Epistolary Texts Research Articles

Реализация пунктуационных тенденций естественной письменной речи в эпистолярных текстах низкого уровня грамотности (на примере употребления разделительных знаков препинания)

The research aims to identify the specific characteristics of the implementation of punctuation trends in natural written language as exemplified by the use of separating punctuation marks in a corpus of Russian epistolary texts written by semiliterate authors. The research is novel in that it is the first one to compare punctuation trends found in different genres of natural written language. Moreover, for the first time, the functions of separating punctuation marks in the middle and end of sentences in letters written by semiliterate authors were considered in relation to the main punctuation trends of natural written language. The research findings showed that most of the main punctuation trends of natural written language (economy, interchangeability, and universalization of punctuation marks, actualization of communicatively significant parts of the sentence (parcellation), individual free combination of marks) are realized when using separating punctuation marks in the middle of a sentence (comma, semicolon, colon, dash) and at the end of a sentence (period, exclamation mark) in letters written by semiliterate people; at the same time, the realization of natural written language trends does not depend on the productivity of the marks in the corpus. The most productive and active in realizing the communicative trends of natural written language are basic marks, a period and a comma, however, natural written language trends are also realized through other, less productive separating punctuation marks. As a result of the research, it was also found that the tendency toward unification of the functions of marks, characteristic of natural written language, is not realized in the corpus through separating punctuation marks due to their multifunctionality.

Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Dionysian-mysterial Plot and his Mystical Anthropology (the Concept of «Thou art»). Second Article

The purpose of the second article on Ivanov’s mystical anthropology is to demonstrate how the plot «thou art» grows out of the Dionysian-mysterial plot that developed in Ivanov’s early work. The research material was Ivanov’s poetic, philosophical, scientific and epistolary texts. Comparative, hermeneutic, structural and semantic methods were used. Ivanov’s mystical anthropology appears as a detailed narrative, the elements of which are symbols denoting mystical entities. This narrative represents the story of the relationship between Anima and Animus, feminine, irrational and masculine, rational. This story is symbolic, it can be interpreted psychologically, mystically, cosmologically. The plot of «thou art» is modeled on the Dionysian-mysterial plot and can be divided into two lines – the mysterial and soteriological ones. Each of them is divided into «male» and «female» versions. In the «male» version of the mysterial line, the Animus distorts the divine Self in itself and separates from the Anima; in the «female» version, the Anima assumes a priestly role and renounces the God-fighting Animus. In the «male» version of the soteriological plot, the Animus acquires its God-human primordial image and transforms into the son of God, Adam, who has risen from the mortal dream. This transformed Animus appears as a Godhuman Bridegroom, with whom the Anima-Bride marries, as a result of which a complete transformation of the human personality is accomplished, the reconciliation of the male and female principles and the birth of a new Dionysus-Bacchus.

On some cases of phrasemal derivation of nouns in language and speech of the second half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century (based on epistolary texts of russian writers)

The article explores the phenomenon of phrasal derivation in the second half of the 19th century based on the letters of A. I. Herzen, I. S. Turgenev, A. P. Chekhov, as well as other sources. We provide a definition of the phraseoderivational (multi-level) nest concept — an intersystem formation that includes a phraseological unit and its lexical derivatives, created in different ways and ordered by the relations of formal-semantic derivation at a certain period of time. The basis of the semantic unity of such a nest is a common meaning condensed in the original phraseological unit, while the basis of structural unity is the presence of at least one component (the basis of the component) of the generating phraseological unit in all derivatives. We consider 1) the phenomenon of lexical-phraseological condensation (implication of a component) in phraseological units with the reference word khoduli, Lazar’, and also trace the formation of derivatives in connection with the formation of a new meaning of the noun; 2) a method of agglutination of components of qualitative-adverbial phraseological units with suffixation (based on combinations bez pardona, ot sebya); 3) an occasional method of adding bases (components of phraseological units and affixoids).

