Vereshchagin E.M., Kostomarov V.G. Language and culture. Vitaly Kostomarov - linguistic taste of the era Essays on modern Russian stylistics

Basic Facts:

Born January 3, 1930, Moscow. - Doctor of Philology, professor. - Corresponding member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR from March 4, 1974, - Full member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR from May 23, 1985, - Full member of the RAO from April 7, 1993. - Member of the Department of Education and Culture.

Works in the field: - Russian. linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguodidactics, linguistic methods, etc.

A number of works are devoted to linguistic and regional studies - the theory and practice of language teaching in connection with the study of the culture of its native people.

Researched the problems of speech culture ("Culture of Speech and Style". 1960).

Deals with issues of improving the content and methods of teaching Russian. language in national and foreign schools, training and advanced training grew. and zarub. Russian teachers language. - STATE PRIZE of the USSR (1979) for the comprehensive textbook “Russian Language for Everyone” (ed. 13 editions, 1970-1989), - PRIZE of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR named after. N.K. Krupskaya (1979) for the textbook “Language and Culture” (1983, jointly with E.M. Vereshchagin).

Vitaly Grigorievich Kostomarov: “Live without disturbing others” Vitaly Grigorievich Kostomarov - President of the State Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin. Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, honorary doctor of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Bratislava named after. Comenius, Shanghai and Heilongjiang Universities in China, Ulaanbaatar University, Millbury College (USA), Doctor of Philology, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation. - Founder of the scientific school of methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language. - Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of education. - V.G. Kostomarov is one of the first scientists to be awarded the Pushkin Medal.

!! - By decision of the Council of Tula State University in 2004, he was elected an honorary doctor.

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YAKUTSK. On November 19, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) celebrates Russian Language Day. The All-Russian scientific and practical conference “Current problems of functioning, teaching and studying the Russian language and literature in modern conditions”, which began on November 17, is dedicated to this day. A famous linguist, President of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL) Vitaly Kostomarov, representatives of the Russian Language Institute came to Yakutsk to participate in the conference. A. S. Pushkin, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok State Universities.

Vitaly Grigoryevich Kostomarov does not hold the opinion that the Russian language is dying and losing its power. On the contrary, it enriches itself by gaining international prestige. More than 450 million people in the world speak Russian. Recently, there has been interest in the language in eastern countries. Pushkin also said that the Russian language itself is communal and relatable. “Yes, it’s difficult for our language now, but all the husks will fall off, the American madness will pass and the Russian language will become even richer,” said V. Kostomarov. “We need to get used to the fact that the standardized Russian language can no longer serve modern society.” Professor at the Institute of Russian Language named after. A. S. Pushkin Yuri Prokhorov stated that it is not the language that is experiencing difficulties, but communicative behavior.

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Vitaly Grigorievich Kostomarov is a famous historian and author of textbooks. He wrote his book “The Life of Language” as an adventure. An adventure into which Moscow schoolgirl Nastya plunges. She falls into the hands of a magical talisman - an ancient hryvnia, which becomes her guide, commentator, and assistant. Through her eyes we see how the Russian language developed - written, literary and lively spoken, from modernity to antiquity.

Vitaly Kostomarov - President of the State Institute of Russian Languages ​​named after A.S. Pushkin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Doctor of Philology, Vice-President of MAPRYAL, laureate of the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of education, is also the Author of the books: “Culture of Speech and Style” (1960), “ The Russian language on the newspaper page”, “The Russian language among other languages ​​of the world” (1975), “The linguistic taste of the era” (1999), “Our language in action: essays on modern Russian stylistics” (2005) and many others. etc. (These are the most outstanding and used of his works).

“Our language in action: essays on modern Russian stylistics” (2005)”

Annotation:

The author proposes a new concept of stylistics, reflecting the functioning and state of the Russian language at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. The interaction and interpenetration of “styles” leads to shifts in the relationship between the stylistics of language resources and the stylistics of their current use (the stylistics of texts). The key concept and object of study are groupings of texts, which are described not by a list of typical linguistic units, but by a vector indication of the rules of their selection and composition. Particular attention is paid to mass media texts, the new ratio of written and oral texts, bookishness and colloquialism, even vernacular in communication, as well as the characteristic use of modern texts to non-verbal means and methods of transmitting information. The book is written in accessible language and is intended not only for philologists - specialists and students, but also journalists, translators, editors, other word professionals and everyone who is interested in the modern Russian language and who is not indifferent to its fate.

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:Kostomarov V.G and Vereshchagin E.M:

Vitaly Kostomarov worked closely with Vereshchagin E.M., the result of their joint work is such benefits as:

Language and culture. – M.: Rus. lang., 1983.

Linguistic and cultural theory of the word. – M., 1980.

Language and culture: Linguistic and regional studies in teaching Russian as a foreign language. – M., 1990.

Quote from the manual by Vereshchagin and Kostomarov “Language and Culture. – M.: Rus. language, 1983"

“By clarifying the relationship between personality and culture, it is impossible to understand the genesis and formation of personality in isolation from the culture of a social community (a small social group and, ultimately, a nation). If you want to understand the inner world of a Russian or a German, a Pole or a Frenchman, you should study Russian or, respectively, German, Polish, French culture.”

Background knowledge, as the main object of linguistic and regional studies, is considered in their works by E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov. The names of these significant scientists are associated with the formation of domestic linguistic and regional studies as an independent science, which, from my point of view, to consider only a part of linguodidactics would not be entirely correct. Of course, it cannot be denied that all the achievements of linguistic and regional studies meet the goals and objectives of the methodology of teaching foreign languages ​​and are currently widely used. However, we cannot underestimate the fact that, having laid the theoretical foundation of linguistic and regional studies, E.M. Vereshchagin and V.G. Kostomarov touched upon such a wide range of problems that scientists from different fields of knowledge are currently working on: linguists, psychologists, psycholinguists , sociologists, sociolinguists.

Vitaly Grigoryevich Kostomarov (January 3, 1930, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian linguist, Doctor of Philology, professor, corresponding member, full member and president of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Education).

Since 1966 - Director of the Scientific and Methodological Center of the Russian Language at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, initiator of the creation of the State Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin, director and first rector of the institute, since 2001 - President of the IRYa. A. S. Pushkin. Ex-president of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL).

Editor-in-chief of the magazine "Russian Speech". Member of the Board of Trustees of the Interregional Public Foundation “Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications” (Chairman of the Board - Artur Sergeevich Ocheretny).

One of the students and followers of the famous Soviet linguist Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov. In collaboration with E.M. Vereshchagin studied the connections between language and culture, substantiated a special scientific direction - linguistic and cultural studies (the books “Language and Culture”, published in six editions, “Linguistic and cultural theory of the word”, etc.).

Books (5)

Life of language. From Vyatichi to Muscovites

The book retrospectively recreates the life of the Russian language from modernity to antiquity, from the familiar to the forgotten.

The author connects the development of the language with the history of peoples, paying considerable attention to Russian antiquity, the peculiarities of the life of Russians, especially Muscovites, since it was on Moscow soil that the basic norms of Russian literary speech were formed.

Our language in action

Essays on modern Russian stylistics.

The author proposes a new concept of stylistics, reflecting the functioning and state of the Russian language at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. The interaction and interpenetration of “styles” leads to shifts in the relationship between the stylistics of language resources and the stylistics of their current use (the stylistics of texts). The key concept and object of study are groupings of texts, which are described not by a list of typical linguistic units, but by a vector indication of the rules of their selection and composition.

Particular attention is paid to mass media texts, the new ratio of written and oral texts, bookishness and colloquialism, even vernacular in communication, as well as the characteristic use of modern texts to non-verbal means and methods of transmitting information.

Dictionary of grammatical difficulties of the Russian language

The dictionary is an experience of an aspect lexicographical manual and represents a linguistic description for educational purposes of complex phenomena of Russian morphology.

It consists of two parts. The first part of the dictionary systematizes 18 grammatical categories of three parts of speech: noun, adjective and verb. The second part of the dictionary includes about 2.2 thousand entries, each of which is devoted to a word marked by difficulties that are described in the first part.

Language and culture

The study consists of 3 sections, 12 parts, 56 chapters. The book is the first to comprehensively and comprehensively present a linguistic understanding of the central linguistic problem—the relationship between language and culture. The proposed philological tools really make it possible to objectify national culture through language, texts and capture the specifics of the semantics of language in the aspect of the genesis and functioning of culture.

The language of the moment. Concept of correctness

The processes taking place in the modern Russian language are analyzed, among the most important is the convergence of its spoken and written varieties, which occurs under the influence of network communication. The mechanisms of changes in language norms and the influence of society on language are also considered.

The book, based on a wealth of factual material, analyzes the processes occurring in the language of modern media. the increasing role of the media in the formation of language norms is noted and the concept of taste is introduced as a factor influencing the norm, explaining the direction of linguistic evolution. The book is intended for a wide range of readers who are concerned about the fate of their native word.

Introduction: problem statement

0.1. The most general characteristic of living processes observed in the Russian literary language of our days cannot but be recognized as democratization - in the understanding of it, which is substantiated in the monograph by V. K. Zhuravlev “Interaction of external and internal factors in the development of language” (M., Nauka, 1982; him. Current problems of modern linguodidactics. In the collection: "Linguistic and methodological problems of teaching Russian as a non-native language. Current problems of teaching communication". M., 1989). The areas of literary communication that are most clearly democratizing are mass communication, including the written language of periodicals.

However, the term liberalization is more accurate to characterize these very rapidly unfolding processes, because they affect not only folk layers of the national Russian language, but also educated, which turned out to be alien to the literary canon of recent decades. In general, the literary and linguistic norm becomes less defined and binding; the literary standard becomes less standard.

