The problem of delimiting adjacent functional-semantic categories remains a key one in modern linguistics, particularly with regard to taxis and evidentiality. The categories of taxis and evidentiality, although distinct in nature, interact in real linguistic structures, creating zones of syncretism. This interaction becomes most noticeable precisely in cases where their distinction is required, which constitutes the main scientific problem. Contemporary research tends to interpret taxis broadly, thereby incorporating constructions with deverbatives from modal verbs (speech, thought, perception), which semantically tend toward evidentiality. This leads to a blurring of the boundaries between categories and complicates their correct identification. The goal of this study is to identify the nature of the semantic integration of taxis and evidentiality in prepositional-deverbative constructions of the German language and to propose operational criteria for their demarcation, necessary for the correct description of both «pure» and syncretic cases. The novelty of this study lies in constructing a three-level hierarchical model of the interaction between taxis and evidentiality, describing the mechanism for «objectifying» a modus situation, and identifying the syncretism of these categories in prepositional-deverbative constructions of the German language. The material consists of 11,000 utterances with prepositional deverbatives, extracted using a continuous sample from the Leipzig National Corpus. For a detailed analysis, 320 contexts representing all the identified construction types were selected from this volume. The methodological basis is an integrative approach combining functional-semantic, logical-semantic, and contextual analysis. The study takes into account different types of evidentiality: direct (sensory), reportative, and inferential. It has been established that deverbatives of verbs of speech, thought, and perception undergo a process of «objectification,» through which the initially modal situation acquires the status of a dictum event and becomes available for participation in taxis relations. The key criterion for demarcation is the nature of the semantic interaction of propositions. Three types of constructions are identified: with deverbatives of verbs of speech, thought, and perception. The thesis on propositional attitude is clarified: evidentiality does not always imply attitude; it can be reduced to indicating the source of information. The findings allow for a refinement of the criteria for delimiting adjacent categories in functional grammar, can be used in teaching German as a foreign language, and opens up prospects for comparative typological research.

The article explores the phenomenon of political discourse in its close connection with the national political culture. The relevance of the study lies in the need for a linguistic conceptualization of the ways of representing the linguistic worldview through the prism of global geopolitical challenges. The aim of the article is to identify the conceptual and motivational factors of French and Portuguese political discourse. The linguistic and political reality serves as a key space for shaping public consciousness and national identity, while also being an arena for the struggle for power and influence. This article presents an in-depth comparative analysis of the political discourse in France and Portugal during the period of geopolitical turbulence from 2022 to 2025. The study focuses on the relationship between the microstructures of political language and the macroprocesses of national political culture formation. Developing this approach, the author analyzes the mechanisms of verbalizing the concepts of “war”, “empire”, “colonialism”, and “freedom”. It is revealed that French political discourse (E. Macron, E. Philippe) is characterized by a strategy of externalizing the colonial experience, projecting it onto an external opponent in order to assert the universalist status of the Republic. At the same time, Portuguese discourse (M. Rebelo de Sousa, A. Santos Silva, and parliamentary parties) demonstrates an introverted strategy, where the interpretation of an external conflict is mediated by the reflection of one’s own historical trauma (“The Colonial War” and “The Carnation Revolution”). Within the practical scope of the contemporary international agenda, a sustained divergence in the foreign policy strategies of the nations analyzed is forecasted: while the French side will likely maintain its articulation of the necessity for Russia’s “strategic defeat” in its “imperial capacity”, Portuguese political discourse will remain centered on humanitarian concerns and the implementation of the right of peoples to self-determination.

This paper forms a part of a larger research project in the field of conceptualization and verbal expression of various speech actions (not limited strictly to speech acts) in contemporary Japanese. In particular, to this day the absence of clear basis in linguistical expression of most speech acts has been considered a weakness of Speech Act Theory. One way to bridge this gap is collecting data from available quotation constructions with speech verbs. In contrast with their thematic structure derived from verb surroundings, this method ultimately yields all possible verbalization patterns for given speech actions. The object of the study is quotation constructions headed by a set of speech verbs falling under the category of negative verdictives – Speaker criticizing Addressee (for a reason that is discomforting her and intent on inducing corrective action). The propositional content, as well as sybtactic properties of the quotes add specificity to the Speech event parameters in case of each verb, and confirm principal differentiations between speech verbs as mental concepts (idealizations) of those speech events. Such oppositions in this zone include publicity vs. intimacy, responsibility of the actor and preference of emotional vs. rational impact. Significant overlapping between these categories here signals a natural diffuseness of related concepts and the unity of the type of utterings. The latter is also confirmed in cross-cutting types of propositional content ‘questioning to blame’ or ‘calling names’. Means of linguistic expression for critical utterances show a high frequency of indirect speech acts, predominantly questions and directives. The scope of acceptability of such expressions is posited as coinciding with the scripted concept of linguistic criticism, highlighting areas of it relevant to speech situation and Speaker’s intentions. Quoted material also yields numerous formal indicators (of the speech action type) at several structural layers, categorizeable as illocutionary markers or tokens. These, along with the abovementioned structural models, call for systematic description and codification with a view to a complete dictionary of communication grammar of Japanese (and more languages).

