Vol. 2 No. 1-2 (2) (2006)

The article examines English analytical causative constructions in the light of cognitive semantics and functional linguistics which makes it possible to identify six syntactic patterns. Each pattern includes two predicates – the first is usually expressed by a causative verb, the second – by different parts of speech or different verb forms (Infinitive, Participle I, Participle II, Gerund, Adjective, Noun). As for the participants of the action (the CAUSER and the CAUSEE), they are the nominal elements of the pattern and are presented by animate or inanimate nouns. This fact is determined by the type of the pattern and the nature of the causative verb involved. The analysis suggests that apart from paradigmatic causative verbs, these patterns can also include verbs that prototypically do not belong to causative verbs in English.

The article aims to reveal the nature of sentences with introductory it where the predicative is expressed by an adjective (it is…). The introductory it is followed by a compound nominal predicate with a predicative expressed by an adjective while the conjunction that introduces an object clause. The semantic aspect of these constructions is of certain interest, but it is also important to see through what English patterns it is expressed. Unlike the sentence It is a house, where the grammatical subject it preserves its deictic meaning, the pronoun it in the abovementioned sentences is fully abstracted and specified by the object clause. The adjective following the construction it is… acts as an epithet which expresses the person’s opinion and evaluation of the given action and reality. The nature of the grammatical noun – logical noun and subject – predicate correlations is also specified.

The article investigates the possibility of viewing literary allusion as a game. More specifically, it is described as a “game-riddle” whose “deciphering”, owing to its structure and stable constituents, allows claiming that the notion of allusion is a game by nature.
The article presents the scheme of understanding allusion which is based on the hermeneutic circles of part – whole, pre-understanding – understanding, cognition – knowledge. The mechanism question – answer is an ontological base not only for “deciphering” a riddle but also for interpreting an allusion, the only difference being that while a question is typical of a riddle, in case of the allusion the reader asks questions and answers them himself to arrive at understanding.

Metaphor is the most characteristic element of a literary text since it reflects the individual style of the author and provides the reader with some information about the secret part of his/her creativity.
The article investigates the metaphors in D.H. Lawrence’s authorial comments in his stories. Authorial comments are one of the methods used in poetic speech to provide a more complete picture of the personalities of the characters involved and their speech characteristics.

Metaphor as a stylistic device is widely used in fiction. Writers can usually be easily identified due to the metaphors they use in their works. Metaphor is one of the basic devices of imagery. The Bible abounds in metaphors and the system of imagery in the Holy Book is heavily dependent on this device. Here, metaphors appear not only in the form of words, but of sentences, as well. Symbols, which are specific to the Bible, communicate a special meaning to the events and phenomena described.

The article examines two crucially important notions – the correlation of politeness and deixis in speech. Viewing the category of politeness as a most important means to regulate the complicated relations between the agents of a communication process – the speaker and the addressee, the author attempts to reveal the role of deictic units in speech and demonstrate the importance of their right choice and application in expressing the speaker’s intention. To define the degree of politeness, the article distinguishes between speaker-centered and addressee-centered utterances.

Linguistic units known as “combining forms” are of great interest in terms of the word-building efficiency. The research aims to specify the place and role of the combining forms in word-formation process of English. The investigation is conducted on the dictionary data of neologisms. The derivational, morphological, distributional, functional analyses of the material allow to identify the differences among combining forms and hence, the factors conditioning the degree of efficiency of certain units. The initial findings, though with some reservations, confirm the hypothesis that the percentage of compounding in the system of English word-formation is considerably increasing at the expense of non-patterned derivational methods.

Conversion is one of the most productive means of word-formation which has immensely contributed to the morphological assimilation of the words borrowed from French. On the other hand, conversion is the result of the assimilation of the loan-words form French and from other languages. As a result of the semantic, phonetic, morphological assimilation of the loan-words, Modern English abounds in the so-called converted pairs and converted triples which are viewed as false conversions.

The article highlights the three methods of vocabulary enlargement – the creation of neologisms, changes in the word meaning and borrowings. Borrowings or loan-words are, first of all, introduced by bilinguals and acquire an increasingly wider usage in the given language. Therefore, the author of the article concludes that borrowing is a dynamic process since the word becomes a constituent of the language system once it is used in speech.
The article also addresses a number of issues related to the efficiency of borrowings, as well as their assimilation in the recipient language.

Language and politics have always been closely interconnected and this correlation has served an ample ground to reveal not only the essence of politics but also the systemic nature of the manifestations of the language units applied in that sphere. The study of the language of a politician on the basis of the theory of speech acts makes it possible to reveal the difference thought and its linguistic expression. The maxim of truth is revealed in political interviews as a combination of the expression of real, individual and social truth.

