Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices

This study critically analyzes the ideas of American political scientist B. Barber, presented in his book “Jihad vs. McWorld.” The scholar attempts to substantiate the concept of the struggle between two forces shaping the world order: Jihad and McWorld . The former is presented as a movement oriented toward the establishment of a society of radical national-cultural isolation - the demarcation of ethnonational living space from the influence of the outside world. The latter implements globalization approaches to create a unipolar world of unified and uniform cultures, which ultimately should lead to the formation of a common transnational personality. According to B. Barber’s predictions, the radical confrontation between Jihad and McWorld should end with the victory of the latter, that is, the complete blurring of intercultural boundaries. The relevance of McWorld's “cultural pressure” in recent decades is confirmed by the vocabulary of modern language, where foreign borrowings, typically international in nature, are displacing lexemes representing an ethnocultural worldview. Examples of contemporary cultural realities objectify the emergence of a form of interethnic relations development different from that proposed by B. Barber - regionalization. Regionalization, when applied to a cultural context, represents a natural process of countering the tendency to erase cultural and ethnic boundaries. Thus, formally, it appears to be in opposition to globalization ( McWorld ) and the related ideas of Jihad . However, it is consistently demonstrated that the doctrine of regionalization has a symbiotic basis: despite its focus on preserving national-ethnic identity, it implements transcultural diffusion through the assimilation of borrowed cultural elements. Examples of “cultural assimilation” in the literary process, the film industry, science, and even the catering industry are cited as supporting examples. Regionalization is realized in its natural form as an individual’s independent desire to escape cultural assimilation, and in extreme forms, as a shift toward cultural separatism. Artificial regionalization is viewed as a subject of national discourse and is found in ideologically oriented communication flows aimed at obtaining, maintaining, or developing statehood. A conclusion is drawn about the expanding manifestations of cultural regionalization based on the principles of ethno-genealogical connections, adjusted for the contemporary political map of the world.

The aim of the article is to identify the functions of the English language performed by it in interpersonal oral communication in situations outside of school/university classes in secondary and higher educational institutions of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where English performs the role of the language of instruction. The novelty of the study is due, first of all, to the almost complete absence of studies aimed at the choice of communicative functions when using this language in interpersonal oral communication. The research methodology includes the choice of communicative situations based on the functional roles of addresser and addressee and the generalization of sociolinguistic data obtained through the direct covert observation in three universities and two secondary educational institutions of Pakistan. The results of the study reflect approximate parity in the use of English and Urdu, which is the official language of the country, in interpersonal formal and informal communication in the field of education. English is used more often than Urdu in two the most formal communicative situations of the fourteen observed, namely communication of a university lecturer with several colleagues or with a group of students. Urdu prevails in communication with parents of both teachers and university lecturers. Both English and Urdu are capable of performing three of the six functions identified by R.O. Jacobson: phatic, conative, referential (cognitive). At the same time, English only partially performs the metalinguistic function. In cases where a combination of English and Urdu is used in communication, a differentiation of functions between the languages is observed: English more often performs the phatic function, and Urdu - the referential one. The data obtained confirm the limited use of English as a means of interpersonal communication in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, since parity between English and Urdu is observed even in such a traditional for the use of English social institution as the sector of the tertiary education.

The relevance of this problem stems from scholarly interest in examining and understanding the specific linguistic consciousness of the titular peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria, who possess a unique and distinctive culture. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the worldview characteristics of the ethnocultural linguistic identity of Kabardians and Balkars through the prism of archetypal representations integrated into the foundation of their collective unconscious. The subject of this study is the archetypal representations in the linguistic consciousness of Kabardians and Balkars, represented in proverbs, phraseological units, and literary texts. This study examines the system of values and worldviews that shape the identity of the Kabardian and Balkar peoples, embodied in the archetypes of “Tau Adet” (Balkarian) (“Mountain Custom”) and “Adyghe Khabze” (Kabarian) (“Adyghe Customs"). The study identified key archetypes relevant to Kabardian and Balkarian culture. Particular attention is paid to the Khabze archetype (Kabardin) and the Highlander archetype (Balkarian). Specifically, it is noted that Khabze is a crucial cognitive component of the Kabardian people’s linguistic landscape, regulating ethical norms, moral values, customs, and rituals. It is emphasized that the Khabze archetype encompasses a variety of images (Mother, Warrior (Hero), Elder, Guest, Sage, etc.), which affirm the unique characteristics and preferences of the Kabardian people. It is emphasized that the transformation of archetypal representations of Khabze in modern consciousness and the desemantization of ethnocultural meaning influence the development trends of the cultural space. An analysis of linguistic representations of the Highlander archetype suggests that it is a powerful symbol synthesizing the historical experience, ethnocultural, and moral principles of the Balkar people. The archetypal synchronicity of the concepts of Namys (honor and dignity), Konak (guest), Söz (faithfulness to a promise), Mountain, and Stone with the Highlander archetype is actualized. It is revealed that the Kabardian and Balkarian archetypes examined possess a rich reservoir of cultural knowledge, traditions, and ideas, embodying a cultural code that shapes the worldview and behavior of representatives of the titular peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria. It is shown that an emphasis on archetypes enables speakers of language and culture not only to maintain their stable and significant role in the consciousness of the ethnocultural linguistic personality but also to consider the dynamics of transformation in the modern communicative space.

