Russian Mentality Research Articles

The reflection of the russian mentality and the dichotomy of joy and sadnessin A. P. Chekhov’s works

The reflection of the russian mentality and the dichotomy of joy and sadnessin A. P. Chekhov’s works

Вербализация образа яблони в поэзии В.А. Солоухина

We analyze linguistic features of poetic texts by V.A. Soloukhin, included in the collection “Poems” (1990). The subject of research is the image of an apple tree from the point of view of the specifics of its verbalization in the individual author’s picture of the world by V.A. Soloukhin in comparison with the linguistic embodiment of the image of an apple tree in the linguistic picture of the world of Russian people. The relevance of research lies in the fact that V.A. Soloukhin’s poetic picture of the world is analyzed from various linguistic and cultural positions, which is associated with the ability of a lexeme to absorb both ethnocultural information and individual author’s information. The purpose of study is to comprehend the role of the dendronym apple tree in the author’s work as a carrier of figurative folklore and mythological meanings. The image of a tree is considered in the context of the manifestation of the Russian mentality, culture and history. The study may have a practical focus in the teaching of Russian, including Russian as a foreign language; when studying the creativity of V.A. Soloukhin in the literary course and in the compilation of author’s dictionaries. It is concluded that the apple tree in the artistic picture of the world of V.A. Soloukhina is inextricably linked with the image of the Russian garden. The author, associating the concept of life and death with the apple tree, recalls the harm that a person can cause to wildlife, and by including in his works lexemes describing the flowering of an apple tree, the beauty of its fruits, wilting of leaves, coarsening of trunks and roots, he shows cyclicality life not only of a tree, but also of a person.

ОБРАЗ КОТА КАК ДРУГОГО В РУССКОЙ ПОЭЗИИ: ОТ КЛАССИКИ XIX В. К «ОТТЕПЕЛИ» ХХ В.

The article is devoted to the culturological comprehension of the cat as a character and image of the XIX-XX century Russian poetry. It is noted that the most famous and firmly established in the Russian mentality cats enter the reading and, accordingly, the cultural experience of Russians in their childhood when they are introduced to classical Russian literature (A.S. Pushkin, the learned cat from the introduction to the poem Ruslan and Lyudmila» and the Russian liter-ary fairy tale (K. Chukovsky). The author specifies that even in the 19th century these animals were an inseparable part of the Russian literary landscape, but they did not play an important role there, being semi-animate characters of sorts for their masters (A. Fet). It is found out that some writers of the turn of XIX-XX centuries assigned supernatural abilities to them, recognizing the mysteriousness of these creatures and our inability to understand them (I. Bunin). In this historical period, Russian poets in general did not separate the cat from the animal world, which was opposed to the human world (Sasha Chyorny). The attitude towards cats changed fundamentally during the «thaw»: the poets of the Sixties saw in their behavior a degree of inner freedom and independence which they themselves were unable to achieve on the social and cultural level, but which they desired so much. (B. Akhmadulina, A. Voznesensky). The atti-tude toward animals, cats in particular, became for many a criterion of the human personal qualities and it was a sign of certain softening of mores in Soviet society (I. Brodsky). The article suggests and studies the development of the cat's image / character from a minor character being a part of the lyrical hero's environment, through positioning the cat as part of the animal world, to humanizing its image in XX century poetry and assigning to it the qualities of human beings, interlocutors and associates, on the one hand, and interpreting the cat as a creature involved in the mysteries of the Universe, on the other hand.

The main directions of the research work of the laboratory of the history of psychology and historical psychology 2017-2021

The purpose of the article is to review the activities of the Laboratory of the history of psychology and historical psychology in the period from 2017 to 2021. It describes a system of principles that formed the basis of scientific research on the history of psychology. The article shows that the development of problems of historical psychology correspond to the functions performed by this branch. The authors give a detailed analysis of the main scientific directions of the laboratory's research: theoretical and methodological developments, the introduction of new methods for the study of psychological knowledge and psychological reality of the past, the personalistic line of development of domestic science, including in-depth development of regional aspects in the history of psychology, the study of the formation and development of scientific schools and areas of domestic psychology of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, valuable psychological ideas in the works of Russian thinkers of the past, the study of the Russian mentality, development of an integrative approach to the holistic study of complex socio-psychological phenomena related to recent history. In conclusion, the authors conclude that the research work is carried out within the framework of the traditional directions for the laboratory and is actively developing in accordance with the current tasks of modern science.

