Collocations with the Nomination ‘‘Russia’’ in the Corpus of Finno-Ugric Internet Travelogues

• Published in: Finno-ugorskij mir Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 35 - 46
• Main Author: Osmak, Natalya A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Research Mordova State University; MRSU 28.03.2025
• Subjects: collocations; finnish; russia; russocentric discourse; sentiment analysis
• ISSN: 2076-2577; 2541-982X
• DOI: 10.15507/2076-2577.017.2025.01.035-046

Introduction. Despite the fact that the image of Russia in foreign discourse has repeatedly been the subject of scholarly attention, the Finno-Ugric material, including the peculiarities of travel notes and their modern counterpart (internet travel blogs), remains insufficiently explored. The aim of this study is to identify the key dominant elements that shape the perception of Russia in internet travel blogs by analyzing collocations with terms representing the country in Finnish. Materials and Methods. The study is based on a subcorpus of Finnic-language internet travelogues about Russia, manually compiled from the internet using a full-sampling method. The corpus includes 31 texts, comprising a total of 24,288 word occurrences. The research employed discourse analysis methods, with sentiment analysis conducted automatically and text tone evaluated through expert assessment. Results and Discussion. The analysis of collocations related to the concept of “Russia” revealed their axiological significance. The frequent use of the word form Venäjä (Russia) contributes to the stereotyping of the country as a cultural space for tourism, while also highlighting the de-stereotyping process through the personal experiences of travelers. The term Neuvostoliitto (Soviet Union) emphasizes the historical era. Sentiment analysis demonstrated the neutrality of the collocations, which together form a multifaceted image of Russia in online travel blogs. Conclusion. The results of this study refine and complement research in the field of the representation of the concept of “Russia” in Finnish linguistic culture. The data obtained through sentiment analysis of contexts and their expert evaluation may be used in the further development of algorithms for automatic text sentiment analysis.