Publications

A growing strand of work in ERPP (English for research publication purposes) explores how English is nested within research evaluation regimes in non-Anglophone contexts across the world. This paper focuses on the under-researched context of Russia, where language of research publication is at the heart of tensions in institutional, national and international research evaluation regimes: between Russian, which until the 1970s was the second-most used language in the world’s total scientific output, and English, the dominant language of global evaluation indexes.

The paper uses documentary sources to outline recent structural transformations in Russian academia, including the relatively recent insertion of English into evaluation systems. It draws on an interview-based study to explore how 16 scholars in one research-intensive university are navigating such changes in their publication practices, in three disciplines: economics, sociology and philosophy. Key findings highlight: 1) scholars’ languages of publication; 2) the challenging material conditions shaping scholars’ opportunities for research writing; 3) the pressures to publish in English alongside Russian; 4) the ways in which language choice is refracted through geohistorical ‘disciplinary conversations’ traditions; 5) the challenges of navigating different discourse communities. The value of such studies for ERPP within EAP as a field is underlined.

Genre analysis involves at least a ‘foray’ into the social/contextual dimension framing genre-exemplars. One way to explore this dimension is drawing on the concept of metapragmatics, which is primarily associated with (American) linguistic anthropology. However, with a few exceptions, genre studies have not consistently operationalized metapragmatics, either theoretically or practically. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to explore one possible angle of such operationalization by means of studying discourse fragments reflecting on fragments of (these very or other) discourses (so-called metapragmatic discourses) vis-à-vis any generic properties of the reflected discourse. Specifically, we analyzed comments sections for a number of YouTube videos exemplifying several lifestyle genres. The results indicate that generic references can range from simply using a generic label to refer to the discourse in question (as a token of a certain type/genre) to actually discussing the generic characteristics of the genre it instantiates, as well as projecting certain (generic) metapragmatic stances. Another observation is that different wordings used by the discourse community to refer to generic models can be, as it were, ‘proper’ generic labels, but they can also be words and phrases that would hardly qualify as proper names of genres from an analyst’s point of view. Both these ‘proper’ and other - ‘genre-like’ - labels are also often used in conjunction with or are replaced by other ways of metapragmatically referring to what the speaker ‘does’ or even what they ‘are’ in/by dint of using the discourse in question. This suggests that any generic labels or cues are just part of a large pool of other possible metapragmatic meanings, knowledge, and ideologies circulating in discourse communities. More broadly, the results may indicate that genre studies should see genre as an even less ‘stabilized’ entity because what a genre is depends on what people who actually use it ‘make of it’, as well as augment their standard toolkits with methods aimed at exploring metapragmatic discourse.

The article is a reflection of practice-related research that aimed at bringing together corpus linguistics tools and teaching in L2 classroom.  The focus throughout is on exploring the relationship between corpus analysis and language acquisition practice and how far the usage of corpus tools can provide  answers to the questions and issues that arise in practice of language teaching.

Structurally, the article gives a brief overview of corpora influence on language teaching over the recent decades, and then tries to elaborate on how it feeds into content selection, language teaching material as well as classroom techniques. Specifically, some attention is devoted to overwhelming contrast between spoken and written register, which was described by Biber et al [1999] as a result of a large-scale corpus-based analysis. The corpus study influences our understanding of both quantitative and qualitative implications for learner vocabulary, which are also discussed in the main body. In conclusion, we share some insights into how much corpus-based material is advisable to include as we develop our syllabi since we admit that it might be rather time-consuming to turn corpus examples into exercises and classroom activities.

The article states that the contribution of corpus research to understanding and describing the language we teach is hardly disputable. What is more, the superficial indication that a given course book has been corpus-informed is only the tip of the iceberg. As Scot and Tribble [2007] put it “the very foundations of Linguistics have been shaken; in some cases the movement of the

tectonic plates has thrust up new Himalayas where before there was apparently level ground.” [p. 4]. Thus, technological shift shook long held notions in language education, as  seemingly explicit grammar rules gave way to less explicable authentic usage with a view to understanding the English outside the classroom.

On the practical side, the paper presents a set of corpus–based tasks, follow-up activities and expected results. These aimed at awareness-raising to register differences and sociolinguistic implications of hedging; additional practice for grammar patterns and idioms is presented. Within corpus-based activities learners are also presented with some contrasting statistics for cohesive devices use based on native speaker and non-native speaker writing. As a way of concluding remark, we suggest that corpus be used as a reference tool together with grammar books and dictionaries by both teachers and learners.

