Vol. 8 No. 1-2 (10) (2012)

The article analyzes a number of linguistic strategies which act as bearers of positive politeness (in male and female communications) in Facebook social network. Summing up the results of the investigation the author concludes that linguistic expressions among male and female users differ significantly not only in everyday or semi-formal contexts, but in modern computer language at large.

The present article is aimed to discuss the narrator’s selfhood in I-narrations. The investigation shows that first and third person narrations reveal the identity of the narrator in different ways. If in the first case the narrator introduces himself/herself as an individual, the second version keeps his personality in secret. This difference rests upon the semantic peculiarities of personal pronouns. The altering technique of the two narrations in the same text creates a complex psychological image of the character.

The current article highlights the mechanisms of text (context) perception, coherence and construction with the help of various types of presuppositions. The author distinguishes between different presuppositions, such as egotistical, functional, communicative and linguistic, and discusses the contribution of each to the perception, coherence and construction of the text.

The article discusses some characteristic linguostylistic peculiarities in the introductory parts of the articles published in the International Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture which condition and ensure the communication in the given scientific style. The importance of the language and style of the introduction is conditioned by the fact that it presents the overall content of the whole article providing the specialists   and scholars with scientific information and an opportunity to master the specificities of written speech in civil engineering texts.

The present article demonstrates certain syntactic expressions of the informal spoken English discourse among native speakers belonging to different age groups. The data of our analysis demonstrate that the frequency of the application of linguistic variables differs among different age categories of native speakers. This is particularly expressed in the frequency of the use of English conjunctions and and but in terms of the frequent use of attributive clauses and adverbial clauses with because.

The principle of language economy which is an integral part of speech-making is expressed at all levels of a language and is, in fact, the power which regulates the interrelations of various internal and external factors that have a direct or indirect influence on the development of the language system. The natural demand of the language of science is to transfer as much information as possible with the fewest possible linguistic means.  This, in turn, is conditioned by the impact of a number of linguistic and extralinguistic factors, including the firm and logical structure of mind, brevity, information load, economy of time and space, etc. The analysis aims to find out how and to what extent the principle of language economy is manifested in scientific prose from the perspective of the syntactic, semantic and functional peculiarities of the text.

The current article studies the contextual manifestation of polysemy, the influence of the context on the formation and perception of the meaning of the word. The word light in the short story The Apple Tree by John Goldsworthy has been analyzed to demonstrate the possible semantic shades it can obtain in the context.

Colour symbolism plays a great role in art, religious rituals and everyday life. Colour names can be encountered in phraseological units which are based on the semantic and psychological perceptions typical of a given nation and culture. They reflect the semantic, grammatical, lexicological and psychological peculiarities specific to a given language. The article discusses certain psychological, semantic and structural aspects of phraseological units with colour names.

The article studies the relation between the lexicalization patters of English and Armenian verbs of speech activity and their syntactic characteristics based on L. Talmy’s typology. The latter distinguishes between two types of languages – the so-called “satellite-framed” languages where the semantic component of manner of the action is lexicalized in the meaning of motion verbs, and the direction of the action is expressed by other means and “verb-framed” languages where the meaning of the verb comprises the component of the direction of the action. An attempt has been made to apply Talmy’s theory to a semantic group of English and Armenian verbs of speech activity choosing 80 English and 60 Armenian verbs which contain the semantic component of the manner of action. For a clearer picture 2000 sentences from the National British Corpus and 1500 sentences from Eastern Armenian corpus have been studied since the syntactic possibilities of verbs are largely conditioned by various combinations of the semantic components of the meaning of verbs.

The  article centers on the communication barriers which can hinder the process of the interview during international examination tests and affect the quality of the candidate performance and examiner judgments. The investigation reveals that communication barriers are caused by a number of factors including the interference of the native tongue, linguocultural peculiarities of the candidates, misunderstandings in the process of the exam, low level of language competence.

The current article investigates the psychological-linguistic characteristic of falsehood in speech.  Different types of falsehood are introduced, and their application in specific speech situations are discussed.  Linguistic as well as extralinguistic means of falsehood in speech have been examined to reveal the role of movements/gestures in falsehood identification.

The characteristics of the formation of derivatives, the compound nature of their structure provide ample opportunities for the realization of its purposes. Various transformations can take place inside derivates – dissolution of constituents and re-arrangement, fusions, use of a morpheme as an independent word, violation of the standards of the combinability of morphemes, repetition of the morphemes in derivatives, etc. These transformations take place in linguistic units that create word-forming stylistic devices beyond their traditional area of application.

The article aims to suggest a new classification of modern English causative verbs, namely those meaning “to kill”. The author suggests classifying these verbs according to three features – with reference to some instrument/tool (pointing to the use of a tool in the definition), with reference to some cause (pointing to the cause of the murder) and with reference to the manner (pointing to the way the murder was performed).

Emotions play a great role in our daily life, as well as in the teaching process which is closely connected with the emotional sphere of life since teaching is an emotional practice involving emotional understanding, as well as emotional labor. Being in the center of the teaching process, emotions should be paid due attention to in the language classroom since they lead to a better understanding of classroom interactions and more satisfying educational experiences for both language teachers and students.
The paper explores the role and significance of students’ and teachers’ emotions in language teaching and learning, as well as the emotional factors that influence the teaching/learning process. It also suggests some strategies for enhancing positive emotions.

