Doctoral Dissertation Defense in ForeignPhilology Held at ENU

The Dissertation Council for PhD Defense in Foreign Philology at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University successfully hosted the defense of a doctoral dissertation by Kuralay Dautbayeva, doctoral candidate of educational program 8D02310 - Foreign Philology, on the topic «Linguocultural Features of the Concept of Evaluation in Linguistic and Discursive Representation (based on the material of the Kazakh and English languages)».

The topic of the presented dissertation is distinguished by its relevance due to its speech-oriented and cultural focus. The concept of evaluation is multifaceted in nature: on one hand, it is a category expressing rich semantics; on the other hand, it is a pragmatic orientation of speech; and thirdly, it is a phenomenon that borders on psychology and the cognitive meanings of linguistic signs and word combinations. The modality of evaluative expression requires study within discourse through the application of axiological approaches and from the perspective of the persuasiveness of the communicative act.

The dissertation examines the theoretical and practical aspects of the evaluation concept in Kazakh and English linguocultures. Based on cognitive, linguocultural, and corpus analysis, the nationally and culturally specific features of the linguistic representation of evaluation were identified, its axiological and pragmatic characteristics were determined, and the mechanisms of functioning of evaluative units in the advertising discourse of the Kazakh and English languages were revealed.

The defense took place in an atmosphere of lively scholarly discussion. The candidate's defense speech was delivered in both Kazakh and English. Members of the dissertation council, official reviewers, and foreign scholars expressed great interest in the research findings, posing questions in both languages regarding the formulation of the evaluation concept, research methodology, the application of corpus technologies, and the specific features of evaluative meaning representation in Kazakh and English. All questions received substantive and well-reasoned answers, confirming the high level of the candidate's preparation and the scholarly significance of the research conducted.

The members of the dissertation council highly commended the scientific novelty, theoretical and practical value of the work. Based on the results of the defense, a unanimous decision was made to award Kuralay Dautbayeva the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in educational program 8D02310 - Foreign Philology.