200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN

Aim. To determine how syntactic devices which determine conditions of reader reflection are created and applied in the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Methodology. A special approach, based on the ideas of H. U. Gumbrecht, is applied to the satirist’s works. The proprietary analysis of the pragmatic attitude and linguistic organization of the text is reconsidered – the effect of presence, noted by H. U. Gumbrecht, becomes a key aspect. Using the fairy tales “The Nag,” “The Wild Landowner,” “The Fool,” “The Bogatyr,” and a fragment from the novel “The Golovlyov Family,” syntactic units containing temporal and local meanings, as well as rhetorical components, were selected through targeted sampling to establish their organization within the text and their relationship to the author’s needs.

Results. The factors serving for creating author-reader communication have been identified, conventionally compared to the four walls of a theater: they require a set (three walls as temporal and local components) and an invisible fourth wall. The latter is represented in the literary text by the author-narrator, who can directly address the reader, breaking it down through rhetorical statements. Based on the research, certain idio-stylistical traits of the writer can be identified: the use of temporal determinants with undefined semantics at the beginning of the fairy tales and novels, necessary to blur temporal boundaries in the reader’s mind; the description of locally limited locations of characters, which can be considered a plot-forming device; the use of rhetorical statements to potentially break (or destroy) the fourth wall; and the writer’s subtle inner psychologism.

Research implications. The results of the observations on M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s idio-style are an important addition to the study of the writer’s style. The method of analyzing the author’s text developed in this study can be applied to analysis of the works of other writers.

Aim. To examine the individual author’s interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood in the works of the satirist, to analyze their value content, to demonstrate, on the basis of the observations made, the uniqueness of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s worldview, his ideological, artistic, ethical attitudes and socio-historical views.

Methodology. The article’s methodological basis is a historical, literary, contextual, and comparative study of the concepts of child / children and childhood in the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The author also draws on C. G. Jung’s theory of archetypes.

Results. The writer’s interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood is shaped by the ideals of an educator, moralist, and social satirist. The issues connected with children and childhood are dramatic, dependent on the established principles of upbringing in society, the state of the institution of the family, and the extent of human freedom. In the image of the child, the writer distinguishes two hypostases – suffering and hope for a future triumph of social harmony. The analysis of the concepts of child / children and childhood helps to deepen understanding of the author’s aesthetic and social views, his humanistic ideals, formed on the basis of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, utopian socialism, evangelical ethnicism, and the democratic ideas of the 1840s–1980s. An analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s works written in different years shows that the writer, along with other realist artists of the second half of the 19^th century, made a worthy contribution to the artistic realization of the constants of the child / children and childhood and, thus, to the conceptual sphere of Russian classical literature.

Research implications. The results of the study can be used in studying the issues of ideals in satire, as well as those concerning the historical-philosophical, social-ethical principles of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the originality of his artistic world, as well as ideological and aesthetic convergences and repulsions in the interpretation of the concepts of child / children and childhood which can be observed in the works of S. T. Aksakov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.

Aim. To determine the role of a female image in figurative language devices: phraseological units, proverbs, and sayings, which are defined by the term paroemia.

Methodology. The subject of the study was the phraseological material, which consists of phraseological units, including phraseological expressions, catchphrases, and proverbs extracted from dictionaries of Russian phraseology, as well as dictionaries of proverbs and sayings. Such methods as observation, continuous sampling, statistical analysis, comparative analysis, as well as sociolinguistic, lexical-semantic, and historical-etymological analysis were used in both collection and analysis of the phraseological material.

Results. Sociolinguistic, lexical-semantic, and historical-etymological analysis was used to identify the reasons for using female images as lexical components, the sources of their formation, etymology, and semantics when studying lexical components in the composition of phraseological units, paroemias, and catchphrases, that are similar to well-known female names. It was found that myths, biblical legends, literary works, colloquial speech, movies, and popular television series are the main sources of female images in the lexical composition of phraseological units, as well as the origin of catchphrases. It has been noted that some female images have become common nouns with a metaphorical meaning. The semantics of phraseological units and proverbs containing female names as lexical components, as well as female names that have become catchphrases, is determined by various characteristics of women: appearance, personality traits, behavior in different situations, and their place and role in society.

Research implications. The studied phraseological units, catchphrases, and paroemias containing female onyms, which are recorded in dictionaries and reference books of the Russian language, enrich the theory of linguoculturology and sociolinguistics, and also outline the prospects for a systematic study of similar linguistic units in synchrony and diachrony in order to identify trends the formation of new words and meanings, catchphrases, idioms, and proverbs. Such linguistic units allow us to determine the role of proper names in enriching the vocabulary and phraseology of the modern Russian literary language, and they are also of great importance for lexicography.

