The origins, current issues, and prospects of communicative cultural linguistics

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Introduction

Science integration is largely due to the fact that the information society poses new questions to mankind, which can no longer be solved within one scientific field.  Thus, V.A. Maslova (Maslova, 2018) believes that it is the integrativeness that makes it possible to use the knowledge obtained in different fields of science in solving the problems of emerging areas of linguistics.

N.F. Alefirenko, characterizing modern problems of linguistics, notes that it is a multidimensional science since its sections relate to other sciences. This obliges the researcher to consider language as a special human activity (Alefirenko, 2014).

Thus, cultural linguistics, digital linguistics, Internet linguistics, communicative linguistics, linguistic genderology, etc. are intensively developing today.  Few researchers agree that digital linguistics is an emerging scientific field of applied linguistics, which combines linguistic knowledge and information technology. Its areas of interest include the development of semantic translation systems, textual information processing, linguistic personality in digital space, linguistic specificity of digital texts, etc.

Cultural linguistics also emerged from interaction and interpenetration of language and culture. Cultural connotation, cultural code, linguocultureme, logoepisteme, linguistic-cultural competence are the main concepts of cultural linguistics and form its conceptual space.

I.V. Zykova notes the integrative character of cultural linguistics and integrative-differential processes in modern linguistics and culture (Zykova, 2017).

It is important that the active development of cultural linguistics provides an opportunity for its convergence and integration with other sciences. This is especially evident in the last decade, when new directions of linguistics emerged, including communicative cultural linguistics.

Communicative character permeates modern life and fills it with informational sense, specific linguistic means, national-cultural content, polyfunctionality, pragmatic orientation, and the degree of communication process effectiveness. In this regard, we can study the specifics of language, culture and communication within the framework of one direction, communicative cultural linguistics.

Professor V.V. Vorobyev first mentioned communicative cultural linguistics as a modern trend at the plenary session of the I International Linguistic-Cultural Forum “Cultural Linguistics and Communicative Reality of the XXI Century: New Challenges and New Reflection on October 19, 2023. Later, he summarized the results of his research on this topic in the first chapter of a monograph “Cultural Linguistics and Professional Communication” (Vorobyev, Zakirova, Sknarev, 2023).

The relevance of this study is in the justification of the communicative cultural linguistics as an independent scientific direction. Today, we need to describe communication in a new way to reveal its hidden possibilities. The authors determine the points of communicative cultural linguistics interaction with cultural linguistics and identify its issues and prospects. In this regard, it is important to study the specifics of communicative cultural linguistics in a logically consistent and deep manner. It is also important to address new forms of communication (Internet, advertising, etc.) to reveal their linguistic-cultural potential.

We think that that communication and language are the basic categories of culture with national-specific coloring; they reflect the connection of culture bearers with the ethnos and their identification with it. Communication is the subject of study of many sciences, but each science considers it in a special way. For example, linguistics deals with the issues of verbal communication and considers language (oral and written) to be the main communicator.

М. Bugaiski views language as a way of communication and calls communication a social phenomenon which is realized at all levels of social structure and between its elements (Bugaiski, 2010: 447).

V.A. Maslova notes the importance of the verbal form because it “reveals the ontological properties of language and text with the greatest completeness and depth; text is both the form of communication existence and its result” (Maslova, 2008: 30).

The authors regard communication as a complex and multidimensional process of interaction of various elements (the sender of information, message, coding, channels and means of communication, audience, decoding, feedback, communication barriers), which achieve a certain result. Within the framework of this phenomenon, the linguistic and cultural features of the realized communication are relevant.

We think that the effectiveness of communication depends on its means and forms. Successful communication and the ability to influence its participants without abusing their feelings and actions are largely related to verbal characteristics. Consequently, communication conveys relevant information when the sender chooses the right linguistic means, relevant for a certain linguistic culture. These means ensure the achievement of the pre-determined goal.

