education of the republic begins, associated with the opening of I.N. Ulianov Chuvash State University (I.N. Ulianov ChuvSU). The Faculty of History and Philology (FHP) began working in the structure of the classical university. It consisted of five departments: general history, the history of the USSR, the Chuvash language and literature, the Russian language, Russian and foreign literature, which were headed by leading scientists of the republic. From 1990, changes took place in the history of higher historical education in Chuvashia. This is due to the division of the FHP into three independent faculties, among which the historical one was singled out. During the same period, restructuring of I.N. Ulianov ChuvSU was underway, as a result of which in 1990, in addition to the departments of national history and general history, a new department of archeology, ethnography and regional history began to function at the faculty. During the period of activity of the Faculty of History and Philology, it was headed by well-known scientists, organizers of education: Candidate of Philological Sciences V.Ya. Kanukov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor V.F. Kakhovsky, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor M.M. Mikhailov, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor I.A. Andreev. The Soviet period in the formation and development of higher historical education, associated with the opening of I.N. Ulianov Chuvash State University, laid the mainstays for training personnel in subsequent periods.

Неизвестные рецензии на «Словарь чувашского языка» Н.И. Ашмарина

The article provides an overview of reviews of the «Dictionary of the Chuvash language» by N.I. Ashmarin, published in foreign scientific journals. The thesaurus became available to a wide circle of Western linguists after its release in 1968 in the form of a photolithographic edition with a foreword by G. Durfer at the Indiana University in the USA. The research material was reviewed by J. Benzing, G. Dörfer, B. Scherner, M.J. Dresden, K.G. Menges and W. Brands. Many of these documents are kept in the scientific archive of the Chuvash State Institute of the Humanities. The work is written in a scientific vein. The purpose of this work is to introduce into the scientific use of Russian Chuvash studies reviews of N.I. Ashmarin. The thesaurus of the Chuvash language of the outstanding scientist received positive reviews from many foreign colleagues with a worldwide reputation. This work for them became the best source of information about the Chuvash language. For the development of Ashmarin studies, it is important to publish documents, including reviews, one way or another related to the scientist. In this regard, reviews are important documents that contribute to an objective assessment of the results of the scientific activity of the researcher.

К вопросу обучения творческому письму младших школьников

The purpose of the article is to determine the importance of teaching creative writing to younger schoolchildren. The urgency of the problem of teaching creative writing in the native Chuvash language is due to the need for the formation of text competencies in younger schoolchildren, the lack of formation of their native writing skills, especially creative writing. Material and methods of research. The main research methods were the study of literature, the analysis of teachers 'difficulties and errors in the students' works. A brief history of the issue is considered: the ideas of developing creative writing skills among foreign researchers: the most successful start of learning creative writing is 4-5 years old (M. Montessori), the need to believe in the creative abilities of a child (S. Frenet); leading domestic teachers: every child is born a potential writer (L. N. Tolstoy), the experiments of V. A. Sukhomlinsky and Sh. Amonashvili on composing fairy tales and stories by students, I. Ya. Yakovleva on teaching creative writing to students of the Chuvash Simbirsk school; the main provisions of the Chuvash linguodidacts: the support of written creativity on the development of oral speech (M. Ya. Sirotkin), on the observation of objects, phenomena (F. T. Timofeev), the need to study the structure and content of the text from the first grade (V. E. Efimov, I. V. Drozdov, L. P. Sergeev), the need to work on composing miniature texts in the native language lessons (D. S. Filippova). The main problems in teaching creative writing in the Chuvash primary school are highlighted. The assumption is made about the effectiveness of planning within the hours allocated to the native language, creative writing lessons. The results of the study. The purpose and tasks, features of the organization of creative writing lessons in grades 2-4 of Chuvash schools are described: it is recommended to conduct one lesson every two weeks, the main goal is the formation of a comprehensively developed language personality. The main directions, methods and forms of work: work on the content, structure of the text; on language tools, editing. It is concluded that the idea and provisions of the methods are accepted by teachers, and the lessons of creative writing are introduced into the practice of the Chuvash primary school.

