Russian Discourse Research Articles

Patriotic discourse in the publications of humanities scientists of the Republic of Dagestan

The article presents the results of a review of publications in scientific periodicals on the topic of patriotism, written by authors from the Republic of Dagestan who are specialists in the fields of humanities and social sciences. It is noted that the scientific discourse on patriotism is primarily developed in the republic by social philosophers, educators and sociologists. Most authors of the examined publications understand patriotism as a unifying idea aimed at uniting Russians based on the constitutional principle of equality of all citizens, regardless of their regions of residence, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The issue of patriotism itself is closely linked by the authors to the formation and strengthening of the all-Russian identity. Accordingly, the main problem aspects of the patriotic discourse in Russia, as seen by Dagestani authors, include questions of inclusivity within the modern Russian nation, the ability of the concept of the Russian nation to encompass and embrace the diversity of regional, ethno-cultural, and religious identities of Russians. According to the philosophical authors, the development of patriotic discourse in the public sphere should contribute to the introduction of such fundamental values as humanism, citizenship, statism, social justice, ethnic and religious tolerance, a high standard of living, pride in the country, its history, achievements in various spheres of life, and high culture into the mass consciousness of Russian youth. In the works of Dagestani sociologists, within the framework of the patriotic theme, the subjects of research include patriotic attitudes in the mass consciousness of Dagestan's residents, the relationship between civil, regional, ethnic, and religious identities in the context of the influence of both unifying and divisive factors, including various versions of radical Islamism, regionalism, and ethnic nationalism. Recent thematic publications indicate an increased level of activity by government authorities and the public in Dagestan in the patriotic education of the republic's youth. However, alongside the promotion of patriotism, efforts should also be directed towards improving the quality of life for the country's population.

Foreign humanitarian students’ perception of a precedent name in the Russian discourse

The high recognizability of the precedent names among the native speakers of a particular linguistic culture has led to the relevance of studying these linguistic units in the aspect of foreign language teaching, where considerable attention is paid to the formation of linguistic-cultural competence. The aim of the work is to study the peculiarities of precedent name perception in the Russian language discourse by humanitarian foreign students. The materials of the research included adapted and original texts, Internet memes with precedent names. The subject of analysis was precedent names from literary works and movies. The nature of the material under study necessitated the use of the continuous sampling method. Twenty-seven precedent names from fiction and journalistic texts, from Internet memes were used. Further processing of the obtained results was carried out with the help of descriptive, contextual and semantic analyses. A total of seven tasks were offered to recognize precedent names in fiction, journalistic and educational texts and to correlate the precedent names with their characteristics and sources. It was proved that the indicator of the attractiveness of precedent names in Russian language teaching is the interest of foreigners in characters that are highly recognizable by native speakers, the reference to sources significant for native speakers, and the possibility to correlate them with the precedents from their native linguistic culture. The authors describe the specifics of selecting significant precedents for native speakers of a particular linguistic culture and suggest compiling a linguistic-cultural commentary on the language units studied, considering the realities of the country of the language under study. Moreover, the high interest of foreign students to the memes containing precedents shows the research perspective in terms of defining the principles of selecting the precedents and developing appropriate methodological recommendations.

ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN PHRASEOLOGISMS OF WATER TRANSPORT DISCOURSE IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPARISON

The purpose of this research is to identify phraseological units of water transport discourse in English and Russian and to compare the sociolinguistic component of these groups of language units. The object of study is phraseological units that have lexemes in their composition, which are the names of water transport infrastructure (sea and river), as well as their parts, details, equipment, functions, people involved in the operation of water transport. The subject of the research is the common and different reasons for the emergence of English and Russian water transport idioms and the peculiarities of their use in English- and Russian-speaking societies. In the process of performing the work, general research methods of analysis and synthesis, elements of the quantitative method, procedures of sociolinguistic, linguocultural and comparative methods as methods of separate paradigms of linguistics, non-paradigmatic descriptive method were applied. In addition, linguistic methods of semantic, phraseological, and etymological analysis were applied. The result of the work is the identification of a number of water transport idioms that entered English and Russian phraseology at different times and in different ways, an attempt to typologize them and the definition of sociolinguistic features of the compared groups of English and Russian idioms. The main conclusions are that among the phraseological units of the water transport discourse, 7 groups are distinguished based on the assignment of key components to different lexical-semantic groups; the correlation of equivalent (28%), background (48%) and non-equivalent (14%) pairs of English and Russian phraseological units of water transport discourse was calculated; 11% of phraseological units of one language do not have phraseological equivalents in another language. A certain group of English idioms that originated in water transport have Russian counterparts that originated in other discourses. The main reason for the asymmetric state lies in the much longer history of the English fleet than the Russian one, in the much greater employment of the population of Great Britain and other English-speaking countries in water transport, as well as the long period of time when the English language, according to the decision of the IMO, has a communicative monopoly in international shipping.