Interaction between language, culture and communication is especially relevant in modern science and actively studied in linguistics. This topic is especially widespread in Russian language studies. For example, the peculiarities of linguistic and communicative competence of a native Russian speaker in intercultural communication are considered (Veselovskaya, 2017); linguistic and cultural barriers of computer-mediated communication are determined (Volkova, 2007); linguistic means of verbal aggression in professional subcultures are studied (Garaeva, 2015); onomastic and linguistic-cultural characteristics of verbal trademarks are analyzed (Glukhova, 2010), business communication is described (Gur’eva, 2003); communication from a linguistic-cultural point of view is investigated (Kardanova, 2017). Linguists address the linguistic-cultural component of intercultural communication (Leontovich, 2002), study international languages in the linguistic-cultural aspect (Melnikov, 2004), analyze the national-cultural features of business language (Sapozhnikova, 2004), and describe the pragmatic features of the familiar communication (Fanakova, 2013).

J. Sun emphasizes that constructive and fruitful communication is possible if linguistic-cultural features of language and mechanisms of creating a favorable communicative space are studied (Sun, 2024).

O.I. Khalupo concludes that under modern conditions of active intercultural interaction, those aspects of communication that contribute to the successful communication of speakers of different cultures are urgent to study (Khalupo, 2016).

V.M. Shaklein, I.V. Kovtunenko consider texts of blogs as a pragmatic and linguocultural system that is generated according to its potentialities in a particular language (Shaklein, Kovtunenko, 2023: 10).

This extensive scientific interest in the relationship between language, culture and communication substantiate the formation of a new direction within cultural linguistics, communicative cultural linguistics.

The aim of the study is to develop the theoretical foundations of communicative cultural linguistics, to determine its origins, problems, and prospects.

Materials and methods

The main research methods include analytical and theoretical method, explanatory description, generalization, characteristics of entities, method of continuous sampling of linguistic means creating advertising image in Internet texts. The material was the works of foreign and Russian scientists in the field of language, culture, and communication, as well as the authors’ card index of Internet texts.

Results

Cultural linguistics is a complex and multidimensional science having an integrative character. Its further development and rapprochement with communication generated communicative cultural linguistics. The interaction of language, culture and communication is actively discussed in modern science. These works are a serious argument for the justification of communicative cultural linguistics.

Communicative cultural linguistics is a promising direction of modern research. In this field of scientific knowledge, the main directions are only being outlined, its specificity is being defined, and the terminological apparatus is being formed. Consequently, it is an emerging scientific discipline arising the gradual interest between modern linguists. Today is the time of its formation and development as an avant-garde scientific direction, uniting the study of the interaction between language, culture, and communication. The review of scientific works on this issue reveals the demand for it and its undoubted relevance.

Many researchers point out the fact that culture determines the participants of communication, their choice of appropriate language features, themes, and communicative strategies.

Cultural linguistics studies cultural knowledge in language, which is expressed in communication. This fact determines the specificity of communicative cultural linguistics with its relevant tasks: to consider the key concepts of communicative cultural linguistics; to systematically describe the qualitative nature of the unique linguistic means — linguoculturemes on the example of Russian and other linguistic cultures; to study the specificity of interpersonal communicative cultural linguistics, and cultural linguistics of mass communication on the material of one or different linguistic cultures; to determine the methods of communicative cultural linguistics.

Different communication means use language and reflect culture in different ways. For example, Internet seriously changed social life. Its development led to rather spontaneous and rapid transformation of the Russian language; this makes Internet communication a new speech formation. The life of language on the Internet comes to the fore, facilitates the search for necessary information, communication and much more, gives birth to its own traditions, determines the nature of communication, chooses appropriate linguistic means to achieve the result.

For any modern communication, a pre-set goal is important. Its realization, selected communicative means, and other significant elements of this process determine the success of this phenomenon.

Within the framework of communicative cultural linguistics, advertising as an intensively developing mass communication and as a linguistic-cultural phenomenon deserves special attention.

We prove that advertising communication expresses vivid linguistic-cultural peculiarities. The view of the world advertising process in the cultural aspect reveals certain functional-artistic styles of modern advertising, such as American, French, English, German, and Japanese styles. The advertisements in these countries reflect linguistic and cultural peculiarities and establish recognizable specific national features. Meanwhile, advertising communication in other countries are now developing, absorb much from the mentioned styles and form their own national-cultural vision of social values, ideals, appropriate linguistic means for creating the product image.

Russian advertising is an interesting synthesizing phenomenon from the point of view of cultural linguistics because it reflects the system of national values and achievements. It is an intensively developing communication, which is rapidly entering the world advertising process. It relies on the achievements of European and American advertising but retains its specificity and distinct individuality.

