scholarly journals Phatic Speech Diachrony: Editor’s Welcome Speech in Russian Popular Science Journalism of the First Half of the 18th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-511
Author(s):  
A. A. Malyshev
Author(s):  
Alan G. Gross

The sublime evokes our awe, our terror, and our wonder. Applied first in ancient Greece to the heights of literary expression, in the 18th-century the sublime was extended to nature and to the sciences, enterprises that viewed the natural world as a manifestation of God's goodness, power, and wisdom. In The Scientific Sublime, Alan Gross reveals the modern-day sublime in popular science. He shows how the great popular scientists of our time--Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, Rachel Carson, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and E. O. Wilson--evoke the sublime in response to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? How did life? How did language? These authors maintain a tradition initiated by Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Adam Smith, towering 18th-century figures who adapted the literary sublime first to nature, then to science--though with one crucial difference: religion has been replaced wholly by science. In a final chapter, Gross explores science's attack on religion, an assault that attempts to sweep permanently under the rug two questions science cannot answer: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of the good life?


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 9-42
Author(s):  
Jakub Kościukiewicz

The article was based on a fragment of the author’s doctoral dissertation entitled The birth of cello as a solo instrument – instruments, practice, and selected literature examples (Academy of Music in Łódź, chapter The evolution of cello in the 17th century) and consists of two parts. The first part outlines of the evolution of cello from its birth in the 16th century to the 18th century (the text is supplemented with illustrations), whereas the second part describes the role and use of cello in music of that period. The introduction to the article includes a critical reference to the list of academic and popular science publications therein, in Polish and other languages, touching on the cello issue in the 17th and 18th centuries. The historical part touches on the circumstances of how the violin family emerged with a special attention paid to bass representatives of that group of instruments. Following a detailed analysis of preserved instruments, their reliable copies, luthier publications, illustrations and treatises from that period, the author discussed the construction of the earlies cellos. Apart from data concerning sizes and scale length of these instruments, the article includes information about their body, neck, fingerboard (with slope angle), bridge and tailpiece, materials they were made of, and types and gauge of strings used at that time. It also describes cello tuning methods. Moreover, the author mentions different types of cello (piccolo, da spalla, basse de violon) and different ways of how it was held. A separate issue are the bows, especially types of bows, their evolution and ways of holding. This part of the article is concluded with a list of different names of bass variants of the violin used in the 16th and 17th centuries before the name cello/violoncello finally settled. The second part of the article elaborates on the most important functions of cello: as a consort instrument, a universal continuo instrument or a solo instrument. Cello (along with viola da gamba or dulcian/bassoon) managed especially well as a melodic instrument co-rendering the continuo parts, and the result was that the basso continuo became the most important domain of cello in the Baroque, having a significant influence on the shape of playing technique and performance practice of that instrument. As one of melodic bass instruments, cello performed an important role in shaping the concertante style, along with the violin, shawm/oboe, cornet or flute. It was that practice combined with the improvisation practice developed simultaneously (which also influenced the development of the instrument itself) that the idea to write first autonomous compositions for the cello (solo, chamber or with basso continuo) emerged from at the end of the 17th century. Continuation of this article, which shall be devoted to Baroque works for the cello and their composers, will be published in the following issue of “Notes Muzyczny”.


Author(s):  
Harald Hornmoen

The article explores how scientific research and scientists are represented visually in popular science and science journalism. It discusses communicative functions and cultural meanings of visual elements in science stories. Drawing on concepts from the visual grammar developed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, the author indicates how different kinds of modality are used to address the audience in popular science articles in Scientific American and Illustrert Vitenskap (a Scandinavian magazine). It is argued that the visual elements in popular scientific magazines conventionally are arranged in a manner coinciding with a pedagogical/educational intent typical of much popular science, taking the readers from a reality they are presumed to have experienced towards more abstract scientific knowledge. However, the two magazines analyzed differ markedly with respect to the audience competence they implicate in their visual representations. The level of visual abstraction in Scientific American contributes to creating an identity for its audience as belonging to well educated and advanced elites, as opposed to the images of Illustrert Vitenskap, where the emphasis to a larger extent is on a naturalistic coding. The author goes on to discuss how photographs, visual composition and verbal text work together in a multimodal rhetoric typical of many science and health stories in Norwegian newspapers.   


Author(s):  
Galina I. Sinkevich ◽  
◽  
Olga V. Solov'eva ◽  

The article is a publication of the first Russian printed work on the Russian history of mathematics. It is dedicated to the ancient Russian numeral systems and was published anonymously in 1787 in the “New monthly works” of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The author tells about the Old Russian numeral system, Russian calendar and commercial account. In the popular science editions of the 18th century Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences there were many publications on the history of sciences, arts, crafts, the history of discoveries and inventions in other countries. At the same time, there was a clear lack of publications on the history of Russian culture. Russian scientists were dissatisfied with the interpretation of Russian history presented by the historiographer of the Russian state, an academician G. F. Müller, as well as with descriptions of Russia and its history by other foreign authors. In the Catherine’s time, many articles appeared, sometimes anonymous, defending the originality and ancientry of Russian culture. To analyze the data on the authorship of the work, the popular scientific editions of Academy in the 18th century and are described, information about their authors is presented, hypotheses are expressed, and the terminology of the article and the names mentioned in it are commented.