НЕНОРМАТИВНОЕ НАПИСАНИЕ ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОЙ ЕДИНИЦЫ КАК МАРКЕР ЕЕ СЕМАНТИЧЕСКОЙ СПЕЦИАЛИЗАЦИИ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ЭРРАТИВОВ ЖОСКИЙ И ЖОСКО В НЕОФИЦИАЛЬНОЙ ИНТЕРНЕТ-КОММУНИКАЦИИ)

This article is devoted to erratives (intentionally misspelled words) in informal online communication. Analysing the erratives zhosky and zhosko, the author proves that uncodified spellings can be markers of semantic specialization of the corresponding words. In particular, it turns out that the analysed erratives are used to mark a new frequency value that is not reflected in dictionaries. The emergence of this meaning and its widespread use in informal Internet communication is explained by the propensity of Russian mentality speakers to emotionality and extreme assessments and, consequently, the relevance of expressive lexical units for informal communication. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that erratives are systematic as units of language and writing.

Thematic Representation and Linguo-Cognitive Structure of the Businesswoman Image from the Perspective of Gender-Professional Axiology

The article is devoted to the field modeling of the verbal representation of the stereotypical image of a businesswoman - a new phenomenon in the Russian mentality. A comprehensive description is carried out in the sociolinguistic, linguo-cognitive, discursive and gender aspects based on the integrative cognitive-functional analysis of the linguo-culturally marked components of the stereotype image by the methods of a semantic-cognitive, discursive, contextual, conceptual analysis, the method of field modeling and interpretation of the data obtained. The described fragment of the worldview is a pioneering field of comprehension of new phenomena of reality in the framework of the analysis of business discourse and national conceptual spheres. The empirical material of the study was the results of a survey of professional feminine and masculine groups. The nucleus of the heterostereotype of a businesswoman was revealed, based on the ideas enshrined in the minds of the male entrepreneurs - feminine strategies of business communication and an integral set of roles and status positions of the performer and assistant, in which the leading place is given to men, and the secondary - to women. In addition, the analyzed linguistic material demonstrated the transformation of traditional female roles of a wife and a mother towards male roles of a breadwinner and a leader. So, the autoimage of a businesswoman is a complex cognitive structure that includes a set of social roles and functions, numerous gender prescriptions and stereotypes. The nucleus of auto-representations of a businesswoman has also made up a cognitive attribute of female business communication strategies. The feminine role-playing set, according to the women entrepreneurs, includes the traditional roles of a housewife, a mother, a wife, a weak woman, a parity spouse and a hybrid feminine-masculine image. According to the study, the actualization of new feminine roles does not eliminate the socio-cultural background of a womans development in society, but tends to preserve traditional female behavior patterns in combination with components determined by civilizational processes.

THE NATIONAL-CULTURAL ASPECT OF SURNAMES IN THE PLAYS OF A.N. OSTROVSKY

The article considers the surnames in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky. The semantic analysis of these surnames is carried out in the article. The purpose of the research is to consider surnames in the works of A.N. Ostrovsky as a valuable language material the semantics of which carries information about the Russian national picture of the world. The results of the study showed that each surname is unique and carries valuable linguistic information in the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky. Surnames in the plays of the playwright A.N. Ostrovsky's represent a linguistic material that contains important historical information, and represents a fragment of the Russian national picture of the world. Russian surnames were not consid ered earlier in the works of A.N. Ostrovsky as a linguistic material that reflects in its semantics information about the Russian national picture of the world. Russian merchant life, Russian national culture with its richness and diversity is reflected in the semantics of the surnames of A.N. Ostrovsky. Surnames in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky tell about the state of the soul of the Russian person, about the Russian national character. Russian national color of a certain stage of development and historical ch anges in Russian society can also be traced in the semantics of surnames in the playwright's works. Therefore Russian surna me semantics in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky reflected the socio-historical, psychological, individual and cultural features of the Ru ssian mentality. The materials of the article can be used by students of schools and universities in the Russian language and Russian literature classes.

