Aim. We study pause as one of the prosodic elements in speech and analyze different subjective and objective modal meanings. An attempt is also made to investigate the mental world of the speaker and his communicative behavior. It is shown that a speech pause sometimes has an impact on the ways of expressing semantic meanings of desire, motivation, possibility, and necessity.

Methodology. The study relies on the method of the discourse analysis of the speech of the each actor in A. P. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard”. Some of sentences in which the pause is a means to convey different semantic meanings are analyzed.

Results. It is found that a combination of a pause and such morphological linguistic units as particles, interjections, etc., allows one to express different emotional feelings of sadness, surprise, worry, and happiness. In some cases, the body language of the speaker is considered as a pause in speech. The paper shows that apart from intonation, the pause in the Russian language becomes a linguistic means of expressing objective and subjective modal meanings of desire, motivation, possibility, and necessity. It is proven that the pause as a superasegment element of speech has an impact on the person mentality and, hence, the subject of the speech act conveys his inner feelings with the shades of desire, motivation, and tendency.

Research implications. The results of this research can be helpful in teaching Russian as a foreign language in order to help students distinguish the pause as a means of conveying different subjective and objective semantic meanings.

Aim. On the example of text units with the semantics of purpose, functioning in the genre of political discourse interviews, we identify the specifics of verbalization of judgments from their generation to the moment of explication, establish indicators of mental monitoring, and determine the factors that cause communication failures in the process of manifestation of the purpose entities in a text.

Methodology. The study relies on the materials of ordinary discourse. Using the continuous sampling method for linguistic observation and subsequent conversational analysis in the genre of political interviews, a corpus of question–answer pairs of about 2500 units is identified. The specifics of categorization of the perceptual image of the event by the recipients is analyzed in a linguistic experiment. The main conclusions of the study are made on the basis of introspection as the main source of judgments about cognitive and linguistic phenomena.

Results. The specifics of verbalization is identified as a complex of processes at the pre-communicative stage (the formation of non-verbal information in the mind of the speaker), the communicative stage (the explication of the judgment), and the post-communicative stage (the evaluation of the verbalized judgment from the point of view of its correspondence to the representation of the event / situation.) Indicators of mental monitoring are established, i.e. communication failures, indicating not only the revealed irrelevance of the realized judgment of non-verbal information, but also the speaker’s intention to ensure the effectiveness of interaction by fulfilling the sincerity condition.

Research implications. A broader interpretation of the term verbalization is proposed as a complex of processes, including a number of operations at the pre- and post-communicative stages of interaction. The nature of communicative failures in verbalization of purpose judgments in the genre of political discourse is determined. The structure of mental monitoring carried out by the speaker in order to realize the communicative intention within the framework of effective interaction is considered and described.

Aim. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze some of the most obvious trends in the development of the modern Russian language at various language levels.

Methodоlogy. Use is made of the methods of empirical observation (mainly over texts of Internet communication and spoken language), the method of description, and the analytical method.

Results. The results of the study make it possible to reveal the most obvious changes in the language of recent years at the level of phonetics (reduction of consonants, contraction of vowels, and unification of pronunciation norms), the level of morphology (development of analyticism, unification of paradigms, change and even deliberate distortion of the norms of control and use of prepositions, and strengthening of modality), and at the level of vocabulary and phraseology [abundance of borrowed words, emergence and rapid change of “fashionable” words of the year, assimilation of borrowings, and intentional (with ironic purposes) and unintentional distortion of phraseological units]. In addition, a number of trends can be noted that cover all language levels, and the most important of them is the abundance of errors, both linguistic and logical, as well as the mixing of various stylistic elements, and gravitation towards stationery and clichés.

Research implications. The results of this study can be used in the course of the Russian language and culture of speech for Russian students of liberal arts universities, not only in its theoretical part (indicating the main trends in the development of the modern Russian language), but also in its practical part (correcting numerous mistakes of students at different language levels).