Via Latgalica ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Sandra Ūdre ◽  
Ivars Magazeiņs

The translation of the “Linguoterritorial Dictionary of Latgale” into the Latgalian language (one of 4 languages of the dictionary) is the biggest large-volume comprehensive set of existent Latgalian texts in the Latgalian orthography of 2007. The subject matter of the entries of this dictionary covers almost all spheres of life and even reveals style nuances within the framework of popular science texts, so the texts may sometimes seem to be radical and unprecedentedly innovative. The translators would be happy to keep to the current orthographic norms and practice-fixed options of Latgalian, however, answers to the numerous problematic issues (the display of Latvian personal names, palatalization/ softening of foreign words, suffix endings of less- used nouns, etc.) cannot be found in the sources known to specialists working with Latgalian literary/ written language, and sometimes may be resolved through individual consultations with experts of the Latgalian language This shows the need to resume / renew the work of the subcomission of Latgalian written language, as well as the necessity of a modern Latgalian spelling dictionary. Regarding lexical issues, the translators are aware that Latgalian texts may always be "pulled in one specific direction”, and then the right arguments are found: 1) in the direction of Lithuanian culture layer (understanding of the basis of the Balts parent language), in the direction of Slavic culture layer (recognition of the natural historical reality when Polish or Russian dominated in Latgale, retaining their influence), in the direction of Latvian (definition of the national identity), 2) it is possible to “fall into the ditch” of neologisms or archaisms, 3) it is also possible to overestimate the role of the recipient (understanding or non-acceptance). The observation of the “golden midway” seemed to be the most difficult challenge. During the search for more accurate equivalents, the synonym group was always determined, as well as compliance of the dominated seme with any context was weighted. The choice of equivalents is made easy not by the richness of the synonym group, but by the oppositional character of their meanings (Rozenbergs 1995: 153). This paper describes the realized principles and most typical cases during the translator work. First, individual style of translators is preserved, therefore in the use of neutral lexemes in the “Linguoterritorial Dictionary of Latgale” synonymy is allowed, which is non-determined by other criteria, such as: saulis grīžki / saulis meitovys ‘solstice’, ci/voi ‘or’, nedeļa/savaite ‘week’, gastēt/cīmuotīs ‘to be visiting’. Second, in other cases, when a number of Latgalian equivalents correspond to only one Latvian equivalent, the qualitative difference of synonyms was searched for (on the functional level and seme level). For example: 1) there are three Latgalian equivalents to Latvian "tulkot” ‘translate, interpret’, one of which “tulkuot” (respectively tulkuojums, tulkuotuojs ‘translation, translator’) is used to denote professional translation, however “puorlikt” (calque of germanism “übersetzen”) is used, when speaking about the translations of sacred/ spiritual texts of the 18th century. In its turn, “atvērst” (compare with Lithuanian “versti”) is not used due to the misleading homonymy with Latvian “vērst” ‘to turn, direct, point); 2) Latvian word "saimniecība” ‘economy, industry, farm, housekeeping’ in Latgalian texts corresponds to saimnīceiba "zyvu saimnīceiba” ‘fish industry’ as well as to saimisteiba "zemnīku saimesteiba” (farm, resp. economic entity); 3) Latvian "deja” ‘dance’ - Latgalian "dzyga" as an ethnographic dance, "daņcs” as any dance, "deja” in usual compound names (e.g. Dzīšmu i deju svātki) 4) Latvian "virsnieks” ‘military officer’ – Latgalian "oficers” and not "viersnīks” in order to avoid the misunderstood homonymy with the Latgalian lexeme “vierseiba / vierseibnīks” ‘management, authorities / boss’. Third, etymological specificity of Latgalian equivalent may limit its use, and in other contexts another lexeme has to be used, e. g. the denotative seme of the Latvian lexeme "zupa” is - ‘liquid food, meal’, but Latgalian “virīņs” – 'cooked food/meal’, so in the word combination "soltuo zupa” ‘cold soup’ another lexeme "zupa” is necessary. It is usual, that “behavior” against occasionalisms is favorable in artistic texts, but they are irrelevant/ impertinent in scientific and popular style. However, translators took the liberty to use not only widely accepted neologisms (e. g. “škārsteiklys” ‘internet’), but also to offer their own occasional neologisms (dreizynuot, mudrynuot ‘to accelerate, to speed on’, tuoļuokuot ‘to continue’, parūceibys ‘advantage’, sasprīdums ‘decision’, pasavierieji ‘spectators, onlookers’, ītums ‘course of life; annual, day, week set’, apdzeive ‘ancient settlement’, breinuojums ‘astonishment, wonder’, pasūlejumu palete ‘a set of offers’, zeimyns ‘brand, trade mark’, makšariešona ‘fishing, angling’, daīmameiba ‘accessibility, availability’, seneiba ‘ancient times’, augzeme ‘top soil’, perekļuot ‘to nest’, svešlītyns ‘foreign body’). However, the following principle, that is firmly adhered, is that new word / formation/derivation is recognizable by the root and experimental by affixes.


Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 591-598
Author(s):  
Natalia A. Prokofeva

The purpose of the research is to demonstrate the functioning of key words in the texts of popular science journalism. Modern media text is created not only to inform, but to attract the reader. This enlarges the role of contact-building means, for example – the address to the epoch key words. We consider the peculiarities of phatic meanings in popular science journalism, dedicated to the historic themes. The research contains the analysis of phatic meanings in two randomly chosen issues of historic magazines. The result of the analysis is the selection of two groups of key words, which make the journalistic text contain additional phatic meanings. The first group of words is the current key words, allowing relating the publication, containing the address to a historical event or a historical person, to the actual reality. This lexical group allows the journalist to make the publication politically critical and topical and also to evaluate the current political situation through the historical parallel. Such word usage allows including ironic subtext in the historical journalism. The second group of words is the key words of a single publication; they allow completely characterizing an event or a person, being in the center of a journalist’s attention. These are the words, which relate to the acute for the Russian culture value meanings. They stay aside with the complete semantics and characterize the speech subject, the journalist’s relation to it, but they do not relate the theme to the current political situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Oksana Kyrylova

This article is relevant because there is a need for scientific differentiation of two related categories of modern communication: science journalism and popular science journalism. There is no stable approach to this problem in the Ukrainian discourse, and the current normative documents force the editorial offices to determine the type of activity not according to the specifics of the media, but according to the list available, for example, in GOST. The object of the research were world and Ukrainian media specialized in scientific topics: “Cosmos”, “Popular Science”, “Discover”, “Scientific American”, “Kunsht”, “Spilne”, “Svitohliad”, “Vselennaya, prostranstvo, vremya”, “Science Ukraine”, “Alpha Centauri”, “Nauka i tekhnika”, “Kraina znan”, “Vichnyi mandrivnyk”, “Lokalna istoriia”, “Istoriia. Novyi pohliad”, “Malovidoma istoriia: daleke i blyzke”. At the same time, we analyzed digital practices (web resources), as well as traditional paper media (magazines). The subject of study is the peculiarities of the definition of scientific and popular science journalism and the complexity of the typology of the corresponding media. The main research method was comparative analysis, which, supported by discourse analysis, made it possible, firstly, to compare the existing scientific views on the categories of “scientific journalism” and “popular science journalism” and highlight the main features of each. Secondly, using these methods, an analysis of the world’s leading resources specializing in science journalism was carried out and parallels with this type of Ukrainian media were made. The result of the study is the typological differentiation of modern Ukrainian media resources. The study was based on the hypothesis that the characteristics of the audience and the functional specificity of the resource are decisive factors in terms of differentiation of the media as science and popular science. According to it, those media that are oriented towards advanced users, focus on the latest achievements of science and technology and restrained use online opportunities, almost without resorting to methods of edutainment and sciencetainment, we attribute to the channels of science journalism. The media that combine directions for the mass user, focus on the educational component and different popular pseudo-scientific topics with prolonged potential relevance, we refer to popular science journalism. Taking into audience and functional factors we include following projects of science journalism: “Kunsht”, “Spilne”, “Svitohliad”, “Vselennaya, prostranstvo, vremya”, “Science Ukraine”, “Alpha Centauri”, “Nauka i tekhnika”, “Kraina znan”. “Vichnyi mandrivnyk”, “Lokalna istoriia”, “Istoriia. Novyi pohliad”, “Malovidoma istoriia: daleke i blyzke” we refer to popular science journalism.


Author(s):  
S.V. Tsyb ◽  
T.V. Kaigorodova

The article deals with the process of transformation of the old handwritten tradition of describing Paskhaliya into a printed one. Understanding the calculations of the day of Easter was important for the daily life of the population of Ancient Rus, and therefore Old Russian writers paid attention to describing the rules of Easter calculations. For a long time, these descriptions took the form of handwritten manuscripts. After the reforms of Peter the Great in Russia, works of this genre began to take the form of printed editions. The authors aim to consider the features of the transformation of the handwritten manuscripts into modern books. As part of study, it has been found that the descriptions of Paskhaliya, published in the typographic way first, tried to repeat the handwritten samples, but then began to turn into popular descriptions of the rules for calculating Easter. Moreover, the authors of these writings looked to the development of new ways of calculating the dates of the Easter celebration. It has been linked to the fact that after the authors-priests (18th century), secular writers (journalists, officials, officers, etc.) joined the genre of describing Paskhaliya in the first half of the 19th century. The way of transformation of Paskhalistics into an entertaining genre of popular-science literature became likely, but in the second half of the 19th century the representatives of academic science restored the scientific status of this field of knowledge. At present, the achievements of the science of Paskhaliya have become an important element in the study of the chronology of ancient Russian history. In modern science, studying the history of timekeeping, Paskhalistics became one of the necessary elements for studying the chronology of ancient Russian history. It can be recognized that the printed editions of Paskhaliya played an important role in the development of modern chronological science.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document