The Death of “Jewish Christianity” in the Afterlife of the Clementine Recognitions

AbstractThe editorial history of the two Pseudo-Clementine narratives known as the Recognitions and the Homilies is intricate, to say the least. From an ever-elusive “basic writing” spring two novelistic stories with extensive translation histories, subjected to significant editorial interventions, and anthologized alongside other late ancient and medieval texts. This article focuses on the addition of pseudonymous epistles as prefatory material for these Pseudo-Clementines and follows one of these letters in particular, the Epistula Clementis (Ep. Clem.). The Epistula Clementis accompanies the Latin Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions in a host of medieval anthologies concerned with Petrine hagiography and ecclesial succession, as well as histories, dialogues, and epistolary texts with anti-Judaic resonances. I argue that the Epistula Clementis, as a prefatory text, was integral to the success of the Recognitions in these later anthologies, highlighting the transformative power of the preface upon its associated text as well as the hermeneutical force of the anthology itself.

Особенности функционирования периферийных пунктуационных знаков в эпистолярных текстах малограмотных авторов

The research aims to identify the established norm of using peripheral punctuation marks in epistolary texts and to evaluate the functioning of peripheral punctuation in the letters by semiliterate authors relative to this norm. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the first-ever examination of the functions of peripheral punctuation marks in the context of the private official letters written by semiliterate authors. Additionally, the notion of a fixed function was introduced for the first time as a tool necessary for investigating whether peripheral punctuation marks are used in accordance with the norm established within a specific textual genre. The research findings showed that the use of peripheral punctuation in the letters by semiliterate authors may deviate from the generally accepted punctuation norm in the epistolary genre. It was found that norm violations primarily occur in the use of spatial-graphic signs, such as paragraph breaks, text column changes, increased line spacing and spacing between words. As a result of the study on the functioning of peripheral marks in the letters by semiliterate individuals, the following features of peripheral punctuation were also identified: the interchangeability and universalization of punctuation marks, as well as the standardization of their functions.

Виды информации в текстах эпистолярного жанра и способы их передачи в переводе

The article is devoted to the issue of information type congruence in the epistolary texts translation. The aim of this research is to characterize information types contained in the text of epistolary genre, explain the language mechanism of maintaining the congruence of the information types proportion between the source text and the translation while preserving the dominant type. The book "Chesterfield's Letters to His Son" (1774) and its translation into Russian (1971) served as the empirical material. The analysis was conducted on the basis of contexts containing verbs of speech production. The research identifies the presence of emotional, cognitive, operative and aesthetic information, as well as the ways of their linguistic expression in the source text. Ways of conveying information types of the source text in translation are characterized. The analysis reveals that the presence of specific information types in an epistolary work, alongside the choice of linguistic means for their expression, is determined by the communicative goal of the utterance – to give the author's opinion and considerably influence the recipient's views. The analysis shows that, in correspondence with such goal, emotional information is dominant in the text of epistolary genre under study. The preservation of the original information types in translation enables a creation of a secondary text that is equivalent to the source text and has a comparable value in the target linguoculture.

СВІТОГЛЯДНО-МОВНА КОНЦЕПЦІЯ БОРИСА ГРІНЧЕНКА В ЕПІСТОЛЯРНІЙ СПАДЩИНІ (на матеріалі збірки «...Віддати зумієм себе Україні». Листування Трохима Зіньківського з Борисом Грінченком)

The peculiarity of the epistolary heritage is revealed in the variety of genre forms of the letter, in the depth of philosophical searches, in the inexhaustibility and sincerity of feelings, in linguistic stylistic experiments and careful attitude to epistolary canons.Letters, as is known, form the basis of epistolary texts. Among other types of texts, they are distinguished by a clear orientation to a specifi c type of addressee and provision of correspondence communication. The construction of such texts depends on many factors: the presence of a textual tradition, the situation of hypothetical per-ception of the text, the addressee, forms of implementation and distribution of the text, and other subjective conditions of epistolary communication.B. Grinchenko’s worldview and language concept is defi ned in a signifi cant creative heritage, which covers the following issues: the signifi cant role of language in the develop-ment of national culture and in the self-determination of the people; the formation of public opinion against the restrictions and prohibitions of the Ukrainian language by tsarism; devel-opment of theoretical foundations regarding the sources of enrichment and ways of develop-ment of the Ukrainian literary language; attitude to spelling practice; standardization of the Ukrainian literary language; creative communication with other writers.In the letters of B. Hrinchenko, structural and semantic features typical for Ukrainian epistolary are refl ected, which are creatively reworked in specifi c texts. Each letter can be considered as a separate completed act of communication.Ukraine became the key image-symbol in the correspondence between Borys Grinchenko and Trokhym Zinkivskyi. Ukraine, the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian writers are the key points in B. Grinchenko’s correspondence, as they coincide with the life position of the author of the letters. Borys Hrinchenko’s correspondence is a vivid example of how obsessed a person must be, who laid a brick in the foundations of the independent new state of Ukraine.

Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Dionysian-mysterial Plot and his Mystical
 Anthropology (the Concept of «Thou art»). The First Article

The article «Thou art» is the quintessence of Ivanov’s mystical anthropology. The understanding of this text as a palimpsest in which Christian theology, Sophiology, Gnosticism and Anthroposophy coexist established in the research
 literature. But it remains unclear what is the beginning which integrates such diverse semantic layers. Our purpose is to show that such a common denominator is the Dionysian-mysterial plot – a dialectically constructed narrative that goes
 back to the orphic myth of Dionysus' tearing. The research material was Ivanov’s poetic, philosophical, scientific and epistolary texts. We used comparative, hermeneutic, structural and semantic methods. In this study, we consider the meaning of the principle «thou art» in Ivanov's works, its genesis and the history of interpretation of Ivanov's mystical anthropology, we define the Dionysian-mysterial plot, describe its structure and analyze the handwritten history of the article «Thou art», which turns out to be directly related to the Dionysian-mysterial plot.
 The article «Thou art» has a rich history of interpretation, which, however, suffers from two disadvantages: anti-dialectical static nature and discreteness. To understand the principle of «thou art» we compare it with Ivanov' Dionysianmysterial plot. While analyzing the handwritten history of «Thou art», we show how, at the final stage of work on the text of the article, Ivanov adds several paragraphs in which Dionysian-mysterial motifs are concentrated, thereby emphasizing their significance for his mystical anthropology.

Lacunarity and Neology: Diachronic Aspect (Based on the Material of Russian Writers’ Epistolary Texts of the 19th Century)

Purpose. The author considers the problem of establishing a correlation between lacunarity and neologization of the language system in the diachronic aspect using methods of semantic, contrastive, contextual, corpus and quantitative analysis. The material for the study is Russian writers’ epistolary texts of the second half of the 19th century. The author specifies the meaning of the term lacuna in relation to diachrony: a lacuna is an empty cell in the lexical system of a language, revealed retrospectively by detecting means that compensate for it. Results. The author’s classification of lacunae is based on a semiotic criterion: conceptual lacunae are empty cells in the lexical system, which are characterized by the absence of both the signifier and the signified (concept); lexical lacunae are empty cells in the lexical system, which lack a signifier, but have a non-verbalized signified that exists in public or individual consciousness. Conclusion. Extralinguistic and intra-linguistic factors determined the formation and compensation of communicatively significant lacunae in the lexical system at the level of language and speech: changes in the socio-political, economic, cultural life of Russia; interlanguage contacts; the need for nomination or re-designation of the concept; the laws of linguistic regularity, analogy, generalization and differentiation, economy, the tendency to expressiveness.

“New Ballet Criticism” (1993–2003) About “Soviet” Ballet: Forms of Cultural Recycling

