The Russian language and new media
Researchers in Bergen are in the midst of a large-scale study of the development of the Russian language. Internet culture and computer jargon are both blooming, and are challenging both the standard language and traditional forms of communication.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the development of the Russian language, particularly as used in the public sector, has been spectacular. For some years, a research group led by Professor Ingunn Lunde of the Russian Section of the Department of Foreign Languages in the University of Bergen has been studying the development of Russian during the 1990s. Professor Lunde has recently been awarded a further NOK 12 million for a project that will study Russian language culture in the light of new technology and new media. The central topic of the study - the consequences of new technology for language and language development, is a global phenomenon, and the project could break the ground for collaboration and comparative studies of other languages.
As in their previous project, "Landslide of the Norm", the researchers have adopted a linguistic perspective, while at the same time examining language culture in the broad sense of the term. This also includes the production, dissemination and reception of literary texts, as well as the language debates.
"A highly centralised language policy, strict control of all use of language in the public sector, and a significant amount of resources devoted to measures aimed at cultivating language usage in education for several decades helped to put standard language in an unusually strong position in Russia. When language liberalisation finally arrived at the end of the 1980s, it was a fairly turbulent process, as were the reactions to it," says Ingunn Lunde. The liberalisation of the Russian language has been described as being both creative and a contribution to democracy on the one hand, and as a sign of decline and sickness on the other.
After a period in which slang, jargon and swearing were widely used in the media, politics and literature, many people are now calling for tighter and stricter controls. The state is sponsoring massive popular information campaigns to improve language use.
New norms are being negotiated within the Russian language community. The process takes the form of dialogues on various levels, where language users react and respond to, and negotiate changes in language. Discussions of this sort are taking place via the Internet and in debating programmes in the mass media, and come to expression via relatively official bodies offering their views on the language debate, although these can also be expressed implicitly via different forms of linguistic practice, for example in literature, slang, linguistic humour, etc.
The large amount of financial support given to the project "The Future of Russian" has enabled the research group to advertise post-doc. and PhD positions, and well as grants for Master's degree students to write up their theses. This will enable a research group to be built up along the lines of the "Landslide" model, in which, according to Lunde, recruitment and internationalisation go hand in hand. An international group of researchers is also involved with the project. Research on language development in Russia is also interesting for studies of Russian politics and social life, and through international conferences it creates links with other fields of Russian studies.