Comparative analysis of the concept of “health” in the English, Russian and Chuvash proverbs

This article carries out a comparative analysis of the proverbs about health in English, Russian and Chuvash languages. Although the popularity towards leading a healthy lifestyle increases, there are virtually no comparative research of the proverbs on about health, which defines the relevance of this work. The goal lies in analyzing the culture and people's attitude towards health reflected in the proverbs of the compared non-cognate languages; finding the proverbs of the same content and uniting them into thematic groups. The novelty of this research consists in its linguoculturological focus. A comparative linguoculturological study of the proverbs of non-cognate languages allowed establishing the common and specific characteristics of the concept of “health” in linguistic consciousness of the English, Russian and Chuvash people, thereby determining their ethnic-cultural peculiarities. Theoretical importance of this work lies in the fact that the acquired results can be applied in comparative paremiology, the relevant segment of modern linguistics – linguoculturology; in lectures on the theory of cross-cultural communication and special courses on linguoculturology; in compiling textbooks on the practice of teaching foreign languages to the Russian-Chuvash audience, as well as medical glossaries.

ABOUT ONE PRA-TURKIC MAGIC FORMULA, WHICH BECAME THE REASON FOR THE FORMATION OF THE GENRE «SONG» IN RITUAL FOLKLORE

Historical reconstruction problems of traditional rituals, worldview, language and poetics of folklore, folk art require an integrated approach from a modern researcher of the ethnos spiritual culture. The latter takes into account the achievements of modern related sciences, primarily ethnocultural studies and ethnolinguistics, archeology and folklore studies, comparative and typological ethnology. Using this method, the history of the archaic formula found in a number of genres of Chuvash ritual poetry is successfully restored, and its archaic semantics is also restored. In the Altai and pra-Turkic epochs, the semantics of “singing” (a melodic speech performance of a ritual text) had a number of lexemes, which later became differentiated and acquired complementary meanings. The Chuvash language, due to its early separation from the rest of the Turkic languages, was able to preserve the most archaic incantatory formula. The Chuvash term yora / yura, as a synthesis of a ritual-verbal incantatory text and a musical melody, was formed during the formation of military democracy in the society of the ancient Bulgars and other related tribes. Over time, thanks to an archaic magic formula, this term began to mean not only ritual, but also lyrical melodious speech texts. Thus, in the Chuvash folklore, the term acquired semantics, meaning not only a separate genre, but also a whole group of melodic-speech texts.

The characteristics of English verbs of slow movement in comparison with Chuvash verbs

This article represents a comparative study of the verbs of slow movement in the modern non-cognate languages. The absence of comparative study of the verbs of slow movement in the English and Chuvash languages define the relevance of this work. The goal consists in examination of the verbs of slow movement based on the material of English and Chuvash languages, analysis of the semantic relations within this group, and revealing the determining features of linguistic units that belong to this semantic group, as the author believes that namely these determining features do not always coincide in the compared languages. The article employs the method of analysis of dictionary definitions, method of identification of meanings, and component analysis. Application of the method of interlingual comparison revealed common and distinctive components of the meaning, which are not evident in terms of intralingual analysis. The research relies on the data from electronic dictionaries. The novelty of this research consists in finding interlingual correspondences with varying degree of equivalence and differences among the verbs of slow movement in the English and Chuvash languages. The acquired results can be valuable in theory and practice of teaching English language of Russia-Chuvash audience, as well as for broadening linguistic horizon of the students.

ELECTRONIC LEARNING MATERIALS OR TRADITIONAL- WHICH IS PREFERABLE?