In post-Soviet Russia ballet criticism, similar to opera criticism, has an almost 30-year-old history, but the period perceived as the brightest and most significant is the first period, spanning the 1990s and the early part of the first decade of the 21st century. For this New Ballet Criticism (as it has been labelled by Vadim Gaevsky), as a part of New Russian Music Criticism (as defined by Olga Manulkina and Pavel Gershenzon), a number of features have become normative: provocative styles and titles, a demythologization of works and of choreographers, the use of comparisons with mass culture in narratives, and ironic subtext. Similar to opera, political discourse has become important in ballet receptions of that time. Reviews of Soviet-era ballet productions (as well as other types of performance) often refer to the main elements of Soviet mass art — Soviet films, as well as symbols of the totalitarian culture, such as sculpture and ideological materials. The styles and headlines exploit numerous Sovietisms that are familiar and recognizable by the audience. Just like in opera reviews, the recent “Soviet” element in ballet receptions is synthesized with Soviet mass culture and fashionable trends in the country via the cult of Western cinema and the influence of domestic and foreign literary, scholarly and epistolary texts. But unlike opera criticism, ballet narratives clearly record the diversity of genres of “Soviet” ballet (ranking Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich among them); ballets since 1961 have been interpreted as a transformation of the “Soviet” element under the influence of George Balanchine’s choreography; the concept of “Soviet choreography” also implies the unreachable, for example, in the embodiment of heroic moods and the creation of mass scenes. Four forms of cultural recycling in ballet receptions are identified: recycling, recycling à la ballet, double recycling and quasi-recycling.

GENRE AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF N. SAURANBAYEV’S EPISTOLARY

The article is devoted to the study of genre and stylistic features of epistolary of Kazakhstan scientists. Epistolary heritage is an important component of the tradition of science and culture of any country. Its research allows to understand more deeply the development and features of this genre in the context of academic environment of Kazakhstan. The purpose of this study is to analyze the epistolary works of Kazakhstani scientists. The main directions of the work are classification of epistolary texts, identification of stylistic features of modern epistolary genre. The main idea of the research is to reveal the role of epistolary genre in scientific communication and to identify its contribution to the development of scientific discourse in Kazakhstan. The scientific significance of this work is to expand the existing knowledge about the genre and stylistic features of scientists' epistolary in the conditions of Kazakhstan's bilingualism. The study allows reconstructing the scientific picture of the biography of Kazakh scientists, revealing the typical features inherent in the epistolary genre in the academic context, which contributes to a better understanding of the linguistic situation in Kazakhstan in the context of two eras: Soviet and modern. The study was based on the analysis of epistolary works of Kazakh scientists, including scientific articles, letters, electronic correspondence from personal archives, as well as archives of academic institutions, in particular, A. Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics.

Phalaris & co.

Abstract The letters of Phalaris are among the letter collections assembled by Rudolf Hercher in his, ‘Epistolographi graeci’, published in 1873. They differ from other collections in that volume in the size of the corpus ( 148 letters ) and the breadth of the manuscript tradition ( more than 132 manuscripts ). Moreover, the number and the order of the letters vary greatly from one manuscript to another. These characteristics explain why there is no modern critical edition of the letters of Phalaris. This paper addresses a methodological issue: how can we get a comprehensive view of the transmission of the letters of Phalaris? It examines these letters from the perspective of the collection, given that the letters of Phalaris are often transmitted within manuscripts that combine several corpora of letters, thus forming large epistolary collections. This paper shows to what extent the results obtained by the editors of other epistolary texts can be applied to the letters of Phalaris and what is gained, on a literary level, by replacing these letters in their context of transmission.

B. Ber and A. Sheller-Mikhailov: The history of a creative dialogue

The article is devoted to the history of a creative dialogue between the poet and translator B. Ber and his literary patron A. Sheller-Mikhailov. The correspondence between the two writers, which began in 1895, continued until 1900 when the latter died. The surviving part of the epistolary genre (letters from A. Sheller-Mikhailov to B. Ber) contains about twenty documents; B. Ber’s response letters have not been found yet. Based on the analysis of their correspondence, the history of their acquaintance, the literary ties and cooperation between the two artists of the realistic and pre-modernist trends is restored, the main motives of their correspondence are revealed, which, on the one hand, is the evidence of the acquaintance and communication of representatives of different literary generations; on the other hand, it is a curious epistolary text that actualizes such meanings as “old” and “young”, “capital” and “province”, “craft” and “inspiration”. Particular attention is paid to literary masks and game strategies used by the addressee and the sender of the letters, framing the epistolary dialogue as an aesthetic phenomenon and an artistic act. The study of the creative dialogue between B. Ber and A. Sheller-Mikhailov is interesting as it enables to characterize each of the participants in the correspondence and to understand the nature of pre-modernist aesthetics, which was formed in the conditions of simultaneous assimilation and rejection of classical traditions.

