Vol 23, No 4 (2023)

The article deals with the linguistic and speech category of directness, which is dialectically connected with its opposite – the category of indirectness. Realizations of the category of directness are considered: firstly, in language vocabulary and idiomatics; secondly, in speech communication; thirdly, in a more general sense of understanding the features of the system of language and speech. Two aspects of using the concept of directness to characterize linguistic and communicative-speech phenomena are considered. On the one hand, the use of the concept of directness for this purpose is due to the semantic structure of lexemes directly / direct / directness, their direct and figurative (metaphor, metonymy) meanings, relations with opposite concepts (various depending on the meaning of “directness”). On the other hand, this is due to the character of natural human language, which also dialectically combines “directness” (of communication, communicative meanings) and “indirectness” (inaccuracy, asymmetry, etc.). In theoretical linguistics, for several centuries, these features of the nature of language have repeatedly become the object of reflection – from different points of view, in different concepts, under different names, while so far much more attention has been paid to indirectness than directness, which is shown by a review of modern linguistic literature, dedicated to the relevant features and units of linguistic and communicative speech phenomena. The article analyzes the contexts representing the semantic and pragmatic polysemy of directness in speech communication: situations that are comprehended as such in artistic dialogues (author’s speeches) (“He / she said directly” / “Say directly”); the main speech intentions of the speakers in these situations are revealed – recognition, request, consent and refusal, prediction, statement, promise.

The text explication of the key and title concept of Pavel Nilin’s novel Cruelty is considered in the article. The place of this mental formation in the linguistic and cognitive picture of the world is very important, despite the differences in the approaches of different scientists to its understanding. Cruelty is equated with aggression and violence in most social sciences (psychology, philosophy, sociology). Philological studies consider the phenomenon of cruelty as a literary motif or concept and its verbalization in the paradigm of texts which are created in different epochs. The interpretation of the concept field “Cruelty” is realized in close connection with the field “Mercy”. This connection has a significant basis in the Russian linguistic and cognitive picture of the world and is confirmed by lexicographic data. Numerous indications of the existence of the concept of “Cruelty” and direct/indirect data indicating the concept of “Mercy” are contained in the text, which has become the subject of analysis of this article. Mercy as one of the fundamental Christian moral qualities and virtues, the manifestation of love and truth is opposed to lies and betrayal, which are components of the concept sphere “Sin”, which, in turn, verbalizes the hyperconcept “Darkness”. The speech characteristics of the characters, text markers and contexts are saturated with lexical components that verbalize these conceptual fields. At the same time, the name of the concept “cruelty/ cruel” is practically not used. The comprehension of revolutionary events during  

 The article considers the significance of English-language borrowings in the development of the French youth argot which plays a crucial role in the non-format system. Members of the specified social group create a particular subculture trying to separate themselves from the representatives of other society strata by means of a specific sociolect, among other things. Using English words, the younger generation of the French assimilates them to create a subjective communication code with the help of word-formation techniques that operate on various language levels. The purpose of the research is to determine the main specific and non-specific mechanisms for the formation of new argotic units based on lexemes of English origin obtained by the continuous sampling method on the basis of linguo-stylistic (selection of vocabulary incorporated into the works by modern French writers and rap song scripts) and lexicological (analysis of scientific articles and argotographic sources) areas. The paper deals with the structure of modern French youth argot. The work gives the characteristics of the argotic functional features determining the variety of ways of word creation that cause linguistic isolation. The conducted analysis resulted in a classification of convergent models of neologization concerning the phonological, morphological and semantic linguistic levels. The relevance of the study of the modern youth sublanguage is explained by its intensive structural transformation, active replenishment and, in this connection, by the desire to analyze the communication environment of this reference group that has significantly expanded due to the Internet popularization and the variety of messengers, to understand its vocabulary repertoire and culture. For that reason we should note the necessity for further complex research of the processes occurring with the obtained non-conventional English-language lexical units in the speech of modern French youth. 

