Self-identification processes and their reflection in the language of fourth-wave Russian emigrants in Montreal (Quebec, Russian text)

The thesis analyzes the speech behavior of Russian emigrants of the fourth wave during the period of their adaptation to the life in the "new" country. The research is based on text material collected in the Montreal Russian community in the period 1998--2003. In the course of processing the material the author used methods of comparative analysis and lexical and semantic analysis. The thesis deals with the linguistic forms in which the process of individual self-identification materializes when people leave their mother country to live in another. Special attention is paid to the terms used to describe the homeland, the "new" country and the emigre. Words and expressions found in the course of the research process are quoted, and their place and meaning in the modern Russian language both in the mother country and abroad are discussed. The research of the fourth-wave Russian emigrants' language showed certain peculiarities proving that emigrants use a metalanguage different from the language of the mother country. It also contains various loan words and words and expressions with displaced or changed meaning.