No 6 (2023)

The textbook is studied as a special form of communication between participants in the educational process, within which it is important to model the images of the teacher and the student, which is realized in texts using specific discursive means. The purpose of the article is to reveal the content of the images of participants in the educational discourse presented in textbooks on a foreign language and implemented in statements that appeal to students; determine the discursive means of their formation. The study was conducted on the material of the texts of 10 textbooks of English and Russian languages studied as foreign languages. Research methods are determined by the specifics of the educational discourse and the textbook as a complex genre included in its structure. For methodological substantiation, the concept of discursive strategy is important – as a way to implement an image, which, in turn, is comprehended as a variant of implementing a discursive role that clarifies the manifestation of a social position in a situational-personal aspect. The image of a discourse participant is a set of its features, manifested in a special discursive orientation, not going beyond the typical, given by the discourse and aimed at achieving a discursive goal. The study showed that the specific situational genre goals of a foreign language textbook, set in accordance with the type of regulated educational activity, determine the formation of three types of images of participants in the educational discourse: 1) the author prescribes the performance of the corresponding task; the student is their executor; 2) the author is the organizer, “producer” of a communicative situation of a certain type; the student is a participant in this situation, its “actor”; 3) the author is a leading participant in a communicative situation of a certain type; the student is an equal participant in this situation. Their third type differs from the previous ones in its low orientation. Within the framework of the strategic implementation of the goals under consideration, the individual-personal ideas of the compiler of the textbook about the form of interaction between the participants in the educational process determine the choice of speech means, which sets a further variation in the image of the author and the image of the student. Further variation of the images is carried out on the basis of the individual-personal intentions of the compiler of the textbook and manifests itself in aspects of their individualization.

The active cooperation of countries in various spheres of life leads to a constant demand for the translation of normative documents, including international treaties regulating the procedure for interaction of the countries. An international agreement is a legal document and refers to the official business style, the features of which are accuracy, clarity, and lack of ambiguity. A characteristic feature of the style in English is the large number of modal verbs having several meanings that sometimes cannot be expressed by modal verbs in Russian. The translator faces the difficult task of choosing translation units suitable for adequate translation of the meaning of the modal verb. The aim of the study is to determine the ways of translating modal verbs from English into Russian in legal texts through identifying the factors by which the translator can determine the meaning of a modal verb in a specific context and correlating them with the adequate variants of translation into Russian. The research is based on an international treaty between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Indonesia in the law enforcement sphere using such methods of linguistic analysis as descriptive, comparative, and quantitative. The most frequent modal verb in English treaties is shall; may is in second place; other modal verbs are found, but extremely rare. Modal verbs are translated into Russian by: a verb in the present tense; a verb “может”; a contracted form of an adjective “должен”; an adverb “необходимо”. When translating modal verbs into Russian, it is necessary to take into account many factors: the requirements of the functional style of speech; shades of the meanings of modal verbs and their function in the sentence; the context specifying the meaning of the modal verb; the norms of the translation language.

Tendency to increase the role of the mass media addressee determines the importance of communication component in the structure and methods of organization of content. The paper considers ways to implement discursive monitoring in the process of telephone interaction between subjects of radio communication (leading musical entertainment and information and analytical programs and radio listeners). One of the main ways to satisfy the demand of the mass audience for the individualized presence in the media space is the formation of interpersonal discourses in the institutional discourse of the radio. This interpersonal discourses are virtual environments in which speakers (addressees) identify themselves with participants in socio-communicative practices and realize the socio-speech need for dialogue, recreational activities and self-actualization. Based on research in the field of mass media radio communication, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics, the author examines the ways of implementing discursive monitoring, which manifest themselves at the micro level (in repetitions, lexical echoes, replicas-requests, etc.). All this characterizes the moments of semantic and communicative intersections in the process of dialogue. The nature of the subject of the analyzed programs indicates the significant role of interactive dialogues with the addressee in the radio content. This suggests that for the organization of discourse, communicative mechanisms are needed to control the speech actions of the addressees who enter into a dialogue with the moderators. The specifics of the implementation of control can be traced in the realization of discursive rules and values that are unconscious by the communicants, but explicitly pointing to the effectiveness of control from the discourse. The situational-game model of interaction is characterized by attitudes towards a cooperative dialogue and parity of the positions of the communicants. Thus, the "power of discourse" manifests itself in two parallel plans for the development of the dialogic scenario. Communication from the position of the audience unfolds in the logic of mutually directed interaction, marked by lexical roll calls, repeated questions, etc. The visible dialogic effect within the boundaries of discursive regulations can be seen as the result of the efforts of the author constructing the dialogue based on the presumption of a mass audience, its interests and expectations. Ways of coordinating the communicative plans of authors and addressees (strategies, tactics) are considered in the aspect of the formation of the value-semantic space of communication, for the implementation of which the orientation towards communicative hedonism is of great importance. This is the speech activity of communicants, which has a recreational character. As a result of such game interaction, communicants enjoy actualization in the media space. The author concludes that communicative hedonism is the axiological dominant of the radio discourse, which is important for the implementation of both entertainment and information-analytical radio. Analysis of radio dialogues suggests that communicative hedonism is the basic mechanism for implementing discursive control.

