Vol 23, No 2 (2023)
Articles
The concept of (non)return in the poetry of G. Ivanov and G. Adamovich (to the 100th anniversary of emigration)
Abstract
The article deals with the reconstruction of the concept of (non)return in the lyrical poetry of G. Adamovich and G. Ivanov. The concept is considered in two ways: as an image in the space of culture and as a methodological formula for the analysis of images of the artistic consciousness. The main lexical means of representing the concept are cognate verb forms, the most frequent of which is the verb “return”. It is assumed that the core of the concept of (non)return is the topological scheme of movement, including the subject of movement, the route, the environment, the means of movement, and the assessment of the result of movement. It is shown how the basic scheme varies in the texts of the two poets. The adaptations of the basic scheme of movement differ in the conceptualization of the method and environment of movement in the texts of G. Adamovich, in manifold figurative interpretation of the starting and ending points of the path in the poetry of G. Ivanov. In the poetry of G. Ivanov, the valency of the locative with the verb to return is filled with three lexemes: to Russia, to St. Petersburg, home. The images of Russia and the home are internally antinomic. Russia unites three mental spaces of the artistic world: Russia-empire, Soviet Russia and an imaginary homeland. Figurative representations of home range from ideas of an abandoned homeland to the last refuge in eternity. For the St. Petersburg poets G. Ivanov and G. Adamovich, the idea of returning to Russia was invariably associated with the image of St. Petersburg, causing the appearance of elements of the St. Petersburg text. The space of return is the space of their shared memory. The antinomic nature of the concept is confirmed both by its lexical representations and by the ambivalence of the assessment of the idea itself and of the possibility of returning home.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):102-107
102-107
Realization of traditional images of comparative tropes with diminutive dendronyms in the Russian poetry of the 19–21st centuries
Abstract
Russian poetry of the 19–21st centuries, from the perspective of the relationship of ‘cultural-stereotypical (traditional) – author’s individual’. The analysis of 725 fragments from the Russian poetic works of the 19–21st centuries reveals the ways of word formation and the composition of diminutive dendronyms, as well as the composition of folk poetic, general poetic and individual author’s images of comparative tropes representing these diminutives as subjects of comparison: girl; love attraction, longing; to cry (tears), to grieve, to yearn; fertility; separation; bitter, unhappy fate, orphanhood; gold, silver; emerald; smoke; clothing; fire; pattern, mesh product; infantas by Velasquez, ermine coat; calico; fidelity. The reference-denotative features of the corresponding realia, motivating the choice of figurative associations are determined: a thin trunk, flexible branches, serrated, heart-shaped leaves, flowering trees, fruit trees. The techniques that help make stereotypical images of comparison in the Russian poetic language individualized are established: the inclusion in the composition of an extended anthropomorphic metaphor; updating by means of occasional epithets, lexical variation of the components of the trope. The stable semantic connotations of diminutive dendronyms are singled out: ‘shy’, ‘timid’, ‘meek’, ‘slender’, ‘tall’, ‘gentle’, ‘curls’, ‘braids’, ‘thin figure’, ‘beauty’, ‘breasts’, ‘captivate’, ‘innocence’, as well as the ways of their representation in poetic contexts: extended metaphors ‘autumnal withering of a tree – withering of female beauty’; memories of the lyrical hero about close people; parallelism of the images of a tree and a human condition; conventional epithets (weeping, bitter); features of the situation of a literary text. The results of the study allow us to improve the understanding of how comparative tropes with diminutive dendronyms develop dynamically in the Russian poetic language.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):108-114
108-114
The role of intralinguistic factors in recreating stylistic equivalents in literary translation (exemplified by American fiction)
Abstract
The paper proposes viewing intralinguistic factors inherent in the source and target languages as strictly given organized systems, being effective means in recreating the original’s various stylistic peculiarities in its translated version and in attaining its stylistic equivalence. The detailed analysis of the factual material, represented in the form of parallel textual excerpts borrowed from an American satirical novel and its published translation incorporating stylistically marked lexical units, is carried out on the basis of their resemblance erroneously established by the translator, which proved to be far from the equivalent one. The analyzed examples of translational means and transformations aimed at stylistic adequacy are grouped according to intralinguistic units, as well as a specific stylistic instrument used in the original or in the translation such as combinatorial discrepancy, pun, alliteration, lexical repetition. Apart from purely stylistic aspects, the authors also consider accompanying semantic and specific national features of the original – either erroneously understood and therefore inadequately translated or absent in the translation. All this taken as a whole, and the distortion of the stylistic coloring of the original first and foremost, cast doubt on the plausibility of the described situations and the characters’ speech characteristics, inevitably resulting in inadequate translation. In the accompanying commentaries the unsuccessful variants are opposed by the authors’ own stylistic equivalents that could have been attained with the help of the translational means and transformations based, among others, on the intralinguistic factors, showing the capacity to solve translational tasks to successfully render the stylistic peculiarities of the original.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):115-121
