Attitudes of Russian-speakers in Finland towards AntiCOVID-19 Restriction Measures in Spring, 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Speakers

scholarly journals Orthorexia nervosa and Instagram: exploring the Russian-speaking conversation around #opтopeкcия

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yana Zemlyanskaya ◽  
Martina Valente ◽  
Elena V. Syurina
Keyword(s):  
Orthorexia Nervosa ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Global North ◽  
Harmful Content ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Comparative Content ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Informative Text

AbstractThis mixed-methods study explored the conversation around orthorexia nervosa (ON) on Instagram from a Russian-speaking perspective. Two quantitative data sources were implemented; a comparative content analysis of posts tagged with #opтopeкcия (n = 234) and #orthorexia (n = 243), and an online questionnaire completed by Russian-speakers (n = 96) sharing ON-related content on Instagram. Additionally, five questionnaire participants were interviewed, four of which identified with having (had) ON. Russian-speakers who share ON-related content on Instagram are primarily female, around their late-twenties, and prefer Instagram over other platforms. They describe people with ON as obsessed with correct eating, rather than healthy or clean eating. Instagram appears to have a dual effect; it has the potential to both trigger the onset of ON and encourage recovery. Positive content encourages a healthy relationship with food, promotes intuitive eating, and spread recovery advice. Harmful content, in turn, emphasizes specific diet and beauty ideals. Russian-speaking users mainly post pictures of food, followed by largely informative text that explains what ON is, and what recovery may look like. Their reasons for posting ON-related content are to share personal experiences, support others in recovery, and raise awareness about ON. Two main target audiences were people unaware of ON and people seeking recovery support. The relationship between ON and social media is not strictly limited to the global north. Thus, it may be valuable to further investigate non-English-speaking populations currently underrepresented in ON research.Level of evidence: Level V, descriptive study.

scholarly journals Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 672-689
Author(s):  
Vlada Baranova ◽  
Kapitolina Fedorova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
The One ◽  
Everyday Reality

AbstractThe study deals with linguistic prejudices of citizens of the two main Russian cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, toward speakers of foreign languages. It aims to reveal possible recent changes in the language ideology dominating Russian society. Monolingual and linguistically normative orientations rooted in the Soviet ideological approach are being challenged nowadays by global processes of migration and cultural diversification, which influence the everyday reality of Russian megalopolises. The research is based on the analysis of two sets of data: (1) meta-discourse on language attitudes derived from interviews with labor migrants and native Russian speakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and posts and comments on issues of language, migration, and linguistic landscapes, collected from websites and social media and (2) linguistic landscape data collected in 2016–2019, mainly in St. Petersburg, which reflect recent changes in attitude toward linguistic diversity in public space. These data show, on the one hand, that most city dwellers still relate to monolingual speech norms and try to implement control over public space; on the other hand, that the tolerance toward multilingual communication has been increasing over the years. The study suggests that these “first cracks” in monolinguals facades of Russian cities could eventually lead to the establishing of a less rigid language regime.

scholarly journals Russian soft power in the Baltic States through the lens of research: traditions, competition, confrontation

Baltic Region ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Vladislav V. Vorotnikov ◽  
Natalia A. Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Hard Power ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
The Baltic

In this article, we aim to analyse the research discourse in the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) as regards Russian soft power, which is considered as hard power, and to compare the theses that dominate this discourse with the actual interactions between Russia and the three states in media, education, and culture. Each Baltic country has built a system of political and legal restrictions to diminish the effect of Russian soft power, which is considered in terms of hard power, i.e. as a threat to national security. The current forms of Russian soft power are becoming less productive in the region and their use in the negative political context of bilateral relations has the opposite effect for Russia – the country loses in reputation and image. The main factor at play is the information content of the Russian-language media space. At odds with the historical and political views of a significant part of the Baltic States’ ruling class, it is becoming the target of counteraction. At the same time, Russian high and mass culture and, partly, educational services are in demand from both Baltic Russian speakers and ethnic Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians. Our analysis shows that the views of Baltic researchers that Russian soft power is politics-driven and foreign to the region are exaggerated and biased. In its turn, Russian soft power in the Baltics retains the potential to aid the country’s foreign policy, being a complement to the latter rather than its direct tool.

scholarly journals NATIVE LANGUAGE IDENTIFICATION FOR RUSSIAN USING ERRORS TYPES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. V. Remnev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Group ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Identification ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Shared Task ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Russian Research