The study presents a pedagogical model for developing cognitive competence in contemporary students enrolled in higher education programmes through the use of microlearning technology. The relevance of the study is determined by the influence of factors characteristic of the digital information age, which contribute to a decline in learners’ attention span and their ability to engage effectively in cognitive activity. Cognitive competence is understood as an integrative construct comprising personal (general and subject-specific intellectual qualities), motivational (interest in learning activity and the aspiration for self-development), cognitive (object-related and metacognitive knowledge), and activity-based components (a set of essential skills). The activity-based component, which plays a leading role, is represented by four groups of skills: intellectual, informational, organisational-regulatory, and metacognitive. The implementation of the model requires three pedagogical conditions: activating the potential of modern digital technologies, integrating neurodidactic research results into microlearning, and facilitating students’ independent learning activity. Microlearning is regarded as the key instructional tool for developing cognitive competence, as it represents a contemporary educational approach grounded in current neurodidactic research. Within the learning process, microlearning makes it possible to overcome pedagogical difficulties by fostering the development of voluntary attention, concentration, retention of new information, and awareness in learning. The level of cognitive competence development was assessed according to criteria corresponding to its components: emotional-volitional, motivational, knowledge-based, and procedural. The assessment results made it possible to distinguish the following levels of competence development: intuitive-elementary, reproductive-basic, situational-variable, and creative-productive. The proposed pedagogical model can be integrated into foreign language curricula for different groups of learners.

This paper analyses how pragmatic markers are conveyed in simultaneous interpretation, and also identifies the main translation strategies for conveying discourse coherence and the influence of the evaluative component of an utterance on the choice of these strategies. The research makes a novel contribution by applying a pragmatic approach to the analysis of actual simultaneous interpreting practice for the first time. This enables the identification of core mechanisms for constructing and managing discourse, and reveals specific strategies for translating pragmatic (or discursive) markers that contribute to discourse cohesion. The research methodology is based on a classification of discourse-construction markers, which allows the speaker to signal the continuation of a topic (Group 1), a return to a previous topic (Group 2) as well as specify the structure of the discourse (Group 3). The study material comprises video recordings of speeches by participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and Russian Energy Week in 2018, where simultaneous interpretation was provided. The corpus of examples includes 38 pragmatic markers. The study has revealed that when conveying pragmatic markers indicating a continuation of the topic or referring back to a previous part of the discourse, the strategies chosen by the interpreter demonstrate the highest variability (literal translation, compensation, omission with preservation of meaning). Returning to a previous topic is the most cognitively demanding process, as it disrupts the linearity of the discourse and therefore must be clearly marked in the translation. The results demonstrate that the function of a pragmatic marker — to attract attention and structure the transition — is more important than its lexical content. The evaluative component is lost when conveying the pragmatic meaning of an utterance and is replaced by the closest functional equivalent in the target language. The fewest strategies are used when translating markers of discourse structure (literal translation is predominant). Conveying them is the simplest process, as in most cases they have a direct functional equivalent in the target language. The empirical data from the study can be used as stimulus material for a translation experiment, as well as for developing exercises to manage cognitive load among student interpreters specializing in simultaneous interpretation.

The article explores the linguocultural adaptation of socio-political vocabulary in cinematic discourse, focusing specifically on the translation of abbreviations, pseudo-international words, and political metaphors from English into Russian. The study analyzes the television series “House of Cards” (2013) and “The Diplomat” (2023), examining both the original English versions and their Russian translations. Through semantic and comparative analysis of the original film texts alongside their translations, as well as contextual analysis of selected cinematic discourse fragments, the article seeks to draw conclusions about the balance between domestication and foreignization strategies in the translation of socio-political vocabulary. It is important to note that the translator’s choice of strategy is often influenced by the aim to achieve a communicative effect in the translation that mirrors the pragmatic impact felt by viewers of the original version. In addition to examining domestication and foreignization strategies as well as a «golden mean» strategy in translating socio-political vocabulary, the article presents original translation variants that combine various adaptation strategies to achieve a specific pragmatic effect. Furthermore, it identifies and systematizes approaches to the linguocultural adaptation of translated lexical units, proposing corresponding equivalents in the Russian language and highlighting several compensatory techniques tailored to the characteristics of the target audience. The necessity for adequate linguocultural adaptation of the original film text is underscored, as it ensures that audiences accurately perceive the film’s messages; at the same time, the pragmatic potential of the original work is to be preserved. The findings indicate that due to the unique characteristics of film discourse (such as time limit on delivering dialogues) domestication emerges as the predominant strategy when translating abbreviations, political metaphors, and pseudo-international vocabulary. Additionally, contextual clues, visual elements, and viewers’ background knowledge are frequently employed in translating socio-political vocabulary in cinematic discourse. Although this study is limited to two series, it seeks to define universal and film text-specific criteria for translational adequacy, systematize challenges in translating socio-political vocabulary, and identify the most effective techniques for adapting socio-political vocabulary in film text.

