No 4 (2025)

This article analyzes the image of women in Shahnameh by Ferdowsi and the Nart Epic, which, imbued with the culture, beliefs, and worldview of the Iranian and Ossetian peoples, are not only narratives of wars and heroic bravery but also reflections of societal consciousness. These works present female characters who occupy a central role, embodying profound contradictions: they are portrayed as celestial beings worthy of reverence or as symbols of sin and exile. Women in these epics are not merely lovers and mothers but also strong-willed individuals whose actions drive the plot and shape its dramatic tension. The study aims to examine the distinctive depiction of women in both epics. Female characters display wisdom, nobility, and virtue, and their high social status—often linked to aristocratic or heroic lineage—affords them respect and influence. Figures such as wives, sisters, and mothers of heroes are portrayed as educators and supporters, highlighting their pivotal roles in the narrative structure. Although constrained by limited rights and subject to male authority—an aspect that might invite modern critique—this portrayal reflects the patriarchal norms of the era. The image of women as passive participants or objects of male pleasure arises from entrenched cultural traditions. However, many female characters transcend these limitations, demonstrating remarkable strength of character and moral integrity. In conclusion, Shahnameh and the Nart Epic portray complex and multifaceted female figures whose significance profoundly shapes the narrative. These epics thus offer rich material for exploring social and cultural history. In both works, women are not merely figures in the shadows of heroes but independent worlds, embodying the music of destiny and the voice of history. Their stories, which balance contradiction and grandeur, remain enduring symbols of memory and the splendor of the past.

The subject of the study is the structural, species features of the creolized text of video advertising based on the transformation of plots of Russian literature ("Dowry", "Mumu") and their interpretation in the context of modern economic realities. The object of the study is the creolized text in the bank's commercials from the cycle: "VTB is a classic!" The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the transformation of the source code in the creolized text, emphasize its importance as a means of multimodal transmission of information that enhances the emotional and cognitive impact on the audience. Particular attention is paid to the analysis and methods of interaction of semiotic signs (based on the second trichotomy of Charles Pierce: iconic sign and symbol) within the creolized text. Their contribution to the structure and general understanding of the advertising message is emphasized. Research methods include: semiotic analysis, content analysis, systematically studying the content of the selected advertising videos, identifying typological, iconic, visual components; cultural analysis, which studies the integration of Russian literary plots into advertising, their impact on the audience; multimodal analysis, which considers the interaction of textual and audiovisual elements to build multilayered messages. The main conclusions of the study are the proof of the identity of the concepts of creolized and polycode text due to the integration of various media formats (linguistic, audiovisual), which makes it universal in transmitting multilayered messages, and allows it to be effectively used for advertising and communication purposes. This combination creates a message with several hidden layers, which enhances the emotional impact of advertising and makes it more convincing. A special contribution of the authors to the research of the topic is the highlighting of the two-dimensionality of the composition in the videos ("Dowry", "Mumu"), which forms culturally relevant associations with the brand. Accordingly, the use of plots from Russian classics in video advertising increases the degree of audience trust in the company. The novelty of the study lies in identifying semiotic links within the creolized text, creating on their basis an advertising space in which the transformation of iconic and symbolic signs occurs, which has not been studied before. The interaction of the original plot with modernity within semiotic links forms complex, fascinating narratives, increasing interest in advertising and creating a more attractive image of the bank in the eyes of the consumer.

The object of the study is the psycholinguistic factors of using the base forms of nouns in the Russian speech of Chinese language speakers. For the first time, an analysis is undertaken of the functioning of the nominative singular forms in various grammatical meanings in the speech of Chinese language speakers against the background of similar errors made by monolingual Russian-speaking children in the early stages of ontogenesis. The author proposes a formal classification of the substitution of forms of various cases for the nominative case, examines the persistence of such violations depending on whether the case form performs structural and semantic functions, analyzes the dependence of erroneous choices on the grammatical meaning of the form, and discusses types of object and subject meanings in which the base forms appear in the speech of Chinese language speakers and Russian-speaking children. The material is extracted through a random sampling method from written assignments of students at the China University of Petroleum (Qingdao) and St. Petersburg University, as well as from the "Russian Language Corpus of HSE RLC" (144 forms). The analysis employs descriptive, comparative, and error analysis methods. It concludes that in the written speech of Chinese students, forms that coincide with the base ones are used instead of forms of all cases, including in prepositional-case constructions. Some errors are linked to grammatical overgeneralization, manifested in the occasional formation of genitive plural forms and accusative singular and plural forms of animate and inanimate nouns. A significant contribution is considered to be the identification of error causes common to children and non-native speakers: difficulties in mastering the structural meanings of grammatical forms in quantitative-nominal and negative constructions, and the gradual development in the interlanguage of the individual of ways to express various shades of subjective (subject of state, joint action, or possession) and objective meanings (object-debilitative, mediative, etc.). The novelty of the research lies in identifying the mechanisms of simplification of the grammatical system of the foreign language being acquired, which involves simplified structuring of constructions with the meanings of cause and purpose, mixing of control forms with synonymous verbs, and indistinction of locative and directive meanings. The results obtained can be used to refine the understanding of strategies for mastering both native and foreign languages, as well as in developing teaching methodologies for the Russian language for Chinese language speakers.