The task of recognizing the author’s native (Native Language Identification—NLI) language based on a texts, written in a language that is non-native to the author—is the task of automatically recognizing native language (L1). The NLI task was studied in detail for the English language, and two shared tasks were conducted in 2013 and 2017, where TOEFL English essays and essay samples were used as data. There is also a small number of works where the NLI problem was solved for other languages. The NLI problem was investigated for Russian by Ladygina (2017) and Remnev (2019). This paper discusses the use of well-established approaches in the NLI Shared Task 2013 and 2017 competitions to solve the problem of recognizing the author’s native language, as well as to recognize the type of speaker—learners of Russian or Heritage Russian speakers. Native language identification task is also solved based on the types of errors specific to different languages. This study is data-driven and is possible thanks to the Russian Learner Corpus developed by the Higher School of Economics (HSE) Learner Russian Research Group on the basis of which experiments are being conducted.

scholarly journals ESTONIAN ITEMS IN THE INTERNET DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING POPULATION OF ESTONIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-342
Author(s):  
Alessandra Dezi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Figurative Speech ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Estonian Language ◽  
Lexical Content

The Estonian influence on the discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia has drawn the attention of many researchers. The insertion of elements of Estonian in the discourse of Russian speakers is analysed and systematised from different points of view. Research has been conducted on formal aspects of code switching and on more pragmatic language aspects on the basics of different material (e.g. spoken language, jargons and dialects, advertisements, journalistic texts). However, the influence of the Estonian language in the discourse of Russian speaking groups of Estonia has not been fully studied, especially with internet sources, which can give an idea of the currently relevant processes of spoken language. This paper is part of a larger research project in which we plan to compare the functions of foreign language items in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Italy and Estonia. In this paper, however, the main focus is on the lexical content of Estonian insertions in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia and on two of its main functions. Namely, the identifying reference function and the figurative speech function. Data was collected from different forums and Facebook groups. The analysis of the collected material shows that the insertion of Estonian items occurs very frequently when the communicants discuss bureaucratic-administrative spheres, space, and time. Those Estonian insertions are very often used in order to clearly identify the object of their conversation. Longer insertions are often used within the figurative speech function, which conveys the characteristics of the speech, of the speaker and the evaluative characteristics. The study of the influence of the Estonian language on the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia in the future will allow a deeper understanding of formal and functional aspects of the Estonian language, such as the morphological and syntactic features of the language and the semantic and pragmatic meaning of certain Estonian words and particles. Furthermore, this research will contribute to the study of the problems connected with language contacts.

scholarly journals The Associative Dictionary of Media Events in the Early XXI Century: a New Lexicographic Concept

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1069-1078
Author(s):  
Ya. A. Dudareva ◽  
N. N. Shpilnaya ◽  
T. V. Moskvitina
Keyword(s):  
Special Problem ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Media Events ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Media ◽  
Cultural Linguistics ◽  
Media Event

The article introduces a new concept of the Associative Dictionary of Media Events of the Early XXI Century. The project continues the traditions of common lexicography. As a rule, common lexicography is part of a special problem field described by various antinomies, e.g. objective vs. subjective in the language, individual vs. collective, descriptive vs. prescriptive approaches to the lexical representation in dictionaries, etc. The new dictionary represents a snapshot of everyday media consciousness and thus belongs to descriptive lexicographic projects. The dictionary is based on an associative experiment that involved Russian and French speakers. While traditional associative dictionaries contain the most frequent vocabulary, this project represents the conceptual meanings of various media events that exist in the everyday collective consciousness. The new dictionary belongs to media linguistics, descriptive lexicography, and interpretive linguistics. The present article describes the technology of its compilation, substantiates its relevance and novelty, and offers a sample entry using the case of the COVID-19 pandemic and its representation in the Russian language. Each media event consisted of two associative nests: one was based on the reactions of respondents who were familiar with the stimulus, whereas the other demonstrated reactions of participants unfamiliar with the media event. The epidemic being global, such key lexemes as "covid" and "coronavirus" lost their agnonymity for Russian speakers, and the media event appeared to have a zero agnonymous associative nest. The paper also provides a linguistic commentary on the covid entry, which summed up all the reactions received during the associative experiment. The lexicographic project can be of interest to specialists in media, political, cognitive, and cultural linguistics.

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