This study considers words used to describe human actions in the prose of Russian millennial writers, who emerged as a separate generation due to the Pushkin Prize, an annual Russian literary award established to honor young writers for literary excellence. These writers have only recently come into the focus of research, thus making it timely and relevant to explore their works and activities. The results obtained show that investigating contemporary literary texts is essential for understanding how both people and culture have changed in the new millennium: human beings are shaped by the actions they take, and their capacity for action is determined by self-reflection, responsibility, and the pursuit of accepted social values. Among all the identified human actions, those with the highest communicative value in the millennial prose were singled out, and the common verbal means used to express them were analyzed. From the analysis, the most pressing ethical issues and the weakest spots of social morality in our times continuously addressed by millennial writers were distinguished. 

The features of voice-over translation in musical films, with a particular focus on song lyrics, were explored. Key methods best suited to the demands of such translation were analyzed and categorized. The insights were drawn from a detailed case study on the voice-over translation of song lyrics in the iconic musical film “Grease”. Compressed free translation and semantic translation, each with its strengths and limitations, were identified as the primary approaches used to preserve the intended meaning and musicality of the translated song lyrics. The obtained results, however, show that much can be lost through excessive compression, thus leading to semantic errors and an overall failure to meet the requirements for fidelity and quality in translation, which is due to a loss of expressiveness, as well as an inability to capture extralinguistic and linguistic nuances. Additionally, common challenges encountered while performing voice-over translation of song lyrics in musical films were summarized. By highlighting these potential pitfalls, the importance of preserving the original’s integrity and essence to effectively adapt it to new linguistic and cultural contexts was underscored. 

Increasing life expectancy has led to a marked growth in the older population with cognitive deficits. This study examines how institutional texts match the communication skills of older people with accelerated aging phenotype. Major shifts in the speech production and processing patterns during the third age stage were traced. A taxonomy of linguistic elements that make people having dementia or pre-dementia struggle with understanding written texts was compiled. The analysis showed that written informational texts and announcements produced by public institutions are generally too complicated for older people with cognitive impairment. Common barriers include unnecessarily long sentences, complex syntax, numerous multisyllabic words, loanwords, abbreviations, terms, bureaucratic style, excessive punctuation, convoluted comparisons, etc. 

This article explores the pragmasemantic features of metatextuality in the discourse of autobiographical narrative. Autobiographical discourse is inherently subjective and expressed through various modalities. Subjectivity is an ontological property of thinking, inevitably manifested in language. Here, metatextuality was defined as a unity of explicit metatextual elements and metapoetic meanings, given that the writer, producing autobiographical discourse, impregnates it with their personal perception of the creative process and aesthetic principles. The methods used include inductive-deductive reasoning, comparison and contrast, semantic analysis, and philological interpretation. Based on the analysis of Yury Olesha’s autobiographical book “Not a Day without a Line”, the main verbalizers of metatextuality (introductory words and phrases; inserted constructions; gradational comparisons and expanded metaphors; lexemes zhizn’ (life), pisat’ (write), and isskustvo (art), as well as their word-forming derivatives; precedent onyms; stylization of metapoetic fragments as monologues) were identified. The results obtained show that the pragmasemantic potential of metatextuality is determined by its alignment with the metapoetics of the writer’s autobiographical discourse as a form of personal, existential discourse. 

This article outlines the challenges of translating the evaluative vocabulary from the letters of Makar Devushkin, one of the main characters of M.F. Dostoevsky’s epistolary novel “Poor Folk”, into Japanese. Evaluative connotations are rarely spanned by dictionaries and can be acquired even by neutral words in specific contexts, thus being difficult to render accurately, as confirmed here by a detailed linguistic analysis of the idiolect of Makar Devushkin in comparison to that of Varvara Dobroselova, another main character of the novel. The writing style of Makar Devushkin was found to be marked by poetic and vernacular expressions, creative language use, clerk slang, stylistic inconsistencies, as well as numerous speech errors, clarifications, and interjections. The key strategies for translating Makar Devushkin’s idiolect into Japanese without losing his evaluative voice were identified: finding a contextual equivalent, omission, and literal translation. The factors determining the choice of the translation strategies were revealed. The findings show that contextual translation is the best option to convey the meaning of Makar Devushkin’s words used in non-standard contexts, altering their meanings in ways that must be guessed from the context. Omission is applied when pleonasms appear in Makar Devushkin’s speech. Literal translation is appropriate when the original expressions are likely to be understood intuitively, at least to some extent, by readers.

