Linguistic Literature Research Articles

Категория прямоты в лексике и прагматике

The article deals with the linguistic and speech category of directness, which is dialectically connected with its opposite – the category of indirectness. Realizations of the category of directness are considered: firstly, in language vocabulary and idiomatics; secondly, in speech communication; thirdly, in a more general sense of understanding the features of the system of language and speech. Two aspects of using the concept of directness to characterize linguistic and communicative-speech phenomena are considered. On the one hand, the use of the concept of directness for this purpose is due to the semantic structure of lexemes directly / direct / directness, their direct and figurative (metaphor, metonymy) meanings, relations with opposite concepts (various depending on the meaning of “directness”). On the other hand, this is due to the character of natural human language, which also dialectically combines “directness” (of communication, communicative meanings) and “indirectness” (inaccuracy, asymmetry, etc.). In theoretical linguistics, for several centuries, these features of the nature of language have repeatedly become the object of reflection – from different points of view, in different concepts, under different names, while so far much more attention has been paid to indirectness than directness, which is shown by a review of modern linguistic literature, dedicated to the relevant features and units of linguistic and communicative speech phenomena. The article analyzes the contexts representing the semantic and pragmatic polysemy of directness in speech communication: situations that are comprehended as such in artistic dialogues (author’s speeches) (“He / she said directly” / “Say directly”); the main speech intentions of the speakers in these situations are revealed – recognition, request, consent and refusal, prediction, statement, promise.

Прецедентные имена и их роль в создании образа Руфи Морз в романе Дж. Лондона «Мартин Иден»

The article investigates the precedent names in Jack London’s novel “Martin Eden” that have not been subjected to analysis in linguistic literature. The aim of the research is to study the precedent names functioning as a means of creating the character of Ruth Morse, the major heroine in the novel. The scientific originality of the research lies in identifying the axiological, appellative-associative and expressive-characterising functions of the precedent names regarding this heroine. It is the first time that the domain sources of the precedent names under analysis have been determined, including literature, music, and religion. The research findings showed that the text of the novels contains references to the poetry by A. Swinburne, A. Tennyson, R. Browning, H. Longfellow, R. Kipling, the music by R. Wagner and the Old Testament texts from the Bible when it comes to creating Ruth Morse’s character. The researchers found that the precedent names reflect the dynamic nature of the protagonist’s view and evaluation of the main heroine, changing from idealisation (a “divine ideal”) into absolutely negative. The paper shows that precedent phenomena are used as a stylistic device, i.e., charactonyms, in quotations and to create allusive references.

Первая речь члена парламента как жанр парламентского дискурса: функциональный аспект

Introduction. The paper focuses on the genre of a maiden speech, which is the first official speech of a newly elected parliamentarian. The relevance of the research is due to the fact that no special studies of this genre have been presented in the linguistic literature so far.
 Aim. The study aims at discovering and describing the functional features of a maiden speech. 
 Methodology and research methods. The methods used in the work include the descriptive method, the methods of discursive, contextual, functional and stylistic analysis.
 Results. As a result of the study, the following main functions of a maiden speech are identified: the functions of presentation, social identification and solidarity, the performative function, the functions of orientation, differentiation and confrontation. Special features and means of implementing each of the functions are considered. It is concluded that a maiden speech is a “hybrid” speech genre, in which the signs of ritual genres are combined with the signs of orientational genres; the features of agonal genres can also be found in a maiden speech.
 The scientific novelty of this study lies in the functional approach to the description of the speech genre under consideration.
 The practical significance of the paper is determined by the fact that its results can be used in the courses of lectures on political linguistics, discourse theory, genristics and rhetoric.

Introduction: the limits of the explanatory potential of the alienability contrast

Abstract This introductory article outlines the central topic of the present special issue, viz. the contrast between alienable and inalienable possession, and how this contrast is reflected in the grammars and lexicons of natural languages. It sketches the historical background of the alienability contrast in the linguistic literature and points to a number of biases that need to be overcome in order to (1) advance our understanding of the contrast and (2) face the limits of its explanatory potential. Specifically, the present introduction, as well as the contributions to the present issue, proposes to move beyond prototypical possessive relationships (ownership, part-whole, and kinship relations), prototypical possessor categories (human possessors) as well as prototypical possessee categories (artifacts, body-parts and kin). In addition, the issue contains three contributions dealing with Amazonian languages, thus filling in an important gap in previous crosslinguistic studies on possession. The data presented in the special issue show that many morphosyntactic phenomena that have been explained in terms of the alienability contrast – or are amenable to such explanations – cannot be reduced to it, and are sometimes even better described without recourse to alienability at all. The present article thus concludes that the alienability contrast is at best regarded as a heuristic tool in exploring linguistic data, and cautions that, if used as the only explanatory principle, it could actually hamper an adequate description of the data.

