2015 Vol. 6 №4

This article draws on the results of monitoring the Russian language functioning in the world. The monitoring was conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in 2004 and the Ministry of Education and Science in 2011—2012. The study used data provided by censuses, national ministries of education, and Russian research and cultural centres abroad. An important contribution was expert judgements from heads of national associations of teachers of Russian language and literature.

This article analyses attitudes relevant to dream interpretation according to Fromm. The central element is understanding the image of a dream as a symbol common to both the realm of dreams and culture in general. The key mechanism of symbol formation is cultural- associative, which is a function of human rational thinking. It is suggested that images of dreams should be interpreted from this perspective.

Gender studies in Russian linguistics largely depend on the development of linguistics and society. Instances of sexism in the Russian language are associated with the level of grammar and observed in proverbs and gender clichés. The author examines differences in communicative styles characteristic of women and men in oral and written speech and consider cases of gender predetermination of language.

This article considers the phenomenon of multilingualism in the case of a Russian-Catalan family living in Spain in the autonomous community of Catalonia. The author defines the terms ‘bilingualism’ and ‘trilingualism’. The sociolinguistic situation in Catalonia is examined. The article analyses the Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilinguism in the observed family. Special attention is paid to the development of multilingualism in children and adolescents. Situation-dependent code-switching in the speech of children is analysed.

This article considers works of two famous Russian poets of the first third of the 19th century. Both works depict the violation of the sixth commandment - ‘thou shalt not kill’. An axiological analysis of the plot and composition structure of both poems shows that the central problem is forgiving enemies – completely amoral persons that violate moral laws and do evil.

This article examines the new genre created by L. M. Gasparov — the ‘interdiscursive novel’. The author analyses characteristics of the genre, in particular, its termhood, research features, flexible interaction with methodology, and journalistic style. These characteristics of ‘the interdiscursive novel’ reflect general trends observed in contemporary literary thought.

This article revises the traditional views of Tyutchev as a panthesist, Schellingian, etc. Poems, articles, and letters are used to emphasise the Christian foundations of his oeuvre, which focuses on the anthropological problem of the ‘mystery of the human being’. The vicissitudes of human spirit, the dramatic conflict between two major metaphysical principles of anthropocentric free will and veneration of god – these and similar issue comprise the world-view foundation of the physiophilosophical and love poems and philosophical historical and political reflections of the poet.

This article examines the first attempts at introducing realistic portraits into Eastern European religious paintings. The author identifies stages in the development of this trend and describes aspects of cultural synthesis embodied in a portrait as the first secular genre of painting. A distinctive feature of this process is depicting an actual person in a religious context.

This article identifies the dominant ideas of global and national culture comprising a special realm of pedagogical values designated as Orthodox pedagogical culture. These ideas are identified as spiritual foundations – an aggregate of standards playing a key role in describing the phenomenon of Orthodox pedagogical culture.