Russian and Arabic documentary tradition: syntactic aspect

Al- Anbagi Shaymaa Thamer Hasan Postgraduate student, Department of Russian Language and Teaching Methods, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia shaimatamerhasan@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

In the modern world, international relations are an important factor contributing to the strong position of the state in the international social, economic, political, and educational systems. Interaction with other states makes it possible to strengthen the country's authority in the international arena and extend its influence on the world community. The means of forming a full-fledged international contact are official documents, among which a business letter stands out as a way of establishing contact, communicating your point of view to the addressee, defending your position. In each country of the world, the business writing system developed according to its own laws, depending on cultural attitudes, historical processes, religion and the mentality of the people. At the same time, there are general, universal patterns of business documents that manifest themselves in the documentary sphere of various states.

Literature review

Business writing is considered by linguists from various points of view. The article analyzes the genre features of business letters ^[1], the implementation of various language categories in their text ^[2], various features of their stylistic organization, for example, stylistic contamination ^[3]. Researchers note the evolution of business discourse innovations that appear in the linguistic organization of the text of a business letter ^[4], address the issues of methodology for writing business letters of different types and genres ^[5], relate to the main linguistic and stylistic errors that can be made in the text of business letters ^[6].

Russian Russian business correspondence, including Russian-Arabic and Arabic-Russian business correspondence, also become the subject of analysis and differences in business communication, which is conducted at the international and intercultural levels. S. N. Bodnar considers the language of Arabic documents of the trade and economic sphere in practical terms ^[7]. A. R. Spirkin's work provides a functional and stylistic identification of Arabic official business written speech ^[8]. A. S. Golikova analyzes the differences between the official business style in Arabic and Russian as a translation problem ^[9]. A. H. Kayumova and P. A. Pepelnitsyna turn to cultural explanations when identifying distinctive features in business communication between Russia and the United Arab Emirates ^[10]. The subject of consideration by T. N. Khomutova, A. K. Shaban and B. G. Fatkulina are linguistic means of expressing politeness in English, Arabic and Russian business writing ^[11]. As the literature review shows, the syntactic means of Russian and Arabic correspondence in comparative terms have not yet become the object of attention of linguists.

The purpose of the article is to identify the universal and culturally specific in the syntactic structure of Russian and Arabic business writing; to identify the cultural and historical grounds for the differences noted.

The texts of business letters in Russian and Arabic became the material for practical research. The country of origin of the letters of Arabic–speaking correspondents is Iraq. About three hundred letters were reviewed, 200 of which serve correspondence within Russia, about 100 – international correspondence in Russian and Arabic between Russian and Iraqi business circles (in the field of diplomacy, education, trade, etc.).

The results of the study

Universal elements of the syntactic structure of letters

Both Russian and Arabic business letters show a tendency not to emphasize the identity of the author, to write a letter without direct reference to the addressee. For this, single-part sentences with an implied subject I (we) can be used. In Russian, definitely personal: "I bring to your attention...", "We ask you to make payment as soon as possible...", etc. In Arabic, a specific construction is used, which consists "of the conjugated form of the verb, including both the action and the acting subject" ^{[12, p. 317]}. For example: " ... " – "I am glad to convey my warmest congratulations to you." This construction arose in the Arabic language over time, when the verb developed the ability to replace both main terms in a simple sentence, not only pointing to the acting subject, but also including it in its structure and grammatical semantics. The specificity of this construction means for the translator that there is no need to monitor the impersonality of letters generated in Arabic, the need to simply use the appropriate syntactic construction.

In Russian and Arabic business correspondence, the ways of expressing motivation are similar, although different constructions are used grammatically (which is related to the structure of languages). The subjunctive construction, which is often used in Russian letters to soften requests ("Could you tell us the details..."), in Arabic corresponds to the special forms of imperative "raja" and "wadda", replacing in this case the imperative forms "amr" common in everyday communication ^{[11, p. 30]}, they are not polite enough for a business letter. For example: " " – "could you send us...". Despite the grammatical differences, we consider these forms of expression of the request to be syntactic constructions of the same type, since in both Russian and Arabic writing they serve to indirectly express imperativeness.

In addition, interrogative sentences are used in both Russian and Arabic business letters for polite, indirect expression of a request. For example, in a Russian letter: "Could you tell us the exact time of your arrival?"; in Arabic: "The full list of available models and specifications for them could you send us a complete list of available models and specifications?".

The similarity of the syntactic structure of Russian and Arabic letters can also be attributed to the use of introductory words, with which the effect of politeness is achieved. In Russian, this word is please, in Arabic –.

Culturally specific elements of the syntactic structure of letters

A universal feature of business correspondence is the presence in letters of three parts, which are present in both Russian and Arabic documents: the beginning (the beginning), the main part (the "statement of the contents"), the ending (). One of the components of the beginning is the conversion, in the use of which there are differences in Russian and Arabic writing. In a Russian letter, when addressing a single addressee, it is mandatory to indicate the name ("Dear Sergey Borisovich!", "Dear Mr. Sergeev!"), in an Arabic business letter, the name is omitted when addressing, but it is necessary to indicate the position of the addressee (" " – "Dear Mr. President of the University"). The Arab communicative tradition reflects the "collectivist and authoritarian nature of culture" ^{[11, p. 31]}, the predominance of collective, public over personal in the traditional communication of the Arab world. The person in Arabic writing is in the background, and in the first place is the organization (firm) that she represents.