Self-Immolation as a Metaphor and Act in the Subcultures of the Late Russian Empire

This article examines the historical continuity between the self-immolations of the Old Believers and the radical aspirations of Russian revolutionary intellectuals, the aesthetics of sacrifice in the civil poetry of the 1880s, and the Russian modernism and avant-garde of the early twentieth century. The relevance of the article is due to its search for a metaphor that unites different spheres of Russian political and cultural life at the turn of the century. The author analyses self-immolation as a metaphor in the essays of G. Fedotov and D. Merezhkovsky, the paintings of G. Myasoedov and I. Repin, the poems of S. Nadson, K. Fofanov, V. Bryusov, N. Klyuev, V. Ivanov, and A. Blok, and the novels of M. Gorky and A. N. Tolstoy. The extreme symbolism of self-sacrifice united different strata of Russian culture, primarily the subcultures of the narodniks and literary bohemians. The most detailed metaphor of the creative and comprehensive ritualisation of intellectual subcultures is provided in O. Mandelstam’s memoirs The Noise of Time. Virtual self-immolation could become real, as when M. Grachevsky and M. Vetrova committed suicide in prison by self-immolation. The methodology of this article is based on historical and comparative analysis of poetic metaphors, characters, and visual motifs of paintings on historical topics and the socio-psychological attitudes of political radicals as manifestations of a ritual-like self-sacrifice plot. Even though self-immolations among Old Believers had almost completely stopped, the phenomenon was a challenge for Russian intellectuals. It turned into a metaphor in both the aesthetics of Russian political poetry and Russian symbolism. The cult of self-immolation in lyrical poetry found reflection in the extremely intense psycho-emotional and creative sentiments of biographical authors and their characters, where self-immolation is portrayed as the most perfect form of self-destruction. During and after the revolution, Russian philosophers and writers used this metaphor to condemn the Russian mentality and analyse the failure of the Russian intelligentsia’s mission to enlighten the people.

Fashion Vocabulary: Borrowing, Adapting and Rethinking

Fashion is a rather significant mechanism that organizes the life of any society and regulates the social behavior of people. It subordinates not only the choice of clothing, interior, personal hygiene items, gastronomic tastes, musical preferences, but also the way of thinking, the formation of criteria for assessing the phenomena of reality. At the same time, fashion is not only a powerful social regulator, but also a significant cultural phenomenon, the study of which is of particular importance nowadays. In this context, the vocabulary of fashion is interesting, as, on the one hand, it enriches the Russian language due to the abundant borrowing of foreign words, on the other hand, it indicates how actively the Russian language adapts new names for fashion items, and demonstrates how Russian mentality and culture accept this vocabulary. In order to consider the Russian vocabulary in the sphere of fashion in all three aspects, it is important to trace the derivation of the lexical meaning of the denotations of the fashion semantic field in their connection with the historical period and the change in the native speakers way of thinking in different historical times of the country. To this end, it is necessary to turn to the etymology of the basic elements of the Russian wardrobe, identify their coherence with the gender of their owners and trace how this coherence has been changing over time, as well as analyze the ways of grammatical adaptation of borrowed vocabulary in the Russian language, and finally, note the functional specifics of the same lexemes in Russian and other donor languages.

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE MENTALITY IN THE ASPECT OF LINGUODIDACTICS

The article discusses the question of how the grammatical and phonetic structure of the language determines the structure of the sentence and the features of the Russian sounding speech, influencing the strategy of linguistic thinking and forming the basis of the Russian mentality, coming from the depths of centuries.

