The image of Russia in the minds of native speakers of the national Syrian version of the Arabic language

Safaralieva Lyubov Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-6960-9426 PhD in Philology Associate Professor at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia kuznetsova-la@rudn.ru Other publications by this author

Abdullah Luai ORCID: 0009-0000-6739-4188 Master's Degree; Department of General and Russian Linguistics; Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia 1032189183@pfur.ru

Introduction

Over the past decade, political, economic and cultural relations between the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic have been strengthening on an ongoing basis. Russia's presence in Syria is expanding not only in the military sphere, but also in the field of education. Russian russians are becoming more and more interested in learning the Russian language, which is due not only to the above-mentioned extralinguistic factors, but also to the increased presence of the Russian language in Syria.: "In the last decade, the Russian language has been gaining great popularity in the country. The activities of the Rossotrudnichestvo representative office are designed to strengthen its position and expand the Russian information and cultural field in Syria" ^[1]. In this regard, linguistic and cultural studies aimed at reconstructing the linguistic worldview of the Syrian people seem particularly relevant at the moment: "<...> linguoculturology and cognitive linguistics are aimed at human cognition of the surrounding reality through language and in language" ^{[2, p. 120]}.

One of the most effective tools for studying the linguistic consciousness of speakers of a certain linguistic culture is a free associative experiment — "a technique aimed at identifying associations that have developed in an individual in his previous experience" ^{[3, p. 82]},

The result of a free associative experiment is the associative field of the stimulus word - it is "a fragment of the image of the world of a particular ethnic group reflected in the consciousness of the average bearer of a particular culture, his motives and assessments and, consequently, his cultural stereotypes" ^{[4, p. 341]}. The associative field is represented, in turn, by a set of associative-verbal networks. One of the leading experts in the field of associative linguistics, Y.N. Karaulov, wrote about the latter: "The associative-verbal network captures only that part of our consciousness that has a verbal shell, but it is this part that makes up most of our knowledge about the world" ^{[5, p. 5]}. Thus, it is the results of the associative experiment that make it possible to reconstruct the average, everyday ideas of native speakers about a particular fragment of the surrounding reality.

The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the image of Russia in the minds of speakers of the Syrian linguistic culture based on the data of a free associative experiment with the stimulus wordRussia’, conducted among citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic.

There are a number of scientific papers in Russian linguistics devoted to the study of the image of Russia: based on the material of field research in Iraq ^[6], in China ^{[7, 8]}, in France ^{[9, 10]}, in Slovakia ^[11], in Israel ^[12], in the countries of the former Yugoslavia ^[13] and in the modern world as a whole ^{[14, 15, 16]}

Since no work has been found on the reconstruction of the image of Russia in Syria, it can be concluded that the study below was conducted for the first time, which is the novelty of this scientific article.

The results of the study

To reconstruct the image of Russia in the minds of speakers of Arabic linguistic culture, citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic, a free associative experiment was conducted using the Google Forms application. The experiment involved 116 people with higher education, aged 18 to 60 years, of whom 68 were men and 48 were women. The respondents were asked to write the first 3 words or phrases on the stimulus of the ‘Russia’. A total of 319 reactions were obtained:

‘Russia’

Let's imagine the associative field of the stimulus. ‘Russia’ in the form of a picture (Fig.1).

Figure 1. Associative field of the stimulusRussia’

The most frequent reactions to a stimulus are:Russia’ has become ‘snow' (56); ‘cold' (21); ‘university' (17); ‘beauty' (16); ‘strength' (15). The analysis of these associates allows us to reconstruct the following image of Russia in the minds of native speakers of the Syrian national version of the Arabic language: Russia is a cold but beautiful country where you can get an education (higher education) and which has a strong position in the world. Reactions representing the ‘cold’ are expected, because, on the one hand, winter, as a climatic phenomenon, proceeds differently in the Syrian Republic: temperature indicators are positive, there is practically no snow. Therefore, naturally, the Russian winter leaves its mark on the Syrians who visited Russia in winter. And, on the other hand, the perception of the climate of Russia by speakers of other linguistic cultures is influenced by stereotypical ideas about Russia as a cold country, most of which is covered with snow.

