Vol. 1 No. 1-2 (1) (2005)

The 21^st century is facing a new qualitative level of technological advances which have had a significant impact on human lifestyle and human language alike. Since language is a most important means of cognition, it plays an essential role in the development process of the world. In this regard, English, being the most widely used language in the international communication, is, perhaps, the most flexible one. Under the external factors and due to ever-changing human thinking, language undergoes significant changes both in oral and in written speech as well as in the overall language system.

Distinction is an efficient syntactic device which helps highlight the rhematic part of an utterance in a most expressive way separating it from the core of the sentence and presenting it either fully or partially. In certain cases, the distinction can be so influential that it can bring about semantic changes in the structure singled out.

The article examines the function of detached participles in Modern English from a perspective of discourse formation. An attempt is made to describe the use of these structures in speech, to reveal the extent to which it conditions the distribution of participles in different types of discourses, as well as to demonstrate certain grammatical features of these structures.
The article emphasizes that the use of different grammatical structures in speech is conditioned by the purpose of the communicative situation. Therefore, the process of the perception of grammar is inseparable from the principles by which the language speakers make up their speech as a whole.

The article examines the role of consciousness in speech activity. Language application in different speech situations calls for various mental actions ranging from subliminal to conscious ones. Thus, in certain stereotypical speech situations the speakers automatically use conversational formulae readily available in the language. Without any conscious efforts they simply choose a combination of language signs appropriate to that particular situation. However, there are also speech situations which require a creative approach and mental efforts to pick the necessary language means. The analysis of phatic speech units makes it possible to suggest that in case of the application of the latter, it is necessary to use the ready-made conversation formulae and subconscious mental activity of selecting the language means.

The choice of the language means by the interlocuters to express their disposition towards each other, the strategy they apply as well as the use of emotive-expressive and paralinguistic means are of immense importance in conflict interaction (CI).
The article attempts to reveal the verbal and non-verbal means that help express conflict in the process of communication. Generalizing the findings of the research three degrees of intensity of conflict interaction have been distinguished – low, mid-level and high.

The article analyses the self-centered semantic component of generic pronouns. The examination of the nature and content of this component in the present article is based on surveys with language bearers. The presence of the meaning described explains the pragmatic and stylistic applications of these pronouns, particularly their linguistic-demagogic function which aims to exert a direct impact on the listener.

Language is a means of human cognitive activity. The knowledge of the natural process of the acquisition of each language, namely of a foreign one, is highly necessary in language learning process. The record of the characteristics of child language development acquires much significance in this regard. Evidently, each child is unique. However, the sequence of the development stages of native and foreign languages is almost the same and quite predictable, while the psycholinguistic investigation of a foreign language learning among grown-ups demonstrates evident differences. The acquisition of a foreign language differs not only in the content of the material studied, but also in the new linguistic nature of the coordination of the knowledge.

The connection between lexical syntagms and functional-stylistic orientation in the Publicistic Prose is more evident due to adjectives ending in -able which, in fact, realize the category of the probability of the action. The wide use of lexical syntagms in the Publicistic Prose leads to stylistic marking and endows these units with a distinctive stylistic feature.

The use of the Participle in a patent text is highly specific and makes it easily recognizable. On the one hand, the Participle plays a leading role between the main sentence and the participial clause, on the other hand, appearing in the main articles of the closing passage of the patent text, it aims to introduce and discuss the new crucial features of the invention avoiding unimportant words. It is also a bearer of theme-rheme relations in the text of the patent.

The article presents the initial generalizations of research in the fields of semantics and lexicography which are based on the examination carried out in 1962. Proceeding from the current results of the research, as well as the criteria elaborated in the fields of modern psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics, the article puts forward the idea of the expansion of the lexical semantics in English and the existence of a basic semantic structure. The possibility of further similar researches with the inclusion of the Spanish vocabulary is also emphasized in the article.