The article examines the possibility of creating color imagery in artistic prose. Special attention is paid to the role of the lexical, phraseological, linguocultural values of color terms from the perspective of philological reading. Research of the language of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel reveals that certain colors (red, white, pink, etc.) acquire a symbolic significance in the context.

The article examines certain issues related to the emotive-evaluative meaning of phraseological units. Phraseological units contain referential, denotational, connotational sememes. Expressiveness and emotiveness which are often accompanied by evaluation are constituents of connotational meaning. Phraseological units can be of two types – of neutral evaluation and of emotive evaluation. Apart from expressiveness, phraseological units are also endowed by emotive shades, i.e. various nuances expressing the subjective attitude of the speaker/writer. While the element of evaluation in emotive phrases can be explicit, the emotive-evaluative meaning of expressive phraseologisms is inherent and can be realized only in the context.

The article highlights the present state of English and predicts its future in the context of an expanding Europe. The current rate of the development of English is conditioned by the EU activity which being a multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-language body still gives preference to only a handful of languages, especially English.
The article specifies the EU actions and initiatives which aim to facilitate the communication-related challenges of the citizens and help the latter use the language properly. The article contains considerable information about the current stage of the development of English in certain EU countries which, in the long run, give the author a chance to predict the spread of the “globalized” English throughout the world.

The cultural concept, which is a multi-graded semantic formation (with its conceptual, imaginative and evaluative components) is a linguocultural unit. Faith that is an indispensable element of human life and acts as the basis of all moral values is a broader and more global metaphysical concept. Faith is the value which allows a human to perceive the hierarchy of other values.
The article offers a contrastive analysis of three languages (English, Armenian and Russian) in the cultural tradition.

The article attempts to address some of the issues related to successful second language teaching and suggest possible solutions. The success of teaching depends on the relevance of the favorable teaching atmosphere accompanied with the awareness of students’ objectives. It is necessary to use original texts and pay attention to the independent thinking and individuality of the students. The article pays special attention to the role of the teacher, his/her ability to present the material and other issues related to modern methods. These factors contribute to the promotion of the efficiency of second language teaching.

While developing foreign language teaching methods for adult students aged 17-20, it is necessary to take into account not only teaching and learning related issues, but also a number of principles which are connected with adult teaching. The article discusses a set of issues connected with foreign language teaching methodology with view of not only the specific features of the foreign language teaching methods for adults but also the theories that attach importance to the factor of emotions in the teaching process. The article attempts to combine a foreign language teaching and learning with the theory of game. The aim of the research is to reveal how games contribute to the improvement of foreign language teaching and learning.

The article addresses the issues related to the translation of literary texts. The author places a special emphasis on the importance of the functional approach and suggests the principle of “metaphoric displacement” as the best way to achieve adequate literary translation. The article attaches special importance to the translation of lexical units especially to that of polyphonic words.

The article offers a contrastive study of several classical fairy tales and their animated versions. Animated movies based on fairy tales can be considered the visual version of the tale. Along with a number of similarities, there are also radical differences between the fairy tale narratives and their animated versions. When the fairy tale narrative is converted into a script, along with noticeable plot similarities, a number of essential changes of the linguostylistic and rhetorical features occur. This is conditioned by the character of the cartoon genre. Despite the fact that the poetics of the animated version of a fairy tale is quite flexible, the authors often borrow certain elements of the narrated version which convey the illusion of a text to the animated version.

The article aims at presenting the attempt of the translator of the novel Ararat by the American writer Elgin Groseclose to reproduce the interpretation of the key message of the novel. The author of the article tries to elucidate the answer to the question: what and who is saved when the world turns into Sodom and Gomorrah?

The article offers a comparative analysis of the data in Armenian, English, French and Russian sources trying to comment on the political and social settings in which a native language becomes a subject of nationwide love and pride. The author concludes that it happens when an ethnic group, which has already attained a high level of cultural awareness, adopts consistent and stable features typical of a nation. Later, with the support of the political elite, the intelligentsia carries out the further elaboration of the national self-consciousness which, in its turn, aims to analyze the elements of the national identity (including the national language) and to give theoretical and ideological explanations substantiating their necessity and efficiency.
The author of the article states that as far back as the 5^th century the Armenian intelligentsia highly regarded the cultural and political and strategic significance of the Armenian Language. Following the observations made by Pavstos Byuzand, Movses Khorenatsi and Yeghishe, the author comments on the clarity of the Armenian national self-consciousness and the high level of ideologization of the Armenian political thought.

*  This is an abridged version of the study with the same title that was originally published by the author in Armenian as Mayreni lezun yev azgaynakanutian skzbnavorume. haykakan yev yevropakan skzbnaghbyurneri hamematakan knnutiun (Yerevan, Matenadaran: Artagers, 2001, the updated 2nd ed. was published in 2004).