Russian language as a factor of national security: linguecological and linguoaxiological analysis of urban epigraphy (by material of the far eastern region)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of urban epigraphy (signs, advertising posters, stickers, etc.) in the aspect of linguoecology and linguoaxiology. Minor written genres of modern urban advertising are considered in the context of information and psychological war. Signs, advertising posters, stickers and bills of Vladivostok (about 4000 texts) served as a material for research. The choice of object for research is due to the fact that the urban environment texts form and reflect the national and cultural consciousness of citizens, have a powerful effect on an addressee, thus, this linguistic material represents the value picture of the world of modern Russians. The article identifies destructive processes in the national language which are represented in the communicative space of a modern city. Speech technologies are described that destroy the nation’s culturally-conditioned core and pose a threat to state security. The language situation in the city is as follows:1) a change in the social base of the Russian language native speakers and the associated change in the Russian language itself; 2) an expansion of the English language and foreign cultural patterns of behavior and lifestyle; 3) a high prestige of the English language and, as a result, a decline in prestige and narrowing of the sphere of functioning of the Russian language; 4) filling language space with jargon and obscene words; 5) growth of speech aggression in public communication; 6) manifestation of signs indicating restructuring of an axiological worldview (perhaps, simplification of thinking) in the Russian language system; 7) de-intellectualization of speech. We consider the following facts to be a manifestation of speech aggression in the city’s communicative space: a) texts written in full (or almost) in a foreign language without translation into Russian; b) vulgarization of minor written genres; c) dominance of print advertising on city streets; d) an increase in lexical units of different types with “aggressive” semantics.