Aim. The paper deals with some questions connected with the activity of the Prague Linguistic School. Despite many works dedicated to it both in Russia and abroad, many important aspects of its activity and role are not known in necessary degree. The thesis is proved according to which the latter is characterized with one specific feature. Whereas the founder of the school mostly is treated as the leading figure around whom are grouped his disciples and followers, the situation in Prague School looks somehow different.

Methodology. The methods of historical and philological analysis have been used.

Results. Vilem Mathesius cannot be treated as a ‘teacher’ of Russian linguists with whom the main contribution of the Prague School in the science of language are connected. At the same time, this fact does not diminish the role of V. Mathesius, because his activity and leadership fostered greatly the conversion of Prague to the center of the one of the main trends in 20th century linguistics. Its influence remained even after its existence as a separate organization had ceased.

Research implications. Both the factual material presented in the article and the conclusions made by the authors may be used in the development of the historiography of linguistics and theory of language as well as in teaching of the history of linguistics, general linguistics, introduction to linguistics.

Aim. The purpose of this study is to examine scientific works of Vilém Mathesius – a prominent member of the Prague Linguistic Circle – dedicated to the history of phonological research in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, to compare phonological views of Vilém Mathesius himself with those of other linguists of the 19th century, and to identify similarities and differences between the position of Vilém Mathesius and the representatives of linguistic naturalism.

Methodology. The main researched methods utilized in the study are descriptive-analytical and comparative analysis.

Results. The article elaborates on such questions as the origins of phonology as a science as well as its field of study, differences between phonology and phonetics, phonological characteristics of distinct sounds, and the concepts of structural phonological analysis and historical phonology. The authors reveal similarities and differences between views of scientists having conducted their research in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries on phonological issues and expand on the points made by Vilém Mathesius by considering relevant facts, definitions, and arguments found in works of 19th century linguists, both those referred to by V. Mathesius (Wilhelm von Humboldt, Ferdinand de Saussure, J. N. I. Baudouin de Courtenay) and those unmentioned by him (Karl Becker, Max Müller, William Dwight Whitney, Ernest Renan).

Research implications. Theoretical significance of the current study is motivated by it contributing to research on the history of phonology in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Prague Linguistic Circle as a whole and Vilém Mathesius as one of its representatives, and the connection between the teachings of Vilém Mathesius and linguistic naturalism as an ideology.

Aim. To show that the doctrine of the actual division of the sentence (some aspects of which were presented in the works of French grammarians of the logical direction of the XVIII century, such as César Chesneau Dumarsais, Nicolas Beauzée, Charles Bateau, and summarized almost 100 years later by Henri Weil) that was described in detail by Vilém Mathesius (1882–1946) on the example of the Czech language, still retains its relevance in modern linguistic research and is reflected in various aspects of language learning, for example, theory and practice of translation.

Methodology. The author analyzes the works of modern researchers devoted to various aspects of the doctrine of the actual division of the sentence, including those in which special attention is paid to the theory and practice of translation. Such research methods as descriptive and comparative were used.

Results. The data presented in the works of modern Russian scientists on the issues of actual sentence division when translating texts from English into Russian are analyzed and summarized. The use of V. Mathesius' provisions on the actual division of the sentence (opposed to the formal division of the sentence), supplemented subsequently by the developments of the Russian scientists, allows us to conclude that V. Mathesius' teaching is of great importance for the theory and practice of translation at the present stage.

Research implications. The practical significance of the conducted research suggests the need to take into account the provisions of the doctrine of the sentence actual division when translating from one natural language to another, considering the syntactic features of each of the languages, at the same time special attention should be paid to the so-called pre-translation analysis of the text, the meaning of which is currently being unfairly ignored by many translators, especially the novice ones.

Aim. To determine the interdependence of the concepts of “category” and “part of speech” in the functional dynamics of a language and attempt to create a utilitarian classification of parts of speech / lexico-grammatical classes based on the core grammatical category.

Methodology. The author applied the systematic-structural method of language analysis.

Results. In the process of classifying parts of speech, it is advisable to take into account the relationship between functionally relevant grammatical categories and categories of the conceptual and semantic level.

