Межкультурная коммуникация и сопоставительное изучение языков. Рубрика в журнале - Вестник Волгоградского государственного университета. Серия 2: Языкознание
Metaphorical Conceptualization of Cancer in English Medical Creative Nonfiction
Статья научная
The paper discusses the phenomenon of medical creative nonfiction, delineating the factors that engender demand for this type of literature, listing its types and identifying its main features. It highlights the importance of language choices in the presentation of medical facts, as creative nonfiction aims to be comprehensible, engaging and aesthetically pleasing. The paper further narrows down the topic to nonfiction about cancer and considers the use of metaphors as a means of conceptualizing this disease. It provides an analysis of metaphors in two bestsellers written by medical professionals: S. Mukherjee’s “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” and J. Fung’s “The Cancer Code: A Revolutionary New Understanding of a Medical Mystery.” The methodological foundation for the analysis is the refined version of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, supplemented by the Discourse Metaphor Theory (J. Zinken) and the Metaphoric Creativity Theory (Z. Kövecses). The authors reveal the main patterns of metaphor use in each book. The most common source domains utilized in both books are WAR, LIVING BEING, PLANT and SPACE, while JOURNEY, which is a highly recommended source domain for the conceptualization of cancer in contemporary discourses, is barely noticeable. The authors further identify creative metaphors, analyze their conceptual structure, and compare the use of metaphors in the two books to demonstrate the possibility of conceptual experimentation with the topic despite the pressure of discursive conventions.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The author's hypothesis proceeds from the position that the ancient treatises of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) describe metaphorically an ethnocultural understanding of neuro-linguistic and psychophysiological processes in the human body from the perspective of communication between large and small. TCM terms are medical concepts that also contain deep philosophical and linguistic-cultural content plans, due to the Wenyan-style in which TCM treatises are written. The purpose of the work is to identify the patterns of the language of these ancient texts in the context of the interpretation presented in them through the hierarchy of 'state and subjects'. The use of methodological holism made it possible to develop a new approach to the texts of traditional Chinese medicine from the standpoint of communication studies and neuropsycholinguistics. The mythologized interpretation of the concepts in the ancient treatises of TCM is associated with the signification of any health problem in the form of an expanded metaphor characterizing the problem as a violation of 'communication' in the body-'state' between 'vassals', 'individual social groups' and their 'leaders'. This positioning of the body's work through the prism of social relations provides an understanding of the interpretation of relationships in ancient Chinese society as a whole.
Бесплатно
Positioning guests in a Maybrit Illner talk show
Статья научная
In this paper we analyze techniques applied by the producers of a talk show in order to position the talk show guests as relevant participants with respect to the subject of fiscal evasion by celebrities. We analyze how the producers succeed in positioning their guests right from the beginning as prototypical representatives. This positioning is achieved through the coordination of a voice from offstage and the management of the cameras when the guests first appear on screen. Two of five guest introductions are analyzed in detail. The two presented guests demonstrate a clearly antagonistic relationship and their introduction is immediately consecutive. We have reconstructed the introduction of all five guests in detail which resulted in the identification of a network of positions. Unfortunately we cannot present all of our analyses here due to the lack of space. At the positional network’s center lies the thematic and personal “antagonism” which we reconstructed. At the periphery we have four representatives of societally relevant positions who contribute to the topic of the talk show. The four guests respectively represent jurisdiction, politics, and ethics via a lay perspective, psychology and theology. The analysis is theoretically framed by the multimodal notion of “positioning” and “recipient design”, while the applied methodology is multimodal interaction analysis.