The role of the frame-scenario as a cognitive structure within the artistic image, a key element of literary fiction, was studied. By examining Agatha Christie’s novel “A Pocket Full of Rye”, an example of detective discourse, the linguocultural and pragmatic features of the frame-scenario “investigation” were identified. The mechanisms of semiosis of linguistic and aesthetic signs were described, revealing how they deconstruct and transform frames and scenarios typical of a given linguoculture to create literary fiction in the textual and discursive space. The methods used include observation, modeling, cognitivesemantic and linguocultural analysis, and philological interpretation. It was demonstrated that framescenarios of detective discourse function within the contexts of both subject-referent and procedural situations. However, in “A Pocket Full of Rye”, A. Christie deviates from the procedural context by describing the crime with irony, as well as by gradually introducing the characters falling under suspicion of committing the crime. Unlike frames and scenarios as two cognitive structures within a particular linguoculture characterized by the certainty and stereotypy of properties and actions, the frame-scenario in literary discourse is marked by constant deconstruction, transformation of the events expected by the reader, thereby constituting the basis of the semiosis of literary fiction. 

This article examines the evolution of the concepts of “family” and “marriage” in the Russian worldview across four generations: children (41 respondents, with significant differences observed between the groups aged 5–7 and 10–13 years, as well as preschoolers (under 7 years) generally lacking a fully developed concept of “marriage”), young adults (24 respondents aged 19–24 years), middle-aged adults (32 respondents aged 42–55 years), and seniors (14 respondents aged 66–80 years). The respondents were asked about their five reactions (words and/or word combinations) to the stimuli family and marriage. The analysis of these reactions reveals that both concepts have a complex structure, which can be best described as a frame consisting of slots (groups of related semantic reactions), and unfold over time as a series of changes: preschoolers are normally concrete thinkers with a straightforward idea of family, a result of their age-specific naïve worldview → children aged 10–13 years attain an ability to abstract from reality, but still depend on their immediate experiences → young adults, starting to live on their own, have an abstract, idealized model of family and marriage → middle-aged adults and seniors associate family and marriage with their personal life experiences. 

This article explores the language of conflict-generating discourse in socially important contexts using the methods of complex linguo-stylistic and communicative analysis, elements of content and intent analysis, conceptual and discourse analysis, etc. The characteristics of contemporary online texts, in a broad sense, were identified. Their differences from media texts were outlined. The shifting roles of the author and audience, verbal functions, and the writer’s pragmatic intentions and communication strategies on the internet were revealed. Five key characteristics of this new form of online discourse, involving either direct or indirect interaction between the communicators (explicit dialogization), were singled out. The study is based on a number of public Telegram channels that focus on burning socio-political issues, each catering to diverse audiences, fulfilling different communication tasks, and reflecting the distinct objectives of their authors. Two speech strategies typical of socio-political discourse – discreditation and mitigation, which are opposite in their pragmatic aims – were examined. Their manifestations in the modern, potentially conflict-generating online space were demonstrated. Particular attention was given to the tactical implementation of these strategies and how it depends on the author’s stance and personal qualities. The speech examples under study were taken from previous works and provided here for illustration purposes only. The conclusion was made about the interrelation between the speech strategies and tactics used by the authors of Telegram channels and their social status, content focus, and gender. The results obtained are relevant for understanding how individuals express their identity online, as well as for increasing the safety of online interaction, promoting the principles of language ecology, and preventing excessive radicalization in the online environment. 

This article examines the concept of transdiscursivity as a result of the interaction between the discourses of traditional folklore and mass culture. Folklore, viewed through transdiscursive lens, can be described using the terms of folklorization, folklorism, and mythologism. The transdiscursivity of Chinese folklore deserves special attention as, being studied through contextual analysis, it unveils the reasons behind this phenomenon in general, exposes the interplay between different discourses, and can be indicative of the evolutionary trajectories of Chinese folklore in particular. One of the most powerful drivers of the transdiscursive transition is the influence of consumer society, which compels traditional narratives to adapt and acquire new features. Under the conditions of transdiscursivity, folklore manifests through its representation in video games, cartoons, plays, etc. The fusion of traditional folklore imagery with modern cultural motifs leads to the incorporation of self-development discourse into contemporary adaptations of folklore, which is reflected in the behavior of fictional characters. Concerning Chinese folklore, the conclusion was made that it takes on new features when functioning in a new discursive environment, thereby altering the perception of traditional images by its recipients. Therefore, the folklore discourse of China is constantly evolving in diverse forms, which ensures its vitality and maintains its unique national and cultural specificity.