To a certain extent, the situation of the 20s is repeated, when post-revolutionary rosy optimism gave rise to the desire to deeply transform not only the social system and economic structure, but also culture, but also the literary language canon. Of course, contemporaries assessed what was happening very differently (see: L. I. Skvortsov. About the language of the first years of October. RR, 1987, 5; cf. S. O. Kartsevsky. Language, war and revolution. Berlin, 1923; A. M Selishchev, The Language of the Revolutionary Epoch, M., 1928). This social situation is in good agreement with the ideas of A. A. Shakhmatov about expanding the boundaries of the literary language, and this is exactly how representatives, as S. I. Ozhegov put it, thought and acted. new Soviet intelligentsia. Methodists, in particular, argued that the traditional subject native language in a Russian school there is essentially the study of a foreign language, which requires “expanding the study of the standard language... to study the dialects with which our standard language is surrounded, from which it feeds” (M. Solonino. On the study of the language of the revolutionary era. “Russian language in the Soviet school ", 1929, 4, p. 47).

The “old intelligentsia,” mostly in exile, stood for the inviolability of the literary language, indignant at its flood with dialectisms, jargon, foreign language, even changes in spelling rules, especially the expulsion of the letter yat. This diametrically opposed approach also won within the country, emerging in the 30s and certainly triumphing in the 40s. The 1934 discussion associated with the authority of M. Gorky outlined the path to the mass cultivation of speech, demanding write in Russian, not in Vyatka, not in robes. Conscious proletarian language policy was held under the slogan of overcoming multilingualism, primarily peasant - a single national language for all workers. Linguistic variability was also constrained in the literary language itself.

Due to these, necessarily schematically and simplified, historical events, as well as a number of subsequent ones, we came to the 50s with a very ossified and strictly enforced literary norm, which fully corresponded to the socio-political situation of a totalitarian state. By the end of the first post-war decade, free-thinking writers began to fight against it, both in practice and theoretically, and K. I. Chukovsky was in the forefront of them. The return to living orientations was, however, painful. Russia as a whole turned out to be more inclined to be conservative than to be innovative.

Will history repeat itself? Now our society, without a doubt, has embarked on the path of expanding the boundaries of the literary language, changing its composition, its norms. Moreover, the normal pace of linguistic dynamics is sharply increased, which creates an undesirable gap in the continuity of traditions and the integrity of culture. Even being quickly suspended, such processes of the 20s - with their creative focus on language liberalization - left significant traces in our educated communication. And already now voices are heard louder and louder, expressing fears about the state of the Russian literary language, to which following the path of expanding literary and linguistic boundaries leads.

Even those who welcome triumphant liberalism, to whom it seems completely justified against the backdrop of society’s departure from inert authoritarian unanimity towards freedom, will, and diversity, protest against the recklessness of this process, against the extremes in the desired course of events. Agreeing with A.S. Pushkin’s call to give the Russian language “more freedom so that it develops in accordance with its own laws,” they do not want to calmly put up with negligence, looseness in the use of language, and permissiveness in the choice of means of expression. But in these phenomena they do not see the inevitable consequences of the justified attitude, but only individual, albeit frequent to the point of mass manifestations of the low cultural level of the population, elementary ignorance of the norms of literary language and the laws of style.

Undoubtedly, this also takes place, aggravating the results of the conscious actions of completely literate and cultured people who are well aware of the norms and laws of style. This is evidenced by the following experimental data: Moscow schoolchildren do without them in 80% of speech situations requiring the use of speech etiquette formulas; about 50% of boys address each other by nicknames, more than half of which are offensive; cliches that do not convey the sincerity of feelings are used by about 60% of students when congratulating parents, teachers, and friends. The author of these calculations believes that it is increasingly necessary to specifically teach children at school the accepted rules of communication (N.A. Khalezova. On the possibilities of working on speech etiquette when studying grammatical material. RYAS, 1992, 1, p. 23).

It is significant that there is now an obvious decline in the level of artistic taste; for example, according to a sociological study, only 15 percent of children with developed artistic taste are now graduating from city schools, whereas in the early 80s there were about 50 percent; in rural schools, 6 and 43%, respectively. The population's preferences focus mainly on foreign layers of art, with chamber plots dedicated to love, family, sex, adventure, as well as lightweight music, detective films of dubious quality, being especially popular. (Yu. U. Fokht-Babushkin. Artistic culture: problems of study and management. M.: Nauka, 1986; his same. Artistic life of Russia. Report to RAO, 1995.)

The media, especially television, attract intense criticism. And the point here is not only in violations of literary and linguistic norms, but precisely in disrespect for the word, in attempts to change the “linguistic sign” and through it the national traditional mentality. The Russian proverb “What is written with a pen cannot be cut out with an axe” seems to be losing its power. This is what makes many subscribe to this observation of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Moscow Government V. Resin: “Some kind of terrible epidemic of unreliability, distortion of figures, facts, words, situations is raging in the press” (New, 24.1.98). The words of Academician A.I. Vorobyov regarding some medical interviews sound in unison: “We are talking about our common fall from grace. We talk too much and think too little about how our randomly thrown phrases will affect the destinies of other people” (MK, 24.1.98).

Against this background, it is clear why traditional phraseology is being destroyed ( None of those in power expressed outrage– “Soviet Russia”, 11.29.97 – contamination of expressions hold power And the powers that be. The shortest route to Rome– January 1998 cell phone ad refuting famous expressions all roads lead to Rome, language will lead to Kyiv etc.), the usual word combination is disrupted ( creaking my heart - TV RTR 9.11.97, in the Mayak weather forecast 12.29.97: the coldest, the warmest there somewhere instead warmest). Accepted stylistic decency is discarded (in the speech of the host of the Silver Rain radio station A. Gordon on the morning of 4.8.97: I'm so sorry, it's a new joke, just in case a CD will be released, and a cassette for poor rockers. The catwalk of the avant-garde fashion scene is also open to ready-to-wear– AiF, 1996, 34), direct errors are allowed ( You can guess that they weren’t even included in the first hundred -“Mozhaiskoe Highway”, 1997, 7, although in the Russian dictionary there is only a verb make a fuss. I hope there are no objections– Radio Moscow, 16.5.97. What time is it– ORT, 20.6.97. Refused to transfer powers to his successor– ORT, 15.8.97 in the speech of the announcer Z. Andreeva, who confuses the receiving device with the successor of the case), indifference to pronunciation is expressed ( Go to the hospital– ORT, 24.6.97; together and apart– ORT, 14.2.98. To the left of the elevator- ORT in June 1997 in a daily advertisement for a film with Richard - only when it was shown on June 26, 1997 did the announcer put the emphasis correctly).

An attentive reader of modern newspapers, a radio listener and a television viewer can easily make the list of such examples truly endless. And the point, in fact, is not in them as such, but precisely in their mass character, in a certain tasteful indifference of those who write and speak, and their often conscious normative linguistic indiscipline. It’s unlikely that the journalist would have written the following passage if she had re-read what she had written and thought about it: Night club "Sophie". Cool light, deep sound, dance floor surrounded by columns. Erotic show “Topless models” with consummation(Center-plus, 1997, 48).

Therefore, it would be naive to attribute everything that is happening only to negligence and illiteracy, especially taking into account the very good level of education of the population achieved in the former USSR. People today are undoubtedly more literate on the whole than they used to be, but the norm was clearer then and more strictly enforced. In addition, the initiators of a freer use of language are now just quite literate people - journalists and other professional writers. It is already significant that they call “liberation of language” what the older generation of intelligentsia sees as “barbarization” or “vandalization.”

Extremely indicative are the mutual accusations of “ignorance of the Russian language” exchanged between journalists from Kuranty, Moskovskaya Pravda and Moskovsky Komsomolets, i.e. those publications that now freely use even swear words (see at least the article by Y. Mogutin – “New Look”, 1993, 38). True, the opinion is also expressed that we are facing “the destructive onslaught of education” (Yu. D. Apresyan. Quoted from: Yu. N. Karaulov. On the state of the Russian language of our time. M., 1991, p. 38). Analysis of the factual material convinces us that we are undoubtedly facing a consciously formed trend that reflects the course of all social development.

Emphasized, one might say carnivalesque (see: N.D. Burvikova, V.G. Kostomarov. Carnivalization as a characteristic of the modern state of the Russian language. In the book: Functional semantics of language... M., 1997) neglect of the norm is easy to see, for example, in the spread of a funny fashion to use variants of oscillating forms, as if emphasizing one’s reluctance to understand what is right and what is wrong. Thus, in a program about the oligarchs who rule the country, it sounded: Happiness is not in money or, as artists say, money... So, it’s in money or, if you want, in money(Radio Moscow, 12/13/98). M. Leonidov, presenter of the program “These Funny Animals”, in the words of a participant I don’t like cottage cheese... or should I say cottage cheese? remarked: It does not matter. Our program is not in Russian; at the end he himself said: Well, Sasha, we’ve reached you. Or got there - it doesn’t matter(ORT, 10.15.98). Accordingly, scientific normalizers are increasingly willing to mark “acceptable” ( cottage cheese, add. cottage cheese, fate and outdated fate, thinking And thinking…).

If we remember that playing with shapes maiden - maiden, wide - wide- a recognized technique of folk poetry, if we take into account that the variability in the Russian literary language of the last half-century was clearly underestimated, then we cannot help but admit that we have before us a completely legitimate indicator of the time of shaky norms, the coexistence of variants or their historical change.

We can give other examples of people’s, so to speak, calm attitude towards their lack of confidence in language, which they no longer feel embarrassed about. The Mayak announcer at noon on December 31, 1996 did not at all vow to find out how the numerals are declined, but without any embarrassment, even proudly stated: You see, I’m bad with these, well, numerical words.. This is the fashion today. The question of assessing what needs to be fought and what cannot but be reconciled with is increasingly becoming more and more obvious.

The unfolding processes are based on changes in the psychological attitude of the masses who use the Russian language, in their linguistic taste and sense of language. These socially and historically meaningful phenomena sometimes receive some kind of official approval (at least through the example of the speech of political authorities and the speech practice of the mass media), and sometimes even legislative recognition. But the most important thing is in social aesthetics, in the desire to What understood as beautiful. “What’s beautiful,” according to Maya Plisetskaya’s meaningful remark, “is what’s fashionable” (Izv., 28.3.95).

Let's look at two illustrative examples that will help objectify the concept of taste (and fashion) as a category that influences the development of language, even determining the direction of its dynamics.