The article discusses the importance of intercultural communication and the challenges related to it. Special attention is paid to the linguistic phenomena which can seriously obstacle intercultural communication. The peculiarities of lexical and phraseological compatibility typical of this or that language, unique linguostylistic expressions of language units as well as our national worldview undergo thorough investigation.

In recent decades the use of communicative methods of foreign language teaching has resulted in tangible changes and teaching has focused on the content of public culture and the further development of its intercultural approach. The traditional grammar-translation method with its linguistic restrictions has developed into a wider methodology of teaching based on the model of “language within culture”/ “culture within language”. The use of this model gives preference to the social environment of the given language in the context of its cultural history, norms and values.
The idea of the creation of a “New World” forces the learner to feel more confident in different environments of interchangeable cultures and get acquainted with new cultural values. The university teaching course Culture Studies promotes the so-called “cultural competence” and the perception of a foreign language in the extralinguistic features of “the new world” attaching special importance to the development of intercultural knowledge.

The political, economic and social changes in Armenia have their direct impact on linguistic realities and studies in the field of linguistics. The article views the official and popular equivalents of the English words and word combinations in the language of public management as an influence of the global English which predominantly is the result of the manifold activities of international organizations.

The use of the Communicative Approach to foreign language teaching has been in the center of methodological discussions since the 1960s. This can be explained by the active development of myriad international relations (economic, political, scientific, etc.). Research suggests that the communicative approach of teaching can be ensured through the identification of sociolinguistic factors: The article provides various approaches of the use of the communicative method in teaching.

The English teaching of the students majoring in law will be more effective if it begins with legal texts not designed for specialists. This would enable the students to overcome the language-related difficulties in original legal texts and to make appropriate analysis.

The British Council has elaborated certain materials aimed at developing the writing skills, especially report writing, of the students who have already reached upper-intermediate level of English competence. The article presents the process of the use of the abovementioned materials among Armenian junior diplomats and other people working in other fields. It further analyzes the methods that will help overcome linguistic difficulties that might arise while writing a report.

In the Armenian reality the translations of Shakespeare’s works have been studied from diverse perspectives – text equivalence, choice of words, fidelity to style and poeticism. The Armenian classical translator Hovhannes Massehian was the first who investigated the imagery of the original and Biblical allusions. He revealed the Biblical language of Shakespeare and used Armenian equivalents in his interpretations. The most successful translations of 12 Shakespearean works by Massehyan confirm the invaluable contribution that the Armenian translator made in the history of the art of translation in Armenia.

In recent years translation and particularly the translation of literature is perceived as interpretation. Several decades ago, Roman Jacobson put forward the idea of translation as semiotic interpretation distinguishing between in intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic translations. While intralingual translation is the translation of verbal signs with the help of other signs, and inter-lingual translation is the interpretation of the verbal signs of one language with those of another language, intersemiotic translation is the interpretation of the verbal signs by means of non-verbal sign systems. Hence, according to the rule of extralinguistic signs, the main concern of the one who studies a piece of translation is the examination of the extralinguistic phenomena which have ensured the existence of the overall vertical context. The semiotic study of the original and the translation insists on revealing the vertical context, i.e. the literary, aesthetic, moral values and their recreation in the translated version with the help of the non-verbal signs of another language.

In his work “Transcaucasia and Ararat”, J. Bryce, the founder of the Anglo-American company, refutes the stereotypes about the Transcaucasia, reveals the true picture of ethnic cooperation in the region and presents the interest of the English toward Mount Ararat. The book by yet another author – H.F. B, “Armenia: Journey and Investigation” is a combination of two separate journeys from 1893 to 1898. Lynch is quite enthusiastic about the “mountain of the Ark, the mythical paradise”. Finally, in his collection of sonnets titled “The Purple East” W. Watson defends the dying nation, “a homeless nation” which “is stretching its arms in a prayer”. The works of the authors mentioned need further and detailed research especially in our days, when the new world order is underway.