Бесплатно
Reader, I married him, или механизм аттенциональной конвергенции в англоязычном повествовании
Статья научная
Цель проведенного исследования заключается в описании аттенциональной конвергенции, определяемой в статье как способ формальной организации повествования, использующий конвергентный потенциал сразу нескольких механизмов фокусирования внимания для интенсификации когнитивной активности читателей. Охарактеризованы «аттенциональные эффекты», связанные с комбинаторным использованием таких типов выдвижения, как сильная позиция текста, эффект обманутого ожидания, сцепление, интекст. Доказана значимость аттенциональной конвергенции в создании когнитивного диссонанса как неотъемлемой составляющей интерпретационной программы современного художественного текста. Действие механизма аттенциональной конвергенции раскрыто на примере произведений современных англоязычных авторов-женщин посредством конструирования гендерной идентичности персонажей. Материалом исследования послужили рассказы Дж. Брискоу, Т. Шевалье, Э. Фрейд, Т. Хедли, С. Хилл, С. Викерс и др., опубликованные в сборнике «Reader, I Married Him», вышедшем в 2017 г. и посвященном 200-летию со дня рождения Шарлотты Бронте. Установлено, что все анализируемые в статье рассказы интертекстуально соотносятся с романом «Джейн Эйр» и предлагают современный взгляд авторов-женщин на проблемы гендерных стереотипов, гендерных ролей и гендерно обусловленного поведения, выражаемый в том числе посредством аттенциональной конвергенции. Результаты проведенного исследования доказывают актуальность дальнейшего изучения механизмов фокусирования / дефокусирования, а также создания множественных фокусов внимания, способствующих повышению экспрессивности повествования, выражению авторской модальности и усилению прагматического воздействия на читателей.
Бесплатно
Representation of the conceptual field “education” in national variants of the French language
Статья научная
The paper presents an onomasiological analysis of the conceptual field “Education” exemplified by the vocabulary of the national variants of the French language of France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada (Province of Quebec) with the aim to establish the basic nomination principles and identify inter-variational differences within the framework of three sectors of the conceptual field “Education”: “Educational institutions (établissement d’enseignement)”, “Teaching staff (personnel enseignant)”, “Students (étudiants)”. The basic principles of nominating in the field of education are identified by considering the internal conceptual structure of the language units under analysis; inter-variational differences and alterations are stated by categorical-and- semantic comparability of the differentiation semes in the nominations of three sectors of the conceptual field “Education”. The analysis allows to conclude that there exist generic categorical-and-semantic instances within nomination structures that indicate location of training or teaching, specialty, disciplines studied or taught, age, status of the teacher or student, level and methodology of training. In designation of objects in the sectors of the conceptual field “Education” lexical units get into hypernym-and-hyponym relations, thus categorically every sector is formed around some basic concept that is explicated in a hypernym, general nomination for four territorial variants of French, and a set of hyponyms that are more specific and not alike in the exemplification of general semes. The onomasiological analysis of the conceptual field “Education” reveals intervariational concomitant or alternating features, especially in sectors of “Educational institutions (établissement d’enseignement)”, “Students (étudiants)” due to certain social-and-institutional reasons.
Бесплатно
Semiolinguistics of protective communication
Статья научная
The current paper investigates the notion of protective communication represented by systems of signs, texts, rituals which the authors regard as means of neutralizing cognitive constructs, generated by phobias of varying degrees of irrationality. Classification of phobias on psycho- and sociolinguistic grounds allows developing their typology from the point of view of the cause of their origin: supernatural entities (superstition), individual fearful images (prejudice), social suspicion (bias). As the study showed, sacred horror caused by destructive forces of nature, climatic phenomena not subjected to man, and astronomical events gave rise to supernatural, esoteric phobias reflected in superstitions. Biological phobias appeared in response to real dangers, associated with daily human activities, personal imaginarytroubles and fears, which generated a system of prejudice invented by man himself. Social interaction of people, with its negative stereotyping and categorization of social space, entailed a wide range of phobias (racial, religious, age, gender, etc,) which turned into social biases. On his way of development, a man tried hard to find protection against phobias of different nature, creating an extensive system of protective means incorporated in religious, magical and intolerant types of discourse, consequently neutralizing superstitions, prejudices and biases in specific genres, verbal and non-verbal signs, texts and rituals of the above mentioned types of discourse.