Corpus linguistic exploration of Russian-Vietnamese mutual perceptions

Despite long-term fruitful relations between Russia and Vietnam, there is still a need for studies that would deepen intercultural understanding between the two peoples. In this paper, Russian-Vietnamese mutual perceptions are analyzed relying on corpus linguistic methods. Data collection was conducted in the course of a preceding study aimed at the reconstruction and investigation of mutual representations of the Russian and Vietnamese peoples through experimentally obtained ethnic portraits and self-portraits of the two respective nations. Here, the empirical data of the collected data is further deeper examined by corpus linguistic tools (Sketch Engine, Atlas.ti). In order to gain a more comprehensive picture of the two nations’ mutual and self-perceptions, Russian-Vietnamese pairs of characteristics were identified and semantically contrasted to Russian and Vietnamese reference corpora as common parts of mutual perceptions. Connotational differences of the studied characteristics were identified, analyzed, and categorized and unique traits of the Russian and Vietnamese mutual and self-perceptions were identified and investigated. Collocations and thesauri of the relevant characteristics were examined, complemented by the corpus-based analysis of the two nations’ perceptions. The obtained results suggest that the Top-10 most typical common traits of mutual and self-perceptions of the two peoples comprise noteworthy semantic differences. The research confirmed the effectiveness of the complementary application of the questionnaire-based and the corpus linguistic methods. It is concluded that the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches gives a more comprehensive picture of how the ethnic portraits and self-portraits are reflected in languages and cultures.