No 8(889) (2024)

The article is concerned with the study of Modern English racial and ethnic euphemisms which are examined in terms of their semantic and structural peculiarities, as well as ways and means of creation. The author also explores the reasons for the emergence of a large number of such politically correct lexical units. The research suggests that euphemisms under analysis serve as a tool of self-identification for various racial and ethnic groups and are designed to promote equality and inclusivity.

The article considers the specifics of sense formation in British drama text. The study showed that potential staginess (theatricality) as a genre specific property determines the sense understanding of reproduced events in a play. In the article the linguocognitive phenomenon of visualization was identified and analyzed as it has sense basis and functions as a factor which optimizes the meaning perception.

The paper attempts to analyze the linguistic material that contributes to the verbalization of the fairy tale motif in the modern Russian-language mystical detective story. At the same time, the presence of a limited number of artifacts is established that form a mystical atmosphere in works of the detective genre, the most common of which are «кровь», «веретено», «колодец», «медальон» and some others. These lexemes can be used at the discretion of the author of a mystical detective story both to create a life-affirming atmosphere in the text, and to create an atmosphere of fear and the inevitability of retribution for every unpleasant offense.

The article is focused on the interaction of verbal, visual, and audial modes of communication for creating an argumentative space of a letter to the editor. The analysis of letters from The Economist has shown that images accompanying the text perform several important functions, including the aesthetical and the structural ones; building up on them is the positioning of logical stresses and pauses when providing a voice-over. It is worth noting that the resulting argumentative effect might be used for ethically dubious purposes.

The study explores the notion construal in speech and in gesture in expository monologues in the second language (English) contrasted with the native language (Russian). The results display similar distribution in vague reference in speech and in gesture, which overall evidence in favour of common discourse patterns of multimodal construal. However, the prevalence of placeholders aligned with representational gestures in the second language attests to the higher role of lexical search to construe vague notions aided with the use of gestures.

The article studies linguistic creativity in readers’ online comments accompanying English-language newspaper articles. The analysis shows that linguistic creativity manifests itself in readers’ comments through their subjective interpretations of primary texts. Such interpretations relate to the self-realization of commentators’ personalities. The creative potential of cognitive dissonance is realized in online comments that verbalize interpretations that contradict the interpretations expressed in the texts commented on.

The article considers a relevant study object, literary fairytale that reflects and records the current human experience. Iconic text strategies that create the 3D-fairytale space are discussed as a means used to shape a coherent narrative out of fragmented storyline and to facilitate the grasping of the deep fairytale sense. The value of the fairytale study is proved by the conducted analysis of an authentic English literary fairytale.

The article explores discursive and conceptual means of creating the defeated expectancy effect in English humorous discourse; it argues for using the term ‘paraprosdokian’ to refer to the discursive implementation of the defeated expectancy effect and investigates the discursive mechanism that paraprosdokian is based on. The research findings enable the author to make conclusions about the conceptual structure of paraprosdokian and its interaction with other tropes and extralinguistic information.

The article examines the features of the mythologization of utilitarian and spiritual axiological spaces in epic texts. In different cultures they can manifest themselves differently depending on linguistic and cultural characteristics. In some cultures, utilitarian space can be mythologized through religious or folklore ideas about nature and symbols associated with it. On the other hand, the spiritual axiological space can be mythologized through ideas about supernatural beings, gods, spirits or heroes who influence people's lives and the world around them. These beliefs often depend on the religious beliefs and traditions of a particular culture.

This article is the first to examine scenes from the Oirat written monument of the 17th-18th centuries. “The Tale of the Nectar Teaching” in comparison with its source, the Sanskrit collection “Karmashataka”, translated in the 8th century. into Tibetan language. As a result of the study, it was established that genetically similar plots from “Karmashataka” help to reconstruct and better understand the content of short stories from the Oirat collection, which have lost their essential structural components due to several stages of translation (Oirat

The article examines the work of P. Florensky “Iconostasis”. A comparative analysis of the views of Father Pavel and Plato on issues of philosophy of fine art is carried out. Such concepts as cult, culture, icon and symbol in Florensky’s philosophical system are considered. The moral aspect is defined as the most important in the processes of cognition and creativity. The paradigm of art history built by Florensky is analyzed, in which the spiritual vector of human activity becomes the cornerstone. Russian icon painting of the 14th-15th centuries is recognized as the highest achievement of spiritual and visual culture. The Renaissance period is defined as a departure from cult and the establishment of a vector towards secularization.