The concept of creating a nationally oriented linguistic and country studies educational dictionary for Vietnamese citizens

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Introduction

Currently, there is an obvious need to develop the theory of linguistic country studies learner’s lexicography in relation to the needs of teaching Russian as a foreign language outside the language environment, in particular in the universities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. One of the solutions to this problem is the concept of a nationally oriented linguistic and country studies learner’s dictionary (NOLCSLD) for Vietnamese non-philologist students, which is being developed by the authors of this article. The indicated preference of the addressee is conditioned, on the one hand, by the number of Russian as foreign language teachers, which is quite adequate for the needs of the country, and, on the other hand, by the deficit of non-philological specialists in the field of economics, industry, law, etc. with an appropriate level of Russian language skills. They will have to interact with Russian specialists both in professional and everyday communication — primarily in Vietnam. We emphasize that in this case the Russian-speaking specialist, “native speaker” is not opposed to the bilingual “non-native speaker” in terms of their speech skills and abilities but acts as an equal. This is an important point, which is mentioned, for example, in the works of foreign scholars (Holliday, 2006: 385).

So, the aim of the research is theoretical, methodological and experimental substantiation of the concept of a NOLCSLD for Vietnamese citizens studying Russian outside the natural language environment as an active dictionary, which includes culturally marked linguistic and speech material in the form of a set of precedent units widely used by the representatives of the Russian linguistic culture in everyday communication among themselves and performing a password function.

We should note that in the macroand microstructure of the future dictionary within the framework of the general scientific concept, the fundamental role is given to the component analysis of lexical meaning, which is based on the semantics substantiated by researchers (Gudkov, 1998; 2003); (Boguslavskaya et al., 2022) and on the linguistic-cognitive, contrastive basis. At the same time, the present article deals with a dictionary of the so-called active type, setting tasks confirmed by the works of other researchers (Rosch, 1975; Apresyan, 2002; Dubichinskij, 2009) and primarily related not so much to understanding the meaning of a lexical unit during perception (semasiological aspect) as to its adequate use in real speech (onomasiological aspect) during speech production. The main differences of the future Dictionary from existing linguistic and country studies dictionaries (Russia. Big Linguistic-country Dictionary, 2009) are the consideration of the specifics of the addressee’s native culture and the maximum possible use of not only linguistic, but also speech material, samples of statements in certain situations of communication. Here we consider the most important principle of teaching a foreign language, including Russian as a foreign language, where the ultimate goal of teaching a foreigner is not the formed skills and abilities in all types of speech activity, but the developed ability to adequate (effective) speech communication with a native speaker of the language and culture, based on the above-mentioned skills and abilities (Galskova, Gez, 2006). This ability is called “cross-cultural competence” in linguodidactics (Azimov, Shchukin, 2008: 134), which, from the point of view of the proposed concept, in addition to the ability to correctly understand and interpret the facts of a foreign linguistic culture, based on the system of values and assessments in both their own and foreign cultures, as a kind of “soft skills” (Martinez et al, 2021), includes the ability to make the interlocutor feel at ease by using a precedent text as a linguistic-cultural phenomenon.

