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Cultural code of a modern regional city: An experience of discourse description (based on street art objects in Tomsk) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2024. Issue 3 (41). P. 117-137

Within the framework of the modern humanitarian paradigm, research carried out using interdisciplinary methodology is of particular relevance and is distinguished by the presence of a new perspective in the study of traditional objects. Involving semiotic and discursive analysis data in the consideration of objects of urban street art in order to identify their cultural potential determines the correspondence of the work to the modern vector of humanitarian thought development. Objects of regional street art culture are considered as means of transmitting socially significant values. Studying the functional potential of street art within the framework of various humanities allows us to understand the features of the national picture of the world in its regional version of synchronous existence and identify key aspects of culture and language that are reflected in street art. The aim of the article is to study art objects of the urban environment as a means of forming an idea of the system of collective axiological attitudes in relation to a particular city, existing in the minds of citizens and guests and constituting the essence of urban identity and cultural code. The material is individual street art objects that are part of the urban space of Tomsk – one of the Siberian cities with rich historical cultural traditions and at the same time sensitive to modern challenges and trends. The criteria for selecting objects for analysis were the recognition of an object in relation to its location in the urban space, the mandatory presence of a verbal component to express pragmatic and conceptual content, and the presence of the possibility of discovering cultural meanings in the process of interpretation. The methodological basis of the research is complex in the choice of tools and techniques. The main methods are discursive, linguo-conceptual and linguo-cultural analysis, supplemented by the results of introspective and experimental (using a social experiment in the format of an online survey) research. The analysis of each of the street art objects selected for presentation in the article is carried out in stages. Each stage is associated with a description of certain characteristics of the object: local, formal, substantive. In the latter case, special attention is paid to the analysis of the pragmatic, including axiological, semantics of the linguistic units included in the structure of the art object. As a result, a conclusion is drawn about the degree of significance of the art object for the representation of the cultural code of Tomsk. One of the objects was studied in terms of the manifestation of communicative and pragmatic properties in conditions of synchronous dynamics, taking into account changes in formal and content indicators. This study shows that street art elements in a regional landscape reflect the unique culture of a city, convey the lifestyle and behavioral norms of its inhabitants, reflect cultural traditions and mythology, as well as characteristics of collective thinking and linguistic expression.

Keywords: city discourse, urban text, cultural code of city, urban identity, regional city, street art, art object, discourse analysis

The advertising semiotic code as a tool for interpreting the regional worldview // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025. Issue 3 (45). P. 67-93

The cognitive function of non-verbal and verbal semiotic codes contained in the structure of text signs is considered. The property of texts – signs of complex structural and semantic organization – to act as a means of interpreting fragments of a regional picture of the world is defined as their cognitive resource. This resource is realized through cognitive semiotic codes – stable quanta of knowledge present in the collective picture of the world of representatives of the regional community and contained in the form of conceptual information in text signs. The code system of meanings that forms the picture of the world, including the axiological component of the latter, includes a set of signs, symbols, images and principles of interpretation that allow carriers of a regional linguaculture to perceive, structure and convey their ideas about the world, values, meanings and norms. This code serves as a basis for the formation and interpretation of cultural meanings, forms the image of the world in people's minds and influences the process of perception and communication within a given regional community. In the context of the semiotic approach, the cognitive code helps to understand how people interpret reality and how these interpretations are reflected in various cultural spheres of interaction and textual activity of native speakers. The aim of the article is to identify axiological dominant meanings structuring a fragment of the regional picture of the world, which is objectified in regional advertising texts, based on units of the cognitive semiotic code. The material includes creolized texts of regional outdoor commercial advertising, functioning in the space of the city of Tomsk. The key research methods are semiotic and conceptual types of analysis, supplemented by a number of other general scientific and special (used in pedagogical and linguistic sciences) methods. In the course of the research, the fragment of the regional picture of the world represented in the content of advertising texts was analyzed. In the analysis of conceptual meanings, special attention was paid to the consideration of the axiological components of the meaning reflecting the features of the cultural code of Tomsk. With the support of cognitive semiotic codes, both non-verbal (locally marked images, for example, representing regional architectural monuments, the fauna of the region) and verbal (a group of single-root lexemes with a common component Tom-, the thematic group of words "Tomsk", etc.), the image of Tomsk in the collective consciousness of residents and guests of the region is created by a combination of the following features: Tomsk is a city with a rich cultural and historical heritage, a large modern student center, a land of taiga wealth, in the architecture of which stylistic features of different times are intricately combined. The analysis of the author's introspection is supported experimentally. The results of the activity of young representatives of Tomsk linguaculture in the format of a focus group with the involvement of elements of pedagogical tools of case study and project technology demonstrated the effectiveness of using semiotic analysis in interpreting the content of Tomsk advertising samples. The significance of the resource of cognitive semiotic codes as a tool for analyzing the regional picture of the world within the framework of communicative practices in the advertising sphere was confirmed.

Keywords: cognitive semiotic code, creolized text, advertising communication, advertising text as sign, regional city, regional worldview, cultural code of regional city

The role of the visual semiotic code in modeling the conceptosphere of the educational text // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025. Issue 4 (46). P. 142-172

The functional resource of the visual semiotic code, as realized in the educational text, is considered as a complex structural and meaningful sign phenomenon. The educational text is the most important component of the educational process, particularly in the field of multicultural language communication, as it conveys fragments of cognitive knowledge, influences students’ consciousness, and forms their worldview, including their understanding of cultural values. The learning materials are linguodidactic texts whose aim is to learn a foreign language with the help of the language itself: Natural language is defined both as an object and an instrument of cognition. In order to solve linguo-didactic problems, a whole arsenal of other units of the visual semiotic code is used in addition to the signs of the natural language to be learned. Their role in conveying cognitive and cultural knowledge is well known. The starting point is the idea of organizing the conceptual content of the linguo-didactic text in the form of a conceptosphere, comprising a series of meanings united around the key concepts of “human” and “language”. The particular importance of the semiotic level for the content of the conceptosphere of such a didactic text is emphasized. The role of the visual semiotic code in modeling the conceptosphere of an educational text is examined through the example of a textbook on Russian as a foreign language for students from the Republic of Kenya. The functional properties of visual signs as elements of the text structure are analyzed in terms of their ability to act as a means of conceptualizing the content and conveying fragments of the worldview of the authors – native speakers of the Russian language and Russian culture – to addressees who represent Kenyan linguaculture and know the Russian language as secondary language personalities. The main focus is on analyzing the cognitive properties of visual signs that function in educational linguistic texts as a means of forming a secondary worldview in students. The results of the study demonstrate that the visual semiotic code is an integral and active component of modeling the conceptosphere of the linguo-didactic text, thereby ensuring effective communication between the author and the student within the context of intercultural educational interaction.

Keywords: visual semiotic code, visual sign, educational text, linguodidactic text, conceptosphere of linguo-didactic text, Russian as a foreign language, representatives of Kenyan linguaculture