This article explores the origins and functioning of the lexeme tseninnyi throughout the history of the Russian language, focusing on its role as a color term with Oriental roots. Its semantic evolution was traced using a variety of sources, including historical, etymological, and dialect dictionaries, as well as Old Russian texts. The analysis is based on 1) systemic-linguistic, or paradigmatic, and 2) etymological aspects. In Old Russian texts, this term refers to a shade of blue (tseninnyi1 ) and glazed ceramics with blue enamel (tseninnyj2 ). Both of these meanings emerged almost simultaneously in the second half of the 16th century. As a color name, tseninnyi fell out of use before the end of the 17th century, largely due to changing fashion trends as the expensive textiles in this color gradually became unpopular. At the same time, tseninnyi, when used in architectural language to denote glazed ceramics and tiles with a monochrome pattern, has proved to be more enduring and survived up to the present day.

This article examines the mechanisms and conditions that contributed to the formation of the metaphorical model life is movement. Its emergence and development were traced through the scenario metonymy of verbs originally denoting physical movement. Despite the important role of this cognitive metaphor in the conceptualization of life within the Russian linguistic worldview, its genesis has received little research attention, thus highlighting the need for detailed study. The analysis of the linguistic and textual material revealed that the metaphorical model life is movement is rooted in the scenario metonymy of movement verbs. These verbs, when combined with dependent words, are used to denote various stages of human life and actions. Such constructions are numerous and widely used in speech, tending to expand and incorporate more substantives with diverse lexical meanings. With the increase in the number of these constructions and nouns that combine with movement verbs, particularly those with abstract semantics, the original meanings of movement verbs transform into metaphorical ones based on their metonymically derived meanings. Consequently, the active use of movement verbs in metaphorical contexts solidifies the metaphorical model life is movement and encourages the extensive involvement of vocabulary from the associative semantic field road/spatial movement in the metaphorical interpretation of human actions. 

A longitudinal diary study on the formation of two young girls’ individual language systems was carried out. In both cases, the general language ability was tracked by considering its key components, including the phonetic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic ones, as well as imitation skills and early metalinguistic awareness. The relation between these components (autonomy or mutual influence) was examined. The MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) were used as an auxiliary tool. The findings of the two case studies were compared with the published results of a systemic analysis based on the extensive MacArthur–Bates-CDI database on various components of general language ability. The comparisons revealed shared and individual language acquisition patterns in the early stages of speech ontogenesis. The obtained data are consistent with those reported in previous research: in the early stage of language acquisition, the speech of the girls was marked by an interaction between the phonetic (articulation of complex three- or four-syllable words), lexical (vocabulary growth), and morphological (learning grammatical categories) components, while the syntactic component progressed relatively autonomously; and then, during the later stage, morphological skills served more as a supportive mechanism that facilitated the construction of grammatically accurate syntactic structures. 

The rapid advance of computer technologies has unlocked numerous benefits and opportunities that make life easier. This article examines the use of speech recognition applications facilitating the communication between deaf and hearing people. The analysis is based on the interviews with Russian sign language users who rely on various applications, such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, VoiceNavigator, Roger Speech to Text, and Ava Translator, during the communication process. Although the majority of respondents had low literacy levels due to the challenges often faced by deaf children while studying, they have successfully mastered high-tech gadgets, allowing them to engage more fully in the interaction with oral language speakers. The demand for speech recognition applications stems from the lack of Russian sign language interpreters and the wide range of problematic situations that deaf people encounter in their daily lives. However, the study highlights that many of the existing assistive applications are still not deaf-friendly, thus making deaf people continue to depend on support from sign language interpreters. The results obtained underscore the need to address the limitations of these applications by incorporating feedback from deaf users.