卷 16, 编号 2 (2025): Current issues in psycholinguistics, cross-cultural studies, and multichannel communication

Over the past 15 years the research field of Russian psycholinguistics has experienced major changes and has become more diversified with the advance of such subfields as psycholinguoaxiology, associative lexicography, psycholinguoculturology, etc., which has understandably resulted in the diversification of the subject area as well as a vague psycholinguistic object. The analysis of the Proceedings of the academic forums held in 2013, 2022 and 2024, carried out by the authors, has outlined those research trajectories which tend to become less popular today and alternatively identify most intensely developing ones. The relevance of the current research is supported by the fact that these trends tend to determine further development of Russian psycholinguistics and make it possible to amend those changes which happen to the field naturally. At the same time relying on these findings we could define the boundaries of the psycholinguistic object and specify the methods and research tools with the greatest prognostic and research potential. The research material includes the Proceedings of several major academic events in the field including XX Symposium on Psycholinguistics of 2022, the conference “Language. Consciousness. Communication: Methodology and Practices in the Humanities” of 2024 and the monograph “Russian Psycholinguistics: Achievements and Advances (1966-2021)” of 2021. The reference point of the research is made by the X International Congress ISAPL “Problems of Informational Society and Applied Psycholinguistics” of 2013. The research is based upon cluster analysis, comparative analysis and content analysis. The findings of the research carried out by the authors include the observations to follow: the field of psycholinguistics has become very narrow with a vivid bias towards structural and content analysis of language consciousness, limited use of statistical tools and modeling in psychologuistic research. At the same time the analysis has helped identify the vectors to pursue in the next few decades including design of new methods and tools shaped specifically to be used with the object of psycholinguistics and identifying those research problems which could explicate new facets of this object.

Reverse word formation occupies a much more significant place among other methods of word formation than is commonly believed. If in language there are indeed rare cases of words arising through reverse derivation, then in the speech activity of both adults and children, cases of reverse derivation are quite frequent. The study provides examples of the construction and use by adult native speakers of words formed using reverse word formation, and concludes that the widespread use of such words in the speech of adults is hampered only by control, which does not allow an adult native speaker to use an occasional word mentally formed by him in speech. In children, due to insufficient speech experience, control does not yet operate fully, and therefore children often use occasionalisms formed through reverse derivation in their speech, which is proven by data from recordings of children’s spontaneous speech. In addition, the study is based on data from an experimental study that tested children’s tendency to reverse word formation (80 children: 16 children 4 years old, 16-5 years old, 16-6 years old, 16-7 years old and 16-8 years old). As a result of the analysis of the experiment, it was concluded that the “peak” tendency for reverse word formation in children is observed at 5-6 years of age (when the method of reverse word formation has already been mastered, and control has not yet been fully included). It was also revealed that compensatory verbal creativity, caused by ignorance of a common word, is replaced by conscious creativity gradually, over several years, and the time of transition from compensatory creativity to conscious creativity in the field of word formation is determined by the time the child masters one or another word formation model, the speed of this transition - individual characteristics of children. In general, the results of the study force us to look at reverse derivation from a new angle - as an important fact of an individual’s speech activity.

The features of word-formation in the children’s speech of a child aged 5 to 6 years old, namely, word-formation occasionalisms and the use in speech of derivatives belonging to different parts of speech are in the focus of the study undertaken. In parallel, a comparison was made as to word-formation occasionalisms of the period from 5 to 6 years old with occasionalisms of previous stages. The greatest number of word-formation innovations in a child’s speech occurs between the ages of 3 and 4, and the least - from 5 to 6. The dominant means of word formation at all age stages is suffixation. All other means of direct derivation are considered as secondary. Reverse and substitution word formation are extremely rare. New derivational models of children’s innovations are described in comparison with the models mastered by a child from 1 year and 9 months to 5 years old: adjectival or substantive verbs formed according to non-productive models. Up to 3 years of age, innovations relate to three parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, verbs. From the age of 3 to 4, the number of nouns and verbs is the same, but the number of adjectives is less. From the age of 4 to 5 the ratio of nouns is still high and the ratio of verbs becomes much smaller. The ratio of adjectives in these three periods is the same. From the age of 5 to 6, verbs predominate - this stage can be called an explosion of verb word formation. Although the creation of innovations is one of the manifestations of a child’s metalinguistic activity, after the age of 5 the degree of awareness in the process of word formation increases. The child creates his own words through play and creative activities. Adults influence children’s creation of occasionalisms through reading books by poets and writers who play games with language.