The article deals with the set of grammatical notions used by the author of 《语助》 “Yuzhu”, that is the first special monograph in Chinese linguistics dedicated to the description of function words. The study of works significant for the development of the linguistic knowledge is very important for historiographical and epistemological description of the formation of a certain tradition (in this case the Chinese one), since such works mark the stages of qualitative shifts in the structure of knowledge. In the course of the research three types of function words were singled out: 辞 ci, 声 sheng and 语助 yuzhu. The description of how these terminological units are used in the works preceding 《语助》 “Yuzhu” (such as 《礼记正义》 “Li ji zheng yi”, 《毛诗故训传》 “Mao Shi gu xun zhuan”, etc.) is given. Diachronic analysis shows a certain continuity of Lu Yiwei’s 卢以纬 interpretations: he does not offer his own variants of naming function words, but uses terms that were coined by the literary people and commentators in previous epochs. To illustrate different types of function words, excerpts from dictionary entries are given, they are translated into Russian by the author. It is emphasized that these units do not have such properties inherent for terms as definition, accuracy of meaning, single meaning and form stability, so it is impossible to consider such units as proper terms. It is concluded that the traditional stage of linguistic knowledge development in China is characterized by the formation of the system of grammatical notions, there was no consistently developed terminological apparatus in this period, the structure of the language was not viewed systematically.

The article is dedicated to the work of the forgotten writers of the second half of the 19th century Praskovya Alexandrovna (1829-1892) and Anna Alexandrovna (1833–1914) Lachinovs, who published under the collective pseudonym of P. Letnev. Many works of the Lachinovs, including the story Unbearable (1891), address the problems of marriage and family. The main focus of the article is on the depiction in the story of the psychology of family relationships, in particular, the dynamics of the psychological confrontation of the main character Vera Pavlovna, defending her human rights, her husband, who strives to suppress his wife as a person and make her obey his will, is analyzed. P. Letnev focuses on the emotional and psychological experiences of the heroine, her refusal to play the role of a victim, the process of moral and everyday struggle with male tyranny. A noteworthy detail is the similarity of the name of the protagonist with the name of the heroine of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel; however, the novel by P. Letnev shows the image of a woman not of the future, but of the present, who finds it ‘unbearable’ to confront the established way. The compositional structure of the work gives reason to say that the work combines the “external” and “internal” points of view (B. A. Uspensky) on the character and actions of Vera Pavlovna. The constructed ego-document - the diary of the main character – expresses her position, destroying the idea of the correctness and inviolability of the foundations of the patriarchal way of life, which allows us to show the traumatic family experience of the protagonist. Special attention in the article is paid to the techniques by which the individual “I” of Vera Pavlovna is created, destroying the authoritarian patriarchate discourse.

The article studies the variants of Valentin Kataev’s comedy Time, forward! in order to identify edits that influenced the author’s expression and the reader’s perception of the image of the main character. While researching comedy variants, it was found that the authors interested in Kataev’s work avoided the comedy Time, forward!. In our opinion, knowing about the corrections of the text of the play, Soviet critics, guided by political correctness, did not dare to engage in public polemics and literary-critical discussion around the famous writer. In the post-Soviet period, Kataev’s dramaturgy lost its relevance, did not kindle the interest of specialists. This study was conducted on the material of the comedy editions published during the author’s lifetime. Its relevance is justified by establishing the originality of the image of the main character of the main version of the work, reflecting the characters, emotions and feelings of people of its era. As part of the sample analysis it was found that by making corrections to the climactic scenes of the ending of the 1934 play, the author leaves the plot, the sequence of scenes, the system of images, the general idea of the work unchanged. During the comparison of the variants of the work, the edits made by the author to the two scenes of the finale were revealed. These scenes, connecting with the preceding scene, create a single plot and ideological and emotional node of the climax of the work. The image of the characters and the hero acquire a completely different appearance. With the appearance of comedy in public and up to the present, it has been believed that the image of the main character is a passionate and uncompromising fighter for the communist attitude to work. The edits revealed in the study in the version of the comedy of 1934, without dismissing the hero’s struggle for the result, a high pace in the socialist competition, indicate self-assertion of personality: high morality, friendly feelings. The image of the communist hero, which did not correspond to the literary and political canon, caused acute criticism and was the reason for suppressing the work. The results of the study give ground to consider the version of the play Time, forward! of 1934, a valuable source reflecting the characters, emotions and feelings of the heroes of its time.    

