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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (27), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Ministry of Science and Higher Education

of the Russian Federation

Scientific Journal

“MODERN LINGUISTIC AND

METHODICAL-AND-DIDACTIC RESEARCHES”

Voronezh State Technical University

The journal has been publishing since 2012

Issue 4 (27), 2019

CONTENTS

Fedorov V.A. Introductory remarks by editor-in-chief of the scientific journal «Modern

LINGUISTICS

Monakhova E.V., Pavlenkova O.N. Interpretation of litotes from the perspective of

Konovalova Yu.S. Appellative type of English gerontological phraseological units with

Zhukova M.T. The main sentential structural schemes of the English infinitive constructions in

Lavrinenko I.Yu. Linguistic representation of the concept «Man» in the philosophical texts of

METHODS AND DIDACTICS

Аntonova L.А., Bakhmetieva I.A., Аnisimova О.N. Techniques for teaching English

Solodovchenko L.N., Grevtseva V.F., Solodovchenko S.A. The arrangement of students'

Popova E.A., Klevina M.N. Using distance learning in organizing independent work of full

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (27), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

Introductory Remarks by Editor-in-chief of the Scientific Journal

«Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches»

Issue 4 (27) of the Scientific journal contains the following sections: "Linguistics", "Methods and Didactics", "Intercultural Communication", "Theory and Practice of Translation". The fourth issue of the twenty-seventh series of the journal presents 11 scientific articles.

Issue 4 (27), 2019 of the scientific journal presents to our respected readers the most recent and relevant theoretical and practical findings, with the results and prospects of scientific researches in the area of linguistics,

methods and didactics of foreign language teaching, international communication, the problems of theory and practice of translation, studied not only as a proсess, but also as a result. To approach to the scientific truth is a burning ambition of any linguist. The scientific works offered in this journal contribute to achieve it.

Researches on lexis, syntaxes, phraseology, stylistic analyses are presented in the section

“Linguistics”. The section represents the article about stylistic figure – litotes – in its modern definition of the authors (by E.V. Monakhova and O.N. Pavlenkova). In the next article negative and positive semantics of the phraseological lexemes of the appellative type by the example of the concept «Old age» is described (by Yu. S. Konovalova). The next publication determines the basic structure schemes of the English infinitive constructions and their syntactic concepts (by M.T. Zhukova). The section is concluded by the article about linguistic representation of the concept “man” in the philosophical discourse of F. Bacon (by I.Yu. Lavrinenko).

The section “Methods and Didactics” contains three articles. The article about techniques for teaching English grammar to clip thinking students (by L.А. Аntonova, I.A. Bakhmetieva, О.N. Аnisimova), the article concerning quite relevant problem of the arrangement of students' individual work in the discipline in the context of requirements of FSES HE 3 ++ by a team of authors (L.N. Solodovchenko, V.F. Grevtseva, S.A. Solodovchenko). The final article of the section is also connected with the analysis of the aspects of independent work of students and presents use of distance learning technologies on teaching grammar (by E.A. Popova, M.N. Klevina).

The section “International Communication” contains the article of our foreign colleague about structural cognitive-and-pragmatic features of the lexemes in oil and gas industry (by Miloud Mohamed Rachid), as well as the article on the problems of stereotypes of speech behavior in the English-speaking corporate space (by S.N. Orlova, T.M. Gaydukova).

The section “Theory and Practice of Translation” includes two articles: the one concerns lexical and grammar singularities in translation from English to Russian (by О.S. Beletskaya, V.V. Kucheryavenko), the second one touches upon the issue of translation of neologisms from English to Russian (by V.V. Kozlova).

The section “Linguistics” presents the article of the authors PhD in philology, Associate professor Elena V. Monakhova (Moscow City University, Moscow) and the English language teacher Olga N. Pavlenkova (Dmitrov School №10, Moscow region). The article is about analysis of the lexical stylistic device of litotes in English printed media. The authors represent pragmatic structural-and-semantic classification of litotic structures. Complex nature of litotes and the prospects of its study are pointed out.