The article presents a linguocultural analysis of the connotative meanings of ergonyms in St. Petersburg, particularly the names of restaurants and cafes. The subject of the study is the connotative meanings of ergonyms in St. Petersburg. The object consists of 800 names of restaurants and cafes in the city of St. Petersburg, selected through a continuous sampling method from open internet sources. The purpose of the study is to identify the connotative meanings in the names of restaurants in St. Petersburg from the perspective of linguoculturology. The research is aimed at analyzing how ergonyms reflect the cultural, historical, and social aspects of the city, as well as their role in shaping identities in the context of globalization. The material for the study consisted of the names of 800 restaurants and cafes in St. Petersburg, collected from internet resources. The following methods were applied: descriptive method, continuous sampling method for collecting ergonyms, classificatory analysis to highlight 5 categories of connotative meanings, quantitative counts, and linguocultural interpretation of the connotative meanings of ergonyms. The scientific novelty lies in the systematic analysis of the connotative meanings of ergonyms as a key element of the linguistic picture of the city of St. Petersburg, revealing the connection between nomination, cultural memory, and contemporary sociocultural processes. For the first time, a detailed interpretation of the connotative meanings of ergonyms in St. Petersburg was conducted across five categories. The results showed that the largest category was "Globalization and Intercultural Synthesis" (289 instances), reflecting the adaptation of borrowed elements to the local culture. The category "Gastronomic Pragmatics and Specificity" (183 instances) minimizes cognitive load. The categories "Historical and Cultural References," "Contemporary Cultural Trends and Social Identity," and "Natural Images and Regional Features" are represented in similar numbers (119, 116, and 93 instances respectively). The study confirms that the ergonyms of St. Petersburg shape the "linguistic map" of the city, activating historical, cultural, natural, and gastronomic aspects.

The subject of the research is the portrayal of women in war in 19th-century Russian literature. The objects of the research are female characters in the works of L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky, and N.V. Gogol. The author examines various aspects of the topic, such as the multifaceted roles of women, their symbolic significance, and the impact of war on their social status and value systems. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of female images in the context of military conflicts, their transformation from traditional keepers of the hearth to active participants in historical events. This article analyzes the portrayal of women in war in 19th-century Russian literature, exploring the multifaceted roles of female characters and their symbolic significance during times of upheaval. The study employs methods of comparative analysis, psychological and symbolic approaches. The author uses historical and cultural context to interpret female images in war. The research reveals that women in war are not only keepers of the hearth but also courageous, independent individuals embodying the national spirit. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive analysis of female images in war, which allows us to identify their role not only as secondary characters but also as symbols of national spirit and historical memory. The study emphasizes that female characters become an important part of the national historical narrative, symbolizing resilience, sacrifice, and moral strength in the face of wartime upheavals. The analysis helps to understand the evolution of societal perceptions of women in the 19th century, their awareness of their own identity, and the impact of war on their social status and value systems. Women in war are not only supporters of men but also an essential part of national memory and historical narrative.