The issue of emotional expressiveness in Russian Sign Language (RSL) can be considered through psycholinguistic analysis, which helps to understand how deaf people use non-verbal means to express their emotions more accurately and perceive the emotions of their communication partner. For this purpose, a brief overview of the theoretical foundations of the emotional expressiveness study in sign languages is given, the main means of expressing emotions in RSL are defined, an analysis of the collected data on gestures expressing emotions is performed, and a comparison of them with similar manifestations in a spoken language is given. The study presents the results of experiments conducted by foreign scientists who studied the perception of emotional signals by deaf people through gestures and visual images. These studies confirmed that sign language speakers perceive emotional signals through visual channels and use them to reproduce emotional connections in interpersonal communication. One of the central aspects of the study concerns the adaptation of communication strategies by deaf people depending on the emotional context. It was proven that deaf people have increased sensitivity to non-verbal signals, which allows them to compensate for the lack of auditory information. In addition, the issue of differences in the perception of emotional signals by deaf and hearing people is considered. It has been found that deaf people have increased sensitivity to nonverbal emotional signals, such as facial expressions and gestures, which helps them effectively compensate for the lack of sound. The results of the study have important implications for sign language theory, teaching and translation practice, and the development of technologies aimed at improving communication and availability of information for the deaf. The study of emotional expressiveness is one of the important problems of RSL, requiring a systematic approach, since emotionally charged communication contributes to the cognitive development of deaf people and their better acquisition of sign and verbal language.

There is a growing interest in the reading development of bilingual children. Surprisingly, however, little research has been conducted on bilingual children’s reading acquisition and development. This scoping review synthesized the findings of existing studies on bilingual primary school childrens’ eye movements during reading and outlined future research directions. In the review, we mapped the differences between monolingual and bilingual children’s eye movements during reading, as well as the differences in bilingual children’s eye movements during reading in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Additionally, we summarized the factors shown to influence monolingual and bilingual children’s eye movements during reading. These factors fell into two categories: linguistic and language-related factors, and factors related to individual differences. The results of the review revealed that differences - or the absence thereof - in the eye movements of bilingual and monolingual readers, as well as the variations in bilingual children’s reading in L1 and L2, are influenced by a variety of individual and language-related factors. However, due to the scarcity of existing studies, no definitive conclusions can be drawn at this time. Further eye-movement research is needed to shed light on the reading development of bilingual children.

The history of the Jewish grammatical tradition is represented very scantily in Russian linguistic historiography, because, due to objective causes, many Jewish linguistic sources, as well as publications by foreign colleagues on the topic, were inaccessible to Soviet and Russian scholars. The aim of the study is to fill this gap and justify the reasons why this tradition deserves much more attention from researchers than it has received so far. The material for the research consists of Russian academic publications and coursebooks on the history of linguistic thought. The study proves that the Jewish linguistic thought is an independent tradition, which is of interest to researchers. The authors also raise the issue of its insufficient coverage in Russian academic literature. The study uses the method of comparative study of various Russian academic publications on the history of linguistic thought correlating the obtained data with material from foreign works and with ancient and medieval Jewish sources. General results: 1) today about three quarters of the existing Russian academic literature on the topic do not even mention the Jewish grammatical tradition, and those works and coursebooks that do are based on incomplete and/or inaccurate data; 2) the Jewish linguistic thought is always presented in Russian linguistic historiography as depended on two other traditions: the Arabic one and the Christian Hebraistics. As a result, there could be made an incorrect assumption that the Jewish grammatical tradition per se is not relevant for study; 3) the Jewish grammatical tradition should be considered an independent page in the history of linguistic thought, without dissolving it into the Arabic tradition.