One of the possible ways to explore contextualization is through external discourses referencing the pragmatics of the discourse in question. These are known as metapragmatic discourse. The purpose of this article is to theoretically integrate the concept of metapragmatics into genre analysis and apply metapragmatic tools to the analysis of specific genres. Five YouTube videos together with their accompanying comments exhibiting metapragmatic properties were analyzed. Methodologically, the analysis relies on the textually oriented content analysis. The results indicate that placing discourses nominally relying on one and the same generic form into a certain genre may be predicated on contextual variables that may have nothing to do with said form per se. These variables, however, may be verbalized by the original author and by their audience in the form of metapragmatic markers. This may mean that for the final addressee, the “effect” of the original discourse will depend on the attribution of this discourse, based on the metapragmatic markers, to one of the “competing” genre variations emerging, as it were, in an ongoing exchange between the author and his audience. A case in point are sponsored and “honest” review genres. A second observation resides in the realm of hybrid genres. An example here is integrating sponsored content into one of the “legitimate” lifestyle-genres (“hot tips”, vlog, etc.). A fraction of the discourse community seems to view this as delegitimizing the discourse and the genre in question, while others see it as an “unfortunate insert”, which does not, however, change the genre’s overall value. This leaves the question open whether such genres should be considered new and full-fledged genres, with sponsored content being one of their integral features.

This article examines the range of problems and contradictions associated with the work of women in the interwar period on the example of agriculture. The level of women’s participation in interwar agriculture and regional models of women’s labor are analyzed. There are a number of contradictions, particularly with regard to the number of women employed in agriculture, regional differences in agricultural activities. The latter part deals with the issue of women’s wage rates in agriculture.

The article is an attempt to disclose the terms «image» and «literary image» from the point of view of humanities (linguistics, psychology, cognitive studies, literary studies). It analyses different approaches to defining these terms, aiming at a cognitive definition of «image». The article contains an overview of the analysis of the term in psychology: psychoanalytic approach, the theory of reflection, cognitive psychology. It describes both the semiotic and cognitive features of «image» and the ways of their representation in the literary text of the novel «The Master of Petersburg» by J. Coetzee. An image is viewed as an iconic sign incorporated in the structure of a concept, being an element of its figurative-and-associative layer. As a category of mind it contributes to cognition of reality, creating a specific model of reality which connects concrete perceptible characteristics of an object or phenomenon with the subjectivity of the author’s individual mind. After the exploration of the linguistic and linguistic-cognitive approaches, a literary image is considered as a verbal sign representing the author’s worldview within the literary text. It is highlighted that while interpreting images it is important to pay attention to both the textual representation of the author’s intention and the readers’ perception of them.

The term Aktionsart is widely used in modern aspectology; however, there is no common understanding of its meaning. In basic terms, three different approaches to Aktionsart can be identified in modern literature on aspect. The most widespread view equates Aktionsart to lexical aspect, a classification of verbs into Vendlerian or quasi-Vendlerian categories that underlie aspectual properties of the verb. While this approach is predominantly used outside Slavic linguistics, Slavists usually apply the term to phenomena other than lexical aspect. In Slavic studies, the two existing approaches trace their roots to Sigurd Agrell’s study of Polish verb derivatives with special attention to the semantic functions of prefixes (Agrell 1908). However, Agrell’s definition of Aktionsart did not enable a unified understanding of the term. On the one hand, he described Aktionsarten as semantic functions specifying the way the action is performed; on the other hand, his analysis focused on derivatives rather than simple verbs. This triggered the development of the aspectual-semantic and the derivational-modificational theories of Aktionsart. The article discusses both approaches and the relationship between Aktionsarten and the aspectuality domain.

In contemporary academia, multilingual scholars using English as an additional language (EAL) are actively engaged in knowledge construction producing more research texts in English than native speakers (Hyland, 2016). Having a more general purpose to gain insights into the factors that influence multilingual scholars’ research writing practices in English, this case study seeks to explore how EAL users perceive disciplinary norms of epistemic stance expression in political science. It is based on interviews with 5 Russian political scientists and on the analysis of their research texts. The findings suggest that the participants do not seem to have a shared understanding of disciplinary norms regarding epistemic stance expression; however, their narratives highlight the importance of the methodological paradigm the texts belong to for their writing practices. The study is a contribution to the discussion of the role of the discipline in EAL scholars’ research writing practices and linguistic and rhetorical variability of research texts within one discipline. The results of this study have pedagogical implications for ERPP course designers and practitioners.

Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для  обучения академическим навыкам письма и подготовки к сдаче международного экзамена IELTS по аспектy «Академическое письмо».  

Целью пособия является формирование и закрепление академических навыков, необходимых для создания  англоязычных текстов учебной и научной направленности на микро и макроуровнях. Пособие направлено  на формирование компетенций, необходимых для использования английского языка в учебной, научной, и профессиональной деятельности. Пособие включает разделы, посвященные особенностям написания параграфа, изучения структуры академического эссе, а также эссе формата международного экзамена IELTS.