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The article discusses various approaches to defining the terminological base, the ambiguity of definitions, the lack of clear boundaries and signs of the concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion. The notions under study are characterized by way of their reference to communication process circumstances and participants, who are contrasted in their social status, cultural experience, ideological ideas and worldview to other social groups. The article analyzes slang neoformations with the concern for stylistically reduced register of communication as objectifying categories of social exclusion and social inclusion within the framework of youth discourse, which determine the developing vector of both society structure on the whole and social subsystems of the language. The novelty and relevance of the study lie in the use of linguocognitive analysis of authentic material, on the basis of which the mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion of slang lexical units are differentiated. The regularity in actualization of social exclusion or inclusion is understood in connection with the mechanisms and possibilities of using communicative practices in order to include social groups in social processes. These phenomena are reflected at the lexical level of the language and might contribute to various transformations of social consciousness, increasing language efficiency and its ability to respond to current challenges. It is concluded that modern youth slang is a specific language model that acts as an instrument of social exclusion or inclusion; in communicative practices, it is embodied through pejorative slang nominations thus strategically and tactically forming a negative image and antisocial behavior. The results of the research contribute to further study of the communicative nature of sociolinguistic phenomena, to comparative studies of the discursive construction of socially significant fragments of social reality, and the communicative manifestation of multidirectional social processes that determine the social structure and stratification of society.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
This paper is devoted to the specific features of lettered words’ integration in the graphic, phonetic and grammatical aspects of the Chinese language. The author has analyzed a number of local and foreign studies, covering the main patterns of the lettered words’ integration. Based on Liu Yongquan’s studies, it was concluded that it’s important to strictly follow letters’ case. The case difference can distinguish semantics of different lettered words. Native Chinese speakers with high linguistic competence are able to recognize various lettered words in print, but they may not know how to read them out loud. Therefore, the pronunciation of lettered words is associated with a number of issues: the choice of pronunciation standard, the differentiation of initialisms and acronyms, the choice which syllable to stress. Based on the results of previous research, different ways of how borrowed lettered words respond to the grammatical norms of the Chinese language were identified. The empirical analysis was performed with lettered words extracted by the method of continuous sampling from lexicographic sources. Using the cases described in the paper, the author has proved that in addition to such word-formation processes as compounding, semi-affixation, syntactic and morphological transposition, lettered words can also be formed and transformed with morphological contraction.
Бесплатно
Structural analysis of persian-english reverse code-switching and code-mixing
Статья научная
Code-switching and code-mixing are considered dynamic conversational phenomena in interpersonal interactions, that is an alteration between two or more languages, dialectal variants, language registers, and it is an effective communicative strategy which Persian-English bilinguals consider a genuine thing in their ordinary speech practice. The focus of the present study is on the structural analysis of reverse code-switching between Persian and English that are known to be referred to two typologicallydifferent languages. Participants of the present research, all late bilinguals, reported on frequent use of code-switching (CS) and code-mixing (CM) in everyday language practice. CS/CM is quite normal and frequent among Iranian bilinguals, especially in informal settings where bilingual speakers can freely switch between their languages. Furthermore, the results revealed that Iranian bilinguals switch from English to Persian and in verso mostlyat the lexical and the phrasal levels (intrasentential switching mode), but less frequently at the clausal or the sentence level (intersentential switching mode). The research states that there are some restrictions on inserting English verbs into the Persian syntactic frame: the Persian language is thought to be the matrix language and the preverbal part comes from English as the embedded language, such incongruity between the morphosyntactic structure and the verbal system of the Persian and English languages impose some constraints on the occurrence of switching codes between the pair of the languages under study.
