Aim. To identify and describe the inventory of lexical units with digital semantics functioning in English customs texts as samples of digital customs discourse.Methodology. Customs texts that include lexical units with digital semantics were analyzed. The selection of the units was carried out with the help of the continuous sampling method. The methods of content analysis, description, quantitative and qualitative interpretation of linguistic facts were also used in the research.Results. Lexical units with digital semantics perform the function of lexical markers of digital customs discourse as a specific subtype of institutional customs discourse. Customs issues are the content-forming core of digital customs discourse, the periphery of which is represented by lexical units with digital semantics which implies a certain interpenetration of customs and digital (IT) terminological systems.Research implications. A revised concept of customs discourse is proposed. The term “lexical unit with digital semantics” is introduced. The functions of lexical units with digital semantics as markers of digital customs discourse and means of lexical cohesion in texts related to customs issues are determined. The prospects for the development of terminology, theory of institutional customs discourse, and cognitive science are outlined.

Aim. To analyze the features of the implementation of the figurative component in the terminology of clinical neurosciences, in particular, psychiatry and neurology. Neurological and psychiatric terms with an eponymous component are the object of the research. The subject of study is the implementation of the figurative component in terminology.Methodology. The entire terminology of clinical neurosciences from the point of view of the figurative component implementation can be divided into culturally-marked and culturally-neutral terms. In the course of the work, culturally-marked medical terminology based on precedent onyms is analyzed. The MedicineNet.com portal is the source of the practical material. Within the framework of the study, based on the method of continuous sampling, 122 terms have been selected and analyzed. All these terms are eponymous, but they are at different levels of precedence, and the actualization of the figurative component depends on the recipient and various extralinguistic factors.Results. As a result of the conducted research, the following conclusions have been made: the figurative component can be actualized only in culturally-marked terms; the degree of precedence of the onomastic element and the actualization of the figurative component depend on the amount of background knowledge of communicants; the figurative component that functions in neurological and psychiatric syndromes and diseases can be a vivid feature of the appearance or personality of the referent, a precedent event, the symptomatology of a disease, as well as an individual associative array.Research implications. Modern medical terminology is characterized by the use of eponymous terms in professional discourse. As part of their meaning, there is a culture-specific component, which allows us to consider them from the point of view of the verbal form of preservation, transmission and representation of cultural and historical heritage. The specificity of eponymous terms is manifested in their stylistic marking, the study of the discursive implementation of which seems to be relevant today. This research contributes to the development of cognitive terminology, as well as to the study of the specifics of eponymous terms, in contrast to other nominative units. Its practical value consists in the possibility of using research materials in teaching English for special purposes.

Aim. The following article goes back to a series of research work on modality and evidentiality and focuses on the interrelation and division of labor between the syntax-semantic interface and the expressions with grammatical categories of mood and mode on one side, and lexical or morphological items on the other.Methodology. The present article is based on functional approach of functional syntax and semantics combined with the theory of generative grammar and minimalism. The second part has a comparative component showing the wide range of affixal expressions with which the agglutinative languages such as Kazakh and Kirgiz mark epistemic modality. The comparative approach is seemingly to be preferred over a monolingual functional one because the comparison can show differences and similarities and thus shed light into new ways of conveying grammatical functions and lexical meanings in different types of languages.Results. It can be shown that while modality is a category which seems to have universal implications, that means there are no languages which lack modality, evidentiality can be expressed either explicitly (by lexical or grammatical expressions) or implicitly (via pragmatic inference, deixis or presuppositins).Research implications. As opposed to the Indo-European languages where the distincition of epistemic modality and evidentiality is based on the so called portmanteu effect, meaning that epistemic modality can include evidentiality, the expression of evidentiality in Kazakh and Kirgiz is expressed by inference or deicticly. This material makes a certain contribution to the further development of the theory of modality as a universal language category from the perspective of both Russian and Turkological comparative linguistics.

