Longing for the Truth as One of the Semantic Sides of the TRUTH Concept Verbalized in the Lexemes pravda, truth and verdad (Based on Russian, English and Spanish Proverbs and Sayings)

This paper is written within the framework of cognitive linguistics and is part of a series of articles devoted to the cognitive attribute of justice in the context of studying the concepts PRAVDA, TRUTH and VERDAD in Russian, English and Spanish linguistic cultures. Based on proverbs and sayings containing the lexemes pravda in Russian, truth in English and verdad in Spanish, the authors had in earlier works considered the cognitive features of the idea of truth as justice and singled out the following groups of logemes (term by P.V. Chesnokov): 1) the need for truth/justice in the life of society; 2) the power of truth/justice; 3) disbelief in truth/justice. The purpose of this paper was to further reveal and describe new semantic aspects of the aforementioned concepts reflecting the idea of justice. As a result, the authors distinguished another common semantic group of logemes, defined as longing for the truth/justice. The authors note that paroemias containing the idea of longing for the truth form the final group of logemes of the cognitive attribute of justice. The semantic-cognitive analysis of paroemias revealed that only in Russian proverbs life without the truth is presented as unbearable, forcing a person to fight for the truth, sacrificing his/her life. English proverbs recognize the inaccessibility of the truth, pitiful and helpless truth, doomed to suffer from the human evil. In Spanish paroemias, one can trace the suffering of both the person and the truth itself from mutual misunderstanding. In all the linguistic cultures under consideration, the hope for justice does not die but, currently, its expectation is less painful for English-speaking nations than for the Russians and Spaniards. The results of this study can be useful for linguists and translators dealing with theoretical and practical issues of cognitive linguistics and, in particular, issues of intercultural communication in Russian, English and Spanish.

Image Actualization of the First Lady Within the Framework of Image Stereotyping of the President in the Media (Exemplified by the 43rd and 45th US Presidents and Their Wives)

This article aims to reveal the specifics of the actualization of the family image within the framework of image stereotyping of a politician in mass media. For several decades, mass media discourse has been paying special attention to the personal lives of political leaders and opinion leaders, satisfying the needs of readers eager to learn what they are like in everyday life and personal relationships. This study provides a definition of the concept of a politician’s communicative behaviour, shaping his speech portrait, which is to a large extent formed through the media. The speech portrait is made up of the politician’s rhetoric (either conservative or liberal) implemented in public speeches. At the same time, a politician’s image often depends on mass media, more precisely, on their attitude towards him/her, the narration about the politician’s family playing an important role in this. The empirical material of this study includes newspaper articles of the English-language periodicals The Guardian and Politico from 2009–2020, writing about the presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush and their family members. These periodicals are of interest due to their political orientation, within the framework of which the images of these politicians and their family members are shaped. Turning to comparative analysis, the author identified the relationship between a politician’s image and the representation of his family members in the press. In addition, discourse analysis was used, logically supplemented with linguoculturological and sociopragmalinguistic modelling of communicative interaction. The research found that mass media discourse presents the politicians’ family life through the representation of their wives, often with gender stereotyping. Moreover, there is a clear process of delimiting the spouses in newspaper discourse, i.e. the image of a politician does not always affect the image of his wife, which means that they are viewed independently from each other.

Semantic Transformations of the Lexeme mentalitet (‘Mentality’) in the Metaphorical Models of the Subject-Predicate Relationship

This article presents a new stage of the research project on the frontal analysis of conditions and results of contextual actualization of lexemes representing the Russian concept MENTALITET/MENTAL’NOST’ (‘MENTALITY’). Here, the author studied the word mentalitet (‘mentality’) in non-usual subject-predicate combinations. The aim was to analyse semantic transformations of the lexeme mentalitet in the conceptual metaphorical models of reification and animation. L.O. Cherneiko’s method of cognitive interpretation of abstract words and the method of conceptual analysis elaborated by Nizhny Novgorod Conceptological School were applied in the paper. For material the author turned to the Russian National Corpus. The scientific value of the article consists in introducing a new aspect of conceptual analysis, i.e. conceptual metaphorical transformations of the word mentalitet in subject-predicate combinations. The key findings are as follows: 1) in the contexts of conceptual metaphorical reification, the lexeme mentalitet is interpreted as a sensually perceived object: a concrete thing, device, mechanism, material (substance); 2) in the contexts of conceptual metaphorical animation, mentalitet is perceived as a living, rationally and efficiently acting being endowed with consciousness, emotions and will. The author comes to the conclusion that this borrowed abstract concept has been to a large extent appropriated by the Russian linguistic worldview. The paper makes a sufficient contribution to contemporary cognitively oriented linguoculturological research strategies as well as to the theory and practice of conceptual analysis. The practical value of the article lies in the opportunity to use its main results in journalism and PR projects, as well as in compiling a new type of concept dictionaries and in linguistic examination of media texts.