115-121
New suffixal verbs and the formation of new verbal derivational types in the Russian language of the 18th century
Abstract
The article deals with the problem of language neologization on the example of suffixal verbal neologisms. The author focuses on the dynamic aspect of studying the process of language neologization, in which it becomes possible to identify the dynamics of the interaction of word-formation types and their formation. Such an approach makes it possible to reveal the tendencies of the process of neologization both in a certain period of linguistic history, in the future, and in linguistic diachrony as a whole. The article considers the period of formation of the national literary language as one of the important stages of language history, since it is during this period that the language is replenished with a large number of neologisms represented by new formations and borrowings. Issues of the dynamic Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 18th century were used as the material of the study. An analysis of verbal neologisms of the 18th century made it possible to identify the most active functional-semantic fields of verbal vocabulary. A large group of new formations is made up of verbs with the general semantics of “action”, formed mainly according to the word-formation model with the suffix -i-. Most of the new verbal lexicon, characteristic of the period under study, is represented by verbs with the general semantics of “activity and behavior”, which were formed according to word-building models with suffixes -i-, -nicha- (-icha-), -stvova-. Within this verb group, word-formation variation is observed, which was due to the competition of word-formation models. One of the numerous groups of verbal vocabulary is the group of evolutive verbs, represented by both object verbs formed with the suffix -i- and subject verbs formed with the suffix -е-. It is noted that in the 18th century a new word-formation model with foreign language suffixes -ova- / -irova- / -izirova- was formed.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):122-128
122-128
The linguistic heritage of A. P. Dulzon as a source for studying the German toponymy of the Volga region
Abstract
The article deals with the detailed research of the German microtoponymy of the Volga region. The toponym source is the doctoral thesis of a famous Russian linguist A. P. Dulzon, with a special chapter, where a list of 1049 geographical names of the Volga Germans is presented. The linguistic heritage of A. P. Dulzon, which addressed the studying of the Volga region German dialects, is unjustly forgotten and partly lost due to his being exiled to Siberia in 1941, where he was the head of the scientific school of studying native peoples’ dialects and toponymy. The toponymic material collected by A. P. Dulzon has not been thoroughly studied either by the scientist himself or by the following generations of linguists. The main aim of our research, which is based on new factual material and carried out in the field of sociolinguistics, is to define some unique features common for German microtoponymy, resulting from living for many years in multi-lingual surrounding. In this article the primary attention is given not only to the semantics and structure of toponyms, but also to the influence of the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic contacts. The research is focused on contact onomastics, the dynamics of cross-cultural interference, the problem of borrowings on the toponymic level, their adaptation in the language depending on the peculiarities of the German dialects of the language islands of the Volga region. It has been proved that borrowed Russian river names, geographical names, microtoponyms, and lexical units denoting Russian realia from the cultural and general sphere, were influenced by German island toponymy and underwent major grammatical and phonetical changes, becoming part of productive word-building models: composites and analytical structures. The research shows that the phenomenon of microtoponymy is characteristic for the German microtoponymy of the Volga region, which proved, together with various extra-linguistic factors, that the Germans led a secluded life on their confined territories. A conclusion is drawn that studying the island toponymy of the Volga Germans in the sociolinguistic aspect, i.e. taking into account all the social environments in which the language of this allochtonous community functioned, can be the foundation for the interdisciplinary investigation of toponymy established by A. P. Dulzon.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):129-135
129-135
Intertextual elements as a means of creating a comic effect (based on the 17th century Russian satires)
Abstract
This study aims to determine the role of intertextual elements in creating a comic effect in the 17th century Russian satires. Two novels representing the humorous literature of the 17th century Russia serve as the material of the research: The Tale of Drunkard and The Tale of the Peasant’s Son. Medieval culture is based on Christianity with the biblical text at its core. Intertextual elements represented by biblical allusions and quotes are important elements in the plot and composition of the texts under research. The results of the analysis in terms of lexis and stylistics show that the comic effect created by intertextual elements is based on the contrast of modalities between the source and target texts, which is achieved due to the antithesis “heavenly/earthly”. Despite the fact that the texts of the Bible have different artistic modalities, the episodes of the Old and New Testaments quoted in the texts in question do not possess satirical modality per se, which results in a conflict that develops between the target and the source texts, the comic effect being driven by this conflict. On the level of the language it is reflected in lexical units with different stylistic marking being constantly used within one sentence or in adjacent sentences. Each biblical allusion or quote contains Church Slavonic lexemes, which have solemn and sublime marking. In parodies on the biblical text allusions and quotes acquire new lexical environment, in particular, the Church Slavonic vocabulary is substituted by commonplace words, which leads to the conflict of modalities, and, consequently, creates a comic effect.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):136-140