We live in a world of modern technology. Information technologies surround us at every step, helping us, making our life easier, and providing many benefits. This modern lifestyle is also changing the way we perceive information technology. Few people today can imagine working and learning in everyday life without a computer, laptop, smartphone, or Internet access. The use of electronic teaching aids is a new, modern approach to education. Previously, the use of e-learning materials was the prerogative of distance learning. The main reason was the very limited possibility of personal contact between teachers and students. The issue has become even more urgent given the epidemiological situation around the world. In connection with the massive spread of the new coronavirus infection, students and schoolchildren all over the world were forced to switch to electronic educational resources to continue their studies. In connection with the introduction of similar approaches as in universities and schools, it is very important to prepare future teachers for the correct use of these technologies. Targets and goals. Explore: 1) whether the students are familiar with the electronic teaching aids and whether or not they are satisfied with them; 2) whether students prefer to learn more through traditional printed learning materials or e-learning materials and whether these preferences differ depending on the field of study; 3) Whether students of technical and mathematical specialties prefer electronic teaching materials to traditional printed materials; 4) what sources of information students use in their research work, and to what extent; 5) the advantages and disadvantages of both electronic teaching aids and traditional printed teaching materials. The research focuses on the opinions of 560 students (of which 280 are women and 280 are men) of the Chuvash Pedagogical University about electronic teaching materials and traditional printed teaching materials. The study was conducted from March to November 2020. The survey was aimed at first-year students of various undergraduate disciplines in full-time education in the following specialties: mathematics, physics and information technology, preparation of primary school teachers, history and social science, biology and chemistry, Russian language and literature, Chuvash language and literature, German language and literature, English language and literature. Next, we divided students in accordance with the kinship of areas into 4 groups: a) mathematics + technical and information education, b) training of primary school teachers, c) philology d) social sciences. We used our own questionnaire as a research method. The following methods were used to process the data: analysis of variance, correlation, and Chi-square test. The study showed that freshmen of the Chuvash State Pedagogical University mainly use ready-made methodological developments, the Internet, their own notes, and books as sources of information for their studies. 50% of students are familiar with the concept of e-learning materials, and 32.14% of students became familiar with them in high school or university. The difference between these two data is due to the fact that the concept of e-learning materials was unknown to some students, but when filling out the questionnaire they found that they used this type of materials during their studies. Average student satisfaction with e-learning materials and traditional printed learning materials is almost the same. In addition, it turned out that 65% of students prefer to study using traditional printed materials. It was determined that students studying mathematics and information technology, more than other students, either prefer to learn through e-learning materials or do not prefer one particular type. The most common form of e-learning materials that students have encountered is the LMS. The respondents see the advantages of e-learning materials as consisting of accessibility, clarity, quick access to information, low cost, paper savings (resulting in environmental protection), and interactivity. Although students stated that they prefer to use traditional printed teaching materials, 83% of respondents would like to continue using e-learning materials during their studies.

CHUVASH SUBSTRATE OF CHEBOKSARY REGIONAL DIALECT OF RUSSIAN

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the Russian colloquial speech of the inhabitants of Cheboksary, the capital city of the Chuvash Republic, Russia. It is believed that it was the Chuvash language that had a considerable influence on the formation of these peculiarities. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the role of the Chuvash substrate in the formation of the regional dialect of Russian in Cheboksary. The traditional linguistic methods are applied to analyze the language material composed of natural discourses of inhabitants of Cheboksary. The culture of speech is in the focus of the research done on the linguistic data provided by both the Russian and the Chuvash scholars. The authors come to the conclusion that the Russian language constantly exposed to the Chuvash linguistic and cultural environment has been experiencing significant local influence and herewith acquiring unique features. Substrate elements are realized at all levels of the language system. In the Cheboksary regional dialect, the Chuvash influence on the Russian language is expressed in an increase in the frequency of Russian language units, which most closely correspond to the Chuvash counterparts. Phonetic markers are the major elements that make the speech of the residents of Cheboksary sound specifically. Orthoepic peculiarities of Cheboksary residents in a number of cases are characterized by their pronouncing certain words literally and shifting stress in some frequently used words. The lexical specificity of the Russian colloquial speech of the inhabitants of Cheboksary is accounted for by a number of Chuvashisms, local urbanonyms and semantic calques of Chuvash words. Morphological markers are the result of the specific use of Russian language units due to the influence of the process of acculturation. The word-building markers of the Cheboksary regional dialect are associated with the use of derivational formants of Chuvash origin in Russian word formation and Russian suffixes in the composition of Chuvash words. The syntactic level markers are represented in sentence models and by their peculiar features. In the Cheboksary regional dialect instead of Russian SVO sentence model Chuvash SOV sentence model is preferred. It is worth mentioning also that participial constructions are characteristic of oral speech. The authors argue that the regional dialect of Russian in Cheboksary is a variant of the Russian literary language. Its objective existence and functioning is the result of its exposure to the influence of the Chuvash language and culture. The peculiarities of the regional dialect of Russian are revealed in codified language units that have experienced the interfering impact of the Chuvash language.

