Pragmatic Potential Research Articles

Pragmatic Potential of Anthroponyms in the Titles of Modern German-language Novels

Pragmatic Potential of Anthroponyms in the Titles of Modern German-language Novels

RHYME IN CONTEMPORARY POETIC DISCOURSE: COMMUNICATIVE-PRAGMATIC CHARACTERISTICS

The article is dedicated to exploring the role of rhyme in the English poetic discourse of the XXI century. Rhyme, being the central element of most poetic genres, has unique pragmatic effect both when it is present (in classical verse) and absent (in verse libre). The role of rhyme ranges from ensuring memorization to broader communicative and cognitive influences, as justified by the studies reviewed in the article. The aim of the article is to contrast practices of using and omitting rhyme in contemporary English poetry and to reveal the pragmatic potential of rhyme. For this purpose, works of contemporary poets are scrutinized via methods of comparison and contrast, pragmatic analysis and stylistic analysis. Our findings show that rhyme, whenever present, serves not only for text memorization or embellishment, but also has deeper relations with the core of the poem. In case of verse libre or blank verse, the absence of rhyme (especially when paired with the graphic element of ignoring capital letters) turns a poem into a dynamic work, an unfinished process. An increasing tendency of ignoring rhyme in contemporary English poetry might be linked to the graphic character of poetry itself. Whenever rhyme is absent, there is an “extra” element which fills its place, and usually those elements are either graphical additions or peculiarities of punctuation. The scientific novelty of the article lies in revealing the pragmatic role of rhyme and justifying that this role is fulfilled even when rhyme is absent. The theoretical and practical significance of the article lies in exploring the role of rhyme considering pragmatics, stylistics, and cognitive poetics.

Лингвосемиотический метод исследования в политической коммуникативистике

<p>This article is devoted to the linguistic approach in a new interdisciplinary field of knowledge called “political communicativism”. Among linguistic methods, the author singles out linguosemiotic method, aimed at decoding speech-behavioural codes in the context of communicative strategies. The importance of emotive codes in the process of information broadcasting in institutional discourse is noted. The paper provides examples of the use of communicative strategies in modern institutional communication of the national variant taking into account the suggestive and pragmatic potential on the basis of domestic and foreign studies.</p>

Особенности перевода диалогической коммуникации в видеоигре “Cyberpunk 2077” в языковой паре «английский – русский»

The paper examines the specifics of video game localization from English into Russian, focusing on the translation of dialogic communication in the video game “Cyberpunk 2077”. The research aims to identify the optimal translation technology for character lines in the game’s universe by describing the most frequent techniques for localizing verbal content. The research material includes original and translated text fragments of dialogues of the main characters from the video game “Cyberpunk 2077”, as well as its DLC “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty”, obtained using a continuous sampling method for a total of 85,000 characters. The scientific novelty of the research lies in systematizing the lexical-stylistic and syntactic means of realizing the pragmatic potential of the video game in dialogic communication in the studied language pair. It has been found that during the translation and localization of the video game, translators employ translation techniques such as semantic development, conceptual adaptation, antonymic translation, omission, transcription, and calquing. In the translation process, special attention should be paid to the rules of the in-game universe, the specifics of the video game genre, and its game mechanics. The research findings have shown that the emergence of semantic inaccuracies during the translation of dialogic communication in video games is due to a number of syntactic, lexical, and stylistic features of the original game, including non-linear dialogues with the choice of lines, interjections, pseudo-realia, dialectalisms, and Easter eggs. The adequacy of the sounding text takes precedence in the localization of the video game “Cyberpunk 2077”.

The pragmatic potential of the teaching language text (based on French and German teaching materials)

The pragmatic potential of the teaching language text (based on French and German teaching materials)

Multimodal Means of Representing Pragmatic Potential in Advertising Discourse

Multimodal Means of Representing Pragmatic Potential in Advertising Discourse

Two-phase creative texts as a new genre of congratulatory discourse

This article describes a new genre of congratulatory discourse two-phase creative texts. It analyzes the texts of modern greeting cards, as well as texts on bento cakes and substantiates the legitimacy of identifying this genre, taking into account a number of genre-forming features. We claim that the text of a creative greeting card has moved from paper to a confectionery product, that is, the creative greeting card (literally and figuratively) is now the cake and its packaging. The article proves that two-phase creative texts have a special structure they are parceled and placed on different surfaces, that is, locally separated, due to which a two-stage perception of the text occurs. This structure increases the pragmatic potential of texts of this genre and determines the mechanism of their linguistic creativity. The functional feature of these texts is their pronounced humorous dominant, colloquial nature, playfully ironic tone, unpredictability of the second part semantics of the text, which affects its stylistic characteristics. Two-phase creative texts are also characterized by precedent. The article connects the emergence of two-phase creative texts with the development of congratulatory discourse and the strengthening of the mass linguistic creativity role in modern society.

