Vol 25, No 1 (2025)
Linguistics
Complexity as a textual, linguistic and metalinguistic category
Abstract
The article attempts to systematize the linguistic (metalinguistic, textual) content of the concept complex / complexity. For this purpose, linguistic and non-linguistic contexts with complex / complexity are analyzed, primarily from the point of view of evaluativeness and markedness – unmarkedness. The main meanings and synonyms of complexity, spheres of complexity (communicative and non-communicative, mental (conceptual)), degrees and purposes of complexity (intentional and unintentional – accidental, indifferent or unwanted complexity are distinguished), complexity evaluation (it is shown that in most contexts complexity carries a negative evaluation, with the exception of several specific groups of contexts) are revealed. The terminological and semi-terminological meanings of “complex” in different spheres are revealed. The nature of complexity as a shifter concept (dialectical unity of simplicity ~ complexity) is discussed. Much attention is paid to the so-called complexity in simplicity, realizing the concessive meaning of simplicity. A separate micro-study is concerned with linguistic contexts of complexity (complexity of language and languages, text, speech communication, including psychological and social complexity of human relationships). Metalinguistic complexity and attempts to overcome it are discussed in connection with the semantic metalanguage of A. Wierzbicka, as well as different semiotic types of “complex” signs, languages, texts.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):1-14
1-14
Variability of the genre of autobiographical story in dialect and literary-colloquial speech (on the material of Saratov dialectological corpus)
Abstract
The article examines the specific features of how the genre of autobiographical story functions in dialect and literary-colloquial speech. The study is conducted on the material of Saratov Dialectological Corpus and dictaphone recordings of native speakers of the literary language of the corresponding age group. The characteristics of the autobiographical story common to dialect and literary-colloquial discourse were determined, and the factors influencing the functioning of this genre were identified – the level of communicative competence, correlation with the genre of autobiography in business communication, interviewer’s questions structuring the story. In conversations with native speakers of the literary language, a successful implementation of the communicative task was observed – to build an autobiographical story in chronological order. In the autobiographical stories of dialect speakers, the chronological principle was often violated, the narration was chaotic: a story about childhood or youth was suddenly interrupted by memories of adulthood, an assessment of the current situation, and again returned to the past. A chronologically and event-consistent narrative in dialect discourse is most often determined by certain features of the informant’s linguistic personality, for example, the experience of publicly telling about one’s life. A typical autobiographical narrative of a dialect speaker is characterized by subjectivity (in accordance with the principle of egocentricity of dialect narration) and fragmentation, reflecting not all biographical stages, but the most important biographical points for the informant. In the text corpus, one can trace the repeated reproduction of such key moments with minor variations in the records of one informant of different years. The retrospective nature of the autobiographical story often contributes to the actualization of the strategy of self-presentation and self-identification. It was revealed that the strategy of self-presentation of speakers of the two speech cultures has a similar nature; in self-identification, the professional principle is the leading one for speakers of the literary language, and the local and generic ones – for dialect speakers. Thus, the variability of the genre of the autobiographical story is determined by both idiolectic, personal factors, and functioning in different types of discourse – literary-colloquial and dialect ones.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):15-23
15-23
Spouses addressing their parents-in-law in Russian culture
Abstract
The paper examines the forms of addressing the nearest in-law relatives existing in Russian family communication. Addresses to family members are among the oldest means of appealing and are marked by national identity in any culture. The Russian culture undoubtedly has its own traditions, norms and rules for choosing family addresses, which change under the influence of extralinguistic and linguistic factors, since the address is generally by its nature a “flexible” and frequent unit of language and speech, actively reacting to various kinds of social and linguistic transformations. By analyzing examples from literature and other sources, the authors identify key forms of address for in-laws in the Russian culture at different points in time. The article brings up an issue of whether the tradition of addressing a father-in-law, a mother-in-law as one’s parents has been lost in modern everyday communication; the authors register which forms of addressing the in-laws are used by the modern Russian speakers, which preferences can be observed nowadays, given that the pragmatic informativeness of the address is associated with “you” (thou) or “you” registers of communication. Using the data from the survey of the residents of a Volga region of Russia, the article outlines the forms of address used in modern-day family communication and proposes a framework for categorizing forms of addressing parents-in-law; it also characterizes the traditions and strategies which determine their choice in the modern society.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):24-33