This indicates the undoubted relevance of communicative cultural linguistics.

Discussion

The origins of communicative cultural linguistics

Modern communicative society creates a new system of values, where interaction and interpenetration of different cultures is one of the important problems.

I.V. Privalova, studying the linguistic-cultural component of communication, pays attention to behavioral-communicative explicitness, perceptual models of ethnolinguoculture (Privalova, 2005).

The origins of communicative cultural linguistics are in line with the development of cultural linguistics as a science in general. The latter emerged in the 1990-s at the intersection of linguistics and cultural studies and has language, culture and personality in their dialog and interaction as its subject.

Let us consider some definitions of cultural linguistics.

V.A. Maslova defines cultural linguistics as the science of man, his language consciousness and culture (Maslova, 2018).

N.F. Alefirenko considers this field of knowledge as a science about the specific representation of cultural facts in language (Alefirenko, 2014).

In this regard, the concept of linguistic-cultural code remains relevant. It is significant for communicative cultural linguistics since the coding system is vividly reflected in the process of communication. The code is the selection of appropriate signs and symbols capable of adequately conveying information from the communicator to the recipient. At the stage of coding, various factors are important: the communicative competence of communication participants, their values, their readiness for communication, cross-cultural factor, gender factor. The same factors determine the success of communication at the decoding stage when the recipient correctly interprets the information through the appropriate signs and symbols prepared by the communication initiator.

Language units which express the basic categories represent the key concepts of linguistic culture. These representative linguistic-cultural communicative means include tropes, paroemias, and phraseological units.

A.S. Mamontov (Mamontov, Boguslavskaya, Ratnikova, 2024) on the material of proverbs, sayings, winged expressions, quotations from literary works, movies, and cartoons propose the idea of creating a national-oriented linguo-country studies dictionary. In their opinion, the dictionary will ensure the formation of cross-cultural competence.

T.G. Nikitina, E.I. Rogaleva, studying innovative methods of linguistic-cultural representation of Russian phraseological units in a dictionary for foreign-language learners, emphasize the linguistic-cultural potential of traditional phraseographical sources, identify the types of contextual illustrations that can increase the linguistic-cultural saturation of a traditional educational phraseological dictionary (Nikitina, Rogaleva, 2024).

From the directions of cultural linguistics to the directions  of communicative cultural linguistics

Meanwhile, cultural linguistics is a complex and ambiguous phenomenon. Researchers distinguish different directions in this science. For example, V.A. Maslova distinguishes cultural linguistics of a certain social group, ethnos in a culturally bright period; diachronic cultural linguistics; comparative cultural linguistics; linguistic-cultural lexicography; methodological aspects of cultural linguistics; regional cultural linguistics; cultural linguistics of multicultural space; experimental and synergetic cultural linguistics (Maslova, 2018).

G.V. Tokarev according to different cultural paradigms distinguishes cultural linguistics of one culture, synchronic-comparative cultural linguistics, and diachronic-comparative cultural linguistics (Tokarev, 2020).

The authors of the article distinguish communicative cultural linguistics with its different directions. By analogy with G.V. Tokarev’s classification, we recognize communicative monolingual cultural linguistics focusing on communication between representatives of one national-linguistic community and communicative cultural linguistics between different cultures considering communication between representatives of different national-linguistic communities.

We can also distinguish interpersonal communicative cultural linguistics and cultural linguistics of mass communications (Internet, television, radio, periodicals, advertising).

A special place is occupied by communicative Internet cultural linguistics, media and advertising communication studied in linguistic-cultural aspect.

There is a need to study in a linguistic-cultural aspect new forms of communication (SMS-communication, Internet-communication, marketing communication) resulting from new technologies of modern civilization within certain cultures, societies, people. The communicative function consists in transferring and exchanging of information and acts as a connecting link in the life of modern society. Information is an important element characterizing the quality of life and determining cultural and linguistic development.

Cultural linguistics of mass communications: Internet and advertising

The virtual reality is increasingly invading the inhabited space of man, determining the life realities. Internet communication becomes an actual problem for cultural linguistics.

The following issues are of interest for the science: the specificity of Internet communication, linguistic personality in virtual space, interaction of Internet communication with other discourses, and linguistic organization of Internet communication.