Материал пособия рекомендуется использовать для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы  студентов. Пособие может быть полезно студентам преподавателям  вузов,  а также для всех желающих приобрести академические навыки письма на английском языке.

Genre has been one of the key categories for Russian literary studies

ever since the late nineteenth century, creating a long tradition of artistic,

critical and scientific interpretation. The present paper aims to outline major

findings of Russian scholars in the field of genre studies and to account for

current pitfalls, suggesting a solution. Russian scholars have contributed

noticeably to both constructing the theory of genre in general and establishing

the laws and genesis of many separate genres. Historical poetics, the Russian

Formalists, Bakhtin’s school and structuralism worked out the principles

of generic evolution and explained the nature of the genre category. Still,

currently Russian genology faces a number of challenges, among which is the

inability to work out a universal approach to genre nomination and attribution,

which causes inconsistent and unverified results. W hen it comes to describing

new genres, most troubling is the choice of deductive method in genre analysis

and a narrow specialist approach to each genre leading to inconclusive or

biased results. The paper suggests that these challenges can be overcome by

turning to the heritage of the classical Russian literary science and taking

advantage of comparative and inductive methods proponed by it.

Smirnova and Guseva explore how writing has been taught in the domain of art history in Russia. They draw on academic literacy theory and work from two major premises: a) writing is a type of social practice and b) writing is closely linked with the knowledge-making practices in a discipline. They employed semi-structured interviews to explore how participants were taught to write in the discipline and how they have taught their students to write. The results of their study indicate that mentoring and discovery learning were the main teaching approaches and that writing was seen as purely instrumental, a skill that one acquired naturally from experience. The interview data indicates that the participants were reinventing their writing and that the major tensions in that process were closely linked to: 1) access to resources in the process of researching and producing a text, and 2) traditions of knowledge-making globally and in the particular geopolitical and socio-historic context of Russia. The findings indicate that research on the writing for publication practices of art historians has been challenging because this knowledge domain is marked by varying interpretative epistemologies within national, cultural, and or geopolitical contexts.

The theory of foregrounding, developed by St. Petersburg scholar Irina Vladimirovna Arnold in the middle of the 20th century, was rather revolutionary for its time as it aimed to establish connection between formal levels of the language and textual meanings that allowed the reader to decode the author’s message. Arnold identifies four principal elements of foregrounding that disclose conceptual textual meaning: the strong position of a text, repetitions on different levels of language, the convergence of stylistic devices and defeated expectancy. The professor states that these elements of the text are always intentional and, thus, give a key to understanding the author’s message and position. This theory, being universal and easy to apply, has been widely used by Russian scholars working in the domain of textual linguistics and stylistics until nowadays. Such an approach increases the objectivity of the scientific findings in this area and enriches the overall text analysis with extra details and more meanings disclosed. The paper gives an overview of the theory of foregrounding, emphasizing the role it plays in text analysis and stylistics of decoding, and illustrates its principles with examples of practical analysis of the text conducted by the author of the paper.

In the late 18th century the word “legenda” entered the Russian language, and several decades later it started to be used by Russian writers as a generic label. The present paper analyses short prosaic texts written in the 1820-1830 with this label in their titles or subtitles. The aim of the research is to ascertain whether such texts followed a similar generic pattern. As the literary legend was a fully developed genre in the late 19th century Russian literature, the research will presumably enable us to trace the formation of the genre. I argue that the chosen texts share a network of constituent properties, which indicates their generic cognateness and allows the reader to attribute them as literary legends. Roughly, the Russian literary legend of the 1820-s1840-s may be characterized as a historical narrative relating some extraordinary, often criminal events. Though the audience is likely to disbelieve the story, the narrator finds it necessary to communicate it, as it contains an important truth or idea missing from conventional sources. Despite the similarity of the generic pattern, the genre had fuzzy boundaries in the first half of the 19th century, which is revealed in numerous title alterations, inconsistency in using cognate labels (skazanie, predanie, byl’), absence of legend cycles, and insufficient speculations on the genre. However, it can be concluded that the literary legend of the time was a grain from which the late 19th century genre developed. 

The paper gives an analysis of the metaphors of old age that are well-established in German culture. The aim of the study is an empirical analysis of how old age is represented in the German language, reflecting the attitudes of society to old age.

The material for the study was a selection of aphoristic and proverbal text fragments that include the lexeme Alter (hohes Alter).

The methodological basis of the study is the cognitive theory of metaphor of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, who argue that metaphors are not limited to the sphere of language and that the processes of human thinking themselves are metaphorical.

The study also relies on  metaphorical modeling, a theory which makes it possible to identify a system of metaphorical models in the discourse of old age, reflecting the attitude of members of society towards this discourse and its participants, forming a linguistic picture of the world.

