No 1 (2025)

The article examines linguistic means of representing laziness in traditional culture of the Kuban region Cossacks and non-Cossack population inhabiting territories of the Krasnodar region. The object for analysis is units of the lexical-phraseological system of Kuban region sub-dialects with South Russian and Ukrainian language base. It establishes the ambivalent attitude towards laziness and point-blank negative attitude towards lazy people in the Cossack environment backed by folklore traditions and demonstrates similarities between the notion of “laziness” in linguistic consciousness of the Kuban region inhabitants as well as notions of “idleness”, “heavy drinking”, “diseconomy”, “meaningless blather”, and, interestingly, the notion of “wealth”. The paper reconstructs the established verbal image of a sluggard, which reflects stereotypical images common for various ethnicities, by means of analyzing the semantic structure of dialect units and their inner form, as well as relying on statements of the Kuban region sub-dialects speakers. The article demonstrates that the ethnocultural features, which reveal particular aspects of the Kuban region Cossacks’ worldview, manifest themselves in creation of localisms (words and phraseological units), in uniqueness of their inner form, in detailed elaboration of the idleness process. By means of language material from recently-formed sub-dialects, it proves the conclusion that the positive ideal, i. e. respect for labor, is cultivated within the traditional Cossack culture by way of rejection and mockery of laziness.

The article is devoted to the description of the comparative-evaluative construction <kuda Х do Y>, which has stable components kuda do, as well as varying components (slots) X and Y. The meaning of this construction is not deduced from the meanings of its components and can be formulated as follows: ‘Х is inferior to Y in certain attributes, that depend on the context and can be manifested both explicitly and implicitly'. The material for the study was 463 contexts, including this construction, from the oral and newspaper sub-corps of the National Corpus of the Russian Language, as well as from the General Internet Corpus of the Russian Language. Contexts represent spoken written speech as well as spoken spontaneous or quasi-spontaneous speech characterized by a certain degree of preparedness. The focus of the article is on characterizing the varying components of the construction, which, depending on the situation, can be expressed in different ways. The comparative-evaluative nature of this construction is demonstrated, and some contextual features that can emphasize this comparison are identified. These include the use of several objects in one position, particles that reinforce the evaluation implying inconsistencies of objects with each other, isolated use of constructions with exclamatory intonation, and cluttering the text with synonymous units with the semantics of comparison.

The concept of reduction is discussed in most phonetics courses and is frequently used in modern linguistic research. Despite its common usage, it is understood in various ways depending on the research field and tradition. Contrary to popular belief, this term is not only applied to vowels. This article briefly examines its history from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Drawing primarily on Russian and English sources, an attempt is made to establish the period in which reduction consistently entered linguistic usage and received its first definitions (18th–19th centuries). Special attention is paid to Eduard Sievers’ “Foundations of Phonetics”, where a detailed description of reduction was first provided. Subsequently, the article describes the process of integrating this concept into the Russian philological tradition: substitute terms used in linguistic works until the end of the 19th century are examined, and the period in which reduction became established in Russian usage is determined. In particular, it is established that Sievers’ “Foundations...” played a significant role in Russian researchers’ perception of reduction. Finally, the paper briefly outlines the use of the concept in the 20th century; particular attention is paid to the shift of focus to vowel processes under the influence of the works of L. V. Shcherba and (later) Björn Lindblom. It is noteworthy that Shcherba’s observations on vowels largely anticipated Lindblom’s concept, yet this fact has scarcely received due attention in the phonetic literature.

The aim of the study is to identify the most important syntactic features on the material of original poetic works of small and medium genres in the artistic system of V. K. Trediakovsky.

The results of the work testify to the high activity of non-union sentences in the grammar of his poetry, in comparison with the same indicators in Kantemir’s and Lomonosov’s works, as well as to the special inclination to use the techniques of segmentation and subjective modalisation of the phrase in the form of isolated turns, introductory and insertive syntagms, joining constructions, nominative subject, rhetorical exclamations, questions, vocatives and single-joint structures. V. K. Trediakovsky is the creator of the longest lyrical statement (156 words) of the era from Kantemir to Karamzin.

The identified features demonstrate that Trediakovsky’s searches in the field of ‘grammar of poetry’ not only corresponded to the main directions of development of Russian lyric syntax in general, but even outstripped the general poetic tendencies. V. K. Trediakovsky is a bold innovator and experimenter, whose role in the search for new language of lyric genre forms that had just begun to emerge in Russia, unfortunately, is still underestimated.

The basis of enjambement as well as the basis of comic forms is discrepancy. For comic ones this is a conditional discrepancy between expected and real; for enjambement, it is a discrepancy between the syntactic and rhythmic division of the verse. Despite the longest tradition of enjambement research in general, the ironic potential of this technique is insufficiently described in literary studies.

The article examines enjambement as a means of giving irony a way in the poetry of I. A. Brodsky. Irony and a rational, critical picture of the world are one of the key properties of Brodsky’s poetry, and the enjambement becomes an exponent of such an outlook. With the help of enjambements (including “prolonged”), Brodsky destroys the expectation associated with clichés and obviousness, and thereby makes the statement content-unstable and paradoxical. Poetic transfer helps the reader to “linger” in his expectation of the “right” word, and then be deceived in this expectation, which gives rise to an ironic effect and turns out to be part of Brodsky’s “extra-authoritarian” poetic thinking.