Research implications. The author defined an approach to interpreting the intralinguistic structure to create a utilitarian classification of lexico-grammatical classes / parts of speech. The results of the analysis can be applied in courses on general linguistics, the theory of functional linguistics, and the basics of the theory of language in higher educational institutions.

Aim. The purpose of this article is to consider the connection between the style theory of the outstanding Germanist philologist E. Rizel and the ideas of the Prague School and of V. Mathesius in particular.

Methodology. Based on the analysis of the publications of E. Rizel and V. Mathesius, the similarity of their views on language and style is traced, and it is manifested not only in the understanding of style as a complex phenomenon, but also in the approaches to the linguo-stylistic study of the word from the positions of micro- and macro-stylistics. The article shows that E. Rizel was the first to apply the concept of functionality to the German language, that was formulated briefly in the works of the members of the Prague School of Linguistics. E. Rizel developed this approach in detail in her monographs on the style of the German language, which received international recognition. E. Rizel's special merit and contribution to the functional stylistics of the German language is the proof of the existence of everyday style.

Results. The study of the above-mentioned issues allows us to conclude about the contribution of E. Rizel to the formation of the anthropocentric paradigm of linguistics and the connection of her style theory with the ideas of V. Mathesius who was the founder of the Prague Linguistic Circle. The understanding of stylistics in the theory of E. Rizel is based on anthropocentric and activity approaches, since the person who communicates in a certain way with a certain purpose in one language or another remains the focus of her attention.

Research implications. Consideration of the dynamics of the “style” concept in the works of the prominent linguists of the past helps to clarify the essence of the terms “discourse” and “style” in the modern scientific paradigm, methodology and prospects os linguistic study development, to identify the agenda of modern academic paradigm, to outline the boundaries of of discourse and stylistics as disciplines. It should be noted that teaching stylistics as academic discipline at a linguistic university has a great theoretical and practical significance.

Aim. The purpose of the article is to analyze the views of V. Mathesius and other members of the Prague Linguistic Circle based on the criteria for determining the literary language norm and evaluate these views, on the one hand, in the context of modern problems of language normalization, and on the other hand, from the standpoint of theoretical concepts of modern linguistics.

Methodology. The article contains, firstly, a synthesis of various statements of Prague linguists about the criteria of the literary norm, and secondly, an attempt to apply the results of this synthesis when considering controversial issues of normalizing some phenomena of the Russian language of our days. When implementing this attempt, methods of functional and system analysis of the language are used.

Results. The result of the study is the selection of four criteria for determining the literary norm and the definition of hierarchical relationships between them. These criteria are: (1) the historical purity of the language, (2) the regularity of models for constructing language units, (3) language practice, and, finally, (4) the correspondence of certain variants of a language unit to the communicative needs of native speakers at a given stage of language development. It is shown that, with a high degree of probability, the variants corresponding to the communicative needs of native speakers will eventually displace all other variants.

Research implications. The theoretical significance of the study is that it contributes to the modern theory of language normalization. The practical significance of the work is related to the possibility of applying the results obtained in the preparation of normative dictionaries, reference books on the culture of speech and manuals on literary editing, as well as in the practice of school and university teaching of linguistic disciplines.

Aim. To analyze the category of communicative linguistics “discourse precision”.

Methodology. The methods of definitive, contextual and interpretative analysis have been applied.

Results. The main results of the research is a description of discourse precision treated as functionally determined correlation between the contents of speech and aims of communication. Such precision is a gradual category specific for different discourse types. The paper characterizes peculiarities of manifestation of discourse precision and its deviation in habitual, artistic, institutional and scientific communication. Deviations from discourse precision may be intentional and not deliberate. They consist in inappropriate use of various ways and means of communication, in digression from communication principles of cooperation and politeness, in arbitrary treating the signs used, in banalities and tautology and similar recursive sentences, in bizarre transposition of genres, in logical inconsistency which makes communication absurd. Habitual non-precision in speech is usually compensated by paraverbal means of communication, while non-precision in artistic creations is either a deliberate description of characters or evidence of the low level of the text. Deviation in institutional discourse makes the communication irrelevant, e.g. contracts turn out to be inoperative and advertisement ineffective. Non-precision in the scientific text indicates the lack of professionalism of its authors.

