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Scientific Newsletter of Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

UDC 821.521

Professor at Department of Japanese, Korean, Mongolian and Indonesian Languages of Moscow State University of International Relations of the Ministry of FA of RF

PhD in Linguistic Sciences

PhD in History of Culture and Philology Sciences

Tatyana Michailovna Gurevich e-mail: tmgur@mail.ru

T.M. Gurevich

DIALOGUE OF CULTURES AT A FOREIGN-LANGUAGE

LESSON

The article discusses some of the issues of intercultural communication that the students can face while studying foreign languages, as follows: language is a cultural phenomenon; peculiarities of national concepts in language and culture; indirect communication in intercultural contact. The author concludes that a necessary condition for a successful cross-cultural communication is the ability to think “out of the box” and go beyond the ordinary way of thinking that prevails in monoculture society.

Key words: language, culture, cultural concepts, national mentality, vocabulary, grammar, context, indirect communication.

Dialect is as much the fact of culture as Kazan Cathedral, Perfect verbal form

is as much the fact of culture as matrjoshka.

Ye. I. Passov.

Language and culture are the key concepts for a teacher of any language, either native or foreign. Awareness of this fact becomes a constant feeling of a person teaching Oriental language. Whatever aspect the lesson is devoted to, the teacher of Oriental language, namely, Japanese, constantly regards himself as intermediary in the dialogue of cultures.

The dialogue of cultures should be prepared by the awareness of the word “culture”.

First of all, it is important to pay attention to the difference in etymology and, consequently, on the difference of perception of the world “culture” in the European languages and the languages oriented to the hieroglyphic culture of China. The word “bunka” that is translated into the European languages as culture (Latin: cultura, literally "cultivation"), is written by the following hieroglyphs:

•- «characters, pattern» and

•- «changes, transformations».

It is not without reason that comparatively not so long time ago both Chinese and Japanese linguists regarded only written text, not oral language, an element of culture deserving attention. Up to the middle of the ХIХ century the Japanese took no special interest in grammar.

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© Gurevich T.M., 2016

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Teaching the native language came to teaching writing, i.e. teaching hieroglyphic and standard phrases, typical for written language. Only after the World War II in this country, because of historically conditioned necessity, the interests of the teachers of language and later of scientists were focused on spoken language and to different types of discourse. A popular advertizing motto of schools and courses of foreign language in Japan “We teach not the language, but communication!” is of special attention. Naturally, the question arises among foreigners: how is it possible to communicate, how can we find common language with Japanese, claiming that “culture is refusal from exact utterances” [1, с. 205]?

Europeans studying Oriental languages are faced with the problem of staying outside the framework of the Oriental cultural tradition. And there is good reason why a foreigner is called

laowai––“an old alien” in China, and

( ) gaijin (gaikokujin) ––“an alien” in Japan.

It is important to underline at this point a distinctive feature of Japanese, as well as of many other Oriental peoples, manifested not only in their contacts among themselves but also in their relationships with other nations––namely, their behavior within the “us/them”, “native/alien” paradigm. While the English and some other Western languages are using articles to classify all notions on the grounds of “definiteness-indefiniteness”, a determining feature of the Japanese linguistic view of the world is a tendency to expand the perception of reality, this expansion involving not only three-dimensional parameters. Universal opposition of “us/them”, “native/alien” present in the collective consciousness of any ethnos, is expressly manifested in the Japanese language, thereby shaping the perception of the environment. Interestingly, the strongest desire to distance oneself from an outsider is mingled in the Japanese mentality with the ability to search for and assimilate new knowledge, which indicates a high level of tolerance inherent in the Japanese culture.

We have been using linguistic material to draw our students’ attention to the fact that the Japanese society readily accepts the existence of two different behavioral standards in and outside the group, in other words, moral codes governing the attitude to fellow countrymen and to aliens. Embarrassment is quite a typical feature of the Japanese culture. Japanese morality is not based on personal conscience, because it does not acknowledge the individual’s freedom and personal choice as moral values. Their morals are based on the culture of shame and corporate obligations. According to the author of numerous socio-political studies T. Sakaiya, speaking about her countrymen, the Japanese understanding of equity “is also of a relative nature. They change their criteria of ethics calmly and in the shortest time” [4].