136-140
Gastronomic accounts of the Ancient Rome in the poem Dinner by V. S. Filimonov (1837)
Abstract
The article considers Dinner by V. S. Filimonov (1837) as a literary and gastronomic poem. The dishes mentioned by the poet are not only of practical use, they are incorporated into the system of literary relationships, and become a source of intertextual connections and allusions. V. S. Filimonov’s characters taste not only and not so much the dishes and drinks served; they rather taste life itself: over dinner they satisfy their hunger of long-expected meetings with true friends, have polemic conversations, relish literary novelties. The research focuses on the food culture of Ancient Rome. The poem Dinner follows the forming system of images of the Russian Italiana of the 1840s, but its thematic peculiarity allows S. V. Filimonov to show the power, the eternity of Rome from another point of view – the everyday one. Five categories, recreating the picture of the gastronomic life of the great empire, have been singled out: popular phrases and Latin expressions; culinary dishes; names and events; elements of everyday life and customs; quotes from the works of Roman authors. The object of research in this article is the first category: popular phrases and Latin expressions. A transformation of the expressions “edimus ut vivamus”, “non vivimus ut edamus”, “sub rosā”, “in vino veritas” can be traced. A probable source of the Latin expression “nubes exculenta“ for V. S. Filimonov is assumed to be the treatise of a French political leader J. A. Brillat-Savarin. By studying the culinary encyclopedia, dictionaries and cookbooks of the 18–21st centuries, an attempt is made to identify the dishes included in the notion of “nubes exculenta“ (edible clouds). The poem Dinner is compared to the original texts of the Roman authors – Natural History by Pliny the Elder, On Nature, On the Blessed Life by Seneca. The Latin sources have been translated by the author of the article.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):141-147
141-147
“To be” and “to seem”: The semantic dimension of life in the play Ivanov by A. P. Chekhov
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to consider the philosophical and social aspects of the early play by A. P. Chekhov Ivanov, to analyze the relationship between reality and illusion in the semantic dimension of the characters’ lives. We are talking about the “struggle against the struggle for existence”, mentioned by K. A. Timiryazev, about the loss of the key goal in the clash of the heroes’ hopes and the surrounding reality. The categories of “to be” and “to seem” under study play a significant role in the life of the characters. Seeming to be transcends the limits of the work. Thus, the characters talk a lot about money; however, the monetary dimension is not the leading one in the movement of the plot, it only seems to be so. Debts, promissory notes, bank accounts are talked about, but in reality the characters lack funds. In other words, money reigns, but does not rule, being only in an illusory dimension, but even there it performs an anti-Darwinian function in the moral and physical health of the characters. A special place is given to the analysis of the uncertainty of the situation and the absurdity of the behavior of the protagonist. Ivanov groans under the weight of domestic problems, but as soon as the difficulties can be eliminated, he is unable to continue living. The departure from the field of the uncertainty of existence becomes fatal for the hero. Analyzing the work, we come to the conclusion that Ivanov is not the only one rushing about being unable to find the meaning of his existence, other characters similarly do not understand what they should be and what they should appear or to be. Finding oneself turns out to be fatal for the protagonist, while all the other characters remain between being and seeming, between living for themselves and living for others. The last altruistic option is chosen by the key female characters of the play. A backward evolution, the collapse of hopes and illusions, has certain parallels with the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, A. Camus, E. N. Trubetskoy.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):148-153
148-153
“When over the field glow green...” by V. Khlebnikov: The memory of the genre vs. experiment
Abstract
