Meaningful Research Articles

Poetics of narrative in K. Ishiguro’s novel «The buried giant»

This research focuses on revealing the peculiarities of poetics of narrative in fantasy fictional discourse namely in K. Ishiguro’s novel “The Buried Giant” which, in our view, belongs to metamodernism. The main objective of this research is to elaborate methodology aimed at defining the main categories of narrative and poetics of the novel, establishing the distinct features of metamodernism in the novel under analysis as well as explicating its linguistic means and narrative devices for creating unique poetics of narrative which ensures strong emotional response and unfading interest among the readers.

Communication in the Mirror of Social Semiotics

Introduction. The subject of this article is communicative resources, which are selected by partners from a huge variety of linguistic means, functional styles, rhetorical techniques, and subject activities, and through which a common semantic space between individuals is generated.Methodology and sources. As a methodological platform we propose the principles of praxis-oriented social semiotics. Being one of the relatively late trends of semiotic research, social semiotics focuses attention not so much on signs or sign systems as on social signifying practices as regular, repetitive, recognisable types of actions: the actions of communication participants are endowed with the properties of sign systems through which relations between individuals are discovered, made visible and meaningful. The mechanisms of meaning production, from the point of view of the participants of the event, are analysed using the concept of ‘discursive practices’, understood as speech actions in order to solve a variety of practical interpersonal tasks.Results and discussion. As an individual learns a variety of interpersonal discursive practices, different relational systems become available to him/her. Specific discursive practices allow individuals to present different versions of their self, justify their actions, maintain dominance and/or subordination relations, thus demonstrating mastery of the communicative situation. Following the principles of praxis-oriented social semiotics, it can be argued that interpersonal relationships involve what can be called a discourse of trust, personal involvement in relationships, intimacy/closeness.Conclusion. The described symbolic regulators allow not only to semiotically comprehend the social positions of interacting parties, but also to offer self-control procedures and an arsenal of communicative actions to the participants of interpersonal communication as means of behaviour management in situations of interpersonal communication.

What we mean as what we said or would have said

We usually mean what we say, but sometimes we do not. When I ironically utter ‘What lovely weather’ on a rainy day, or mistakenly utter ‘Jim is a barn door’ instead of ‘Jim is a darn bore’, I say one thing and mean another. However, although utterances like these are not uncommon, they are greatly overshadowed by the volume of humdrum utterances of ‘There is wine in the fridge’ or ‘I really like nachos’ where we mean what we say. And since we usually mean what we say, the following simple thesis will usually be correct. (N) S meant that p by uttering e iff S said that p by uttering e. The simplicity of (N) raises the question of whether it can be refined in order to also cover situations where we do not mean what we say. In this paper we defend a modal version of (N): an analysis where speaker meaning in most situations is identified with what is actually said, and in other situations with what the speaker would have said in certain counterfactual situations. The analysis constitutes a radical, but welcome, break with Gricean orthodoxy, where linguistic meaning, rather than speaker meaning, is ultimately used to explain other semantic notions.

Linguistic-discursive peculiarities of pronominal usage in political discourse (based on the material of the political talk show "60 Minutes")

This paper considers the specific features of the functioning of pronouns in political discourse. We analyse their role in the speech of the presenters and guests of the "60 Minutes" talk show. It belongs to the television discussion genre whose function is to form a collective political world picture by projecting and broadcasting certain images and meanings. The relevance of the research is due to the need not only for studying communication strategies and tactics in political actors’ speech, but also for analysing the impact of linguistic means on public opinion formation and transformation. Considering pronouns in the functional aspect enables us to identify the characteristic features that make pronouns one of the most effective means of speech influence (persuasion). Possessing manipulative potential, words of this morphological class can participate in the implementation of numerous communicative strategies and tactics, including the upward and downward strategies, the tactics of self-presentation, cooperation, impersonal accusation, discrediting, and the "us–them" opposition. The research uses discourse analysis, interpretation and contextual analysis techniques, and the communicative-pragmatic approach. As the obtained data show, pronouns can be employed to impose certain beliefs and opinions, to enhance the sense of unity and solidarity between the speaker and the audience, to shift the emphasis in the event under discussion. Moreover, they also prove to be a significant characteristic of politicians, reflecting their worldview.

