Russian Discourse Research Articles

Semantic shift in conflict terminology in contemporary Russian socio-cultural media discourse

Semantic shift in conflict terminology in contemporary Russian socio-cultural media discourse

The mechanism of metaphor in Russian political discourse

Metaphor is a key element of our article, which is known to modern cognitive science as a general mental activity, as an order of cognition, structuring and explanation of the world. The individual does not convey his thoughts exclusively through metaphors, but he also thinks in metaphors, organizing the world in which he lives through metaphors.
 The structure of the article includes a description of the metaphor, its general features and models and its role in political discourse, practical examples and a conclusion expressing our vision in working on the problem. This is part of our master's thesis on the analysis of political discourse.

THE ACQUISITION OF RUSSIAN GRAMMAR CASES BY BRAZILIAN STUDENTS

The analysis of Russian discourse in the proficiency levels B1 and B2 points out to Brazilian students' assimilation problems regarding the grammar cases. Such problems are interpreted based on the structural comparison between the verb-object relations in Portuguese and Russian: - the verb and object may be connected directly or through a preposition; - the meaning is also intermediated by the grammar cases. To establish interlinguistic equivalents, they are compared structures with similar meaning in the native language compared to the learnt one. The research aims to understand through an empirical approach to Brazilian students' difficulties when learning grammar cases regarding their native language interference. The authors recorded interviews with Brazilian students in the referred proficiency levels, which were considered under the typological comparison; a questionary answered by the same students was then implemented to confirm such difficulties. The results indicate the structural divergence and consequent difficulty of Brazilian students to acquire the Dative and the Instrumental cases when a preposition does not intermediate the verb-object relation.

Студенческий отзыв о преподавателе как оценочный речевой жанр в российском и американском образовательных дискурсах

This article focuses on the speech genre “student comments on a professor’s rating” which belongs to the domain of quality assurance in higher education. Both aspects are meaningful for the theory of speech genres and the system of higher education. The article analyses the communicative concept “student feedback on teaching” which is related to the speech genre under research. The article also deals with description and comparative analysis of speech genre features of axiological texts which belong to the domain of the “quality of education” in Russian and American linguistic cultures. Apart from this, the article attempts to classify the speech genre forms of students comments on teaching. On the basis of the comparative analysis of the speech genre “student feedback on teaching” in Russian and American education discourse there have been deduced several common and national specific language features and phenomena. The evaluating communicative concept “student feedback on teaching” comprises not only emotional evaluating attitude of the author but also a structural semiotic paradigm of the teaching evaluation. The American concept demonstrates higher semiotic density. The comparative analysis of verbal implementation of the concept in the Russian and American student feedback comments allows to conclude that the corresponding speech genre in American culture looks like an established speech practice, while into Russian culture this genre has been borrowed and is still being formed.

Демографические угрозы национальной безопасности в политическом дискурсе РФ (1992–2019)

Introduction. Population growth in the world is uneven: while in some countries the population has been growing for a long time (China, India), in Russia and in many EU and BRIC countries, the birth rate has been declining in recent years; and if this does not affect the population, then only by increasing life expectancy and migration. Abrupt changes – both growth and decline – in the population are a threat to the national security of the state. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of political management (strategies and tools) aimed at solving demographic problems and increasing the birth rate in the Russian Federation, as well as to identify the stages of the formation of demographic policy in the Russian Federation in 1992–2019. Methods and materials. Based on the qualitative analysis of normative documents, the frame analysis of speeches of political leaders the main factors that influenced the coverage of demographic problems are revealed (the authors used official electronic versions of the following publications: “Sobranie Zakonodatelstva Rossiyskoy Federatsii” (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation) and “Byulleten normativnykh aktov federalnykh organov ispolnitelnoy vlasti” (Bulletin of Normative Acts of Federal Executive Authorities). Analysis. The proposed research strategy allowed identifying demographic threats to national security articulated by political actors and presented in official documents, statements of officials, as well as to compare the political decisions taken in the Russian Federation with the decisions taken in some European countries. Strategic documents that ensure national security of the Russian Federation by including the demographic agenda in political discourse are considered as a tool of political management. Results. The article assesses the effectiveness of political management in solving demographic problems and increasing the birth rate in the Russian Federation, identifies the stages of the formation of demographic policy in the Russian Federation in 1992–2019, as well as the features of the articulation of demographic problems in the political discourse of Russia, and describes demographic threats. The analysis of the regulatory framework as a tool for political management, demographic threats prevention, as well as the basis of the state strategy for increasing the birth rate in the Russian Federation allowed identifying policy decisions that can be used to develop new measures within the framework of programs to increase the birth rate in the Russian Federation.

