Mariya Kovshova

Chief Researcher, Yuri Stepanov Department for Theory and Practice of Communication

Employed at the Institute of Linguistics since 1979.

Mariya Kovshova is a leading specialist in the field of linguistic culturology. Her research interests are linguistic culturology, semantics, pragmatics, general and Russian phraseology, paremiology, lexicography, phraseology.

In 1986, she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of MSU.

In 1996, she defended her PhD thesis on the topic of 'Cultural-ethnic peculiarities of phraseological units (cognitive aspects)'. In 2009, she defended her Dr.habil. thesis on the topic of 'Semantics and pragmatics of phraseological units (linguoculturogical aspect)'.

Mariya Kovshova is the author of more than 170 research works, including monographs and dictionaries: "Semantics and pragmatics of euphemisms. A concise dictionary of Russian euphemisms" (2007), "Linguoculturological method in phraseology. Culture codes" (2012), "The semantics of headwear in culture and language. Costume code of culture" (2015), "Linguoculturological analysis of idioms, riddles, proverbs, and sayings. Anthroponymic culture code" (2019), "Dictionary of proper names in Russian riddles, sayings, proverbs, and idioms" (2019). An innovative "Dictionary of linguocultural terms" was compiled in 2017 (co-authored with Dmitry Gudkov). 

A co-author of a number of collective monographs, including "Phraseology in the context of culture" (1999), "Linguistics and semiotics of cultural transfers: Methods, principles, techniques" (2016), “Diachronic and synchronic studies of Russian and Slavic phraseology” (2018), "Representation of the emotional sphere of a person on the material of different languages" (2020).

A co-author of two phraseological dictionaries, compiled with Veronica Teliya, Mariya Kovshova's teacher, as an academic supervisor. One of them is called 'Dictionary of figurative expressions of the Russian language' (1995). In this dictionary, the descriptions of semantics, grammar, and stylistics of phraseological units were focused on utterances "about him", "about you", "about myself". The second one is the "Great phraseological dictionary. Meaning. Usage. Cultural commentary" (2006).

Since 2010, Mariya Kovshova is the head of the Research group "Linguoculturology" that was established in 1986 by Veronica Teliya. The group is developing a special area that studies interaction of language and culture, two semiotic areas that are seen as forms of consciousness reflecting a person's worldview, and are described as a single phenomenon. The purpose of the seminars is to study the ways of embodiment of cultural information in semantics of language signs and to study the signs of language in the context of culture.

Mariya Kovshova is an organizer and a participant of numerous international linguistic, phraseological, linguoculturogical, and linguocognitive conferences in Russia and abroad. Since 2002, she has been organizing conferences of the group "Logical linguistic analysis" under the leadership of Nina Arutyunova, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The conferences include "Semantics of beginning and ending", "Linguistic mechanisms of comedy", "Assertion and negation", "Linguofuturism: the future in language and the future of language", "Information structure of texts in different languages in different times" and others. The last conference "The concept of faith in different languages and cultures" was held in 2018 and was devoted to the memory of Nina Arutyunova.

A member of editorial board of the series "Logical linguistic analysis", participates in organizing the seminars under the leadership of Tatyana Yanko.

She is engaged in educational work. She taught philological disciplines at MSU, at Kutafin Moscow State Law University, at Moscow Pedagogical State University. Currently is an academic supervisors of graduate students at the Institute of Linguistics. Three graduate students and three foreign master's degree students of Moscow Pedagogical State University and the Institute of Linguistics of RAS have successfully defended PhD theses with Mariya Kovshova as their academic supervisor. 

A member of Phraseological Committee at the International Committee of Slavists.

A member of the Scientific Council at the Institute of Linguistics of RAS, and a member of Dissertation Councils at the Institute of Linguistics of RAS and Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University.

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Selected publications