The article is devoted to the problem of teaching listening comprehension for interpreting purposes in translation-oriented foreign language training based on its specific character and related difficulties. Listening comprehension plays a vital role in consecutive interpreting as it involves listening to and analysing the content and message of the source text and accounts for a large number of difficulties that affect the process and the quality of consecutive interpreting. The aim of the present study was to identify the skills essential to listening for translation purposes which, however, pose significant challenges to trainee translators starting a senior phase of their professional training (year 3). The development and practice of these skills should be made an integral part of translation-oriented foreign language training. The participants were 3rd-year full-time translation students (29) enrolled on a 5-year translation training programme. After listening to a recording in English and reproducing it in the same language, the participants were asked to comment on the problems and difficulties they encountered; the teacher also monitored the participants’ performance during the listening and reproduction task. The data revealed (a) some specific obstacles mentioned by the participants which hampered the complete and profound understanding of the recording and (b) some deeper underlying problems identified by the teacher. Based on these observations, we identified four groups of difficulties caused by (a) the students’ approach to the perception of the text, (b) factors hindering the perception of information, (c) the topic and the characteristics of the information in the text, (d) psycholinguistic factors. However, the key problem is believed to be the students’ approach to the perception of the text, i.e., their inability to perceive a text as a complete structural and semantic unit which can cause or exacerbate other listening comprehension difficulties. To address this problem, we proposed a number of recommendations and professionally oriented learning activities which have proved effective in developing the skills required for listening comprehension for interpreting purposes. This effort can ensure continuity between language and interpreting courses and provide a solid basis for teaching consecutive interpreting.

The article deals with the difficulties associated with the spelling of geographical names. The spelling problems of writing toponyms that are available at the present stage of language development are identified, which are associated with a large number of geographical names with different structural organization, and with the influence of extralinguistic factors on the spelling of the toponym. In addition, the difficulties of applying some of the current recommendations on the spelling of toponyms are revealed. The object of the study is the distinction between continuous, hyphenated and separate spelling of toponymic units. The “Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation” recorded in the reference book are analyzed. Complete academic reference book” spelling rules that govern the spelling of a toponym; at the same time, the signs underlying the named rules and the difficulties associated with their application are revealed. Based on the results of the analysis of the linguistic content of spelling rules, an attempt is made to create a procedure for determining the choice of a continuous, hyphenated or separate design of a toponym. The proposed algorithm is based on the algorithmic course “Russian Spelling and Punctuation” by A. B. Selezneva, which is used at Volgograd State University when studying the spelling of the modern Russian language. The algorithm is divided into four parts and has a hierarchical structure, that is, the solution of the spelling task is performed from simple to complex: first of all, it is proposed to determine or exclude features that affect the spelling of a word, which, as a rule, do not cause difficulties, and then move on to identifying more complex criteria. The last stage involves working with units for which there are no clear recommendations, that is, toponyms that do not comply with the current language norms are analyzed. The content of the rules governing the choice of toponym spelling is included in the formulations of the spelling tasks of the algorithm, which involve the identification of formal elements in the structure of a geographical name, the location of the components that make up a linguistic unit, and the presence of certain word-building elements. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that in the presence of unresolved problems of spelling of toponyms associated with the specifics of geographical names and, as a result, with their codification, a clearly structured algorithm for distinguishing between continuous, hyphenated or separate spelling of geographical names is proposed.

The study of subtext information refers to important problems of modern text theory. Along with factual and conceptual information, it is important for the recipient who perceives the text to understand the subtext, which has various means of representation. The analysis of various types of subtext and the means of its explicit or indirect expression is relevant for modern linguistics, because it is connected with the problem of text interpretation. The purpose of the article is to identify the idiosyncratic specifics of the expression of subtext information in the early poems of the symbolist poet I. Annensky. The subtext in the work of the existentialist poet I. F. Annensky is insufficiently researched. Related to this is the relevance of the study of the author’s philosophical lyrics. The article used such research methods as contextual and conceptual analysis, as well as semantic-stylistic, biographical. The analysis of the poems from the first of the author’s first collection “Quiet Songs” (1904) made it possible to identify the subtext information in the author’s works and determine the means of its representation based on the theory of regularity of the communicative stylistics of the text. Some idiosyncratic features of the symbolist poet are established, reflecting the specifics of this literary direction. Various linguistic and extralinguistic regulatory means and structures have been studied as markers of subtext in I. Annensky’s poems, regulatory dominants have been identified. As the analysis showed, the linguistic means and structures include the names of the collection and poetic texts, the choice of a pseudonym by the author, the use of tropes and figures, of which the author’s individual metaphors, epithets, unusual textual syntagmatics, symbol words, the dominance of antithesis were especially significant for I. Annensky. The extralinguistic means of representing the subtext in the poet’s lyrics include the choice of genre, rhythmic-sound and frame elements of the work. Collection “Quiet songs” by I. Annensky is an excellent example of philosophical lyrics. The rich conceptual sphere of the symbolist poet includes elements of the ancient worldview and existential philosophy. The means of representation of the subtext reveal themselves in the poet’s lyrics in minimal units (italics, lexical regulatives, etc.) and large elements within the general structure of the text, actualizing concepts, chronotope, allusions.