For a deeper analysis of the data of the associative experiment, we will distribute the associates into semantic groups (Table 1).

Table 1. Semantic groups of associates on the stimulusRussia’

For a large number of speakers of the Syrian linguoculture, Russia is associated with the beauty of nature, with its diversity: ‘nature’ (6); , ‘beauty of nature' (2); ‘forests' (2); ‘lakes' (1); ‘parks' (1); ‘gardens' (1).

In the minds of Syrians, Russia is a country with a high educational and cultural potential, which is confirmed by the presence in the associative field of such reactions as: ‘university’ (17); ‘art’ (3); ‘culture’ (3); ‘literature’ (3); ‘music’ (3); ‘science' (3). For many speakers of the Syrian linguistic culture, the historical past of Russia is of interest: ‘rich history' (2); ‘ ‘the great empire' (1); ‘The Soviet Union’ (1); the King (1);

For a large number of respondents, the image of Russia is closely linked to its capital, Moscow. Reactions such as ‘Red Square’ (9); ‘The Kremlin’(2);); the beauty of Moscow (1); the beauty of Moscow ‘Moscow’ (1); the ‘capital of beauty’ (1) reflects the idea of Moscow and its main attraction – Red Square, as the central cultural image of Russia.

The military-political interaction between Russia and Syria over the past decade has also been reflected in the data of the associative experiment. For a large number of respondents, Russia is strongly associated with the image of President Vladimir V. Putin and his policy of military support for the Syrian army: "the force" (15);: "the force‘Putin’ (7); ‘the fight against Nazism’(3); ‘military force' (2); ‘victory' (1); ‘weapons' (1). Russia, first of all, is a friend and ally of Syria: (2); (1);(1); (1). The idea of Russia as a partner capable of helping Syria maintain the independence of the state is reflected in the reactions of ‘law’ (1); ‘law’ (1); ‘civilization' (5); ‘a large’scale place’ (3); ‘the world' (3); ‘the future' (2); ‘opportunities' (2); ‘friendly forces' (2); ‘hold out' (2); ‘security’ (1); ‘hope' (1); ‘independence' (1); ‘new world system' (1); ‘help' (1).

Reactions such as : ‘beauty' (16); ‘love' (10); ‘greatness' (1); ‘pride' (1); ‘dignity' (1); ‘intelligence' (1); ‘masculinity' (1); characterize The image of Russia in the minds of speakers of the Syrian linguistic culture is on the positive side. The majority of respondents gave reactions with reclamation values. The pejorative reactions are isolated: ‘nightmare’ (1); bad food’ (1); ‘losing money' (1).

Stereotypical ideas about Russia in the world community are also reflected in the results of the associative experiment. The Syrians most often associate Russia with the following national Russian "symbols": 'vodka' (7); 'bear' (3); 'matryoshka doll'(2).

Other reactions reflect the individual ideas of speakers of the Syrian linguistic culture based on personal experience. Russian Russian-language students, for example, gave reactions related to the Russian language: ‘language’ (6); ‘the shape of the letters of the Russian alphabet' (1).

Conclusion

The conducted associative experiment aimed at identifying the frequency characteristics of the image of Russia in the minds of speakers of Syrian linguistic culture showed that extralinguistic factors – the active development of relations between Russia and Syria in the military-political, cultural, educational, and social spheres - had a significant impact on the formation of Syrian citizens' ideas about Russia. Thus, there is a predominance of reclamation reactions in the responses of respondents describing Russia as a beautiful, strong country that is a reliable friend and ally. Despite the harsh climatic conditions with which Russia is associated, the nature and culture of Russia are distinguished by beauty and diversity. In the minds of speakers of the Syrian linguistic culture, Russia is a country with a rich history and wide educational opportunities, which confirms the statistical data on a significant increase in the number of Syrian students in Russian universities.

The results of the research can find practical application in lexicographic practice, in the compilation of associative dictionaries, in the practice of teaching the basics of intercultural communication.