Writing a Letter to One’s Muse: Genre memory and epistolography in Carl August Thielo’s Enveloppens eller Saloppens forunderlige Hændelser (1763)

Epistolary texts are often incorporated into 18th-century prose literature, but only rarely do they self-referentially discuss intertextuality as the mimesis of memory (Neumann 2005; 2008). Carl August Thielo’s “comic novel” uses a letter to the Muse to juxtapose a writer’s reliance on literary memoria and the demand for innovation.Drawing on Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s (1984) term “genre memory,” this paper examines the relationship between memory, generic hybridity and epistolography. Genre memory describes how, through the process of “novelization,” genres are incorporated and contemporised by the novel. Creative genre memory drives innovation by giving the most archaic generic elements a voice in narration and by establishing a ground for their hybrid interplay, thus producing a semantic surplus. By connecting this approach to epistolography, generic hybridity is illustrated as a product of material and narrative practices.In lieu of a preface to the reader, Thielo’s text begins with a Muse letter asking for assistance with the poetic work. This opens a discussion of generic differences and similarities, as well as the workings of intertextuality. At the same time, the engagement of texts with literary history is visualised via addresses to a mythical being belonging to literature’s memoria. Hence, the Muse letter depicts how poetical inventio builds on intertextuality to spark inspiration, thereby materialising the otherwise invisible, but crucial stage of writing before writing.This article serves to elaborate a first understanding of novelised epistolography and its potential for literary memory studies, which emphasises material and paratextual aspects over purely linguistic elements.

Речевой портрет М. Горького: стилистические особенности письменной коммуникации в переписке с В. Поссе (1898-1901 гг.)

The research aims to characterise the epistolary style of M. Gorky using the material of his correspondence with V. Posse, a significant figure in the literary process at the turn of the century. Questions of a philosophical and ideological nature, problems of artistic creativity, publishing policy, personal relationships were raised in the letters to Posse, which led to the combination of features characteristic of different styles of speech within the same letter. The scientific novelty consists in proving the thesis that the communicative and pragmatic features of Gorky’s epistolary text are directly dependent on the personality of the addressee, the content of the issues discussed, the time and place of its writing, as well as the historical and personal situation faced by the addresser. The attained results have shown that Gorky’s speech portrait is a textual structure that has consistency and reflects the peculiarities of his written communication style. The system-forming elements of the speech portrait are: the orientation to the addressee’s utterance, the presence of micro-plots related to the discussion of the socio-political situation, the characteristics of the participants in the literary process in the text, the paradox technique that aggravates the situation of a dialogue-dispute, the introduction of scattered heteroglossia, indirect speech instead of quotation into the text of the letter, the stylistic heterogeneity of the utterance, the use of vernacular vocabulary.

Формирование коммуникативных компетенций с применением интернет-эпистолярия

The article discusses the problem of online communication in higher education. It describes how digital business correspondence can develop communicative skills in university students. Analysis and systematization were used as review methods. Internet platforms can teach students to communicate in various situations of oral, written, and virtual communication in their professional sphere. By studying text samples from social networks, blogs, and e-mail correspondence, they learn to integrate communicative experience and observe Internet interaction in specific situations. They also learn to navigate in a constantly changing Internet environment and develop critical thinking. The ability to compose epistolary texts of different genres will help them to correspond with any type of communicants on various Internet platforms using appropriate style and nettiquette in social networks, forums, chat rooms, blogs, Internet comments, and e-mail correspondence.

Медицинская трагикомедия (случай А.К. Толстого)

A.K. Tolstoy had a bright talent for comic transformation of cultural, literary and everyday phenomena. In this aspect, the “medical” topic is presented in his letters to N.V. Adlerberg. He widely and effectively used grotesque, absurd and pun techniques in the development of this topic. As his illnesses multiplied and worsened, Tolstoy found new ways to mitigate his suffering with laughter in literature and in life. In 1863, asthma attacks began, which did not stop until death. However, he finds the strength to endure the disease with humor and in letters portrays himself in such severe conditions in a comic way. He is forced to increasingly resort to painkillers, including morphine, but does not attach serious importance to his dependence on it. With a sharp but good-natured humor, he draws the figure of his attending physician A.I. Krivsky in “Medical Poems”. The poet’s humorous poetic and epistolary texts also describe cases of deviant and pathological eroticism.