In the works of Viktor Pelevin, Japanese characters commit suicide under the influence of a unique Japanese aesthetics of death, where death symbolizes beauty and honor. The formation of this idea about death is closely related to the spirit of Bushido, the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, and Japanese aesthetics. This article examines the role of the aesthetics of death in the artistic world of Pelevin based on an analysis of plots in which the protagonist dies. The materials of the study are the works of Viktor Pelevin that are directly related to the Japanese aesthetics of death: "Chapayev and Void" (1996), "A Guest at the Bon Festival" (part of the book "DPP (HH)", 2003), and "Duel" (part of the book "Transhumanism Inc.", 2021). The subject of the research is the Japanese motifs of death in the writer's prose. The study employed intertextual and comparative analysis methods to identify philosophical subtexts and their sources. The scientific novelty of this research lies, firstly, in the detailed examination of the deaths of Pelevin's Japanese characters and their motives. Secondly, the Japanese aesthetics of death in the selected materials had not been fully revealed, and this study conducted additional intertextual analysis to it and defined its place in Pelevin's prose. As a result of the research, it was established that in the actions and words of Pelevin's Japanese characters, aesthetic ideas that best express the Japanese character unconsciously penetrate. The spirit of Bushido and the Japanese aesthetics of death provide these characters with the opportunity for poetic self-destruction; however, its description is usually ironic in nature. The function of contemplation and spiritual practice for the Japanese characters is most often to serve as a contrast to the true path of enlightenment.

The study is dedicated to the semiotic analysis of the preposition "on" in modern English, covering its semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic characteristics in the context of complex sign systems. The material consists of data from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), as well as from the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries, allowing for the identification of patterns in the usage of "on" across diverse contexts: spatial, temporal, abstract, and causal relationships. The analysis revealed that the semantics of "on" depends on its collocation with nouns, verbs, and adjectives, while its pragmatic function is often related to conveying logical or culturally specific relationships. A comprehensive approach to the data from corpus linguistics and lexicographic sources identified the polysemy of "on," which is influenced by contextual and cognitive factors, confirming its role as a key element in structuring English discourse. The main research methods, necessitated by the need to identify the semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic features of the preposition "on," include semantic, contextual, and pragmatic analyses. Additionally, table, summarizing, descriptive, and retrospective methods were used to process the material. The main findings of the study include the identification of the core component of the semantics of the preposition "on" – the postulation of a temporal or spatial contact with an object. This core component is preserved in all types of realization of the linguistic sign "on" – in its iconic, indexical, and symbolic forms. Secondarily associative mental schemes arising from the core component of the semantics of "on" are manifested in the semiotic space of complex signs of idioms and phrasal verbs. The authors identify the following secondary semantic models: cyclical action, maximum proximity to a certain state or event, achieving maximum potential, continuous ongoing action, activation of something / transitioning to a working state, and optimal localization of the subject. The functioning of the linguistic sign "on" as a particle in a phrasal verb, a preposition, and an adverb demonstrates its ability to form, within the framework of complex signs, relationships of semantic paradigmatics, syntactic paradigmatics, and narrative syntax, respectively. A contrastive comparison of the preposition "on" with prepositions that can participate in the formation of similar syntactic constructions can reveal its linguistic and pragmatic presuppositions.

The article is dedicated to identifying the specifics of the functioning of proper names in the titles of films from the USA produced in 1920. The subject of the study includes structural, semantic, and functional features of proper names. The object of the study consists of English language onymic units. The material for the research is based on the list of films from American film companies in 1920, published on the electronic resource "List of American films of 1920." The research tasks are to identify the main types of bionyms and abionyms involved in creating film titles; to define and characterize the types of anthroponyms and toponyms; to reveal the structural and semantic features of male and female names, oikonyms, and godonyms; and to establish the specifics of the functioning of filmonyms involving onymic units. The authors examine in detail the reasons for the use of onymic units in film titles. Special attention is given to the functioning of familiar anthroponyms and toponyms for American film viewers, as well as precedent onymes in filmonyms. The theoretical basis of the research consists of the main provisions in the field of onomastics by A. V. Superanskaya and V. I. Suprun, which reveal the linguistic status of onymes and the criteria for their classification. The works of Yu. N. Podymova, V. E. Anisimov, and A. V. Zubareva were consulted to address the features of filmonyms. The study employs structural-semantic and functional analysis methods. For the first time, the material of the study consists of titles of US film productions from 1920; the novelty lies in revealing the specifics of the functioning and choice of proper names for creating filmonyms. The study found that film titles mainly feature onymes of American origin, as well as the use of the same names and structures, indicating the unstable nature of the process of forming filmonyms during that period. It was established that the most common names in filmonyms are familiar anthroponyms of that time such as Mary, Rose, Jimmy, Jack; and toponyms New York and Broadway. A dependence of the structural type of filmonyms on a certain type of onyme has been identified. It was determined that only anthroponyms are used in the form of word forms, while toponyms more often form phrases where they serve as definitions.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the linguistic personality of the Russian actor in the perspective of self-presentational activity, i.e. the formation of the speaker's image, his image, taking into account the value orientations and ways of speech influence on the addressee. The research is based on the three-part structure of linguistic personality (Y. N. Karaulov), on the theory of strategies and tactics of speech influence (O. S. Issers), on the typology of social identities (V. S. Ageyev et al.). The methods of contextual and stylistic analysis, comparative analysis, elements of statistical processing of linguistic material are used in the work. The chosen angle of research (self-presentation) focuses attention on the image function of the interview genre and makes it possible to develop a model for describing professional linguistic personality, in which professional and personal values are in the center of attention. In this paper, the comparison of Russian actors' self-presentational statements in the interview genre with similar statements of Chinese actors allowed us to establish that some values and communicative tactics of Russian actors' self-presentation are universal, independent of nationality and cultural stereotypes (norms of polite behavior), while other values and tactics are determined by the national-cultural specifics of native speakers (emphasis on inner feelings, which is set by the Russian linguistic picture of the world). Based on the analysis of the motivational level of linguistic personality, it was found that Russian actors are much more willing to describe subjective, mental experiences, while Chinese actors more often focus on objective and observable phenomena of reality. The developed model for describing the actor's linguistic personality in the aspect of self-presentation can be used in linguocultural and linguopragmatic studies of speech behavior.