This article analyzes Russian language, which shapes the spiritual space of the people and is itself a product of the Spirit – a gift from God to humanity. The relevance of this study lies in modern linguistics’ interest in the spiritual essence of language as a specific human spiritual activity that contributes to the one’s religious worldview formation. The need to address traditional spiritual meanings is also driven by their displacement from everyday linguistic use in the era of secularization and globalization. The aim is to demonstrate that Russian language possesses a strong spiritual impact; through its units, we decode theological knowledge contained in the Bible and prayers. We employ integrative methods, which are indispensable for studying such complex phenomena as culture, language, religion, and society. These methods include both general scientific methods (observation, description, generalization) and modern techniques of discourse and cognitive analysis. These methods allow us to uncover holistic knowledge about God, language, humanity, and the world. The research material includes religious texts, words, and utterances, as well as units of the modern Russian language that convey spiritual meaning. As a result, it was established that Russian language not only shapes but also preserves the spirit of Russian people. Therefore, it is impossible to understand Russians without taking into account the religious knowledge that permeates all Russian culture. Moreover, without the concept of God, it is impossible to understand the scientific world picture, including the picture of the world depicted by language. A number of unresolved issues remain in contemporary Russian studies; for example, the problem of the deep sacred meanings that are evident in modern language words has been barely explored. The significance of this work lies in the attempt to transcend rational knowledge into intuitive and theological understanding, which will be facilitated by the combined efforts of religious and scientific knowledge. The main conclusion of the study is that one of the most important functions of language is transcendental, aimed at the formation and representation of the deep spiritual meanings of linguistic culture.

In the context of modern interstate conflicts, diplomacy becomes a key tool for resolving contradictions, therefore, the study of diplomatic discourse is an extremely important subject of modern interdisciplinary research. Diplomatic discourse as an institutional type of discourse is called to protect the interests of the state and the people, and accordingly contains special vocabulary that expresses cultural characteristics and national values through linguistic and cultural codes. The purpose of the study is to investigate what deep cultural meanings and historical narratives are actualized when using linguocultural codes in modern diplomatic discourse. Research objectives: to determine the features of diplomatic discourse, to study the meanings of linguocultural codes as special lexical markers in diplomatic speech, to determine their types in Russian diplomatic discourse. The term “linguocultural code” is most common and developed in detail within the framework of Russian linguoculturology, and foreign researchers more often have correlating concepts: “cultural code”, “code” in semiotics, “cultural models” and “cognitive metaphors”. In this article, we have studied linguocultural codes on the material of transcripts of speeches by Russian diplomats and politicians (S. V. Lavrov, V. A. Nebenzya, M. V. Zakharova, V. V. Putin, E. M. Primakov and G. M. Gatilov) and identified the following types of linguocultural codes: historical, spiritual, moral, religious-Orthodox and civilizational, which form a complex, interpenetrating axiological system that represents the national worldview. We examined these codes in terms of linguocultural, axiological, cognitive and historical aspects and identified their three main functions in diplomatic discourse: semiotic, cognitive and pragmatic. As discourse analysis and content analysis of diplomatic speeches have shown, the use of codes allows Russian diplomacy to transfer the discussion from the legal to the moral and ethical plane, create a narrative about Russia as a «guardian of traditions» and emotionally strengthen arguments, making them more resistant to criticism from Western opponents. The study demonstrates that linguocultural codes are not stylistic decorations in diplomatic speech, but discourse-forming concepts and effective «soft power» in protecting national interests.

This article provides a chronicle of the IV International Scientific and Practical Conference «Professional Polylogue in a Multilingual World: Language, Culture, Method» which took place in Moscow from April 8 to 11 and in St. Petersburg on April 11, 2026, and was organized by the French Language Department of MGIMO University. The article provides information on the number and geography of participants, summarizes the main ideas of the plenary speakers, indicates the thematic areas of work for the sections in Russian and foreign languages, and provides information on the events held within the framework of the conference: a round table, a lecture and master classes.