Ethnonyms "Rusin" and "Rusinian" in Russian discourse: a corpus study

The articles focuses on the analysis of the different ways in which ethnonyms rusin, rusinian are used in Russian discourse. We apply discourse analysis to the contexts taken from Russian National Corpus in the time range of the last 300 years in order to discover typical contexts, discourses and genres in which these ethnonyms are used. We take these as the evidence of correlated social and historical phenomena that concert the Rusins as an ethnic group. The results have shown that the Rusin ethnicity is presented in two ways: either as united with the Russian ethnicity and its other neighbors, or as opposed to the surrounding ethnicities. The heterogeneous character of the Rusin ethnicity is often highlighted in the context of self-determination relative to other ethnicities. At the same time, all contexts are characterized by an intense reflection on the nature of the ethnonyms rusin, rusinian. Over time, genre dynamics shows a clear tendency to shift from the more transient discourses (press) to literary and historical reflections. A sharp increase in the amount of contexts from 2000 onward shows a growing interest to Rusin issues in the Russian Internet media.

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