The Image of Russian Business through Linguistic Stereotypical Means
Abstract
This article deals with the peculiarities of written representation of Russian business in English-language print media. Full-text articles from “The Economist”, published between 2008 and 2014, were selected to analyze the semantics of words and word combinations that imply a Russian business reality. All units were classified according to topic-relation and language sources of stereotypes. The findings showed that the topic-related stereotypes focus on representation of people in three areas – government, business, and realia. As for the linguistic perspective, figurative means are the basic sources for stereotypes, with the emphasis on similes and metaphors of people. Reference sources for figurative means and morphologic means are business-related. Though negative linguistic stereotypes prevail, there are rare positive stereotypes, expressed through syntax. Thus, linguistic stereotypical means help to create the image of Russian business in simplified categories and underlined contrasts: stereotypical lexical units of well-being are combined with characteristics of a poorly-kept country. The intercultural implication of the study is the necessity of enhanced awareness of stereotyping potential of media language.
Full text article
References
Aitchison, J., Lewis, D.M. (Eds.). (2003). New media language. London: Routledge.
Anikina, M.Ye. (2007). Typology of periodic press. [in Russian] Tipologiya periodicheskoy pechati. Moscow: Aspect Press.
Grushin, B.A. (1987). The mass mind: attempts on definition and research issues. [in Russian] Massovoe soznanie: opyt opredeleniya i probleym issledovaniya. Moscow: Politizdat.
Human factor in language. Communication, modality, deixis. (1992). Ed. by N.D. Arutiunova, T.V. Bulygina. [in Russian] Chelovecheskiy factor v yazyke. Kommunikatsiya, modal’nost’, deiksis. Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Investopedia ( 2010, March 20). Kremlinomics. Retrieved March 27, 2014 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/kremlinomics.asp
Kostareva, Ye. V. (2004). Conceptual domain of evaluation in professional texts: sphere of economy. Ph.D. Thesis (Linguistics). [in Russian] Kontsptual’noe pole otsenki v professional’nyh tekstah: sfera ekonomiki. Perm.
Language of mass media as an object of interdisciplinary studies (2003). Ed. by M.N. Volodina. [in Russian] Yazyk sredstv massovoy informatsii kak objekt mezhdistsiplinarnogo izucheniya. Moscow: Moscow State University.
Lämsä, A.-M., Tiensu, T. (2002). Representation of the women leader in Finnish business media articles. Business Ethics: A European Review, 11(4), 363-374.
Macrae, C.N., Stangor, C., Hewstone, M. (1996). Stereotypes and stereotyping. New York: Guilford Press.
Nachbar, J., Lause, K. (1992). Popular Culture: An Introductory Text. Popular Press.
Puffer, S.M., McCarthy, D.J. (2001). Navigating the hostile maze: a framework for Russian entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Perspectives, 15(4), 24-36.
Rawlinson, P. (1998). Mafia, media and myth: representation of Russian organised crime. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(4), 346-358.
Seiter, E. (1986). Stereotypes and the media: a re-evaluation. Journal of communication, 36(2), 14-26.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1984). Prejudice in discourse. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Benjamins.
Volodina, L.V., Karpukhina, O.K. (2002). Business communication and fundamentals of communication theory. [in Russian] Delovoe obschenie i osnovy teorii kommunikatsii. Saint-Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg University of Telecommunications.
Vygotsky, L.S. (2002). Psychology. [in Russian] Psihologiya. Moscow: EKSMO-Press.
Wigboldus, D., Douglas, K. (2007). Language, stereotypes, and intergroup relationships. In K. Fiedler (Ed.) Social communication (pp. 79-106). New York: Psychology Press.
Authors
Copyright (c) 2015 Tatiana M. Permyakova
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides immediate and free open access to all its content and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as proper attribution is given. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.