Documentary Linguistics In Russia: Theoretical, Methodological And Applied Aspects

Abstract

Business speech occupies an important place in the communication processes of the information society at the current stage of global development of national and international economic relations. This is largely due to the expansion and deepening of business contacts, introduction of new forms and tools of business communication. The issues of effective speech behavior in the business environment are also being actualized. Structural and comparative analysis, systematization and analysis of normative documents are used as the main research methods. On the basis of a comparative analysis of the educational activities of leading Russian universities, the authors have identified practical aspects of teaching document linguistics and features of its state as a scientific and applied discipline in modern conditions. The authors identified promising directions for the development of document linguistics in Russian conditions as the results of the research. The authors forecast the key scientific fields of theoretical, methodological and empirical research from the position of documentary linguistics. These include information management, personnel management and personnel work, as well as the provision of public administration functions with regard to the distribution of power at the federal, regional and municipal levels from an applied point of view. Taking into account the development of modern international economic relations, globalization and internationalization of business, the authors justified the expediency of including a special course on the basics of using foreign vocabulary (primarily English) in the preparation of documentary texts in the training program in the discipline "Documentary linguistics".

Keywords: Documentary linguisticstheory and methodologyvocabulary

Introduction

In the modern conditions of national and international economic relations development, information society building, business speech occupies more and more significant place in the communicative practice of the society and an individual, which is connected both with the expansion and deepening of business contacts, and the introduction of new forms and tools of business communication, as well as the actualization of issues of effective speech behavior in the business environment.

Business speech, in essence, is a set of standards/approaches of written speech, which are necessary in the implementation of formal business relations. These standards include both certain forms of documentation (structure of the document, location of main parts, requisites) and corresponding ways of speech presentation. High regulation of official business speech is expressed not only in existence of obligatory requirements to construction and drawing up of documents, but also in possibility of entering of certain changes in rules of drawing up and drawing up of the document in the course of its unification. This fully applies to both sides of the document – both its form and language.

Any changes in society are accompanied by changes in the information environment, the most important element of which is documentation information. Undoubtedly, at present the existing text and language norms of business speech are under certain "pressure" on the part of actively developing information technologies as a special way not only to transfer documents at a distance and store them in electronic databases, but also to make certain changes in the rules of their preparation in order to unify and standardize. At the same time, the composition of the document changes and, consequently, the set of language tools used to create these documents changes. In the opinion of Ershov (1985), an outstanding theoretician and practitioner in the field of computer technology, "computerization of business prose" takes place in the conditions of document flow automation. An expert in the field of document linguistics, Rogotneva (2011) from Tomsk Polytechnic University calls this phenomenon "automation of information processes in the control apparatus" (p. 482).

Problem Statement

Machine processing of documents, computerization and automation have created a new era in the process of standardization of business document flow. The choice and fixation in business practice of one stereotypical text template of the document from several possible are justified from the economic point of view that is dictated by the increasingly complicated requirements of economic and social life of the society, technical progress and improvement of digital methods of information processing. The use of certain cliches, stable formulas, accepted abbreviations, uniform arrangement of the text in the design of documents allows coding information, assigning certain language means to a typical situation. In some cases, a "stencil" and tabular form are used as a special form of standardization (e.g., in analogue texts, forms, templates).

The process of standardization and unification, covering all levels of the language of business documents (vocabulary, morphology, syntax, text organization), determines the originality and specificity of the modern official business style. As a result, the document is a unique object, the creation of which is subject to the action of linguistic and extra-linguistic rules at the same time. Therefore, today, document linguistics, a section of language science that explores linguistic peculiarities in the modern document flow, emblematic means, specifics and regularities of their use in document texts, acquires a special urgency both from theoretical and methodological and from exclusively applied positions.

Research Questions

As noted by Yankovaya (2011), the term "documentary linguistics" was proposed in the mid-1960s by K.G. Mityaev, professor of the Moscow State Historical and Archival Institute (now the Russian State University for the Humanities), as the name of the academic discipline studied by students – future professionals in the field of documentation support of management (record keeping) and archival business, the main object of professional activity of which was paper work.

Since 1969, the Moscow State Historical and Archival Institute has been running a course on Documentary Linguistics at the Department of Document Science, which was developed by philologists Dyuzhenko (1975).

Already in some works of the 1970s, published in mass circulation, the main approaches to this direction of research were outlined. Thus, in 1975, under the authorship of Dyuzhenko (1975), a small brochure "Documentary Linguistics" was published, focused primarily on engineers and economists, which deals with the interaction of natural and artificial languages, the language unification of documents, the quality of their language design, the specificity of the language of different types of documents, especially economic and statistical grammar, and the basis of statistical proposals, so the book is published in the publishing house "Statistics".

