Publications

The article presents the results of a study aimed at clarifying the determinants that describe the petitioning activity of residents of East and West Germany. The research materials were 1036 petitions from the German-speaking segment of Change.org: 322 petitions (East Germany), 714 petitions (West Germany); 2012- 2018). Based on the analysis of electronic petitions, a thematic classifier was created that divided all petitions into 18 thematic groups (human rights, animal protection; culture, politics, migration issue, proposals for reforming certain areas of life, transport system, Internet, protection and support for people with disabilities and rare diseases, financial questions, environmental protection, housing issues, weapons / spirits / tobacco / drugs, healthcare, elderly people, education, sports, sustainable development). Statistically significant differences between eastern and western territories in a comparative analysis of petitions were found only in the animal protection thematic group. As a result of the study, it turned out that the bipolar construct “east-west”, rooted in the historical logic of the legacy of socialism and capitalism in the German territories, is not capable of explaining the logic of the petitioning activity of modern Germans. According to the results of the study, the historical heritage / separation factor is guessed in the socio-economic problems of the regions, but it is not decisive in determining the values and civic activism of German residents.

The aim of the study is to compare the strategies of the Russian and American media in justifying the need to comply with international obligations on atmosphere and climate protection in the context of solving national propaganda tasks and to describe their dominant propaganda models. The research methods comprise the technique of intent-analysis by Ushakova and Pavlova, as well as the technique of rhetorical deconstruction by Ibarra and Kitsuse. Empirical materials of the research include texts of the of Russian and American media (“Izvestia”, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Gazeta.Ru”, “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post”, “USA Today”: 104 articles; 01/01/2012 - 01/01/2017). It was found that the propaganda models of the Russian and American media correspond to the description of propaganda within the state by Ellul under the two-party system of the state: the ruling party conducts propaganda for itself, the opposition party conducts propaganda against the ruling party. The propaganda model of the American media in this area of information competition between the two states can be characterized as the “propaganda model of the leader”, and the propaganda model of the Russian media - the “opposition propaganda model”

This paper discusses approbation of an integrative attribution method for texts in the Russian language. The methodology goes after (Koppel, Schler 2003): computer program tries to imitate human expert work. So, it is based on interpretative language study with its objectification through mathematical statistics. The choice of parameters describing the author’s individual style is rooted to considering text to be a product of an authentic language personality. Language personality is described using psycholinguistic (Yu.N. Karaulov), sociolinguistic (M.Coulthard, R. W.Shuy) methods and the methodology of forensic linguistics (S.M. Vul, D.Wright). On the basis of the principles above, the software for attribution is created: http://khorom-attribution.ru/#/. As output the resource displays mathematical models of persons’ individual styles and the metrics for null hypothesis evaluation: Pearson correlation coefficient, linear regression and Student’s t-test. The functionality of the resource is aimed to solve an identification problem of text attribution for «closed class» (Juola 2008) with pair-wise comparison, but the resource can also be used in the personality diagnostics in forensic, philological and cultural researchers

The study looks into the problem of student–faculty communication. It addresses the issue of claimed scarcity of such interaction that exists despite the recognized benefits it can bring to students and instructors. It is suggested that examination and comparison of the participants’ interest and actual engagement in out-of-class communication (OCC) may shed light on this. Two populations from a university in Russia: 148 students and 35 instructors, were analyzed to measure their overall interest and engagement in OCC. The paper also addressed the question whether the studied populations are interested and engage in the same types of OCC. The results demonstrate that the reported overall interest in OCC was higher than the actual engagement in it among both groups of the respondents. Besides, students and faculty chose different types of OCC as most interest evincing and most frequently practiced. The research outcomes may help the parties concerned (scholars, teaching staff, educational managers and students) enhance understanding of the nature of OCC and its specifics and consider ways of harmonizing it in the best interests of all stakeholders.

The railway station is the most important chronotope of the 20th century. In times of industrialisation,

economic development, military confrontation between major powers, the images of a steam locomotive,

locomotive, and train met in a large body of literary and journalistic texts. The study of the railway discourse

is based on complex historical and semiotic meanings, which allow concluding about the properties of the

Russian cultural world, studying it from a new perspective. In the process of the research, the methods of the

theoretical level were used: the study and generalisation of scientific works, analysis and synthesis, induction

and deduction. The authors conducted a logical analysis of the collected material, developed new categories

of the image of a train as a “fiery demon”, “a locomotive of progress”, “house on wheels”. Semantic models of

perception of the train as a cultural space were interpreted. A discursive analysis of ideas that influenced the

semantic part of the concept of “railroad” in Russian culture was conducted. It was concluded that the image

of a train in literary creation has a dual character. Already at the stage of the construction of the railway, an

infernal model of its interpretation as a “serpent train/dragon” was formed, capable of destroying all living

things and taking them to the kingdom of death. At the same time, there are examples of a different type of

interpretation of the image of a train. Some researchers insist on its connection with the archetype of

“mother”, the idea of movement in a circle, return. In the post-Soviet space, the image of a train has not lost

its significance. It is still assimilated by mass culture, it enters into everyday life, without losing its ambivalent

character.

