Linguocultural Specifics of Cybersecurity Discursive Practices Representation in Russian Media Communication: Corpus-Assisted Approach

The issue of the semantic, pragmatic and axiological specifics of cybersecurity discursive practices as it is displayed in the genres of media and online communication is considered. The novelty of the work lies in the application of the corpus linguistics methodology to the study of discourse, understood as a language-mediated social practice. The relevance of the work is due to the interest of linguistics in the study of discursive practices that shape a new social reality formed as a result of the Russian language functioning. By using the methods of corpus linguistics, the cognitive-semantic structure of discursive thesaurus, which comprise a new layer of lexical units, has been reconstructed, thematic groups of lexical units have been identified and their distribution in various genres of cybersecurity discourse has been established. It has been found that along with the terminology focused on the transfer of operational, practical knowledge about safe online practices, the texts in the corpus regularly employ lexical units with military and aggressive semantics, which indicates the contradiction between the goals of the discourse aimed at forming a positive attitude towards digital technologies, and language means employed to achieve them. It is shown that due to regular occurrence of neutral lexical units in negatively colored contexts, they develop negative evaluative connotations, which also contributes to the formation of users’ distrust of new technologies, enhances the feeling of risk, and generates anxiety and concern

Genre characteristics of the 18th century military charters (With Reference to the Mikhailovsky Stanitsa Ataman Archive

Статья поступила в редакцию 15.07.2016.Received on 15 July, 2016.В статье обосновано определение войсковой грамоты — главного управленческого документа Области Войска Донского — как уникального жанра деловой письменности XVIII в. Исследование проведено на материале документов 1735–1755 гг. фонда «Михайловский станичный атаман», хранящегося в Государственном архиве Волгоградской области. Применение комплексного подхода к анализу языковых явлений и учет достижений современной теории текста, осмысленных с позиций документной лингвистики, позволили установить следующие параметры жанра любого документного текста: функция, субъекты коммуникации (адресант и адресат), характер передаваемой информации, структура, доминирующая модальность, пространственно-временная локализация. Показано их многовекторное, разноплановое взаимодействие и соотнесенность с общими текстовыми категориями и свойствами документа. Уточнены представления о жанре, разработанные в лингвистике на материале художественного текста, в частности, концептуальная информация применительно к официально-деловым текстам понимается авторами статьи как культурно-исторический фон, обусловливающий достоверную интерпретацию фактуальной информации. Охарактеризованы особенности экспликации названных параметров в речевой структуре войсковых грамот разноуровневыми средствами языка, особо отмечены случаи, допускающие вариативность выражения. Выявлено, что войсковая грамота, будучи самостоятельным жанром, отражает специфику делопроизводства на определенной территории России, но при этом вписывается в новую для XVIII в. канцелярскую систему, сохраняя в своем речевом воплощении приказные традиции.The military charter is defined in the article as a major type of administration document in the Don Host Province (Rus. Oblast’ Voyska Donskogo) and is claimed to be an exceptional genre of administrative documentation of the 18th century. The study is conducted with reference to documents (dated between 1735 and 1755) from the Mikhailovsky Stanitsa Ataman Archive (State Archive of Volgograd Region). Applying a complex approach to linguistic phenomena analysis and taking into account the achievements of the modern text theory through the prism of documentation linguistics, the authors determine the following characteristics of any genre of a documentary text: functions, subjects of communication (addresser, addressee), specificity of the message delivered, composition structure, prevailing modality, time and space localization. The authors illustrate their multi-vector and heterogeneous interaction and coordination with the specific features and general text categories and properties of the text. The notion of genre that was first introduced in linguistics with reference to fiction is specified for documentation linguistics; conceptual information in official and administrative documents is considered as a cultural and historical background that helps to provide an accurate interpretation of factual information. The authors characterise the peculiarities of the aforementioned parameters in the speech structure of military charters that are expressed by different level means of language, emphasising the cases that allow for variability. The article demonstrates that though it is an isolated textual phenomenon, the military charter reflects the peculiarities of records management typical of a certain area of Russia. Keeping some old instructive traditions, the text, however, demonstrates some features of the new office style of the 18th century.Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке Российского гуманитарного научного фонда и Администрации Волгоградской области, проект № 16-14-34004 «Динамика текстовой и языковой организации региональных документов XVIII–XIX вв. (по данным архивного фонда “Михайловский станичный атаман” ГАВО)».The work is supported by the Russian Foundation for the Humanities and the Administration of Volgograd Region, project #16-14-34004 “The Dynamics of the Textual and Linguistic Organisation of Regional Documents between the 18th and 19th Centuries (with Reference to the Mikhaylovsky Stanitsa Ataman Archive)”