0.2. The closest illustration can be addressed to people, in particular the manner of calling people by their first and last names in an official setting, which has become especially widespread on radio and television. Not without reminiscing about those who have set their teeth on edge from the meaningless and endless full titles General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Comrade Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev A new norm for naming public and political figures is emerging; more precisely, the tradition of naming artists and writers by first and last name is being transferred to them, which, by the way, also corresponds to the Western European tradition: Boris Yeltsin, Yegor Gaidar, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pavel Grachev, Viktor Chernomyrdin.

This, of course, was immediately noticed and condemned by adherents of tradition and order: It has become fashionable to write about one or another of our leaders and other persons without mentioning the word “comrade” (or at least “comrade” or simply “t.”). They began to indicate only their names, without patronymics (M. Gorbachev, N. Ryzhkov) or even write Mikhail Gorbachev, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Anatoly Sobchak... Have we already become ashamed of the address “comrade”? Has our custom of calling a person by his first name or patronymic or full initials become no longer dear to us? After all, in Russia only kings and church ministers were called by name. Today’s journalists must be apes and adopt from foreigners what is a tradition and is familiar to them, but which not only hurts our ears, but also does not do us any honor(Misha, Tolya, Kolya and other officials. Izv., 2.1.91).

High emotions, cultivated for decades in the word comrade (they even had to be removed when necessary: I began the letter with the address “Dear comrade...” This is customary. But you, of course, understand that this is just a form of politeness... Izv., 11/27/72), by the middle of the perestroika era they had acquired derogatory connotations. Apparently, this is why new appeals suddenly and epidemically spread - man Woman. Back in the early 80s, the public lost interest in this proud word, which We value all beautiful words. In the history of this word, what happened to it in the 20s, when, according to the emigration, “the wonderful word comrade became a meaningless address” (S. and A. Volkonsky. In Defense of the Russian Language) was repeated, only with the opposite sign. Berlin, 1928, p. 20; for more details, see: S. I. Vinogradov, The Word in Parliamentary Speech and the Culture of Communication (RR, 1993, No. 2, p. 54).

However, attempts to avoid and replace it have long been condemned. Here is a typical newspaper reminder that “we are always and everywhere comrades”: “Man, come forward!”, “Woman, pass the ticket!” – you hear such appeals all the time on the street, in the subway, in the store. Or again, a young guy turns to an elderly saleswoman: “Girl, give me half a kilo of sugar”... We have a wonderful word in Russian, comrade. So why don’t we say: comrade seller, comrade driver, comrade, please pass me the ticket?(Izv., 11/27/83)

The following remark is typical: The word “comrade,” which always meant the highest spiritual unity, became, on the contrary, a sign of cold alienation. When they say “comrade so-and-so,” it has come to mean that they are dissatisfied with the person. The sublime Leninist “citizen” now means when a person is caught. In place of the previous criteria, other criteria somehow spread creepingly, vegetatively, from one to another.(LG, 1988, 16).

Already at the end of 1991, a review of letters stated the following opinion: Why do some people in Moscow address the audience with the word “gentlemen” instead of comrades? Who allowed the Izvestia people to write the word “gentlemen” in their advertisements for the Moscow Commodity Exchange? This is our newspaper, not a bourgeois one. A newspaper commentary defended freedom: “Do you like the title ‘comrade’? Contact us!.. Some are allergic to the word “gentlemen”, while others are allergic to the word “comrade”... Our partnership is a purely conditional concept, as, indeed, is the word “gentlemen”. In Georgia, for example, the words “batono” - master and “kalbatono” - lady never disappeared from the lexicon, especially to strangers. This is a measure of respect. And to the banal trolleybus question “Are you getting off now?” there they don’t answer “Yes”, but, as a rule, “Diah, batono” - oh yes, sir! And if someone sees in this sparkle of politeness centuries-old oppression, exploitation, tyranny, then they need to contact... a doctor” (Izv., 11/27/91).

An in-depth analysis of the semantic-functional reasons for society's dissatisfaction with words comrade, as well as other addresses, in general, etiquette formulas of the Soviet period are given in the works of N. I. Formanovskaya (see, for example, her book “Speech Etiquette and the Culture of Communication.” M., 1989). It is now important for us to emphasize the taste of the current public, which is all the more influential the more thoroughly it is based on linguistic factors themselves. Certain deviations from the generally accepted, of course, have always been and will be; for example, among the Cossacks it is not recommended to call men “men”, “comrades” and “gentlemen” - they will be offended, and in response to the treasured “stanitsa” they will break into a proud smile (AiF, 1994, 18).

Word sir, which lived only as an address to foreigners (and, of course, as a humiliating address to one’s own strangers; it is curious that Kenneth D. Kaunda used both Mr. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, and Comrade Chairman...– Izv., November 23, 1974), the scope of application began to rapidly expand. The new assessments were undoubtedly influenced by the practice of various republics that were gaining independence: Domnule Snegur(mandatory address to the President of Moldova and in Russian. Izv., 10.22.90), Mr. Kravchuk(cf.: The word “comrade” was removed from the Charter; military personnel were asked to address each other with the addition of the word “pan” before the rank: pan captain, pan soldier... In the regiments of the Ukrainian Cossacks this was a traditional form of communication.- Izv., 23.5.92), etc. Of course, a general revaluation of the pre-revolutionary life of Russia also played a role. Moved away from addresses corresponding to Russian comrade, and in those countries where they were planted. Thus, in China tong zhi has fallen out of use, in the Czech Republic soudruh, etc.

Against this background and taking into account public dissatisfaction with the system of accepted appeals, which is evidenced by the hotly debated long-standing call of V. Soloukhin to restore the words sir, madam, there could be no talk of “returning due prestige to the glorious word “comrade,” since “we are all comrades, if not in work, then in labor”” (Izv., 10.3.85). A favorite reminder of propaganda that words sir, madam“carry ideological overtones” and that for the workers they “sound like a mockery” (Izv., 1.10.91), lost all evidence and began to cause a backlash. Mark Zakharov and Arseniy Gulyga were among the first to publicly and openly speak out in the press for the return of these words to active use: Of course, we do not have “masters” in the old sense of the word - oppressors, but even from our same-class “comrades” (like Stalin) we suffered worse troubles than those of the old regime(LG, 1989, 48).

Vladimir Soloukhin also took part in the discussions; satisfied with the known spread of words sir And madam, he noted that “you cannot say “Sir Petrov came to see me yesterday” or “Madame Ivanova went missing.” In these cases, you need to use the words “Mr.” and “Madam”... The same is true with the plural. It’s not entirely correct to say: “Well, sir, how are you?” Or address the congregation: “Sirs and madams!” - it is forbidden. Previously, they said either “gentlemen!”, or “dear sirs and ladies,” or “ladies and gentlemen.” And if you don’t like it and can’t help but keep saying “comrades!” (Izv., 10/18/91)

This permission is not readily accepted by everyone, and another influential poet, Viktor Bukov, writes:

Today they called me - sir?

And they pulled my sleeve.

And the dishes clinked in the closet,

And the sugar fell off the shelf,

They called me sir

And I answered: “It doesn’t look like it!”

And all the words in a single circle

They were embarrassed to hear this lie.

And I am still a comrade!

Just like in those distant years.

You tried so hard in vain

Enroll me as a gentleman!

(Prov., 19.1.94).

The diversity of attitudes to these words gives rise to irony: Guys (you can’t say comrades or gentlemen during the transition period, this can be assessed poorly by both sides), let’s create... a depoliticized state(AiF, 1991, 42). And without much of a hint of a joke, journalists ask: How are you doing, gentlemen and comrades?(AiF, 1993, 19). Is this really the way we are going towards a state of law, dear comrades?(Izv., 19.5.93). No, sir or fellow commoner, your hopes for survival are illusory(Prov., 16.7.93). Central Radio spoke more clearly: It's good that we stopped being comrades and became just people (14.3.93, 11.30).

It is curious that the “colloquial obsequious address master-comrade” appeared shortly after 1917 and was in wide circulation for some time (Kartsevsky S. O. Language, war and revolution. Berlin, 1923, p. 18). Today, some differentiation has begun to be felt in this revived expression: gentlemen is accepted as an address, and behind the word comrades some social-nominative meaning is fixed (ordinary people? workers? maybe “scoops”?). Spellingly, this is confirmed by the refusal to use hyphens. gentlemen-comrades. This is especially clear in contexts of opposition: Will the gentlemen, comrades, remember the ministers?... We live well, gentlemen, comrades... The gentlemen, ministers are different people both in their views and in their level of income. Gentlemen, comrades (I write the word “comrade” without any humiliation - the overwhelming majority of the population belongs to them) are also different people... How does Mr. Comrade live, what does Mr. Comrade think about?... Our ordinary gentlemen, comrades, are now deeply outraged by the showdown that is taking place in the highest echelons of power(RV, 6.8.93). In a word, as the humorist noted, the trouble is not that we have become masters, but that we have ceased to be comrades!

0.3. Another vivid illustration of the processes occurring in language, which allows us to judge the fashion that is responsible for them, can be the epidemic of geographical renaming. Its scale is such that it is not possible to give exhaustive lists. Unlike most linguistic phenomena (even the considered shifts in the system of addresses, which develop, strictly speaking, spontaneously), it is a consequence of a direct and conscious influence on the language, which receives an obvious legislative form.

For example, by decision of the Moscow City Council No. 149 of November 5, 1990, the following historical names of squares, streets, and alleys of Moscow were returned from January 1, 1991: Tverskaya Zastava Square(Belorussky Station Sq.), Maroseyka street(Bogdana Khmelnytsky St.), Novopeschanaya street(Walter Ulbricht st.), Sandy 2nd Street(Georgiou-Deja St.), Tverskaya-Yamskaya 1st street(Gorkogo Street - from Mayakovsky Square to Belorussky Station), Nikolskaya street(Twenty-fifth October St.), Lubyanskaya Square(Dzerzhinsky Sq.), Lubyanka Bolshaya Street(Dzerzhinsky St.), Cow Val Street(Dobryninskaya st.), Vozdvizhenka street, New Arbat street(Kalinina Ave.), Basmannaya Old Street(Karl Marx St.), Myasnitskaya street(Kirova St.), Sukharevskaya Square(Kolkhoznaya Bolshaya and Kolkhoznaya Small sq.), Prechistenka street(Kropotkinskaya st.), Ilyinka street(Kuibysheva St.), Mokhovaya street, Okhotny Ryad street, Theater Square(Marx Ave.), Patriarch's Ponds(Pioneer Ponds), Patriarchal Maly Lane(Pionersky Maly Lane), Manezhnaya Square(Fiftieth Anniversary of October Square), Varvarka street(Razina St.), theatre square(Sverdlova sq.), Aminevskoe highway(Suslova St.), Autumn Boulevard(Ustinova Marshal St.), Znamenka Street(Frunze St.), Novinsky Boulevard(Tchaikovsky St.), Zemlyanoy Val street(Chkalova St.).