A Friend in Need? The Sino-Russian Relationship Under the Coronavirus Crisis in Twitter: a Russian Perspective.

The paper focuses on the COVID-19 as a stress test to the Sino-Russian strategic partnership: has it driven Russia and China closer together, farther apart, or made no difference? Employing content analysis of official Russian discourse as expressed by the Kremlin, the Government, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), both via their official web pages (104 online publications) and Twitter accounts (260 tweets), this study focuses on the Russian twiplomacy as a more suitable mean to reflect the real-time changes of an evolving crisis. The analysis demonstrates that the Sino-Russian relationship extends beyond the “axis of convenience.” It does not, however, correspond to the support expected from a consolidated (comprehensive) strategic partnership, nor does it achieve the intensity of soft balancing (vis-à-vis the USA) in a particularly polarized and politicized international context.

ЛИТОВСКОЕ СЛОВО PRIEŠAS И РУССКОЕ СЛОВО ВРАГ

The article presents Lithuanian culture concept priesas and the concept of Russian culture враг comparative analysis, based on 100 samples of mass-media’s discourse (in Lithuanian language and Russian language corpus). Comparison was performed via tertium comparationis: what is known as an enemy, what signs of the enemy are essential, what does enemy do, etc. Analysis showed that in Lithuanian vision the same entity can be both friend and enemy; Russian examples of similar meaning have not been found. The examples of an enemy in Russian discourse may be Great Britain, Germany, German, in Lithuanian discourse – Polish attacking groups, bolshevik. Lithuanian mass-media’s discourse 56 times more often uses word enemy than the Russian mass-media’s discourse. KEY WORDS: concept, corpus, priesas, враг, worldview. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181 rh.v0i16.1020

Russian Political Discourse on Illegal Drugs: A Thematic Analysis of Parliamentary Debates

Background Since the beginning of the twenty first century, there has been an intensified political debate about drugs in Russia. The drug problem is now regarded as one of the country’s most serious problems and as an issue of top priority for the Russian government. Objectives: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore how illegal drugs are discussed in Russian political discourse. Methods: The material includes an analysis of 177 speeches made in the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Russian State Duma, between 2014 and 2018. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis (CDA). Results: In general, the study found that the debate about the drug problem was characterized by consensus, and there were small differences between the Deputy members in their understanding of the problem. Three main understandings of the drug problem were identified: (1) Illegal drugs as an increasing problem in Russia, (2) Drugs as an external threat, and (3) A need for a more repressive drug policy. Conclusion: There was a general consensus about how the drug problem should be regarded among the politicians, with a focus on a war on drugs and an absence of harm reduction ideas.

Сокращения в русско-, англо- и немецкоязычном дискурсе поп-музыки

Сокращения в русско-, англо- и немецкоязычном дискурсе поп-музыки

Comparative analysis of triggers in Russian and American political discourse

Comparative analysis of triggers in Russian and American political discourse

The Coronavirus Pandemic in the Conceptual Sphere of Media Discourse in Russia and China: a Survival Strategy