Research implications. The theoretical significance of the paper consists in the definition of discourse theory categories, its practical value may be presented as an opportunity to apply the results obtained in the courses of communication theory and discourse theory. Both the factual material presented in the article and the conclusions made by the author may be used in the development of the theory of linguistics, theory of discourse analysis, as well as in teaching of the general linguistics, introduction to linguistics.

Aim is to consider the interaction of professional diplomats mediated by the electronic media from the point of view of functional linguistics by means of conversational analysis.

Methodology. The analysis of random sample of speeches the official representative of the US White House, J. Psaki and the reactions to them of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, M.V. Zakharova, by the methods of functional linguistics and modified conversational analysis, was carried out.

Results. It is proved that the conversational analysis of the foreign policy dialogue within the framework of functional linguistics deepened the understanding of the use of various linguistic practices, defined the conversation in interaction as a dynamic process with the possibility of violating the hicet hoc conversation rule and switching stylistic codes. In contrast to discourse-oriented analysis, the approach of conversational analysis to the corpus of "dialogues" (statements – comments to them) tends to focus on the examples that share not only the form, but also the type of action. However, the model of the "dialogue" mediated by the electronic media allows communication by polycode means, including the iconic ones, with some temporary delay. The dynamics of the context development, the meaning of the transmitted replicas, including the implicit, extralinguistic details of interaction, the sequence of replicas-reactions, i.e. the basic characteristics of the communicative aspect of functional linguistics, remain the most important for the mediated dialogue.

Research implications. Theoretical significance consists in confirming and expanding knowledge in the field of functional linguistics to the sphere of foreign policy communication mediated by the electronic media. The principle of displaced agonality is proposed as one of the options for correspondence communication in foreign policy discourse.

Aim. The purpose of this study is to consider the Czech National Corpus as the main tool of linguistic analysis in modern Bohemian studies.

Methodology. The composition of the Czech National Corpus is presented. The Czech National Corpus includes, in addition to the 4.9 billion SYN series (modern Czech written texts), dozens of other corpora such as the Prague Colloquial Corpus, the Brno Colloquial Corpus, the Corpus of public speeches of 14 Czech presidents from Eduard Beneš to Miloš Zeman, the Corpus of recorded school lessons, the Corpus of school essays written by migrants etc. The present study considers the results of the use of Corpus material in the field of grammar, lexicography and linguoculturology.

Results. The effectiveness of referring to the corpus materials in research in various fields of linguistics is shown.

Research implications. The material presented in the paper, as well as the conclusions based on its analysis can be used for further research in the field of grammar, lexicology and lexicography, as well as linguoculturology.

Aim. The aim of this article is to describe the microblogging of the social network Instagram1 as the most successful segment of the advertising Internet discourse, which has the highest degree of persuasive impact on the mental sphere of recipients.

Methodology. While writing this article, the following methods were employed: observation, analysis and synthesis, classification, conceptual modeling, comparison, etc.

Results. The analysis revealed that the development of modern society is due to the impact of information technologies, which affect the information exchange in the process of communication and ways of building interpersonal relationships, as well as leisure and gaming activities of a person that transform into cyberspace, in which a virtual identity of a person is formed. This type of artificial personality is called virtual linguistic personality. These factors significantly simplified the interaction between the sellers of goods and services and the consumers.

Research implications. The results obtained in the work serve to deepen knowledge and ideas about Internet advertising discourse, can be used in the preparation and delivery of lectures, seminars and practical classes on general linguistics, intercultural communication, text stylistics, Internet communication and journalism, digital economy, discourse analysis, English. They can also be useful for representatives of advertising and PR-sphere. The conclusions of the authors deepen the understanding of the nature and mechanisms of verbal and non-verbal communication, thereby contributing to the theory of communication, and also they complement the discourse theory, the advertising theory, the speech genres theory, clarifying and expanding their categorical and conceptual apparatus in the light of Internet advertising communication.