Aim. The purpose is to describe the structure, themes, and linguistic features of popular science texts about the Russian language in the “Koster” magazine for schoolchildren, as well as to identify means of popularization of scientific knowledge.

Methodology. The features of the structure and themes of popular science texts are determined, and the linguistic means of different levels used to attract the attention of readers are identified. Use is made of such methods as observation, functional analysis of language units, and contextual analysis.

Results. Popular science texts combine the features of scientific, journalistic, and artistic styles. Attracting the reader’s attention is facilitated by the original titles of articles and the choice of a fictional character as the leading character, etc., as well as by lexical, morphological, and syntactic means of the language.

Research implications. The genre and language features of popular science texts are clarified; ideas about the means of popularization of scientific knowledge are expanded. The materials can be used in the practice of teaching the stylistics of the Russian language and the modern Russian language. 

Aim. The purpose is to describe a general semantic and grammatical evolution path of the prepositionalcase form в течение (в течении) in combination with words, related to the lexical group “diseases”, regarding it in both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.

Methodology. Current research involves a quantitative-statistic experiment, which makes it possible to trace the emergence and further evolutionary dynamics of several constructions, as well as to estimate the frequency of its usage and “freezing” degree for refining the grammatical status.

Results. Constructions, which are correlated with the scheme [в + течение (течении) + S _{R: ABSTR & T: DISEASE}] have a different grammatical status (free syntactic constructions, syncretic constructions, and prepositions), as well as different meanings. Syncretic constructions and prepositions can develop additional connotations, i.e. causative and conditional semantics. The general path of semantic changes verifies the localist hypothesis.

Research implications. Identification of and allowance for the morphological “freezing” (grammaticalization) criteria of prepositional-case forms can determine their place in a language system more precisely, which is important in lexicographical practice.

Aim.  The purpose of this work is to analyze evaluative adjectives with proper names used by A. Solzhenitsyn in publicistic works.

Methodology. The paper presents the concepts of evaluation and evaluativity; the characterization of evaluative vocabulary is given; the features of evaluative qualification of persons in the texts of a publicist are considered. Use is made of the method of primary linguistic description and the method of component analysis.

Results. Based on the results of the study, we have found that the works of A. Solzhenitsyn are characterized by psychological assessment, with predominating intellectual assessments, as well as by pragmeme signs. All assessments of the author are usual and generally accepted. The use of adjectival evaluative vocabulary with proper names is a feature of A. Solzhenitsyn’s language and a way of influencing the addressee.

Research implications. The theoretical significance of the presented classification description is determined by the need to study the adjectives of the characteristics of a person – a proper name – in the works of a publicist for further systematic analysis of the author’s evaluative vocabulary.

Aim. We consider the role of repetitions in A. S. Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades”, as well as the artistic function of epigraphs and their meaning in this work.

Methodology. Use is made of a stylistic and semantic analysis of Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades”. Special attention is paid to the steady repetition of many motifs and images, as well as individual words and expressions in “The Queen of Spades”; the epigraphs and the text of Pushkin’s story are compared.

Results. It is suggested that some of the repetitions in “The Queen of Spades” are not designed to remind the previous usages and arise by chance. But most of Pushkin’s self-repetitions are used quite consciously and thoughtfully and carry a certain emotional and expressive load. It is found that Pushkin managed to achieve in his story an exact correlation between the epigraph and the text and skillfully used literary repetitions as the author’s literary device, which manifests itself at different levels of his poetics.

Research implications. Determining the artistic function of epigraphs and their relationship with the text of “The Queen of Spades” can be important for commenting on Pushkin’s story, as well as for identifying the ambiguity and diversity of the main characters of the work, its philosophical issues, in particular, the problem of necessity and chance. In “The Queen of Spades”, the echo of the plot situation and the lexical-semantic connections of epigraphs with the text and plot twists of each chapter are clearly visible.

