The article explores the aesthetics of endings in the short stories of Latvian writer Ēvalds Vilks (1923–1976) during the Thaw (1956–1964), searching for typological parallels with Italian neorealist cinema. While socialist realism ideology demanded optimistic and future-oriented endings, Vilks’s stories during the Thaw reveal an obvious transformation: from schematic endings in the early 1950s to pessimistic and closed endings in the late 1950s and later to ambivalent endings that combine the everyday with conditional hope. Based on the concepts of open and closed structures in narratology, the study analyzes twenty-five stories to identify structural and thematic trends. The comparative approach shows that Vilks’s prose, which focuses on ordinary people and everyday life, resonates with the narrative strategies of neorealism, which emphasized the unresolved, tragic, or ambivalent nature of endings. Thus, Vilks’s endings demonstrate a move away from socialist realism towards a more authentic representation of human experience.
The lack of temporal distance from the works of contemporary Ukrainian literature, devoted to themes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, necessitates the search for adequate methods for the effective analysis of non-fiction literary works. The purpose of the article is to propose an algorithm to interpret texts like V. Subotina’s book Captivity. The hermeneutic method and an enactivist approach were used to achieve the goal. The algorithm for analysing Subotina’s book considers such corporal correlates as pain, hunger, and touch since the core phenomenon of the enactivist approach is the body. The conclusion is that the corporal correlates of pain, hunger, and touch can become not only a means of suffering and unfair deprivation of personal freedom, but, paradoxically, a source of inspiration to live, fight, and create. In the proposed context, the enactivist approach shows its potential in view of the functional use of relevant corporal correlates and can be applied in further studies of various genres of non-fiction literary samples.
This study examines how the EU Water Framework Directive conceptualises WATER, highlighting an imbalance between definitional stability and functional representation within regulatory discourse. Although environmental discourse has been widely studied, systematic cognitive modelling of the EU water policy remains limited. The study aims to identify the semantic roles that shape the conceptual profile of the eco-economic WATER concept in the Water Framework Directive. The eco-economic WATER concept is defined as a linguistically encoded and institutionally framed construct integrating ecological values with economic considerations within EU environmental governance. It is hypothesised that the Directive constructs WATER as a hybrid entity dominated by the Formal and Constitutive Qualia roles, while the Agentive and Telic roles are selectively activated in specific governance contexts. The analysis applies frame-based and Qualia-based modelling within Generative Lexicon Theory, supported by frequency analysis and chi-square testing. The findings demonstrate a predominance of the Formal (32.5%) and Constitutive (31.2%) roles and lower frequencies of the Agentive (19.3%) and Telic (17.0%) roles, indicating a systematic conceptual asymmetry shaped by institutional and regulatory priorities. The Directive thus prioritises classificatory precision and measurable attributes of WATER, reinforcing a governance model centred on monitoring and regulatory control. Future research may extend Qualia-based modelling to more recent EU water policy instruments in order to trace shifts in conceptualisation across evolving governance frameworks.
Translating a source text brings out various challenges. The translators constantly seek strategies to overcome the constraints they encounter. The present study aims to identify obstacles and analyse the strategies employed to address them. The chosen text, Ashok Ferry’s The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons (2016), is complex, given that it’s written in Sri Lankan English and it’s set in a culturally rich context. It was translated into French in 2018. Following Mona Baker’s (2011) common types of non-lexical equivalence at the word level, the study identifies forty-two challenging terms. To identify and analyse the strategies employed in the source text, the study draws on Baker’s (2018) explanation of the strategies used by professional translators. The study identifies five strategies for translating different lexical types. The same strategy is used for multiple lexical types, but its effectiveness varies. Though limitations are highlighted in the study, the strategies prove necessary for negotiating cultural differences.
The article analyses localism in street naming practices. Drawing on a quantitative method previously tested in Kaunas district, it identifies the most locally specific street names in Rumšiškės (Kaišiadorys district) and Šlienava (Kaunas district) – those serving informational and symbolic functions. The two localities form part of the Nemunas valley, areas that were flooded during the construction of the Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant. Street names reflecting this past are strongly local in orientation, commemorating the rupture caused by relocation, are embedded in cultural memory, and almost become memorials themselves. On this basis, the article distinguishes informational, symbolic, identity, cultural memory, and commemorative functions of street names. The locally salient names analysed, reflecting surnames of notable local inhabitants, names of local geographical features, and names of nearby (existing or extinct) villages, demonstrate that both areas are part of a historical memory and sustain an ongoing connection to it. This connection is stronger in Rumšiškės, related to its status and the deliberate representation of the town, which was relocated from the bottom of the Kaunas Lagoon.