The article deals with the autobiography of Paul Claudel in his essay Ma Con-version written in 1913 at the request of readers. The readers believe that his biography no longer belongs to him, so the experience of his conversion should be of common property. It reveals his confessional retrospective traits and self-awareness in “biographical” literary works. Different types of confession, features of preaching, self-expression and autobiography are interwoven in the essay. The language of the essay is poetic and polysemantic. Distance is manifested in many ways in Claudel’s works, from the explicit biographical author – “moi, Paul” to the literary author – “le poète”. The writer begins in a confessional, indecisive man-ner, but as he becomes more professional, he resorts to the “biographical author” less willing-ly, more often remaining on the sidelines as a literary author. There is less open reflection in the collection of works Conversations (1926–1937), so the poet discusses reality, but he does not describe his feelings and actions as he did when he was younger. Claudel's autobiography combines the sacred and the secular, while the intimate and the public act as a “preparatory” stage to a multi-volume exegetic “novel”.

The images of countries in the news of Russian media about the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of popular critical geopolitics were analyzed in the article. 465 texts of the Russian media (01.01.2019 - 03.20.2020) were identified based on the keyword “coronavirus” and processed using computer linguistics. For the eastern countries (China, Iran, South Korea and Japan) and the western (USA, Italy, Spain, France), as well as for “Russia”, semantic fields were reconstructed. Based on the analysis of semantic fields, the images of countries facing a pandemic were interpreted. It turned out that they write about the east in the context of a border beyond which there is a danger of infection. The image of the eastern countries in the news about the coronavirus is consistent with the prevailing media images of the east as a distant and little-known geopolitical space. The media discourse on the pandemic in China contains people and viruses as storytelling actors, which, according to the author of the article, may indicate the preservation of the outdated strategy of “demonization” of China (as a habitat for the infection).

Western countries in the media discourse on coronavirus are lined up in a hierarchy. The United States and France receive a personified representation directly related to their political leaders. Ordinary people suffering from coronavirus disappear in the US pandemic media discourse. All media attention is focused on President Trump. The image of the United States is constructed as an image of a hegemonic country. The image of France is semantically one of the most complex and ambivalent. The image of Spain is being reconstructed through the suffering of people in a pandemic, as well as through the participation of the state in protecting citizens from the infection. The image of Italy is constructed as the image of a close, sympathetic and vulnerable country.

Russia in the discourse of Russian media at the initial stage of the pandemic is being constructed as a resisting (not infected) territory. It turns out that the geopolitical media discourse in a pandemic preserves the most typical intentions.

The paper attempts to clarify the essence of logos as found in the teaching of Heraclitus. The author identifies meanings which Heraclitus attributes to the concept, investigates his suggested method of cognizing logos, and analyzes the benefits bestowed upon a human being by comprehension of logos. It is hypothesized that the Heraclitean logos is not an originating principle, like a supreme god or cosmic fire, but its attribute – the verbalized intelligence of being inherent both in the world as a whole and one’s soul. As a mental-verbal projection, logos is open not to the sensory organs or even reason, but to the intellectual intuition. Therefore, the knowledge of logos cannot be taught, but can be obtained through self-cognition. Comprehension of logos leads to following the universal, which, in polity’s life, is equal to the common good. However, according to Heraclitus, this is something attainable only by wise and virtuous, “the best”, not by wicked and ignorant majority.

Faced with the new realities of functioning in the context of the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Russian business has demonstrated various facets of adaptation to the current conditions. The lack of studied cases of business reaction to such conditions, the high speed (almost daily) changes in the environment, the confusion of society, the negative impact of the current crisis on the economy of all countries - all these were prerequisites for the need for scientific study of the formed phenomenon. The study is devoted to the analysis of practical patterns of behavior of entrepreneurs of medium and small businesses in the era of COVID-19 and to identify the strategies they used to adapt to a hostile business environment.

