Reception as a Unity of Cultural and Historical Memory, Oblivion, and Imagination

This article is dedicated to the memory of Evgenii Aleksandrovich Chiglintsev, a brilliant historian, an outstanding representative of the university intelligentsia, and a wonderful comrade with the best human qualities. E.A. Chiglintsev’s works are interdisciplinary, useful for practically all humanities, and certainly important from the philosophical and socio-philosophical perspectives. The study aims to analyze and evaluate the phenomenon of cultural reception in the context of E.A. Chiglintsev’s writings. The main problematic field of the article is the meanings, boundaries, and prospects of the phenomenon of reception, which has become one of the main subjects of E.A. Chiglintsev’s research interest. E.A. Chiglintsev focused mostly on the universal meaning of reception, whereas this article also considers its historical backgrounds, as well as the possibilities and meanings of cultural and historical receptions in the modern culture and society. The research is relevant due to the practical need to develop an adequate attitude to the past in the modern society, i.e., because of the need to distinguish what and in what forms should be remembered, what and how to forget, how to take fire from the past, not ashes. Today, every person who considers himself or herself modern must constantly undergo the path of rethinking his or her historical past, and thus participate in the reception of past cultures. The conclusion is made about the historicity of reception, the classical forms of which are developing in the modern culture, about the problematic nature of this phenomenon in the postmodern culture. The problem of further development of the meaning of reception in the modern culture and its limits is posed.

Language of Poetry and Poetic Discourse (on the Problem of the Relationship of Concepts)

The article examines the essential and logical-hierarchical relationships of such concepts as poetic discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry. The relevance of the research is determined by fact that the understanding and interpretation of poetic discourse within the framework of the scientific theory is in a state of development, the methodology of literary criticism and linguistics is evolving, and many concepts are still confused. Opinions expressed by the researchers who have studied the essence of poetic language and language of poetry, as well as support the concept of poetic discourse, are analyzed. The main results of the study include the definition of concepts of ethical discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry in close logical and epistemological relationship with each other. Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions are made. Firstly, the phenomenal essence of poetic language is described. Secondly, the mechanism of poetic discourse development is viewed as a result of two refractions (author’s and reader’s) of the language of poetry. At the same time, the language of poetry is presented as a locus (modus) of a worldview or a linguistic worldview. Thirdly, poetic discourse is considered as part of artistic discourse, which is not only emotional and aesthetic, but also cognitive and aesthetic content. The above-given conclusions are important for the theory of linguistics and literary criticism, because they contain the rationale for the statement that poetic discourse is a level of understanding and interpretation of the language of poetry as a mode of the linguistic reality. At the same time, poetic language is a skillfully applied technological side of a special kind of creative, heuristic activity.

Educated Person and Philosophy (Does Education Make a Person Educated?)

The article discusses the question of who counts as an educated person. The general concept of an educated person seems to be too broad, abstract, and meaningless. This concept is inadequate for sociological, anthropological, and cultural analysis, because it specifies no clear measure or criterion of an educated person. If the general definition is turned into a more concrete and historically based one, it will be more productive and efficient in terms of research. When education becomes a subject of “historical philosophizing”, it evolves from “gaining systematized knowledge and skills” to “upbringing an educatee’s personality”, which is a socio-philosophical matter. The article discusses various meanings of the latter definition. Starting from G.W.F. Hegel’s ideas about education, the exact meaning of the concept of an educated person and the features distinguishing them from an uneducated person are analyzed. The conclusion is drawn about the place of philosophy in the process of education (obviously, its role is decisive).

Non-Specialized Means of Causative Semantics Expression in the Slavic and Germanic Languages (Based on the Lexical Semantic Group of Defense and Protection)

The paper deals with the peculiarities of verbs that convey causative semantics without being specialized for it. The objective of the research is to identify the specific features of Slavic (Russian, Belarusian) and Germanic (English, German) defense and protection verbs with regard to causativity. The study of lexical semantic groups in the aspect of causativity is topical, because it contributes to the specification of causativity as a category. It works towards resolving a controversial causativity theory issue about the scope and boundaries of causative verbs class, as well as helps to reveal some internal laws of the causative category development (gradual nature of the causative category). The following methods were used: contextual, transformational, comparative methods; dictionary definitions analysis, component and distributive analysis. It was found that defense and protection verbs in three (Russian, Belarusian, German) of the four studied languages have units that do not contain a causative component. Within the analyzed lexical semantic group, there are verbs with a high and low degree of causativity (vertical changes of causativity degree). In these two groups, it is possible to identify the units that are able and unable to change the causativity degree in a context (horizontal changes of causativity degree). The gradual character of causativity is an integral feature of the studied Slavic and Germanic verbs. The degree of causativity is their differential trait.

Chelyabinsk Historian V.E. Chetin: Studying the History of the Mining Urals in the Context of Soviet Historiography during the 1950s–1970s

The dissertation projects of Vasilii Egorovich Chetin, a Chelyabinsk historian, on the history of mining works in the pre-revolutionary Urals were analyzed. His versions of the history of the Ural workers and labor movement were interpreted with regard to the historiographic context of his research activity during the 1950s–1970s. The prototype of a provincial historian committed to the orthodox Marxist-Leninist methodology as exemplified by V.E. Chetin’s personality was identified. General trends in the development of Ural historiography over the period when V.E. Chetin worked on his dissertations were shown. He defended his candidate’s dissertation in 1953. It was devoted to the labor movement in the Perm governorate after the reform of 1861, one of the popular problems of Ural historiography. The doctoral dissertation that ensued was drafted and should have been defended by the end of 1970. It continued to ponder the same problem within the entire region of mining works in the Urals and covered the historical period up to the early 20th century. Here, an attempt was made to take into account a whole variety of factors, including the secondary ones, influencing the situation of Ural workers. It was concluded that the scope of tasks set by V.E. Chetin in the doctoral dissertation made it impossible for him to meet the deadline.