Vaccination vs Microchipping: Triggers of Eschatological Mythology in the Context of Anti-Epidemic Measures

The coronavirus epidemic and anti-epidemic measures, such as quarantine restrictions on social activity, wide use of disinfectants, requirements for the use of personal protective equipment, as well as changes in church liturgy, rituals and sacraments lead to the creation of medical conspiracy myths. This article analyses two most important conspiracy mythologemes that are formed as a result of a conspiracy interpretation of the epidemic: the vaccination mythologeme and the microchipping mythologeme. The author proceeds from the assumption that modern eschatological conspiracy myths are based on the original non-eschatological myth, which provided a rational non-religious hermeneutics of epidemics. The eschatological version of the vaccinophobic conspiracy myth is formed on the basis of a non-eschatological conspiracy as a result of medical conspiracy theories merging with the modern version of the technophobic myth. The invariant core of the latter consists of mythologemes and mythotheologemes that interpret modern technologies within the framework of eschatological semiotics. As a result of convergence, these mythologemes form a single mythotheological complex, which, in turn, becomes a trigger for a new eschatological mythology. The paper analyses the semantic structure of this mytho-theological complex, its semiotic features, pragmatic potential and reasons for its popularity. The research was carried out within the framework of a semiotic and hermeneutic study of mythological discourse applying the method of categorical semiotics. As illustrations the author used fragments of original texts posted on conspiracy websites devoted to eschatological issues.

The Structure of Interrogative Sentences with a Nominal Subject in the French Language in a Diachronic Aspect

The article is focused on the study of interrogative sentences with a nominal subject in the French language in terms of structural criteria in a diachronic aspect. The purpose of this study is to reveal the features of the so-called complex inversion in interrogative sentences. Special attention is paid to terminological problems. Pronominal reprise is recognized by the authors as the most correct term for an interrogative construction with a nominal subject duplicated by a personal pronoun. The lack of uniformity in terminology indicates a multidimensional nature of the inversion phenomenon in the French language. For instance, in addition to interrogative sentences, it can be used in other contexts: in simple declarative sentences after certain adverbs, in subordinate clauses after some conjunctions, in exclamatory sentences, etc. The authors highlight and describe the characteristic features of interrogative sentences with a nominal subject in terms of diachrony. Pronominal reprise appears in interrogative constructions as early as in the 16th century, mainly in general questions, subsequently extending to special questions. In the 16th – 17th centuries, the subject did not regularly precede the verb; the same applied to interrogative words, which could be placed both to the left and to the right of the subject. In sentences with a nominal subject, reprise was not the only possible structural option. The following were also used: direct word order, construction question word + est-ce que, and simple inversion. The authors come to the conclusion that pronominal reprise had finally replaced simple inversion of the nominal subject in general questions in French by the end of the 17th century.

Aesthetic Ideas and Concepts of the Hindu Tradition: Specific Features and Analogies

This article deals with the main ideas and basic concepts of Hindu aesthetics. The problem area reveals itself in the question of European culture’s perception of Hindu aesthetics. In this connection, the following questions are actualized: what can be considered as original aesthetic conceptions of Hinduism? is it possible to find direct analogies in other cultures? how relevant and correct is the conceptual apparatus describing various aesthetic phenomena? what is the role of the religious thought in the proposed aesthetic context? Proceeding from the historical and cultural position of aesthetic knowledge as it is presented in the European tradition, key approaches to the phenomenon of the aesthetic are shown, with the ideas of classical German philosophy – the cradle of aesthetic science (A. Baumgarten, I. Kant) – at the centre. The marked heterogeneity of aesthetic knowledge indicates its problematic status in the European historical-philosophical discourse and at the same time allows one to see, against its background, the harmonious place of aesthetics in Hindu culture. It mainly concerns the peculiarities of religious and worldview systems. Further, the paper studies the similarities and differences between the theoretical and ritual ideas and practices in Christianity and Hinduism. In particular, what they have in common is the importance of “threshold people” – liminal personae – in the spiritual life of society. Among the radical differences is the natural embedding of aesthetics in the religious system of India, while for European aesthetics, the religious world is just one of the spheres of the aesthetic. Using the method of comparative text analysis with reference to leading Russian orientalists and foreign researchers (V. Shokhin, D. Zilberman, E. Torchinov, R. Guénon, N. Gupta), the author takes a number of concepts as an example to demonstrate identity of religious and aesthetic ideas in Hindu and European cultures, as well as a possibility of mutual “cultural translation” of such basic concepts as aesthetics, the aesthetic, rasa and bhava.