The article examines the semantic and structural features of verbal prepositional-case forms with the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE in the Russian language based on the Russian Language National Corpus (the main and newspaper subcorpuses). The work evaluates the frequency of verbal prepositional-case forms with the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE, and identifies the most common verbs that are part of the specified language units. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that it is in the paradigm of studying the lexical and semantic compatibility of units of the Russian language. The aim of the paper is to analyze the semantic features of the prepositional-case forms of the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE in verb combinations based on the Russian Language National Corpus material (the main and newspaper subcorpuses), to determine the degree of their stability, as well as the expressive potential of the prepositional-case forms of the mentioned lexemes. As a result, the frequency and structural characteristics of verb prepositional-case forms with the components THEATRE and STAGE were determined, as well as their role in the professional and everyday worldviews of native Russian speakers. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in the fact that it examines the phenomenon of lexical compatibility of the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE in verbal prepositional-case form of the modern Russian language. The focus is on the most frequent models of compatibility. The role of verbal combinations of prepositional-case forms with the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE in the professional and everyday language worldviews is revealed. This aspect reflects the specific features of the lexical system of the Russian language. The paper makes the comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon with reference to lexicographic materials (for example, the dictionary of lexical compatibility), as well as to the National Corpus of the Russian Language and its statistical tools for calculating the largest number of occurrences in the corpus of various verb combinations with the lexemes THEATRE and STAGE. The research methodology includes both methods of linguistic and lexicological analysis, as well as the methods of statistical analysis, and contextual and communicative analysis. Methods of lexicological analysis allow determining the list of verb combinations of prepositional-case forms with the lexemes TEATR and STAGE in the Russian language. When referring to the Russian Language National Corpus, the method of statistical analysis is also applied: the most common verb combinations are identified. Methods of contextual and communicative analysis allow identifying the role of verb combinations of prepositional-case forms with the above mentioned lexemes in everyday and professional worldviews. Furthermore, the methods of contextual and linguostylistic analysis allow determining the expressive potential of prepositional-case forms of the said lexemes.

This work is devoted to the study of the category of political correctness, its social and political origin. This issue is of wide interest among domestic and foreign linguists, which determines the relevance of this research area. The object of this work is the category of political correctness, which is understood as a cultural, behavioral and linguistic tendency designed to find new lexical expressions in order to avoid creating conflict and offending the feelings of different social groups. The article analyzes the features of this category in the speeches of the American politician and statesman Donald Trump, published in the American press and personal page of the social network Twitter. To study this phenomenon, the following methods were used: descriptive method, continuous sampling method, classification method, discourse analysis method, method of statistical and typological processing of the data. As a result of the study, the following thematic groups of items were identified: social, gender, professional, political, national, ethical, physical. Each of the presented groups was studied from the viewpoint of the presence of politically correct and incorrect statements. The research material shows that the politician’s statements are overwhelmingly unacceptable within the framework of political discourse, but meet the requirements of the main function of political discourse - persuasiveness and seem to be a clear, convincing illustration of his position, which, of course, sets him apart from other US political and government figures. This study makes a certain contribution to the methodology for studying the phenomenon of political correctness. Thus, it is proposed to carry out an analysis based on identifying thematic groups of vocabulary and studying how they are presented from the position of expressing political correctness.