The obligation to indicate the title, position and other regalia of the addressee at the beginning of the letter, as well as in the signature at the end, is noted by researchers: "For Arabs, it is fundamental to indicate in the letter the full name of the addressee's position and his regalia, the presence of an academic degree" ^{[13, p. 89]}, and the absence of such an indication can be regarded as rudeness and disrespectful attitude. He fully names all his regalia and the addressee, which is not considered a violation of the rules of modesty for him.

Arabic business letters use more language units than Russian ones, which convey the author's feelings. At the syntactic level, this can be, for example, the introductory word, which is usually translated as fortunately. For example, as part of the phrase: "The Russian business letter, such a construction is unlikely to be appropriate, so when translating it is necessary to remove the introductory word.

The stylistics of Russian and Arabic writing are significantly influenced by the history of the official business style in these languages. If the Russian business language was formed on the basis of a conversational style and was originally based on colloquial syntactic constructions, then the Arabic official business language goes back to the artistic style, which is reflected at all its levels, including syntactic. It is the origin of the style that determines the ornamentation, aesthetics, imagery, euphony, pathos in Arabic business writing; produces wordy assurances of reverence, appeals to Allah, wishes of prosperity not only to the addressee himself, but also to all members of his family, etc.

At the syntactic level, the artistry of the Arabic official business style manifested itself in the tendency to use long, multicomponent, complicated sentences - signs of Arabic eloquence. Of course, the pathos created in the letter is not directly perceived by the addressee, it is evaluated as a traditional feature, but this does not reduce the need to construct long sentences in letters in Arabic. If the letter is not very long, then it is recommended to present the entire informative part of it in one paragraph as a single sentence. The presence of several sentences in one paragraph is rarely observed, most often we can talk about compliance: sentence = paragraph. Russian Russian, on the contrary, when translating correspondence from Arabic into Russian, it is possible to divide voluminous syntactic constructions into several sentences of medium length that are more familiar in Russian writing. According to I. T. Mukhamadeev, short sentences in an Arabic-language letter will be perceived not as a way of concise, accurate communication of information to the addressee, but as means demonstrating "monotony, inexpressiveness, and this will by no means be the key to success in trade affairs" ^{[14, p. 56]}. In addition, short sentences will look like signs of a low level of politeness, a manifestation of disrespect for the addressee.

Let's consider as an example the "body" of a letter with an offer of services:

() ( ) / .

The adapted translation of the letter into Russian will look like this: "We, the American Al-Jidar company for general trade, investment, import and export, as well as the Turkish Dam Su group of companies specializing in reconstruction, construction, general trade, agriculture and oil business, are ready to carry out housing construction for the members of your management. Our company is registered with the Iraqi Ministry of Commerce in Baghdad, in the department of foreign companies, and we have the capabilities and specialized staff to complete the work in record time. If you are interested, please let us know about your intention and the need to negotiate."

In translation, a long sentence in Arabic is divided into three sentences in Russian, in the original it is one syntactic construction of a complex structure.

In the process of translating from Russian into Arabic, it makes sense to apply not only the technique of combining several sentences into one syntactic structure, but also the technique of increasing the content, which is spoken about by Y. Cho ^[15]. The build-up can be done by adding lengthy formulas of politeness, appeals to Allah (Koranisms), assurances of respect, etc. In any case, there will be a complication of the content, coupled with a complication of the syntactic structure of the text of the letter. We can offer the following turns for this technique:

"We express our deep appreciation for the fruitful joint work and the level of cooperation that we have achieved"

…

"Our trusting relationship has allowed us to achieve significant success in..."

…

"I express my sincere feelings of gratitude and appreciation for the work you are doing..." etc.

In general, we can talk about the presence of both universal and specific features in the syntax of Russian and Arabic business writing, while the differences have both grammatical and cultural grounds.

Conclusion

Business correspondence has similar goals and functions in every society included in official business communication, therefore business letters in Russian and Arabic have a lot in common, including at the level of syntactic organization of the text. It is significant that the same communicative tasks (giving a non-personal character to a message, broadcasting an indirect imperative) can be performed through grammatically heterogeneous syntactic constructions.

The differences that are observed in the syntactic structure of Russian and Arabic business writing have cultural and historical reasons. The traditional predominance of the collective over the personal in Arab culture is associated with the absence of proper names in the treatment. With higher requirements for the expression of politeness, it is possible to correlate the obligation to indicate in the beginning and end of the letter the regalia (titles, degrees, positions) of both subjects of business communication, as well as the importance of increasing the content of the letter due to specific formulas and phrases. The bulk of the characteristic features of the syntactic level are due to the ascent of Arabic business writing to an artistic, rather than to a colloquial, as in Russian, style. Artistic (high) style genetically determines the pathos of writing, expanse of expression, eloquence, emotionality. The most important consequence of this is the presence of very long, complex and complicated sentences in Arabic–language letters.

The prospects of the research conducted in this paper consist in further in-depth comparative analysis of the syntax of Russian and Arabic business letters in order to identify common features and differences, as well as clarify the cultural, historical and other reasons for them.