Аналитические формы глагола как структурная особенность грамматики чувашского языка

The study is devoted to the consideration of the analytical forms of the verb in the Chuvash language and the issue of their inclusion in the system of grammatical categories along with synthetic forms. The work was carried out on the material of samples of Chuvash fiction using the functional-semantic method. The article presents a brief history of the study of this issue both in general in Turkic studies and in Chuvash linguistics. The author emphasizes that the existing undefined status of such combinations in the grammars of the Chuvash and other Turkic languages does not contribute to an adequate description of the corresponding forms and categories. Due to the fact that one of the components of analytical forms completely or partially loses its nominative meaning, while acquiring an official grammatical meaning, they have not become the subject of detailed study in the syntax section. But in morphology, they are also not studied to the proper extent due to the fact that more than one word is formally present in such combinations. The author believes that when applying the functional-semantic approach to the study of such combinations, it becomes clear that functionally these forms do not differ from synthetic forms and should be the subject of description at the morphological level. The conclusions of the research are supported by examples of specific analytical forms and are as follows: these forms are an integral part and structural feature of the Chuvash language grammar. As a prospect for further research, we can name a detailed study of the functional and semantic component of the analytical forms of the verb and the development of their classification.

Чувашское чăштăр-чаштăр vs. марийское чыштыр-чоштыр

This work is devoted to the study of onomatopoeic paired words of the languages of the central zone of the Volga-Kama language union – Chuvash and Mari. These languages belong to different families (Altai and Uralic), however, for many centuries they have been in close relations, as a result of which they were subjected to significant contamination. The purpose of this work is to establish general and particular parameters of paired words in the languages being compared. The material for the study was the Chuvash and Mari onomatopoeic words, phonetically close to each other. The conclusions of the work are based on the methods of comparative linguistics. On the basis of academic dictionaries, the author establishes a common layer of onomatopoeic paired words of the Chuvash and Mari languages. Studies have shown that, in a derivatological sense, paired words in both languages are built on the basis of the same model and represent onomatopoeia with an incomplete divergent reduplicative component in the final part of the word. At the same time, pairs practically do not reveal semantic convergences. It seems that the discovered feature of phonetically consonant paired words can be explained only by drawing on the genetic differences of languages that are implicitly preserved to the present and only make themselves felt with special scientific analysis.

Современное зарубежное чувашеведение: Мелинда Такач

The article is devoted to the study of the Hungarian section of the Chuvash studies. The aim of the work is to familiarize the scientific community with new Hungarian scientists. The author uses traditional descriptive and analytical methods practiced in scholarship. The Hungarian section is the most developed area of foreign Chuvash studies. It is due to the linguistic contacts of the Turkic languages of the Chuvash type with Hungarian, which took place in the period before the conquering of homeland by the Hungarians. Currently, Hungarian Chuvash studies are mainly represented by linguistic and musicological trends. There are works of a historical and literary plan. One of the representatives of modern scholars of the Chuvash language in Hungary is M. Takács, who asserted herself by direct translations of the works of the Chuvash fiction into Hungarian, mainly the stories of E. Lisina. She also published scholarly works based on personal experience and devoted to the problems of translation and linguistics of a literary text. Thus, a distinctive feature of M. Takács’s Chuvash studies at the moment is a departure from the problems recognized as traditional for the Hungarian Chuvash studies – language contacts. Another direction of M. Takács’s research is the study of nouns published in the book «Works related to the grammar of the Chuvash language» of 1769. Another direction of M. Takács is the study of the problems of «Works belonging to the grammar of the Chuvash language» 1769. The author comes to the conclusion that the scientific developments of M. Takac in Hungarian Chuvash studies develop the traditions of studying the literary texts of Chuvash authors in linguistic and translation aspects.

