Linguistic Dominants of Grammar and Lexis

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Introduction

The present issue of the academic “RUDN Journal OF Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics” contains three sectors, while the first one — “Functional Semantics and Corpus Linguistics” includes the works integrating similar objects and methods of studies. It should be noted that a number of articles introduced in this sector of the issue are submitted by the authors who have been already represented in the journal publications, and they continue to develop the advanced trend of the studies.

A Short Review of the Issue’s Articles

The article of the Dr Sc. in Philology G.T. Khukhuni and I.I. Valuitseva (Mytishchi, Russian Federation), Dr Sc. in Philology A.A. Osipova (Moscow, Russian Federation) “Variation in Diachronic Translation the Bible”. Translations continues a feature-length series of articles devoted to various aspects of Bible translation (see, e.g., [1—4]). In the present article, the authors pay the greatest attention to the notion of variation ipse se, and its links to translation issues which could be caused by both linguistic and non-linguistic factors, and that variation in translating the Holy Writ is still quite a relevant issue of modern linguistics.

The article of the issue, which is titled “Valuation Component of Metaphor UP vs. DOWN in German Political Cartoon” and is written by Dr Sc. in Philology G.L. Denisova (Togliatti, Russian Federation)/ a well-known researcher of the polycode texts of political cartoons [5—8] deals with the realization of “UP — DOWN” metaphor as the opposition of “GOOD — BAD” and “impossible — real (realized)”. The axiological component of the given metaphor is chosen as the main object of its analysis considering the language consciousness of the Germans.

In the article by Dr Sc. in Philology O.S. Chesnokova and Marija Radović and PhD in Philology I.B. Kotenyatkina (Moscow, Russian Federation) “Spanish South American and Brazilian Demonyms: Morphosyntactic Structure and Axiological Values” («Испанские южноамериканские и бразильские демонемы: морфосинтаксическая структура и аксиологические ценности»), there are discussed semantics and grammatical derivational specifics of the residents’ names of South American Spanish and Portuguese languages. The articles develops the authors studies of onomastic means of the variations of Romanic languages of South America [9—11].

In the work of Dr Sc. in Philology G.V. Vekshin (Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation), PhD in physics and math M.N. Gertzev (Dolgoprudny, Russian Federation), and Y.E.Loskot (Moscow, Russian Federation). “Automatic Detection of Sound Repetitions in Verse: Realising the Syllabocentric Approach in the Phonotext Program” the authors continue the analysis of the linguistic basis, algorithms and methods of the web-supplement Phonotext, which help automatically detect and visually form the report on sound composition and sound symbolic semantic division of a poetical text.

Dr Sc. in Philology L.R. Komalova, and PhD T.I. Goloshchapova (Moscow, Russian Federation) in their article “Algorithmization of Potentially Insulting Speech Acts Analysis: Messages Posted on Social Network Site” describe the Russian language texts of the Internet resource “V Kontakte” in respect to the illegal actions according the juridical formulars and notions in criminal, civil and administrative codes.

PhD in Philology M. Lacková (Zilina, Slovakia) publishing the article “Morphological Peculiarities of Lexical Units of English Origin in Contemporary Russian Slang (Dictionary and Corpus Analyses)” on the material of lexis of the slang online-dictionary and text corpus Russian Web 2011 (ruTenTen11) which is actually the sample obtained by means of the Sketch Engine search function carries out the study of morphological adaptation of English borrowings (Anglicisms) in the Russian slang.

A group of authors of Dr Sc. in Philology R.A. Al-Foadi (Baghdad, Iraq), PhD in Pedagogy V.N. Zarytovskaya (Moscow, Russian Federation), R.H. Al-Roznamachi (Baghdad, Iraq). Submit the article “Motivation of Word Formation in Russian and Arabic Languages and its Role in Achieving Translation Equivalence” and discuss the relevant linguistic issue of specifying the most significant components of the Arabic neologisms to establish standards of their formation under modern conditions of word-building activity and, besides, additionally they treat the linguistic materials in the aspect of translation and translatability.

PhD in Philology Yu.A. Filyasova (Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation), the author of the article “English Career Terms Synonymy” («Синонимия английских карьерно-ориентированных терминов») continues the series of articles on various English language resources within the LSP approach [12; 13] and tackles the issue of terminological synonymyin course of forming a lexical system of a certain definite professional sphere.

