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CHINESE PAROEMIAS IN MASS MEDIA OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST: COGNITIVE AND PRAGMATIC ASPECTS // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2018. Issue 8 (197). P. 21-27

The article deals with the analysis of Chinese proverbs and sayings found in the periodicals of the Russian Far East. Geopolitical location of the Russian Far East and recent growth of trans-border contacts with neighboring Asian countries make considerable influence on people’s minds and people’s perception of life. This makes the research timely and appropriate. Methodology of the research is based on the interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of ethnic proverbs and sayings which circulate in a different culture or a different language. The authors provide cross-cultural analysis of Chinese proverbs and the ways of their presentation in the Russian mass media. The pragmatics of citation of a Chinese proverb/saying in the Russian discourse proved to be determined by intelligibility of the proverb/saying to Russian readers. In some cases authentic ethnic imagery of the Chinese proverb/saying is pragmatically preserved. It makes reference to the wisdom of the Chinese ancient civilization more evident, and serves as an effective way of reasoning in a newspaper article. Special attention is drawn to cultural factors influencing the form and the semantics of Chinese proverbs in the Russian discourse. Parables and myths which stand behind almost all Chinese proverbs and sayings are lost in the Russian discourse, and Chinese proverbs are sometimes substituted with a Russian analogue. The authors of the article describe functions and pragmatics of Chinese proverb usage in a new cultural environment. In mass media of the Russian Far East Chinese proverbs realize a wide range of functions, among which the most relevant are informative, argumentative, phatic and appellative functions. Implementation of the above mentioned functions depends on cross-cultural pragmatics.

Keywords: Chinese proverbs, functional paremiology, pragmatics of proverbs and sayings, mass media discourse, cross-cultural studies