The article presents the results of a research into the problem of implementing cognitive models in processing information on the new coronavirus pandemic by Russian and Chinese mass media. The study involved a linguo-cultural analysis, a content analysis and a discourse analysis of publications in the period of March–June, 2020. The study is aimed at identifying and characterizing the concepts and communication semiotic resources of the media discourse used to present this information. The authors analyze over 600 texts of various genres and formats in Russian and Chinese media. The interpretative method helps to see the link between a media text and its social context, as well as between the interpretation of a fact in media discourse and the author’s and reader’s world models. According to the results of the study, processing and spreading any information, namely — the infodemic, or misinforming the public about the virus, involves a deliberate use of immanent concepts typical of members of a particular culture. The prevalent information flows about COVID-19 cause fear and trigger the instinct of self-preservation. In this context, it is the archetypes of the culture that are becoming the key remedy providing for modelling a culture-marked image of the country in the media landscape. The frames «weak body» and «death», and the theme of humans' vulnerability to the new threat have made people think about the purpose and values of life. The basic cognitive models in processing the frightening information are the core Chinese and Russian culture concepts, namely, collectivism, family, and good. The awakened cognitive stereotypes are aimed at preserving the social immunity of the country. The results of the study can be useful for fundamental interdisciplinary researches into basic cultural realias objectified in the media and in the works of journalists and other authors.

The study of collocations with game component in the Russian and English-American discourse

The subject of this research is the polysemous noun “game” in the Russian language and the nouns “play”, “game”, “acting”,” performance” in the English language that correspond to different spheres of activity, denoted by the word “game”. The goal of this article consists in determination of most frequent universal collocations with game component in the Russian discourse and their translation equivalents with play, game, acting, and performance component in the English-American discourse. The collocations with game component formed by the scheme adjective + noun and noun + noun, acquired from the dictionaries, as well as Russian and English-American text corpora, served as the material for this research. The article employs the following methods: definitional analysis, contrastive analysis, and etymological analysis. The application of contrastive analysis allowed determining the linear and vector correspondences between the schemes of the indicated lexemes play, game, acting, and performance, as well as revealing the ethno-cultural lacunae. Examination of collocations with game component was conducted on the basis of the Russian National Corpus, Corpus of Historically American English, and Corpus of Contemporary American English; various dictionaries in the timespan (1810-1900) and (2000-2018). It was established that majority of the ten most frequent collocations according to the aforementioned schemes from the Russian National Corpus are present in the Corpus of Historically American English and Corpus of Contemporary American English in the same contexts, but different frequency. The article provides the examples of ethnocultural collocations with game components in the Russian and English-American discourse. It is demonstrated that collocation with the parametric adjectival “big game” has both universal and ethno-cultural characteristics in the English-American language. The relevance of the work is substantiated by recent interest in the development of collocation competence in learning a foreign language.

Methodology of Cross-Cultural Description of Speech Behaviour: A Case Study of INVITATION in German and Russian Discourse

The article aims to demonstrate a consistent methodology for conducting cross-cultural research of verbal communication behaviour and identifying its peculiarities in different language cultures. First of all, the author discusses the problem of defining a basic unit of communication crucial for the analysis of communicative behaviour and proposes her own interpretation of such a unit called speech behaviour pattern (SBP). The illocutionary content and general organization of any SBP is considered universal, while their actual realization in a language is culturally conditioned and therefore may vary significantly in different languages. Utterances that constitute a certain SBP are organized into a field with a prototypical centre and a gradationally formed periphery, which is referred to as communicative-pragmatic field (CPF). The proposed methodology of contrastive analysis includes the following four major components: 1) definition of illocutionary purpose, 2) description of structural forms of SBP (i.e., their lexical and grammatical characteristics), 3) identifying communicative-pragmatic factors, 4) description of the structure and hierarchy of the communicative-pragmatic field that includes utterances implementing SBP. The presented approach is then consistently applied to the analysis of the SBP of invitation in the Russian and German discourse. The language data are taken from the existing Russian and German corpora. The proposed methodology helps to identify the main similarities and differences in the implementation of the SBP invitation in Russian and German driven by grammatical and communicative-pragmatic factors.