Difficulties of Soviet Urbanization and Construction of the “Socialist City” in the Multicultural Periphery: Kazan in the 1920s

Based on the example of Kazan in the 1920s, the difficulties and problems of implementing the Soviet policy of urbanization and “socialist city” construction in cities with a nationally and religiously heterogeneous population are shown. This policy and the related processes of rural-urban migration, “indigenization”, “apartment redistribution”, and development of the urban outskirts at the expense of the former “bourgeois” center destroyed, deliberately and purposefully, the urban culture that had previously prevailed here and changed the social and national composition of the urban population. Therefore, they can be regarded as the tools of “positive discrimination”. The “positive discrimination” of the formerly dominant urban Russian culture in favor of the developing Tatar culture, mostly in its rural variant, manifested itself very clearly in education, namely in the content and design of the Soviet Tatar alphabet (alifba). However, the practice of granting preferences to the previously discriminated strata turned out to be short-term, tooled for the tasks of immediate strengthening of the social base of the Soviet power, and designed to destroy the former society and culture. These practices of dealing with multiculturalism became less popular by the late 1920s–early 1930s, as the Bolshevik power stabilized and “state-oriented” and unifying tendencies in the power policy increased.

The Illocutionary Profile of Text Units with Purpose Semantics in the Aspect of Their Modeling and Interpretation

The illocutionary complex that determines the pragmatic meaning of text units with purpose semantics as part of the question-answer dialogue was analyzed. Using the methods of conversation analysis, introspection, linguistic modeling and observation, a multifarious analysis of the adjacent pairs in the political interview and talk show fragments was carried out. The factors that define the generation of purpose-related judgments and the choice of indirect ways to convey the communicative intentions of the addresser were singled out, as well as the aspects that are important for understanding the perceived content by the addressee. The organization of the communicative continuum within the framework of interaction was investigated. The functionality of the pragmatic context (the background of spoken interaction) was revealed. The factors influencing the quality of the illocutionary profile of text units (clarity/blur) as it is perceived and interpreted by the addressee were established. The signals of the communicative intentions generated by the addresser were considered. The choice of spoken response in the situations of harsh pressure was discussed. It was demonstrated that the pragmatic context plays a leading role in perceiving of the illocutionary complex during the communicative interaction.

Nuclear Components of the Conceptual Framework ‘Medicine’ in the Modern English Language

The conceptual framework ‘medicine’ within the English lexicographic, scientific, educational, and mass-media discourse was considered in this paper. The research was motivated by current medical innovations accompanied by word-coining contributing to the renewal of nuclear concepts and their semantic content within the conceptual framework ‘medicine’. The nuclear concepts of the above-mentioned conceptual framework focusing upon semantic, synonymic, and hyper-hyponymic features of medical nouns in English were studied and systematized. For this purpose, the methods of data collection, description, and classification of the empirical materials with elements of semantic and conceptual analysis were used. The key aspects of the modern conceptual framework ‘medicine’ were identified. It was discovered that the conceptual framework ‘medicine’ in the modern English lexicographic, scientific, educational, and mass-media types of discourse is basically actualized through the following nuclear concepts: ‘diseases’, ‘diagnostics and treatment methods’, and ‘drugs’. Interestingly, the nuclear concepts in all types of the English professional discourse enrich and develop the conceptual framework ‘medicine’ with medical terms related to the corresponding professional markers, synonyms, hyponyms, and hyperonyms. The results obtained provide both a valid background for better explanation, translation, and application of medical vocabulary in terms of modern lexicographic, scientific, educational, and mass-media communication strategies.

The Main Humorous Characteristics of the Anti-Value Concept of Gluttony (Based on English-Language Stand-Up and Situation Comedies)

The article describes the anti-value concept of gluttony in the humorous discourse of English-language stand-up and situation comedies. The main humorous characteristics of this concept are identified and analyzed. An axiological approach is used for constructing a humorous conceptual framework, because humor is one of the most important tools for forming values and anti-values of a certain culture. The ridiculed characteristics of gluttony are divided into the following two groups: those of process and result. The main characteristics of the process include improper eating of edible items and eating of inedible items. Improper eating of edible items is usually ridiculed through eating excessive amounts of food, eating food under inappropriate conditions, eating incompatible items. Eating of inedible items is mostly ridiculed through eating life-threatening objects, eating something unfit to eat, and eating excrements or other human waste products. The main ridiculed characteristics of the result include gaining excess weight, addiction to a certain food, illness/death of a person. This work also performs a detailed analysis of the anti-value concept of gluttony for the first time. The main linguistic means of representing the anti-value concept of gluttony in stand-up comedies and sitcoms are revealed. This article makes a significant contribution to constructing an axiological humorous framework of the concept, because gluttony is one of the basic anti-values in humorous discourse.

The Social Structure of District School Students in the Kazan Governorate during the First Half of the 19th Century

In this paper, changes that took place in the social structure of district school students in the Kazan governorate during the first half of the 19th century were analyzed. It was shown that the social representation of district school students in the region under consideration changed under the influence of the government policy on education. With the help of numerous archival clerical documents, a complex study was performed to reconstruct the social image of a typical student attending any of the district schools in the Kazan governorate of that time. Based on the results of the comparative analysis of the available archival sources, a percentage ratio of students from different social classes was determined. Changes in the size of each social class were determined using mathematical methods. It was concluded that district schools of the Kazan governorate during the first half of the 19th century saw a gradual increase in the number of students representing various social classes (lower middle class, merchants, and peasants) from both urban and rural areas. At the same time, a rise in the number of students coming from the privileged social classes was also detected.