The communicative and pragmatic potential of German traditional and modified phraseological units

This article examines the traditional form and modifications of the German phraseology «in Saus und Braus leben» in the modern German press on economic topics from 2018 to 2024. The purposes of using phraseological units in the economic media discourse are diverse. Journalists, in an effort to attract the attention of the readers, use vivid and expressive phraseological units often modifying them. The purpose of the article is to determine the communicative and pragmatic potential of the traditional and modified unit, to identify ways of modifying it, and to present a lexical description of the phraseology. The work describes the functioning of this phraseology both in its traditional form and as modified within media discourse. In order to conduct the research, the following methods were used: an analytical and descriptive approach, linguistic stylistic analysis, and systematization of results, continuous sampling, complex linguistic description, statistical processing, and generalization of data. The material for this study consisted of newspaper articles published in German electronic media, such as «Manager magazin», «Die Tageszeitung», «Der Spiegel», «Focus», «Taz», «Berliner Zeitung». During the study, we found that traditional and modified forms prevail in the article body, often realizing the function of attracting attention, expressive and evaluative functions. It was revealed that the frequency of implementation of the modified phraseology is almost 1.5 times higher than its implementation in the traditional form. Both traditional phrases and their modified variants are used in their original meaning without changing the meaning of the sentence. Within the framework of the studied corpus of traditional and modified phraseological units, the following modifications were identified: change of the grammatical form, expansion of phraseology through additional components, replacement of the verb, reduction of the usual form of phraseology. In the course of the study, an expanded model of the dictionary entry was proposed, considering the specifics of the modern functioning of phraseology in the texts of economic discourse. This description will reflect both the traditional form and the structural and semantic modifications of phraseological units in the media discourse on economic topics.

Номинативное поле концепта МОШЕННИК в русской языковой картине мира

The purpose of the study is to identify, based on the material of substantive vocabulary, the core of the nominative field of the concept of FRAUDSTER in the framework of modeling the cognitive structure of the situation of fraudulent interaction. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that in it the phenomenon of fraud is studied for the first time in the aspect of its linguocognitive interpretation – as a conceptual field with a propositional structure. The article defines and analyzes for the first time the lexical and semantic paradigms of nominations of persons involved in a fraudulent act. As a result, a variety of substances objectifying the phenomenon of fraud has been revealed. The high productivity of the fraudster's designations by type of activity in the modern media space was noted. A wide range of multilevel linguistic units has been found, marking the "falsity", "imaginary" social status of a fraudster. The active updating of the composition of lexical and semantic groups under the influence of extralinguistic factors, in particular the processes of digitalization of modern society, has been revealed. For the first time, collocations reflecting the associative rapprochement of a fraudster with other offenders in the Russian language consciousness are analyzed. The high pragmatic potential of the substantives forming the nominative field of the concept of FRAUDSTER is substantiated.

Идентификация прагматического потенциала средств определенности в немецком политическом дискурсе

The study aims to determine the pragmatic potential of various linguistic means of definiteness in media German political discourse, where the speech impact on the addressee aimed at forming a particular opinion about any political events represents the main function. The paper determines the pragmatic potential of definiteness means on the basis of the familiarity score, which is implemented in several positions depending on the intensity and concentration of the signs of definiteness and their ability to convey the pragmatic potential. The work is novel in that it is the first to examine the pragmatic potential of different-level means of definiteness within the framework of German political discourse, which makes it possible to obtain new scientific results in the consideration of the category of definiteness, since the semantic sphere of definiteness has not been sufficiently studied. As a result of analyzing the research material, it was found that definiteness means are included in the Nucleus, the Nuclear-adjacent Zone and the Central Zone of the semantic-pragmatic micro-field “Definiteness”.

