The West, Russia and we as fragments of the linguistic worldview
J. Sipko
University of Presov, Presov, 08001 Slovakia
E-mail: jozef.sipko@unipo.sk
Received May 16, 2017
Abstract
This paper analyzes the relations between Russia and the West in the post-Soviet era. The material for analysis was taken from Russian and Slovak newspapers and magazines. The attention was paid to the print media that evaluate the West and Russia in relation to each other. The results obtained during the above-mentioned analysis allowed to create a specific linguistic view of the Russian–Western relations, which are basically subjective. It was highlighted that the relations between the West and Russia have been negative most of the time, which is mainly due to the fact that the Western Europe has always been in a position of dominance in relation to other countries, including Russia and other Slavic nations.
Besides the historical factors, the evaluation is very much influenced by the political interests, mainly those of the USA and their allies. The present antagonistic positions of the West and Russia were introduced through a wide range of up-to-date examples. This antagonistic position increases the phobia of Russia presented in several Slovak print media today that hold to the pro-western point of view.
The above-mentioned phobia of Russia can acquire extreme forms in certain articles, for example those covering the tragedy of the Alexandrov Ensemble aboard the Russian plane. Such articles, thus, show dozens of examples proving that the freedom of speech is misused, which finally takes the forms of hate and provokes the ethnic phobia in the studied area.
Keywords: Russia, West, Slovakia, linguistic worldview, evaluation units, historical aspect, present-day context, forms of hate, phobia of Russia, freedom of speech
References
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- Vorob'ev V.V. Linguoculturology (Theory and Methods). Moscow, Izd. Ross. Univ. Druzhby Nar., 1997. 331 p. (In Russian)
For citation: Sipko J. The West, Russia and we as fragments of the linguistic worldview. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 5, pp. 1214–1230. (In Russian)
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