Aim. To identify the features of the Chinese-Russian translation of the euphemisms of the semantic group “death” on the material of the Chinese novel "Dream in the Red Chamber" by Cao Xueqin.Methodology. Linguistic and linguoculturological analysis of classical fiction texts were the key re­search methods. Besides, the following methods were applied in the research: hypothetical-deductive method; method of parallel comparison of texts having the same functional and stylistic affiliation for both languages; translation analysis; and a description-comparative method to identify the specifics of the units of the Chinese language compared to those of the Russian language and to establish the classification of the euphemisms referring to the semantic group “death” in both languages.Results. The author traces the nature of the euphemisms translations in the novel “Dream in the Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin from Chinese into Russian. As a result, it has been revealed that the analysis of the euphemism “death” in the translation of the novel “The Dream in the Red Chamber” helps better understand mentality and culture of China in the middle of the XVIII century. Novelty of the research is in a comprehensive and holistic comparative analysis of the euphemistic vocabulary in the novel “Dream in the Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin in Chinese and Russian. The absolute novelty is the enrichment and expansion of the conceptual concept of “euphemism” by introducing untranslated scientific works of Chinese linguists into scientific circulation.Research implications. The significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying its results in further research of Chinese-Russian literary translations comparison, as well as in the educational process at philological faculties of universities, in particular, in teaching theory and practice of trans­lation, sociolinguistics, lexicology, stylistics, psycholinguistics, etc. The classification of Russian and Chinese euphemisms proposed in this paper can be of use in some related sciences (intercultural communication, cultural studies, philosophy, political science, etc.).

Aim. To identify the place of the cases of autonomous discourse modus in the general discursive configuration of the sentence, to compare the discursive positions of such cases with the system of their meanings.Methodology. The main content of the study is the analysis of the discursive nature of the cases of autonomous discourse modus. Descriptive and comparative research methods are used.Results. According to the author of the article, the nominative creates the causal, the accusative creates the spatial, the dative creates the goal-oriented dimension of the autonomous modus of discourse. Case meanings arise as a reflection of their discursive positions, which become the denotative for case meanings.Research implications. The notion of autonomous discourse modus and the notion of case as a discourse-forming grammatical category are introduced into scientific circulation. The presented results can be used in future studies of the theory of syntax, as well as in pedagogical practice during the teaching courses of general linguistics and theoretical grammar.

Aim. To identify the linguistic ways of representing a subject of a framework structure of the evaluation situation in an African-American poem of the Harlem Renaissance period.Methodology. The study employs the general scientific methods of synthesis and analysis, in particular, synthesis of the basic provisions of the language assessment theory, as well as contextual analysis and interpretation of the lexical units definitions.Results. About 60 poems by two poets, Langston Hughes and County Cullen, have been analyzed. The article points out the ways of representing the subject of the assessment situation in the poems by African-American poets: these are three models representing opinion bearer in different poems. The results also state the use of the first-person plural pronoun to denote the position of the subject, the African-American poet often unites his personality and his nation in the text.Research implications. The research gives a possibility to discern the linguistic and cultural features of the evaluative communicative situation construction, paying special attention to manifestations of the basic components of the utterance evaluative framework. The results of this research complement the interpretive capabilities of speech utterance which allows to apply the obtained data in the academic courses of theoretical linguistic disciplines.

Aim. To establish a new algorithm of classifying speech strategies and determine the predominant strategy and tactics used for political propaganda in English political discourses of a small form, as well as to identify the range of linguistic means designed to implement the selected speech strategy and tactics.Methodology. The definitions of the concepts “speech strategy” and “speech tactics” are given. The results of the analysis of existing classifications of speech strategies and tactics are presented. Based on the conducted research, a presentation-axiological algorithm for determining speech strategies is proposed, moreover, the speech strategy “objective praise” and 5 tactics for its implementation are identified. The work applies a descriptive and analytical methods, methods of linguistic and stylistic analysis, interpretation, systematization, generalization, elements of statistical analysis.Results. The study of the theoretical material allowed us to propose a presentation-axiological algorithm for determining speech strategies. The research of small-form English discourse samples reveals a predominant strategy called “objective praise” which is based on undistorted representation of information along with explication of positive emotions. The aforementioned strategy is implemented with 5 communicative tactics included in it. A range of linguistic implementing means is determined.Research implications. A number of new concepts is introduced into the scientific circulation (presentation-axiological algorithm for speech strategies, the strategy of “objective praise”), justified in the study and meeting the need to determine the phenomenon under study. The results obtained will find application in the practice of teaching linguistics and regional studies as well as political linguistics. 