К вопросу о взаимодействии чувашской и азербайджанской культур: древность и современность

In the development of modern ethnic cultures, there is a paradoxical situation: the more powerful the onset of comprehensive globalization, aimed at the destruction of national cultures, the more actively they develop. “To blame”, in our opinion, is the ethnocultural code, which rebelled against the dominance of the virus of the death of national cultures and thus led to the flourishing, boom of ethnic cultures. Convincing evidence of this is the deep fundamental processes of revival taking place in the Chuvash national culture. Thus, the unique Kokelev International Plein Air has rightfully become a synthesis of the picturesque national schools of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The national TV and radio company “Chavash En” was established. Recreated “Chuvashkino”, designed to develop their national culture. There is a return from oblivion of the runic writing of the Chuvash people. A program for the development of the Chuvash language was adopted. And, as it were, the apotheosis of the renaissance of the Chuvash ethnic culture was the establishment of the Chuvash Embroidery Day on November 26 by the Decree of the Head of the Chuvash Republic. Globalization pressure is also causing an increase in interest in learning about other cultures. we tell about this phenomenon on the example of Chuvashia and Azerbaijan. In soviet times in Azerbaijan, few people knew that the Chuvash were a Turkic people. Tatarstan knew, Bashkortostan knew, and the Chuvash – the Turkic people – didn't [6]. The aim of our work is to study the interaction of Chuvash and Azerbaijani cultures in historical retrospect, as well as to draw the attention of scientists of Chuvashia, Russia and Azerbaijan to this problem, which is of great cognitive and scientific importance. The author comes to the conclusion that scientists-humanitarians of Chuvashia, Russia and Azerbaijan can and should combine their efforts to create a comprehensive study of the interaction of the cultures of the Chuvash and Azerbaijani nations in historical retrospect.

Лексико-семантические группы чувашских гидронимов

The article is devoted to the lexical and semantic analysis of Chuvash hydronyms. The purpose of the study is to classify the names of water bodies by lexical and semantic groups, to identify the main principles of the nomination of hydro-names. The article deals with the names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and swampy places, the names of springs and wells. The main material for the analysis was collected by the author during field research, data from the toponymic file of the Scientific Archive of the CSUH and various cartographic sources, maps of land stored in rural administrations of the Chuvash Republic were used. The main methods are descriptive, comparative, typological, and statistical ones. The results of the study showed that according to the lexical and semantic classification, Chuvash hydronyms are divided into two groups: 1) hydronyms that reflect the physical and geographical properties of water bodies and their environment; 2) hydronyms that have arisen as a result of practical human activity. Most of the names of water bodies are based on a specific feature of the geographical realities themselves. Their Chuvash language can be grouped into the following subgroups: 1) names containing a significant feature of the object; 2) names indicating the ground, soil; 3) names related to the plant world; 4) names associated with the animal world; 5) names indicating the location of the water body; 6) names expressed by numerical indicators; 7) figurative and metaphorical names. Hydronyms that have arisen as a result of the practical activity of a person are divided into the following subgroups: 1) hydronyms related to the life and economic life of the population; 2) hydronyms whose meanings are related to the social life and spiritual culture of the population; 3) hydronyms derived from anthroponyms; 4) hydronyms derived from ethnonyms; 5) hydronyms derived from toponyms. It is concluded that as a result of lexical and semantic analysis, it is possible to establish the principles of the nomination of hydronymes, to identify the physical and geographical characteristics of the area, to obtain new information about the material and spiritual culture of the Chuvash people.

Предварительный обзор чувашского демониума

The paper analyzes the origin and cultural semantics of the Chuvash demononyms as components of the linguistic world landscape by studying lexicographic and folklore sources and archives. The research was carried out within the contemporary sphere of philology, dealing with the analysis of language and folklore as a cultural code of an ethnos. This interdisciplinary sphere prioritizes studying the linguistic world landscape as a part of the conceptual world landscape of the ethnos above other things. Therefore, it seems relevant to consider where the demononyms of the Chuvash language originate from and what their cultural semantics is since they represent the Pre-Christian religious consciousness of the ancient Chuvash. Chuvash language is of significant scientific interest as the only living language of the Bulgarian branch of the Turkic languages, still preserving many characteristics of the ancient Turkic language. The research objects are the characters of the underworld, the exact evil spirits named with different demononyms, such as alpastа, arsuri, astaha, vereselen, wupar, wupkan, usal, hayar, chuunilli, shuyttan, esrel, yuhkha. The first comprehensive analysis of the Chuvash demononyms from the etymological, cognitive discourse, and linguistic and cultural aspects has been conducted. The contents of this research and its scientific conclusions are intended to facilitate the reconstruction of one of the significant structural and functional components of the Chuvash linguistic landscape.