The paper analyzes the poem by Velimir Khlebnikov “When over the field glow green...” (1911–1912) concerning the issue of how the sonnet genre functions in the author’s verse. This genre, present in the works by futurists and their followers, has been scarcely studied and requires serious scrutiny. The chosen text is a French type sonnet with relatively small formal deviations from the form (a change of the meter in verse six, occasional caesures in verses two, three, ten, and fourteen, the extra-pattern stress in verse ten, the absence of a recurrent rhyme in the second stanza, and misalignment of the syntax and stanza structures). All the deviations from the strict pattern of the sonnet are directly connected with the lyric story and are markers of important/critical events. The advent of the evening followed by the night in Khlebnikov’s universe is shown as spatial-temporal palimpsest, in which all the phenomena may occur both sequentially and synchronously, and the individual correlates with the universal based on the principle of “metaphoric tautology”: dawn – stars – a candle – fire. The violation of formal rules creates a structural tension; all the changes occur according to the principle of accumulating static energy, followed by a dynamic shift. However, in general, the sonnet framework is retained, and, in the final, a harmonic point dominates – the last verse is written with the strict iambic tetrameter. The logical sequence of the sonnet – thesis, thesis development, antithesis, synthesis – is retained with certain variations, whereas the sonnet’s subject does not contradict the tradition of the philosophic verse based on landscape descriptions. The death of a moth in the candle flame means reincarnation and return to the natural elements. Special emphasis is placed on the optical aspect, which presents the world to the eye as an object that is seen through, and the vision becomes super-vision, which can perceive existential truth. Generally, V. Khlebnikov follows the traditional rules of composing a sonnet, and all the deviations from the canon are connected with the artistic intention of the futurist poet.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):154-158
154-158
The history of Saratov Association of Proletarian Writers: From the period of formation to the conflict
Abstract
The peculiarity of Saratov literary process of the 1920s is determined by the facts that the local budget was insufficient to implement cultural initiatives, by slow paperwork, and by the creeping pace of accomplishing cultural initiatives. At the time in question Saratov played the role of a buffer territory, where all public figures from the capital suspected of non-conformism were sent. Thus, people noticed to be politically pro-opposition and favoring formalism, were delegated to the provincial town. It was presumed that the slow-paced life in the region will compel the critics G. Lelevich and V. P. Druzin to become more politically loyal towards the strategic direction of VAPP (All-Soviet Association of Proletarian Writers); and D. B. Ryazanov, an archiver, bibliographer, the first head of the Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels, would be distracted from his interest to Menshevism. According to tradition established in the 1920s, all the exiled (in some documents they were officially on business-trips) took part in counselling SAPP (Saratov Association of Proletarian Writers), later SARRAPP (Saratov Division of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers). The history of SAPP falls into two periods: the period of formation (1924–1927) when the former members of Proletkult became stronger and felt the power of their literary voice, and the mature one (after 1928), when the organization faced social, personal and literary conflicts, among other things related to the activity of the people exiled to Saratov. For the first time, Saratov sources are complemented by the documents from the Department of manuscripts of A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature and by personal letters from the archives of the Russian national library in order to recreate the history of SAPP. D. B. Ryazanov’s attendance of SAPP has been first established. It has been first shown that the essence of the conflict in SAPP is confined to the opposition of the groups of academics and writers.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):159-165
159-165
Reflection of the strategic narrative of confrontation in non-governmental online media
Abstract
The article deals with the problem of media displaying strategic narratives in the context of the domination of the antagonistic discourse in the relations between Russia and the West. The issue is becoming ever more urgent since the conflict component is being intensified on the global stage, which prompts the eagerness of a number of countries to impose their interpretation of what is happening as the only correct version, by means of promoting public agreement. On the example of several foreign online media the specific features of the narrative of confrontation are shown. Its structural elements are indicated, its particular properties are revealed. It is argued that the content of the constructed narrative is accusatory rhetoric, lying on the plane of foreign policy interstate relations. Several models of media representation of strategic narratives are characterized. The narrative of confrontation is revealed to have involved, besides the states and political leadership, people criticizing government, as the oppressed. It is emphasized that the main tool for constructing the narrative of confrontation is the use of discursive practices of constructing the “Other”, characterized by negative and evaluative semantics, which actualizes the image of the “alien” as an external enemy. Some topics are defined as the “framework” of the narrative in question; due to significant differences in the interpretation of events related to them, they sharpen the contradictions with the “Other” as with the discursive target. It was found that important conditions favorable to the functioning of the narrative of confrontation in the media are the elitist-official nature of the majority of news, as well as the declaration of the information war. It is concluded that the reliance on the same strategic narratives in journalistic materials acts as a factor of discursive limitation of the spectrum of evaluations of socially significant events, phenomena and processes, and the state of conflict of interpretations intensifies the antagonistic nature of the narratives broadcast in the media, activating the symbolic struggle between them for the exercise of discursive power.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):166-171
166-171
Media prank: For nobody to trust anyone
Abstract
