Aim. The purpose of the paper is to characterize the crucial components of the lexical concept of Motherland in consciousness of the Financial University students.
Methodology. A semantic differential experiment is performed. The content of the study involves an analysis of the results obtained with the use of the methods of observation and generalization.
Results. The research makes it possible to identify the characteristics of the crucial components of the lexical concept of Motherland in mass consciousness of the 17–20-year-old students.
Research implications. The obtained results show the functioning of the important lexical concept in mass consciousness of the youth, and help emphasize high-priority ways in practice of promotion of patriotism in the system of higher education.

Aim. The purpose of the article consists in a linguo-stylistic analysis of language play examples on the basis of occasional vocabulary, revealed in the children’s poetry written by contemporary Russian authors.
Methodology. The linguistic material is examined using the methods of empirical research (comparison and description), general logical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization), as well as the method of linguo-stylistic analysis.
Results. Over 200 contemporary poems for children are analyzed; examples of linguistic playfulness based on nonce formations are identified; and conclusions are made, concerning the predominance of a certain type of nonce words in the total volume of nonce formations in Russian poems for children.
Research implications. The paper summarizes the available classifications of nonce words, suggests a definition of the term language play that contributes to linguistics. The material in question can be used in the educational process: lecture courses, seminars in Stylistics of the Russian language and Lexicology, and for term and graduation papers.

Aim. The goal of the study is to reveal the peculiarities of the functioning of syntactic units, namely, to imagine what additional meanings affecting the general semantics are contained in syntactic constructions.
Methodology. Based on the component analysis of a fragment of a literary text taken from M. Saltykov- Shchedrin’s novel “The Golovlevs”, the influence of syntactic categories on the reader’s understanding of the events of the work is revealed. The categories of modality, temporality, and personality are considered in detail. A feature of the study is that the world described in a literary work is understood as a simulation of reality.
Results. It is found that syntactic categories are constructs of the artificial world of a literary work. Temporal attitudes embedded in the syntactic structure create conditions for the functioning of characters, and modal components reflect the author’s vision in the text. In their totality, syntactic categories become the basis for creating an artificial world in which the author places his characters.
Research implications. The paper presents an analysis algorithm, in which attention is paid to syntactic categories in terms of their influence on semantics. It can be used for a more complete study of the images of characters in various literary works.

Aim. The purpose of the paper is to study the phenomenon of “scientific” phraseology, and its structural and semantic features, as well as to prove significance of its study within the “Russian language as a foreign” discipline.
Methodology. The research relies on general scientific (observation, description, classification, analysis, and experiment) and linguistic (contextological and structural-typological) methods.
Results. The stylistic groups of “scientific” phraseological units (PUs) and their lexico-grammatical categories are distinguished. Conclusions are made about the peculiarities of their semantics, phraseoparadigms, and the ability to species and morphological transformation within PUs, as well as about the productivity of studying this topic in the classroom with foreigners.
Research implications. The significance of this work lies in the analysis of poorly studied aspects of “scientific” phraseology and in the proof (theoretical and experimental) of the expediency of introducing this difficult topic into the course of the “Russian language as a foreign”.

Aim. We analyze the modus meaning of “oscillation” as one of the ways of modalization and expressivization of what is communicated by the subject. Systematic description and hierarchization of linguistic qualificative means of representation of the meaning of “oscillation” in the semantic structure of the sentence is presented.
Methodology. The theoretical material and the corpus of examples are studied using functional-communicative, descriptive and comparative methods, which makes it possible to systematically analyze the modal-expressive resource of the Russian sentence in the aspect of representation by linguistic means of the modus meaning of “oscillation”.
Results. The paper analyzes the subjective author’s meaning of “oscillation” as one of the ways of modalization and expressivization of what is reported in the sentence. The status of this meaning in the semantic structure of the sentence is qualified, and its role in the development of the speech situation of oscillation is determined. The nuclear and peripheral linguistic means of actualization of oscillation as a reflector of the author’s opinion, as well as the point of view represented in the sentence are systematized. The factors causing the speaker’s hesitation are established.
Research implications. Theoretical and practical data on the stated topic are integrated. One of the vectors of the development of the modal-expressive resource of the sentence is described on the basis of the functional systematization of nuclear, near-nuclear and peripheral linguistic means of representation of oscillation as a modus meaning reflecting the author’s communicative position regarding the reported. The applied way of analyzing practical material is justified: from the hierarchization of linguistic means of expressing the modus meaning of “oscillation” within the functional-semantic field to the definition of their functional-communicative properties in the semantic structure of the sentence.