Assessing the inferential strength of epistemic must

This article presents four experiments that investigate the meaning of English and Italian statements containing the epistemic necessity auxiliary verb must/dovere , a topic of long-standing debate in the philosophical and linguistics literature. Our findings show that the endorsement of such statements in a given scenario depends on the participants’ subjective assessment about whether they are convinced that the conclusion suggested by the scenario is true, independently from their objective assessment of the conclusion’s likelihood. We interpret these findings as suggesting that English and Italian speakers use epistemic necessity verbs to communicate neither conclusions judged to be necessary (contrary to the prediction of the standard modal logical view) nor conclusions judged to be highly probable (contrary to the prediction of recent analyses using probabilistic models) but conclusions whose truth they believe in (as predicted by the analysis of epistemic must as an inferential evidential). We suggest that this evidential meaning of epistemic must/dovere might have arisen in everyday conversation from a reiterated hyperbolic use of the words with their original meaning as epistemic necessity verbs.

Nominativus absolutus в истории русского языка

The article examines the structure, semantics, and functions of the nominativus absolutus structure, which is a predicative unit with the participial predicate having the subject of its own. The relevance of the work is explained by inconsistency in interpretation of the genesis, structural features and functions of this structure in the linguistic literature. The purpose of the article is to identify indicators of the grammatical dependence of nominativus absolutus on the verbal part, to prove its originality, to determine the dynamics of use, stylistic marking, and reasons for elimination. The article used the method of continuous sampling, descriptive, comparative historical and comparative typological methods. It has been proved that, despite the high degree of predicativity of the participle in this construction, it remains grammatically dependent on the verbal part. The markers of this dependency are revealed: the identity or co-reference of the subjects in nominativus absolutus and the verbal part; one subject denotes the whole, while the other nominates its part; the subject of one part represents a subject, while in the other part it is an object; the subject in nominativus absolutus possesses the item nominated in the verbal part. The constructive variety of the analyzed clause is investigated, the types of semantic relations between the subject in nominativus absolutus and the main part are characterized. The application of quantitative data analysis has enabled the author to study the dynamics of nominativus absolutus functioning in the written records of the 11 th – 17 th centuries, taking into account the development of the simple sentence structure and the category of a subordinate clause. The reasons for nominativus absolutus elimination are determined.

Intensifying expletive constructions and their use on social media: Innovative functions of the hashtag #wokeAF in English tweets

The hashtag has seen increasing attention in the linguistics literature, in recognition of its prevalence on social media and in other modes of communication. Here, we report on a diachronic analysis of the hashtag #wokeAF in English-language tweets posted between 2012 and 2022. First, we trace the use of the word woke from verb to adjective, with novel uses arising in African American Vernacular English. Such uses then spread into mainstream standard English, eventually being used in a novel construction: the intensifying expletive ([adjective + as + expletive]). Although examples of the intensifying expletive are listed in the Urban Dictionary, to our knowledge, this is the first linguistic analysis of the construction. Second, we analyse semantic interpretations and syntactic characteristics of the intensifying expletive #wokeAF, by documenting its occurrence in tweets spanning eleven years. Analysis of the discourse and the context in which the hashtag appears allows us to uncover its novel use as a collective noun, which in our data, is linked to a pejorative stance. In general, we find innovation in the semantic scope of the hashtag and versatility in its position and integration within tweets. Given the pervasiveness of the word woke in the public consciousness, as evidenced by its occurrence in the popular press, this article aims to fill a timely gap while providing an interesting example of language innovation online.

Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract Psychological verbs, especially Object Experiencer verbs, are widely discussed in the linguistic literature because of their peculiar syntactic and semantic properties. Two main issues regarding Object-Experiencer verbs are often raised: their aspectual nature and an alternation process (with the experiencer in subject position). This article analyzes Brazilian Portuguese Object Experiencer verbs, focusing on these issues. Based on a study of 170 verbs, we claim that Object Experiencer verbs constitute a verb class whose members describe a complex stage-level state in which a stimulus state activates (in a causative relation) a mental state in an experiencer. In addition, we argue that Object-Experiencer verbs appear in an inverse form: the experiencer as subject, and the stimulus as oblique. We claim that such an inverse form does not result from the causative alternation. In the inverse structure, different from an inchoative form of a change-of-state verb, both arguments are strongly preferable, and the verbs still denote a stative situation. We also provide a representation for the event structure of those verbs, using predicate decomposition, that is associated with their syntactic properties.