Идеологический компонент военного дискурса

This article analyses the ideological component in the Georgian-language military discourse. It should be noted that the concept of discourse in modern Russian and foreign linguistics is interpreted in different ways, and the range of scientific approaches applicable to it is rather diverse, including linguocognitive, pragmastylistic, linguoculturological and others. The scientific description of the phenomenon of military discourse is limited to a few works. One of the key characteristics of this phenomenon is that its function is to organize communication between the subjects of professional communication, in the particular case, in the armed forces. The subject of research in this paper is the functioning and implementation of the language structures that contribute to the formation of the desired ideological attitudes and values in the addressee. The choice of texts of the military discourse of contemporary Georgia is determined by their accessibility to a wide range of readers (open access), as well as by the fact that to date there are no works related to the study of Georgian-language military texts within the framework of linguistics. Based on the works of Russian and foreign linguists, the main components that characterize military discourse as a separate category are identified. The ideological constituents of military discourse are determined, reflecting the communicative organization of the worldview of its subjects. In addition, lexical characteristics inherent in military discourse are highlighted. We believe that the materials reflected in this paper can be of interest and use to linguists, linguoconflictologists, specialists in intercultural communication and political linguistics as well as in Kartvelian studies.

Научные идеи О. Б. Сиротининой и саратовская школа изучения единиц реальной коммуникации. К столетию со дня рождения ученого-педагога

The article is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Russian linguist, professor of Saratov State University Olga B. Sirotinina (born in 1923). The article presents and analyzes a number of scientific ideas of the scholar: the necessity to work out new approaches to syntactic units; the interaction of primary (factual) and secondary (organizational) levels of communication; attention of the author to the addressee as a leading principle of linguistic ecology; semantic diffusion as a dynamic process in the Russian discourse. In the late 20th century Olga B. Sirotinina in her research of the colloquial speech determined new approaches to communicative units: alongside the syntax of predicative units she developed the syntax of non-predicative ones. Her works prove that while studying real discourse a special focus should be put on the role of functional words as the effectiveness of communication is directly determined by the interaction of factual and organizational communication units. The author’s concern about the addressee is one of the main principles of linguistic ecology. It is the author who is primarily responsible for the success of communication, so they are supposed to make a number of reasonable efforts to facilitate for the addressee the perception of their message. The process of semantic diffusion is often connected nowadays with the violation of linguo-ecological principles. This problem is one of the main concerns of Olga B. Sirotinina: de to weakened and broadened meaning some words start to mean almost anything, are used widely and turn into fashionable words. Excessive use of diffused lexis leads to the language system impoverishment as well as to numerous social and professional risks. The ideas of Olga B. Sirotinina under discussion have organized the research of real communication units and determined the directions of the development of Saratov linguistic school in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. The article focuses on the tendencies in the development of these ideas by Saratov linguists.

From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies

ABSTRACT The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.

GASTRONOMIC DISCOURSE AS A COMPONENT OF NATIONAL LINGUOCULTURE

The article is devoted to the analysis of the understanding of gastronomic discourse in Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures. In this paper, national food and its taste are considered as an important part of culture and one of the means of identification in intercultural communication. The article presents an analysis of a survey of Russian and Chinese students, as a result of which the universal and specific in the food culture of the two peoples are highlighted.