JOURNALISTIC USE OF LANGUAGE ON THE CAMPAIGN FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS IN ROMANIA 2020 IN THE GERMAN-LANGUAGE MINORITY NEWSPAPER ADZ FOR ROMANIA

The present paper aims to analyze four journalistic texts belonging to the column Meinung und Bericht of the German newspaper existing in Romania ADZ für Rumänien from pragmalinguistic action theoretical viewpoint. The texts, giving the name of the author on the by line, are about actual events in Romania and they contain many verbal sequences and words expressing their opinion. The article concentrates on how and by which linguistic means of expressions is illustrated the position of the ADZjournalists on the local election campaign in Romania on 27th September 2020.

«They Held Each Other in a Communicative Clinch»: a Showdown in Football Fans’ Subculture (by the Example of the Revier Derby Schalke 04 vs Borussia Dortmund)

The article considers cases of verbal conflict between football fans of competing clubs. The issue is analysed by the example of the famous German (Revier) derby in which the teams Schalke 04 (Gelsenkirchen) and Borussia (Dortmund) participate. The author gives account of the origin of the discourse of rivalry between the two clubs and their fans, characterizes the derby from the point of view of sports mass media, football fans, etc. The article states a great diversity of linguistic means, styles, genres used by fans of Schalke and Borussia to achieve communicative aims, of which the main is to humiliate, offend, downgrade in a communicative clinch the so-called ‘others’, attribute negative qualities to them, besmirch them in the eyes of people around (first and foremost representing the fan culture) and so on. It distinguishes the most frequent patterns of creating ‘tension’ and provocative modality in the analyzed discourse – intertextuality, metaphorization, play on words, mixing discourses. The author emphasizes linguistic creativity of both clubs’ fans in creating conflict speech acts, stresses comic attitude in many messages, whereby humour is employed to disguise offense. As a direction for further research the author proposes surveying the discourse of rivalry in fan subculture by the example of famous derbies held in other countries. Instances are given to demonstrate verbal attacks on an adversary in the communication of the Moscow clubs Spartak’s and CSKA’s fans. The methods used are discourse, contextual, stylistic, semantic, linguistic and cultural, axiometric analysis

The Structure of Oath According to Jurists

Objectives: The study aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the structure of oaths within the four jurisprudential schools, including common elements among them. It endeavors to clarify the viewpoints of these schools regarding the particulars and restrictions of oaths. Methods: The research adopts an inductive methodology, analyzing the judgments and regulations presented by jurists. It involves a comparative approach between the perspectives of the different schools. Results: The study concluded that jurisprudential schools differed in the construction of oath; The Hanafis make the first consideration of custom, while the Maliki and Hanbali scholars presented the intention; as for the Shafi’is, they adopted the linguistic meaning. - The jurisprudence schools varied in showing integrated controls in building the intention. - The study showed that custom is one of the provisions of the oath to all sects. Conclusion: The wording of the oath needs controls to interpret it, which we can call the premises of the oath. They are agreed among among the scholars but are subjected to differences in its order of priorities. The first group is inclined to precede intentions, followed by situational indicatives; the second precedes current customary practices, and the third prioritized language lexicon. The Maliki school defined situational indicatives from causal point of view, while the Hanbali school based them on provocative causes, and the Hanafi school Close to "oaths Instantly". These oath constraints are important in order to know whether the oath taker has broken his oath and whether consequently he is subjected to expiations.

PIDGINISATION AS LINGUOCULTURAL PHENOMENON (on the example of African linguoculture)

This article identifies the features of such a linguocultural phenomenon as pidginisation and creolisation on the example of African linguoculture. The scientific problem is caused by the influence of globalisation on the state of languages and cultures within the framework of intercultural and interlanguage interaction, on the one hand, and the need to preserve native languages and cultures, on the other hand. The purpose of the article is to identify the key properties of such hybrid languages as Pidgin English and Creole English which operate in the largest country in West Africa – Nigeria. The research work is based on a combination of linguistic and cultural analysis method, which revealed the peculiarities of language and culture in the process of historical development, and comparative analysis method, which is the key to distinguish similar and distinctive features of Nigerian Pidgin English in relation to British English. The research work systematised the key historical, linguistic and cultural factors that influenced the formation and Pidgin English and Creole English development in Africa, and identified its key characteristics. It was proved that English is a universal means of interethnic communication for all social groups, but Pidgin English has simple structure at all language levels – phonetic, grammatical, lexical ones – and suits for everyday communication perfectly. Adapting to local realities, Nigerian Pidgin English at the phonetic level is the subject to assimilation and dissimilation of consonants, quantitative and qualitative reduction of vowels. The grammatical structure of Nigerian Pidgin English is the subject to maximum simplification, this level is characterised by the omission of articles; the use of abstract nouns in the plural form; the formation of adjectives’ comparison degrees and adverbs on the principle of a monosyllabic adjective; the use of simple tense forms of verb. The lexical structure of Nigerian Pidgin English is characterised by the functioning of high-frequency lexemes of autochthonous languages, which is due to the desire to follow the norms of native culture. All deviations from British English are explained by the need to create an accessible form of communication for all social groups using minimal linguistic means.