Some Training Methods of Speech Communication in Universities

One of the main tasks at the current stage of development of higher education is to update professional education by strengthening its practical orientation while maintaining basic quality. A review of psychological, pedagogical, linguistic and methodological literature shows that the topic of teaching oral speech has been considered much more widely in recent years. Many scientists have analyzed it. The article is devoted to the analysis of modern methods of teaching languages, aimed at developing the language skills of students in non-philological fields of study. The purpose of this study is to highlight some of the theoretical foundations of the system of teaching professional language activities based on interdisciplinary integration and to outline the optimal implementation of the university course “Kyrgyz language and culture of speech” in the training of non-philology students.

Structural Factor Analysis of Lexical Complexity Constructs and Measures: A Quantitative Measure-Testing Process on Specialised Academic Texts

ABSTRACT This study evaluates 22 lexical complexity measures that represent the three constructs of density, diversity and sophistication. The selection of these measures stems from an extensive review of the SLA linguistics literature. All measures were subjected to qualitative screening for indicators/predictors of lexical proficiency/development and criterion validity based on the body of scholarship. This study’s measure-testing process begins by dividing the selected measures into two groups, similarly calculated and dissimilarly calculated, based on their quantification methods and the results of correlation tests. Using a specialized corpus of postgraduate academic texts, a Structural Factor Analysis (SFA) comprising a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is then conducted. The purpose of SFA is to 1) verify and examine the lexical classifications proposed in the literature, 2) evaluate the relationship between various lexical constructs and their representative measures, 3) identify the indices that best represent each construct and 4) detect possible new structures/dimensions. Based on the analysis of the corpus, the study discusses the construct-distinctiveness of lexical complexity constructs, as well as strong indicators of each conceptual/mathematical group among the measures. Finally, a unique and smaller set of measures representative of each construct is suggested for future studies that require measure selection.

Legal Linguistics as a University Academic Course (Case Study of University Textbooks and Master’s Programs in the Russian Federation): Aspect Approach

The article discusses the prerequisites and the current state of legal linguistics as a university academic course. The topic "Legal linguistics at university" covers three substantial areas in the article: legal, linguistic and pedagogical. The history and modernity of legal linguistics are noted and traced in several social statuses: legal linguistics as practice, as a research area, and finally, legal linguistics as a separate course included in the system of higher education and forming a major in educating lawyers and philologists at university. We intend to show in the article the origins and evolution of this phenomenon. The central issue of the work concerns the entry of legal linguistics into the system of higher education. Among the particular objectives of the article is the presentation of the specifics of the development of educational literature for the course of "legal linguistics ". The specific research goal of the article is to conduct a multi-aspect analysis of the structure and modalities of university textbooks in legal linguistics published and used in educational process. This work is a case study of a range of educational literature in legal linguistics, as issued from 2000 to the present. The article provides its aspect review. The main subject under consideration is the modality and structure of the educational edition; the main aspect of the study results from the thesis: the structure and modality of an educational edition is largely determined not only by its type (genre), but also by the target audience to which it is addressed (philologists, lawyers, experts, general readers).

Диалект села Старошведское: опыт составления словаря неизученного языка (rokäḷ—sirop)

The dialect of the village of Gammalsvenskby belongs historically to the Swedish dialects of Estonia, which were spoken before World War II in the Noarootsi peninsula (Sw. Nuckö), in the villages of Kurkse (Korkis) and Vihterpalu (Vippal), and in the islands of the Moonsund archipelago: Osmussaar (Odensholm), Vormsi (Ormsö), Suur- and Väike-Pakri (Stora och Lilla Rågöarna), Ruhnu (Runö), Naissaar (Nargö) and Hiiumaa (Dagö). In 1782, around 1,000 Swedes from the island of Dagö, which at the time belonged to the Russian Empire, were resettled in the Kherson Governorate. There, on the bank of the Dnieper River, a village that later came to be called Gammalsvenskby was founded. The native language of its founders was the dialect of Dagö. Up to end of the 2010s, some of the elderly residents of the present-day village preserved a language variety that goes back to the dialect of Dagö; this is the dialect of Gammalsvenskby. The present-day state of this dialect has not been systematically described in linguistic literature. The only source of data for this article is fieldwork with speakers of the dialect. The main objective is to present material recorded in the interviews in the most complete way possible and to describe the state of the vocabulary and inflection in the dialect. The entries include the following information: type of inflection; translation; phrases, sentences and short texts illustrating the usage (with initials of the informants). In many cases full paradigms are given as well. They include all phonetic and morphological forms that have occurred in the interviews.