The same decision renamed the Moscow Metro stations: Tverskaya(Gorkovskaya. This is a secondary issue – the renaming of the street), Lubyanka(Dzerzhinskaya), Alexander Garden(Kalininskaya), Chistye Prudy(Kirovskaya), Sukharevskaya(Kolkhoznaya), Tsaritsyno(Lenino), China town(Nogina Square), Teatralnaya(Sverdlov Square), Okhotny Ryad(Marx Ave.), Novo-Alekseevskaya(Shcherbakovskaya).

Even earlier in Moscow the following were renamed: Ostozhenka street(Metrostroevskaya St.), metro station Chistye Prudy And Red Gate(Kirovskaya and Lermontovskaya), etc. 1993 was declared the year of the revival of the historical center of the capital and the purification of the toponymic appearance of its central protected part; In the spring, the original names were returned to another 74 streets, embankments, and alleys. The cheerful tone of messages about this provides material for judging the fashionable motives of current linguistic changes:

The Bolshevik past is finally disappearing from the face of Moscow. For example, Sovetskaya Square is now Tverskaya Square... The name of Khitrovsky Lane has been returned to the lane of the founder of socialist realism, M. Gorky. Now we can better imagine the location of the notorious Khitrovka - the area of ​​the famous slums... Ulyanovskaya Street was renamed in 1919 during the life of the leader. A modest man, Vladimir Ilyich did not object... The former Nikolaevskaya, which suddenly received such an honor, was called so because the Church of St. stood here since 1642. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the Pits(AiF, 1993, 20).

The same motives permeate the interview with the chairman of the Moscow City Council Commission on Names: During the years of Soviet power, the capital lost more than a thousand original names, which our ancestors preserved for centuries. Sometimes it just got to the point of absurdity: Fourth Street on March 8th, Gas Pipeline Street, Nizhnyaya Knitted Street (why not Underwear?). Is it really more pleasant to walk along the Pionersky Ponds, shuddering from the ghost of Pavlik Morozov, than than along the Patriarchal Ponds?... Some celebrities will have to make room. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin would certainly never have agreed that the world-class rarity, Dmitrovka Street, which has a six-hundred-year history, would certainly bear his name. The same applies to Chekhov and Stanislavsky...(Izv., 5.6.93).

The forest is being cut down and the chips are flying: in the heat of excitement it doesn’t even occur to us that it is hardly so desirable for Russian culture to restore the memory of the Khitrovanka shelters, and even at the expense of oblivion of a famous writer. Old new names appeared on the site of Lermontov Square, Tchaikovsky Street, Chkalov Street, although the poet, composer and even the pilot did not seem to have done anything wrong, and their contribution to Russian culture is worthy of perpetuation in the toponymy of the city.

The passion for renaming led immediately to completely meaningless changes (Savelyevsky Lane is now Pozharsky, Astakhovsky - Pevchesky, Neglinny - Zvonarsky, etc.), about which the feuilletonist E. Grafov wrote: “First of all, Marx and Engels were buried in the first category. Now their street will be vindictively called Starovagankovsky Lane... Bolshevik Lane was also stung. Now he should be Gusyatnikov. And Komsomolsky Lane with the trick was called Zlatoustinsky. As for the lane named after the noble Bolshevik Stopani, it became Ogorodnaya Sloboda. Apparently, the Moscow City Council is no stranger to sarcasm. I don’t argue, apparently, Nikoloyamskaya Street sounds much more beautiful than Ulyanovskaya. But I assure you, this was not the Ulyanov you were thinking about... And Stankevich Street, in general, can be called Voznesensky Lane. But this is not the same Stankevich, but a completely different one. So there was no need to worry. Why rename Serov Passage to Lubyansky Passage? The man headed the KGB with great difficulty. He really deserves to immortalize his name on Lubyanka. However, this seems to be not the same Serov, but the heroic pilot. But it was still not worth extracting the word “Lubyanka” from the Bolshevik centuries. Nobody said anything - they took me to Dzerzhinsky Square. They said they took him to Lubyanka... There’s no need to be stunned by renaming” (Izv., 25.5.93).

Expressing natural disagreement with the over-indulgence in renaming, a group of writers and theater workers (O. Efremov, M. Ulyanov, Y. Solomin, E. Gogoleva, E. Bystritskaya, Y. Borisova, G. Baklanov, A. Pristavkin, V. Korshunov, V. Lakshin, I. Smoktunovsky) sent a protest to the Chairman of the Moscow City Council regarding the deprivation of Moscow of such street names as Pushkinskaya, Chekhov, Stanislavsky, Ermolova, Fedotova, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Sadovskikh, Ostuzhev, Yuzhin, Vakhtangov, Moskvina, Kachalova, Khmeleva, Griboyedov, Sobinov , Vesnin, Zholtovsky, Shchukin.

They write about the resolution he signed: “It would seem that this document is intended to play a good role and cleanse the cultural image of the capital from the opportunistic and ideological distortions of many decades. But already at the first reading it becomes clear that we are dealing with a bureaucratic circular, the implementation of which will be an act of vandalism and will lead to irreparable cultural losses... Instead of a reasonable cultural policy, we are dealing with another campaign from among those that are so familiar to us from the recent past... A lion is recognized by its claw. Donkey - on the ears. And yesterday’s communists – due to their senile anti-communism. Only unenlightened people brought up on Lenin’s articles, where they constantly woke up someone, can erase Belinsky, Herzen, Granovsky from our everyday life. What the Bolsheviks could not destroy, they tried to appropriate. And this had its own logic. Common sense suggests an asymmetrical answer because these outstanding people belong to the entire Russian culture... And the Moscow Soviet expels the great Russians and not only Russians (together with the Pole Mitskevich and the Georgian Paliashvili) from the center of Moscow. It is necessary to stop mocking culture, because toponymy is its integral part” (Today, 1.6.93).

The process of restoring old names, changing and clarifying affected all Russian toponymy, in particular the names of many cities: Vladikavkaz(Ordzhonikidze), Vyatka(Kirov), Ekaterinburg(Sverdlovsk), Naberezhnye Chelny(Brezhnev), Nizhny Novgorod(Bitter), Rybinsk(Andropov), Samara(Kuibyshev), Saint Petersburg(Leningrad, Petrograd), Sergiev Posad(Zagorsk), Tver(Kalinin), Sharypovo(Chernenko), etc. (see: Moiseev A.I. Personal memorial names of Russian cities. RYAZR, 1992, 2). The process also captured non-Russian cities – Ukrainian ones: Zmiev(Gotwald), Lugansk(Voroshilovgrad), Mariupol(Zhdanov); Azerbaijani: Beylagan(Zhdanovsk), Ganja(Kirovabad); Georgian: Baghdadi(Mayakovsky), Martvili(Gegechkori), Ozurgeti(Makharadze); Estonian: Kuryasaari(Kingisepp), etc.

Starting with the naive “Estonization” of Russian spelling Tallinn(previously with one n at the end), this process went along the lines of erasing not only unwanted names, but also generally Russified forms of national toponyms and replacing Russian names with them. For example, a resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan subjected dozens of place names to renaming or “streamlining of transcription in Russian”: the cities of Chimkent and Dzhezkazgan became Shymkent And Zhezkazgan, villages Sergeevka, Pugachevo, Airship, Maralikha steel aulami Kainar, Ushbulak, Kyzylsu, Maraldy(Izv., 17.9.92), cf. Also Ashgabat(Ashgabat), Tyva(albeit with an inconsistent decision to keep Tuvinian, Tuvinian– RV, 12/28/93), Halm Tangch(Kalmykia), Mari-el, Sakha(Yakutia).

They changed the traditional form in Russian use to one closer to the national linguistic one, such names as Belarus (Belarusian, Belarusian), Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz, Kyrgyz), Moldova (Moldovan, Moldavian), Bashkirtostan. However, in this area too, the main task was undoubtedly the elimination of unwanted names: Bishkek(Frunze), Lugansk(Voroshilovgrad), Mariupol(Zhdanov), etc.

With joyful mischief, the correspondent in the article “Kyiv streets are changing names” reports: The capital of Ukraine is rapidly getting rid of the trappings of the socialist era. The city authorities approved new names for Kyiv streets, parks and metro stations... Most of the changes are associated with the removal from the city map of street names that promoted the names of leaders and figures of the revolution. Vladimir Ilyich suffered significant “losses”: Lenin Street was renamed Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street, Lenin Boulevard - Chokolovsky Boulevard. The glorious security officers also got it. The street under their name now bears the name of Hetman of Ukraine Pylyp Orlyk. Other names were given to the streets of the October Revolution, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Menzhinsky, Parkhomenko, Korneychuk...(Izv., 17.2.93).

In essence, there is nothing new or unusual in this process: let us at least remember Zaire, Zimbabwe, Kinshasa on the site of the Belgian Congo, Rhodesia, Leopoldville, very recent and less understandable Cote d'Ivoire instead of Ivory Coast. The changes of names in the former CMEA states, justified by political and ideological considerations, are understandable. What attracts attention is only the pace and scale of the process, so great, like everything else in Russia, that it also captures what seems to not deserve renaming. There is something totalitarian, neo-Bolshevik about the renaming campaign; In a curious way, other republics of the former USSR act as if they received orders from a common center.