Aim. The article presents a comparative analysis of the characteristics of French and Russian educational discourse in order to identify their common features and peculiarities.Methodology. The main content of the research is the analysis of the “discourse” concept within the framework of French and Russian linguistics. The differences in the interpretation of the “discourse” definition from the methodological positions of the two schools are noted. The analysis of the structure of French and Russian educational discourse and the discursive category of cohesion is carried out. The following general scientific and special linguistic research methods are used: dialectical method, general linguistic methods – descriptive and comparative, as well as semantic and contextual analysis.Results. Based on the study of various approaches of the French and Russian linguistic traditions, the definition of discourse is clarified. It is confirmed that the analysis of Russian public discourse is conditioned by a number of social relations, and therefore it is a spread type of discourses. From the French standpoint, the analysis of discourse is based on the account of its social, historical, and intellectual orientation and institutional frameworks that establish certain restrictions on utterances. The status and structure of the discursive category of coherence, considered as a concept, and the methodology of discursive practice are clarified.Research implications. The results of the study are significant for comparative linguistics and discourse theory, which focuses on a specific linguistic/communicative personality, which is of particular importance for further research of educational discourse as the basic element in the formation of human personality and its social, personal and psychophysical characteristics. The results of the study can be implemented in pedagogical school practice.

Aim. To identify the main types of statements that may contain this punctuation mark (?!).Methodology. Based on descriptive, comparative and contextual methods, the types of statements with the punctuation mark “?!” at the end of the sentence are analyzed.Results. The article proves that the combination “?!” is often used at the end of a sentence. This study allowed us to present the main types of statements, after which there may be used a combination of “?!”. It is also demonstrated that a sentence with such a combination of signs “?!” can be both interrogative and exclamative.Research implications. The results of the study are very useful both for communicative linguistics and for the theoretical grammar of the German language. The data obtained can be used in the further study of punctuation marks in a sentence.

Aim. To determine the scope of the content of the French terms “proposition”, “phrase”/ “énonciation” and “énoncé” and to establish functional correspondence between these French terms and the Russian terms “sentence” and “utterance”.Methodology. The key research method was the method of contextual interpretation of the studied terms definitions presented in the most significant works of Russian and French-speaking authors dealing with structural-semantic and communicative-functional problems of syntax in comparison with their Russian equivalents.Results. The relevance of the differentiation of the terms “proposition”, “phrase”, “énoncé” and “énonciation” ambiguously used in French grammar in French linguistics for the Russian-speaking audience is proved, the scope of the content and the scope of their differentiation are determined, semantic and syntactic correspondences with their Russian equivalents “sentence” / “utterance” are shown. The scientific novelty of the research consists in expanding the understanding of the content potential of the French terms “proposition”, “phrase”, “énoncé” and “énonciation” from the standpoint of modern linguistics based on the methods of contextual interpretation of the definitions under consideration and in establishing their semantic and syntactic correspondence with the Russian equivalents of “sentence” and “utterance”.Research implications. The conceptual and terminological status of the French terms “proposition”, “phrase”, “énoncé” and “énonciation” is clarified, the specifics of their formation and functioning in scientific texts in French are shown, which is a definite contribution to the development of theoretical aspects of French grammar. The obtained research results can be included into the relevant sections of the educational literature.

Aim. To identify and describe the functional and pragmatic features of counter questions in a German-language political interview.Methodology. The paper examines fragments of German-language political interviews in which politicians’ responses are counter questions. Structural-semantic analysis of counter questions revealed their formal-substantive and functional similarity. The methods of discursive and content analysis determine the communicative intention of a political figure in the context of the implementation of the communication strategy of agreement, disagreement or avoidance.Results. The counter question violates the usual question-answer model of the interview, expresses the political figure’s emotive-expressive attitude to reality and implements the communicative strategy of agreement, disagreement or avoidance.Research implications. The results obtained contribute to the study of the speech-influencing power of language units and can be used to describe communication strategies.