The article addresses certain advantages and drawbacks of the cooperative learning method, as well as the skills obtained by learners through the application of this method. Due to a number of features, the method may especially be of great use for developing communication skills in a foreign language. The authors of the article suggest certain types of revision of the material, homework checking and topic discussion that might be of interest and help for learners.

The article sums up the main functions and characteristics of the use of a foreign language. The importance of certain changes that contribute to the perception of a foreign language has been addressed. These include slowing speech tempo, the number of pauses, clearer pronunciation, the simplification of the vocabulary, the use of the basic syntactic structures, repetition, etc. The investigation of a foreign speech is directly linked with simplification of the foreign language. Three main functions related to foreign speech are distinguished. It assists the communication process, the learning of the foreign language subconsciously and points out the attitude of the speaker towards the learners.

Recently, linguists have been concerned about the fact that the regional varieties of English are gradually drifting apart from each other. There will come a time when English speakers will have to turn to translators for making communication over everyday topics possible. The article aims to illustrate certain peculiarities observed in the word stock of the regional varieties of English in terms of the development of word meaning. The analysis of the factual material reveals that they are largely conditioned by the certain culture belonging of the given nation.

Whimperatives express an order or a request. However, they also possess syntactic peculiarities of direct or indirect polite questions. The present article aims to investigate this type of imperative sentences and their illocutionary function in modern English, Armenian and Russian. An attempt has been made to introduce the brief summary of this unique linguistic structure and, through parallels between these languages, find out how this structure is translated and applied in various cultures.

The proverbial concept of the world has its unique place in the linguistic picture of the world. It is perceived as an unusual way of secondary conceptualization of the reflected reality expressed by proverbs and sayings that are characterized by binary reference. The first one is based on the material-perceptual cognition of the objective reality, whereas the second one is the result of human associative-symbolic thinking. Proverbs and sayings can be viewed as a form of worldview and world perception or as G. Gachev notes, they are the artistic logic and the mental “design” of a nation. Thus, proverbial meaning is anthropocentric, since it reflects the basic characteristics of human essence and human activity, but at the same time it is ethnocentric, in so far as it reflects the characteristic features of the given ethnos creating a certain type of culture, a certain national picture of the world. In the proverb stock of each language the general and national are harmoniously intertwined.

The article analyses the Falling Man by famous American writer Don DeLillo. The novel reflects the American society after the terrorist act 9/11 in 2001 not excluding the possibility of the repetition of the tragic event in any other place at any other time. The 9/11 divided the world into two parts – Before 9/11 and After 9/11. The novel rests on this division and makes it possible to consider the qualitative changes between the notions of time and space and confirms the unity of all time and space dimensions.

The introduction of the English-American Academic Fiction Genre in the 20^th and 21^st centuries was a striking event in the world of literature. The genre was born in 1952 by two pieces of work published simultaneously – “The Groves of Academe” by Mary McCartney and “Lucky Jim” by K. Amis. Numerous talented authors followed the two ones, among them Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000), Phillip Rote (1933), Alison Laurie (1926), John Maxwell Coetzee (1940) and Francine Prose (1947). The novels of this genre depict a whole chain of events where student-lecturer-family relationships are reflected. Academic Fiction Genre already has established and unique features. Each novel provides a detailed description of the academic setting where the main events unfold. Initially, light mockery was typical of this genre which, along with the gradual disappointment of the authors, developed into bitter and deep irony and later into tragedy. The climax of the novel is either a ball or an evening party where the main problems of the novel are highlighted and where the possible solutions to these problems are delicately mentioned.
The present article discusses the introduction of the Academic Fiction Genre which has become one of the meaningful events in modern literature since it provides an opportunity to look at the inter-relations between an individual and the society and evaluate the genre peculiarities from a new perspective.

The article presents the strife of numerous American writers of Armenian origin to identify their roots by literary portrayal of the tragic fate of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. These stories, which are written in English, bear the cultural, religious, social-political impact that are typical of already the third generation of the Genocide survivors. However, all of them are based on the great tragedy of the Armenian Genocide and its continual refusal.

The article provides a thorough and detailed examination of the thick collection titled “The Astral Cluster. Folklore and Monuments of Azerbaijan’s Literature” published in Moscow by the publishing house Fiction (Khudozhestvennaya literatura). The authors of the article provide irrefutable evidence to prove that the collection contains numerous and various obvious mistakes, illogical and anti-scientific claims, conscious and unconscious falsifications, explicit aspirations to seize the literary and cultural values of other nations and many other phenomena which are not appropriate for the scientific investigation of the history of culture. And most importantly all this is done with a low language culture.
The authors of the article strongly believe that the Azerbaijani scholars showed similar approaches back in the Soviet years. While this is not a new and unexpected incident, it is quite surprising and saddening that all this was allowed in the book published by the famous publishing house Fiction with the support of the Interstate Fund of Humanitarian Co-operation of the CIS member states.