To what has already been said about the toponymy of Moscow, we can add the following interesting and even funny facts. Although in the navy renaming ships is considered a bad omen, now the names of Kirov, Frunze, Kalinin and other Soviet figures, as well as the names of the capitals of the former Soviet republics Baku, Tbilisi and others, have been replaced in the proper names of heavy aircraft carriers, anti-submarine and missile cruisers with the names of Russian admirals Ushakov, Nakhimov, Senyavin, as well as Peter the Great. A number of nuclear submarines have received the names of predators: Leopard, Leopard, Tiger, the other part of the submarines are the names of Russian cities: Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, Kursk. The ships of the Komsomolskaya Squadron have been completely renamed - patrol ship Leningrad Komsomolets, minesweeper Novgorod Komsomolets etc. (AiF, 1993, 22).

For the general mood, for the defining taste of the moment, it is indicative that in the old building of Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street (former Marx Avenue!) the main auditorium is again called Bogoslovskaya- “it was always called that way until it was renamed Leninskaya” (Izv., 17.2. 93).

The process of renaming is generally uneven, emotional and opportunistic, with interruptions and very rapid reversals. Here are two typical messages: IN Chechnya, as she calls herself now, everything turned out differently(Izv., 21.9.92). Not Sukhumi, but Sukhum. The session of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia... restored the names of the capital of Abkhazia city Sukhum and mining town Tkuarchal(from the second half of the thirties they were called in the Georgian way - Sukhumi and Tkuarchali). The urban-type settlement of Gantiadi received a historical toponym Tsandrypsh, villages Leselidze and Khenvani - respectively Aechrypsh and Amzara (Izv., 12/15/92).

The desire to bring a name phonetically and/or spelling closer to the original spelling and sound is natural and eternal, unfolding as literacy, culture and mutual respect between peoples grow. It was impossible, for example, not to approve of the post-revolutionary changes in the accepted Russian forms of Tiflis, Vilno, Kovno, etc. Tbilisi, Vilnius, Kaunas(cf. also Komi instead of Zyryans– literally “pushed aside”; current adoption of form Kyrgyz in this regard it is quite justified, because Kyrgyz has unpleasant consonances for the Kyrgyz ear).

The often naive linguistic perception of one form or another by the affected foreign-speaking population should be recognized as fundamental. And there is nothing wrong with the almost legislative imposition of the form Ukrainian of two coexisting accentological options, although I would not want to correct Pushkin’s classic “Silent Ukrainian Night”. It is not difficult to agree with what is unusual for Russians in Ukraine- so be it, if it seems to someone that in Ukraine humiliatingly reminiscent of being on the edge, on the outskirts. So at one time the Chinese asked to distinguish in Taiwan(on the island) and in Taiwan(in a state not recognized by the PRC).

But one cannot help but see here an amazing linguistic naivety. At the time of the collapse of the USSR, political and journalistic attacks on the form with on. It was attributed to an insidious confusion of words Ukraine(from steal"cut off from the whole") and outskirts- with reference to S. Shelukhin’s 1921 work “Name of Ukraine”, reprinted, for example, in the anthology “Chronicle-2000” (issue 2, Kiev, 1992), where the Poles and Russians are directly accused of this (the author considers the latter not so much Slavs , as much as the Finnish-Mongolian tribe). But soon objective, calmly reasonable voices of linguists, not politicians, appeared, calling not to see Great Russian malice in it and to remember that the great patriots of Ukraine, especially T. Shevchenko, did not disdain it.

In any case, the Kyiv reviewers of the first edition of this book, in my opinion, unreasonably saw in the assessment of Russian word usage that is still preserved (so! I didn’t even think of judging how best in Ukrainian) word usage as some kind of tactlessness of mine. Russian and Ukrainian languages ​​are closely related, but each has its own laws and traditions. The article by V. Zadorozhny in the journal “Ukrainian language and literature in schools” (1993, No. 5–6), to which they refer, examines Ukrainian constructions in Ukraine – in Ukraine. By the way, I am more impressed by N. Sidyachenko’s article on the same topic in the collection of the Institute of Ukrainian Language of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine “Culture of the Word” (1994, 45). And yet, and yet! Ukrainians officially, although not very publicly, approached the US State Department with a proposal to use the form in Ukraine instead of the one adopted in English in the Ukraine - with essentially the same motivation (the absence of an article seems to reinforce the idea that we have a proper name ).

Taking the pathos of self-determination for granted, we should not mutilate our language; one must understand that “sovereignty is one thing - a fact of their history, and another thing is the name - a fact of our language” (MN, 1994, 1). And in fact, having achieved the “Estonization” of the Russian name of its capital, the Estonian parliament retained the non-Russian accent in its name for the capital of Russia - Moskva - not to mention the fact that it did not change the names of Petseri, Pihkva, Irboska, Kaasan, Saraatov to Pechera, Pskov, Izborsk, Kazan, Saratov.

The trouble is not even that new forms violate long-term language habits, but that they may turn out to be unusual, difficult to pronounce and even unpleasant for the Russian linguistic ear. After k, g, x, Let's say, y is not written or pronounced, which is why the spelling does not sound or “look” Kyrgyzstan and under. It’s quite pointless, because a Russian can’t pronounce it like that, writing two consonants at the end of a word in Russian Tallinn, somehow looks illiterate in the Russian text Belarus, Belarus, Belarusian. Similar processes are observed in people's proper names: the name of the former president of Azerbaijan is written Abulfaz Elchibey(traditional Russian spelling Abulfas; now difficulties arise not only with the pronunciation of the voiced sound at the end of the word, but also the pronunciation of the genitive form and other cases changes).

Tradition stands in the way of the natural desire to “correct the inaccuracies” of a foreign name, and the more ancient and stable it is, the stronger its resistance. Therefore, it is unlikely that Russians will ever speak Bet or, confusing the city with an ancient hero, Paris instead of Paris, Roma or Rum instead of Rome. It is unlikely, however, that even the Germans, offended by the role of the USSR in history, will demand that we call their country not Germany, but Deutschland! It seems that in Russia they have stopped unconditionally accepting foreign attacks on Russian linguistic traditions.

In March 1994, on radio and TV, a decision was made, supported by the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to consistently return to the previous names: “No language can dictate to the Russian language its own rules of pronunciation and writing of proper names, since this humiliates and distorts it” (Prov. , 18.3.94). “People, even far from the problems of linguistics, were perplexed, knowing that in any language a borrowed word is always subject to new grammatical and sound laws and is almost never preserved in its original form. After all, the English have Russia as Russia, the French have Rusia, the Germans have Rusland, the Moldovans have Russia, the Ingush have Rossi. Native speakers of the Russian language have the same right to traditionally pronounce and write Ashgabat, Alma-Ata, Chuvashia. This issue has nothing to do with the problems of sovereignty and respect for national dignity” (MP, 15.3.94).

However, one cannot ignore the triumphant fashion and the mood of the people. One cannot help but take into account today’s taste for change, for abandoning the familiar, or at least for variability: even such innovations that contradict the Russian language system are more likely to be accepted than rejected. In any case, it would be funny to conflict with Estonians over a letter, like the Czechs and Slovaks, whose differences over the hyphen in the name of the country became one of the reasons for divorce. One should also take into account the huge Russian diaspora, which is forced to obey the laws of the country of residence; this means that a mass of variable toponyms will inevitably appear in the Russian language. Sometimes you have to put up with the most naive political and national thinking: there are things higher than the inviolable purity of the literary and linguistic canon.

0.4. The given examples allow us to express some theoretical considerations regarding taste as a category of speech culture (see: V. G. Kostomarov. Issues of speech culture in the training of Russian teachers. In the book: “Theory and practice of teaching the Russian language and literature. The role of the teacher in the process training". M., Russian language, 1979).

Taste in general is the ability to evaluate, understanding what is right and beautiful; these are preferences and inclinations that determine a person’s culture in thought and work, in behavior, including speech. Taste can be understood as a system of ideological, psychological, aesthetic and other attitudes of a person or social group in relation to language and speech in this language. These attitudes determine one or another person’s value attitude towards language, the ability to intuitively evaluate the correctness, appropriateness, and aesthetics of speech expression.

Taste is a complex amalgam of social requirements and assessments, as well as the individuality of the native speaker, his artistic inclinations, upbringing, and education (which is why the phrase “There is no arguing about taste”). However, this individuality is also formed in the course of assimilation of social knowledge, norms, rules, and traditions. Therefore, taste always has a concrete social and concrete historical basis; therefore, manifesting itself individually, taste reflects in its development the dynamics of social consciousness and unites members of a given society at a given stage of its history (it is not for nothing that they talk about the tastes of a society and an era).

The most important condition of taste is social in nature, acquired by every native speaker, the so-called feeling, or flair of language, which is the result of speech and general social experience, the assimilation of knowledge of the language and knowledge about the language, the mostly unconscious assessment of its tendencies and paths of progress. In the words of L. V. Shcherba, “this feeling in a normal member of society is socially justified, being a function of the language system” (L. V. Shcherba. On the threefold aspect of linguistic phenomena and on experiment in linguistics. In the book: “Language system and speech activity", L., 1974, p. 32). The very sense of language is a kind of system of unconscious assessments, reflecting the systematic nature of language in speech and social linguistic ideals.

The sense of language forms the basis for a global assessment, acceptance or rejection of certain development trends, certain layers of vocabulary, for assessing the appropriateness of certain stylistic and generally functional-style varieties of language under current conditions and for given purposes. In this sense, it is very dependent on the systemic and normative features of the language, on its “spirit” and “willfulness”, its origin, history and ideals of progress, acceptable and desirable sources of enrichment, the originality of its structure and composition. So, say, inflection, the formal expression of connections in a sentence makes the Russian linguistic sense much more intolerant of the accumulation of identical forms than English or French, which is why, for example, consecutive constructions with of or de are more permissible than Russian genitive cases (outside the limited special spheres; see the works of O. D. Mitrofanova on “scientific language”).

Due to the specifics of Russian grammar, Russian speech turns out to be flexible and diverse in terms of intonation and word order, which in turn makes the possibilities for expressive actual division of statements more diverse. It is weakly characterized by homonymy, which is why, by the way, Russians love to look for it and stumble over it, although, of course, ambiguity is usually easily extinguished by the text.