Aim. The aim of the paper is to reveal the peculiarities of the explication of the semantic content of the concept of ‘stubbornness’ in the texts of the Russian media.
Methodology. Based on the analysis of the semantic characteristics of verbal-nominal combinations with the word stubbornness, a series of cognitive features of the concept of ‘stubbornness’ are identified. The research relies on the methods of description, classification and generalization, as well as semantic-cognitive analysis and contextual analysis.
Results. The study makes it possible to reveal different aspects of the content of the concept of ‘stubbornness’: not only the essential characteristics of stubbornness, its possession and development in a person, and the source of acquisition, but also the relationship of stubbornness with other similar qualities, and types and degrees of its manifestation, as well as the evaluative attitude of people to stubbornness.
Research implications. The materials and results of the research can be used in the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language, as well as in theoretical courses in cognitive linguistics, cultural linguistics, lexicology and semantics.

Aim. The aim of the paper is to study the artistic peculiarities of the M. Yu. Elizarov’s works.
Methodology. A corpus of texts is analyzed in order to reveal cases of suggestiveness. The research relies on the methods of textual analysis: archetypes of the image system are identified and cases of suggestiveness are categorized at the content, composition and phonological levels.
Results. The analysis shows that Elizarov’s works have many instances of suggestiveness and intertextuality, which is characteristic of post-modernism.
Research implications. The results will contribute to the theory of literary criticism and fiction.

Aim. The purpose is to compare F. M. Dostoevsky’s unfinished novel “Netochka Nezvanova” and L. N. Tolstoy’s story “Albert” from the point of view of the image of the musician and the attitude of the characters to music, as well as the general and different features in their biography.
Methodology. The paper analyzes the linguistic material and a way of representing the artist’s image, as well as his lifestyle and the music created. Use is made of comparative and analytical methods of 1studying works, as well as the method of semantic and stylistic analysis.
Results. A conclusion is made about the individual author’s features of the representation of the musician’s image, and the linguistic means that verbalize the musical “context” of the works are determined. The special role of the adjective in the characterization of the main character and music is noted: in the text of L. N. Tolstoy, a combination of a short and a full adjective is played, which indicates the changeability of permanent features by temporary ones and vice versa. In the text of F. M. Dostoevsky, when describing Efimov and his music, preference is given to the full adjective as a sign representing the immutability of the situation. Despite the apparent similarity in the appearance of the characters (torn, clothes, dirt and untidy appearance), there are significant details that distinguish Albert from Efimov: the alternation of negatively evaluated features with the allocation of beautiful details (thin neck, clean forehead, and smile).
Research implications. The material is summarized from the point of view of linguistic and stylistic features of the works in question. The practical significance of the research is that the materials and conclusions of this scientific work can be used in the development of courses on the stylistics of the Russian language, philological and linguistic analysis of the text.

Aim. The purpose of the work is to differentiate the images of physicians and to identify the specifics of their characterization in A. Kuprin’s prose.
Methodology. Various images of physicians in small prose and large works are considered. The social aspect is analyzed in revealing the background of individual situations reproduced by Kuprin, as well as the psychological component of the characters portrayed. The research relies on comparative, descriptive and hermeneutical methods.
Results. The paper concludes that in the worldview and behavior of medical characters, the writer touches upon moral and ethical issues and the idea of the value of human life. In portraying of various aspects of the images of physicians, the content side is organically connected with the artistic form of its implementation. The use of various psychological methods makes the writer's prose credible and persuasive.
Research implications. The results of the paper can serve as a theoretical background for further scientific research of medical topics in fiction, and can be used for lecture materials on Russian literature of the twentieth century and, in particular, on the work of A. I. Kuprin at philological faculties of higher educational institutions.

Aim. The purpose is to analyze the history of Turgenev’s creative and personal contacts with Beecher Stowe.
Methodology. The paper analyzes Turgenev’s correspondence featuring the name of Beecher Stowe. The author compares Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s cabin” and Turgenev’s short novel “The inn”. We stress that these texts have thematic closeness as social problems in Russia and USA were common. The analysis is based on the comparative method of investigation.
Results. A detailed analysis reveals Turgenev’s internal protest against American writer’s attitude, possibly due to both personal reasons and his new creative plans since early 1850s.
Research implications. The obtained results make it possible to widen the knowledge about Turgenev’s contacts with American writers. In practice the paper may be used for enhanced comments on Turgenev’s writing.