Aim. To identify the specifics of spatial integrity violation metaphors in contemporary Russian poetry based on texts by authors from the Southern Federal District, Siberian Federal District, and new regions of the Russian Federation, with particular attention to their cognitive and axiological aspects.

Methodology. A cognitive-discursive analysis of poetic contexts containing destruction metaphors was conducted, considering regional peculiarities.

Results. The study revealed that the predominant metaphors in Southern Federal District poetry are associated with historical memory and the sacralization of sacrifice; in Siberian Federal District poetry, they are linked to ecological disasters and philosophical interpretations of chronotope; while in the new regions, they reflect current military conflicts. The dominant features of such metaphors include the anthropomorphization of space, mythopoetic allusions, and the symbolic representation of social upheavals.

Research implications. The findings expand the understanding of the role of spatial metaphors in poetic discourse and clarify their connection to cultural and historical contexts.

Aim. To provide an ethnolinguistic description of the funeral and commemoration rites of the Old Believers of Kunicha village (Moldova), to investigate the specifics of lexicographic fixation of the church and folk terminology of the ritual (pre-burial actions, the funeral day, and the cycle of commemoration).

Methodology. The study is based on field interview notes with native speakers of the idiom and cultural tradition (July – August 2022 and 2023). Methods of linguistic analysis (semantic, comparative) of dialect vocabulary and ethnographic reconstruction of ritual features were applied. The noted ethnographic lexicon was examined in its historical and dialectal aspects, drawing on information from I. I. Sreznevsky’s Dictionary (Slovar’ drevnerusskogo yazyka), as the only existing dictionary that contains data on the lexemes across the entire alphabetical list of picked vocabulary. Additionally, the vocabulary of the funeral rite in the Kunicha village was studied using extensive data from regional dialectal dictionaries.

Results. A sequential description of the archaic and strictly regulated funeral and commemoration rite is provided. This includes pre-burial actions such as confession, reading the otkhodnaya prayer (prayer for the departing soul), preparation of the body for burial (washing, dressing the deceased, preparing the shroud, placing in the coffin), and reading of the Psalter. It also covers the proceedings of a funeral day such as the removal of the body, the offering of kutia, the ritual of the last kiss, the farewell letter (or “commemorative epistle”), and the commemoration cycle (tretinki, devyatinki, the fortieth day, and godovshchinki (anniversaries)). A high degree of ritual preservation was identified, which is attributed to the cultural isolation characteristic of the Old Believer population in relation to their surrounding interethnic and interconfessional environment. It was established that most of the analyzed ritual vocabulary (e. g., bozhnitsa, gaytan, kut, mogilki, rushnik) is widely represented in the modern consolidated dialect dictionary, as well as in the dictionaries of Don, Oryol, Smolensk, and Kursk dialects, indicating its affiliation with the general Russian dialectal background.

Research implications. The research fills a gap in the study of the funeral and memorial rites of the Kunicha Old Believers, enriching the overall body of current information for dialectology and ethnolinguistics. The data obtained make a significant contribution to the study of the geography of Russian dialects, confirming the Southern Russian origin of the Kunicha Old Believers, and demonstrate the deep interconnection of language and culture in the context of the preservation of archaic forms. The practical significance of the research is related both to the development and scholarly study of ethnolinguistics and to the teaching of dialectology, lexicology, ethnography, and ethnolinguistics in higher education institutions.

Aim. To analyze lexical potential of new loanwords of various thematic groups and the influence of English language proficiency on the ability to understand meanings of loanwords.

Methodology. The research is based on a philological approach that considers connections between language, text, and an individual as a linguistic personality. A discursive analysis of linguistic facts and the results of a psycholinguistic experiment involving one hundred respondents is used.

Results. The lexical potential of borrowed words depends on the relevance of a particular topic for different social groups, differing in gender, age, lifestyle, hobbies, as well as on the level of proficiency in a foreign language among those using borrowings in speech.

Research implications. The research results can be used to analyze the lexical potential of foreign language borrowings from various thematic groups, to compile glossaries, and to improve the linguistic competence of university students through comparative analysis of their native and foreign languages.

Aim. To determine how a reason for assessment influences evaluation in A. P. Chekhov’s story “Opinions on a Hat Disaster.”

Methodology. During the study, text analysis in the aspect of the evaluation category, methods of observation, generalization, and interpretation were applied.