Appositive Combinations in the Russian Language: Concept Scope and Syntactic Characteristics

The concept of syntactic connection is fundamental for presenting the syntactic structure of any language. Linguists have described in detail the dichotomy of coordination and subordination, both from the point of view of the semantic relationships between the components of syntactic units and of the use of linguistic means to connect these components. Nevertheless, some syntactic structures have not yet received a comprehensive grammatical description. The article is devoted to the analysis of constructions with nouns being in appositive relations, as their combinations are interpreted inconsistently in modern scientific and educational literature. It has been established that the units in appositive constructions are connected on the basis of logical subordination, which appears in two variants: if the equal case ending agreement for both nouns is required in the entire paradigm, the linkage is characterized as agreement (without distributing it into complete and incomplete), if the case ending in entire paradigm is absent, it is viewed as a case (nominal) adjunction. The dependent component in parallel-case combinations of common nouns is considered to be the one that represents another name or an additional, including evaluative, attribute to the same referent that is named by the word being defined. In appositive combinations of a proper name and a common noun, the dependent component is noted to be the one expressed by a proper name of any type. The syntactic function of the dependent components in appositive phrases is suggested to be characterized without employing the concept of apposition, thus treating them as coordinated or uncoordinated attributes.

Functional interactions underlying visuospatial orthographic processes in Chinese reading.

As a logographic writing system, Chinese reading involves the processing of visuospatial orthographic (ORT) properties. However, this aspect has received relatively less attention in neuroimaging research, which has tended to emphasize phonological (PHO) and semantic (SEM) aspects in processing Chinese characters. Here, we compared the functional correlates supporting all these three processes in a functional MRI single-character reading study, in which 35 native Chinese adults were asked to make ORT, PHO, and SEM judgments in separate task-specific activation blocks. Our findings revealed increased involvement of the right hemisphere in processing Chinese visuospatial orthography, particularly evident in the right ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC). Additionally, time course analysis revealed that the left superior parietal gyrus (SPG) was initially involved in SEM processing but contributed to the visuospatial processing of words in a later time window. Finally, ORT processing demonstrated stronger recruitment of left vOTC-SPG-middle frontal gyrus (MFG) functional connectivity compared to SEM processing. This functional coupling correlated with reduced regional engagement of the left vOTC and MFG, highlighting that visuospatial ORT processes in reading Chinese rely on functional interactions among key regions rather than local regional processes. In conclusion, these findings underscore visuospatial ORT processes as a distinctive feature of reading logographic characters.

«КЕП МАДАНИЯТЫ», «ОКУУЧУЛАРДЫН КЕП МАДАНИЯТЫ» ТҮШҮНҮКТӨРҮНҮН НЕГИЗГИ ПАРАДИГМАЛАРЫ

The article is devoted to one of the urgent problems of teaching Kyrgyz language and Kyrgyz literature - the problem of speech culture. At present the oral and written speech skills of schoolchildren do not meet the requirements, the main reasons for this are related to the fact that teachers do not know the concepts of "Speech Culture" and "Speech Culture of Students". In the article the given concepts and terms are analyzed from philosophical, psychological and pedagogical aspects and the essence of the problem is revealed on the basis of the works of linguists such as Akishina А. A, Golovin B.N., Goldin V.E., Ladyzhenskaya T.A, Davletov S., Musaev S.J.and so on. Speech culture is the construction of oral and written speech using linguistic means, the creation of text, it is through this speech that people communicate with other people, and later with society as a whole. To do this, in a modern school, one of the main requirements is to increase the linguistic and communicative competence of students. Speech culture is a phenomenon related to the age characteristics of the speaker or writer, psychology, the situation at the moment, the perception and understanding of the topic by students, the vocabulary they can use, themselves and the style of the text. The student's speech culture will directly depend on his perception of the world, his emotional feelings, his aesthetic tastes, and this is exactly what happens at the stage of active acceptance in grades 5-8, when we perceive him as an object. The student should not only understand the work being studied from Kyrgyz literature, receive education from it, but also on the basis of this work perceive in his world the richness of his native language, new words, expressions, means of artistic speech, develop a culture of speech and writing. The article is intended for school teachers, teachers of higher educational institutions, masters.

