Socio-psychological determinants of the use of luxury loanwords in the Russian language

Abstract

The article discusses the sociopsychological determinants of the use of luxury loanwords in Russian, in particular the ethnic identity of the individual, the content and focus of heterostereotypes, and the frequency of excessive loanwords in speech practices recorded in the national corpus of the Russian language. The study involved 22 translation and translation studies final year students aged 20-21. The ethnic identity of a person is investigated by comparing auto- and heterostereotypes of three stimuli objects, “a typical representative of Russian, English nationality” and “American people” with the self-image. Next, a comparative analysis of the use of excessive loanwords when translating the text from English into Russian is performed. The discrepancy between declared and actual ethnic identity was revealed for the majority of informants. Three groups of respondents were distinguished: the first group identified with Russian nationality, the second with English, and the third group's self-image corresponded to none of the presented stimulus objects. Judgments about the “typical representative of English and American nationality” are more consistent compared to the representation of the “typical representative of Russian nationality”. According to the research data, informants with uncertain ethnic identity and representatives of English national identity have a positive image of “a representative of English nationality”. Those with Russian national identity have a shift towards positive social desirability in their perceptions of “a typical representative of the American people”. The use of luxury loanwords is equally characteristic of all respondents. Thus, the use of foreign words and word combinations in speech is associated with a shift in perceptions of native speakers (English or American) towards positive social desirability, as well as identification with native speakers of the language from which the vocabulary is borrowed. The author concludes that social psychological factors should be taken into account when developing measures to protect the mother tongue from excessive borrowing.