Vol 13, No 1 (2022)

Each culture has its own system of address forms, which vary not only across languages but across the varieties of the same language. This fact confirms the impact that sociocultural factors assert on the set of address forms and their functioning. The present study is focused on a sub-category of address forms, namely, terms of endearment, which are explored in American English and Syrian Arabic family discourse. The study aims to specify the set of the terms of endearment in two contexts and reveal similarities and differences in their usage related to their pragmatic meaning, im/politeness, and communicative values. It also investigates how frequently and in what contexts terms of endearment are used in the American and Syrian family circle. The dataset, which includes 312 interactions with 199 terms of endearment (87 English and 112 Arabic) were obtained from 20 hours of American drama television series, “This is us” and 25 hours of a Syrian drama television series, “Rouzana”. The data were categorized and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively implementing discourse analysis theory, politeness theory, and cultural studies. The results of our analysis have shown that the American English and Syrian Arabic terms of endearment are used as indicators of personal attitude and emotion, as well as markers of informality, closeness, and emotive politeness. They indicate that in Syrian Arabic, terms of endearment can also express respect and deference, they are more variable, expressive, and conventional which may suggest that they are a salient feature of the Arabic family discourse. The findings of the present paper add to the existing writings on forms of address and can be useful for further research in sociolinguistics, cross-cultural pragmatics, and intercultural communication.

Тhe article is devoted to the study of evaluative language in Arabic academic discourse. The analysis was carried out based on the evaluative posts published in the Arabic language in social networks related to the defense of Ph.D. dissertations and the obtaining by Arabic-speaking students of Ph.D. degrees. The focus of the research in the language of appraisal in Arabic academic settings is related to socially and traditionally determining aspects in the perception of the Ph.D. degree in Arab society. In order to identify specific features of the written language of evaluation in Arabic academic discourse, our study is built on the Appraisal theory proposed by James Martin and Peter White (2005) and focused on its sub-categories of the Appraisal theory: Affect , Appreciation , Judgment . The comparative analysis made it possible to identify both universal and specific components in the regarded ways of evaluation within the framework of academic discourse. The authors determine the lexico-grammatical methods of assessment in Arabic academic discourse, which characterize the perception and functioning of the evaluative language in the system of value coordinates of the Arab society. The novelty of the proposed research lies in the fact that at present the appeal to the Arabic academic discourse has not been sufficiently studied. In the end of the study, the authors concluded that the Appraisal theory proposed by Martin and White (2005) can be applied to the research of Arabic language of evaluation. The authors also argue that the written language of assessment in the Arabic academic discourse is directly proportional to cultural, traditional, religious factors that are reflected in the lexico-grammatical components of the assessment. Misunderstanding of these specific features of the evaluative language of the Arabic academic discourse leads to communicative failures. The authors noted the prospects for studying the evaluative language within the framework of the Arabic academic discourse could be conducted in a comparative analysis of the oral and written Arabic language of assessment, each of which has its own specific culturally determined features.

In recent years due to a significant increase in the interest of the Russian film audience to the patriotism topic and the emergence of a social demand for Patriotic cinema, there has been a significant growth in the film distribution share that affects the historical and social aspects of patriotism. The reflection of the idea of patriotism in the modern Russian film discourse has a number of specific structural and semantic features, which present an extensive representative material for linguistic and cultural studies of modern discursive practices. The purpose of this article is to identify the structural and semantic features of functional and pragmatic units of the small texts of the modern Russian film discourse (movie titles, synopses and slogans) in terms of representation of the idea of patriotism and statistical processing of the data obtained as a result of the study. The research material includes 21 Russian films released in the period 2014-2019, which are directly related to the idea of patriotism in their genre and stylistic orientation. In the course of the analysis, the authors define the concept of “patriotism” as a complex sociopsychological phenomenon characterized by a high emotional saturation of semantic and pragmatic categories of representation associated with it. This article analyses the main ways of representing the idea of patriotism in the modern Russian film discourse. The paper uses methods of semantic, pragmatic, contextual, linguoculturological and statistical analysis. The object of the analysis are the functional and pragmatic elements of the film text: movie titles, slogans and synopses. The subject is syntactic-grammatical and semantic (structural-content) features of the movie titles, slogans and synopses creation. Structural analysis of parts of speech and syntactic components of functional and pragmatic units of the film text of Russian Patriotic films allowed us to identify the relationship between the structures of movie titles, synopses and slogans of the films under consideration. A distinctive feature of the structural and content characteristics of the analyzed functional and pragmatic elements of the film text is their relationship with each other within this class of elements. The idea of patriotism in the functional and pragmatic elements of the film text of the films under consideration is conveyed by means of emotionally colored vocabulary, which encourages potential viewers to be proud of their country, the feat of its outstanding citizens, and also to feel part of a great country and syntactic features, such as the chopped narrative style and the presence of exclamation and question sentences in synopsis texts and movie slogans. The special significance in transmitting the idea of patriotism in Russian Patriotic films to the audience are played by precedent names, situations and statements aimed at activating the associative ties of a potential viewer and awakening in him a sense of pride in his Homeland.