The lexeme "normal" in Russian speech: a case study

The subject of the study is the lexeme "normal", a multidimensional analysis of which is carried out on the basis of data from the National Corpus of the Russian Language (NCRR), which includes more than 2 billion words, which makes it quite representative. The purpose of the work is to determine the composition of the homocomplex "normal" in modern Russian, to compare homonyms in semantic, syntagmatic, functional aspects. The relevance of the research undertaken is due to the fact that the lexicographic literature does not provide a complete description of all homonyms "normal". Thus, the predicative "normally" has remained outside the attention of lexicographers, although it is in this category that the pragmatic potential of the studied word is realized; in addition, cases of using the word in a discursive function have not been noted. This study was conducted on the basis of a concordance of 4055 texts with this lexeme, a large amount of material allowed us to draw conclusions about the quantitative and qualitative features of the functioning of this homocomplex. In accordance with this goal, descriptive, quantitative, statistical methods, as well as corpus analysis methods were used in the work. The methodological basis of the research was the works devoted to the problem of functional homonymy (V. V. Vinogradov, O. S. Akhmanova, V. V. Babaytseva, P. A. Lekant, etc.) and methods of corpus linguistics (O. N. Lyashevskaya, N. V. Pertsov, V. A. Plungyan, E. V. Rakhilina, D. V. Sichinava, etc.). The results The following provisions became the basis of the work: based on the data selected from the corpus, it is argued that the homocomplex "normally" unites a group of functional homonyms (adjective in short form; adverb; predicative (category of state); interjection), which differ in a set of morphological features, syntactic function, syntagmatic features, semantics expressed in speech. It is concluded that all these homonyms are active in modern Russian speech; they have pragmatic and stylistic features in different speech spheres. The first texts with the predicative "normally", as well as with the homonymous adverb, recorded in the NCRR, belong to the end of the XIX century; the use of "normally" as an interjection in a discursive function appears much later, in the 1980s. Statistical methods allowed us to determine the most frequent collocations with the lexeme "normally".

Morphology and semantics of derivational metaphors in Spanish media discourse

The cognitive and pragmatic potential of derivational metaphorical nominations, actively used in the Spanish media discourse, represent a relevant direction of Discursive and Cognitive re-search that requires scientific comprehension.The article is devoted to the study of the linguo-cognitive specificity of derivational metaphors that verbalize new meanings, name new realities and frequently function as nomination-neologisms or occasionalisms. Derivational metaphors perform a pragmatic function, broadcasting an intentionally conditioned vision of the world in modern Spanish media discourse, and implement the intentional and evaluative discourse pragmatics. The objective of the study is to consider the morphosemantics of derivational metaphors and analyse the most frequent word-forming productive models of metaphorical nominations in Spanish media discourse.An integral methodological approach is used to the study of word-formation discursive metaphors, which combines contextual, semantic, interpretive and stylistic analysis methodologically opening up the possibility of a systemic study of the linguo-pragmatics of derivative metaphorical nominations that function in the Spanish media discourse. The most productive morphosemantic models of word formation for creating metaphorical concepts in the Spanish media space are affixation (prefixation and suffixation as well as their combination) and word compounding.The cognitive approach to the study of derivational metaphors through the prism of onomasiological theory allows one to interpret the process of word formation as a way of translating cognitive attitudes and meanings. The metaphorical meaning is generated by a derivational act. The morphological structure of a word change is not identical to the sum of the meanings of the derivational components involved in the creation of a new metaphor. In the discursive space the associative potential relative to the basic meaning of affixes or root morphemes in compound words brings a number of interpretations that vary the metaphorical rethinking of their semantics and integrate axiological evaluation.The discursive role of word-formation metaphors, which have an evaluative potential, lies in the implementation of the pragmatic function of updating meanings, aimed at influencing the consciousness and behaviour of the target audience.

English urban neological discourse: pragmasemantic aspect

The article is devoted to the analysis of semantic, cognitive and pragmatic features of English neologisms of the urban discourse to identify in their definitions and contextual field the mentality features of the creators of these neologisms. The relevance of the study is ensured by the continuous expansion of the corpus of English neologisms, the permanent interest of linguists in the English urban neological discourse, the need for scientific interpretation of the display of collective experience in the analyzed vocabulary. The material was the examples taken from English electronic sources from 2017 till 2023. The choice was determined by the fact that these resources provide informal vocabulary reflecting the characteristics of collective word creation. The fundamental method is lexicological analysis allowing one to consider the new network vocabulary of the English urban discourse from the perspective of its semantic and pragmatic potential. The study uses elements of the following types of analyses: discursive, interpretative, descriptive, component, structural, semantic, cognitive and stylistic. The urban discourse is understood as a set of cognitive and pragmatic characteristics contained in English neological units used to implement the entire spectrum of ideas about the modern city by the participants in this discourse. Neologisms are traditionally understood as the result of dynamic processes reflecting the adaptation of the language to the transformations in the society. The article notes that English urban neologisms have a cognitive and pragmatic potential, which is a consequence of the subjective evaluative worldview. Evaluation as a process of establishing the value relationship of a person to the analysed neologisms and as a result of this relationship is an integral part of the process of reflecting reality and has a cognitive nature.