24-33
Special features speech portrait of an autistic child in Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time translated into Russian
Abstract
The article deals with the issue of studying the speech characteristics of a literary character, which is no doubt of significant interest. The speech portrait of a literary character is one of the key components in forming an image in a literary text. However, the speech of child char acters, especially those with developmental disorders, has not received much attention. The source material for the study is the modern novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) by Mark Haddon and its translation into Russian made by A. Kukley (2003). The paper’s main purpose is to enumerate, classify, and analyze the complex speech portrait of a child with an autism spectrum disorder and to examine the methods used for translating these characteristics. The study draws upon the classification that focuses on the impairments in socialization, communication, and imagination, which are central to autism research. The author’s methodology, based on the use of the continuous sampling method, classification method, comparative analysis method, and quantitative method, allowed to reach some conclusions and observations. The author claims that the majority of the speech characteristics typical of a teenager with autism are preserved in the translated text. According to the author, the translator carefully conveys these characteristics into another language, sometimes making changes considering the context, nuances of a language structure, and cultural differences, which requires certain adaptations in order to render meaning and emotions more precisely.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):34-39
34-39
Interaction between religious, historical and literary discourses in mass media
Abstract
The present paper refers to the essentialproblem of the interaction between variousdiscourseswithin the framework of American media discourse based on the articles of the online version of National Geographic journal. Currently, the media discourse is a point of intersection of various discourses interacting in accordance with the intention and pragmatic goals of the journalists. Media discourse becomes poly-discursive, as journalists strive to demonstrate the presence of identical or similar components of situational cognitive models in different discourses. The relevance of the research is determined by the significance of the impact that the combined discourse has on the process of persuasion and on the reader’s consciousness. The authorsconsider the process of interaction of discourses, which occurs by means of symbols included into the media discourse. The purpose of the studyis to analyze the language signs belonging to different discourses and representing certain situations, which turn out to be juxtaposed within the media discourse. The authors also analyze the language means of highlighting the dominant components of the represented situational cognitive models, which are also foregrounded due to the interaction between the signs of different discourses. The authors used such methods as the method of discourse and semiotic analysis. The authors come to the conclusion that due to the inclusion of signs of historical, religious, literary and folklore discourses, media discourse acquires the character of a poly-discursive one. As a result, a combined discourse is created in which all interacting discourses are simultaneously represented, and all of them influence the perception of each of them and all of them altogether, endowing the same object at the same time with different characteristics, and thus presenting it from different points of view. As aresult of the superposition of different mental spaces – frames, a new frame is formed, which simultaneously comprises all those represented in the media discourse. The presence of signs of various discourses, the phenomenon of poly-discursiveness is determined by the journalist’s goal to draw attention to the religious side of life, the importance of comprehending religion through history, literature, folklore, and cinema.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):40-46
40-46
Synchronous-diachronic analysis of the thematic group “Supernatural beings in religious cultures” (on the material of the Russian language)
Abstract
The study deals with the synchronous-diachronic analysis of the thematic group “Supernatural beings in religious cultures”, formed on the basis of Semantic dictionary edited by N. Y. Shvedova and including lexical units denoting the names of God and the Mother of God; angels and saints; persons with magical abilities performing occult actions; evil forces hostile to man; animal characters in religious cultures. The work examines the structure of the group, the vocabulary representation of the lexemes of the group, as well as the functioning of its units in texts of various periods of the history of the Russian language in different time periods from the 11th century to the present. Russian historical dictionaries, etymological dictionaries, modern explanatory dictionaries of Russian, as well as texts of the Russian National Corpus (Old East Slavic, Church Slavonic, Main Corpus) served as the material for the study. In the course of the research the group was analyzed within the allocated time intervals, and then the results of the synchronous statistics for each of them were compared. Based on the data obtained during the analysis, conclusions were drawn about the state of the thematic group at different stages of the historical development of the Russian language: the first lexicographic records of units at specified time intervals were identified; lexemes that underwent semantic changes over time were notedlexical units that make up the core of the group, as well as its near-nuclear zone and periphery were singled out. The etymological analysis made it possible to establish ways of forming new words of the thematic group under consideration, as well as to determine the nature of borrowings.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):47-56