Бесплатно
System-functional stratification of the average Turkish-Russian dictionary
Статья научная
The study is aimed at stratifying Rosa Yusipova’s Turkish-Russian Dictionary (2005) in accordance with the system and functional weights of its constituent words. The method is a parametric lexicon analysis (PLA), developed and tested byscientists of Voronezh State University. PLA involves identifying four particular parametric weights for each word. This is the FUNCTIONAL weight (F-weight is indirectly estimated by the length of the word), the PARADIGMATIC weight (P-weight is estimated by the number of synonyms), SYNTAGMATIC weight (C-weight is estimated by the number of phrases and utterances with this word) and EPIDIGMATIC weight (E-weight is estimated by the number of meanings of a word in the dictionary). For each of the 4 parameters, partial core, counting at least 1000 words, was allocated. The words presented in all 4 particular cores, entered a Small parametric core. Words presented in 3 particular cores entered an Average parametric core, words represented in 2 particular parametric cores - a Large parametric core and words presented in 1 particular parametric core entered the core of the Dictionary. Words that are not presented in any particular parametric core make up the Periphery of the Dictionary. The analysis revealed the words of all 4 cores of the dictionary: Small - 140 words, Middle - 630, Large - 3234, the core of the Dictionary - 6861 and the Periphery of the Dictionary counts 18236 words. The dominant (the most important word in the dictionary) was the word iş ‘work, labor’, and the vice-dominant - the word üst ‘the top’.
Бесплатно
The art of storytelling in the digital age: a multimodal perspective
Статья научная
Using Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony , Craig Silvey’s The Amber Amulet , and Jon McGregor’s In Winter the Sky as its case studies, this article attempts to explore a number of mechanisms and strategies contributing to the multimodal fiction construction and posing challenges for modern readers of all ages. The article proposes to examine multimodal resonance as a cognitive mechanism enhancing the emotional impact of multimodal stories on recipients and triggering the receptive mechanism of narrative empathy. Various semiotic resources, both free resources, such as photos, maps, and illustrations, and bound ones, including font types and typographical experiments, are analyzed from the standpoint of their role in fictional world creation. The article makes an original contribution to the Multimodal Stylistics Studies by hypothesizing the relevance of identifying two distinctive mechanisms of foregrounding: visual foregrounding as a range of formal ways to construct a multimodal text that focuses the reader’s attention with the help of free semiotic resources, and graphic foregrounding, which has bound semiotic resources at its heart. The findings of the research prove that it is the combination of elements of stylistic, cognitive and linguo-semiotic analyses that might provide a new and effective methodologyfor interpreting a multimodal literary text. The overall outcome testifies to the importance of further research into varied mechanisms of foregrounding as a complex phenomenon essential for our better understanding of the embodied character of reading.
Бесплатно
The main characteristics of stephen king’s idiostyle
Статья научная
The paper presents stylistic value of simile and metaphor as the major features of Stephen King’s idiostyle. The linguistic analysis of some novels (1408, Carrie, The Shining, Dreamcatcher, Dead Zone) is aimed at discovering sematic and structural types of simile and metaphor, revealing their functions in the content development. Structural analysis of simile and metaphor constituency in the above mentioned novels resulted in allocating some formal patterns: a one-term verbal simile (as if... verb, verb... like... verb), a two-term attribute simile (noun-like), a two-term or three-term nominative simile, and simple (a one-image) or expanded pattern of metaphor. The sematic analysis of Stephen King’s novels lets reveal the compound character of simile and metaphor use. Both tropes are used predominantly to create tension in narration that is often raised up to the atmosphere of horror, the latest is considered by the researchers to be a major feature of the idiostyle of the author under study. Having described some semantic ways of expanding horror, death, savageness, mood and expressiveness with similes and metaphors, the researchers concluded that these tropes perform leading functions in personalizing Stephen King’s idiostyle: constructing images and describing feelings that characters are going into along with creating the tone of tension and horror; performing common stylistic function despite the fact that they differ in the way the atmosphere of tension and horror is built: explicit realization in simile and implicit by various types of morphemes in metaphor.
