Xenonyms лаовай and лаобайсин as linguistic and cultural markers of the discourse of the russian-speaking diaspora of China

The article is devoted to the description of the linguistic and cultural identity of ethnically labeled xenonyms лаовай (a foreigner in China, including Russian) and лаобайсин (an ordinary Chinese, commoner) in the discourse of the Russian-speaking diaspora of China, reflecting the reception and interpretation of foreign everyday and socio-cultural reality by the diaspora collective. Based on the analysis of more than 3,000 contexts of network communication of participants of the Internet community of Russian-speaking users who are in close contact with Chinese culture and language environment, as well as data from Chinese lexicography and the results of research by Chinese specialists in lexical semantics, various semantic transformations of these lexemes are traced both in the source language and in the recipient language, as well as the specifics of their discursive relationships. If the xenonym лаовай is self-representative, losing the colloquial-dismissive coloration originally characteristic of it in Chinese, is generally unambiguously and positively perceived by the participants of the discourse, although disputes about its connotation periodically arise, then the xenonym лаобайсин demonstrates semantic-axiological diffusivity and can act as a rude ethnic nickname, and as a neutral ethnonym, and as a designation of a "common man" of any nationality. In addition, these xenonyms reveal a polyvalent correlative correlation: 1) at the level of morphemic structure (a unified formant лао borrowing developed ambiguity from the source language); 2) at the level of semantic content (a wide range of relevant meanings closely related to the context); 3) at the level of emotionality, expressiveness and evaluativeness, the most mobile and determined by the degree of complimentary/non-complimentary involvement of communicants in the Chinese language and cultural environment, as well as the changing social, political, economic circumstances of the current moment. The multifaceted and ambiguous linguocultural reception determines the transformation of the conceptual dichotomy лаовай - лаобайсин into a universal of diasporal consciousness, whose members are not so much in opposition, directly reflecting the opposition of their own and others, as they complement each other, forming thematic and stylistic originality and diversity of discourse.

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