Modern media demonstrate a distinctive feature when professional and official news agencies neighbor with amateur analytical Internet platforms. News outlets, social networks and video hosting services influence each other and create a mixed worldview. They also compete for their customer, for the likes that they would get and for the dislikes for their opponents. The subject of this paper is pranks and hoaxes in media, the description of practical jokes in the Russian political discourse from the journalistic, sociological, psychological, legal, linguistic viewpoints and locate them in the modern communication. In the course of the research the author comes to the conclusion that pranks and hoaxes in media should not be referred to as either a brand new journalism or a new type of interviewing. They are a means of provocation and social atomization. Practical jokes in media are political cloutlighting and belong to culture jamming activities. Pranksters do not provide information to society. Designed pranks and hoaxes might function as trial balloons for the third parties and as a way of influencing the audience in order to bias people against the prank victim. Humor in media pranks sidetracks people from debating about urgent issues and making the right decisions on them. As a result, practical jokes first undermine the credibility of one news outlet, and then destroy the whole system of communicating news. The habit of playing pranks on people in media inevitably leads to lowering the moral norms among those who execute pranks and those who consume them.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):172-178
172-178
Psychological challenges of freelance journalism of the digital age
Abstract
The digital age introduces fast-paced changes into all areas of our life. Technological progress has made it possible for a significant number of specialists to switch to remote work and freelancing, and the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this process. Journalists are no exception, especially since the media sphere is one of the most popular for freelancing. At the same time, entrepreneurial risks, social insecurity, as well as the distance from the professional community entail psychological challenges, which, as current research and our analysis show, not every freelance journalist is able to successfully cope with. We analyzed 200 texts from open sources describing the beginning and development of the career of freelance journalists, and also added the results of personally conducted surveys. The results indicate that the majority of the Russian freelance journalists are satisfied with freelancing. At the same time, a significant number of them need additional methods to build personal-work boundaries, and also suffer from loneliness and professional alienation. Interestingly, Western researchers note the success of freelance journalists who are far from the traditional understanding of freedom in freelancing – those who use specialized workspaces and a time management system. However, among Russian freelance journalists, as our analysis has shown, those are more successful who, perhaps due to their temperament and formed habits, simply do not consider psychological challenges, existing for other individuals, to be a problem. At the same time, the percentage of those who face psychological problems in freelancing is high enough to discuss this topic and explore possible solutions.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):179-185
179-185
Scientific legacy of Professor V. E. Goldin: About the book of the scientist’s selected works
Abstract
The review is dedicated to the book of selected works by Professor V. E. Goldin, Linguistic Consciousness. Speech Communication (Saratov, Saratov State University Publ., 2020), prepared for publication by O. Kryuchkova and A. Sdobnova. The scientific interests of V. E. Goldin were extremely broad. The list of his scientific works includes studies on the Russian dialectology, problems of the general theory of language, speech communication, speech genres, the problems of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. This variety of focuses of the scientific attention is also reflected in the book of his selected works. The book includes works by V. E. Goldin, related to the three most important areas of his scientific interests: the associative-verbal network of a native speaker, problems of speech communication, communicative and corpus dialectology. The composition of the book expresses the idea of linguistic consciousness as a deep cognitive basis of verbal communication and, accordingly, of verbal communication as a verbal embodiment of linguistic consciousness. Such an understanding of the relationship between linguistic consciousness and speech communication stems from the complexity of the scientific research by V. E. Goldin, and is the result of summing up the scientific heritage of the scientist. The publication outlines the chronology of the development of V. E. Goldin’s scientific interests – from individual spheres of speech communication to its holistic understanding and further to linguistic consciousness. Such a development of the researcher’s scientific work allowed him to gradually build up and enlarge theoretical generalizations, build them on a solid foundation of comprehensive specific empirical material. The review presents V. E. Goldin’s most significant scientific ideas: the principles of communicative dialectology; the construction, scientific and cultural significance of dialect corpora, the need for a holistic study of the Russian speech in the sum of all its social and functional varieties; the criteria for an effective cultural and language policy; problems of studying the semantics of communication; tasks of genre studies; the method of conducting associative experiments, associative dictionaries, the heuristic potential of verbal associations and associative fields.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2023;23(2):186-196
186-196