PhD in Philology O.V. Tsibizova, I.I. Galankina (Moscow, Russian Federation) publish the article “Loan Words from English in Youth Slang 2020—2021: Evidence of Description and Analysis” where they set the task to characterize new English borrowings, determine their lexical and grammatical peculiarities in comparison with previous periods of time. For the first time, the youth slang is discussed in the angle of globalization processes. The study has carried out the analysis of Internet-publications and dictionary data, it has published the results of informants questioning; and has given diachronic comparison which the authors commented upon as the growth in number of English borrowings (Anglicisms) as to the 2010s; they also noted the appearance of a number of peculiarities in forming lexical meanings and grammaticalization of new lexical units.

In the article “Russia’s Future Metaphorical Images in the Context of Constitutional Reform of 2020 as Exemplified in French Media” PhD in Philology R.I. Zaripov (Moscow, Russian Federation) continues the series of works [14; 15] devoted to the metaphorical images of the future of Russia following the publications in foreign mass-media surces. Descriptions of metaphorical expressions of the so called ‘Russia’ and ‘the Future of Russia’ target-spheres demonstrate that the Western political elite using French mass-media creates the pejorative image of Russia as a non-democratic country deprived of the future and doomed to extinction. The proposed study of “Russia’s Future Metaphorical Images in the Context of Constitutional Reform of 2020 as Exemplified in French Media” acquires particular relevance under the conditions of growing geopolitical confrontation and informational and psychological wars.

The article “Numeral System in Various Fula Lects” by PhD in Philology M.A. Kosogorova (Moscow, Russian Federation) studies the system of numerals in the disperse fula language. Special attention is paid to the classifications lacking numerals into somatic, commercial and mixed ones as this sphere of numerals in the fula language has never been studied before but undergoes widespread contacts.

In the article of PhD in Sociology E.A. Naumova and P.I. Ananchenkova (Moscow, Russian Federation) “Social Aspect of Socio-Political Changes in Japan and their Reflection in the Neologisms of Japanese” the authors study several social aspects of the influence of the social and political changes in Japan in 2010—2020 and their impact on the development of neologisms in the Japanese language.

The second sector of the issue “Discourse Practices and Text Analysis” starts with the article “’Ethical Evaluation’ as a Tactics of Delegitimization Strategy in the Pre-election Discourse” by Dr Sc. in Philology A.V. Kameneva and PhD in Philology N.V. Rabkina (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). The authors continue studying political discourse [16; 17] and introduce the description of linguistic means to objectivize the tactics of delegitimization s on the case of Joe Biden’s speeches in course of the 2020 pre-election campaign

Dr Sc. in Philology L.N. Lunkova and PhD student Ju.I. Frolova (Kolomna, Russian Federation) submit the article “Lexical-and-Grammatical Mea ns of Expressing Oppositivity in an English Literary Text” which treats the study of the structure of spatial, logic and grammar oppositions by clearly delimiting the notions of opposition and oppositivity.

The publication by PhD in Philology M.V. Larionova (Moscow, Russian Federation) and PhD in Philology A.V. Demkina (Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic) “Hashtag as a Linguocognitive Unit of Spanish Political Discourse” describes the results of the analysis of Spanish political discourse peculiarities on the materials of the Spain’s governments, ministries and administrations Internet-publications devoted to the counteraction against Covid-19 infection. The article continues the series of works by the authors concerning political discourse [18; 19]. They stress the relevance of the study and demonstrate the hashtag understanding and interpretation as a discourse unit treated in the theoretical linguistics, discourse theory, cognitive studies and pragmatic linguistics. At the same time, they precise the hashtag status as an independent discourse category due to the volume of its cognitive and pragmatic linguistic characteristics. The article concludes that according to the functional criterion, the taxonomic classification of hashtags involves hashtags-prototypes of situations or events, hashtags-concepts, hashtags-metaphors, hashtags-imperatives and hashtags-performatives.

In the article by PhD in Philology M.A. Gladko (Minsk, Republic of Belarus) “Tools of Creating Emotional Climate in Knowledge-Based TV Space”, the study is carried out on the materials of TV programs of various genres and thematic groups. It was revealed that text representatives of constructive-instructive genres of relaxation and hedonistic thematic construct the zone of impressions, pleasure, while the accents of informative texts describing the ways of behavior in the situations connected with danger or hazard are oriented at the regulation of moods and emotions of the media auditorium and are constructed on the basis of emotional-emotive modality loosening the spectator’s emotions from negative to positive ones. There are described triggers producing both positive and negative emotions and the tools to activate those in texts (the image of the author and the image of the addressee: genres of everyday communication of friendly and unofficial register; linguistic means).