A culturological approach is based on the study of a language within the cultural context of its origin, as an element of culture, with a special emphasis on its integral unity with various cultural phenomena specific to people who speak that language [1]. The work of Yo. Morita [2], contains and interesting finding after ”world view” in the literal sense of the word. The author claims that the Japanese percept the world like a snake, creeping on the ground and seeing all in her eye shot – leaves and trees, mountain and stones, water and sea, while the Europeans see (or try to see) everything from above and all at once, as birds do. The Japanese linguist calls these different ways of world perception as:

hjebi no sitjen «the viewpoint of snake» and

tori no sitjen « the viewpoint of bird».

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Scientific Newsletter of Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

This detailed or rather “partitioned” world view of Japanese is also reflected in the vocabulary, firstly in the certain scarcity of abstract notions naming and grammar, for example, on using transitive and intransitive verbs.

On the Japanese language classes it is necessary to pay student`s attention on specific features of the Japanese world perception and typical features of national mentality that are reflected not only in vocabulary and phraseology, but also in grammar, on the stage of introduction the new material. For development of the skills of constructive dialogue it is worth informing students with the similar moments in the mentality of the Russian and Japanese people [3]. We are all tend to consider all happening around us as set of events, that man`s mind can`t perceive. Such tendency of world perception provides wealth and variety of impersonal constructions in language. The structure of the Japanese language has the features of impersonality and indefiniteness, offering the situation when not the subject acts, but, on the contrary, something is done upon the subject without his (her) will.

It is thought that people perceive the world from the “viewpoint of bird”, so man in the English language) acts and is responsible for the action he does ((“I” in English is written with capital letter). Action (and, consequently, responsibility) naturally seems impersonal both in the Japanese and Russian languages. Individual disappears in unspecified power: in nature, poems, group. Both the Japanese the Russian languages hide man as an active doer behind the passive and active constructions, that is why the phrase “mne ne spitsja” (I don`t feel like sleeping) or “obnaruzhilas' propazha vydelennyh sredstv” (the lack of funds has been revealed) don` need subject or any explanations of grammar. The roots of this syntactic preference of these languages are in national culture, collective, common mentality, in desire not to represent yourself as an active individual, that among other things, relieves personal responsibility of all happening.

No wonder that meaningful linguistic fields of the Europeans, living in practically common informative space for many centuries are quite close to each other [4]. It is well known that meanings are often transformed and sometimes their connotation and meaningful fields change not only on borrowing but also when two kindred languages have paronymous words. It is interesting to note that Polish uroda means “beauty”, Slovenian pozor mans “attention”.

When speaking about translation much attention is usually paid to questions of phraseology and culture-specific vocabulary. On working with Oriental languages these problems usually become less relevant. Both on teaching translation and developing the conversational skills one should pay special attention not as mush to the culture-specific vocabulary, that is naturally arrests students` attention, as to the common vocabulary that doesn`t need special explanations, but that can often be interpreted differently in the country of the studied language.

Mutual understanding can only be attained on condition that a student gets to know not only the meaning of various “language signs” (graphics/phonetics, grammar, vocabulary) and the rules which allow us to combine these meanings, but also grasps the specifics of the linguistic worldview of people who speak that tongue.

Many interesting conclusions, which would help better understand your partner during a business meeting and anticipate his reaction to this or that proposal, can be made if you get to know better what and how is associated with the words good VS bad, happiness VS sorrow and with a lot of other such allegedly “easily understood” words which are among the basic concepts of a cultural tradition to which your partners belong.

Usually students find difficulty in replying the question how and to what extend do the

Japanese people understand the meaning of the expression: “total equality” in hierarchically conditioned society implying the priority of social status, age and longevity and if its Japanese equivalent correspond to the European idea of equality. Sometimes difficulties concern the choice of the Japanese word for adequate translation of such concepts as GOOD and

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EVIL. The opposition dzjen aku – «good evil »,, naturally, exists in the Japanese language, but traditionally every element of this opposition is understood by the native speakers as the form of realization of nature and is interpreted exclusively as something relative, real for definite person in a definite moment under definite circumstances. In this case, as well as in many other similar cases the notions of an alien culture received in the result of translation are interpreted within our own cultural senses.