47-56
Literary Criticism
Cypress by a cave: Erotic frustration, agon and death in Theocritus’ Idyll XI
Abstract
The author offers a possible explanation of a stable thematic complex including the themes of erotic frustration, agon and death as a constitutive for idyllic genre. The choice of Theocritus’ Idyll XI for the analysis is motivated by its undoubtedly intimate character (along with Idylls VII, XIII and XXVIII), which makes them part of some specific personalized contexts: the people mentioned were Theocritus’ colleagues along with being his friends. So there are some extra characteristics for the meta position offered here to the audience – as it supposes on its part not only a certain level of erudition together with the skills enabling the reader to operate concurrently with essentially different culture codes but also professional skills of a poet accustomed with the know-how of the poetic process of the early Hellenistic ars poetica. The author pays special attention to ekphrasa and ekphrastic techniques as one of the most characteristic elements of Alexandrian poetry, as well as to the allusions to Homer’s Odyssey as a precedent text not only for this particular piece, but for the whole book. Other poems from the same book are applied to as a comparative material both for thematic and poetics reasons. Also the possible personal references are discussed as forming the intimate context crucial for understanding Theocritus.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):57-66
57-66
The tale “Sleeping Beauty” by Ch. Perrault in the mirror of libretto by I. A. Vsevolozhsky and M. Petipa
Abstract
The premiere of the world-famous Russian ballet “The Sleeping Beauty”, composed by P. I. Tchaikovsky, I. A. Vsevolozhsky and M. Petipa, took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre on January 3, 1890, and became a significant event in the cultural life of Petersburg. Since then, the ballet has been performed on stages around the world, undergoing various revisions and updates, but the original author’s libretto has sometimes been neglected and replaced with adaptations and reinterpretations of the story during subsequent productions. In this article, we will focus on the text of the libretto that was published immediately before the premiere of the play. According to its authors, the content of the libretto is “based on Perrault’s fairy tales”. We will analyze how the key literary basis of this fairy tale – the famous French tale by Charles Perrault “Sleeping Beauty” (“La Belle au bois dormant”, 1697) – is transformed in the ballet narrative. The study of various functional, semantic, and stylistic aspects of the libretto’s narrative, as well as a comparative analysis of similarities and differences between the fairy tale and the libretto, allows us to identify several features associated with the transformation of the folklore and mythological story of “Sleeping Beauty” (Aarne-Thompson classification No. 410) from literature into the art of ballet. It also helps us answer the question of whether the text of a libretto is simply a “translation” from literature into synthetic art, or whether it is a qualitatively different work that endows the original tale with new features and meanings.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):67-75
67-75
Z. N. Gippius’s letters in diary discourse of S. P. Kablukov
Abstract
The article analyzes Z. N. Gippius’s correspondence with the secretary of the St. Petersburg Religious and Philosophical Society S. P. Kablukov. The material for the article contains Z. N. Gippius’s letters of 1909, received by Kablukov and rewritten by him in a diary. Since the folder with Z. N. Gippius’s letters was not preserved in the S. P. Kablukov’s archive, this documentary evidence is of apparent interest and allows us to get an idea of the nature of the correspondence between Gippius and the author of the diary. The subject range of Z. N. Gippius’s and S. P. Kablukov’s epistolary communication is diverse, but the diary author focuses on issues of religious nature, since he was an Orthodox Christian. At the same time, Kablukov was sympathetic to the supporters of a “new religious consciousness” and often assessed the current events precisely from their point of view. The letters also discuss literary problems, Z. N. Gippius’s stories “Mass” and “Overheard Words”. Z. N. Gippius’s and S. P. Kablukov’s letters provide an opportunity to penetrate the atmosphere of the era of the early 20th century, to identify features of the religious renovation movement, to see the crisis state of the historical Church, and also to assess the role of the Russian intelligentsia in the attempts to reform it. Gippius’s letters are distinguished by a special tonality that encourages her correspondent to be sincere. They manifest her subtle humor, self-irony, imparting an intonation of trust to the text. Her letters feature a genuine interest in people, the desire to understand an individual person, to penetrate his soul. Thus, Z. N. Gippius’s and S. P. Kablukov’s correspondence reveals new facets of the personality of the “fi rst Russian decadent”, allows one to get an idea of her epistolary strategies. Keywords: letter, diary, documentary evidence, historical Church, “new religious consciousness,” epistolary strategies.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):76-84
76-84
Insect symbolism in the oeuvre of B. Poplavsky: Cicadas and grasshoppers
Abstract
