THE IMAGE OF MOSCOW IN THE MIRROR OF THE RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES: MAN. CULTURE. POLITICS AND ECONOMY

The article considers the reconstruction of the linguistic image of the Russian capital (Moscow) and its inhabitants (mainly in subdialects and the colloquial language). This image is studied with reference to the data of foreign languages and dialects, mainly, Slavic (especially East Slavic) languages as well as Romance and Germanic, Turkic and Finno-Ugric. The linguistic image is based on the analysis of words derived from the name of the Russian capital as a result of semantic derivation, as well as set expressions with such words (e.g. Russian dialectal moskvichka for 'milksop, lover of soft jobs', namoskalit'sya for 'learn to cheat', Ukrainian colloquial moskal'ske kaparstvo for 'Moscow (Russian) slapdash, disorder', Polish dialectal moskal for 'cabbage soup', English Muscovy lantern for 'lantern made with Muscovy glass', Swedish Moscovit for 'coat or raincoat with a Russian cut worn in the 1800'). The authors take into account the fact that in foreign languages, derivatives of the toponym in question do not only reflect the idea of Moscow, but, largely, of Russia as a whole. The article is the second part of a two-part sequence of articles on the topic. It studies the popular idea of the inhabitant of Moscow, the material and spiritual culture of the capital, as well as the economic and political aspects of its image. The analysis enables the authors to reveal the motivation of the words and idioms formed from the name of the capital. Additionally, the authors compare the national Russian and non-Russian perception of Moscow and its inhabitants. It is argued that, e.g., the national image of the Muscovite has a positive concept while the perception of the inhabitant of Moscow by foreigners is negative and is explained by its connection to the perception of Russians as occupant soldiers.