In Kyrgyzstan, as a multinational country, the problem of language contacts has always been topical. It was related to the functional possibilities of the Russian and Kyrgyz languages and the language policy of the country. In this regard, bilingualism is an integral feature of the Kyrgyz society. The bilingualism of the ethnic Kyrgyz is associated with different levels of knowledge of the Russian language, and it also demonstrates the different nature of self-control of speakers over the languages, in which there are both conscious control of language use and spontaneous one. It has been established that the above factors have a significant influence on the nature of code-switching in the speech of bilinguals.

This paper focuses on metaphorical representation of coronavirus in medical myths on the example of the British media. To attain this goal, the descriptive metaphor theory is used for the analysis of metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus. The information about the virus transmitted by the media correlates with background knowledge of the recipient, acquires new conceptual characteristics. Our hypothesis is that metaphorical actualization of coronavirus in medical myths is represented by the descriptive metaphor, the content of which changes depending on the specifics of the spread of the virus over the country as well as the political situation in the country. The research is based on the assumption that metaphorical implications in medical myths influence the representation of the disease, which reflects not only general beliefs about this disease, but also molds the public opinion on political situation in the linguocultural society. The objective of this research is to analyze the titles and leads of the British press about coronavirus and interpret the metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus, used in medical myths. The objective of the research determined the choice of research methods: content analysis of titles and leads that contain metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus in medical myths; sampling analysis aimed at identifying and describing the functions of metaphorical models in the representation of the disease in medical myths. The notions of metalanguage such as the signification descriptor and the denotation descriptor are used to describe the functioning of metaphors. The research findings reveal that for the conceptualization of coronavirus in medical myths the following metaphorical models are used: ‘Coronavirus-military rival’, ‘Coronavirus-natural disaster’ and ‘Coronavirus-silver lining’.

The article deals with the colour maening and colour symbolics of a literary piece. Analysis of colour world in English fiction is aimed at determining the linguistic means of representing the individual writer’s idea of colour via the system of colour values. Along with it, analysis of the expression of colour sensations and their influence both on characters and on the plot development was carried out. It was shown that colour vocabulary is represented by words in their direct and figurative meanings. It was proved that language units may be represented in the form of a complex individual-authorial interpretation. Adjectives which convey or specify various colours and their shades make the main group of colour vocabulary discussed in the article. The same function may be performed by attributive phrases the semantic centre of which form names of animate/inanimate nature. Frequency of adjectives denoting colour was stated. Of special importance is the way colour names carry a special psychoemotional load. On the basis of analysis of literary pieces, it is shown that together with other psychological details colour meaning and colour symbolism perform esthetic function. Colour value can enhance a positive or negative assesment of the work of art described in a literary piece. The article presents classification of colour names based on different types of meaning: direct, metaphoric and symbolic. An attempt (based on an analysis of the color names) was made to determine the author’s idea of further development of the plot. Study of the role of light in works of art verbalised in fiction proved that light and transparent colour scheme render high spirits of the characters of literary pieces and evokes the recipient’s positive emotions.

The chronicle of the International Scientific Conference “SLAVOPHRAS-2021” is presented. The choice of the venue for the next forum of phraseologists and paremiologists-Slavists invited to discuss the topic “The World of Slavs in Phraseological and Paremiological Interpretation” is substantiated. A range of key issues to be discussed is determined. These issues include: values and assessments in the phraseological and paremiological interpretation of the world by the Slavs; history and modernity in Slavic phraseology and paremiology; general and specific in national pictures of the world, reconstructed on the basis of the phraseological and paremiological heritage of the Slavs; Slavic phraseology and paremiology in the dictionary and discourse. A brief review of the reports made at the plenary and breakout sessions of the forum is given. Attention is focused on the debatable solutions of scientific problems. The importance of holding annual Slavic conferences of phraseologists and paremiologists is emphasized.