Objective grounds for the emergence of documentary linguistics stemmed from the social order formed by society – the increase in the documentary "industry", which required improvement of the linguistic ecology of the documentary environment. The task of document linguistics was of national and social importance, and was to identify defects in the language documents design, which hinder business communication, and to identify those factors that increase the efficiency of information exchange.

There are different approaches to understanding the nature and content of document linguistics in the scientific environment.

Thus, Kushneruk (2016) considers document linguistics to be a section of "theoretical and applied linguistics, the object of which is the documentary text, the features of its construction, composition and functioning taking into account the effect of language, unifying and standardizing rules implemented in the formation, processing and use of speech works, which can be defined as documents" (p. 112).

The authors of the textbook "Documentary Linguistics" from the North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov note that it is "a section of linguistics that describes the linguistic features of the document objects, their sign composition, features of the construction of texts, rules governing the language aspects of document communication" (Sosnina, 2009, p. 90).

Taking into account that documentary linguistics is a part of linguistics, it should be noted that the term "language" has two meanings: firstly, the language as a special sign system, and secondly, the language as a specific ethnic language, i.e. a real sign system used in a particular society. In this case, it is necessary to speak about the first variant of the meaning of the term "language". Documentary linguistics as a part of linguistics studies the properties of the language system in the aspect of conducting business and creating documents according to the following criteria:

• hierarchy;

• heterogeneity;

• multilevel (multilevel);

• openness;

• mobility;

• dynamism (development).

It is important to note that the very title "document linguistics" indicates that the subject of its study are documents. Thus, Yankovaya (2011) notes that "document linguistics studies official documents as texts of a special kind, having a specific composition, language and style organization" (p. 37).

The subject of the study of document linguistics is linguistic parameters of modern document texts, as well as their speech (lexical) organization. Thus, Muravyeva (2016) notes that "document linguistics studies linguistic parameters of modern document texts in accordance with the theoretical foundations of linguistics and document studies and the requirements of the official business style of the language" (p. 384).

In our opinion, due to active development of information technologies, automation of document circulation and placement of documents of organizations in the format of "cloud computing" and on the Internet, it is necessary to clarify the subject and object of documentary linguistics.

Under the object of the study of documentary linguistics should be considered the texts of business documents submitted in printed or electronic form, placed both in material databases and on virtual sources of information in the digital environment.

Linguistic parameters of modern document texts, regardless of their form of representation (material or virtual), should be considered as a subject of research in document linguistics in modern conditions, in accordance with the theoretical foundations of linguistics and document studies and the requirements of the modern official business style of the Russian language, as well as speech (lexical) organization of these texts.

The main research task of document linguistics today is the consideration of the symbolic basis of document texts, its changes in the dynamic coordinates of modern official-business and scientific-technical communication.

Purpose of the Study

The goal of the research is to analyze the main approaches to the current state and content of documentary linguistics, as well as the specifics of its teaching and further development in Russia.

In order to achieve this goal, the work addresses the following issues:

1) a brief description of documentary linguistics as a scientific and applied discipline is given, its subject and object of research in modern conditions;

2) analysis of the current state of development of documentary linguistics in the Russian Federation;

3) prospects of further development of documentary linguistics.

Research Methods

Structural and comparative analysis, systematization, analysis of normative documents, which allowed to reach the goal of the research and solve the set tasks, were used as the main research methods in the work. On the basis of the conducted comparative analysis of educational activity of leading Russian higher educational institutions the authors have revealed practical aspects of teaching document linguistics and features of its condition as a scientific and applied discipline in modern conditions.

Findings

The analysis of theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of the development of documentary linguistics in Russia allows to draw the following conclusions.

In our country, document linguistics, a field that is at junction with linguistics and document science, has been developing since the mid-1960s. However, document linguistics is still a relatively young field in science, the boundaries of which are not clearly defined. As an academic discipline "Documentary linguistics" has on the one hand applied character, and on the other hand – a general humanitarian aspect.

In modern conditions, the object of the study of documentary linguistics should be considered texts of business documents, presented in printed or electronic form, placed both in material databases and on virtual sources of information in the digital environment.

As a subject of research of document linguistics in modern conditions it is necessary to consider linguistic parameters of modern document texts, irrespective of the form of their representation (material or virtual), in accordance with the theoretical bases of linguistics and document studies and the requirements of the modern official business style of the Russian language, as well as speech (lexical) organization of these texts.