The article of Ph.D. in Philology, Senior Lecturer Yulia S. Konovalova (Voronezh State Technical University, Voronezh) points out that English linguistic world picture is characterized by negative attitude to such notion as old age. Negative connotation of analyzed forms of appeal is generally marked. The author reasonably concludes that the research can be continued. Comparative analysis with the other linguistic cultures inline with the already presented works on this topic is seen as prospective.

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (27), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

The section is continued by the work of Senior Lecturer Marina T. Zhukova (Voronezh State Technical University, Voronezh). Three types of Infinitive structures of the Russian language (complex-structures, by the author`s terminology) are analyzed on the material of the Internet newspaper articles, their immediate connection with syntactic concepts is presented; markers of combinatory concept are revealed. The work, completed within the scope of cognitive structural-and-semantic approach in undoubtedly worth attention and consideration.

The section “Linguistics” is concluded by the article of PhD in Philology, Associate Professor Irina Yu. Lavrinenko (Voronezh State Technical University, Voronezh) that presents analysis of the cognitive structure of the concept “Man” and its main components.

The section “Methods and Didactics” starts the article of the team of authors - by PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Liudmila А. Аntonova, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Irina A. Bakhmetieva and Senior Lecturer Olga N. Anisimova (Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh). Based on grammatical rules and the principle of hypertextuality in organization of educational process the techniques of teaching to clip thinking students are analyzed. The effectiveness of learning gives positive results on combining types of activities. In our opinion, the article points out that conscious grammar rule learning, working out automaticity allows to the English language learning on unconscious level.

The article of PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor Lyudmila N. Solodovchenko, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor Valentina F. Grevtseva, PhD in History, Associate Professor Svetlana A. Solodovchenko (Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh) poses the problem of individual work of students of a pedagogical university in the light of modern requirements. The article offers a model of individual extracurricular activities of students with the definition of organization tools, emphasizes the need for pedagogical support, presents a noteworthy range of activities.

In the final article of the section "Methods and Didactics" PhD in History Elena A. Popova and Senior Lecturer Margarita N. Klevina (Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh) present the results of a number of studies on the use of distance technologies in teaching grammar to full-time students in their individual work. The importance of control in organizing work of students in terms of the correct distribution of time and self-control is noted. The results of the work presented in the “Methods and Didactics” section can contribute to a qualitative improvement in the individual work of students in a pedagogical university.

In the section "Intercultural communication" in an article of Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor Rashid Mohamed Miloud (Algiers University 2 named after Abu Elkassem Saad Allah, Algeria People’s Democratic Republic, Algiers) the author analyzes the cognitivepragmatic features of the terminology structure related to the oil and gas business, presents a classification of the most common models for the formation of Russian oil and gas terms, points out dominant terms. The two-component phrases are, according to the author, the most common, the abbreviations indicate the saving of language resources, the symbols of a word are proof of the globalization and internationalization of the oil and gas business.

The article of Svetlana N. Orlova (Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Moscow) in co-authorship with Tamara M. Gaydukova (Higher School of Economics, Moscow) concers the analysis of the stereotypes of speech behavior in the English-speaking corporate space. The authors consider specific fetures of corporate communication as one of the important components of professional competence, present linguistic material, which reveals specifics of verbal communication in the modern business environment.

The first article of the “Theory and Practice of Translation” section of the Lecturers of the

Department of Foreign Languages Olga S. Beletskaya and Valentina V. Kucheryavenko (Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow) is devoted to the lexical and grammatical description of the translation of English business correspondence, special attention is paid to prevailing constructions, clichés, terms, abbreviations. The authors note frequent use in translation of lexical calque, lexical substitution, analogue or interpretation.

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (27), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

The second article of the section "Theory and Practice of Translation" of PhD in Philology, Associate Professor Victoria V. Kozlova (Voronezh State Technical University, Voronezh) analyses peculiarities of the emergence in the modern English language of realias-neologisms. The author considers distinctive features of their translation from English to Russian and determines spheres where new words come into being more often.