In the Japanese culture formed as a result of merging and synthesis of Shintoistic and Buddhist religions traditions with Confucianism, many components which form, according to A. Wierzbicka [5], a set of concepts underlying the psychological unity of humankind, have meanings substantially different from European analogues. Despite the fact that the mode of life of contemporary generation has been influenced by new living standards and new communication conditions, the natives of Oriental countries continue to largely correlate their speech behavior with the provisions of the Confucian ethics and morals, thereby contributing to the relations harmonization, though only superficially.

Working with language material at our lessons we need to distance ourselves from both the criteria of the European culture and the self-reflection of cultural phenomena to be studied. By comparing, for example, linguistic material of Japanese and Russian we can identify the distinctive features of each cultural tradition. Specifically, analysis of such concepts as “LIFE”, “MAN”, “TIME” and a number of others in the Japanese linguistic world image will allow to identify specific attitude on the part of the Japanese to the concepts in question, which differ widely from what is common for both Russians and other Europeans [6].

Students show special interest in assimilating the basic cultural concepts underlying the language which they study, the concepts that differ from what they are used to in their native tongue. For the Japanese language they are not only well-advertized:

in nihondzin ron «the theory about the Japanese»12, and in native literature about Japan.

concepts amaje – «hope for understanding and courtesy from partner», jenrjo – «shyness»,

hadzi – «shame»,

va – «harmony, concord, unity»,

omoijari – «compassion, concern, care»,

giri – «justice, obligation, a debt of gratitude, decency», etc. but also verbal concepts.

To the last ones mentioned above belong:

vakarasjeru – «make somebody understand»,

musubu “tie, bind, conclude, join”,

itawaru –“pity, care for, be compassionate to”,

makaseru –“entrust to, entrust with, commit to another’s care” and others, reflecting the essential features of the Japanese culture.

It should be noted that practically all above-mentioned words may be termed as cul- ture-specific vocabulary.

12 nihondzin ron « the theory about the Japanese» - the theory about the unique nature of the Japanese nation that was widely spread in and outside Japan in the second part of the ХХ century.

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Scientific Newsletter of Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

In the culture of Japan Nature is not regarded as an external reality opposing human beings. The world emerges as a function of mental condition, which exists through experience and is perceived through experience. In Christianity, for example, the soul and body are traditionally opposed to each other on the reason that body is full of sins, vile and lustful, while the spirit or soul has always been regarded as something bright and high, carrying within itself a spark of the divine principle.

In the Japanese national tradition the soul and body have never been in opposition to each other, on the contrary, the two have always been one and existed in unity –– sinsin, literally, according to hieroglyphs, “soul-body”.

A human being’s body and spirit make one, are inseparable, which is confirmed by a certain “atomization” or “fragmentation” of a Japanese notion of a human soul. Japanese linguistic data indicate that the individual’s spiritual, emotional, and moral qualities and potential are not concentrated in one particular place but are rather scattered over different parts and organs of his body.

Specificity of perception of human in Japanese culture is reflected in the fact that in this language there are at least four words that have a meaning of "person", as there may be some other variants of translation depending on the context.

Cultural reasons, i.e. the reasons stemming from the basic concepts of a culture, underlie the lexical and phraseological specifics of a language, say, its vocabulary and phraseology derived from some kind of a productive element. A striking example is the multi-element core with hieroglyph ki, with a meaning of "primary life force permeating and forming the entire phenomenal world." Here are some of the most common elements of the core:

tjenki – «weather»

kisjo – «climate»

bjo:ki – «illness»

kimoti – «mood»,

ki ga cuku - «to pay attention»,

o-gjenki djesu ka – «how are you doing?» (literally: «primary life force is with you»).

Used at parting and usually translated as «take care », phrase ki o cukjetje, expressing the idea of preserving vitality, as well as the other examples above, seems to keep learners communicating in the frame of Japanese culture.