Whose hybrid warfare? How ‘the hybrid warfare’ concept shapes Russian discourse, military, and political practice

ABSTRACT This article critically examines how the hybrid warfare concept informs Russian academic and policy debate and how it impacts Russian political and military practice. It explains how the concept of hybrid warfare correlates with the concept of new generation warfare in shaping two vectors in the Russian military policy. The analysis of Russian strategic discourse on hybrid warfare paired with the analysis of some trends in the Russian policy-making argues that the notion of hybrid warfare has become embedded in the thinking of the elites and is now operationalized, including in domestic politics.

Russian Society's Civilizational Transit

This paper deals with the issue of specific civilizational process formation in Russia as a new figuration and configuration of the forms of modernity. It is argued that explanations of the dynamics of Russian society are often based on the idea of predestination of the trajectory of its development (path dependency) that is caused either by the universal logic of modernization and globalization or by persistence of the basic cultural program or matrix which is reproduced in social practices. A civilizational transit of Russian society phenomena is discussed within multiple modernities theory as a new perspective that allows overcoming some of the problems with the predominant approaches to Russian modernization. Civilizational approaches to analyses of Russian culture, politics and society have been associated mostly with theories of ‘historical cycles’ worked out in late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. More recently a considerable attention has been devoted to different versions of ‘neoEurasianism’. In addition, the notion of ‘clash of civilizations’ proposed by Samuel Huntington became prominent in the political discourse in Russia at the end of 1990s. At the same time, the concept of civilization is discussed widely in today’s historical sociology. A specific school of ‘civilizational analysis’ that draws on the ideas of Shmuel Eisenstadt emerged at the end of the 1990s. This perspective has already influenced some new trends in sociology of religion, political sociology and international relations theory. The panel seeks to demonstrate the relevance of a new wave of civilizational analysis for understanding contemporary Russian culture, politics and society.
 Keywords: Russian society, civilizational transit, multiple modernities

“There is Something Inevitable, Fatal in Our Relations to the Orient…”: Yevgeny Frantsevich Shmurlo and Asian Russia

Yevgeny Frantsevich Shmurlo (1853—1934), a Russian Historian, Corresponding Member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, is known primarily as an outstanding specialist in the history of Russian-Italian relations and the era of Peter the Great. Meanwhile, his works related to the Russian presence in the East have not yet been analyzed and studied properly. This article attempts to consider the scholar’s views on the phenomenon of contacts between Russia and the world of the East by analyzing his expeditions to Asian Russia since the late 1870s to the beginning of the 1910s. Few Russian historians have traveled as much and as often as Shmurlo. Trips to the Turgai steppe or the foothills of Altai, sailing along the Volga and Kama or Irtysh invariably gave him reflections on the Russian imperial project. The article shows that these routes were associated not only with the search for aesthetic impressions, but also with specific scientific tasks. Author analyzed the views of Shmurlo on the Russian resettlement colonization of Asian Russia, its successes and difficulties, complex relationships with the local population. The study of Shmurlo’s reflections on the Asian province once again demonstrated how complex and varied the construction of Orientalist and Imperial discourses in Russia was, how many contradictory concepts were woven into this process. The author of the article featured a historian of Polish-Lithuanian origin who acted as a Russian nationalist. Shmurlo admired the colonists of the Steppe region and the foothills of Altai, but criticized them for seizing the lands of the indigenous population. He called the “Kyrgyz” savages and barbarians, but at the same time avoided racist statements. He loved Europe with all his heart, but at the same time he rebelled against attempts to demonize Russia and the Russians. All this once again gives an idea of the specifics of relations between Russia and the East in the era of colonialism, which were very different from their European counterparts.