The necessity to include precedent units into NOLCSD is justified by V.V. Krasnykh, who considers precedent phenomena as an integral part in the cognitive base of the speakers of a particular language and culture (Krasnykh, 2002); N.V. Petrova, who points out the encyclopaedic value of precedent units (Petrova, 2011), E.N. Bryzgalova and I.E. Ivanova, who emphasize that precedence can be and does become an author’s strategy, for example, in journalism, from where many usual expressions penetrate into the modern speech of a native speaker (Bryzgalova, Ivanova, 2019); E.A. Nakhimova, who emphasizes the importance of the common life experience of communicants, reflected in precedent names (Nakhimova, 2007); works by G.V. Denisova, devoted to the common life experience of communicants, reflected in precedent names (Nakhimova, 2007); G.V. Denisova, who considers precedence from the point of view of intertextual relations in translation, which is really important for nationally oriented lexicographic studies (Denisova, 2003). Theoretically significant for our research are the scientific works of Yu. Karaulov with his theory of linguistic personality, which is a the “foundation” of the precedence, as well as a kind of “cornerstone” of nationally oriented linguistic and country studies lexicography (Karaulov, 2019); our foreign colleagues: Liu Qiqi (China), who draws attention to the role of precedence in the discourse of Internet communication in Chinese and emphasizes the significance of the semantic aspect of precedence as a linguistic-cultural phenomenon (Liu Qiqi, 2023); British researcher P.К. Tompkins, who studies mass communication through the phenomenon of identity, which seems relevant to us, since precedent phenomena can be considered as markers of cultural identity (Tompkins, 1982); the American researcher M. Turner and the French researcher G. Fauconnier, who study metaphor in the linguistic-cognitive aspect with the conceptual projection onto mental spaces, spaces of internal representation, where we see internal images — events, values, symbols, concepts — everything that represents our identity (Turner & Fauconnier, 1995); the German cognitive linguist Jörg Zinken, whose cognitive focus is on the problems of intertextuality related to the problems of precedence from the point of view of his proposed research paradigm language-culture-thought (Zinken, 2003).

Considering precedence as a component of the cognitive base of native speakers and the corresponding culture and characterizing its role in communication, we deal with the identifying, password function of language, which is a kind of tool for solving a specific communicative task — to promote the effectiveness of communication between representatives of the same and different ethnic communities, mastering a different linguistic picture of the world and a new cultural code. At the same time, in the context of our research, it is necessary to describe not only and not so much the password function of the language and its connection with the phenomenon of precedence, but the fact that this connection, according to Russian and foreign scholars (Gudkov, 1998; 2003; Zemskaya, 1996; Yildiz, 2013; Lakoff & Johnson, 2023), etc., is an inherent property of speech generating communicative practices. Thus, D.B. Gudkov draws attention to the fact that the linguistic-cultural space can be considered as a kind of culture reflection in the human consciousness, so we can talk about the existence of a certain “cognitive base” (Gudkov, 1998; 2003), the constituent part of which are precedent phenomena that actively participate in the process of realizing speech-generating intentions. Referring to the characteristic features of modern communicative practices, E.A. Zemskaya writes about quotation as a kind of precedence (Zemskaya, 1996), which, in addition to speech-generating function, performs a password, identifying function. We are interested in the point of view of the Turkish researcher Yasmin Yildiz, who warns against excessive conservation of native culture and language under the conditions of multiculturalism caused by globalization (Yildiz, 2013). The researcher’s ideas show the origins of intertextuality closely related to precedence in the context of the modern stage of world science development. Finally, studies by American scholars George Lakoff and Morris Johnson, including their monograph “Metaphors We Live By” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2023), which explores the peculiarities of a linguocultural community experience with the reference to conceptual metaphor as one of the basic mental operations and a kind of “building material” of the precedence with its password function, are very significant for the concept of NOLCSD we are developing.

Methods and materials

The present study uses the empirical method of survey, in its pilot version, as well as general scientific methods of generalization, systematization, structuring, descriptive and comparative methods. The material includes proverbs, sayings, winged expressions, quotations from literary works (prose and poetry), movies and cartoons in the amount of 655 units which were collected during the experiment.

The survey took place in Pushkin State Russian Language Institute.

The purpose of the survey was to substantiate the expediency of including precedent units in the vocabulary. The hypothesis of the survey was as follows: the long-term memory of any representative of linguistic culture contains a certain number of culturally marked precedent units actualized in everyday communication.

The methodology of the experiment includes the following stages:

a) groups of respondents were formed;

b) the groups got the task;

c) the quantitative and qualitative indicators were established.

The respondents were 60 2nd–4th year students of the Philological Faculty of the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute; and 15 teachers. The total number of respondents was 75 people.

The course of the experiment:

1) distribution into groups: a) students and b) teachers;

2) task formulation: within 30 minutes to recall and indicate at least 10 culturally labelled precedent units used in everyday communication;

3) task completion.

Results

The total number of units received from respondents according to the task amounted to 655, approximately 52% are characterized by different degrees of repetition in both groups.