The relevance of the study is driven by the need to apply the tools of analytical philosophy of language to a poetic text to reveal its hidden epistemological structure. Elena Shvarts’s poem presents a hermeneutic challenge that cannot be exhausted by traditional methods of analysis. The aim of the article is to interpret the poem through the lens of reference theory (S. Kripke), natural kinds (H. Putnam), and the indeterminacy of translation (W.V.O. Quine), as well as the concepts of “dark ecology” (T. Morton) and accelerationism (N. Land). The methodology is based on the application of analytical philosophy of language and “dark” theories to analyze the chain of metamorphoses in the poem as an indeterminacy of reference. The figure of Paul I is considered as a “rigid designator,” and the image of “tin milk” as a perverted “natural kind.” The analysis shows that the poem stages an epistemological failure where reference collapses, giving way to spectral causality. The Pavlovsk Park appears not as a site of memory but as an active “hyperobject”-agent that produces hybrid entities (duck-soldiers, river-goddess) under the influence of an impersonal, accelerationist machine of history, personified in the figure of the emperor. Shvarts’s poem proves to be an investigation of how historical trauma, functioning as a “rigid designator,” deforms reality, destroying semiosis and destabilizing the fundamental categories of nature and culture.

The problem of methodology for studying the identity of national literatures is a pressing issue in contemporary literary studies. Considering that within the framework of the individual creative type of artistic consciousness, the author becomes a key figure in the literary process, studying types of authorial consciousness in multi-level systems (the work of a single writer, a literary movement (movement), or a literary era) is significant for understanding identity. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze types of authorial consciousness in Gabdulla Tukay’s lyric poetry based on a study of the forms of subject organization. Main objectives: to define subjective forms in G. Tukay’s lyric poems (lyrical “I”, narrator, role-playing lyrics); to establish their relevance to the types of author’s consciousness (enlightenment consciousness, religious consciousness, national consciousness, etc.); to characterize the poet’s lyrical system (single-subject, multi-subject). Research materials: G. Tukay’s poems from 1905 to 1913. The study is based on the method of subjective analysis, the theoretical foundations of which were developed in the works of B.O. Korman and the scientific school he created. As a result of the study, it was established that G. Tukay’s lyrics contain various subjective forms of expressing the author’s consciousness: narrator, lyrical “I”, role-playing lyrics. The diversity of subjective forms corresponds to the diversity of types of author’s consciousness: enlightenment, religious, civic, national. Using the example of the analysis of individual poems, a connection was established between subjective forms and the author’s self-identification.

“The Canterbury Tales”, written over 600 years ago, is considered to be one of the books that changed the world, and its author, the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, is believed to be the writer who united generations. It is the “Canterbury Tales” that the emergence of English national literature is associated with. For the modern reader, Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” have not become a medieval text-monument that is exclusively kept in a literary museum. For the themes, issues, imagery, and the very aura of Chaucer’s literary work are still uplifting and have the life-affirming power of the word. The popularity of “The Canterbury Tales”is evidenced by the Russian and international rankings of the “best books”. The relevance of our research is due to the uniqueness of Chaucer's text, which has survived its era and seems to be needed these days. The purpose of the study is to identify the codes that keep «The Canterbury Tales» in today’s culture. The authors consider the concept of a cultural code and propose a definition of a cultural code. The material for the study is Geoffrey Chaucer’s «The Canterbury Tales» in modern Russian and English. The methods used are as follows: communicative text analysis, semiotic analysis, axiological analysis, hermeneutical analysis, comparative-historical analysis, and functional analysis, which allowed us to examine “The Canterbury Tales” as a system of codes: archetypal, epochal, national, and authorial; to get immersed in the semantic atmosphere of the text and identify the values of Pre-Renaissance culture in the text; to consider the value-semantic dynamics of the text; to define it as an everlasting text-dialogue. The authors conclude that «The Canterbury Tales» is a universal cultural phenomenon, a classic “text-code,” - a text with a high modeling potential. “The Canterbury Tales” have been interpreted many times not only in literature, but also in other art forms: modern theatrical performances, audio stories, musicals, films, and rap-rhythm works are based on Chaucer’s text. “The Canterbury Tales” not only absorb information about the values of the Pre-Renaissance culture, but also allow today’s reader, spectator or listener to think the modern reality over and over again and reflect on the “eternal” questions about life which makes “The Canterbury Tales” a promising text in the communicative aspect.