The very composition of the Russian language, as well as its structure, influences the taste. Thus, each new look at the historical relationship between Old Slavic books and the original East Slavic folk speech element significantly modifies our stylistic ideas. Slavicisms, on the one hand, are organically part of the literary language, on the other, for many decades they have been perceived as ponderous and pompous, often funny archaisms. With the change in goals in the use of language and the emergence of new functions, brought to life by a changed attitude towards the Orthodox Church, towards religion in general, the attitude towards Old (Church) Slavicisms also changes sharply.

Every now and then, folk poetics, dialect contrasts of north and south, medieval “weaving of words”, business speech dating back to Moscow orders and urban koine - vernacular, influxes of German, then French, and today American foreignness - the most diverse phenomena of different stages of the history of the Russian language.

The debate between “Shishkovists” and “Karamzinists”, “Slavophiles” and “Westerners” is alive and in many ways educates today’s taste, not to mention the synthetic activity of the founder of the modern literary language A. S. Pushkin and other classics of the 19th century. The sense of language reflects cultural and national memory, dissolving layers of different heritages, different poetic and speech concepts. An important role in the formation of Russian linguistic flair and taste was and is played by the relationship between book and non-book speech, which often took on the character of competition between the literary and “folk” languages.

During the Soviet period, high rates of development and abruptly changing tastes accumulated a significant stock of heterogeneous changes and deformations, which today, with the beginning of the post-Soviet era, are being tested and reassessed. Accordingly, we should now expect (and the factual material of subsequent chapters confirms this) a search for “fresh” linguistic material, a redistribution of stylistic layers, and a new synthesis of means of expression.

Thus, taste is, in essence, a changing ideal of the use of language according to the character of the era. “General norms of linguistic taste,” coinciding or not coinciding with the writer’s language, fall, in the words of G. O. Vinokur, “on the bridge leading from language, as something impersonal, general, supra-individual, to the very personality of the writer” (G O. Vinokur, On the Study of the Language of Literary Works, Selected Works on the Russian Language, Moscow, 1959, p. 278).

Taste often loses its historical validity and follows opportunistic, random aspirations. It then becomes in bad taste. He then loses even the naturally mediated connection with the mental-substantive aspect of communication and with the natural aesthetic limiting framework. In other words, taste appears as the extremes of fashion. Speech in this case goes out of the range between “an unattainable ideal” and “not yet a mistake”, loses the evaluative and tasteful qualities of “good speech” (see: B. N. Golovin. Fundamentals of the theory of speech culture. Gorky, 1977; N. A Plenkin, Criteria for Good Speech, Russian Language at School, 1978, 6). Let us note, looking ahead, that for our time such a quality of “good speech” as freshness is especially relevant, that is, the desire to update familiar means and methods of expression.

With all the natural desire to objectify the concept of taste as a cultural and speech category, one cannot, of course, deny it subjective individuality. Without developing this thought now, we will only cite the curious reflections of a prominent modern poet and writer: “You cannot hang a screw on a flower as an addition. You cannot attach paper clips to a string of pearls on a woman’s neck in the form of pendants. You cannot add the word wedding to the word palace. It is also impossible to explain why this cannot be done. It comes down to linguistic hearing, taste, sense of language, and ultimately to the level of culture” (V. Soloukhin. Autumn Leaves).

The qualities of “good speech” are relative, sometimes even internally contradictory - and not only due to their general subjective taste character and close dependence on the specific meaning expressed in a particular case, on the conditions and goals of a given communicative act, but primarily because strict determination of any speech by existing norms in the literary language. However, in today's situation, these normative means of expression and the established methods of their use with standard content, in statements similar in content, goals and conditions, often turn out to be inconsistent with the new taste and are being decisively revised.

End of introductory fragment.

M.: Indrik, 2005. - 1038 pp. Quality: Scanned pages + recognized text layer In this fundamental monograph, the authors summarized their research spanning almost forty years. The study consists of 3 sections, 12 parts, 56 chapters. The book is the first to comprehensively and comprehensively present a linguistic understanding of the central linguistic problem - the relationship between language and culture. The proposed philological tools really make it possible to objectify national culture through language, texts and capture the specifics of the semantics of language in the aspect of the genesis and functioning of culture. Content:
Introduction
Section one. Aspect of statics: language as a carrier and source of national and cultural information
Nominative units of verbal language
Word: relationship between the plans of content and expression
There is a concept, but there is no lexeme
One concept - several lexemes
There is a lexeme - there is no concept
One lexeme - several concepts
Lexical concept and cross-linguistic (non-)equivalence
Lexical background and interlingual incomplete equivalence
General description of the phenomenon called “lexical background”
Briefly about nominative and relational linguistic units
Lexical concept and conceptual non-equivalence
Lexical background and background incompleteness
Classification of non-equivalent and incompletely equivalent vocabulary
Excursion
LF of Historicism Artel
Background features of terminological vocabulary
Background features of onomastic vocabulary
LFon Properties
Cumulative function
Word formation and metaphorical derivation
Concluding remarks
Methods for objectifying lexical backgrounds
Meaningful communication
Communication as knowledge transfer
Genesis and migration of semantic lobes of the lexical background
Linguistic-cultural interference and comparison of lexical backgrounds
Social dynamics of LFons
Shares in individual consciousness