Russian Legal Mentality: Procedural Law vs. Customary People’s Justice

Russian customary law is a unique source for the study of the Russian traditional legal mentality. It is a kind of a cast from the people’s “instinctive right-feeling” (I. A. Ilyin), a product, a repository and at the same time a generator of legal mental attitudes. The results of research in the field of cognitive linguistics confirm the connection between thought processes and language. The author proceeds from the fact that the national language is an appropriate basis; and the means of linguistics are an effective tool for studying the national legal culture, legal mentality, legal consciousness. The paper describes separate approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of “mentality” and “mindset”, proposes a definition of the concept of “Russian legal mentality” and identifies the category of those possessing it.The procedures for considering and resolving cases according to the norms of secret, written, pre-reform (before 1864) and post-reform (after the Judicial Reform of 1864) process, fixed by positive law (legislation), not only in form, but also in the approach itself, differed significantly from the traditions of popular justice as a “branch” of Russian customary law.The main attitudes of the Russian traditional legal mentality are described in procedural aspects that are significant for the perception of law and legislation. Russian traditional legal mentality is reconstructed in order to identify the key mental attitudes inherent in the tradition of Russian customary law, in contrast with the approaches natural for the Western legal tradition. This is done in the context of the following phenomena: the ideal of justice, procedural order, legal qualification, the value of evidence, the purpose and result of justice.

Приоритеты в новых научных исследованиях по методике преподавания русского языка

The article presents a brief overview of recent linguistic and methodological studies, reveals the communicative orientation of dissertations in the specialty 13.00.02 - Theory and methodology of teaching and upbringing (Russian language, RFL), and demonstrates their scientific and methodological potential. In the modern socio-cultural situation, the development of the methodology of teaching the Russian language is facilitated by the reliance of researchers on the achievements of related sciences: psycholinguistics, ethnolinguistics, ethnomethodics, cognitive linguistics. The article stressed that it was vital to increase the motivation of students to learn the native language and RFL, take into account the wide possibilities of new information technologies in teaching the Russian language to create new educational content, which reflected a new time. In determining the topic of modern dissertation research, there is often a technological component that acts as an innovative means of solving the problem (based on corpus technologies, using visual supports, using interactive forms, based on Internet technologies that received an impetus for development during the pandemic, using media texts, based on Internet television programs, etc.). Presented in the dissertation research model of teaching the Russian language are offered, drawing on personal resources of students expressed interest in the culture of the country of the target language and its society, the ability to map a foreign culture with their own, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the peculiarities of the Russian mentality. The analysis of dissertations shows their correlation with the society's demands for a socially adapted, communicative and well-off person who fully speaks the Russian language.

Macroconcept Army: Analyzing the Structure of a Borrowed Macroconcept

The research objective was to describe the structure of the borrowed macroconcept army , i.e. to determine its motivating and concept signs in the Russian mentality. The study involved nine etymological dictionaries and revealed six motivating signs, while nine explanatory dictionaries and language material made it possible to identify 32 conceptual signs: 1. Types and kinds of military units (eleven signs): air; (field) troops; armed (motivating signs to arm ); (highest military / large) unit; naval; as opposed to naval and air forces; opposite of the elite military units; one / different branches of the armed forces; missile; ground (infantry / cavalry); without privileges. 2. Armed people (seven signs): Bolshevik (military forces) / Red Army; (military) men; army; aggregate; forces; composition of (several) corps and divisions; part of the active armed forces (at the front). 3. Purpose (six signs): war; to make capable of fighting (motivating signs); for conducting military operations; protection (of the state); ensuring the inviolability of borders and independence of the state; service. 4. Combat equipment (four signs): weapon (motivating signs); device (motivating signs); supply (motivating signs); to equip (motivating signs). 5. Leadership (two signs): state; under the general command of the chief military leader. 6. Association of people on a certain basis (two signs): a large number of people (united by a common feature: profession, social status, the same problem); proletariat / workers / workers.