Current concepts of political discourse in modern Russian and Chinese media

This article is devoted to the analysis of the most important concepts of political discourse in Russian and Chinese media for the modern society of these two countries. The article discusses various approaches to the interpretation of political discourse in Russia and China, reveals their similarities and differences, analyzes the key concepts of political discourse and draws conclusions about the specifics of their functioning in the context of modern leading print media in Russia and China. The relevance of this topic is due to the importance of analyzing and understanding the media environment in Russia and China, which nowadays plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and broadcasting state policy both inside and outside the country. The subject of the study is the most relevant concepts of the mass media of the Russian Federation and China, as well as methods for creating political discourse in these countries. As a result of the study, a list of relevant concepts of Russian and Chinese media is proposed, a list of common and distinctive features of the political discourse of the two countries is given, and the reasons for the uniqueness of the national political discourse of Russia and China, due to their national characteristics, political system, ideology, and finally, cultural differences between the two peoples, are indicated. At the same time, an analysis of the publications of the leading media in the Russian Federation and China showed that the common topics of articles in the two countries are the role of language and state ideology in the life of modern society.

Linguistic picture of the world on the example of the diplomatic discourse of the Russian and Arabic languages

Cultural differences are exacerbated when relations between ethnic groups are not uniform and ideal. In today's uncertain political environment, especially taking into account the Middle East, it is usual to use various methods and strategies to create clarity and confidence to exit the "emergency" in communication processes, regardless of specific political events and circumstances. The author notes that the genre of political discourse has its own vocabulary, which includes certain routine lexical devices and clichés. However, in modern languages (including Arabic), words lose their uniqueness and become polysemic, given the globalized environment and the world in which modern man lives. The study of some languages used in political discourse and the identification of linguistic features in this area are important for linguistics due to the small number of scientific studies in the field of political discourse in Arabic and Russian. It is also noted that today there are few scientific works devoted to some aspects of modern diplomatic issues. The study notes that some linguistic activities aimed at studying and clarifying the meaning of the form of political discourse are important, especially those related to the linguistic picture of the world, Arabic and Russian languages and methods of studying political discourse.

The West in Russian Discourses of Sovereignty During the 2014 Ukraine Crisis: Between ‘Compatriot Protection’ and ‘Non-Interference’

The study challenges the conventional wisdom that Russia’s approach to state sovereignty is inconsistent and contradictory. It closely examines official statements alongside debates on the 2014 Ukraine crisis in the Russian State Duma, tracing the way two seemingly divergent notions—sovereignty as non-interference and sovereignty as responsibility towards a broader ethnic/civic community—are constituted in Russia’s wider political elite discourse. It argues that there is more commonality than divergence between the two main discursive positions as both are made possible by radical anti-Westernism, which was remarkably consistent throughout the different stages of the 2014 Ukraine conflict.

Специфика использования языковых средств в формировании имиджа транспортных авиапредприятий

The research aims to identify and compare the language means that are used to form a positive image of the aircraft enterprises “Aeroflot” and “British Airways”. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the choice of the object and subject of analysis: the paper is the first to identify and compare the common and specific characteristics of the two nations from the perspective of image construction of the two transport companies in Russian and English. The results of the study of linguistic means indicate that the airlines are interested in marketing their company as highly successful and very reliable. The study of English and Russian websites made it possible, on the one hand, to identify certain coincidences in the use of linguistic means and axiological categories when forming the image of an international transport company as a progressive, successful and influential airline, on the other hand, it allowed the researchers to determine the peculiarities of English-speaking specialists’ thinking, which manifested themselves in tropes formed according to the principle of “string compounds” (“brand-new route for British Airways”). It was established that in English, when it comes to creating the image of the British aircraft enterprise, the preference is given to comparative adjectives, which are rarely found in the Russian discourse.

Intertextual Character of Poetic Philological Discourse

The poetic-philological discourse functions as a linguocultural phenomenon in the Russian intertext. The relevance of the study is due to the consistent systematization of knowledge about philological poetry as a special type of discourse, a multidimensional analysis of the literary works of poets-phraseologists is carried out. The purpose of the work undertaken was to form ideas about the elocution of the scientist’s artistic world, that is, the materialization of the cognitive program, in the creative workshop of his philological experience. Poetry collections of modern researchers of the Russian language, specialists in the field of linguoculturology and phraseology, paremiology, and byword studies served as materials. On the basis of the predecessor works devoted to the Russian text, discourse, intertext, interpretative, linguoculturological and axiological accents are placed in the study of idiostyle, taking into account the professional position of the author. The methods of work included the observation of philological poetry and the description of its characteristic features, the systematization of the verbal tools of philologists-poets, analytical work with theoretical and factual material, deepening and expanding existing research on the specifics of Russian intertext and discourse. The main points of the study were the coverage of the intertextual properties of Russian discourse in the linguoculurological aspect, the analysis of the distinctive features of philological poetry in the conditions of intertext and in the interaction of creativity and science. The conclusions made in the course of the study determined the unique intertextual position of the poetic experiences of linguists, based on the shift of the center of poetic thought towards epistemological tendencies. In conclusion, the innovative nature of images, symbols, ideas in philological poetry is noted, directions for its further study, as well as the study of Russian intertext and poetic discourse, are outlined.