Linguistic-cultural specificity of modern mass communications (including the Internet) is in the center of attention of many researchers today. The review of works on this topic emphasizes this fact.

For example, G.N. Trofimova notes that the Internet plays a special role in the real life of society in general and each of its representatives in particular.  She emphasizes that it is in the Russian-language Internet that the national character of the Russian linguistic personality is vividly seen. Texts created and functioning on the Russian Internet in are Russian in all their archetypal conceptual features (Trofimova, 2004).

Every communication, including marketing communication, carries a deep meaning. Marketing communication represents a cloud of meanings understood by each representative of a particular ethnic group in a specific way.

For example, I.V. Privalova notes that the interaction and interrelation of language and culture can be traced in the modern advertising text (Privalova, 2005).

There is still no clear answer to the question of what advertising is. The existing definitions emphasize that it is a communication or marketing communication, a kind of art, information, a type of announcement, etc.

In our opinion, advertising in linguistic-cultural aspect is a model for the formation of life patterns surrounding a person. The national-cultural linguistic specificity comes to the fore showing the ideals of the nation and the level of national culture.

From the linguocultural point of view, advertising can be defined as a very special communicative and social phenomenon that embodies significant marketing information, which is anthropocentric in nature and represents the peculiarities of a particular linguoculture. Advertising communication is a set of verbal and non-verbal signs (units, symbols, linguocultures), in which a certain linguocultural stereotype is encoded and the corresponding advertising image is embodied. Here the features of the national mentality and its elements (religion, traditions, norms, etc.), cultural and linguocultural codes, which are largely determined by communicative, cross-cultural and gender factors, are important.

Russian advertising is a developing phenomenon that has not yet formed into one of the modern functional-artistic styles influemcing the global advertising process. However, it has absorbed much from the American and European advertising style, which demonstrates its synthesizing character and the desire to join Western values. It uses national symbols and reflects actual problems of Russian modernity, for example, the Year of the Family in Russia. Advertisements plots tend to use the image of a large family, and this is regulated at the state level.

Cultural linguistics of the country in the tourist Internet discourse

Today, cultural linguistics of a country, territory, or a city is also active in the linguistic consciousness and within the framework of modern mass communications. 

Images of different countries in texts of different communicative orientation are an integral part of any linguistic culture.

The image of a country is the most important way of its self-identification. For example, the image of Turkey in Internet communication demonstrates how the interaction of linguistic, cultural, and communicative features form a bright and attractive linguistic-cultural image of the country.

Tourist discourse is one of the actual directions of modern linguistic research. This problem is considered mainly in the aspect of comparing different languages to reveal the specifics of a certain linguistic culture.

Tourism business in a particular country takes into account linguistic-cultural specificity in marketing messages for tourists. Values relevant to the carriers of a certain culture are thought to largely influence the promotion of a tourist service (product), characterize the specifics of advertising communication in its various means and forms, and select linguistic means creating an advertising image.

In our opinion, online travel guides and travel blogs, which are the material of the study, are the most popular and demanded genres of tourist Internet communication. They embody the most important information about the culture of the country, its mentality. The main task of these genres is to intrigue readers with the information about the country’s culture, mentality and form a certain “catchy” advertising image in the minds of readers, which will subsequently attract them as a potential target audience.

For example, common genres of tourist Internet discourse (online travel guides) present the linguistic-cultural image of Turkey as alluring and undoubtedly deserving the attention of users. It is a paradise for tourists from all over the world, an attractive, beautiful, and original tourist region, where everyone can entertain and do what they like. There are spacious plains, sandy beaches, and clean sea waters. The soul of the country is Istanbul, which is presented in Internet communication as a magical place where everything shows unfading greatness.

The following linguistic means are used to create an advertising image of Turkey: epithets (multi-faced Istanbul; exceptional Istanbul; super energetic, ancient, and beautiful city; majestic Bosporus; colorful jols; unforgettable view; beautiful and lush mosque; wonderful monument; grandiose market (about the Grand Bazaar); luxurious Turkish resort with first-class hotels and equipped beaches (about Belek); snow-white sand on the background of turquoise sea; the most famous, marvelous, and harmonious mosque of Istanbul), metaphors (a masterpiece of grandeur and harmony (about the Aya Sofia Mosque), a house of bliss (harem), a tourist magnet (about the beaches of Antalya), the heart of old Istanbul (Sultanahmet)), comparisons (Istanbul is as multifaceted and multilayered as Napoleon’s cake; Istanbul is like a huge endless 24-hour bazaar; Istanbul stands on the two banks of the Bosporus, like a bridge between continents), phraseological units (Istanbul is confusing, to see the city “from a bird’s eye view”, to see the city as in the palm of your hand, this city has always excited the imagination).