Out of the total number of units received from respondents 82 units are not lower in frequency than the control figure — 50%’.

The majority were precedent units from the group “proverbs, sayings, winged expressions” and the group “precedent units from movies, cartoons, advertisements”.

The students preferred (85%) precedent units from movies, cartoons, advertisements, for example:

1. Kakaja gadost' jeta Vasha zalivnaja ryba! ‘How disgusting is your jellied fish!’ — 70,1%.
2. Ja trebuju prodolzhenija banketa! ‘I demand the banquet continue’ — 69,3%.
3. A Vy, sluchajno, ne Susaninym rabotaete? ‘Do you, by any chance, work as Susanin?’ — 64,2%.
4. Studentka, komsomolka i prosto krasavica! ‘She is a student, a Komsomol member, and she is simply beautiful!’ — 63%.
5. Ochen’ prijatno, tsar'! ‘Pleased to meet you. I am tsar’ — 62,7%.
6. Ljudk, a Ljudk… ‘Ludk, hey, Ludk...’ — 54%.
7. Nu, zajac, pogodi! ‘Well, hare, wait!’ — 75,1%.
8. Rebyata, davajte zhit’ druzhno! ‘Guys, let’s not fight!’ — 70,3%.
9. Muzhchina v samom rascvete sil ‘Man in the very strength of his life’ — 56%.
10. V kazhdom est’ chto-to russkoe ‘There is something Russian in everyone’ — 66,4%.
11. Rossiya — shhedraya dusha ‘Russia has a generous soul’ — 62%.
12. Khorosho imet’ domik v derevne ‘It is good to have a house in the country’ — 60,5 %, etc.

The teachers preferred — 81% — precedent units in the form of proverbs, sayings, winged words, and expressions, for example:

1. V Tulu so svoim samovarom ne ezdyat — 75,7% — ‘one shouldn’t bring coals to Newcastle’.
2. Vzyalsya za guzh, ne govori, chto ne dyuzh — 63,6% — ‘don’t start what you can’t finish’.
3. Volkov boyat’sya — v les ne khodit — 57,8% — ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’.
4. Nazvalsya gruzdem, polezaj v kuzov — 53,3% — ‘Walk the walk and talk the talk’.
5. Ne vsyakoe lyko v stroke — 52% — ‘An inch breaks no squares’.
6. Ne vsyo kotu Maslenitsa — 61,2% — ‘Into every life a little rain must fall’.
7. Kisejnaya baryshnya — 65,3% — ‘milk-and-water girl’.
8. Medvezh’ya usluga — 58,2% — ‘more harm than good’.
9. Uchit’sya, uchit’sya, uchit’sya — 55% — ‘You should study, study, study’.
10. Gotov’ sani letom, a telegu zimoj — 53,4% — ‘Prepare the sledge in summer and the cart in winter’.
11. Kashu maslom ne isportish’ — 52,1% — ‘never too much of good thing’.
12. Chem dal’she v les, tem bol’she drov — 51,6% — ‘as the days grow longer, the storms are stronger’, etc.

Discussion

Since we are talking about the scientific concept of a future NOLCSLD, we must theoretically justify for our research, first of all, from the point of view of cultural linguistics.

An individual during his socialization lives in the space of a particular linguistic culture. Under its influence certain standards of consciousness are formed, and they correlate with nominative structures (words). Linguistic-cultural consciousness is a certain set of images reflecting the surrounding reality, inseparably connected with background knowledge and, as noted above, verbalized, including in precedent units. Being nationally determined, linguistic-cultural space contains, according to D.B. Gudkov (Gudkov, 2003), structural elements of individual cognitive consciousness, conditioned by age, profession, gender, and other peculiarities. This, in accordance with the dialectical relationship between the singular and the universal, allows us to speak of it as a collective cognitive consciousness.

Precedent phenomena are structures contained in a condensed form in the ideas about reality and stored in the individual’s memory, they are ready for reproduction: in our experiment, these are aphorisms and, so to speak, “candidates” for aphorisms — quotations from movies and cartoons. Their reproducibility is significant for the theory and practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language, as they contribute to the justified and purposeful selection of teaching material.