Messages of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly as a Source of Studying the Historical Policy of Russia

The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the historical representation of the highest state power in modern Russia (the level of the president) by examining the texts of the presidential messages to the Federal Assembly from 1994 to 2020. As a key research method, content analysis, both semantic and quantitative, was applied. Fragments of messages containing an appeal to events, phenomena, personalities of the past and the historical process as a whole have been examined. The quantitative analysis has revealed the number of usages of the word “history” and the total textual quantity of historical references in the messages. The thinkers of the past quoted by the Presidents associated with various ideological connotations have been considered as a special indicative position. The generalized content analysis data is accumulated in the table in the article, which has the potential for further independent use in studying the dynamics of power discourse in Russia. The results of the study enable to confirm the fact of the paradigm shift in the perception of history at the highest state level in Russia lying in the transition from the liberal version of the theory of modernization to a nationally conservative approach similar to the theory of civilizations. Three Presidents of the Russian Federation — B. N. Yeltsin, D. A. Medvedev and V. V. Putin — despite the coincidence of positions on several issues of interpreting the past, presented different visions of the historical process in the texts of the messages. The integration of the current policy into the general outline of history is characteristic of all the messages, which points to the preservation of the tradition of historiosophical perception of the state activity in the Russian Federation, in spite of different versions of historiosophy. The transformation of historical politics in Russia is an indicator of the ideological inversion of the Russian state as a whole, the transition from a liberal to a nationally conservative model. The attitude of the authorities to the history reveals the potential of using axiological vectors of the current policy as a means of reconstruction.

ИДЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ УСТАНОВКИ ВЕДУЩИХ РОССИЙСКИХ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ПАРТИЙ

The article characterizes the political and ideological discourse in Russia, which differs from the modern ideological tendencies of liberal-democratic countries and takes into account the peculiarities of the Russian socio-economic situation. The purpose of the work is to identify the main ideological priorities of the leading political parties of the Russian Federation that have their deputies in the regional and federal parliaments. Based on the political, cultural and constructivist approaches, the author reveals the peculiarities of the ideological perception of Russian political reality. Unlike Western countries, Russia is not characterized by the inclusion of postmodern values in the ideological palette. At the same time, there is an increase in the need for a conservative ideology with various variations – social conservatism, enlightened conservatism, liberal conservatism. The values of patriotism, nationalism, and sovereignty have become widely demanded. The analysis of the programs of the leading political parties preparing for the parliamentary elections of 2021 is carried out, which indicates the popularity of conservative and socialist values in their various syntheses, including nationalist and liberal. The success of the new political parties registered in 2020 is celebrated: New People, Green Alternative, For the Truth. Liberal values remain on the periphery of public consciousness and are not in demand in political practice. Most political parties are focused on solving social problems, which indicates the demand for socialist values. However, in some regions where environmental problems are not being addressed, there is a need to introduce an environmentally-oriented agenda in the main spheres of society, which is more the exception than the rule. Thus, there is a need to differentiate the political preferences of citizens, expressed in the adaptation of ideological paradigms to reality.

Сопоставительный анализ английской и русской речи через иерархии релевантности

The article discusses similarities and dissimilarities between the communication patterns of native speakers of the Russian and English languages in two geographically separated regions based on the transcripts of podcasts, TV and radio broadcasts for the audiences of Russia and the USA. Here we advance a hypothesis that such patterns can be represented in a hierarchical form. Using the occurrence rates of Russian and English lexical units, hierarchies are built, referred to as the relevance hierarchies. These structures based on the texts in the two languages are compared to identify notions, phenomena and topics that are the most relevant in the language communities under consideration and thus give an insight into the current worldview of native speakers. Additionally, we carry out a morphological analysis of the first 500 units and divide them by parts of speech in both languages’ hierarchies. We determine the occurrence rates of individual grammatical categories in the compared sets of texts. On the given scale, the so-called grammatically unambiguous nouns and verbs are listed and correlated for the two languages. We point out the most relevant notions in the English and Russian discourses, draw parallels and note differences. The paper is concluded by possible explanations and views about language-specific characteristics, as well as by remarks on some stylistic peculiarities in native speakers’ use of their respective mother tongues. Finally, we outline potential areas of further study by stressing the importance of context-based analysis and present our research method in the form of a Web tool as an initial step in this direction.

Russian youngpagan discourse in the pentalogy«Night of Svarog»

Russian youngpagan discourse in the pentalogy«Night of Svarog»