Today, document linguistics is taught as a separate discipline in the leading higher educational institutions of Russia in the training of specialists in the field of document science, documentation support of management, organization of human resources work, personnel management, etc. However, the main provisions of document linguistics are also used in the training of specialists of law enforcement agencies, banking and financial activities, as well as other areas of activity that require paperwork (Leontyeva, 2014).

In modern conditions one should speak about the connection of documentary linguistics with such scientific directions as sociolinguistics and cognitive stylistics. Documentary linguistics has turned from a narrow academic discipline into an independent research and educational direction, which is connected both with document science and all branches of applied and theoretical linguistics.

The topical directions of document linguistics development are the following: construction of linguistic classification of document texts on the basis of linguistic approaches, formation of language unifying tools and standards of document means, development of lexicographical and descriptive-modeling means of business communication, research of specificity of business communication and language features of documents caused by innovations in the information environment.

Taking into account the development of modern international economic relations, globalization and internationalization of business, the inclusion of a special course on the basics of using foreign vocabulary (primarily English) in the preparation of documentary texts in the training program in the discipline "Documentary linguistics" looks relevant. Other actual directions of theoretical-methodological and empirical researches for document linguistics can be the areas of information management, personnel management and personnel work, as well as providing the function of public administration taking into account the distribution of power at the federal, regional and municipal levels.

Conclusion

Documentary linguistics can identify a number of areas that are important and time-consuming. These include, for example, the construction of linguistic classification of document texts on the basis of linguistic approaches. In this case, the classification will be based on linguistic features taking into account the level of their qualitative and/or quantitative manifestations. For example, the classification criterion may be the composition of document texts. This will make it possible to develop schemes of algorithmized processing of information (from automated to automatic) document texts, which will allow to effectively solve the problems of searching for forms, types or specific documents in virtual (electronic, cloud) repositories and archives.

Another area of research may be the formation of some kind of language unifying tools and standards of documentary means. As noted by Kushneruk (2016), earlier effective work was carried out to create standards for lexical and phraseological means of documents of scientific and technical communication. However, such activities have not been carried out on the materials of official business document texts.

The third direction of solving actual problems of document linguistics is the need to develop lexicographical and descriptive-modeling means of business communication. This problem can be solved on the basis of creation of modern Russian-language dictionaries/information bases of documentary means that will allow to solve applied tasks of documentary linguistics to the best extent.

Another promising direction in the development of document linguistics may be the study of the specifics of business communication and language features of documents caused by innovations in the information environment – the use of "cloud technologies", the organization of the workflow based on remote access, the use of outsourcing with the possibility of transferring a number of functional tasks to specialized organizations.

Russian is the fundamental language for document practice in the Russian Federation. At the same time, taking into account the development of modern international economic relations, globalization and internationalization of business, the inclusion of a special course on the basics of using foreign vocabulary (primarily English) in the preparation of document texts in the training program in the discipline of "document linguistics".

Issues of compiling documentary texts in Russian and foreign languages, studying the peculiarities of business vocabulary are covered in various monographic works, educational materials and dissertation researches of various authors. At the same time, the development of business traditions in the Russian Federation and countries where various foreign languages are state languages, expanding international cooperation, economic globalization, and the construction of an information society require further study of theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to the lexical content of business documents.

Relevant theoretical, methodological and empirical research from the point of view of document linguistics can be carried out in such scientific fields as: information management, personnel management and personnel work, as well as from the point of view of applied positions – ensuring the function of public administration with the distribution of authority at the federal, regional and municipal levels. In this case, document-linguistic models can be developed, including special conceptual fields in the activities of public authorities and local authorities, as well as the development of standards of language means of document communication both at the level of public organizations and commercial companies.

References

• Dyuzhenko, G. A. (1975). Document Linguistics. Statistika.
• Ershov, A. P. (1985). Osnovy` informatiki i vy`chislitel`noj texniki. Prosveshhenie.
• Kushneruk, S. P. (2016). Document Linguistics, Textbook (7th ed.). Flinta; Nauka.
• Leontyeva, T. V. (2014). Document Linguistics, Textbook (2nd ed.). Flinta; Nauka.
• Muravyeva, N. V. (2016). Document Linguistics. Termika.
• Rogotneva, Ye. N. (2011). Document Linguistics. In Collection of Learning and Teaching Aids (p. 784). Tomsk Polytech. Univer. Publ. House.
• Sosnina, I. N. (2009). Documentary Linguistics. North-Eastern Federal University.
• Yankovaya, V. F. (2011). Document Linguistics. In Coursebook for Students of Postsecondary Institutions (p. 288). Academy.