Features of the Style of the Letters of Bishop Theophan the Recluse: Lexical and Phraseological Aspects

Purpose. The purpose of this article is to analyze the characteristics of lexical terms in Russian texts from the perspective of lexical rhetoric. So the article analyzes the peculiarities of the vocabulary and phraseology of the letters from “Letters on the Christian Life” of the famous preacher, religious teacher Bishop Theophan the Recluse.Results. Through the analysis of the selected specific vocabulary and idioms, we have obtained the following results. One of the distinguishing features of these epistolary texts is polystylism, which manifests itself in a free combination of vocabulary of foreign origin, colloquial words, and Church Slavonicisms. If borrowed vocabulary is used in a stylistically neutral function, then colloquial elements are stylistically marked and used in order to establish communication with addressees. Such vocabulary creates a kind of trusting relationship between the addresser and addressees. Phraseological units and constructions, which are author’s, occasional transformations of phraseological elements, serve the same purpose. Church Slavonic inclusions in letters are a kind of communicative fragments, intexts within letters, conditioned in thematic (definitions of theological concepts) and genre (quotations from the Bible and prayer addresses).Conclusion. In summary, through this research, we can derive some new theories of linguistic application, and through it, we can enrich the interpretation of corpus and dictionaries.

Заимствованные названия напитков в текстах А. С. Пушкина

The article examines borrowed words that denote various types of drinks in the poetic and prose works of AlexanderPushkin as well as in his letters. These names are part of the gastronomic vocabu-lary and are an integral part of the cultural code. We study this group of words from the point of view of their relation to particular source languages. As a result of the study, French, English, German, Arabic, Turkic, Hungarian, and Portuguese loanwords for drinks have been identified. Most of them are gallicisms. Particu-lar attention is paid in the article to the peculiarities of the semantics of the lexical units under study. The total number of native and borrowed names and the number of the word usages have been determined. InPushkin’s poetic, prose, and epistolary texts, most of the names of drinks (26 out of 36) are borrowed words. The research was carried out within the framework of lexico-semantic, linguoculturological, and functional-stylistic approaches. Borrowings are considered not only in the linguistic but also in the cultural-historical aspect. This is necessary to understand the author’s idea, which is realized, for example, in the description of the life of the metropolitan and local nobility, household sketches, and characterization of heroes. It is con-cluded that many of Pushkin’s works are characterized by the poetization of drinks, which is achieved with the help of epithets, personifications, metaphors, and other artistic devices, thanks to which scenes of family life, descriptions of friends’ meetings and love experiences acquire a unique romantic shade. This article can be used as a basis for further research on the problems under this topic.

Тульские слухи 1812 г.

The article is devoted to a private letter written at the end of November 1812 in Tula and preserved in a small archive of the Tula and Kaluga noblemen, the Ievlevs. Analysis of the document allows us to identify the author — Pavel Svechin, an official under the Tula governor, as well as the addressees of the letter — the landowner Alexander Prokofievich Ievlev and his son Peter. The name of the author of the addendum and others mentioned in the letter as well as the circumstances in which the epistolary text appeared, have been established. The reason for writing the letter was the news from the battlefields, which reached the provincial town and were passed on, probably to the estate where the addressees lived. However, the events of the Patriotic War were presented in a semi-fantastic form: the dates, names of commanders, and events were mixed up. The author of the letter does not seem to care much for the credibility or accuracy of the information conveyed. The only news that was transmitted without distortion concerns the bestowal of the Order of St. George, First Class, and the title of Prince of Smolensk upon Field Marshal Kutuzov. The article focuses on the reasons for the appearance of distortions and the mechanism of rumor formation; conclusions are drawn about what really worried the Tula landowners in the late autumn of 1812. The letter is published with a detailed commentary.