Visual image as part of the LFon
National-cultural semantics of Russian phraseology
Clarification of the concept of phraseology
Nominative semantics of phraseological units: final definition
Two-dimensionality of the semantics of a phraseological unit: phraseological background
National-cultural semantics of phraseological background
Excursion
Metaphor as a means of phraseologization: draw a line, check a box, turn on the red light, launch into orbit
National-cultural semantics of linguistic aphorisms
Clarification of the concept of linguistic aphorism
Aphoristic level of language
Two-dimensionality of the semantics of an aphorism: aphoristic background
National-cultural semantics of aphoristic background
Cumulative function
Directive function
Use and modification of linguistic aphorisms in speech
Vocabulary, phraseology, aphoristics as linguistic and cultural sources
The structure of the semantics of the nominative unit of language
Linguistic and cultural semantization of backgrounds
Linguistic and cultural dictionaries of phraseology and aphorism
Group methods of background semantization
Motivated final naming of the presented concept
“Occasional” marks in the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. I. Ozhegov
Towards determining the place of non-equivalent and background vocabulary in the modern Russian literary language
The continual concept in concrete synchronic analysis: Russian Mephistopheles in Pushkin
Pushkin's Mephistopheles is not Goethe's Mephistopheles
Application of the LFon concept to a specific analysis
Calculation of background shares of the lexeme demon and conjugate words in the works of Pushkin
Systematization of background shares of the lexeme demon
Comparison of the P-calculus with the Shares extracted from the Gospel texts
Comparison of the P-calculus with the Shares extracted from folklore texts
The demon in Lermontov’s poem of the same name is not the demon of the Gospel and folklore
The continual concept in specific diachronic research
Life, life, life
Glory
Stood
Adam's image
The second one
Appendix 1 (to subchapter OZ-5). Linguistic and cultural archeology: quarter and quarter in Russia in the second half of the 19th century.
Appendix 2 (to sole 03-5). Linguistic and regional archaeology: activist and social activist in the Soviet era
Appendix 3 (to gravy 03-5). Linguistic and regional archeology: what seemed natural to a Soviet teacher in 1985 and was incomprehensible to a teacher from Germany
Appendix 4 (to gravy 03-7). The image of the saint as revealed through the background commentary on his name
Appendix 5 (to gravy 13-4). Strike all the heavy bells and ring all the bells
Appendix 6 (to seam 17). Molech in Tanakh in contrast to Pushkin's Milk
calculation of background shares
Appendix 7 (to seam 17). Pushkin, Rilke and the problem of the relationship between national culture and supracultural civilization
First observation
Second observation
General conclusion
P. Relational units of verbal language as carriers and sources of national and cultural information
Russian phonetics and intonation as a phenomenon of national culture
Word formation, morphology and syntax as a phenomenon of national culture
Sh. National and cultural originality of the Russian literary language as a result of the interaction of two elements
A. S. Pushkin as a historian and creator of the Russian literary language
A. S. Pushkin on the history of the Russian literary language
The doctrine of the “two elements” in formation
and development of the Russian literary language
Excursion
Pushkin reads Izbornik Svyatoslav 1073
Excursion
Pushkin interprets “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”
The breakdown of the Russian language in the Petrine era
The role of the Russian Academy
Pushkin as the creator of the modern Russian literary language
The role of the colloquial element
The role of the book-Slavic element
The danger of gallomania
Excursion
Macaronic poetry of Ishka Myatlev
The danger of salon language and affectation
Synthesis of folk-colloquial and book-Slavic elements in Pushkin’s language
Ex course
Pushkin and the Bible
Appendix 1 (to subchapter 02-5). Two transcriptions from Church Slavonic into Russian
Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian and the Lord's Prayer
Appendix 2 (to subchapter 02-5). “A clawed beast scratching the heart” - conscience
Nonverbal languages ​​as carriers
and sources of national and cultural information
Russian somatic language
Layer of somatic utterances in the Russian language
The same somatism can be expressed in different words
One and the same speech can denote different somatisms
Speech may reflect not the form, but the meaning of somatism
Somatisms are expressed by sayings of varying degrees of explication
Eidetic speech conveys the meaning of somatism completely
Universalization and phraseologization of somatic phrases and problems of linguistic and cultural semantization
Is language the home of being? Is being the home of language?
Generalization of the LFon concept
Lexical background: a priori views
Component analysis of the semantics of a house, a person’s home: calculating the background C Shares of seven lexemes (roof, wall, window, door, porch, threshold, corner)
Roof, roofing, (on) shelter
Wall (of home)
Window (at home)
Entrance to the home: door
Entrance to the home: threshold
Minimum space in the house: corner (not calculated)
Generalization of calculus procedures
Identification of background shares
Creating a list of Shares
Holistic analysis of the semantics of a house, a person’s home: calculation of background C Shares
Religious ideas about home, housing
House, dwelling as such
Traditional Russian dwelling
Housing in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. (SD not calculated)
Housing in Soviet Russia (1917-1991) (SD not calculated)
Housing in post-Soviet Russia
Lexical background: post hoc observations
Last time about word structure
Cumulative function of language
Individual and social aspects of the communication process
Monosemism of utterances in a communicative act
Two types of communication - pragmatic and metalinguistic
Compression of metalinguistic texts in the process of LFon formation
Genesis and initial affiliation of background S Shares
Social dynamics of LFon
The nature of being with Shares in individual consciousness
Exoteric and esoteric Shares
Section two. Aspect of dynamics: text as a carrier and source of national and cultural information
Text as a set of national-cultural speech-behavioral tactics
Opening remarks
Tort: justification and apology according to J. Austin
RPTactics: inductive description of the concept
The social nature of RP Tactics and the sayings that implement it
National and cultural features of RP Tactics
and the sayings that implement it
Moral-non-judgmental (secular) erasure of the tort
General information
A. Six speech-behavioral situations; demonstrative speeches
B. Metaphorical ideas about fault-tort
-1B. Non-verbal existence of RP-Tactics and its verbal implementations
D. Constructs and three-level distribution of RPTaktik
D. Perlocutionary effect and illocutionary goals
A set of tactics for self-awareness of guilt
A. Group RPTaktik direct plea of ​​guilty
B. Group RP Tactics for Tort Minimization
B. Group RP Tactics of tort aggravation
Set of RPTactics of forced confession of guilt
-BEHIND. RP Tactics Group of True Accusation
—ZB. Group RP Tactics of False Exposure
ZV. Group RP Taktik non-acceptance of accusations
Set of RPTactics of voluntary apology (not calculated)
Set of RPTactics of forced apology (not counted)
Total of RPTactics of accepted apology (not calculated)
Set of RPTactics of rejected apology (not counted)
A. Group RP Taktik communicant
B. Group RP Taktik communicant
Selecting a series of RP Tactics depending on the strategy
The moral and non-judgmental appearance of two communicants in the universal world
Moral assessment of apology and confrontation in the world with a spiritual dominant
Excursion
The doctrine of the numinous in religion and ideology (R. Otto)
Excursion
The doctrine of the correlation of religion and ideology (P. Tillich)
Smoothing out the tort from the position of gentle ethics
Tactics in the repentant discipline of the Church and in the educational work of the Party
Calculus of confessional and educational RPTactics
Precepts and Prohibitions in the Ethics of Temperance
Righteous Status
Smoothing out the tort from a position of strict ethics
The triad of ethical assessments and the ideal of holiness
RPTactics obtained by Prolog analysis
RPTactics obtained by analyzing the charters of teachers
RPTactics obtained by historical analysis of one semantic-behavioral paradigm: èXeyxeiv u expose
Ideologically motivated strict ethics
Linguistic and regional archeology: calculus RP Tactics of the waiting list
Dictionary and everyday definitions of outline
Strategies in the behavior of the masses of queues
RP Tactics of behavior among the masses
RPTactics of individual behavior
Sample discourse in queue
Collisions in the queue
Dynamic calculation of RPTaktik: unfinished changes in the attitude of Russians to money
Two illustrative examples and problem statement
RPTaktik group “Money is (not) everything in our world”
Further examples of the RPTactic calculus
A call for frankness (based on Russian culture)
RP Tactics of calling for frankness: an attempt to penetrate into the idiom of speech behavior in a contrasting way
A. Illustrative examples and problem statement
B. Analysis of the concept of “frankness”
B. The super-task “call for frankness” and the RP-Tactics that implement it
D. Pragmatic characteristics of the “call to frankness”
The place of super-tasks, RP-Tactics and replicas in the dialogue structure
Mutual hierarchical position of secret and confidential
The most typical communicative situations of software implementation
Ultimate goals of the software
D. RPTactics of calling for frankness: language material
Elementary TVET
Reducing and specifying TPOs
Gentle (or soothing) TPO
Severe (or threatening) SST
E. Some results of contrast analysis
Pessimistic warnings and forecasts
Threat
Concluding remarks
Appendix 1 (superchapter 04-4). Calculus RPTactics of the troparia of the ancient canon
St. Demetrius of Solunsky
Appendix 2 (to Chapter 5). “They overshadowed themselves with a hidden cross”: RP Tactics of Soviet Orthodox crypto-Christians
Appendix 3 (to seam 6). “We are not shy in expressions”: Russian swearing and the culture of the lower classes
P. Narrative text in linguistic and cultural considerations
Pragmatic and projective texts
Pragmatic text
Projective text
About subtext and context
About subtext and subtext
About the plot and design
Linguistic and regional commentary
The first type of linguistic and cultural commentary: pragmatic
The second type of linguistic and cultural commentary: projective with a focus on context
The third type of linguistic and cultural commentary: projective with a focus on the underlying text
Linguistic and regional reading: pragmatic and projective texts in conjunction
Linguistic and regional studies of works of art
What is an obligatory work of art?
A guiding method for the linguistic and cultural development of works of art
The first technique of the guiding method: isolating the main meaning of an artistic image
The second technique of the guiding method: attaching projective indicators to the main meaning
The third technique of the guiding method: tuning into the main meaning
The fourth technique of the guiding method: strengthening projective indicators
Once again about the role of philology in linguistic and regional studies
Literary text: analysis by calculus RPTaktik
Calculus of abstinent (abstinative) speech-behavioral tactics
in the story by A. S. Pushkin “The Station Warden”
Discord of interpretations
Literary reconstruction of the history of the story
Clarification of the author's intention
Analysis of the speech behavior of six characters in the story
Brief Reintroduction of the Concept of Speech Behavioral Tactics
RPTactics of Samson Vyrin
Excursion
How much did the captain want to pay off?
Excursion
Samson Vyrin or, perhaps, Simeon
RPTactics of Captain Minsky
RPTactics of a German healer
RPTactics of the intoxicated coachman
RPTactics of the “brewer’s wife”
RPTactics of the “red-haired and crooked” Vanka
Textsorte parable; abstinent (abstinative) RP Tactics
Genre characteristics of a parable
The concept of abstinative (abstinent) RP Tactics
Excursion
Why didn't Silvio want to shoot?
Speech-behavioral paradigm in the Parable of the Prodigal Son
Abstinative RPTactics of Avdotya Samsonovna and their meaning
Life (non)success as an incentive to repentance
Excursion
Pushkin's extract from the Life of John Kushchnik
The timing of repentance as a behavioral paradigm in the Parable of the Prodigal Son
Pushkin as a proponent of New Testament ethics
Abstinative tactics of Avdotya Samsonovna, not associated with the Parable of the Prodigal Son
The parable of the prodigal son appended to Pushkin himself
Concluding remarks
Singular speech-behavioral tactics in the poetic story “Fedya Kosopuz” by B. Sadovsky
Analysis of the poetic story by B. Sadovsky “Fedya Kosopuz” and definition of basic terms
What others noticed in Fedya’s gaze
Definition of a nest of terms with the reference word singular
What others noticed when Fedya spoke and acted
What did others notice when Fedya did not say anything or do anything?
Violations of behavioral norms as a stimulus and content of singular speech
Syllogism as the logical nature of singular speech
Revealing causality as the ultimate goal of singular utterances
Excursion
Evidence of an Old Testament proverb
Contradictory assessments of behavioral norms
Calculus of singular speech-behavioral tactics
Artistic text
in a comprehensive linguistic and regional study
“Borodino” by M. Yu. Lermontov in linguistic and cultural considerations
“On the Kulikovo Field” by A. A. Blok in linguistic and cultural considerations
"Matrenin's Dvor" by A. I. Solzhenitsyn in a linguistic and regional study
The problem of the national ideal
The problem of national self-criticism
Maybe, maybe somehow
"High percentage of success"
third. Synthesis of statics and dynamics: speculation of sapientema
Preliminary approaches to the concept of sapientema
First preliminary approach: Cogito, erçjosapienteme est
Ol
From intuition to discourse: about the method of presentation
Propaedeutic demonstration of intuition about sapientema
Cosmogonic nominations Life
Second preliminary approach: latency of speech production as evidence of its nonverbality
Clarification of terminology
Analyzing grammar
Synthesis grammar
Creation grammar
Speech production modeling
Latent process of speech production: conscious mechanisms
Latent process of speech production: unconscious mechanisms
Third preliminary approach: unethical, ethical and super-ethical behavior
First observation: home is good, but wandering is blissful
Post-strophe analysis of the poem by I. A. Bunin
The phenomenon of wandering in L. N. Tolstoy’s story “Father Sergius”
The phenomenon of homelessness in the Gospel
The presupposition “home is good” against the background of the New Testament commandment of pilgrimage
Old Testament predications about the value of a house
Blzhsni nzgnan truth rddi
Second observation: “Do not mop mountains to abandon your teaching.”
I. Kant and John Chrysostom on the division of gentle and strict ethics
An example of compassionate ethics
Following confession in the old printed Potrebnik
Ethics of inaction (abstinence) in Ps.
Examples of strict ethics in St. Scriptures
Examples of strict ethics in the Slavic-Russian Prologue
A Brief History of Prolog
From the Life of St. Mary, who offered herself to Marin
From the Life of St. John, named Barsanuphius
From the Life of St. Nikon of Sinai, who allegedly fornicated with the daughter of a certain “Pharaonite”
Word from the patericon: the offended person apologizes to the offender
Appendix 1 (kpodsvkeOZ-4). Questioning of the Consumer as a mirror of morals in Rus' in the mid-17th century
P. Reception of Plato’s speculation about ideas and their innateness
Reception of Plato's concept of idea
Once again about the method of presentation: guidance on internal experiential knowledge
gnoramus et ignorabimus or ignoramus, sed non ignorabimus?
Plato's doctrine of ideas: analysis of two interpretations
The idea of ​​a horse, equestrianism
Plato's teaching is more harmful than good
Parable of the Prisoners of the Cave
The ideas of hair, dirt, litter have no existence
Reception of Plato's doctrine of the innateness of ideas
To know is to remember
Calculation of the shares of an idea (taking into account its innateness)
Definition of an idea through equivalence
Ontological attributes of an idea
Idea - concept - “thing”
Genetic attributes of an idea
ntra te quaere Deum!
Static and dynamic ideas
The essence of the sapientema phenomenon
Sapientema “housing is (a) good”: speculation on a synergetic essence
Three illustrative examples
Homeless people
Homeless Job
Homeless Vladimir Dubrovsky
Sapientema - copulation of ideas
Water, bread, robe and home
Home as a refuge from outside invasion
Naf-Jaf "built a house of stones"
“...killed in the hallways of their own houses”
Stronghold of stone, house of refuge
Privacy behind closed doors
Housing as a shelter from bad weather and a place to sleep
Terrors of Thunder and Lightning
Wooden connection in the house, foundation
“Sleep is ochima, dozing at home”
Sapientema - a program for developing a priori meanings
With Shares and RPTactics of the topic of safe haven
What did G.S. Skovoroda see as a blessing in life?
The reference group on whose behalf the wandering philosopher spoke
Speculative, practical and “verbal” life
Relativism of the abstract and the concrete
With Shares and RPTactics of the topic of durable shelter
Lingvosatenthema - a program for developing a posteriori meanings
Gable and flat roof
For various reasons, the house-dwelling has a number of nominations
Everyone has an idea of ​​what a typical house design is
A guest who comes to the house is usually offered a meal.
You can take possession of a house-dwelling in different ways: build, buy, inherit, receive as a dowry, receive from the state, exchange
Owning your own home is highly valued
Availability of housing is a condition for family well-being
The house needs constant efforts to maintain; otherwise it is destroyed
The house allows for multiple uses: for family living, investing money, generating income
The role of the head of the house is highly valued
The role of the wife and mistress of the house is highly valued
A well-off home must be provided with water and food supplies
A prosperous home is a prosperous one
Children, children, where are you going, children?
Home - (only) for “our own”, not for “strangers”
Metaphorical (extensive) use of the concept of home
The house has rooms for physiological functions
Sapientema as a program of threefold ethical assessments
Once again about ethical, unethical and super-ethical
Supplies in the house - living conditions
Voluntary death as super-ethical behavior
Double ethical assessment
Who is my neighbor?
Conscience as a natural law
Threefold ethical assessment
“Beauty is a terrible, terrible thing!”
Ten final theses about sapientema
Conclusion
Literature
Afterword (Yu. S. Stepanov)