Results. The analysis showed that the general evaluation in the story is expressed verbally or derived from the context and depends on the reason for evaluation. The reason for evaluation is such characteristics of the subjects as their gender and social status.

Research implications. The results of the research contribute to the description of the evaluation category.

Aim. To identify the features of the functioning of environmental terms in the texts of Russian electronic media by comprehensive analysis of linguistic units.

Methodology. The analytical method of observing linguistic facts and their generalization, the method of seme analysis and component analysis, the method of differentiating meanings, and the interpretative method were used in the study.

Results. The functional specificity and semantic organization of environmental terminology in the texts of Russian electronic media have been established.

Research implications. The results of the study establish several language processes characteristic of units of this level. Firstly, it is a narrowing of the semantics of the term and the possibility of simplifying concepts within the terminological system are noted. Secondly, an increase in meaningful qualitative-characterizing (gradual) meanings is observed. Thirdly, new (ecological) lexical units appear. In the linguistic sphere, linguistic processes are taking place that reflect environmental realities – a sharp increase in environmental terms in the vocabulary, intensive penetration of special environmental vocabulary into the common language, etc. Mastering environmental vocabulary depends on the frequency of use of such words and the activity of their use in different styles of speech (mainly in the journalistic style).

Aim. Using colour descriptions of a chestnut, which function in the texts of various discourses, to describe a segment of the colour conceptual sphere of the floristic space in the Russian language.

Methodology. An analysis of functioning of colouristic descriptions of a chestnut in the texts of various discourses was carried out, which made it possible to create a comprehensive description of a segment of the colour conceptual sphere of the Russian language. At various stages of the study the following methods were used: continuous sampling, descriptive-analytical, contextual, directed associative experiment, and quantitative data processing.

Results. The composition of colour terms actualized in colour perception and visualization of a chestnut was identified (27); colour dominants were defined, as well as unique descriptions of the plant. Methods for refining the colour meaning using composites of various compositions (22) and colour chains (6) were described. Methods of expanding the spectrum of lexemes with the meaning of colour intensity, with implicit colour, with the meaning of ‘to be in bloom’, ‘to lose colour’, ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ were identified. The compatibility of colour terms with phytonym-related lexemes, spatial, somatic, visage-related, etc. was described. The functionality of chestnut descriptions was revealed, which is realized mainly in the ontological, pictorial-expressive, prototypical function, in the function of colour chronotype creating. A list of colour designations based on chestnut descriptions was compiled – 107 units, 79 of which were not previously recorded in colour terms dictionaries; the specifics of their creation and functioning were described.

Research implications. The study contributes to the description of the colour conceptual sphere of the floristic space of the Russian language.

Aim. To consider the literary relations of Ya. B. Knyazhnin and N. P. Nikolev who are the significant playwrights of the second half of the 18^th century, analyzing the possible causes and consequences of the ideological and interpersonal conflict that existed between the writers, expressed in their artistic works.

Methodology of the work is based on the use of cultural, historical and biographical approaches. The main content of the article is devoted to a comparative examination of the texts by Knyazhnin and Nikolev, that makes the study the chronology of the development of literary relations between the authors possible.

Results. The article outlines the reasons for the literary rivalry that has arisen between the authors. Among the most significant reasons is the desire of Knyazhnin to stand up for Sumarokov, who was satirized by Nikolev. For Knyazhnin, Sumarokov’s son-in-law, this could have had not only ideological, but also personal reasons. On the other hand, it is concluded that the literary polemics of the authors were peculiar to the literary process of the second half of the 18^th century and could not have been based on interpersonal conflict at all.

Research implications of the study consist in the fact that the topic of literary relations between Knyazhnin and Nikolev was never considered in a separate study before and can become the basis for further study of the peculiarities of the relationship between the authors.

Aim. To identify the narrative techniques applied in V. F. Odoevsky’s novella “The Nameless City” which make it possible to conduct an experiment with ideas in the artistic space.

Methodology. The range of philosophical and scientific ideas reflected in the novel is established, its narrative features are considered in connection with the aesthetic and ideological whole of the novel “Russian Nights.” Cultural-historical and system-structural methods were used.

Results. It was revealed that the main tool of the ideological experiment is a complex composition, each of the levels of which problematizes and reinterprets the previous one. This allows the writer to expand his criticism of Bentham’s concept to a discussion of empirical cognition problems, as well as crisis phenomena of science and society.

Research implications consist in the complex consideration of narrative techniques that organize the “artistic and journalistic” narration of V. F. Odoevsky as a special integrity.