The “Scientific Review” presents a review of Olga L. Bessonova on a monograph “Towards the Need to Learn Languages in Social Sphere” by a Czech researcher PhD in Philology Lyubitsa Varechkova (Varečková L.). The reviewer highly appreciates the work and believes that the monograph is of interest to all those who are interested in modern trends in education.

We believe that this issue of the Journal № 4 (27), 2019) will be interesting and useful for a wide number of linguists, foreign language teachers, culture experts, experts in literature, philosophers, post-graduates and students. We invite domestic and foreign scientists (postgraduate students, applicants, candidates and doctors of sciences, specialists) to publish the results of their researches in the following issues of our journal.

Editor-in-chief of the Scientific Journal “Modern linguistic and methodical-and-didactic researches” of Voronezh State Technical University, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Head of the chair of foreign languages and translation technology

Valery A. Fedorov

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (27), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

LINGUISTICS

UDC 81.112.2’32

INTERPRETATION OF LITOTES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE

OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE

E.V. Monakhova, O.N. Pavlenkova

____________________________________________________________________________

Moscow City University

Candidate of philological science, Associate professor of the Chair of Foreign philology,

People’s Friendship University of Russia,

Assistant professor of the Chair of Foreign languages of the Economic faculty, Elena Victorovna Monakhova

e-mail: lfursova@mail.ru

Dmitrov School №10

teacher of the English language Olga Nikolaevna Pavlenkova

e-mail: lady.pavlencko2012@yandex.ru

____________________________________________________________________________

Statement of the problem. The paper deals with the analysis of the lexical stylistic device litotes. The selection of litotic structures from English printed media is interpreted taking into consideration linguistic and extralinguistic parameters, that is to say, structural, semantic, pragmatic and cognitive aspects of its use.

Results. The paper gives view on the interpretation of litotes in different historical periods to demonstrate the formation and capacity expansion of the stylistic device of litotes. The litotic constructions are classified on the ground of their semantic components and syntactical structure. The paper illustrates a wide variety of pragmatic functions that litotes performs in an informative discourse. It also undertakes the attempts to describe complex cognitive processes of encoding and decoding the information contained in litotic constructions.

Conclusion. In the framework of modern linguistic science various stylistic devices are interpreted with regard to both linguistic and extralinguistic parameters. Litotes, that for a long period has been an object of study by the scientists representing different fields and schools of sciences, is a challenging device for interpretation. The complexity lies not only in decoding a complex syntactical structure of double negation, but in considering a wide context, as well as implementation of a cognitive mechanism of narrowing in order to create a new conceptual field revealed in litotes. The intricate nature of litotes drastically increases its pragmatic potential and the fields of application.

Key words: litotes, understatement, literary device, rhetoric device, linguistic parameters, extralinguistic factors, pragmatic functions, cognitive mechanism.

For citation: Monakhova E.V., Pavlenkova O.N. Interpretation of litotes from the perspective of contemporary science / E.V. Monakhova, O.N. Pavlenkova // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2019. - № 4 (27). – P. 9-21.

Introduction

Anthropologist Kate Fox indicates that understatement is an integral part of almost all

English social interaction, along with wit, irony, banter and teasing. The statements like “Oh really? How interesting” do not only puzzle foreign colleagues and clients, even the English themselves cannot always be entirely sure what their interlocutor means by saying, which can express genuine interest, or total disbelief, or complete boredom [1].

Litotes is a figure of speech, which align with meiosis and euphemisms, serves as a form of understatement, that is made obvious by a double negation of a statement (e.g. She wasn’t unconvinced). Litotes is used in different styles of speech and its stylistic functions

___________________________________

© Monakhova E.V., Pavlenkova O.N., 2019

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are to enhance the effect of the expressed ideas through their apparent weakening, to express irony, or to impress by moderation, to make statements and judgments sound less categorical and more diplomatic.

