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.