This article overviews studies exploring the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on education systems and their responses to lockdown restrictions, comparing available findings with international statistics based on continuous education system monitoring. Global organizations acknowledge disruption of traditional educational processes and emergency transition to distance learning during the pandemic. Scientific literature examines accessibility of online education, alternative forms of distance learning, and the pandemic-induced financial constraints on universities inhibiting new construction, social support for students, scholarship application, professional development of faculty members, and research growth. The pandemic illuminated the issue of inequality in education, which worsened as a result of emergency transition to online studies. In particular, researchers focus on the most vulnerable groups of students, such as children from low-income families, children from migrant backgrounds, and students with disabilities.

Projects aimed at studying the digitalization of education account for the biggest chunk of research inspired by the new pandemic reality. A number of studies discuss not just formal transition to distance education but a major technology shift that allows using the unique opportunities provided by digital technologies, which is especially important when teaching to medical students.

Theoretical inquiry is a distinctive feature of scientific discourse, as compared to the discourse of international expert and analytical reports on the problems of education in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research on changes to the learning process makes it possible to reconstruct the direct and indirect, as well as latent, threats of the pandemic.

This paper considers digital footprints not through the prism of their impact on the user, but rather focuses on how users themselves prefer not to leave them, or deliberately leave false ones. Users can do this both for the purpose of fraud and in order to hide their actions from the state and business, considering it unacceptable to have their digital footprints collected and analyzed. Along with it, the author points out that a whole category of users emerges who deliberately reduce the number of their digital traces, turning it into a special lifestyle.

The category of intertextuality and playing with the reader have become an integral part of mass literature in the era of postmodernism. The aim of this article analyses the intertextual inclusions in novel Maskerade (1995) by Terry Pratchett, a British writer who achieved success in the comic fantasy and is well-known for the book-series Discworld and the use of different cultural references which plays a crucial role in the construction of the storyline. The material of the research is the original text of the novel Maskerade, the primary precedent texts: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux and the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as several musical works of the last century. The distinctive features of the novel include the predominance of musical references over literary ones, which can be explained by the primary plot of the book, developing on the stage of the Ankh-Morkpork Opera House. The writer in the very paratitle of the novel begins an intertextual game with the reader, hinting at the main narrative line, the duality and masquerade of what happens. All plot-forming intertextual connections analysed in this article do not have any attribution and are expressed in the form of marked quotations, quasiquotations and allusions. However, Terry Pratchett, taking into consideration “the white knowledge” and the horizon of expectations of readers, subject to rethinking many images of the characters and seemingly well-known plot twists of The Phantom of the Opera. Furthermore, showing the backstage of the theatrical world with its prejudices and difficulties, the author thereby connects the real world with the secondary, fictional world, which turn out to be slightly distinguishable from each other.

The authors of this article proceed from the fact that, as a result of the intensive development of digital  technologies, a digital society has formed an understanding of life, in which many habitual social practices have been  transformed into digital ones. In particular, digital technologies have contributed to the fact that communication on  personal, social and commercial issues has moved to a different, virtual level. However, in a number of areas, digital  communication causes problems and communication disruptions. For example, previous studies have highlighted  high levels of consumer dissatisfaction with companies using digital communication tools. Especially a lot of criticism  is caused by answerphones, recently widely popular and used increasingly by public and commercial institutions.  The article examines the new ways companies  use to deliver their message to an existing or potential customer, as  well as the quality and customer ratings of some of these solutions. In addition, the authors tried to identify factors  that influence consumer satisfaction w hen communicating with companies in the digital environment. The main  research methods are analysis of previous projects results, interviews and online survey. The article is based on the  results of the research conducted in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The city residents expectations for the automated  communication system used in the modern world between the user and the service provider in case when com- munication is initiated by the consumer to solve  his problems were studied on the example of telecommunications  companies. These expectations were divided into six groups, and a comparative quantitative assessment of con - sumer expectations and the actual quality of communication was made. A low  level of satisfaction with new ways  of communication between companies and consumers was detected, and factors influencing consumer attitudes  were identified. In general, the study showed that the formed factors determine the priority directions of transfor - mation of the communication practices of companies and are the basis for the balance of technologies and human  resources at the enterprise.

This study is devoted to identifying the characteristics of the concept WOMAN and their hierarchy in terms of individual respondents’ reactions. The result was the construction of a lexico-semantic model that represents cognitively significant characteristics according to their frequency and similarity of the denotative component.

Review of Artemova O. G. Language keys to the English literature from Shakespeare to Fowles. Voronezh : NAUKA-UNIPRESS, 2020. 596 p.Series: Markemology Library. Vol. 4