At the turn of the XVIII–XIX centuries, history, which was traditionally considered as part of literature, art, acquires the status of science. At this time, its branches such as philosophy of history, source studies, etc. are intensively developing, a scientific methodology for studying and describing the past is being formed. Gogol’s understanding of history approaches at least two concepts established in the historical science of the first third of the XIX century: biblical historicism and universal history. The initial idea for both is the postulate about the action of Divine providence in the earthly existence of an individual and all mankind. In Gogol’s picture of the world, the idea of Fishing was established quite early and was reflected in historical journalism, letters and works of art. The Christian concept of Divine providence is also read in the artistic system of the story “Taras Bulba”, defining its chronotopic and motivic organization, the system of characters. To determine the features of Gogol’s historiosophical concept and the author’s strategies of its artistic embodiment in the story “Taras Bulba”. The research material was Gogol’s artistic and journalistic works, as well as his epistolary. The material is analyzed in religious-philosophical and historical-literary aspects. According to the results of the study, a conclusion is made about the specifics of Gogol’s historiosophical views, including the artistic historiosophy embodied in “Taras Bulba”. In the poetics of “Taras Bulba”, the idea of Divine providence can be traced not only at the conceptual level, but also in the motivic complex and chronotopic organization. The motivic complex of “Taras Bulba” includes the following semantic links: the will of God and the free will of man, the situation of choice, the search for one’s place/destiny, the fulfillment of one’s duty as a manifestation of free obedience to God, etc. The chronotope of the story is characterized by a combination of different time plans, which allows the author to show history as an integral system, pointing out the causes of events and their consequences, as well as to present the historical process and the earthly existence of man in the vector of Divine Providence. Depicting the past of Russia, Gogol focuses on the fact that the “stone fabric” of great history is woven from the “threads of biographical” private stories, that the historical process is the result of a dialogue between the free will of man and Divine providence. “Taras Bulba” is characterized by a multifaceted and mobile optics of the image, which focuses on both epochal events of national history and personal stories of individual characters, including details of the description of their inner world.

The focus of our attention is on the works of Yu. Ya. Yakovlev, which are in demand in school literary studies, have educational potential, but are insufficiently studied by literary critics. A review of articles devoted to the writer’s stories about the Great Patriotic War allows us to highlight their common features: central are the motif of memory and the technique of retrospection, providing a “link” of two time layers – the 1940s and the present (for the characters); the importance of dialogues of characters of different generations, attention to the inner world of characters. The article explores the theme of memory and the peculiarity of intergenerational dialogue in the works of Yuri Yakovlev of the 1970s, dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. The literary material (“Girls from Vasilievsky Island”, “Memory”) is interpreted based on the structural-semiotic research method. The writer uses a number artistic techniques: retrospection, the juxtaposition of two space-time planes (war and modernity), in the center – a pair of characters “child-adult” or “child-child”, the first represents the post-war generation and is the bearer of knowledge about the war or initiates the acquisition of this knowledge, and the second - having direct experience wars/blockades. Yu. Yakovlev reveals the idea of spiritual kinship, the unbreakable bond of the front-line and post-war generations. In order for the deceased to continue to live in the memory of their spiritual descendants, personal efforts, work and courage are needed to preserve knowledge about the war, loyalty to friendship. The analysis of the stories makes it clear that the writer inherits some features of the “lieutenant’s prose” (laconism of narration, attention to the inner world of the character, reliance on documentalism, a combination of lyricism, psychologism and naturalism). At the same time, there are differences due to the time of the creation of texts – the 1970s. The depiction of the events of the 1940s is mediated by the consciousness and imagination of the characters-children born after the war, which means they cannot be direct witnesses or bearers of military experience. This feature allows you to interpret the stories of Yu. Yakovlev in the context of the concept of “post-memory”, justified by M. Hirsch.

The dramaturgy of N. Sadur belongs to the complex aesthetic system, which researchers classify as various artistic movements (absurdism, avant-gardism, magical realism, and finally, postmodernism). The article examines the play by the modern Russian playwright N. Sadur “Doctor of the Garden” (2011), in which the description of the space of consciousness of the characters comes to the fore. The play, which practically does not fall into the field of view of researchers, is an interesting example of the realization of the artistic possibilities of the category of space. It is indicated that in comparison with early works, the category of space in later plays becomes more significant. The article analyzes the world-modeling possibilities of the garden topos in N. Sadur’s play “Doctor of the Garden”. The article states that the image of the garden in the play is multi-layered and is realized at different levels: cultural-symbolic, real, social, natural-biological, at the level of the characters’ consciousness space. The play is read from two points of view: as a realistic one, with a socio-psychological conflict, and as a neo-modernist one, with a conflict in the consciousness of the characters: they experience an internal conflict associated with the awareness of themselves and each other. Based on the analysis of the spatial structure of the play, it is concluded that the garden, which is both a character, a real space in which the action takes place, and a symbolic cultural topos, is a world-modeling tool for the author.