UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN REALIA IN A. ROYER’S MEMOIRS “ENGLISH PRISONERS IN RUSSIA” AS AN OBJECT OF LINGUOIMAGOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

Purpose of this article is to consider the means of verbalizing the Russian realia in the memoirs by A. Royer “English Prisoners in Russia” in the linguoimagological aspect during the military events of 1853–1856 on the Crimean peninsula.

Methods. The research is based on the general scientific methods of synthesis, analysis, selection and systematization of the material. The work uses the linguoimagological method: a set of techniques and procedures of a comprehensive approach to image assessment in different languages to establish the laws of its verbalization. The descriptive method was also used – a system of research tools used to characterize language phenomena at the stage of its development. This is a method of synchronous analysis.

Results. In Alfred Royer’s memoirs, much space is given to the analysis of realia. It is the analysis, because the author tries not only to convey the sound of a word unknown to the English, but also to give it an interpretation. In the article the following definition of the term “realia” is used: realia are mono- and poly-lexical units whose basic lexical meaning is traditionally assigned to them (in terms of binary comparison) by a complex of ethno-cultural information alien to the objective reality of the language-receiver. In the article such realia as samovar, traktir, stoi, priama, sei chas, yamshchik and the incorrect proper name Poltova (instead of Poltava) are analysed in the linguoimagological aspect.

Conclusions. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian Empire was isolated from the rest of Europe. As evidence, the British did not know the realities that denoted life and were used in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the Russian Empire. Ways of realia’ interpretation in English are descriptive periphrasis and contextual interpretation. These means of reproducing Ukrainian and Russian realities fully convey the denotative meaning of the words, help the English reader better understand the life of the inhabitants of Southern Ukraine (at that time – a part of the Russian Empire), and in some way convey the local colour, adding a bright colouration to the used realities.