Metanarrative and phrasal mode in the discourse of the Armenian city
Authors:   Moscow City University, Savchenko Irina A. , Tadevosyan Tadevos V. ,   Vanadzor State University, Barseghyan Svetlana S. ,   Vanadzor State University
Published: December 2024

The reader's attention is drawn to discursive phenomena, the study of which requires the simultaneous use of the so-called phrasal mode (or language game) and classical metanarrative technology, while these approaches are usually interpreted
in linguistics and philosophy of language as two incompatible scientific paradigms. It is shown that these “paradigms” not only do not deny each other, but, moreover, their integration opens up great opportunities for modern science.
The convergence potentials of the two approaches are conceptualized by studying the discursive specifics of the bilingual environment of the modern Armenian city. Russian Russian bilinguals use the data obtained through the discourse analysis of
linguistic semantic features of nicknames modeled on the basis of the Russian language, which are common in Armenian cities in the speech of Armenian-Russian bilinguals, as empirical material.
The ideas of S.K. Gural about the interdependence of discursive and socio-cultural practices in the context-discursive environment of modern bilingualism, where cognitive and communicative practices predetermine and complement each other in discursive interaction, are being developed within the framework of the studied issues.
The conceptual approaches presented in the works of S.K. Gural acquire a new research vector and are used to understand the nature of the functioning of nicknames in the bilingual urban areas of the Republic of Armenia.
For the first time, the cognitive–communicative coordinate system of urban discourse proposed by I.A. Savchenko is used to study the phenomena of urban bilingual discourse (in this case, “Russian” nicknames in the speech of Armenian bilinguals).
The studied array of nicknames was obtained by means of questionnaires, surveys and included observation conducted among residents of a number of Armenian cities. As a result, a file of nicknames was compiled from more than 200 lexical units.
Armenian city nicknames are divided into two large groups: The first group: – nicknames formed from proper names: anthroponymic (namesake, namesake and otpatronymic) nicknames, representing different modifications of the official name of
the nickname bearer. Such urban nicknames are characterized by a transitional nature – from proper names to common names and are modifications of the passport name. The second group includes nicknames formed on the basis of identification associative and characterological features: “externally motivated” nicknames-identifiers; urban nicknames motivated by profession, occupation, hobbies and hobbies; nicknames motivated by the style of behavior of the carrier; nicknames-identifiers formed by the type of social and territorial affiliation of their carrier; nicknames associated with a precedent name.
Cognitive-communicative discourse analysis of nicknames borrowed from the Russian language and which have become an organic part of the discursive space of the Armenian city, allowed us to confirm the hypothesis about the possibilities of
integrating metanarrative and phrasal approaches in the study of linguistic and cultural phenomena. The study showed that, on the one hand, the formation and functioning of Russian nicknames in urban language spaces of Armenia can be interpreted by scientists as a language game, since it develops according to the principle of “phrasal mode”. This is especially true of nicknames belonging to the second group. On the other hand, the process and patterns of transferring a lexical unit from one language to another (in which it becomes an urban nickname) and, in general, the specifics of the functioning of a bilingual urban space cannot be comprehensively studied without understanding one language through another, that is, without using a metanarrative approach.
The authors' conclusions go beyond the limits of a separate science and have interdisciplinary and epistemological value. In particular, it is established that in modern mass urban society there are no clear boundaries between phenomena, on the one hand, and metaconcepts, on the other – they form an integrated integrity in which new cultural patterns are formed, new knowledge is generated and a new communication context is formed.