Бесплатно
The nature of Chinese and Russian subcultures in urban discourse
Статья научная
The paper seeks to examine the communicative aspect of modern Chinese and Russian urban subcultures. The nominations of urban social groups representing young people in Russia and China and their connection to modern communication practices are viewed from the perspective of urban communication studies, which provides an opportunity for a new comprehension of issues connected with verbal and nonverbal constituents of urban discourse. The indicates that the subcultures in the Russian urban landscape are reflected in such nominations as фрики (freaki), мажоры (majory), хипстеры (hipstery), брейк-дансеры (break-dancery), байкеры (bikery), etc. The Chinese subcultures are known under such names as shamate, xiaoqingxin, tuyayawenhua, erciyuanyawenhua, egaoyawenhua and many others. We argue that in both countries the unity of social subgroups is based not so much on ideological preferences, but rather on lifestyles, hobbies and interests, many of them formed under the Western influence. The subcultures discussed in the research represent a broad panorama of Chinese and Russian social life. They reflect the sociocultural dynamics of attitudes, values and lifestyles influenced by globalization but acquiring nationally specific features, which transform them into unique sociocultural phenomena.
Бесплатно
The problem of studying neologisms and their influence on the ecology of language
Статья научная
The article raises the issues of neology and ecolinguistics. The authors specify the criteria of ecolinguistic approach to studying neologisms based on ecolinguistic monitoring which helps to elicit factors that influence the formation of new words, spheres in which they function in language as well as to define the type of new words and number of loanwords among them. The data under analysis is compiled by about 3 000 new words that appeared in English and Dutch in the last three decades. The authors elicit the main changes in the ecology of the Dutch language on different levels in the stated time frame together with the factors that motivate the formation of neologisms. Among extralinguistic factors the authors list such determinants as the emergence of new realia; scientific and technical advancement; globalization and development of the Internet. To intralinguistic factors the following are referred: linguistic economy; expressiveness of linguistic means; systematization of the vocabulary; unification of linguistic signs; conversion and the shift in stylistic usage of the words can also generate neologisms. Future development of the ecolinguistic approach in neology will help to track the evolution of modern national language and preserve its ecolinguistic balance. The research results can be used in language education, lexicographic practice or state language policy.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
To date, the traditional fantasy genre that has its roots in European folklore is transforming as authors seek new, fresh mythological foundations and exotic forms of narration. In an attempt to conquer foreign markets, some of them deploy Slavic mythology and embed words of Slavic origin to create their magical worlds. However, the resulting product is often a Pan-Slavic fantasy universe that refers to no specific culture. In this research, 'pseudo-ethnics' denotes an exotic atmosphere created by words associated with a broad linguacultural cluster. The object of the study was the vocabulary used to denote pseudo-Slavic realities in the novel Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and its film adaptation, as well as the translation techniques employed by the Russian translators. Leigh Bardugo used pseudo-Russian anthroponyms, toponyms and words that denote everyday objects and magical creatures. They represent Latinized Russian borrowings and seemingly authentic neologisms that deploy some morphological and phonetic language features an English-speaking reader might associate with the Slavic culture. However, when translated for an audience with a Slavic ethnic background, the pseudo-ethnic fantasy book or film loses its exotic flavor. The translation techniques for Latinized Russian words conveying the pseudo-ethnic atmosphere are de-transliteration and de-transcription. As part of the translation, translators had to adhere to the grammar rules of the Russian language and eliminate grammatical errors in parts of speech or gender.
Бесплатно
The syntax and semantics of the perfect structure: a comparative approach
Статья научная
The article covers some issues that concern the syntax and semantics of the present perfect construction in English and other languages. It states that all Present Perfects may be associated with what is considered the canonical construal in which an assertion is located at the present time but reports the existence of a past situation. However, some Present Perfects may, in addition, have a simple past aorist meaning. The author focuses on pluractional and evidential construals of the Present Perfect in some languages, argue that the Passé Composé construal and the Aorist construal of the perfect construction belong to two different modes of discourse, discours and récit , underlines their variability associated with a complex syntactic structure (an auxiliaryverb and a verbal participle for Present Perfect, while the Aorist construal is associated with a simple verbal structure). According to the author, the Perfect has both syntactic and analytical ways of realization, thus the analytical syntactic structure of the Perfect is in English, French and German, with both a tensed auxiliaryverb and a past participle, whereas it is synthetic in Latin, Russian and Arabic as is presented in the past participle alone; in languages with overt aspectual marking, aspect mayvaryon either the auxiliary, if it exists, or on the participle.