The image of Italy in guidebooks is no less attractive. It is created with vivid epithets (unique country; enveloped by the radiant sun, washed by warm seas, protected by a dazzling succession of mountains, marvelous, ancient, eternal Italy; Lake Como with amazing landscapes, luxurious villas; the eternal city of Rome, magnificent Florence, unique Venice, and romantic Verona; emerald-blue sea of rare beauty and transparency; the finest marble sand, bizarre cliffs, bizarre caves), representative metaphors (a source of soul rest and creative inspiration; a country of magical beauty; intoxicating air of history, antiquity, and splendor; a real open-air museum; a great and sacred world ruin (about the Colosseum); a marble miracle (about Milan Cathedral), an island of sirens (about Capri)), phraseological units (wonderful recreation and entertainment for every taste; the names alone make you feel dizzy; Italy beckons to itself and excites the heart of any traveler; we just can’t even go around and see it all without melting our brains; to be baptized in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori means to draw a lucky ticket; it takes your breath away from the famous landscapes).

The image of Thailand in travel guides is also formed by various linguistic means: epithets (exotic country, divine views of Pang Nga Bay, a real tropical paradise; azure waters, snow-white beaches), metaphors (a shining jewel in the luxurious crown of sights (about the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok), a unique aura of mystery (about Maya Bay), a wonderful warm-up for the camera (Wat Sutat)), phraseological units (it will give a hundred points to any attraction (Doi Suthep-Doi Pui National Park in Chiang Mai), the Creator did his best to mold this natural masterpiece (Pang Nga Bay National Park)).

The examples show that these linguistic means are traditional for creating a linguistic-cultural image of the country. They are relevant for conveying information to real wander lusters and ordinary travellers.

The images of different countries (Turkey, Italy, Thailand) in tourist Internet discourse are largely determined by the nature of emotional-expressive-evaluative language means (epithets, metaphors, comparisons, phraseological units) chosen to convey marketing information, but neutral vocabulary prevails in the representation of the country. In online travel guides and travel blogs, important events are narrated, historical facts are conveyed, significant dates are named.  The objective narration is required here, without evaluations and figurative interpretations. In such a semantic environment, linguistic means of creating an advertising image are most effective because the consumer does not realize the manipulative influence on the formation of his/her attitude to the received information.

Conclusion

Communicative cultural linguistics, an avant-garde direction of cultural linguistics, has already taken shape and is actively developing. It is based on the interaction of language, culture, and communication. Its integrative character has predetermined the problems it faces today. For example, the issues of cultural linguistics of mass communications (Internet communication, advertising) are topical. It is also important to develop a linguistic-cultural image of a country (territory, city). That is why tourist discourse is representative in this sphere, its most widespread and popular genres being travel blogs and online travel guides.

The prospects of communicative cultural linguistics include the development of marketing cultural linguistics as its part. This science has recently been widely announced, but has not yet received proper theoretical and practical substantiation.

About the authors

Vladimir V. Vorobyev

RUDN University

Email: vorobyev_vv@pfur.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5906-3773
SPIN-code: 4432-6056
Scopus Author ID: 57197807156
ResearcherId: AAT-1847-2020

Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of Russian Language and Linguoculturology Department

6 Miklukho-Maklaya St., Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

Dmitry S. Sknarev

RUDN University

Author for correspondence.
Email: sknarev_ds@pfur.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9404-8421
SPIN-code: 4341-5566
Scopus Author ID: 57195757403
ResearcherId: G-9777-2016

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Professor of Russian Language and Linguoculturology Department

6 Miklukho-Maklaya St., Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

Mamed D. Tagaev

Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University named after Boris Yeltsin

Email: mamed_tagaev@list.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3743-4713
SPIN-code: 8544-1419
ResearcherId: KEJ-3528-2024

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Director of the Russian Language Institute named after A.O. Orusbaeva

44 Chui Avenue, Bishkek, 720022, Kyrgyz Republic

References

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