The set of cognitive structures commensurate with the precedent phenomena is represented by both linguistic structures related to the knowledge of verbal forms and structures related to the knowledge of the subject-event background. This was confirmed in our pilot experiment. The precedent phrase “A Vy, sluchajno, ne Susaninym rabotaete? ‘Do you, by any chance, work as Susanin?’” from the popular feature film “I’m walking around Moscow” (1963) was used as having cultural marking by 64.2% of the respondents. At the same time, the linguistic structures manifest themselves when a precedent phenomenon is actualized. So, we can suppose that the systematization of subject-event background structures depend on the particular foreign linguistic culture, if we are talking about the formation of a “secondary linguistic personality”. The latter, according to N.D. Galskova, can be characterized as a person capable of intercultural communication (Galskova & Gez, 2006) and possessing the competences for adequate communication, including the ability to make the interlocutor feel at ease by implementing the so-called “password function” of language.

The password, identifying function of language establishes that the partner belongs to the same group — social, age and, which interests us most, linguistic-cultural — as the speaker. According to V.I. Karasik (Karasik, 2001), any kind of communication, including intercultural communication, takes place, thanks to the opposition “one’s own — another’s”. Accordingly, the chosen communication means help to overcome this opposition for a successful communicative act.

In our article, we speak not only and not so much about the password function, but about its connection with the phenomenon of precedence, an inherent property of communication. In this case, the connection between “nominativity” and vocabulary, “password” and precedence is noteworthy. This, in turn, allows us to consider that any existing precedent unit represents a kind of “key” to the information which is culturally significant for communication. The above-mentioned facts, the path from form to content, are connected to the semasiological aspect of the problem we are investigating. The onomasiological, the most relevant aspect, directs the vector of research interest towards the active use of precedent phenomena by foreign speakers — from content to form.

Since the present study develops the scientific concept of NOLCSLD, the authors consider such aspects of precedence as linguocognitive and linguopragmatic from the point of view of linguodidactics.

There is a need to take into consideration speech-cognitive, discursive tactics of interaction between representatives of any linguistic cultures. Developing this topic, we note that, precedence being related to the concept of “linguistic personality” (Karaulov, 2019), acquires special significance if we talk about linguocognitive science in the broad sense (Mamontov, 2019), emphasizing its applied aspects.

At the same time, certain controversial issues — the lack of terminological unity, the absence of the idea about the quantitative and qualitative composition of precedent units, the absence of a generally accepted system of including these units in the educational process — can make it difficult for representatives of foreign linguistic cultures to master these units.

The material we are interested in is a set of both verbal and non-verbal phenomena, in particular, excerpts and titles of literary, artistic, and cinematographic works, examples of aphorisms, as well as examples of gestures, etc., classified as “logoepistemas”, “textual reminiscence”, “precedent phenomena” and so on.

The above-mentioned units are “translators” of the semantic content of the statement. At the same time, they are limited by the basic condition — the commonality of the cultural experience of the communicative act participants. This is mentioned by different researchers, for example (Kunnikova, 2022). In other words, there is a kind of conditionality of access to semantic information even within one linguistic cultural community due to different semiotic profiles of communicators. This is particularly evident when it comes to learning a foreign language, including the Russian language, as a means of intercultural communication. This raises the question of the selection criteria and presentation of the teaching material, a question to be resolved by a joint Russian-Vietnamese team of NOLCSD concept developers in accordance with the plan approved by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Representatives of foreign linguistic cultures face significant difficulties in understanding the meaning of an utterance due to the discrepancy in the content of background knowledge of the corresponding cognitive base. That is why the purposeful, systematic mastering of the teaching material related to the phenomenon of precedence can provide foreign speakers with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge for adequate communication with native speakers of the Russian language and culture. It should be emphasized that when speaking about the term “precedence” in the context of teaching Russian as a foreign language, we mean, first, the so-called “precedent phenomena”.