Orthodox samizdat in Chuvashia in the 1960s–1980s

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Orthodox church samizdat in the second half of the 20th century. The term Orthodox samizdat used in this article refers to a set of texts reproduced in an artisanal way and distributed in church goers circle without the sanction of the church or secular authorities. In the conditions of Soviet reality, the church circles were a deep periphery of public life and was formed from the marginalized or those pushed out by the Soviet authorities to the social margins. The specific position of church people in the USSR determined the repertoire of samizdat texts and their ideological orientation. The source base for this article was formed by a large library of church samizdat left after the death of Elizabeth Feodorovna Zakharova, an active parishioner of the Vvedensky Cathedral in Cheboksary. Zakharova was a typical representative of the church goers. The article reviews the genres of works that were available as the samizdat in Zakharova’s library: liturgical texts, artisan copies of pre-revolutionary publications, spiritual verses, thematic collections, folklore, apologetic literature, eschatologicaland conspiralogical texts, etc. One of the peculiarities of the existence of Orthodox samizdat in Chuvashia was that many texts circulated in translations into the Chuvash language. Among the features of Cheboksary samizdat is the replication of the prosaic translation of John Milton’s poems “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”. Church samizdat performed a number of important functions in church circles: it solved the problem of demand for liturgical and doctrinal literature in deficit conditions, shared uncensored texts, rallied church people and could besource of additional income. In general, church samizdat was an important part of the culture of the church circle during the Soviet era. The spelling and punctuation features of the original unpublished sources are preserved in the article when cited.

Язык бесермян в свете исторических процессов коммуникации народов Урало-Поволжья

The article considers the linguistic aspects of the "Bessermian problem", the essence of which lies in the debatability of the question of the Bessermian ethnogenesis, namely about either the Turkic or Finno-Ugric origin of the Bessermian ethnos, whose history, unfolding during the last centuries on the territory of the Urals region, has no written sources and is little-studied. The interest to this problem stems from the studies of historical migrations of the peoples who constituted the population of Volga Bulgaria, a powerful state formation, which ceased to exist during the Mongol-Tatar conquests, and clarification of the historical fate of the people, recorded in a number of medieval sources under the designation "Beserm'en". In the connection with the attempts to verify the hypothesis, allowing to consider Bessermians as "direct descendants of the Kama Bulgars", the materials collected by the researchers of Bessermian language in the late 19th century, as well as in the 20th – early 21st centuries, were updated and subjected to the scientific-historical consideration, where the comparison of Bessermian dialect with Chuvash language, scientifically recognized as the only living language of Bulgar (or Oghur) group of the Turkish languages, was made. On the basis of the historiographical analysis the conclusion is made: despite the fact that at present Besermians are referred to small Finno-Ugrian groups, the question of their identification with the autochthonous Finno-Ugrian.

Факторы, влияющие на проекцию пресуппозиций в чувашском языке: экспериментальное исследование

The current paper experimentally studies the projection diversity of the following presupposition triggers in the Standard Chuvash language in assertive sentences, in negated assertive sentences and in conditional sentences: kallex ‘again’ (adverbial), ta ‘too’ (conjunction), mansa kaj ‘forget’ and pəl ‘know/find out’ (mental factive verbs), and pəter ‘finish’ (aspectual verb). Relying upon the presupposition projection in various contexts, [Abusch 2002] suggested to distinguish between hard vs. soft presupposition triggers. According to this view, the former two Chuvash items belong to hard triggers, whereas the latter three items represent soft triggers. The papers by [Xue and Onea 2012; Smith and Hall 2012] among others experimentally confirmed the distinction between hard vs. soft triggers in several West-European languages. The current paper verifies the hypothesis about the distinction between hard vs. soft triggers on the basis of a non-Indo-European language and suggests using a verification task: participants have to choose one of the values on the five-point Likert scale while answering a given question with respect to a given context. The paper only partially confirms the distinction between hard vs. soft triggers. As in [Xue and Onea 2012], the paper shows that soft triggers exhibit a more heterogeneous group than hard triggers. Moreover, contrary to the recent paper by [Tonhauser et al. 2018], the paper does not reveal further distinctions either within each of the presupposition trigger groups or between the presupposition trigger groups. The paper gives two plausible interrelated reasons for the obtained results that are a linear position and a syntactic status (independent vs. embedded) of the first clause in a question that contains the denied presupposition.

