Linguistic Representation of Russian Civilization

Abstract

Vladimir Leksin — Leading Research Fellow, Institute for Systems Analysis of the RAS. Address: 9, Prospect 60-Letiya Octyabrya, Moscow, 117312, Russian Federation. E-mail: leksinvn@yandex.ru.

This article focuses on the linguistic representation of civilizations and particularly the role languages play in their crystallization and persistence. Although direct and inverse relationships between language structures and the development of community have long been established by linguists and philologists, they are often disregarded by historians, ethnologists, and other social scientists studying ancient and modern civilizations. In this article, we show why Russian civilization cannot be conceived without such essential components as the Russian mindset, its particular worldview, and language axiomatics.
As nation-specific symbolic representation of knowledge about the surrounding world, linguistic mentality forms archetypical word-images of the Russian world and, at the same time, becomes a separate independent feature of both an individual, ethnic group and/or civilization.
In this article, we particularly focus on the underlying reasons the Church Slavonic language spread among Russian peasantry and its further transformation into a predominantly sacred language, used in prayers and liturgical practices of numerous Orthodox Russians today. We also show that the emergence of so-called ‘anglicisms’ (the use of English terms in everyday Russian language) is reinforced by the new system of market relationships and economic institutions, as well as intense development of communication technologies (particularly, the Internet), which imply the adoption of new terms.
Finally, we explore the coexistence of the Russian language alongside dozens of other official languages adopted in several Russian regions. Particularly, we pay attention to the fact that the use of Russian language is rapidly decreasing, due to internal and external factors (i.e. deteriorating demographic situation, inconsistent education policies, the impoverishment of Russian everyday lexics, etc).