Analyzed in the study is the symbolic meaning of the images of a cicada/grasshopper in the prose and poetry by Boris Poplavsky in the context of classical antiquity and of the Silver Age art. These insects are often understood as one image, which is the poet’s homage to the antique tradition; the image of a cicada/grasshopper is liminal, implying mediation between the two worlds and connection between the past and the present, which allows one to experience the condition of harmonic unity with the Universe and the feeling of natural primeval being. Both the cicada and the grasshopper are related to music, but the cicada is to a greater extent an Apollonian and sacral creature, a votary of the muses, whose singing is heard against the background of a bucolic summer landscape. Whereas the image of the cicada is closer to the pole of the Apollonian, the image of the grasshopper, in the case when they diff er, tends to the pole of the Dionysian, the exuberant creative element and the energy of inspiration. The grasshopper turns into a fantastic chimeric creature, the visible personification of other living (a grasshopper among gnomes and elves, the horse-automobile-grasshopper and the grasshopper-train associations). A special case is the symbolization of sounds produced by a cicada and a grasshopper as a force of its own: this chirr/rattle represents certain natural buzz, the thundering proto music of inspiration over which the poet has no power. While the holistic image of these insects in the spirit of antiquity was the sign of experiencing the integrity of being and their chirr was enchanting, here the exponentially intensified startling sounds contribute to the description of the Poet’s “muse” as having the appalling features of a giant insect, and his poetic oeuvre becomes not only the blessing but also a curse, in which B. Poplavsky shows his affinity to A. Blok.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):85-91
85-91
Tragic dialectics of the lives of children from Tiverzin’s yard in the novel Doctor Zhivago by B. L. Pasternak
Abstract
The article analyses the tragic dialectics of the lives of children from Tiverzin’s yard, who devoted themselves to the revolution and became its victims, as well as those against whom the revolution was conceived. The significance of the locus “Tiverzin’s yard”, which occupies a significant place in the composition due to the way of life of the railway workers living there, who shaped the characters of the future participants of the revolution, is analyzed. As a meeting place and a subject of memories, this locus is one of the means of characterizing the grown-up boys and girls. The methods of constructing the image of Olya Demina, the episodes in which her character is manifested, are revealed and analyzed, the conclusion is made about the unconventionality of her nature: the ability to defend her opinion, to follow the path that corresponds to her moral principles. The methods of constructing the image of Osip Galiullin – the most important minor character, the double of Pavel Antipov and Yuri Zhivago – are revealed and analyzed. As a man who has determined his own fate, Osipfinds himself in the ranks of those against whom the revolution was intended, which makes him akin to Zhivago. Galiullin’s moral superiority is revealed in his relationship with Pavel, their attitude to childhood friendship, official duties, methods of struggle, and anthroponyms. It is concluded that the novel finds a solution to the ideological contradiction, which depends not on the hero’s inability to ideologically correspond to the scale of the event, but on the qualities of a person, which help him remain a Person. The unnaturalness of the revolutionary process according to B. Pasternak lies in the disregard for the laws of humanity, which cannot correspond to the idea of life for the sake of life.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):92-98
92-98
The infl uence of Russian satire on Dungan satirical prose in Central Asia
Abstract
The Dungans are descendants of Hui immigrants from northwestern China during the late Qing Dynasty. Their number has grown to 100,000 people, they are located on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. In Russia they were called “Dungans”. After penetrating Central Asia, they adopted the local culture and the culture of the home country – Russia. Dungan satirical prose was also strongly influenced by the Russian tradition and absorbed certain themes and artistic techniques (poetics) of Russian satirical prose. The influence of the theme of Russian satirical prose on the theme of Dungan satirical prose is reflected in two aspects: political satire and social satire. The fi rst was dominated by the criticism of the authoritarian system and bureaucracy, the second by denunciation of social and moral vices. The political satire plays an important role in the expression of a huge social confl ict and can use it to combat social evil. Social satire reveals social vices. Compared to political satirical prose, social satire pays more attention to thoughts about human nature and culture. As for the artistic techniques of Dungan satirical prose under the influence of Russian satirical prose, three main techniques can be distinguished: self-exposure of the hero, contrast and “uncultured” speech of the hero. The flourishing of Dungan satirical prose is associated not only with the influence of the Russian literary tradition, but also with the national cultural identity of Dungan writers. The influence of traditional culture is reflected in three aspects: the tradition of Russian satirical prose contributes to the development of Dungan satirical prose; the Thaw in the USSR in the 1950s created the ground for Dungan satirical prose; the internal motivation for the thriving of Dungan satirical prose is the cultural consciousness of the Dungan writers.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):99-103
