Russian Text Author’s Gender Identification in Forensic Examination: Probability-and-Statistics Method

The article discusses intermediate research results in the development and improvement of a computerized model of Russian texts authorization, which is based on complex application of probabilistic-and-statistical methods. The study aims to describe the new capabilities of the created system in the aspect of its application to diagnostic examinations in text authorization for detection of the gender of the alleged author of the text. The work presents the next stage of fine-tuning and testing of the improved version of the computer program "CTA" (computerized text authorization), which at this stage was adapted for the task of determining and comparing stable relative frequencies of correlation coefficients (the ratio of specified linguistic phenomena of different levels of the language system) in the texts, the authors of which are men and women. The research material is the continuously updated primary bases of literary texts of the 19 th and 21 st centuries (4 bases, respectively). The work shows that for the texts written by men and women, significant differences can be noted in such correlation coefficients as average word length, average sentence length, objectivity coefficient, quality coefficient, activity coefficient, dynamism coefficient, connectivity coefficient, etc. Verification of the results obtained experimentally has demonstrated that the accuracy of gender determining at this stage of the study is approximately 65%. This indicator can be significantly exceeded with an increase in the volume and quality specification of databases and/or when using new models for calculating the correlation coefficients (Spearman's model, etc.).

Methods of translation culture-specific vocabulary into English in translation of Russian classical literature (on the example of A. Chekhov’s stories)

Translating a text, especially when it comes to fiction, one of the main problems is to find appropriate and qualitative methods of translating culture-determined words. Therefore, a number of decisions made by the translator defines how a given text will be perceived by readers of a different culture. This article presents a comparative analysis of the culture-specific vocabulary of the original Russian text and the text of the translation, followed by the identification of vocabulary features given in the original text and the methods of its translation into English.

Andrey A. Winius (1641–1716), vertaler van fabels

Andrey A. Winius (1641–1716) was born in Moscow in the family of Andrey D. Winius (1605–1662), Dutch merchant and manufacturer who lived in Russia from 1632 until his death. Winius junior was a high-ranking statesman who contributed a lot to Peter the Great’s reforms, which made Russia a Europe-oriented power. In 1674 he translated Vondel’s Vorsteliicke warande der dieren (1617) into Russian, supplementing this collection of fables with several texts from the Theatrum Morum by Aegidius Sadeler (1608). The Russian text, entitled The Theatre of Human Life, was distributed in handwritten form. In 1712, The Theatre was published in Moscow. In this article we analyze the Russian version of four fables in order to identify similarities with the sources and the changes Winius made. Besides shortening the original, he also sometimes supplemented the fables with his own moralistic thoughts. In these additions he urged readers to live honestly, respect each other, and not drink too much alcohol. In this way he tried to transfer humanistic ethical values that were common in Western Europe to the Russian society of the 17th century.

Ալ. Սպենդիարյանի «Ալմաստ» օպերայի լիբրետոն և Հովհ. Թումանյանի «Թմկաբերդի առումը» պոեմը

Alexander Spendiarian was touched by the poem The Taking of Tmkaberd, which examines the problem of the eternal struggle between good and evil.The idea of the immortality of the best human deed, and the condemnation of betrayal, coming from time immemorial and also existing in the sacred Christian books, touched both Tumanian and Spendiarian. Although Tumanian was unable to write the libretto for the opera Almast due to extreme business, he inspired the composer orally. The author of the libretto Sofia Parnok, while writing it, was familiar with the historical image of Nadir Shah and with the Russian translations of the works by Hovhannes Tumanyan. The opera Almast includes excerpts that Parnok borrowed from the poem Anush. Tigran Hakhumian, the Armenian translator of the opera libretto, while translating it from the Russian text, remained close to the language and style of Tumanian. The personage of the woman betraying the hero of the opera “Almast"” and of the poem “The Taking of Tmkaberd” is a wandering plot; it is also present in the folklore and literature of other peoples. Both Tumanian and Spendiarian were inspired by the fact that the traitor was punished by the unforgettable stigma of his black deed for centuries.

Identification of argumentative sentences in Russian scientific and popular science texts

In this study we analyze the applicability of specific machine learning algorithms to the task of detecting sentences containing argumentation in Russian text. We employ a collection of scientific and popular science texts with manually annotated argumentation to evaluate the quality of identifying argumentative sentences in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure. The experiment involves three algorithms: MNB, SVM, and MLP. The bag of words model is used for representing texts. Lemmas of words in analyzed sentences serve as features for the classification. We perform the automatic selection of informative features in accordance with Variance and χ2 criteria combined with the weight-based filtration of lemmas (via TF*IDF and EMI). The training set includes around 800 sentences, while the test set contains 180. The MNB algorithm demonstrates the highest F-measure and recall scores on almost all feature sets (maximal values reached equal 68.7% and 89% respectively), while the MLP algorithm shows the best precision for about half of feature selection variations (the maximal value is 72.5%).

