This article presents a comparative study of comic means employed in Russian and Indonesian stand-up comedy. Performances by Russian and Indonesian stand-up comedians representing different ethnic groups in the framework of the above-mentioned cultures, as reflected in their work, were used as a source material to identify comic means. Another factor influencing the choice of artists was the discussion of pressing social issues in their comedy routines, using a wide range of linguistic devices. The linguistic and axiological method is employed since it provides the opportunity to describe the value and anti-value components of the standup-comedy genre and those socio-political matters that become the topic for humorous discussion. The comedic means used in both cultures can be divided into two groups. The first group includes means based on the absurdity of the situation, as well as the ontological juxtaposition of a real-life situation and its humorous interpretation. The second group includes comedy means based on language game. The difference in the comic means from the first group is that the Russian stand-up comedians emphasize social and gender issues, while Indonesian artists more often address religious issues, as addressing such topics in a comic tone violates the unspoken taboo against discussing them in a profane manner, thereby generating a comic effect. In terms of the linguistic features of creating a comic effect in the stand-up comedy genre, they are determined by the typological features of the Russian and Indonesian languages. The means from both groups are closely connected since any violation of ontological norms has a linguistic embodiment, and comic means based on the language use are always associated with the discussion of pressing social and political issues.
The study examines the problem of the functioning of discursive markers in advertising texts of consumer products on the Chinese Internet platform Pinduoduo. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient knowledge of advertising texts in Chinese from the point of view of using language markers as a means of speech influence on recipients. Therefore, the main purpose of the work is to identify the functional and pragmatic features of discursive markers through corpus analysis. The authors have created a specialized corpus with a volume of 16,796 tokens based on text transcripts of 120 short videos advertising consumer goods selected from the platform. Video transcripts were generated via the Notta platform. Segmentation into meaningful units was performed using SegmentAnt, followed by semi-automatic annotation of discourse markers with AntConc and subsequent manual verification. The main research methods employed in this study are corpus analysis and discourse analysis, which made it possible to identify and interpret the features of the use of discourse markers in Chinese consumer goods advertising on the Internet platform Pinduoduo. In addition, a descriptive method was used to systematize the discourse markers. The results of the analysis demonstrate that discursive markers in advertising discourse primarily perform not a grammatical, but a pragmatic function, that is, they serve as tools for speech influence, managing the addressee’s attention and forming a trusting relationship with the buyer. Thus, the study confirms that discursive markers are a key element of a persuasion strategy on digital trading platforms.
This paper examines the specific features of discursive interpretation using English-language psychology blogs as a case study. The relevance of the study stems from the insufficient scholarly attention paid to psychology blogs from a cognitive-discursive perspective, which is essential for understanding how information embedded in such texts is encoded and decoded. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that discursive interpretation facilitates the comprehension and reconstruction of the blogger’s intent — specifically, the structuring of their own thoughts and the provision of self-help tools for readers. The research employs a set of general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) alongside techniques from cognitive linguistics, including conceptual and definitional analysis, contextual analysis, and elements of cognitive modelling. The study reveals the role of the cognitive mechanism “conceptual metaphor” in facilitating discursive interpretation. By translating abstract concepts into concrete-sensory ones, this mechanism allows the author to exert covert influence on the reader and model their behavior. Drawing on material from three texts by a single author, the following conceptual metaphor models are identified: JOURNEY, CONSTRUCTION AND CREATION, TRANSFORMATION, and PHYSICAL CORRESPONDENCE. While one model may predominate within a given text, these metaphors enable the blog author to rapidly and deeply integrate into the reader’s worldview and exert maximum impact upon them. In conclusion, the author posits that the conceptual metaphor functions as an instrument for meaning-structuring. The findings hold practical significance for analyzing the methodologies employed in psychology blogs.
The study aims to explicate the linguacognitive structure and perform a semantic clustering of patriotic markers of Russian identity through the analysis of verbal associative reactions to the “patriot – traitor” binary opposition in the linguistic consciousness of the North Caucasus youth. Based on the analysis and semantic clustering of the associative field of the PATRIOT concept, a basic schema of its interiorization has been identified, revealing the following cognitive mechanism of forming the civic-patriotic vector of Russian identity in the youth’s linguistic consciousness: from a strong emotional and axiological objectification of the image of the Motherland, through the actualization of the archetypal characteristics of a warrior-defender, to the subsequent expansion of the conceptual space of patriotism by incorporating traditional spiritual values, and finally, reaching the level of a rational understanding of its civic-political projection. In turn, the cognitive understanding of the TRAITOR concept begins with vivid negative reactions to its affective-valorous amoralism, followed by its semantic attribution as a referential existential hostile other and an outcast, and subsequently, by its rational comprehension in institutional-legal and sociohistorical categories. It has been established that the structure of the studied associative fields of the basic auto- and hetero-identificational “patriot – traitor” opposition is polar and dichotomous, revealing systemic semantic inversions. The implicit content of the associative field of the constructive stimulus “patriot” acts as the semantic antipode to “traitor”, which is traced in the mirror-like replacement of creation and defense clusters by semantic blocks of destruction, deviation, hostile alienation, and amoralism. In the content of the associative fields of both poles of this binary opposition, generalized abstract-conceptual semantics dominates over concrete nominative-precedent semantics. This indicates that the traditional architectonics of the deep layer of the Russian supra-ethnic (civilizational) linguistic consciousness remains relevant for the multi-ethnic North Caucasus youth, where axio-ontological dominants traditionally prevail over politics and pragmatics, and patriotism is initially conceptualized, first and foremost, as a value and an ideal. Patriotic axio-semantic markers serve precisely as the assembly points of Russian identity within the linguacultural space of the region.
This article examines the ambivalent representation of the concept ‘artificial intelligence” in American media discourse. The relevance of this study stems from the need to identify the mechanisms underlying the formation of an ambiguous axiological and ambivalently interpreted image of artificial intelligence amid rapid technological development and its active mediatization. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the main cognitive and discursive models of the ambivalent representation of artificial intelligence, as well as to determine the linguistic means through which the positive and negative components of its media-discursive image are conveyed. The research material consisted of authentic texts from contemporary American media discourse devoted to artificial intelligence, its technologies, capabilities, limitations, and the social consequences of its application. The study employed a set of methods, including descriptive, contextual, discursive, cognitive, semantic, component, axiological, and interpretative analysis, as well as elements of quantitative analysis. The study found that the ambivalent representation of artificial intelligence is formed through stable binary oppositions that differ in the degree of polarity and mutual exclusivity of their value-based characteristics. Four main cognitive and discursive models of the ambivalent representation of artificial intelligence in American media discourse were identified: opportunity – threat, helper – competitor, control – independence, and enhancement – displacement. It was found that these are primarily expressed linguistically through lexical units with positive and negative connotations, predicative constructions, anthropomorphic verbs, and metaphorical usages. The syntactic position of artificial intelligence plays a special role: presenting it as the object of an action emphasizes the controllability of the technology, whereas functioning as the subject of a predicate contributes to its conceptualization as an independent actor. The results obtained allow us to view ambivalence as a systemic property of AI’s media representation in American media discourse, which is significant for further cognitive and discourse studies, as well as comparative corpus studies in various languages.