The anthroposophical series of literary types (homo ludens, homo faber, homo dreamer , etc.) does not include the hero homo creator (a creative person, a man of art). The study declares such a hero type and presents an analysis of his image - based on the story “The Tower of Silence” by Yavdat Ilyasov. To achieve the goal - understanding the creative personality - and solving the tasks (description of the protagonist’s reflective practices; analysis of the poetics of the protagonist’s image; the protagonist’s attitude towards dogs in general and the dog he received as a gift; disclosure of the semantics of the story’s title), based on literary studies (M.M. Bakhtin, I.R. Galperin, S.N. Zenkin, S.D. Krzhizhanovsky, Yu.M. Lotman, Yu.B. Orlitsky, Yu.K. Shcheglov), poetic techniques involved in the creation of the literary image of Omar Khayyam, a poet and scientist, are identified. Among such techniques are considered: the special optics of the hero homo creator , the focus of which models different types of ekphrasis (picturesque, ritual), intradiegetic imagery (when the characters in the painting “come to life” and become characters in the story); theatricalization in modeling situations (directing a “performance” with elements of carnivalization: treveterisation, “turncoats”, “the opposite situation”); the creation of the protagonist’s subjective point of view in the process of writing his “Book of Sorrow” (in which the protagonist analyses the fates of poets and scholars of previous eras); his relationship with his dog, presented from an evolutionary perspective (from rejection of dogs to a loyal relationship with a dog named Basar). This is the first time that the story “The Tower of Silence” has been analysed in this way. The world of Khayyam is thus enriched with new facets of the literary image of Omar Khayyam, revealed by the author.

The substantiation of the theoretical base, conducting experiments, work experience and the creation of appropriate educational resources for students and teachers are of great importance when using bilingual and multilingual learning models, translingual and transcultural practice. The analysis of scientific and methodological literature, linguacultural and linguodidactic studies indicates that when studying bilingualism and multilingualism, the process of integration and mutual enrichment of languages, a wide range of linguistic and methodological issues arise. Since this linguistic situation implies the existence of a fertile translingual and transcultural practice, we should also talk about bilingual literary texts and the practice of literary translation, simultaneous and sequential translations. All these aspects of bilingualism, multilingualism, and translingual practice can also be considered at the level of comparative linguistics and literary studies. The implementation of all these processes in the educational, research, creative and practical spheres of human activity require the need for systematic planning of bilingualism and multilingualism, starting from the preschool and school stages of education and ending with the training of specialists at all levels of higher education. The success of educational, scientific and practical activities largely depends on what kind of legislative framework, educational standards and plans, study schedules are offered for the implementation of specific curricula at different stages and levels of study, especially for the training of specialists in Azerbaijani universities in the specialties of “Foreign language Teacher (in languages),” “Translation (languages),” “Regional Studies (countries and regions).” The authors of the article, referring to the National Framework of Lifelong Learning Qualifications, touch upon the language situation in all types of educational institutions in the republic in terms of implementing a bilingual learning model, at the same time raises the problem of integration and correlation of languages of study and specialty during undergraduate studies. The analysis of curricula has shown that in most cases optimal educational standards are missing to ensure integration and correlation in the application of the language of education (which the student used to study at school) and the language of the specialty. According to the authors of the article, solving the problem creates a real opportunity for a) maintaining a reasonable parity between the language of instruction and specialization; b) covering all stages of learning the language of the specialty (specialization); c) mastering one's specialty (profession) at the required level, the ability to present it equally successfully in the state (in this case, designated as language of instruction) and in the language of the specialty (specialization); d) the availability of opportunities during the implementation of the curriculum to join student mobility programs, improve their knowledge and skills at universities in the countries of specialization, continue their studies there at the master’s and doctoral levels; e) finding work in the domestic and international labor markets, etc.