RESEARCH PAPER
The article presents a broad theoretical view of figure in its expressive and semantic features, as a semiotic and cognitive category. The nature of figure comes out in speech. Figure is a characteristic form of speech sign (sign in speech). The essence of figure is described in terms of transitivity and interpretation. Both are functional qualities which serve to describe relationship between the parts of the figure. The notion parts of the figure has a double meaning: a linear and a conceptual one. Figure, to come to existence, unites and, at the same time, opposes its two parts to each other. The linear approach means a discrete and external expressive evolution of the figure, one part comes to substitute and to complete the other, this transition from one part to another implies a conceptual evolution of the figure. The linear approach applies to different scales of analysis. As figures one can see: forms of structural and nominative reduplication, transition from theme to rheme in the proposition, transition from one proposition to another within the text, intertextual transition from one text to another within the discourse. The conceptual approach goes to inner syncretism of the figure, representing the semiotic link between the sense and the semantic representation of the object in it. A linear figure turns to be a conceptual one. At this point too we see different levels of figure. An inner and an external synergies of the figure are distinguished. The first one refers to the inner correlation between two parts of the figure. The second one characterizes how the figure depends on the conceptual factors of the discourse. The figure in its evolution focuses on the “functional perspective of discourse”. The figure hones conceptual features and contributes to conceptual structuring of discourse. A conceptual figure of discourse grows in this process. The most stable conceptual features are seen in so called institutional types of discourse. The article analyses examples from political and juridical discourses. It may be of interest of different specialists working in fields of discourse, semiotics, cognition theory and logic.
Discourse is one of the basic notions in linguistics due to its specificity which lies in representation, interpretation and conceptualization of any activity including professional one. In the host of institutional discourse types media discourse is quite prominent as it provides a communicative and cognitive representation of professional or other activities and reflects a combination of conceptual, linguistic, extralinguistic, sociocultural, pragmatic, psychological and cognitive features of the media product author and the consumer (both individual and society as a whole). The research shows that the main functional component of the media discourse is actualized in the informative and impact function, with impact tending to prevail. From this perspective the involvement of the British press discourse in building up the recipient’s conceptual vision of the world is analyzed; the article exemplifies linguistic means of explicit or implicit instilling in readers’ minds of the addresser’s subjective interpretation of information instead of presentation of pure facts. This leads to the inference about an inextricable connection between the conceptual and the discursive world pictures.
The article contains the press discourse typology based on cognitive and sociocultural criteria. The most interesting representatives of the binary opposition of the press discourse types are the discourse of the British quality press and the discourse of the British popular press. The author discloses three aspects (stylistic, structure- and content-related, pragmatic) of the British press specificity exemplifying them by the analysis of sample texts of both types. The revealed features of the said discourse types are compared, and certain findings are presented on the identity and difference in their use of tools of the author’s intention verbalization. The main tools of verbalization are linguistic means of expression, recurrent constructions, modal constructions, introductory words, contracted negative forms and others.
The paper focuses on translation challenges arising from a discrepancy between English and Russian terminological systems of law and politics and studies the possible solutions used by translators. Advantages and drawbacks of the generally accepted methods are considered, as well as the factors that usually influence the translator’s decision.
The study also aims at analysing the consequences of the translators’ choices. While in the source language (SL) terms are largely coined by lawyers and scholars, in the target language (TL) translators are often the people who introduce and popularise them, which makes them particularly responsible for their work. The paper provides an overview of the interaction between individual decisions made by translators and the long-term influence they make on the system of the Russian EU-related terminology.
The findings of the study can be used in training translators, interpreters and other professionals in the fields of law and politics whose responsibilities require good command of the terminology in question. Further research in this area can make a strong contribution to the efforts of terminology management.
The work is aimed at systematizing knowledge on brief note-taking in consecutive interpreting and the prospects of its development for interpreting optimization. The author proceeds from the definition of note-taking in consecutive interpreting as a system of auxiliary means, external memory incentives which support the process of interpreting, and qualifies it not as an objective by itself but as a helpful instrument for interpreters, which enables them to more effectively record and reconstruct the information incorporated in the original text and then communicate it observing the translation language norms. Alongside this, when interpreting, a professional develops new sense coding symbols to record the information in a graphical form. The symbols used by the interpreter testify to what key data the interpreter focuses on and how this information is interpreted. An overview is given of the history and principles of note-taking in consecutive interpreting (those of economy, visualization and universality).
The article makes the case that more active international contacts, broader areas of discussion call for further development of the system of note-taking in consecutive translation. As times are changing, new phenomena and concepts need new corresponding symbols for note-taking. For example, nowadays the spread of international terrorism is one of the greatest challenges for the global community. More and more attention is being paid to the methods of fighting terrorism and its origins, which is becoming a priority at many conferences and other international events with the issues of security and cooperation between different countries on the agenda. The article suggests a number of symbols to be used to interpret communication in the political and military spheres.
In conclusion the author summarises the reasons why she considers the development of the symbol system in consecutive translation a topical and promising process, both theoretically and practically.
The main purpose of the article is to analyze the features of the organization of communication in the course of dialectological research. On the one hand communicative situations in which a linguist-researcher finds himself are similar in many respects to a variety of other situations of communication, on the other hand they have a number of features. The relevance of this study is that such professional communication allows you to record a markedly changing form of language. Archaic dialects and dialects of the Russian language are gradually disappearing, their speakers are passing away, so it is important to record any manifestation of dialect features. It can be difficult to organize communication with native speakers, because it is necessary to take into account not only the main goals facing the researcher, but also a whole set of objective and subjective factors that can significantly affect the results of the study and the quality of the dialect material collected in the field. Such important factors of communication organization with speakers include estimated and possible time of communication, quantitative composition of informants, their social, educational, professional status, physical and mental health, lifestyle, character qualities, habits. An important role in the organization of communication in the field plays a place of communication or possible spatial organization, technical and other obstacles that may accompany the process of communication. Of course the process of communication, specific methods and techniques of its organization mainly depend on the set of goals that face the researcher. However, it should be remembered that in addition to the main tasks that a linguist sets himself in the preparation of field studies, a variety of additional information can be obtained in the course of communication, which can be as important as the dialect elements recorded by the dialectologist. Such important information can include recording memories, familiarity with artifacts, determining the structure of rituals and much more.
The article proposes to consider the artisan's story about his/her craft, traditionally stated in the dialect, as one of speech genres. In this kind of oral texts, usually generated during the work of a dialectologist with informants, along with the peculiarities of a particular dialect, linguistic phenomena that are characteristic of at least the entire territory of a given language are also realized. The story about the craft has its own specific topic, communicative purpose and a peculiar structure. It is realized in the speech of informants of various ages and sexes according to a certain model, regardless of the degree of saturation of such stories with dialecticism. The storyline of the story about the craft usually follows the sequence of technological processes and operations inherent in this craft.
Review of Khairullin V.I. (ed.) (2018). Jazik kak identifikatsionnij kod kultury [Language as the identification code of culture]. Proceedings of the international scientific conference. Ufa. (in Russian).