99-103
The folklore and mythological basis of the women’s quest in the Russian-language fantasy novel: To the statement of the problem
Abstract
In the history of culture and literature, women have always played an important role. Numerous myths, folklore and literary works show the importance of female characters in the content, functional and artistic solution of various problems. In recent decades, attention to the “women’s issue” has certainly increased: representatives of various scientific disciplines are trying to identify the essence of the phenomenon of “true femininity”. In popular literature, a new type of heroine is being formed – a girl undergoing her own set of challenges (quest). On the one hand, it largely resembles the path of a male hero, on the other, it has its own specific features. In both cases, the female quest has a pronounced folklore and mythological nature. The purpose of the study is to identify the folklore and mythological components of the image of the new heroine in Russian language “female” fantasy novels. The research materials are Russian folk tales (35 plots), novels by M. V. Semenova and A. V. Rubanov. The research methodology is based on the simultaneous application of the methods of analyzing the structure of the folklore text by V. Y. Propp and J. Campbell, which allowed the authors to consider the path of the heroines in terms of both the functions they perform and the stages of the chosen path. As a result of the research, the term “women’s quest” was introduced, denoting a folklore and mythological way of organizing the text of mass literature. In turn, fantasy novels are presented as coming-of-age novels with the emphasis of stages similar to initiation rites in traditional culture.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):104-109
104-109
Journalism
The culture of journalists’ speech in the period of mediatization of communication
Abstract
The process of mediatization of culture is actively taking place in modern society. Today, the media have a significant impact on the civic position, views and level of speech culture and communicative behavior of the population. The profession of a journalist is one of the most important and responsible professions. That is why a journalist has to convey a good speech: correct, appropriate, logical, expressive. Unfortunately, the speech of modern media workers is far from the standard. It is replete with speech, grammatical and stylistic errors and inaccuracies. The unintentional replication of such errors and unfortunate word usage can impoverish speech and lead to communicative risks. Observations show that modern media actively repeat words, constructions, and ways of speech interaction that are fashionable in colloquial speech and popular culture, which are often far from the norm from the perspective of the literary language. In mass media culture, especially in the blogosphere, speech aggression and detabooing of topics that were previously considered forbidden for public communication can be observed. Journalists are paying less attention to the form of thought expression, and therefore some lexemes in the media are abnormally expanding their compatibility and changing their semantics. The globalization of communication leads to excessive and inappropriate use of English loan words in the media. Due to changes in the value system of the Russian society, the mass media are increasingly quoting advertisements, popular foreign films and TV series. Journalists are less likely to turn to academic dictionaries and reference books, focusing on the speech of the population while selecting a speech variant. The mediatization of culture leads to the fact that native speakers have blurred ideas about good speech, rhetorical ideal, traditional values, and the level of linguistic reflection decreases.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):110-116
110-116
Chronicle of Scholarly Activities
22nd International scientific conference “Onomastics of the Volga region”
Abstract
The article presents an overview of the work of the 22nd International Conference “Onomastics of the Volga region”, held on September 26–29, 2024, at Saratov State Medical University. The participants were diverse in geography and affiliation: the forum brought together scientists from 58 universities and scientific institutions in Russia (35 cities), as well as neighboring countries. Two plenary sessions were held, five breakout sessions, held in face-to-face and mixed format, and one intersectional session in a remote format. A total of 98 reports were presented. The main areas of work were: anthroponymy, toponymy, urbanonymy and literary onomastics. We also considered the names of peripheral categories (pragmatonyms, armonyms, zoonyms, agionyms, ergonyms) and their functioning in different types of discourse. The range of topics and the occupancy of sections showed that the study of urbanonymic landscapes (microtoponymy, godonymy, ergonymy) and literary onomastics is currently in high demand. Historical, etymological and motivational studies of toponyms and anthroponyms are still relevant. In a number of reports, other aspects of nuclear onyms were also touched upon: spelling, syntax, and translation. The appearance of reports in line with new directions and aspects of onomastics can be considered significant: computer and corpus, onomastic studies of media and computer discourse. Following the results of the conference, a collection of articles was published, the resolution noted the high level of organization and holding of the event and recommended initiating the transformation of the traditional collection into a periodical.
News of Saratov University. Ser. Philology. 2025;25(1):117-120
117-120