The article discusses the history of the creative dialogue between the great pianist Maria Veniaminovna Yudina and the outstanding poet Nikolay Alekseevich Zabolotsky. The material was not only Yudina’s memories of her joint work with the poet on equirhythmic translations of the collection Schubert’s Songs conceived by the pianist, but also Yudina’s thoughts expressed in various sources about the specific features of Zabolotsky’s work, whose poetry Yudina “ardently” loved. Based on Yudina’s definition of the poet’s work as “liturgical”, the article attempts to decipher this characterization. Poem Forest Lake is used for analysis, Yudina having noted that the person who wrote this poem is already on the threshold of the knowledge of God. In connection with the specific features of Zabolotsky’s poetic thought, bordering on the theological understanding of the world and man and embodied in the figurative matter of the Forest Lake, the article interprets the Gospel revelation about man, revealed in the writings of St. Gregorius Dialogus. “Traces” of the creative collaboration between Yudina and Zabolotsky are found in the 1947 poem Beethoven, which is not only the result of the joint work of Yudina and Zabolotsky on equirhythmic translations, but also the verbal embodiment of Yudina’s interpretation of Beethoven’s music, which she often played during their meetings with Zabolotsky. The article shows the specific character of the creative method of typological exegesis (this term is introduced by L. Levshun for the study of ancient Russian literature), which is used by Zabolotsky in the poems Forest Lake and Beethoven. Its essence lies in the fact that for any phenomenon or event a prototype is found in the Holy Scriptures and, thus, the event is explained, interpreted within the framework of the biblical paradigm. Zabolotsky does not interpret anything, but directs the reader’s feeling to unravel what kind of sacrament occurs in his poetry. Nikolay Zabolotsky in the poem Beethoven embodied Maria Yudina’s idea about music being a “message of revealed truths”, about music, which is the realization of the universal, cosmic liturgy.

The article compares the views of foreign philosophers on the nature of creativity, their reception in the Russian literary criticism and the creative implementation of some points in the Russian songwriting. The works of W. Benjamin (1892–1940) The Task of the Translator (1923), M. Blanchot (1907–2003) The Space of Literature (1955), P. Valery (1871–1945) Poetry and Abstract Thought (19390, S. Mallarme (1842–1898) The Crisis of Verse (1896), M. Heidegger (1889–1976) Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry (1936), K. G. Jung (1875–1961) Archetype and Symbol (1934–1961) are used as a theoretical basis. Song texts of the representatives of the author’s song tradition A. Galich, A. Bashlachev, whose work is usually attributed to bard rock, and E. Letov, one of the main representatives of Russian punk rock, are used as research material. The choice of the authors is determined by the concept of the work, which seeks to show the universality of the constants identified in the process of research for various song and poetic traditions and philosophical systems. As such constants, the utopian concepts of “a single discourse”, a single “conversation” of poetry, and “pure art”, which is a “goal-in-itself”, stand out. Other constants relate to the inner state of the poet, techniques aimed at achieving inspiration – we are talking about the concepts of “removal”, or, according to Shklovsky, “estrangement”, as well as “silence”. The central constant is the concept of the “inexpressible”, “elusive”, which is the essential goal of every poet, clearly seen, but always unattainable. In thinking about each of the constants of philosophical thoughts about creativity, we find confirmation or discrepancies in the creative practice of song poets. It leads us to the conclusion that song poetry, following traditional poetry, accepts and transmits the experience of the Russian and Western philosophical and poetic thoughts about the essence of creativity. Typological overlaps are of a supranational, cosmopolitan nature, which indicates the universality of the constants we have identified. The work contributes to the study of song poetry, which confirms its status as the next stage in the existence of poetic discourse, which proves the legitimacy and necessity of studying song texts from a philological standpoint.   

The article deals with the comparison of olfactory images in Patrick Suskind’s novel Perfume and Tayeb Salih’s The Season of Migration to the North in the communication context of Arab and European cultures. The initial theoretical point, based on the existing developments in the field of literary studies and cultural studies, is the idea of olfactory images as an essential component of the poetics of a work of art. The role played by olfactory images in revealing the characters of the two heroes Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and Mustafa Said is considered. Both heroes share similarities: on the one hand, they have a gift, and on the other, they are alienated from society: they feel lonely, their position in the world is that of an outcast. However, for Grenouille, this alienation is due to his personal features, while Mustafa Said’s psychological problems are connected with the colonial past of his homeland, Sudan. With the help of fragrances, both heroes are trying to restore the destroyed communication links – to evoke love to themselves and assert themselves. The article examines the relationship between olfactory images and the image of the homeland of both heroes. In the novel Perfume, the olfactory image of Paris is represented exclusively in a repulsive way. In the novel The Season of migration to the North, smells, by contrast, return the hero to his childhood, help him achieve harmony with himself and with nature. Olfactory images play an important role in revealing the problem of the protagonist’s communication with women. Grenouille artificially creates a fragrance that causes erotic temptation in the people around him. Salih’s novel also shows the connection between olfactory images and the motives of seduction, however, Mustafa Said does not create artificial smells, but uses natural smells to arouse the interest of his potential victims. The article concludes that the communicative functions of olfactory images in both novels are similar, but their differences are determined by the specific features of Arab and European culture.