Discursive practices of the Russian diaspora in Estonia: language contacts
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2018-3-7
- Pages
- 94-107
Abstract
In this article, I use the concept of discursive practices to consider the speech practices of the Russian diaspora of Estonia. The findings of the study suggest the existence of an invariant discourse generated by an exemplary member of the diaspora. Such a discourse has formal (borrowings, code-switching, etc.), semantic (referential shifts, semantically re-oriented vocabulary, etc.), and pragmatic features. The results of the diasporic speech analysis show that the key components of a typical diasporic discourse are the following ones: spatial-temporal localization (space: Estonia — Russia —the West relations; significant locations, space in the past and today (the empire, the Republic of Estonia, the Soviet Union); information space; time: historical periods, dates, holidays; time in information space, etc.), linguistic reflections (metalinguistic units denoting co-existence, knowledge, language acquisition, etc.), evaluations (objects of evaluation, types of evaluation) and self-identification (ethnic, denominational, cultural, socio-economic). The above is not only characteristic of the diasporic speech. These components also describe the worldview of language users belonging to the diaspora and their naïve linguistic conceptualisation of reality. Within the typical diasporic discourse, I distinguish a metalinguistic discourse that rests on discursive practices stemming from language contacts. These practices were described in part earlier. In this article, I summarize my earlier findings on the topic and analyse new material.
Reference
Arutyunova, N.D., 1998. Discourse. In: V.N. Yartseva, ed. Bol'shoi entsiklopedicheskii slovar' [Great encyclopedic dictionary]. Moscow. pp. 136-137 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2011. Nomination and references-problems of choice in a foreign language environment. In: Humaniora: Lingua Russica. Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika. XIV. Razvitie i variativnost' yazyka v sovremennom mire [Humaniora: Lingua Russica. Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics. XIV. The development and variability of language in the modern world]. Tartu, pp. 142-159 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., Kulmoya, I.P., 2013. About the Russian language of modern Estonia. In: Russkii yazyk zarubezh'ya [Russian language Abroad]. St. Petersburg, pp. 85-106 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2015a. The category of temporality in "everyday" language: the comparative aspect. In: Rusistica Latviensis 5. Slavica—2015: filoloģija spētījumi. Riga, pp. 79-85 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2015б. Specificity of discursive practices in the situation of language contacts. In: Ezhegodnik finno-ugorskikh issledovanii [Yearbook of Finno-Ugrian Studies]. Vol. 2. Izhevsk, pp. 29-40 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2016a. Typical text of the diaspora: the cognitive aspect. In: Rusistika i sovremennost' [Russian Studies and Modernity]. Riga, pp. 273-280 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2016б. Metalanguage discourse of the diaspora: invariant and variants. In: W poszukiwaniu tożsamości językowej. Vol. I. Gdansk (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2016в. Bilingual texts: "your" and "someone else's". In: Acta Slavica Estonica. Vol. VIII. Tartu. pp. 78-88 (in Russ.).
Kostandi, E.I., 2016г. Typical discourse of the diaspora: language selfidentification. In: Kul'turnyi landshaft Pogranich'ya: proshloe, nastoyashchee, budushchee [The cultural landscape of the Borderlands: past, present, future]. Pskov, pp. 115-121 (in Russ.).
Külmoja, I., 2000. Specific features of the language of the Russian diaspora in Estonia. In: Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika. Novaya seriya. III. Yazyk diaspory: problemy i perspektivy [Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics. New episode. III. Diaspora Language: Problems and Perspectives]. Tartu, pp. 84-93 (in Russ.).
Külmoja, I., 2009. Speech of the Russian Diaspora in Estonia: Development Trends. In: Humaniora: LinguaRussica. Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika. XII. Aktivnye protsessy v russkom yazyke metropolii i diaspory [Humaniora: LinguaRussica. Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics. XII. Active processes in the Russian language of the metropolis and the diaspora]. Tartu, pp. 11-28 (in Russ.).
Palikova, O.N., 2013. Informal geographical lexicon as a linguistic sign of the territorial community of people (On the material of urban slang and island dialect). In: Acta Slavica Estonica. III. Slavica Tartuensia X. Slavistika v Estonii i za ee predelami [Acta Slavica Estonica. III. Slavica Tartuensia X. Slavic Studies in Estonia and beyond]. Tartu, pp. 84-97 (in Russ.).
Pan'kin, V.M., Filippov A.V., 2013. Yazykovye kontakty. Kratkii slovar' [Language contacts. Short Dictionary]. Moscow (in Russ.).
Serne, A.Ya., 2003. Discursive practices. In: Sotsiologiya. Entsiklopediya [Sociology. Encyclopedia]. Minsk (in Russ.).
Sokolova, O., 2013. Russkaya neofitsial'naya urbanonimiya goroda Tartu [Russian unofficial urbanism of the city of Tartu]. Available at: http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/36201 [Accessed 12 January 2018].
Külmoja, I., ed., 2000. Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika. Novaya seriya. III. Yazyk diaspory: problemy i perspektivy [Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics. New episode. III. Diaspora Language: Problems and Perspectives]. Tartu (in Russ.).
Külmoja, I., ed., 2002. Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika. Novaya seriya. VI. Problemy yazyka diaspory [Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics. New episode. VI. Problems of the Diaspora Language]. Tartu (in Russ.).
Shchedneva, V.P., 2011. Characteristics of the modern Estonian-Russian translation of utilitarian official business texts. In: Rusistika i sovremennost' [Russian Studies and Modernity]. Riga, pp. 540-545 (in Russ.).
Szadneva, V.P., 2015. Regional variants of Russian speech in the aspect of linguistic reflection (on the material of metalanguage commentaries on Internet forums).In: Rusistica Latviensis 5. Slavica — 2015: filoloģija spētījumi. Riga, pp. 112-120 (in Russ.).
Külmoja, I., ed., 2009. Humaniora: Lingua Russica. Aktivnye protsessy v russkom yazyke metropolii i diaspory. Trudy po russkoi i slavyanskoi filologii. Lingvistika XII [Humaniora: Lingua Guska. Active processes in the Russian language of the metropolis and the diaspora. Works on Russian and Slavic philology. Linguistics XII]. Tartu (in Russ.).
Zabrodskaja, A., (2009). Russian-Estonian Language Contacts: Grammatical Aspects of Language Use and Change. Tallinn.