Arctic single-industry towns: A narrative bibliographic review of the main areas of scientific discourse in Russia and abroad

Subject. This article discusses the attention of the scientific community to the socio-economic development of single-industry towns in the Arctic. Objectives. The article aims to identify, compare and systematize the problems of socio-economic development of single-industry towns of the Arctic, studied in Russia and abroad, and the main approaches to their solution. Methods. For the study, I used a narrative bibliographic inquiry into scientific sources. Results. The article reveals the main directions of scientific discourse regarding the main problems of socio-economic development of Arctic single-industry towns in Russia and abroad, as well as differences in research priorities of Russian and foreign scientists. Relevance. The results of the study can be used to arrange further work on the study of single-industry towns as a socio-economic phenomenon.

Anti-Semitism in the Propaganda and Public Discourse in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus during the Russia-Ukraine War (February – August 2022) – ACTA

Abstract This paper explores and analises aspects of Antisimetism and the Jewish theme in the Russian, Belarusian and Ukraninan propaganda during the first seven months of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Репрезентация безумия в кинокомедиях и сериалах

This article is devoted to analysing humorous strategies and concepts of mental illness representation in contemporary comedy films and television series. It is worth noting that such a study is relevant in Russian discourse, since in the Western scientific literature of the last decade there have been separate interdisciplinary discussions about visualizations of mental pathologies in comedy films. For instance, the comedy film Me, Myself and Irene (2000) and the posters advertising it were subjected to a detailed analysis through the prism of the concept of cultural contextualization of comic madness. Having described the strategies of mental illnesses representation in contemporary comedy films and television series, the author concludes that there is a tendency for a comic interpretation of mental illnesses. Humorous elements appear even in melodramas, thrillers or horror films (for example, in The Shining or in A Beautiful Mind). This, however, can be explained: humorous interpretation of severe ailments makes it easier for viewers to perceive this ambiguous theme. Meanwhile, such an interpretation stigmatizes a disease, making others laugh at the character but not with them. In this regard, in the last decade, comedy films and television series on the topic of mental pathologies have been trying to develop strategies to combat stigmatization and trivialization of psychopathologies. As a result, the attempt to overcome the stigma in the context of visualization of mental pathologies has led to another, more global problem — the construction of cultural images that have turned into clichés.

The grassroots of Putin’s ideology: civil origins of an uncivil regime

ABSTRACT This article attempts to explore three illiberal discursive practices (metaphysical state, right post-colonialism, and Orthodox pan-Slavism) that structure Putin's ideological course and help to understand why justifications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine sound logical in Russian discourse. It argues that throughout the 1990s illiberal grassroots organizations popularized these discursive practices of the Soviet right-wing intelligentsia, engaged large masses in their projects, recruited members of Putin's elites as followers, and were partially absorbed by the administration. My interviews with the representatives of the illiberal civic movement and Putin’s administration indicate that grassroots organizations successfully delivered their ideological modus operandi to the post-Yeltsin ruling class. Hence, an acute resemblance of the illiberal grassroots movement’s discursive practices with those of the Kremlin is hardly likely to be accidental. Putin and his allies engaged with this preexisting illiberal civil society and ultimately drew on its ideas and tapped into its networks for support.