At the same time, some researchers (Ruzhitsky & Elistratov, 2023) tend to identify precedent text and cultural memory, seeing the latter as a special precedent text. The latter has no linguistic-methodological value for us, but it deserves attention in theoretical and methodological terms. The effectiveness of the precedent text in a linguocultural community is in direct proportion to the degree of its popularity and significance. At the same time, some researchers, for example, E.A. Nakhimova and E.A. Zemskaya (Nakhimova, 2007; Zemskaya, 1996) emphasize the importance of the commonality of communicants’ life experience, inextricably linked to what we call ethnic consciousness (Boguslavskaya et al., 2022).

As for Russian as a foreign language, or more precisely, such a means of teaching Russian as a foreign language as NOLCSD, it uses the same sources: however, the criteria for selecting units are somewhat different, which will be shown below.

Systematic, purposeful study of precedent phenomena — the idea expressed in the works of specialists in teaching Russian as a foreign language out of the natural language environment (Bykova et al., 2015) — in practice allows foreign-language learners to master the general knowledge necessary for effective communication in Russian. Thus, the key task is the definition of selection criteria and the very procedure of selecting precedent units.

The first obligatory criterion is the national-cultural labelling.

The second obligatory criterion is the frequency of the precedent unit in the speech of native speakers of the Russian language and culture.

The third (optional) criterion is the correlation of the precedent unit with the corresponding lexeme: for example, the linguocultureme “wolf”, in Vietnamese chó sói — “predatory dog”, is included in the structure of the frequent precedent phrases, for example: “To fear wolves is not to go into the forest”, “A job is not a wolf — it will not run into the forest”, etc.

These criteria seem quite reasonable, especially if we remember that a similar approach was found in the works of our foreign colleagues (McCaughey, 2005). The microstructure of NOLCSD is not yet fully defined as well as the extent to which the native language of the future addressee is used in the dictionary definitions. The amount of background knowledge for assimilation in the Big Linguo-country Dictionary “Russia” for philological audience (Russia. Big Linguo-country Dictionary, 2009), seems to be excessive for non-philological audience for the realization of communicative and cross-cultural competence in the use of precedent units.

Conclusion

The authors of have developed the concept of NOLCSD for the current linguo-methodological work, since a dictionary is a popular teaching tool. At the same time, the development of the concept is directed towards the linguistic-cognitive problems that are attracting an increasing attention, because ethnic consciousness participates in the process of acquiring another language and foreign linguistic culture. The latter necessitates the specificity of ethnic consciousness forming the most effective teaching strategies, which meets the needs of the categorical apparatus of modern methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Among the components of the cognitive base of ethnic and public consciousness are precedent phenomena associated with background knowledge, a unique indicator of belonging to a specific linguistic culture, performing a password, communicator-identifying function. These precedents included in the education content will enable the foreign students, including Vietnamese ones, to acquire the cross-cultural competence necessary for the receptive and the active communication with representatives of Russian linguistic culture, specialists in scientific and technical, economic, tourist and other spheres.

What precedent units should be included in the nationally oriented academic lexicography were revealed in the analysis of the existing theoretical cultural, methodological approaches (linguocultural, linguocognitive, competence, communicative) and a pilot experiment. Its results will be the basis for the inclusion of precedent units in NOLCSD. At the same time, the authors contribute to the theory and practice of national-oriented learning and intercultural communication.

About the authors

Alexander S. Mamontov

Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Author for correspondence.
Email: as-mamontov2@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6703-637X
SPIN-code: 2815-4443

Doctor of Philology, Professor, Professor at Department of Russian Literature and Intercultural Communication

6 Akademika Volgina St., Moscow, 117485, Russian Federation

Vera V. Boguslavskaya

Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Email: boguslavskaya@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4118-382X
SPIN-code: 3395-8942

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Professor at the Department of Russian Literature and Intercultural Communication

6 Akademika Volgina St., Moscow, 117485, Russian Federation

Albertina G. Ratnikova

Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Email: porijoki@nextmail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3480-4798
SPIN-code: 6617-8272

teacher, Department of Russian as a Foreign Language

6 Akademika Volgina St., Moscow, 117485, Russian Federation

References