Evolution of the imperial essence of Russia: on the concept of “empireness,” of V. Inozemtsev and A. Abalov

This article is a review to the new book by V. Inozemtsev and A. Abalov “The Everlasting Empire: Russia in Pursuit of Itself". The author reflects on the imperial nature of Russian statehood through the prism of the concept of “empireness” described in the book. Lining up with the thesis on the everlasting existence of Russia as an empire, the author focuses on the factors that predetermined the imperial nature of the Russian State and the historically established trajectories of its development: first and foremost in pertains to Byzantine, Mongolian and Western European receptions that infiltrated the Russian mentality and continue to reproduce the imperial attributes of world perception therein. The thesis is advanced that these factors alongside the revealed in the book fuzziness of boundaries between the colonial power and colonial territories on the example of Russia, absolutize the imperial principle in the Russian politics and substantiate the formation of various ideological movements of the XIX – XX centuries. The authors of this article also polemicize with the authors of the book on the issues affecting the stability of imperial structures in Russian statehood. Criticism is levelled at certain statements on the possibility of development of adequate forms of post-imperial political existence of Russia. The book is remarkable for the profound analysis, original universalistic view of the authors on the problem, and can be highly recommended to vast audience.

Cognitive-Linguistic Tools for Modeling the Country’s Media Image: A China’s Discourse on Russia

The article describes the cognitive means by which the perception and processing of textured material in media discourse is carried out. The authors present the typology of this toolkit and its opportunities in modeling the country’s media image addressed to the sociocode of a national culture. The relevance of the study is due to the significant role of modern media in shaping the image of a specific territory in mass consciousness, which directly determines the character of economic, political and social relations in society. The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize possible cognitive-linguistic mechanisms for modeling a productive media image of a country based on mental representations of society, originating in culture and guaranteeing the effective use of the corresponding constructs of mental operations, value preferences and behavior patterns of information flows consumer. Based on linguo-culturological analysis, conditions and frames of modeling, the image of Russia is considered in the content of the Chinese mass media. The empirical base of the study was made up of more than 200 texts of the Chinese media of various formats. The media discourse represents both common nuclear concepts and archetypes of the national view of the world in Russia and China (collectivism, patriotism, home, family, power, nature), and the ambiguous stereotypes of Chinese citizens about Russians and Russia that have been developed over the time. Stereotypes are embedded in the traditional expressive narrative which, due to a combination of expressive means, aesthetic and impressive power of verbal potential, has a purposeful impact on the audience, maintains the necessary national identity in Chinese society in the «We — They» paradigm. With respect to Russia’s strategic interests, it is important to actualize the common constructs of Chinese and Russian mentality in the mass media which will not only awaken the original cultural memory of a person but also allow to bring the people of China and Russia closer together.

The reflection of Russian mentality in proverbs (on the example of proverbs with the semantic component “summer” and “autumn”)

The subject of this research is the interrelation between mentality and language. Mentality is conventionally understood as subconscious, archetypal manifestation of the system of values and attitudes of ethnolinguistic consciousness. National mentality is traced in the process of studying the semantics of idioms and paroemias of the language. The genre of proverbs, due to its semantic peculiarities, is characterized by various means of expression of mental groups, which corresponds to their cognitive-pragmatic status. Idioms and paroemias play the role of representatives of the mental characteristics of the ethos, which contribute to preservation of cultural distinctness and affect the mentality of native speakers, lead to the behavior stereotypical to the Russian culture and allow assessing life situations from the perspective of stereotypes. The main conclusion of the analysis conducted on paremiological units indicates that national mentality traits reflected in proverbs and idioms are associated with certain stereotypes in perception of the surrounding world, assessment of life situations, reconsideration of the essence of the phenomena, response to the ongoing transformations and events. All of the listed above fully corresponds to the main edificatory, didactic function of paroemias and idioms, as well as the key purpose of proverbs – enculturation of a person in the process of familiarizing with behavioral norms and riles, recommendations, dogmas and basic stereotypical models of perception of the surrounding worlds and the phenomena occurring therein.