The syntactic structure, lexical components, stylistic functions, pragmatic potential and even prosodic features of litotic constructions have been thoroughly studied by such linguists as L. Horn, T. van der Wouden, R. Blutner, P.Postal, W. Farnsworth, G. Leech, R. Gibbs, O.S. Akhmanova, I.V. Arnold, I.R. Galperin and others.

Methodology of the reserch

The theoretical foundations of the present research are exemplified by litotic constructions used in printed media. The article deals with semantic, structural, pragmatic and linguistic features of litotic structures, as well as the cognitive mechanism of their creation.

The study of litotes is based on publicist material: essays and articles from the British newspapers The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph which came out in the period 2015

– 2018.

The research was conducted with the use of the following methods: comparison, juxtaposition, generalization, traditional linguistic and discourse analysis.

Results of research

Litotes is a rhetoric and literary device derived from the Greek word «λιτότης» meaning

“simplicity, plainness”. Litotes or the affirming of a statement by denying its opposite, derives its rhetorical force from the use of the double negative, and for centuries have been used in works of orators, poets and writers, public and political leaders. Sister M.Inviolata Barry, for example, in her dissertation on St.Augustine’s theological works asserts that by using litotes “Augustine gains emphasis and brings out his thoughts in a more vivid and varied form”. His sermons on Biblical texts, consisting of one thousand two hundred and seventy-two half pages, contain one hundred and fifty-three examples of this literary device [2].

However, litotes figures prominently in medieval literature. According to Frederick Bracher, this kind of understatement occurs in Beowulf once every 34 lines. Litotes are used in many different ways by Anglo-Saxon poets, but the scientists assert that fundamental to litotes was the participation of the audience; litotic structures contain more information than statements, and being given a part of it, the reader gets the chance to restore the whole situation; the reader is thus compelled to cooperate actively with the writer [3; 4].

Litotes is a feature of Old English poetry, as well as Old Norse and Old Germanic literature. Linguists distinguish two types of litotes, when they speak about expressing understatement in medieval German. The first one, sometimes referred to as “classical”, amounts to the denial of the contrary, while the second one, called “Germanic”, makes use of a minimum where circumstances call for a maximum. The second type of understatement occurs widely in

Old Germanic literature, for instance, the excessive compliments heaped upon Iwein’s chivalric prowess by Gawein are expressed by the words “a little” and “sufficiently” [5; 6].

In the period of Renaissance, which is characterized by the cultural and economic revival of the society, and a rising tide of interest to the antique heredity, the rhetoric devices become a point of discussion again. Litotes remains a popular literary device used by the distinguished writers of that period [7; 8]. Elizabeth McCutcheon, for instance, proves it by saying that

Thomas More’s extraordinary frequent use of litotes bespeaks a tendency to see more than one side to a question, it compels a mental movement, a psychological passage from one point to another and back again. Moreover, being previously a device to render understatement and praise, litotes becomes a popular means of expressing irony and sarcasm [9].

In the Age of Enlightment, a period of scientific, political and philosophical movement in the European society, litotes often served as a verbal weapon of choice deployed by the philosophers and writers of that period to express their point of view. The definition of litotes given by different authors of that period expands the pragmatic potential of litotes, which is ascribed

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with new cases of its use: litotes makes it possible to express strong feelings disguised in moderate words, and helps to manoeuvre between two modes of behavior, two opposing views, to express one’s thoughts and feelings in a vague way [10; 11; 12].

The linguistic science of the XXth century removed its focus of interest from the form and structure of linguistic phenomena to their pragmatic potential and cognitive mechanisms of functioning. The representatives of different linguistic movements and even different fields of science have undertaken determined efforts to unveil inner mechanisms and the nature of rhetoric and literary devices including litotes.

Litotes remains an object of study in modern linguistics with regards to its structural, semantic and functional features. Pragmatic accounts of litotes are found in Horn (1989, 2001), van der Wouden (1994, 1997), and Blutner (2004), while Postal (2000, 2005) is concerned with syntactic and prosodic features of double negation in English.