The work by PhD in Pedagogy L.L. Kleshchenko (Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation) “Russian bear” in the Spanish-language Media Discourse” speaks on the role of metaphor with a Russian lexical unit медведь (lit. ‘a bear’) as an unofficial symbol of Russia projected on the Latin America political discourse. The specifics to use ‘bear’-metaphor in Latin America is mainly determined by political orientation: the leftists traditionally used to treat Russia as an ally appealing to such senses of the ‘bear’-metaphor as strength, justice, the ability to protect from an agressors; the rightists attract the ‘bear’-metaphor to mark the leftists’ politicians as the traitors of national interests.

The third sector of the journal’s issue “theory, history and methodology of linguistics. Semiotics and Linguocultural Studies” begins with the article by Dr Sc. in Philology V.A. Maslova (Vitebsk, Republic of Belarus) “Through the Synergetic Union of Linguistics and Other Sciences — to New Challenges and Directions” which represents new facets of linguistic studies noted with interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and integrative character. One can consider the following aspects as the results of the analysis proposed, which can amalgamate objective linguistic analysis and the degree of its development in semiotics, theology, and psychology, namely: 1) deep semantic and pragmatic processes; 2) language as the means to express the Devine Truth; 3) language and national character.

In the article of Dr Sc. in Philology T.V. Markelova and Dr Sc. in Philology M.L. Novikova (Moscow, Russian Federation) “‘Health — Disease’ Conceptual Sphere: Cultural Code” the authors treat the concepts HEALTH and DISEASE using a number of corpus study tools of linguistic data, which allowed to obtain their imagery and value (value and antivalue) characteristics. The article is especially relevant and attracting attention in the present day social conditions.

The article of Dr Sc. in Philosophy K.D. Skripnik (Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation) “The History of Semiotic Ideas: Lady Victoria Welby’s Significs” characterizes the basic ideas of significs, its connection with the evolutionary ideas, revealing themselves in linguistics and natural sciences, and at that, following the process of forming significs as a branch of scientific studies. The fact is that the basis of significs lay in various examples of language use undertaken by Lady Welby at the early stages of research. The author applies the comparative analysis of V. Welby’s works and the philosophical commentary of those.

In the article by Dr Sc. in Philology O.V. Lukin (Yaroslavl, Russian Federation) “J. Baudouin de Courtenay, A. Schleicher and “Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen” the author speaks about the collaboration of J. Baudouin de Courtenay (13.03.1845—3.11.1929) with the journal of «Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen» organized by A. Schleicher and A. Kuhn. The article enumerates the publications of J. Baudouin de Courtenay in the journal and A. Schleicher’s articles published in the first issue of the journal as well as the names of the scholars who played a significant role in the development and existence of the journal itself and the academic life of both linguists.

The publication of PhD in Pedagogy N.E. Yakimenko and a young Chinese scholar Qiu Xueying (Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation) “The Structure of the Dictionary Entry of the Educational Linguoculturological Dictionary of Russian Paremias Against the Backdrop of Chinese Language Equivalents: Description Problems” is devoted to the description of structural and content specifics of a dictionary entry of the Educational Linguoculturological Dictionary. Ther are studied the paremias of both Russian and Chinese languages concerning the notions of business, work, labor and trade; there are singled out and described general and nationally specific mental orientations of culture and their representation in the educational linguocultural dictionary. The analysis of the data is also aimed at semantics lacuna of the objective sphere which is the dictionaries priority.

The last sector is finalized with the article by Dr Sc. in Philology O.I. Valentinova, Dr Sc. in Philology V.N. Denisenko and PhD in Philology M.A. Rybakov (Moscow, Russian Federation) “Topical Trends of Modern Linguistics with the Positions of the Systemic Approach. Some Thoughts on the Results of a Scientific Internship at RUDN University “General and Specialized Methodology of Philological Science”, 2019” devoted to the discussion of issues typical of modern scientific paradigm topics from the angle of systemic linguistics and the application of systemic methodology on the whole.

About the authors

Nataliya V. Novospasskaya

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)

Author for correspondence.
Email: novospasskaya-nv@rudn.ru

PhD in Philology, Associate-Professor of the General and Russian Linguistics Department, Philological faculty, Deputy-Editor-In-Chief of the Editorial Team of RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics

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

Olesya V. Lazareva

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)

Email: lazareva-ov@rudn.ru

PhD in Philology, Associate-Professor of the General and Russian Linguistics Department, Philological faculty, Executive Secretary of the Editorial Team of RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics

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

References