Характеристика интерпретаций и преобразований в вариантах «Сказки о попе и о работнике его Балде» А. С. Пушкина

The research aims to characterise a set of transformations in the variants of “The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda” by A. Pushkin in the content-related and aesthetic aspects, interpretations of this fairy tale and its variants by types of interpretation of the text. The paper contains a list of transformations in the variants of A. Pushkin’s fairy tale, describes the results of alterations of the fairy tale in the content-related and aesthetic aspects, identifies the types of interpretations of the fairy tale and its variants in accordance with the tasks of interpretation from the XX century to the present day. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that the comparison of the invariant of this fairy tale by A. Pushkin with its variants in linguistic Russian studies, as well as in philology in general has not been carried out, meanwhile the said fairy tale belongs to the number of cultural capital texts. As a result, it has been determined that the technique of re-naming objects prevails among the transformations. V. Zhukovsky carried out a qualitative transformation of the fairy tale for publication. In the Russian discourse of the XIX-XXI centuries, the recognising, reproductive, normative interpretations are presented in relation to Pushkin’s fairy tale as a cultural capital text and its variants.

The Impact of AI on Strategic Stability is What States Make of It: Comparing US and Russian Discourses

ABSTRACT Military applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are said to impact strategic stability, broadly defined as the absence of incentives for armed conflict between nuclear powers. While previous research explores the potential implications of AI for nuclear deterrence based on technical characteristics, little attention has been dedicated to understanding how policymakers of nuclear powers conceive of AI technologies and their impacts. This paper argues that the relationship between AI and strategic stability is not only given through the technical nature of AI, but also constructed by policymakers’ beliefs about these technologies and other states’ intentions to use them. Adopting a constructivist perspective, we investigate how decision-makers from the United States and Russia talk about military AI by analyzing US and Russian official discourses from 2014–2023 and 2017-2023, respectively. We conclude that both sides have constructed a threat out of their perceived competitors’ AI capabilities, reflecting their broader perspectives of strategic stability, as well as the social context characterized by distrust and feelings of competition. Their discourses fuel a cycle of misperceptions which could be addressed via confidence building measures. However, this competitive cycle is unlikely to improve due to ongoing tensions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Digital ethics challengers in Russian and English media texts: Migrant discourse case study

With digital technologies penetrating all spheres of life, the problem of digital ethics has become one of the most perspective and widely researched tasks of modern science and linguistics in particular. Digitalization influences the processes of media communication, which requires development of certain ethical standards in virtual environment. The given study aims at analysing and comparing digital ethics in Russian and English media texts. Within the framework of this study, digital etiquette is seen as a continuation of speech etiquette aimed at neutralizing aggression towards vulnerable members of society in the online environment. Using a combination of methods, namely sentiment analysis and analysis of lexical associations, messages about migrants in social networks, forums, blogs, instant messengers and microblogs were analyzed. The sentiment orientation of the text was determined using an automatic text analysis program and subsequent linguistic expertise. For this study we collected social media data of 8,478,629 characters (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, YouTube, etc.). For the analysis of English-language media texts, iWeb data on the input word migrant was collected. The total volume of the analyzed English-language Internet messages is 1,185,200 characters. Migrant discourse in Russian and English social media texts is polythematic. The results show that negative and neutral tone prevail in English media texts while in Russian there are neutral, positive and negative texts. In English media texts, there are messages expressing solidarity with migrants. At the same time, the problems of ethnic intolerance and religious stereotyping still require consideration and further development of regulatory tools.

Humour and Irony as research objects and as parts of everyday discourse in Russia

The paper addresses the issues of humour and irony research by Russian scholars and the functioning of humour and irony in everyday interaction. The aim of the paper is twofold: firstly, it presents an overview of humour and irony research in modern Russian linguistics, anthropology, ethics and literary studies. Secondly, it describes functioning of humour and irony in Russian everyday spoken, written and computer-mediated modes of discourse to demonstrate the variety of their forms and conveyed social implications. There is no single perspective that underlies existing approaches to non-bona fide forms of communication. In the Soviet Union, the use of humour and irony was largely controlled by the state. Therefore, there was a strong ideological influence on the research of non-bona fide genres and the choice of empirical data: researchers focused only on the “good examples” of humour taken from classic literary works. Also there was a strong tradition to use the terms humour, the comic, laughter, irony and satire as near synonyms, so sometimes it is not easy to draw a borderline between humorous and ironic discourses. In the past decades spontaneous non-bona fide forms of discourse have attracted researchers’ attention. Among a variety of genres canned jokes (or anecdotes) is the most popular humorous genre. Instances of humour and irony can be found not only in written texts, but also in spoken and computer-mediated modes of discourse, and in all modes humorous and ironic utterances are used to convey social implications or challenge existing social norms.