Litotes has been an object of study by linguists in many countries, including Russian linguists. It was firstly defined in Russian manuals on rhetoric at the end of the XIXth century. Aleksei Mikhelson in his Explanatory Dictionary of Foreign Words and Aleksandr Chudinov in his Dictionary of Foreign Words give the definition of litotes as of a device “which intentionally gives an understated description of something in order to stress its grandeur” [1**, p. 45].

Eventually, the definition of litotes got broader and the Encyclopedic dictionary on the speaking norms of the Russian language suggests three cases of litotes use [2**, с. 307-308]: 1. as negation of an opposite. Litotic statements, being non-categoric, help to express the speaker’s point of view in a more tentative and diplomatic way, to soften the description of features;

2. as an affirmation built on double negation. In such cases statements sound more reserved, impersonal or ironic; 3. litotes is defined as a type of hyperbole, or is opposed to hyperbole as an exaggerated understatement. Such point of view equals litotes and meiosis.

Russian linguists who investigated the use of litotes in the English language paid attention to their semantics (diminution (O.A.Akhmanova)), structure (particle not and negative affix (I.V.Arnold)), stylistic coloring (a type of meiosis (O.A.Akhmanova)) [13; 14]. I.R.Galperin regards different aspects concerning the functioning of litotes. He defines litotes as a syntactical stylistic device based on the transference of structural meaning. He believes that litotes expresses a positive feature but weakens this expression. Galperin warns readers and listeners against taking negative litotic constructions as opposite affirmative ones claiming that the combination of two negative units is more complicated and presents by itself a new semantic unity. The scientist regards litotes as a device the interpretation of which depends on the structure as well, and the structure influences the meaning of the litotic construction. Moreover, he paid attention to the prosodic features of litotes and underlines the role of intonation in pronouncing litotic statements when negative units are made noticeable because they are pronounced with special emphasis [15].

The investigative studies by the Russian scientists of the XXIst century made it possible to discover new peculiarities with regard to the functioning of litotes. It was determined, for instance, that a component of a litotic statement must have an antonym in the language system (M.V.Evsina (2006)) [16], or that litotic statements are expressive syntactic constructions used to make an impact on the audience (M.Y.Glazkova (2010)) [17], or that litotes is one of the figures to express emotivity (G.N.Lenko (2011)) [18].

The study of the theoretical material demonstrated that the research on litotes is a complicated task, the multifaceted investigation of which must take into consideration its structure, semantics, prosodic features, stylistic coloring, pragmatic use, and cognitive mechanisms to make a single picture of this phenomenon.

It should be mentioned first of all that negation is a universal category of any natural language. Laurence Horn in his work Natural history of negations claims that all human systems of communication contain a representation of negation [19, p. 13]. The correlation between affirmation and negation reflects the perception of the world by a human being and reveals the

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absolute symmetry distinguished between affirmative and negative propositions in logic. However, the forms and functioning of negative statements in a language are more complicated and represent more a comparable symmetry, rather than an absolute one, in the language structure and the language use. Litotes, both structurally and semantically, embodies this complexity, which is revealed already in the definition of this device; litotes is a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a positive estimation.

To begin with, litotes contradicts the rules of grammar of the English language which do not encourage the use of two negatives in one sentence. Moreover, litotic statements are not confined to the use of not and un-, or not and –less, there is a wide range of means to express double negation in a sentence containing litotes. Depending on the part of speech that makes base for formation of a litotic sentence, litotes can be subdivided into nominal, verbal, adverbial and adjectival. Nominal litotes can be used with or without a preposition; the most common prepositions are without, until, up to, against, out, for example:

But India’s road to the checkered flag is n o t w i t h o u t its t w i s t s a n d t u r n s. What’s wrong with tax avoidance? It’s n o t a g a i n s t t h e l a w [1*].

Litotes which is based on a noun without a preposition is a more rare case.

Verbal litotic constructions are based on the use of different forms of verbs; they can be expressed by finite forms of verbs:

A playwright can attack the institution of marriage so long as he does n o t m i s r e p r e s e n t the manner of society… [2*, p.48].