Diversity of dialects of the novel characters according to the descriptive stylistics, the novel (Alye di ye pre) as an example

Methods of style directions are considered as backgrounds for certain reasons and mechanisms of the methods followed, to interpret linguistic or literary discourses and to identify certain methodological characteristics according to certain scientific methods to avoid inferential decisions and interpretations, according to linguistic levels, As a result of contemporary linguistic research done through the use of linguistic sciences in order to identify aesthetic aspects of literary works and writings. Descriptive stylistics is considered an important direction for interpretation of any innovative discourse, because the nature of methodological research, some linguistic directions are important for interpretation of any text it takes hold of itself. Because the concept of expression among linguists is connected the material form of speech, such as speech versus content, which becomes a linguistic meaning for that speech, or the sounds spoken and written on the surface of expression with surface of content, because language is speech. Either they are just some voices and each nation speaks through them, or they are voices that express their actions. This research is entitled (Diversity of dialects of the novel characters according to the descriptive stylistics, the novel (Alye di ye pre) as an example), is an attempt to explain the language expression of characters according to the theory of descriptive stylistics. Expression methodology is a good basis for interpreting text according to the mechanisms it works with in order to convey the right direction for understanding the message of each text.

The Role of L1 and Age Effect in the Acquisition of EnglishArticles among Croatian Young EFL Learners

The category of definiteness/indefiniteness is often seen as a linguistic universal (Chomsky 2000; Silić 2000) that exists in every human language but is expressed with different linguistic means and patterns in different languages. In English, this category is grammaticalized primarily via articles (Zergollern-Miletić 2008). The Croatian language does not contain an article system, and acquiring English articles represents a major problem for most learners of English as a foreign language (Balenović and Medved Krajnović 2013; Zergollern-Miletić 2015). The present paper investigates difficulties in acquiring English articles among young learners in Croatia in written tasks. Pupils involved in the research started learning English in the first grade of primary school. A total of 76 primary school learners from six different classes (schools) and different age groups were included in this research. The initial hypothesis is that the correct use of articles increases as learners’ overall L2 proficiency increases due to exposure to instructed EFL learning. A qualitative analysis was carried out using error analysis, i.e., proper/wrong use, or omission of the article. The findings partially confirmed the initial hypothesis and showed that our participants were becoming aware of the existence of English articles (they comprehended that articles should precede nouns), but we found very frequent article omission, which, according to our research results, indicates that the process of developing and understanding the semantic and pragmatic role of English articles is long and fluctuating specifically with learners whose L1 lacks the article system.

Recharacterising Confucius in Multimodal Translation: From Analects to Comics

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore how Confucius is recharacterised in the multimodal translation of The Analects from verbal (analects) to verbal-visual (comics) texts. The focus is on the interpersonal/interactive meaning in Systemic Functional Linguistics and visual social semiotics. Parameters of MOOD and MODALITY are used in discussing the verbal mode in both source and target texts, and the system of CONTACT, SOCIAL DISTANCE, INVOLVEMENT, POWER, AFFECT, PROXIMITY and MASS/AMOUNT are employed in describing features of the visual mode in comics. The quantitative results show that Confucius has been recharacterised from an authoritative teacher in the source text into different images in four comic adaptions, i.e. a detached truth transmitter in Mori [2002. Dongfang Zhidian Shengshu: Manhua Lunyu. Beijing: Jiuzhou Press], an affable wiser in Tsai [2005. Confucius Speaks: The Message of the Benevolent. Beijing: China Modern Publishing House Ltd.], a superior mentor in Zhang [2007. Manhua LunYu. Hangzhou: Zhejiang People’s Publishing House.], and a popularised teacher in Chen [2021. Banxiaoshi Manhua Lunyu. Shanghai: Wenhui Press]. It is argued that the different images of Confucius reconstrued in four translations can be better understood in terms of the context of translation, in which translators’ identity, translation purpose, target reader and historically accepted image of Confucius are finally explored.

The principal components of meaning, revisited.