When dealing with the Japanese Among the moments that can be paid attention to, one can name a certain difficulty of perception of "numerical vocabulary" that is, the words which include the hieroglyph for the number. The Japanese language consciousness, being derived from "the standpoint of the snake", is drawn towards the specificity and the objectivity of thinking and seeks to organize the world through recalculation, while frequently using words in the internal form of which the number designation is held. In the Japanese language numerals (their hieroglyphic display) constitute about 2% of the words of the text, which is twice more than in the European languages. For example, the “numerological mentality” rooted exclusively in cultural specifics, has resulted in the expanded growth in the

Japanese, Chinese and other languages of the Far East of a lexical and phraseological word family of numerical adjectives. In the European languages, many equivalents of such words are usually more abstract concepts. For instance, instead of famous bandzaj "Long

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live!", "Glory!" "Hurrah!" (Literally. "Ten thousand years")13 such word and word combinations may be cited:

sjenrigan - "Clairvoyance" ( literally: «to see at a thousand ri"),

siki – "Seasons" (literally: "Four Seasons"),

dzju:nin dzju:iro – "How many people - so many opinions" (literally: "ten people - ten colors"),

sankokuiti – "The best / only one in the world" (literally: "One for three countries")14.

Cultural reasons also largely explain why the Japanese vocabulary abounds in words describing emotions and aesthetical experiences, while words denoting intellectual activity are comparatively few in number.

The world linguistic treasury abounds in words, word combinations and phraseology having emotional, evaluative or stylistic connotations rooted in the national-cultural context. The frame constraints of this report do not allow dwelling at length on the work with phraseology during the Oriental language classes, and I would only like to underline in this context that it is those phraseological units that serve as a highly expressive means of verbalizing fundamental cultural concepts [7].

When dealing with Oriental languages we continuously come up against situations when a choice of the required in this or that particular case grammatical means is dependent on factors which generally have no tangible influence on grammar in, say, Russian or in any other European language,––for example, gender or social (hierarchical or age-specific) characteristics of interlocutors. One can say that Western languages are used as a means of the information transfer,

The hardest thing is to teach our students that the dialogue in Japanese - it is not a means of self-expressing but a way to "please" the interlocutor, as well as that the most important concept often lays not in the essence of discussion, but in external formal rules of communication.

The most difficult moment in the practical development of the Oriental language is neither graphics nor volume of hieroglyphics or grammatical construction, but development of skills of an accurate immersion into the context. If "for the Japanese it is clear that true understanding can only be achieved through long observation" [1, p. 213], you can imagine how prepared for the current understanding of the conversation should a foreigner be , that is by definition gajdzin - «a man from aside». The most complicated aspect of mastering an Oriental language is not its graphics, amount of hieroglyphics or grammatical constructions, but rather the need to master the skill of an adequate use and evaluation of a context. Context, which determines the individual’s behavior towards other interlocutors and the meaning of his or her utterance, affect the choice of this or that grammatical or lexical means to formulate that utterance. As well as the right choice (in a current situation of communication) of one form of pronoun "I" out of the nineteen (!) words with this meaning is determined by the context. However, the Japanese often omit this pronoun, assuming that grammatical design is a more appropriate way of forming utterances.

Thus one of the most complicated problems involved in teaching Japanese is the need to take into account the fact that, within the framework of the Japanese culture formed in

13This exclamation, which in its time was compromised as a war cry of Japanese soldiers, has nothing in common with war. Words gain their meaning, according to the moments when they are used.

14Such a number of countries is due to ignorance of the Japanese, who in early days limited the whole world to Japan, China and India.

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Scientific Newsletter of Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

conditions of tercentenary isolation from external influences, the main meaning of an utterance is often conveyed not so much through verbalization as by means of the previously gained knowledge, situation appraisal, communication style and contextual prompts. A critical importance of context for understanding the Japanese mentality has always been a stumbling block on the way to establishing communication among Japanese and representatives of other cultures. The same reason is the main difficulty in translating Japanese literature texts.

Significantly, the analysis of utterances in Japanese indicates that it is important to consider not only what and how is said but also why (communicative intention) it has been put in this way in that particular situation––in other words, both oral speech and written text cannot be reduced to the means and ways of its formulation. This is the reason why we accept in this case as a learning unit the whole text rather than any particular grammatical or lexical-phraseological phenomenon. It is this approach that, for the purposes of practical teaching of Japanese as a foreign language, signifies a transition from training communication through language to teaching language through communication. It is this way Japanese specialists usually follow when traveling to different countries to teach their national language.