V. G. Kostomarov

Linguistic taste of the era

© Kostomarov V. G. (text), 1999

© Zlatoust Center LLC, 1999

* * *

The author sincerely thanks O. Veldina, M. Gorbanevsky, I. Ryzhova, S. Ermolenko and L. Pustovit, I. Erdei, F. van Doren, M. Peter, R. N. Popov and N. N. Shansky, N. D. Burvikov, who published reviews of the first and second editions of the book, N. A. Lyubimov, S. G. Ilyenko, V. M. Mokienko and other colleagues who organized its public discussion in St. Petersburg, as well as Yu. A. Belchikov , N. I. Formanovskaya, O. D. Mitrofanov, O. A. Laptev, O. B. Sirotinin, N. P. Kolesnikov, L. K. Graudin, T. L. Kozlovskaya and many others, who conveyed their opinions and comments personally to the author. Heartfelt gratitude to A. M. Demin, V. A. Sekletov, T. G. Volkova and all friends at the A. S. Pushkin Institute of Russian Language.

The comments and suggestions made, if possible, have been taken into account, the factual material has been updated, but in general this is a re-edition, and not a new work. It does not take into account the fundamental research topics that appeared after 1994, such as “The Russian Language of the End of the 20th Century (1985–1995)” edited by E. A. Zemskaya (M., 1996) or “Russian Language” edited by E. N. Shiryaeva (Opole, 1997). The justification can be that the most important ideas for the author (the concept of taste as a socio-psychological factor in the evolution of language, the relationship between colloquialism and bookishness in it, the role of mass media, etc.) remain relevant and have not yet been developed.

The following abbreviations are used in the book:

AiF – Arguments and facts

BV – Stock Statements

VM – Evening Moscow

VYa – Questions of linguistics

VKR – Issues of speech culture

Izv. – Izvestia

KP – Komsomolskaya Pravda

LG – Literary newspaper

MN – Moscow News

MK – Moskovsky Komsomolets

MP – Moskovskaya Pravda

NG – Nezavisimaya Gazeta

OG – General Newspaper

Etc. - Is it true

RV – Russian news

RG – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

RR – Russian speech

RYA – Russian language in national school (Russian language in the USSR, Russian language in the CIS)

RYAZR – Russian language abroad

RYAS – Russian language at school

SK – Soviet culture

FI – Financial News

Emergency – Private property

Note. Unless otherwise specified in the text, the following order of source indication is accepted. When the name or its abbreviation is given after the comma, the year and number (without the No. sign) are given, as well as, when necessary, the page (after s.). In many cases, the date of the daily newspaper is given, with the first digit indicating the day, the second the month, and the third the last two digits of the year.

Introduction: problem statement

0.1. The most general characteristic of living processes observed in the Russian literary language of our days cannot but be recognized as democratization - in the understanding of it, which is substantiated in the monograph by V. K. Zhuravlev “Interaction of external and internal factors in the development of language” (M., Nauka, 1982; him. Current problems of modern linguodidactics. In the collection: "Linguistic and methodological problems of teaching Russian as a non-native language. Current problems of teaching communication". M., 1989). The areas of literary communication that are most clearly democratizing are mass communication, including the written language of periodicals.

However, the term liberalization is more accurate to characterize these very rapidly unfolding processes, because they affect not only folk layers of the national Russian language, but also educated, which turned out to be alien to the literary canon of recent decades. In general, the literary and linguistic norm becomes less defined and binding; the literary standard becomes less standard.

To a certain extent, the situation of the 20s is repeated, when post-revolutionary rosy optimism gave rise to the desire to deeply transform not only the social system and economic structure, but also culture, but also the literary language canon. Of course, contemporaries assessed what was happening very differently (see: L. I. Skvortsov. About the language of the first years of October. RR, 1987, 5; cf. S. O. Kartsevsky. Language, war and revolution. Berlin, 1923; A. M Selishchev, The Language of the Revolutionary Epoch, M., 1928). This social situation is in good agreement with the ideas of A. A. Shakhmatov about expanding the boundaries of the literary language, and this is exactly how representatives, as S. I. Ozhegov put it, thought and acted. new Soviet intelligentsia. Methodists, in particular, argued that the traditional subject native language in a Russian school there is essentially the study of a foreign language, which requires “expanding the study of the standard language... to study the dialects with which our standard language is surrounded, from which it feeds” (M. Solonino. On the study of the language of the revolutionary era. “Russian language in the Soviet school ", 1929, 4, p. 47).

The “old intelligentsia,” mostly in exile, stood for the inviolability of the literary language, indignant at its flood with dialectisms, jargon, foreign language, even changes in spelling rules, especially the expulsion of the letter yat. This diametrically opposed approach also won within the country, emerging in the 30s and certainly triumphing in the 40s. The 1934 discussion associated with the authority of M. Gorky outlined the path to the mass cultivation of speech, demanding write in Russian, not in Vyatka, not in robes. Conscious proletarian language policy was held under the slogan of overcoming multilingualism, primarily peasant - a single national language for all workers. Linguistic variability was also constrained in the literary language itself.

Due to these, necessarily schematically and simplified, historical events, as well as a number of subsequent ones, we came to the 50s with a very ossified and strictly enforced literary norm, which fully corresponded to the socio-political situation of a totalitarian state. By the end of the first post-war decade, free-thinking writers began to fight against it, both in practice and theoretically, and K. I. Chukovsky was in the forefront of them. The return to living orientations was, however, painful. Russia as a whole turned out to be more inclined to be conservative than to be innovative.

Will history repeat itself? Now our society, without a doubt, has embarked on the path of expanding the boundaries of the literary language, changing its composition, its norms. Moreover, the normal pace of linguistic dynamics is sharply increased, which creates an undesirable gap in the continuity of traditions and the integrity of culture. Even being quickly suspended, such processes of the 20s - with their creative focus on language liberalization - left significant traces in our educated communication. And already now voices are heard louder and louder, expressing fears about the state of the Russian literary language, to which following the path of expanding literary and linguistic boundaries leads.

Even those who welcome triumphant liberalism, to whom it seems completely justified against the backdrop of society’s departure from inert authoritarian unanimity towards freedom, will, and diversity, protest against the recklessness of this process, against the extremes in the desired course of events. Agreeing with A.S. Pushkin’s call to give the Russian language “more freedom so that it develops in accordance with its own laws,” they do not want to calmly put up with negligence, looseness in the use of language, and permissiveness in the choice of means of expression. But in these phenomena they do not see the inevitable consequences of the justified attitude, but only individual, albeit frequent to the point of mass manifestations of the low cultural level of the population, elementary ignorance of the norms of literary language and the laws of style.

Undoubtedly, this also takes place, aggravating the results of the conscious actions of completely literate and cultured people who are well aware of the norms and laws of style. This is evidenced by the following experimental data: Moscow schoolchildren do without them in 80% of speech situations requiring the use of speech etiquette formulas; about 50% of boys address each other by nicknames, more than half of which are offensive; cliches that do not convey the sincerity of feelings are used by about 60% of students when congratulating parents, teachers, and friends. The author of these calculations believes that it is increasingly necessary to specifically teach children at school the accepted rules of communication (N.A. Khalezova. On the possibilities of working on speech etiquette when studying grammatical material. RYAS, 1992, 1, p. 23).

It is significant that there is now an obvious decline in the level of artistic taste; for example, according to a sociological study, only 15 percent of children with developed artistic taste are now graduating from city schools, whereas in the early 80s there were about 50 percent; in rural schools, 6 and 43%, respectively. The population's preferences focus mainly on foreign layers of art, with chamber plots dedicated to love, family, sex, adventure, as well as lightweight music, detective films of dubious quality, being especially popular. (Yu. U. Fokht-Babushkin. Artistic culture: problems of study and management. M.: Nauka, 1986; his same. Artistic life of Russia. Report to RAO, 1995.)