Osgood, Suci, and Tannebaum were the first to attempt to identify the principal components of semantics using dimensional reduction of a high-dimensional model of semantics constructed from human judgments of word relatedness. Modern word-embedding models analyze patterns of words to construct higher dimensional models of semantics that can be similarly subjected to dimensional reduction. Hollis and Westbury characterized the first eight principal components (PCs) of a word-embedding model by correlating them with several well-known lexical measures, such as logged word frequency, age of acquisition, valence, arousal, dominance, and concreteness. The results show some clear differentiation of interpretation between the PCs. Here, we extend this work by analyzing a larger word-embedding matrix using semantic measures initially derived from subjective inspection of the PCs. We then use quantitative analysis to confirm the utility of these subjective measures for predicting PC values and cross-validate them on two word-embedding matrices developed on distinct corpora. Several semantic and word class measures are strongly predictive of early PC values, including first-person and second-person verbs, personal relevance of abstract and concrete words, affect terms, and names of places and people. The predictors of the lowest magnitude PCs generalized well to word-embedding matrices constructed from separate corpora, including matrices constructed using different word-embedding methods. The predictive categories we describe are consistent with Wittgenstein's argument that an autonomous level of social interaction grounds linguistic meaning.

Linguistic means of “new ethical” principles representation in modern German poetic discourse

Linguistic means of “new ethical” principles representation in modern German poetic discourse

Concept of PRIDE in Comic Discourse: Axiological Approach

This article examines the peculiarities of the actualization of the concept of PRIDE within comic discourse from the perspective of axiological linguistics. It determines the value status of the phenomenon under consideration based on an analysis of definitions from dictionaries spanning various years and relevant literature. The study demonstrates the evolution of attitudes toward pride and arrogance within English-speaking linguistic culture. It explores the concept’s connections with related phenomena such as arrogance, vanity, and snobbery. A four-step axiological analysis is conducted to investigate the features of the actualization of the concept of PRIDE in comic discourse. The research material comprises over 70 stand-up comedy performances and 700 episodes of situational comedies. It is established that the textual actualization of the category of pride or arrogance is typically accompanied by audience laughter or off-screen laughter. The study reveals that ridicule is directed at an inflated or unwarranted self-assessment of greatness and a sense of superiority over others. Three primary types of superiority are distinguished: intellectual, physical, and social. Furthermore, it is noted that pride/arrogance is evaluated negatively either through the outcomes it produces or through the demonstration of its unwarranted manifestations. The main linguistic means for actualizing the concept of PRIDE are identified. Thus, self-assessment of greatness is realized through hyperbolization of one’s abilities, while the sense of superiority over others is represented through various linguistic devices.

Pragmatic conditionality of linguistic means of expressing evaluation in French newspaper discourse

Pragmatic conditionality of linguistic means of expressing evaluation in French newspaper discourse

The Stylistic Nature of the Theory of Foregrounding in the Literary Text

The theory of foregrounding plays an integral part in the way a reader perceives and decodes linguistic expression, whereas construal process allows for dynamic categorization and portrayal of a situation with the help of a big diversity of linguistic means. By means of classification of construing phenomena, scholars identified key dimensions such as attention, judgment, perspective and constitution, elucidating intricate mechanisms of comprehension and expression of language. The article touches on two types of saliencies in cognitive linguistics such as cognitive and ontological salience. It also underscores Langacker’s notion of “entrenchment” and investigates the concepts of communicative salience, gearing towards profiling and trajectory / landmark alignment to set forth how attention is directed in linguistic expressions. The article examines the theory of foregrounding in cognitive linguistics and its correlation with construal operation. It sheds light on how language shapers perception and categorization of situation, participants and their features through a wide range of construal phenomenon. The article dives into various classifications and subcategories of construal phenomenon, highlighting the way attention, judgment, perspective and constitution play a part in language input and output. The article sets forth complex interplay of language, cognitive operations and salience, in particular within the framework of cognitive linguistics. The article investigates how language means and structures contribute to the foregrounding of prominent conceptual elements and decoding scenes and situations. The scientific work explores a wide range of notions of salience in literary analysis, primarily focusing on Leech and Short’s concepts of literary relevance, psychological prominence and statistical deviance. The article delves into the way these notions cooperate with one another and contribute to subjective recognition of style in literary texts. Moreover, it explores the role of figure and ground in the theory of foregrounding emphasizing how original and striking linguistic means, or “figures” stand out from conventional linguistic elements, aka. “ground” contributing to actualization and creative presentation of the world in literature. Overall, the scientific article emphasizes dynamic process of stylistic analysis and the function of literature in presenting the world in a novel and creative manner.

A novel service composition algorithm using natural language semantics

A novel service composition algorithm using natural language semantics