Various extra-linguistic factors, such as national-cultural context, situational specifics, and presupposition, without which communication cannot be successful, have increasingly become the focus of attention in the past few years. When an Oriental language is used in the intercourse, the employment of minimal linguistic means may often result in a maximal communicative effect. Such a result can be achieved through the impact of indirect communication [1].

A unique national type of indirect communication takes shape in any cultural tradition in the course of a nation’s historical development. By indirect communication we mean a “meaningfully complex” communication in which a full understanding of an utterance involves understanding the meanings not contained in the utterance itself. Achieving full understanding would require additional interpretative efforts on the part of the addressee, and it is often a wrong interpretation of the indirect communication signs that underlies communication failure.

Paralinguistics which examines various factors accompanying speech communication and participating in the information transfer, also deals with problems relating to indirect communication. The tools which are generally referred to as paralinguistic, can add to the utterance’s meaning a whole new range of overtones, right down to a sense which is antonymic to the one conveyed verbally. For example, not only a simple Russian word спасибо (thank you) can, depending on the intonational overtones, express an array of emotions–– from a deep gratitude to scornful indignation but also, for instance, a very widespread Japanese word tjotto – «a little bit» often nominates not quantity, but doubt, denial or disagreement with the position of the interlocutor. In this case we observe the impact of phonatory parameters, such as voice tone fluctuations, loudness, speech fluency and other characteristics of voice phonation. Intonation and various other phonatory parameters reflect not only the individual’s social dimensions, his/her frame of mind and posture, and social status but also his/her national identity. When we advice students to pay attention to the sound of voices "as a whole", and not only to the correct intonation and articulation, we quote the classics of the Japanese literature of the twentieth century, Junichiro Tanizaki: "When faced with the Europeans face to face, even only the volume of their voices suppresses physically

... "15. Intonation and other phonational characteristics reflect not only social class and social status, mood and physical condition of the person, but also his cultural level, degree of com-

15 Tanidzaki Dzjunitiro Ponemnogu o mnogom // sb. «Mat' Sigjemoto» - M.,1984, s. 271

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petence in the literary language , or (what is necessary to pay special attention to when studying the Japanese language!) dialect.

Communication success is largely dependent on the ability of participants in the intercourse to establish a rhythmical exchange of signals relating to the information transfer, reception and also reaction on this information. Gaze direction, nods, smiles, the movement of lips, eyebrows and other facial gestures usually serve as such signals. These kinesic means should also be classed as paralinguistic. They include, among others:

-communicative gestures, substituting in speech for verbal elements, e.g. gestures, inviting to come over, implying a request to go away, to keep quite etc.;

-modal gestures and mimics, indicating the speaker’s attitude towards and evaluation of various subjects and phenomena;

-gestures and mimics, indicating different feelings and emotions.

Traditions and distinctive features of a nation’s psycho-emotional makeup are reflected in the specifics of emotional expressions and the use of particular kinesic devices. Of course, for a correct dialogue with the Japanese students should be familiar with the peculiarities of their kinesics.

Even in the absence of an apprehended language barrier both language lacunae and the phenomenon of speaking skills “behind or without words” in a discourse [3], may become a major obstacle on the way to cross-cultural contacts and an adequate message comprehension, be it a written text or an oral statement. Those are also paralinguistic means, which we come across on a regular basis [8]. Both represent frequently encountered serious problems which should become a subject of a special report.

Obviously, the meaning and forms of realizing various notions which are regarded by researches as the key concepts of any culture, are disclosed through the prism of indirect communication.

The special emphasis at the foreign-language classes should be made both on the world image of a different culture and also on how the specifics of a cultural tradition native to students is understood by native speakers of the target language [9]. I believe that a due account of the issues set forth above will help make a foreign-language lesson a perfect place for establishing communication between cultures, and will facilitate the mastering of adequate verbal and behavioral reactions to a foreign-language message.

Bibliographic list

1.Sakaija T. Chto tako Japonija? – M., «Partner Ko Ltd» - 1992.

2.Morita Jo. Nihondzin no hasso, nihongo no hjogjen (Tip myshlenija japoncev, leksika i frazeologija japonskogo jazyka) – Tokio, Ivanami sinsjo, 1998 (na japonskom jazyke).

