National origins of precedent names in Russian and Egyptian press

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the use of precedent names in the modern press, the language of which has an exceptional influence on the literary language and the culture as a whole. The article is devoted to a comparative study of national origins of precedent names in Russian and Egyptian press, to determining the general trends and specific features of Russian and Egyptian press addressees, and to determining the degree of knowledge of the realities of other cultures. Classification of precedent names by national origins aims to determine the degree of identification of the culture with its members and the degree of knowledge of the realities of other cultures. As the basis of classification we suggest the dichotomy "our" - "foreign", which is one of the core dichotomies in the human mind. This principle permeates the entire culture in its various forms; it is one of the main concepts of any collective, public, national attitudes. The classification criterion is the country where the person was born or set a precedent. But it should be noted that this classification does not account for the precedent names with the sphere-source "religion", because religion is not a specific national system of beliefs; it is not related to the external manifestations of national identity. The analysis showed that the highest percentage of precedent names in Russian and Egyptian press belongs to the national culture, which affirms the principle of national determinism in the selection of precedent phenomena. The number of precedent names of foreign origin in the texts of the Russian press exceeds the number of such names in the texts of the Egyptian press. This indicates a higher degree of permeability of the Russian culture in comparison with the Egyptian, its exposure to the influence of other, mostly American and European, cultures, which is a natural consequence of a more liberal nature of Russians and Russian auto-stereotypes in relation to other nations. The closed nature of the Egyptian culture in comparison with the Russian is a natural consequence of the conservative nature of Egyptians. In the Russian and Egyptian press the precedent names of Western origin (Europe + America) have a high frequency. This could be explained by the fact that in recent years the United States and several European countries became symbols of wealth and success for Russians and Egyptians. The high frequency of precedent names of European origin also shows that Russian and Egyptian readers are well acquainted with the European culture, in particular, the culture of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Greece, that is, it can be noted that "Eurocentrism" and the propagation of the so-called "American Dream" is a common feature of the cultures of the two countries.

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