NATIONAL MEDIA-LANDSCAPE AS A FACTOR TO PRESERVE THE ETHNIC IDENTITY (on the example of Chuvash-speaking mass media in Bashkortostan)

In this article, on the basis of materials of archive of the State book chamber of the Republic of Bashkortostan, administration of Ufa Federal postal communication service of the Republic of Bashkortostan – branch of FSPA «Mail of Russia», as well as data from the current archives of a number of areas with compact settlement of the Chuvash population the authors carried out the study of national-linguistic needs of the Chuvash in the field of printed products. In two regions – Aurgazinsky and Bizhbulyaksky – with a high proportion of the Chuvash, newspapers in the Chuvash language are published. In other regions, in order to meet their national-language needs, the Chuvash population subscribes to periodicals from the Republic of Chuvashia in the Chuvash language.
 
 The range of such periodicals represented a wide range of genres according to the interests. If teachers and educators of Chuvash schools in Bashkortostan mostly subscribed to educational and methodical literature in the Chuvash language, a significant part of subscribers preferred newspapers and magazines about the life and everyday routine of their fellow-countrymen in the Republic of the same name.
 
 During the period of perestroika of the Soviet society in October 1989, Bashkortostan started publishing a Republican newspaper in the Chuvash language «Ural Sassi» («Voice of the Urals») with a frequency of once a week, which received a massive demand among the Chuvash population of the Republic. The analysis of subscriptions to periodicals in the Chuvash language in the Republic of Bashkortostan at the present stage shows that the Chuvash population reads less in the language of the mother ethnic group in favor of reading newspapers and magazines in the Russian language.

Иностранный пласт чувашской книги

The article is devoted to the consideration of extraterritorial publications on the Chuvash theme. The purpose of the work is to identify the essential features of the foreign layer of the Chuvash book. The conclusions of the work are based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of bibliographic indexes and a direct study of the books themselves de visu. The authors of the article consider foreign books as an important component of modern Chuvash culture, endowed with communicative, cognitive-cumulative, ethno-presentative and educational functions. Extraterritorial editions of the Chuvash book appeared in the first half of the 19th century, and only by the end of the 20th century they formed an independent layer. At the same time, one should objectively speak of two exteriorics – the Chuvash and by the poet G. Aygi. Each of them is represented by almost 150 publications. The predominant problematic of the foreign language layer of the Chuvash book proper is the Chuvash language. Moreover, its notable aspect is the publication of books in the Chuvash language or their publication with parallel texts in Sweden and Turkey. G. Aygi’s foreign publications are already represented by collections of poems in Russian, published by the publishing house of the artist N. Dronnikov in France. This work is a publication that should provide an introduction to the scientific use of literature that has not yet become the property of the Chuvash Studies. Its task is to promote the full functioning of modern Chuvash science in conjunction with the world one. The authors come to the conclusion that, in general, the foreign layer of the Chuvash book has an enduring value, and many of the scientific publications published in the past are rightly elevated to the rank of classical ones by the scientists.

PROBLEMS OF ETHNO-CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHUVASHIA: BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEYS

The article is devoted to the study of ethnocultural features in the Chuvash Republic at the present stage. This problem is topical from the point of view of regional ethnic processes, as well as the strategy of national state policy. The authors analyze the materials of empirical research on the issues of preserving and value of the national culture and interethnic relations, which were conducted in the Chuvash Republic annually in 2017–2019. The number of respondents each year was a little over 600. The results of processing these surveys showed that if the Chuvash language is more important for the Chuvash as a factor of ethnic identity, for the Russians it is a «common land, territory». The authors believe that for the Chuvash people, their native language is one of the main factors not only in terms of implementing the opportunities to communicate in it and its importance for maintaining folk traditions, but in connection with actualization of the problem of preserving their ethnic group in conditions of a globalized society as well. Some concerns for safekeeping the national culture are related to passivity of the population itself and a low level of awareness-building efforts in this area.