Aim. We study processes of mythologization that characterize the strategies for the development of Romanticism in foreign countries.

Methodology. Using the analysis of representative literary phenomena, we consider the sociocultural and aesthetic genesis, as well as transformations inherent in the hero’s paradigm at different stages of evolution of Romanticism in different countries. The methodological basis of the research relies on mythological directions of literary criticism, hermeneutics, modern comparative studies, and receptive aesthetics, with elements of sociocriticism and structuralist approach.

Results. The transition to the “intrinsic value of the individual” that took place during Romanticism and the emergence of new personal models determines the features of mythologization, first of all, in the image of the hero. Certain aspects of the period of the formation and flourishing of romantic aesthetics up to its transformation in symbolism are considered, which reveals a new stage of mythologism in literature.

Research implications. The concept of a literary myth as a text and hypertext of culture, associatively or indirectly derived from it, can be used in further research on Romanticism.

Aim. We analyze F. I. Panferov’s book of essays “In the early morning” (1927) that is most representative from the point of view of reflecting the dialectically contradictory process of restructuring peasant consciousness during collectivization.

Methodology. The texts of essays from F. I. Panferov’s book “In the early morning” are considered; the views of the writer’s contemporaries on his work devoted to the topic of collectivization (P. Algasov, A. Isbakh, etc.) are analyzed. Use is made of biographical, cultural-historical, and sociological methods.

Results. The analysis shows that in the conditions of social breakdown, the process of changing the consciousness of a peasant-sole proprietor is seen by the writer as a complex, but natural condition for the formation of the Soviet village.

Research implications. The works of F. I. Panferov are analyzed as the embodiment of the main trends of the “collective farm prose” of the 1920s–30s; the study fills a gap in the study of poorly known essays of the writer.

Aim. The purpose of the paper is to find and analyze elements of Chinese culture in the novel “Angel’s Bite” by the modern Russian writer P. Krusanov.

Methodology. The writer’s main techniques are interpreted: The neo-mythological narrative is considered as a core method of artistic typification. The role of Chinese subtexts in the structure of the central image is analyzed. Use is made of the methods of interpretation, generalization and search for intertextual connections with classical Chinese literature.

Results. Hidden references to Chinese culture and literature are found, which confirm an original hypothesis that the text is filled with allusions of Eastern philosophy and mythology. A conclusion is made that the Chinese layer of the text is involved in the deep realization of the Eurasian conception of the writer.

Research implications. The conclusions obtained allow one to expand the intertextual field of the novel by including some cultural elements that have not been observed by previous researchers.

Aim. The purpose is to analyze the phenomenon of cinematic features in modern artistic sphere on the example of N. V. Gogol’s short stories from his collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” in general and his story “The Fair at Sorochyntsi” in particular.

Methodology. The paper explores the phenomenon of cinematic features in literature by analyzing the aesthetic conventions and relying on methods of cinematography that correspond to the narrative strategies originally applied in a literary work. Based on N. V. Gogol’s “The Fair at Sorochyntsi”, we describe the cinematic effects in verbal art that enable the reader to perceive a literary text from the perspective of emotional images and spatio-temporal relocations. In addition, these effects provoke the recipient to reflect deeply and carefully while interpreting the author’s idea. Special attention is paid to such a literary device as a so-called silent scene, to its impact on the “perceiving mind”, namely, the reader. We also justify the assertion that this device is a means of introducing cinematic features to a literary work.

Results. It is found that Gogol created his prose following the laws of visual perception. To that end, he utilized various devices of drama that transform the text into a somewhat “theatrical” one, making it more “visible” for the reader. Subsequently, scholars would define such literary devices as “literary cinematic features”.

Research implications. Most recent studies and publications covering the issue are analyzed and conclusions are drawn based on these studies. Some results of the present study can be used for lecturing in educational institutions. The materials can be used for preparing scientific articles or summaries.