ПОСЛОВИЦА КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ УТЕШЕНИЯ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ АНГЛИЙСКОГО И НЕМЕЦКОГО ЯЗЫКОВ)

The relevance of this article lies in the priority of communicative pragmatics, in the development of such a new integral research area as psychoparemiology, in the interest of researchers in comforting and in the need to study the pragmatic potential of proverbs that can realize the intention of comforting in application to Germanic languages. The purpose of this work is to classify the proverbs of the English and German languages in accordance with the goals of comforting they realize and the ways to achieve these goals. Five groups of proverbs can be singled out by means of pragmalinguistic analysis. Proverbs of the first group can be used to change the negative attitude of the comforted person towards the situation to a positive one. They point out positive aspects of the situation or the possibility to benefit from it, minimize the problem, ask the comforted to be content with what is available to them. Proverbs of the second group assure that everything that happens is destined and claim that human hardships are inevitable, while joys are finite. They can also point out the impossibility to change past events. Proverbs of the third group make the comforted person gather strength, indicating positive effects of trials and challenges. They also instill hope that challenges can be overcome and the situation can change for the better. The fourth group aims at influencing the comforted person’s emotions by stating that distress is harmful and will be alleviated over time. Proverbs of the fifth group justify the actions of the interlocutor by claiming that mistakes can help a person gain important experience, they are in the human nature and inevitable and are not so bad compared to more damaging actions. Key words: communicative pragmatics, psychoparemiology, dialogue, comforting, proverbs

Языковые способы экспликации прецедентных феноменов: сохранение и передача культурной информации (на материале художественного произведения англоязычного автора С. Моэма “Of Human Bondage”)

The article is an analysis and generalization of the language representation of precedent religious phenomena in the English language. The aim of the research is to identify the features of the linguistic-cultural explication of precedent phenomena based on artistic texts. The scientific novelty lies in the actualization of the valuable constants of precedent phenomena correlated with national culture. The work details the ways of representing precedent phenomena at the linguistic level using linguistic-cultural analysis of key verbalizers. The mechanisms of translating the value-semantic content of precedent phenomena are described, and the linguistic means of objectifying precedent phenomena with a religious orientation are identified. The analysis of examples confirms the pragmatic potential of metaphor, antonomasia, and allusion as effective means of explicating conceptual representations of spiritual concepts embedded in the semantic field of precedentiality. The conducted research was based on the artistic work "Of Human Bondage" by S. Maugham.

Artificial language creation as a tool for assessing children’s metalinguistic abilities

The author aims to analyse two projects of the artificial language Uniling. They were created by students of years 5 to 11 within the linguistic framework of the "Formula de Integreco" training camp in June 2017 and January 2018. The research methods included structural analysis of the artificial language, as well as its creation process in comparison with Russian, i. e. the native language for all participants in the experiment. Research results: the specific conditions for artificial language development enable us to trace the stages of its accelerated "evolution" and complexity buildup at all levels. The latter becomes possible by shifting the initial focus away from observing the economy principle in language and raising randomly occurring exceptions to the status of a rule. Such rules are further extrapolated to other same-level units of the artificial language. This indicates that children attach importance to the concept of linguistic norm, as well as the possibility of clear grammatical differentiation when the grammatical meaning is secondary relative to the lexical-conceptual one. Children give no less significance to the inner form of words, which makes it possible to create lexemes employing the means of the artificial language itself without relying on the material of natural substrate languages. Moreover, the inner form helps to outline the systemic connections within the thematic groups. However, the hypernym/hyponym relations are obviously weak as generic concepts are not found in the Uniling lexis. At the same time, the aesthetics and euphony notions often come to the fore, which is reflected in the expression plane of artificial language lexemes and in the idea of the pragmatic potential of the language. This is most clearly seen at the syntax level due to the introduction of particular semantic role markers not typical of the Russian language (benefactives and malefactives). Conclusions: artificial language analysis enables us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of children’s metalinguistic representations, which can be considered in the process of teaching Russian at school.