Evolution of Robert Bridges’ Style Through the Lens of Metaphor

The study of the author’s individual style is an intensively developing area of modern linguistics. Currently, the author’s individual style is considered as a system characterized by both statics and dynamics. Metaphors are some of the most reliable markers of individual style, since they give an idea of the writer’s personality and mental worldview. This article analyses the individual style in the lyric poetry of Robert Bridges, an outstanding English poet of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The obtained results made it possible to establish that the stable part of Bridges’ individual style is a set of concepts forming his conceptual sphere as well as the central opposition of his oeuvre: the microcosm–macrocosm opposition. The varying characteristics of Bridges’ individual style are the ranks of concepts, changes in which are associated with a shift in the focus of the author’s attention and transformation in his worldview. The quantitative changes in Bridges’ later lyric poems compared to the early ones include a growing share of negatively coloured vocabulary and number of substantive metaphors, as well as an increasing variety of metaphorization of certain concepts. The main trends in Bridges’ individual style transformation are the tendency towards compensation, manifesting itself in various aspects of metaphorization, and the tendency towards simplification and concretization. The analysis of the evolution of Bridges’ metaphorical system showed that at the initial stage of his writing, he is equally interested in both the inner world of a person and the outside world, while in his later lyric poems Bridges focuses on the outside world, in particular, society.

Representation of Grotesque Forms in English Internet Memes

This article looks at the grotesque as a stylistic device in English memes. The novelty of the research is determined by the fact that for the first time the grotesque is analysed in detail within the context of such a popular and understudied phenomenon of computer-mediated communication as the Internet meme. The relevance of the paper consists in the necessity of studying the grotesque in the Internet meme with the aim of developing and complementing a coherent theory of Internet memes. The aim of the paper is to examine the functioning of the grotesque in English Internet memes from the perspective of discourse theory, taking into account the distinctive communicative and semiotic nature of these units. The research shows that the grotesque is a common stylistic device in English Internet memes. Such forms of grotesque realization as political underpinning, zoomorphism and the interplay of the present and the past were revealed. It is noted that the political underpinning of the grotesque is manifested when this stylistic device is used to emphasize aspects of the political sphere. As for zoomorphism, this phenomenon is realized when animals are likened to people in a grotesque way. Further, it is demonstrated that the interplay of the present and the past is based on the fantastic and grotesque expression of temporal relations in Internet memes. The empirical evidence testifies that, as a rule, the grotesque in Internet memes acts as a means of creating humour and helps to express the implication of the meme’s author. In addition to that, the findings indicate that the functioning of the grotesque in Internet memes is determined by the multimodal form of these units, which allows one to create an expressive and vivid grotesque image. In conclusion, the article outlines prospects for further study of the grotesque in Internet memes.

Hybrid Wars as a Security Threat in the 21st Century

The article dwells on the phenomenon of hybrid wars as the main forming factor for the system of contemporary international relations. Traditionally, this problem has been solved by military means: the best known systems of international relations of the past were created as a result of large-scale wars. Today, however, forming new systems of international relations this way is impossible. The main obstacle is nuclear weapons, able to cause catastrophic consequences in the case of a world war. Nowadays, the main instrument for achieving domination in the global arena is hybrid warfare, whose main danger is the lack of norms and rules for conducting military operations. The danger for individual states lies in the loss of cultural and civilizational identity, while for the system of international relations, in global instability due to the increasing scale and number of hybrid wars. In conclusion, the author suggests the following solutions to the problem: adopting a programme to counter hybrid wars at the level of individual states and developing common approaches to countering hybrid wars at the level of the global community. The key role in devising the global approach should be played by the United Nations. The UN charter should be supplemented with a definition of a hybrid war and methods of countering it. Moreover, a compromise needs to be reached between the West (first of all, the USA) and Russia. According to the author, this compromise is of primary importance for the military, political, cultural, ideological spheres, etc. In these areas, the opposing parties – Russia and the West – must develop a common vision of solving global problems, first of all, the problem of hybrid wars

Antip Panov from the White Sea Coast in the Historical Memory of Russian Society

This article turns to the episode of the rescue of Peter I by a local peasant Antip Panov during a storm on the White Sea in June 1694 and covers its reflection in the historical memory of Russian society. This incident is confirmed by several written sources, the most valuable being the story of the Arkhangelsk merchant M.A. Mamonov retold by I.I. Golikov, which contains information about the conflict between the tsar and Panov. Until the mid-19th century, all Peter the Great’s biographers mentioned his rescue in a storm in 1694, but kept silent about the conflict. N.G. Ustryalov rejected I.I. Golikov’s information about Panov, who “boldly shouted at the terrible tsar”, considering it an “invention”. At the same time, a complex of historical legends about Panov had been formed, recorded by S.V. Maksimov in 1855. In fact, Antip Panov became one of the central figures in the historical memory of the Pomors about Peter I and his era. The 19th-century legends contain fictional details and migratory subjects. By the early 20th century, Panov had been viewed by society as both a real historical character and a folk hero. This happened because Panov was mentioned in written historical sources as well as in oral history, which after several generations was transformed into historical legends. These folk traditions have influenced regional historical descriptions as well as Russian historiography. Using the legend about the rescue of Peter I by Antip Panov as an example, the article concludes that collective historical memory is formed on the basis of oral history, which is eventually converted into historical legends, which, in turn, affect both regional historical descriptions and national historiography