The analysis identified several metaphorical models;  the most popular is the time cycle model (daily cycle, annual cycle), which represent old age as the evening or autumn of life – the time to prepare for the end of the cycle: winter/night is the time of death, when all life in nature freezes, “falls asleep”.

Old age is personified as an evil tyrant, robbing an elderly person of external beauty, energy, sometimes even clarity of thoughts.

The natural metaphorical model proclaims the physical and mental functionality and attractiveness of old age: an old person is compared with natural phenomena (gray hair – foam after a big storm at sea).

The architectural model represents old age as a building (a prison with the semantics of involuntary alienation from life, limiting the possibilities of movement and communication) or as its element (a balcony, which makes it possible to see wide surroundings and to evaluate what is happening).

The semantics of metaphors include an emotional assessment of old age. The high degree of influence of the considered metaphors on the opinions and beliefs of society necessitate further study of the metaphors themselves and the discourses of their functioning.

The opening chapter of Public Administration: Perspectives, Management and Challenges is devoted addressing new challenges in public administration in Russia, including law requirements regarding the transparency of public policy and the difficulties surrounding their implementation. Following this, the authors assess historical and contemporary examples of innovation in Norwegian municipalities. The criticisms and limits of the results management model implemented in the Brazilian subnational units are analyzed based on specialized literature and three case studies. In closing, in the context of spatial integrated complex solutions regarding the poverty alleviation and social cohesion needs increasing in rural areas in Romania, the authors suggest a conceptual and analytical framework based on risk identification.  

The monograph is the result of the joint efforts of linguistic scientists working in different cities of our country and abroad. It presents the materials of a scientific discussion on the problem indicated in its title: rationality and emotionality of language and speech. The study of these areas relates to cardinal and quite popular linguistic problems, since they are associated with feelings and attitudes towards the addressee and subject of speech. But despite the good luck and achievements in the field of their study, there are still many gaps waiting to be filled with new research. Rethinking the well-known and repeatedly discussed linguistic material in this direction can therefore help to clarify information about it in the general linguistic plan.

This paper explores word frequency patterns when considering text length, authorship and random distortion of texts. Through a series of experiments, we determined an optimal text size, a phenomenon that was predicted by George Zipf, which sees a minimal discrepancy between calculated and observed frequencies. A graphic representation allowed a plausible explanation behind the existence of this phenomenon. Working on the assumption that distorted texts might disobey Zipf's Law, we explored correlations among frequencies and text entirety compared to text distortions. Results revealed the crucial role of text length for maintaining Zipfian distribution: randomly chosen sets of words and fragmentary texts of optimal size still obey Zipf's Law. Findings show that authorship manifests itself through the author constant, defined as the relative frequency of the most frequent words, which remains constant throughout the works of any given author, including randomly chosen text chunks and fragments of sentences of various sizes.

The paper touches upon some of the problems experiences by postgraduate programmes at Russian universities with regards to teaching EFL. It attempts to highlight some of the solutions proposed by researchers of higher education, some of whom advocate for multi-dimensional solutions plan. 

Introduction. The scientific work focuses on the linguistic concepts of terminology and a term system, provides the views of linguists on the definition and differentiation of these terms, explains the semantics of the word and the term, as well as the role of the cognitive approach in modern terminology. The scientific work defines a concept and a category, and describes the role of the processes of conceptualization and categorization in English terminology. As more than 90% of new words appearing in modern languages is vocabulary for special purposes, it is increasingly important to study the ways of their formation.

Methodology and sources. In light of the cognitive approach to understanding the semantics of words an emphasis should be based on anthropocentrist thinking, language picture of the world language and lexical-semantic variants of the word. The cognitive approach allows us to reveal the causes and mechanisms of dynamic processes in the field of professional nomination, taking into account the changing cognitive and communication needs of people. The research is made using corpora data.

Results and discussion. Cognitive categories are linked to conceptually defined prototypes that are crucial for the formation of categories. The central elements of prototypical categories make the category logical, understandable and convenient, since all members of the category meet a given list of characteristics.

Conclusion. The research is relevant since it provides a deeper understanding of the structure and content of concepts that underlie the formation of language categories, the mechanisms of interaction between cognitive and language structures in the process of forming the terminological meaning.

This paper is devoted to new challenges in public administration in Russia which includes law requirements of transparency of public policy and difficulties of their implementation. The theoretical framework is based on both Good Governance theory and Democratic theory. Data comes from the case study based on real practices of Russian public administration. These cases can demonstrate possibilities and limitations of the current administrative reform. The results can help to create a “road map” of government bodies including the pioneers of transparent policy and the actors who try to reduce a transparent activity.