Визуализация прецедентных ситуаций в рекламном плакате (на примере рекламной кампании “Uber” во Франции)

The aim of this study is to identify ways to visualize precedent situations in a modern advertising poster. The article examines the visualization of precedent situations in a modern advertising poster. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, using the material of advertising discourse and, in particular, French-language advertising discourse, the peculiarities of the functioning of precedent situations were investigated. The authors are first to describe and analyze the ways of functioning of precedent situations as pragmatic influence complex objects in the advertising discourse. Moreover, the authors considered the possible formats for presenting precedent situations, such as by mentioning precedent names, events, as well as appeals to them. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that a modern advertising poster has a specific structure, a binary semiotic space consisting of graphic and iconic components. The use of precedent situations within the framework of advertising discourse allows one to actualize the pragmatic function of the advertising poster, thereby emphasizing the advantages of using the advertised service, and also allows one to increase the attractive and pragmatic potential of the advertising poster in terms of the impact of this advertising object on the addressee.

Специфика использования местоимений в татароязычных и англоязычных рекламных слоганах

The aim of the study is to determine the functional capabilities of pronouns that contribute to the realization of a pragmatic task in Tatar-language and English-language advertising slogans. The paper considers two categories, i.e., the first- and second-person personal and possessive pronouns, since they are used to denote a specific addressee of advertising and the manufacturer of goods or services. The study is novel in that it is the first to consider the specifics of using pronouns in advertising slogans with pragmatic potential in a comparative aspect, which will make it possible to identify and systematize differences and similarities in the use of linguistic means in the context of advertising in languages with different structures. As a result of the study, it was found that pronouns in advertising texts perform several functions: targeting a specific addressee, indicating the source of the advertising message, establishing links between the consumer and the manufacturer of advertising products. At the same time, in Tatar advertising slogans, the socio-expressive function of the pronouns ‘син’ (singular ‘you’) and ‘сез’ (plural ‘you’) is easily determined, while in English the absence of the singular ‘you’ / plural ‘you’ difference is not an indicator of formality or informality.

The transition of Ghana's cooling appliance sector to a circular economy via a small wins governance framework

Air conditioning poses environmental, socioeconomic, and political challenges, especially in sub-Saharan countries such as Ghana, where almost all devices are imported. Thus far, socio-economically feasible pathways for a cooling transition to a circular economy are unclear. Drawing on qualitative interviews, field observations and survey data, this study analyses the potential of small wins governance as a pathway to sweeping system change along Ghana's air-conditioners' lifecycle. The research analyses the status quo and identifies potential small wins that could lead to transformative shifts in the cooling sector. Through a mixed-methods approach encompassing interviews, surveys, and field assessments, the study uncovers small wins at four stages of the air conditioner lifecycle, from (1) import, (2) retail & purchase, (3) usage & service, and (4) end-of-life management practices. For policymakers and practitioners, our results imply that they should (a) systematically encourage and reap small wins in public-private spaces in the short-term, e.g. changing the incentive structure for staff controlling imports of air conditioners, (b) adjust supporting policies as learning dynamics unfold over time (e.g., energy and refrigerant standards and labels, tax system), but (c) also keep pushing for big wins in the mid-term (e.g., constructions of a recycling plant for refrigerants in West Africa). The findings emphasize the need for a behavioural, consumer-oriented perspective for the pragmatic potential of small wins towards a circular economy. Overall, the study addresses significant gaps in the literature and suggests that bottom-up approaches may offer more success than attempting broad top-down system changes. The paper contributes to the wider discourse on social-ecological transitions and offers valuable insights for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers aiming to foster sustainable practices in the cooling sector.

That is not done

Abstract Spanish third-person reflexive clitic se allows for passive and impersonal uses that can sometimes be pragmatically interpreted as directive in spite of their declarative form, e.g. Eso no se hace ‘That is not done’. This paper explores the grammatical, semantic and referential factors that promote such an interpretation, using a corpus of oral and written Peninsular media discourse and adopting a qualitative approach. Deontic readings are shown to be connected with more general uses of reflexive constructions as evidential and/or modal markers. Agent defocusing and imperfective verbal aspect construct an objective viewpoint of discourse whereby the event is detached from particular communicative circumstances. At the same time, contextual elements acting as space builders counter such objectivity by guiding the interpretation of the utterance as primarily concerning the direct participants. The analysis suggests that the inherent meanings of grammatical constructions are at the basis of their pragmatic potential in specific contexts.