The components of litotic constructions can be expressed by infinitives:

…it’s just a row between two people who actually d o n’t like each other enough n o t to row [3*, p. 12].

Litotes can contain modal verbs:

All those glorious steel beams could hardly be seen through the smoggy haze, even though she c o u l d n’t have been more than 100 yards away [4*].

Adjectival litotic constructions, which employ adjectives in a positive or comparative form, make the main corpus of litotic statements:

It was a n o t u n w a t c h a b l e light satirical comedy on marriage [5*, p. 115].

As for the superlative form, Ton van der Wouden presupposes that it is impossible to construct any litotic constructions in superlatives because the two negations in litotic constructions have to be associated with comparable scales [20].

Adverbial litotic constructions are based on the negation of an adverb with a negative suf-

fix:

The coffee-house must not be dismissed with a cursory mention. It might indeed at that time have been n o t i m p r o p e r l y called a most important political institution [6*, p. 545 ].

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It should be mentioned that double negation in a litotes can be expressed either through two negative language units (particles no, not and negative prefixes or suffixes) or one through a negative particle (no, not), the other through a word with a contextually negative meaning.

Litotic constructions can be formed with the help of both categorematic words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, participles) and auxiliary parts of speech (prepositions, particles):

They are very astute people and they are n o t a b o v e listening to anyone, and I’m sure they can learn from him [7*].

The second difficulty is a semantic one: double negatives used in a litotic statement turn it into a positive thought or sentence. When the meaning of litotic statements was regarded, a lot of scientists (Horn, Farnsworth, etc.) indicated that a negative sentence comes out not weaker but even stronger than an affirmative sentence revealing an extreme feature in the description of an object. Litotes is regarded as figure of quantity and is based on the opposition of objective features of an object or phenomenon to their subjective perception [21; 22].

Negation in language is a category that allows us to see the connection between reality, mentality and language. Negation is a logical category connected with the classification of propositions. However, a number of language means to express negation is wider than a number of means to express logical negation. Moreover, negation in language can sometimes violate logical laws. It happens, for instance, in sentences with double negation.

The logical Law of Double Negation is the principle that two negations with the same focus ought to cancel each other and make the statement affirmative. However, in a language double negation tends not to cancel out completely. Among other “reputable uses” of litotes

Ward Farnsworth mentions literal accuracy which means that two negatives do not necessarily amount to an affirmative claim, intermediate possibilities that can lie between them make double negative more precisely accurate. The conversational applicability of such constructions derives from the possibility of multiple inferences; which inference is derived will be determined by a combination of contextual grounding and intonational cues.

The interpretation of negation expressed in litotes depends on context, including a cultural one, as well as intonation, stress, pauses and other features of the speech. The effect of litotes as that of a contextually appropriate understatement is exemplified by the statement “We are not amused”, which means strong disapproval if said by a monarch. As soon as a litotic construction is regarded from the communicative point of view in its correlation with other language means, there comes the reinterpretation of its negative structure. Although a grammar category of negation is not considered emthatic on the paradigmatic level, negative constructions can get an emotional and expressive coloring in the context of the text regarding the intention of speakers or writers and other verbal means they use. The expressiveness of litotes is based on the contrast between the categorial meaning of a paradigmatic negative form and its syntagmatic meaning.

Litotes is an application of a logical principle of equipollence or obversion. Obversion in a traditional logic is a transformation of a categorial proposition, or statement, into a new proposition in which the subject term is unchanged, the predicate is placed by its contradictory, and the quality of opposition is changed from affirmative to negative or vice versa. The quality of the inferred categorical proposition is changed but the truth value is the same to the original proposition.

For this reason litotes are usually identified by transformation method when a negative construction is turned into an affirmative statement by means of changing a negative unit into its opposite one without any changes in the syntactic structure: e.g. It is not bad. = It is good. However, the rules of units functioning in a language do not make transformation method universal for all litotic statements; it cannot be applied, for example, in cases when opposite units are not antonyms (e.g. different-indifferent, personal-impersonal, sensible-insensible).

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