3.Gurevich T.M. Kul'turologicheskaja paradigma prepodavanija japonskogo jazyka //

Vestnik MGIMO Universiteta. 2012. № 2 (23). S. 208-212.

4.Strukova O.V., Fomina Z.E. Jetnokul'turnaja specifika renominacij nemeckih toponimov v raznyh arealah Rossii (na materiale nemeckih toponimov Samarskoj, Leningradskoj i Permskoj oblastej. /Z.E. Fomina // Nauchnyj vestnik Voronezh. gos. arh.- stroit. un-ta. Sovremennye lingvisticheskie i metodiko-didakticheskie issledovanija. – 2014.

–vyp. 1 (21). – S. 126-140.

5.Wierzbicka A. Understanding cultures through their key words. N.Y. - Oxford,

1997.

6.Fomina Z.E., Demidkina E.A. Abstraktno-filosofskie metafory «zhizni» v paradigme nemeckih i inojazychnyh aforizmov /Z.E. Fomina // Nauchnyj vestnik Voronezh. gos. arh.-stroit. un-ta. Sovremennye lingvisticheskie i metodiko-didakticheskie issledovanija. – 2008. – vyp. 1 (9). – S. 11-21.

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Scientific Newsletter of Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

7.Gurevich T.M. Bez poslovicy rech' ne molvitsja // Polveka v japonovedenii. Sb. statej i ocherkov. – M., Monogatari, - 2013, str. 103-119.

8.Gurevich T.M. Nacional'no-kul'turnaja obuslovlennost' neprjamoj kommunikacii // Vestnik MGIMO Universiteta. 2013. № 2 (29). S. 163-167.

9.Gurevich T.M. Japonskij jazyk. Strategija i taktika delovogo obshhenija. - M., VKN, - 2016. 272 s.

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UDC 130.1

Voronezh State University

of Architecture and Civil Engineering,

Doctor of Philology,

Professor, Head of the Foreign

Languages Department

Zinaida Yevgenjevna Fomina

e-mail: FominaSinaida@gmail.com

Z.Ye. Fomina

MAN, SPACE AND CULTURE IN THE MIRROR OF RUSSIAN PROVERBS

The article concerns with analysis of outer (adherent) and inner (inherent) space of man, being categorized by Russian paremies with special semantics. Ontological interconnection between the specific feature of linguistic categorization of man in the continuum of space and nationally specified code of the Russian culture is revealed. Dominant types of outer and inner space of man are singled out, specific features of its structuring are studied, cognitive vectors of movement explicating the ontology of space of man are determined. It is found out that global continuum of the space of man is defined by 8 subspaces: (human being, physiological, somatic, mental-and-voluntative, gerontological, theological and kosmological). Each of these subspaces, as a component of space of man is marked by symbolic cultural-and-specific and historical meanings (patterns), relevant to the Russian culture.

Key words: man, paremies, subspaces (human being, physiological, somatic, mental-and-voluntative and others), indefinite spaces, ethocultural meanings, space and precedent names, man`s space measuring, code of culture, patterns.

As is known, the proverbs of the world, characterized by their ubiquity and ability to penetrate into all spheres of human life, reflect both fundamental philosophical categories (time and space, being and consciousness, man and the universe, phenomenon and essence, etc.) and the most existentially important meaningful concepts (life, family, society, character and many others). At the same time, the above phenomena are variously presented in different cultures not only in the context of their linguistic, gnosiological, semiotic, cognitive, semantic and axiological interpretation, but, first of all, in the context of their ethnic-and- cultural conceptualization.

The study of proverbs allows us to define national and culturally substantiated priorities in the choice of the global philosophical, religious, cultural concepts used by different ethnic groups as metasymbols and as meta-language in order to reflect their world view. In the Russian proverbial picture of the world one of such priorities is the category "Space", which is confirmed by many studies. For example, an Austrian professor Heinrich Pfandl, comparing German and Russian proverbs with archesemes "space" and "time", concluded that in the Russian proverbs picture of the world proverbs with spatial semantics dominate mainly, while in the German linguistic picture of the world proverbs with episteme "time" play a dominant role [1].

The original thesis reads: "All around us is space." As follows from the results of the research conducted by us, in the global perspective space is represented in the Russian proverbial picture of the world in the form of the following TRIAD:

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© Fomina Z.Ye., 2016

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