Vol 20, No 1 (45) (2025)

The article discusses the legitimacy and appropriateness of using the concept of genre sphere in modern genre studies, by analogy with other “spheres” used in many modern humanities, for example, in conceptology. The author concludes that the genre sphere objectively exists, but the use of the genre sphere as a concept in genre studies also has objective pros and cons. The paper analyzes the possible composition of the genre sphere: the totality of all speech genres/speechgenre space of a separate national culture in a given period and in dynamics; a separate intra-cultural subculture; a separate age subculture. The genre sphere does not include speech acts, tonalities, styles, strategies and tactics, types, precedent texts, as well as actual linguistic units of different types and levels. The paper focuses on the tasks of the “genre sphere theory” and the tasks of genre studies, the solution of which is facilitated by the use of the concept of the genre sphere: the ordering of ideas about the structure of communicative concepts and in their composition – speech genre, national genre sphere and national culture, genrogenic situations, anthology (encyclopedia, dictionary) of speech genres, typology of speech genres. A separate micro-study deals with the categories, scenarios, etc. of the Russian genre sphere (the significance of the concept of communication, communicative personality, greater and lesser elaboration of individual genres, intra-genre tonalities and values, such as iskrennost’ (≈‘sincerity’), spravedlivost’ (≈‘fairness’), pryamota (≈‘directness’), vezhlivost’ (≈‘politeness’), kompliment (≈‘compliment’)). The arguments “against” the use of the concept of genre sphere in genre studies include the insufficient development of the methodology of genre studies, the absence of new special methods and techniques that would be used in studying the genre sphere, as well as the fact that at the current stage of development of genre studies, this concept is perceived as largely redundant in relation to such actively and successfully developed concepts as the speech-genre picture of the modern era, speech-genre space, and near-genre space of speech.

The paper deals with everyday omens as a special speech genre within the framework of prognostic discourse. Calendar and meteorological omens to a great extent reflect recurring objective circumstances, while everyday omens record mostly random coincidences of events. From the positions of scientific and religious worldviews, everyday omens are qualified as superstitions. The function of everyday omens is to build a simple picture of the world with prescriptions and explanations of mystical nature. The discursive formula of a household omen includes the following components: 1) action, 2) consequence, 3) explanation, 4) prescription, 5) correction. The obligatory components of this genre are action and prescription, the other parts of the formula can be optional. The explanation of a household omen is often mystical in nature, as irrational explanations are well remembered. Omens are characterized by a high degree of ethno-cultural uniqueness. An omen appears as an iconic sign and later becomes an indexical sign. In new omens ancient magical attitudes of behaviour are repeated in a different manifestation. Modern interpretations of omens show that this speech genre to a great extent fulfils not so much explanatory as entertaining function.

Based on the material of a corpus of short-format statements, the semantics and axiology of passion, as well as the discursive properties of aphorism, are studied. It is established that an aphorism does not have a clear definition based on a single feature and we can only talk about “family resemblance” as the proximity of some small-format text in terms of a set of features to the ideal of an aphoristic statement. The corpus of aphorisms about passion is dominated by an axiological feature – every third statement about passion contains its assessment: most often passion is considered as a sin and vice, somewhat less often it receives a positive assessment – it is considered as spiritual wealth and a source of fruitful activity, even less often a compromise view of assessment is observed: passion is recognized beneficial, when its intensity does not go beyond the limits set by reason and will, and harmful – when it goes beyond the limits and takes possession of a person. The praxeology of passion in aphorism comes down to recommendations to subordinate passions to your will and learn to control them. Among the distinctive semantic features of passion in aphorism, one can note its omnipotence and insubordination to the will, as well as the innateness and ineradicability of passions. Among the actual distinctive features of aphorism in statements about passion, imagery clearly predominates – metaphor is present in almost every fourth aphorism, and the dominant type of metaphorical transfer here is pyro/thermometaphor: combustion and temperature fluctuations are reflected in every third metaphor of passion. Another distinctive feature of aphorism – antithesis is present in every sixth statement about passion, where passion is most often contrasted with reason. One more distinctive feature of aphorism is that paradox in statements about passion appears relatively rarely.

The article considers the category of “family resemblance” and the related category of “basic models” in the aspect of genre analysis using the example of two early works of N. M. Karamzin: the translation of S. Gesner’s idyll “Wooden Leg” and the first original story “Eugene and Julia”. The theory of “basic models” by J. Lakoff, created by the researcher for the needs of cognitive linguistics, with some reservations and modifications can be applied to the analysis of genre structures of both speech and literary genres. Using the method of dilution of form as a phenomenon and form as a structure, proposed by K. I. Belousov, by analogy, for analytical purposes, it is possible to divide the categories of genre-phenomenon (world-modeling function) and genre-structure (projection of genre phenomenon on the subject area of the text). As a result of the identification of genre substructures, the author highlights the nuclear and peripheral components necessary for the interpretation of the genre model. As the proposed method of analysis shows, under the influence of Gesner’s work and through translations of his idylls (“Wooden Leg”), several basic genre models are formed in Karamzin’s mind as a novice writer: nuclear – idyllic-bucolic, peripheral – anthemic, heroic, précieuse-gallant, gallantly fabulous – interconnected synergetic relationships and creating a multi-genre matrix that opens up unlimited possibilities for the selection and distribution of genre basic models in accordance with the original creative idea. The development and complication of the genre-style matrix occurs in Karamzin’s first original story “Eugene and Julia”, the core genre component of which becomes a sentimental lyrical basic model forming a cluster of two pastoral basic structures connected by a metonymic cognitive connection: life in a rural estate and georgics. In the architectonics of the story, the sentimental, patriarchal basic model is contrasted with a new basic model, masonic-psychological, arising on the basis of the moral and philosophical prose of the masons, in the translations of which Karamzin actively participated. It is on the basis of the masonic matrix that the sentimental psychologism of Karamzin’s prose is formed. This type of synergetic correlation of genre and style matrices becomes the main one for a number of Karamzin’s novels of 1790–1800.