Language of Space in Live of Saint Erasmus

The article is devoted to the consideration of the category of space in the Old Russian text. The text of the live of Erasmus was used for analysis. The novelty of the work lies in the reference to the text of the monument, in which the category of space was not previously considered. The research is based on nominative vocabulary with spatial meaning. In the course of consideration, various types of spaces in the live were identified: real-geographical, urban, sacred, biblical, symbolic. The axiological attitude of the genre becomes important for understanding space in live: space is interpreted in a religious-symbolic way. It is showed in the article that the living space is built horizontally and vertically. It is emphasized that the horizontal movement of the hero reflects the movement of the hero in the geographic space. The path is understood both literally and metaphorically. Particular attention is paid to the opposition of the top and bottom that is significant for the text of the live: the top is associated with the divine, the bottom is associated with the concept of the devil. It shows how the biblical space is created by references to the biblical text. The symbolic space is also associated with vertical opposition and has a religious and ethical interpretation: the image of the city of the saint appears, intended for the righteous. The axiological attitude is also reflected in the transformation of space or its overcoming when describing some miracles in the text.

STYLISTIC PECULIARITIES OF A BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL AS A PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY B. JOHNSON “THE CHURCHILL FACTOR: HOW ONE MAN MADE HISTORY”)

The paper is concerned with stylistic peculiarities of W. Churchill’s biography written by B. Johnson and published in the USA in 2014 [1] in terms of their preservation in the Russian translation made by A. Galaktionov in 2015 [2]. The author of the biography is convinced that it was W. Churchill who played a crucial role in the victory over fascist Germany and arranging the after war Europe. Churchill is presented as a very strong personality - exceptionally strong and brave in his young days and domineering and very influential in the years of manhood. Much attention is given to Churchill’s journalistic and literary activities. The main character of the book is described through a great number of vivid metaphors, similes, epithets, repetitions, etc. The author is not afraid to make his narration emotional and evaluative. Many of the stylistic devices call for the translator’s special attention, it is necessary to consider the appropriateness of preserving the imagery in view of another addressee. Unfortunately, the translator often resorts to literal translation and introduces the devices used by the author into the Russian text ignoring the peculiarities of the receiving language and culture.

LEXICAL PECULIARITIES OF RUSSIAN TALES’ TRANSLATION INTO UDIHE LANGUAGE

В статье рассмотрены переводы трех русских народных сказкок: «Теремок», «Репка», «Курочка Ряба», а также литературной авторской «Сказки о рыбаке и рыбке» А. С. Пушкина. Целью данного исследования является анализ особенностей перевода с точки зрения лексической и грамматической составляющих. К ним относятся особенности перевода названий и характеристик персонажей сказок, заимствованная лексика, точность переводчика при передаче текста (адекватность, эквивалентность перевода). В предлагаемой статье данные переводы рассматриваются впервые с момента их появления. Удэгейский перевод двух народных сказок соответствует оригиналам. Перевод пушкинской сказки очень близок к русскому оригиналу, хотя имеется ряд отличий. Перевод русской народной сказки «Теремок» на удэгейский язык существенно отличается от оригинала. Translation of three Russian folk tales: “The Little House”, “The Turnip”, and “Ryaba the Hen”, and one A. Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” is analyzed there in the present paper. In the paper these translations are observed for the first time since the moment of their appearance in 1999. The purpose of the analysis is to distinguish lexical and/or grammatical peculiarities of translation of Russian fairy texts into Udihe language. We describe correspondence of titles and characters of the tales, borrowings from Russian into Udihe, translator’s accuracy in interpretation of Russian texts (texts’ adequacy). We come to the conclusion that the translation of two Russian folk tales — “The Turnip”, and “Ryaba the Hen” — completely corresponds to Russian original texts. The Udihe translation of A. Pushkin’s tale is quite close to Russian text although it has several different features. The Udihe translation of the Russian folk tale “The Little House” essentially differs from Russian original text.

B. Tishchenko’s music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” in the context of the revival of Russian symphonic style in the 1960s–1970s

This article analyzes the music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” by the prominent Russian composer of the late XX century B. Tishchenko (1939–2010). The written and staged in 1974 ballet has become one of the most remarkable musical achievements of that time. Emphasis is palced on the fact that Tishchenko composed “Yaroslavna” using all available modern orchestral means of expression on the basis of the Old Russian text “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”. Tishchenko did not seek stylization of his work, but brought the word of the nameless chronicler closer to modern era. He introduces choir to the ballet music to augment its power. The author features Tishchenko's outstanding work with orchestral texture and various instrumental timbres and colors. The novelty of this research lies in studying the music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” in the context of general vector of the revival of Russian symphonic style in the 1960s–1970s. The author notes the leading role of Boris Tishchenko in this remarkable process. The conclusion is made that the composition turned out to be multigenre, consisting of multiple parts; and that Tishchenko has broadened musical lexicon of the Russian music culture to the maximum. The music to the ballet was saturated with truly symphonic content, opened new artistic paths, and enriched modern orchestral palette.

Reading (?) Vives in Sixteenth-Century Russia

This article provides an annotated edition, along with an English translation, of a relatively neglected sixteenth-century Russian text claimed to be a response to Juan Luis Vives’s renowned commentary on Augustine’s De civitate Dei. The Words against Juan Luis Vives was composed by Maximus the Greek, who was a central figure in Russian culture during the first half of the sixteenth century. As this article demonstrates, Maximus’ text serves as a revealing summary of what constituted the negative attitude towards Renaissance thought at the Muscovite court. This article also investigates the grounds on which Maximus based his critical remarks; there is a strong argument to assume that Maximus had never, in fact, read Vives’s commentary on Augustine.