Through the Looking Glass or Can the Revolution Be Overcome? Discussing the book: Revolution and Its Overcoming: Essays on the History of the Russian Mentality: monograph by E.M. Kozhokin. Moscow: MGIMO-University, 2020. 270 p. (in Russian)

Discussing the monograph “Revolution and Its Overcoming: Essays on the History of the Russian Mentality” by Doctor of History, Professor E.M. Kozhokin. The collection of seven essays related to one cross-cutting theme of the formation of revolutionary ideas in Russian society is considered from the perspective of a modern reader.

Cognitive Structure of Randomness

The cognitive structure of randomness, which is of research interest for modern cognitive linguistics is considered. It has the explanatory property — an explanation of the deep mechanisms of phenomena that allow meaningful interpretation. The goal, first outlined in linguistics, the identification of deep cognitive characteristics in the structure of thought about randomness in the Russian and Indo-European linguistic mentality with the involvement of typological data is being realized. The methodological basis of the research was made up of a complex of analytical techniques that make it possible to reconstruct the deep content structures of the human cognitive sphere on the basis of the surface semantic data of the language. The analysis of the motivation of words with the semantics of randomness in related and unrelated languages made it possible to establish that the revealed cognitive structure of randomness is not strictly universal and, in some aspects, turns out to be culturally conditioned. It is noted that the cognitive principle of thinking about randomness is complex, but diffuse in nature. It points to the explanatory power of modern linguistics, which is open to entering broad interdisciplinary spheres. It is concluded that the results of this study are of interdisciplinary significance and are relevant for modern fundamental sciences.

The Image of Russia in Contemporary Russian Society: Political and Psychological Analysis

The article is based on the results of a study of Russian citizens’ perception of their country. More than 500 in-depth interview and nearly the same number of projective tests from 15 Russian regions became the basis for political-psychological analysis. These data enabled to identify the core features of Russia’s image in Russian mentality. This image includes reflections of authorities, leaders, the population, territory and the international role of the country in the country’s perception. The results confirm the conclusion that territorial expansionism is not typical for Russians. Authorities’ perception is an important component of the country’s image. Citizens' mistrust to the state was revealed. This allows us to suggest that Russian society still has not overcome the negative processes that started in the 1980s and led to a serious complex of “national inferiority” in the post-Soviet period.

Anthroponymes et toponymes dans Le testament français d’Andreï Makine

Having emigrated from France to Russia, Charlotte Lemonnier has survived the cruelties of the Stalinist regime and the Second World War. Maintaining great serenity of soul, she lives freely among the inhabitants of a small village in Siberia, conveying to her grandson Alyosha a vivid image of the freedom available in France as well as a feel for the French language. The adolescent tries to reconcile Charlotte’s tales with the Russian mentality and the hardships of life in Russia, but fails in his aspirations, particularly in the domain of eroticism. He eventually emigrates to France, where he seeks to overcome Anthroponymes et toponymes dans Le testament français d’Andreï Makine 125 his disappointment by writing novels in French. Through Charlotte’s posthumou letter, Alyosha realizes that he was born in a gulag as the fruit of a coercive sexual relationship imposed on an imprisoned female kulak.The present study is based on the hypothesis that poetonyms contribute significantly to the constitution of the meaning of literary texts. Despite the centrality of literary names in Makine’s novel, however, its poetonyms have not yet been studied in any detail. I will therefore analyse symbolic, etymological, historic, geographic, anagrammatic aspects, etc. of the most important anthroponyms and toponyms that occur in this novel (Alyosha, Charlotte, Pashka, Félix Faure / Atlantide, Boyarsk, Saranza, Stalinka …). By combining the different names and placing them in their French and Russian linguistic contexts, I will show that there is a movement from one cultural background to the other. Thus, through name configuration in particular, Dreams of My Russian Summers portrays a multicultural migration between France and Russia – between East and West. Dreams of my Russian Summers is a Bildungsroman that encompasses several issues: identity formation (what shall I be: Russian, French, cosmopolitan?); sentimental education (love, what is it?); disappointment; and, finally, awareness of reality.]