Язык и культура в системе межкультурной коммуникации

The article deals with the actual problem of the functioning of language and culture in the process of intercultural communication in the context of bilingualism and multilingualism. In the course of conducting scientific research, the analysis and description of the material of linguistic, sociological and linguodidactic scientific literature of a lexicographic nature was carried out in order to identify the degree of reflection of the participation of language as a toolkit (tool) of culture in the process of intercultural communication and its definition in the corresponding dictionary entries characterized by similarities and differences. The main differences lie in the explicit or implicit expression of the participation of language in the process of intercultural communication, or in not providing for the role of language in this global interethnic communication. The basis of intercultural communication is language as a means of transmitting information, and bilingualism as a linguistic and speech property of representatives of different nationalities, which ensures the implementation of intercultural communication. In the definitions of intercultural communication presented in four linguographic works, in understanding and defining it, language often goes by the wayside. 12 understandings and definitions of intercultural communication are analyzed. Of these, in 7 the participation of the language is presented explicitly, in 4 — implicitly, in one it is not presented. Intercultural communication cannot be carried out without interlingual communication: language, as a mirror of culture, reflects its inner and outer world, which forms foreign language and foreign cultural knowledge, abilities, skills, which together form and develop the interlinguistic and cultural competence of the individual and society. Intercultural communication is both a universal (universal) phenomenon and a national-specific phenomenon. The second is formed and functions in local conditions. The totality (class) of linguocultural communications in local conditions forms its world (universal) system and dynamics. Language and culture, as components of the act of functioning of intercultural communication, are a dual unity of social functions that ensure interethnic communication in various conditions of the individual and society. Language is a transmitter of culture, so we should talk about inter-linguocultural communication. In the process of conducting scientific research, inductive, deductive methods, comparative and linguostatistical methods were used, which gave scientific results of theoretical and practical significance.

Impact of studying abroad on language skill development: Regression discontinuity evidence from Japanese university students

The importance of English communication skills has increased with globalization, and governments in various countries have encouraged students to go abroad. However, the causal impact of studying abroad has rarely been investigated, particularly in non-European countries. This study adopted a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) for the flagship scholarship program of the Japanese government for youth studying abroad. We found that scholarships significantly increased the probability of studying abroad by 77–80 points. We measured English proficiency using a multiple-choice test we originally developed and found that studying abroad increased English proficiency by 33–38% (or 1.15–1.35 standard deviation). We also found that studying abroad significantly improved their international posture and perceived communication competence in a foreign language, which are the two traits found to be important determinants of future development in language ability in applied linguistics literature.

Language and the Miracle Creed

Since Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s coining of the term biolinguistics in 1974, biolinguistics research has attracted numerous attentions from the linguistic circle and its neighbouring fields, triggering various ways of pursuing it. The current paper makes clear the origin, significance, and implications of biolinguistics, especially, the reason why the biolinguistics enterprise realizes the miracle creed firstly assumed by Albert Einstein. In this way, the controversies and mis-conceptualization of biolinguistics in current linguistic literature can be clarified, paving the solid foundation for future biolinguistics research.

Oxymoron as a cognitive-pragmatic phenomenon in the Оlga Kobylyanska’s artistic discourse

Oxymoron as a linguistic phenomenon is characteristic primarily of artistic speech. There are different interpretations of this concept in the linguistic literature. Oxymoron is interpreted as a stylistic figure, a rhetorical form, a means of artistic expression (trope). The purpose of the article is to analyze the oxymoron as a cognitive-pragmatic phenomenon in the artistic discourse of Olga Kobylyanska. The relevance of the article is determined by the need of further in-depth study of Olga Kobylyanskaya idiostyle in order to form a cognitive-pragmatic conception of the writer's artistic discourse. The novelty of scientific research is due to the fact that the oxymoron as a cognitive-pragmatic phenomenon in the artistic discourse of Olga Kobylyanska has not yet been the subject of thorough research. Research methods. In the article as the main general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis are used, as well as linguistic – descriptive, structural and comparative and historical methods. Conclusions. So, an oxymoron as a cognitive phenomenon consists in the implementation of opposite, mutually exclusive relations of linguistic units due to the so-called cognitive dissonance, which determines its pragmatic value for the reader. In the artistic discourse of O. Kobylyanska oxymoronic units of different nature function; oxymoronic relations function at the level of a word combination, a sentence structure on a linguistic unit (composite).

