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Prof. Oksana Babelyuk (Lviv State University of Human Security/University of Sydney), ‘Linguistic Myths in Russian-Ukrainian War: From Political Manipulations, through Language Challenges to National Identity’This presentation focuses on the most common linguistic myths used by Russian propaganda in connection with Russia’s war on Ukraine. In Russian propaganda, the fact that the Russian and Ukrainian languages belong to the same language family and have a certain lexical stock in common (62%) is used to justify denying Ukrainian the status of a separate language. Historical analysis of the “one nation, two languages” phenomenon in contemporary Ukraine shows how this is a result of Russification and genocide during the Soviet period. Russian propaganda treats the Ukrainian language as: 1) a Russian ‘dialect’ used in villages by uneducated people; 2) lacking its own scientific and technical terminology; 3) lacking its own national elite or high culture; 4) incapable of providing the basis for a national identity in Ukraine. All of these claims serve to depict Ukraine as a mere territory, without language, culture, or history.
This talk will pay special attention to how and why language policy in Ukraine has changed in wartime, how the Ukrainian language is being used as national identity code, and how English grammar and English military terminology are being used to signal political sympathies for Ukraine and to support Ukrainian sovereignty.
Oksana Babelyuk is a Professor at Lviv State University of Human Security; Visiting Professor in the School of Art, Communication and English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney; and Chief Editor of Lviv Philology Journal.
This talk is hosted by the Faculty of Arts Research Initiative on Post-Soviet Space (RIPSS).
https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-historical-and-philosophical-studies/our-research/research-centres-hubs-and-groups/ripss
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Arts West 561, University of Melbourne, Parkville campus, Arts West, Medical Rd, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia,Melbourne, Victoria, Australia