Бесплатно
The verbalization of emotions in social and cultural aspects
Статья обзорная
The article deals with the role of the language in the interpretation of emotions, their adequate perception and comprehension in a foreign language. The existence of «cognitive scenarios» helps the recipients to perceive and interpret the emotions in both native and foreign languages in the process of bilingual communication.
Бесплатно
Translation of periodical titles as a reflection of the current dynamics in translation strategies
Статья научная
The article explores translation as a means of communication and a tool for shaping the transmitting linguistic culture's narrative in the receiving linguaculture. The subject of the study is communicative, or translation, strategies aimed at transmitting the content expressed with the source language into culturally another linguistic system, retaining cultural and linguistic distinction. The study focuses on Russian and Chinese translations of periodical titles. Additionally, translations of periodical titles between Chinese and five European languages, namely English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish, are chosen as the supplemented material to ensure validity of research outcomes. The analysis revealed that non-mediated translation, i.e., bypassing intermediary languages, is the dominant principle in the translation of Chinese periodical titles used by Russian newspapers. Russian editions of China-governed newspapers have adopted it since the second half of 2022. The comparison of the translation strategies between Chinese and European languages manifested serious divergence: the periodical titles are translated into Chinese through the Cooperation Principle, or domestication, while the translations from Chinese into English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish tend toward the Non-Cooperation Principle, or foreignization; owning to it Chinese periodical titles preserve their linguistic identity when being rendered in other languages. The paper argues that the discovered tendencies stem, firstly, from the language policies of the countries that use the researched languages as their official languages; secondly, from the openness of languages to phonetic borrowings, which affects the semantic transparency of periodical titles in translation; thirdly, from the construction of a stable Chinese media narrative in other languages' environment.
Бесплатно
Un-words as a factor of ideologization in the modern German political discourse
Статья научная
The research attempts to establish the content component of un-words that have recently entered the modern political discourse of Germany, represented by a corpus of texts from federal and regional media that form a negative agenda, from the point of view of the difficulties they present for their interpretation by the reader. These include: the problem of terminological ambisemy, neologisms that are multi-component words, evaluative vocabulary containing negative connotations in relation to representatives of other cultures of migrant origin, as well as catchwords and expressions that include a retro component. The lexemes Remigration, Heizungs-Stasi, Doppelwumms, Kriegstьchtigkeit, Gamechanger, Sondervermцgen, Stolzmonat, Technologieoffenheit, Klimakleber, etc. have been examined. The lexical-semantic method with elements of discourse and content analysis, contextual analysis, as well as elements of word-formation analysis were used during the study. Such a complex combination of various methods is due to the fact that the analyzed language units are not recorded in lexicographic sources, glossary dictionaries and reference literature. It was stated that the most popular topics that form a negative agenda are the problem of migration, environmental and environmental-social problems associated with a decrease in the standard of living of German citizens, unsuccessful rhetoric of the political elite containing statements that affect the implementation of Germany’s internal and foreign policy.
Бесплатно
Статья научная
The article is dedicated to the issue of reflecting human relations in a behavioral aspect in different languages. It presents the results of a comparative analysis of the semantic organization of meanings of conceptually related lexical units that share a common Latin root and verbalize the category of RELATIONS in Italian and English. Based on a detailed analysis of the nouns atteggiamento in Italian and attitude in English, conducted with consideration of the linguocognitive and linguocultural contexts, the semantic similarities and differences of these lexemes are identified. Both units denote an evaluation (positive or negative) in relation to certain circumstances. However, the Italian word emphasizes the awareness of external actions, while the English word refers to a reaction more associated with internal emotions and mental states. The analyzed lexemes atteggiamento and attitude demonstrate a tendency towards the dominance of the behavioral component in the semantics of the category of RELATIONS due to the actualization of diachronic components in their lexical meanings. The prospects for the research lie in the application of a comprehensive comparative methodology for a deeper study on evoluting meanings of lexical units that explicate the semiotic and axiological aspects of the category of RELATIONS in Italian and English.
Бесплатно
