2025 Vol. 16 №3

This article delves into the dynamics of the semantic field surrounding the word ‘atlet’ (athlete) and its derivatives in the Russian language from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks of linguistic portraiture and discourse analysis, this study provides a comprehensive characterization of the phenomenon under investigation. Textual analysis reveals a transformation in the meaning of this loanword: evolving from denoting an ancient Greek ‘wrestler’ in the mid-18th century (with Latin or French origins) to signifying individuals engaged in physical culture by the late 19th century. Furthermore, the article explores the shifting perceptions of male and female athletes (‘gerkuleska’, ‘atletka’ — ' female Hercules figure’, ‘female athlete’ respectively), and the associated cultural stereotypes surrounding these figures. The research demonstrates that the semantics of the entire word group stemming from the root —‘atlet‘ is intrinsically linked to historical and social processes, reflecting evolving societal values and orientations. The analysis investigates the reasons behind the semantic expansion of ’atlet’, its development into a polysemous word used across diverse contexts, and elucidates the distinctions in cultural stereotypes associated with the masculine ‘atlet’ and its feminine counterpart ‘atletka’ in relation to perceptions and evaluations of physical strength. It also highlights the role of borrowings from French and English in enriching the Russian language with nuanced shades of meaning for ‘atlet’, and characterizes the connection of this entire group of cognate words to broader social and cultural changes in 19th-century Europe and Russia.

The article examines the conditions and mechanisms leading at an early stage of the formation of a literary tradition to the dependence of the innovative meaning of the word and its context. The translation of the title of Kosta Khetagurov‘s program verse “Nystwan”, which opens his poetic collection “Iron fændyr” (“Ossetian Lyre”), shows the fundamental differences between the semantics of this word in the ethnographic era and its modern interpretation. Further on, following Buslaev‘s fundamental idea that at its initial stage literature assumes not only secular, but also spiritual social obligations, it is possible to show that the title of the poem turns out to be a semantic intensifier, necessary to strengthen the imperative mood of the verb phrase “Nybbar myn!” (“Forgive (me)!”), which opens the verse. The word in the title is not only desemantized, but also loses its nominal features, at the same time acquiring verbal properties. As a result, the boundary, which should run between the title and the beginning of the poem, is blurred. At the same time, “Nystwan” acquires a special emotional strength, which puts it on a par with the verbal and interjective titles so characteristic of Kosta Khetagurov's poetry. This ‘blurring’ is due to the need to bring to a common denominator both Christian theological concepts, in this case, of a sacrifice, and also the ideology of the Ossetian spiritual tradition, which reveals itself in prayer and ritual tradition in general. It is also concluded that, in terms of semantics, Kosta Khetagurov, proceeds from the etymological meanings of the word ‘nystwan’, interpreting it as an Ossetian analogue of the historical and theological term ‘church tradition’, as a kind of ‘divine institution, rule’. The transition from folklore to literature itself is considered within the framework of the distinction proposed by Yu. M. Lotman between the aesthetics of sameness and the aesthetics of contradiction.

The article is devoted to the semantic evolution of the evaluative adjectives ‘horoshii’ and ‘plohoi’ (‘good’ and ‘bad’) in the early Soviet language. Through the use of party documents, propaganda slogans, letters to the government and literary texts of the 1920—1930s, the article reveals how these words turned into universal markers reflecting conformity to new social and political standards. The first part of the article analyzes the role of the adjective ‘good’ as a universal rhetorical tool used to create an optimistic image of socialist reality. This word gradually loses its subjective evaluative value, turning into a standard ideological stamp symbolizing positivity and conformity to socialist norms. The second section discusses the reinterpretation of the concept of a good person and the emergence of the opposition between a good person and a good communist, where the former remains the bearer of personal virtues and the latter — the embodiment of socialist ideals. The concept of a true person is seen as a compromise between these categories. The third section is devoted to the metaphorical concepts of strength, resilience, and reliability, which become central to the description of Soviet man and social structures. These characteristics, formed on the basis of technical metaphors, reflect the industrial and collectivist spirit of the era. The methodology includes discourse analysis and semantic research, which make it possible to examine how language, in shaping normative concepts, becomes a crucial instrument of ideological influence by consolidating socialist values through the semantic transformation of everyday language.

The article attempts to reconstruct the genesis of the concept of the ‘new Soviet man’ within the framework of communist ideology. An interdisciplinary research perspective enables an analysis of the development of the concept of the ‘Soviet man’ at the intersection of linguistics and history, viewed through the lens of the literary texts by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. As a result, the literary text is examined as a semiotic model of communication, in which the sender and the recipient of the text are linked through the narrative language and regarded as objects of historical analysis. The theme of the ‘new man’ constitutes the historiosophical core of the Strugatsky brothers’ oeuvre. Already in their early works, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky formulated the principal characteristics of the concept of the ‘Soviet man’ as a person of labour (action), a person of duty (sacrifice), and a person of science (enlightenment). This concept undergoes a significant transformation over the course of their literary work. The analysis of the semiosphere of the novel ”The Doomed City” (“Grad obrechennyi”, 1975) demonstrates that the Strugatskys succeeded in tracing the genesis of the ‘Soviet man’ through a symbolic system of images: from the revolutionary-destroyer of the 1920s, to the builder-creator of the 1930s; from the obedient executor—a cog in the state machine—of the 1940s and 1950s, to the individual of ‘developed socialism’ in the 1960s—1970s. This, in turn, allows for the identification of both the internal limitations of the ‘new Soviet man’ concept—above all, its dependence on ideology—and its transhistorical vitality and enduring appeal.

The article examines high Biedermeier in its rapprochement with the idyll genre based on the poetry of Annette Droste-Hülshoff and Eduard Mörike. The idyll is very influential and active in both poets. Biedermeier, which was considered an era, a trend, a style, in its variety, ‘high Biedermeier’ at the start can be interpreted in a fundamentally new way — as an unusual turn in the fate of the idyll genre and the idyllic mode. The purpose of the article is to study the idyll as one of the sources of high Biedermeier. This problem is posed for the first time. The research methods are structural-descriptive and historical-typological. The phenomenon of Biedermeier is diverse, and the described character is inherent only to high Biedermeier. In the canonical genre of the German idyll, which spread its influence to other genres, including prose, writers saw a number of possibilities of the Biedermeier. Having begun to develop the idyll in their own way, they led the variety of the genre they created away from the romantic channel. One of the sources of the high Biedermeier is, in all likelihood, the active behaviour of the canonical genre of the idyll, its inertia, expansion, diffusion with other genres and radiating influence on the lyrical, epic and dramatic genres.