Meaning is described as an evolving (dynamic) system; which determines the novelty of the study. The study gives a holistic analysis of significant language issue: meaning and sense. Formation of sense is a complex multifaceted process based on meanings transformation. The object is meanings of different types; as the main ones, the author distinguishes semantic, semanticsyntactic, logical-semantic and pragmatic meanings. The objective is to describe core features of the types and specify their role in senses creation and structuring the coherent discourse sense space. The principal research methods are pragmasemantic and discourse analyses; they promote revealing the mechanisms of formation of discursive meanings and senses, establishing the correlation between multilevel meanings and the created pragmatic effect, unveiling the potential of linguistic means used to form meanings and senses. This determines the relevance of the study, since the meanings system is presented from the functional perspective for constructing the discourse sense space. The main results of the study are as follows. Semantics sets the initial parameters of meanings, which in the process of contextual actualization are supplemented by syntactic and logical parameters. We see formation of semantic-syntactic meaning and its transformation into the logical-semantic one. Further, under the influence of contextual and extralinguistic factors, it increments additional pragmatic meanings which convert to discursive senses. The certain pragmasemantic effect is created. The author draws the conclusions that complex hierarchical transformation of multilevel meanings leads to senses hybridization, complication of discourse relations and links, and structuring its integral sense space.

Due to its heterogeneous nature, a translingual literary text causes certain difficulties for research. Being created by the author in a language that is not ethnically primary for him, it contains both exophonic elements marking its foreign cultural origin and semiotically “neutral” components, the decipherment of which requires certain interpretative efforts from the researcher. The purpose of this study is to appeal to the autometatextual complex as a hermeneutic field for producing meanings that meaningfully explicate the works of a writer/poet. Autometatext is understood as an author’s text about a text, commenting on and revealing other works of the same author. Thus, the lexemes “sky”, “guest”, “elders”, which are semiotically neutral for the Russian language, acquire sacred symbolism in the lyrics of the Kazakh poet Bakhyt Kairbekov, since they appeal to an alternative denotative space that expands the original field of meanings. The material for the study was the book by Bakhyt Kairbekov “Nomads in the Worlds” and individual poems of the poet. The methods of the study are descriptive; the method of hermeneutic commentary; the method of autometatextual interpretation. The results of the analysis allow us to conclude that turning to the autometatext gives the interpretation of the poet’s lyrical works greater reliability and multidimensionality: in the texts of works written in Russian, motives of the original Kazakh culture begin to sound, such as the nomadic way of life, faith in the supreme deity Tengri, veneration of aruakhs and others. The data obtained can be applied in the practice of interpreting translingual literary text by researchers studying similar issues.

Lexical make-up of the revised Engage with English textbooks utilized in Omani high schools for grades 11 and 12 are under examination. The textbooks were examined through a corpus-based methodology, employing the Vocabulary Profiler to classify terms put on the General Service List (GSL), the Academic Word List (AWL), and off-list vocabulary. The results indicate that the textbooks develop foundations in high-frequency vocabulary, they may inadequately prepare students to master Academic English, particularly due to the limited inclusion of AWL terms and the excessive presence of off-list vocabulary. These findings underscore the necessity of employing a balanced vocabulary strategy in textbook design to guarantee that students cultivate both communicative and academic competencies. Our study has some implications for English language teaching in Oman and recommendations for enhancing vocabulary training.

The study presents the problem of translating onomatopoeic words, which occupy an important place in the language and culture of the Kazakh and English peoples. Particular attention was paid to the peculiarities of the translation of onomatopoeic units from one language to another, various methods of translation, such as literal translation and equivalent translation. The discrepancy between the sound and meaning of onomatopoeic words in the Kazakh and English languages, as well as cultural and social content is given. It analyzes how onomatopoeic words influence the perception and thinking of texts in two languages and cultures. The issue of taking into account pragmatic factors by translators, such as cultural appearance and context, when transmitting onomatopoeic units has been studied. It provides useful recommendations for translators and linguists. This study explores the intricate nature of literary translation, focusing on the challenges posed by translating onomatopoeic words. It discusses how these words, which mimic sounds in language, present unique difficulties for translators due to their distinct lexical, grammatical, and phonetic characteristics. By delving into the cultural significance and origins of onomatopoeia, the paper sheds light on the complex interplay between language and sensory experience. It underscores the importance of striking a balance between fidelity to the original text and conveying the nuances of onomatopoeic expressions in literary translation.