History and modification of modern cinematic vocabulary

This article is devoted to the diachronic modification of the cinematic vocabulary of the modern German language. The relevance of this study is determined by the insufficient study of the formation and development of German film lexicon in the XXI century, which contributes to new research on this issue in modern linguistics; as well as the need to study the process of formation and evolution of the German language film lexicon to identify linguistic and cultural features of this area of vocabulary.The purpose of the study is to determine the semantic features of the lexical units of the German language, representing the cinematic vocabulary in the framework of the historical development of the language. To achieve this research goal, the following tasks were set and solved: 1) the modern scientific linguistic literature has been studied and analyzed in order to form a theoretical basis for this research problem; 2) the semantic field of cinematography has been considered and the analysis of individual lexical units of German cinematography has been carried out and the modification of lexemes in the context of the historical development of the language in relation to modern trends has been described; 3) the nature of borrowing in the German language of film terms from other languages and the analysis of their structure is made. The article discusses the interpretation and definition of the semantic content of the German language film lexicon. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the grammatical and lexical modification of the German language film terminology based on the diachronic aspect is described for the first time in Russian linguistics, as well as the synchronic correlation of film vocabulary with modern trends is traced. As a result, it was revealed that the semantic group denoting the professions of performing skills in modern German is represented by the word composition of nouns, as a rule, one of which is a verbal noun. The German film language tends to use borrowed synonyms for the original word in communication, the vast majority of these borrowings came from Latin, French and English.

Exploring the Principles Applied During the Production of an Open Writing Textbook

Despite coverage of materials development principles in the applied linguistics literature, principled production of open textbooks has not received attention. To address this gap and demonstrate the interdisciplinary potential of materials development research, the authors drew upon concurrent verbalization and interview data they collected while composing their first coursebook, a freely available open textbook designed for first-year university writing courses that enroll English first-language and second-language learners, to discern how they applied principles. Qualitative content analysis of the data indicated the novice textbook writers focused on learning objectives to negotiate textbook relevancy and currency concerns, tried to create relatable content, and employed varied repetition and layering to build modular chapters. This study illustrates the generalizability of materials development research and principles and offers a view of open textbook authorship for teachers interested in the activity.

How Stephen King writes and why: Language, immersion, emotion

AbstractMany successful novelists offer writing advice, but do they actually follow it themselves? And if so, can it truly account for the success of their novels? We dissect and examine three pieces of writing advice from Stephen King's book On Writing (2000). King counsels writers to (1) write in a simple language to aid readers' narrative immersion; (2) avoid ‐ly adverbs, especially in dialogue attribution; and (3) avoid the passive voice. We examine these three pieces of advice both theoretically, reviewing them in light of what we know about how literature affects readers from such fields as literary linguistics and evolutionary literary studies, and empirically, using a computational linguistics approach to test whether King follows his own advice and whether it can explain his success as a novelist. We find that King's advice about simple language makes sense if an author's goal is to sell books while his advice against ‐ly adverbs makes sense if the goal is instead literary recognition. For his advice against using the passive voice, we find no substantial theoretical or empirical basis.

Диалект села Старошведское: опыт составления словаря неизученного языка (raff — rokk)

The dialect of the village of Gammalsvenskby belongs historically to the Swedish dialects of Estonia, which were spoken before World War II in the Noarootsi peninsula (Sw. Nuckö), in the villages of Kurkse (Korkis) and Vihterpalu (Vippal), and in the islands of the Moonsund archipelago: Osmussaar (Odensholm), Vormsi (Ormsö), Suur- and Väike-Pakri (Stora och Lilla Rågöarna), Ruhnu (Runö), Naissaar (Nargö) and Hiiumaa (Dagö). In 1782, around 1,000 Swedes from the island of Dagö, which at the time belonged to the Russian Empire, were resettled in the Kherson Governorate. There, on the bank of the Dnieper River, a village that later came to be called Gammalsvenskby was founded. The native language of its founders was the dialect of Dagö. Up to end of the 2010s, some of the elderly residents of the present-day village preserved a language variety that goes back to the dialect of Dagö; this is the dialect of Gammalsvenskby. The present-day state of this dialect has not been systematically described in linguistic literature. The only source of data for this article is fieldwork with speakers of the dialect. The main objective is to present material recorded in the interviews in the most complete way possible and to describe the state of the vocabulary and inflection in the dialect. The entries include the following information: type of inflection; translation; phrases, sentences and short texts illustrating the usage (with initials of the informants). In many cases full paradigms are given as well. They include all phonetic and morphological forms that have occurred in the interviews.