The article analyzes the functions realized in an analytical article devoted to political issues. The analytical article tends to present objective information, contains the analysis of the situation or problem and gives unbiased conclusions, that is prompt by informative function. Political discourse which is highly manipulative by its nature has а significant impact on the analytical article and promotes the function. The functions of the analytical article are carried out through the implementation of subjective and objective modality. Objective modality is most commonly expressed through factual information, parenthesis, and terms. These means allow one to make the statement more reliable and clear. Subjective modality, on the other hand, is usually expressed through metaphors, emotionally-expressive epithets. These means transfer the author’s attitude and assessment of the problem / situation, as well as enhance emotional-expressive force of the text. Syntactic means also play an important role in the subjective modality expression due to the specificity of the analytical article genre, which tends to influence readers implicitly.

The article presents an analytical survey of The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the project launched in 2003 as a platform for cataloguing the most popular English language units and annual release of the Top Words/Phrases/Names lists based on special criteria. The authors proceed from language comprehension as a complex dynamic self-developing system and look into The GLM materials as quite a reliable source of knowledge of the relevant trends in the evolution of the English lexis subsystem. Special attention is given to the GLM data for the previous three years (2016-2018).

Registering the most frequent words and word combinations on-line gives ground for making judgments not only on the wide public values and attractions, but also on significant socio-political, economic, culture-related tendencies promoted by English information space. The article notes that the selected data objectively reflect not so much the true state of things and people’s attitudes as the mode of presenting the said phenomena, events and individuals in information sources. Besides, the GLM contents can be useful for linguistic analysis proper, since they help to monitor lexical and structural innovations in English, some of them being exemplified herein. The authors argue that far from always do such words enter the language system, and qualify them as speech elements tending to transfer to the language system.

In conclusion the authors assert that projects like GLM, alongside more profound corpus studies, open up good prospects for investigating humanitarian issues of the global community and various impacts of information space thereon.

This article focuses on sematic analysis of literary words in a historical perspective. This research draws on English dictionaries of different time periods including the first Dictionary of English Language by Samuel Johnson (1755), Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries of the X1X-XX centuries and the beginning of the XX1 century. The object of the research is bookish words most frequently used in upper-class speech of the XV111-X1X c. fiction and therefore implicit linguistic markers of social identity. The aim of this paper is to look into semantics evolution of the selected words diachronically. The article considers the changes this category of words historically undergoes, i.e. generalization, specialization, semantic shifts, metaphor and metonymy, and changes in connotation being the most subtle and difficult to infer. The research outcome testifies to the practical relevance and theoretical significance of the study.

The development of the English language in the XX-XXI centuries made linguists correct and modify their ideas as to productivity of word-formation means and derivational patterns. The authors of the article claim that there are solid grounds and strong reasons to refer abbreviation to the category of major word-building means. Changes in the vocabulary provoked by the emergence and formation of new derivational patterns, new word-formative elements, new words and meanings deserve special linguistic attention.

One eye-catching word in modern English is the word selfie of Australian origin that hit the global spotlight in 2013 when it was declared ‘The Word of the Year’ in the USA and next year was recorded as a neologism by the OED.

As well as embodying something of the social media-orientated zeitgeist, selfie turns out to be an interesting case study in lexical productivity, quick to morph into a sizeable set of subcategories embracing words denoting different parts of the body or people related in some way to the person who takes the selfie.

The new formations described in the article render ironic connotations made stronger by the suffix -ie in their structure. They are pragmatically marked on the scale of evaluation on the level of lexico-semantic system.

This paper is focused on the study of number variability of predicate - singular or plural - in the sentences with the subjects expressed by a quantitative noun, on the extended by adjective or participle word combinations of the type Nquant+AdjN (eine Menge handelnder Personen), in particular. Word combinations of this type reveal variability in the selection of form of connectivity. They can be organized by means of the genitive case - eine Menge handelnder Personen, prepositional case - eine Menge von handelnden Personen, and coordination - eine Menge handelnde Personen. To the variability of the syntactic organization of the subject is added the variability of the form of the predicate. Variability is characteristic of undistributed subject - Eine Menge Fabriken werden nach Kambodscha kommen, but the paper is focused exclusively on extended word combinations - Da waren eine Menge blonder Deutscher dabei. The factors effecting the selection of singular or plural form of predicate are analyzed. The texts of the German authors of the XV11-XX centuries, in which all quantitative nouns of the combinations in question are equally presented, serve as the material for the analysis.

The paper deals with problems of time representation in language. The study of time category is based on the cognitive anthropological approach. The aim of this article is to show linguis means of representation of the temporal category. Objective (astronomical) and subjective (perceptible), conceptual and linguistic (subdivided on real and virtual) representations of time are distinguished. The virtual time is represented in works of fiction, tales, and legends. In these cases we can observe the absence of dynamism, acceleration of time or travel in time. The category of real time is expressed by lexical (definite and indefinite), word-formation and grammatical means. The comparative analysis of derivatives meaning “before/ after” in Russian and French shows that the number of the former considerably (by 4-5 times) surpasses the number of the latter ones. In each of the languages derivative antonyms are revealed. Metaphors of time representation are also analyzed.

This article examines the expression of feminist ideas in the narrative of the novel “Delphine” by the French writer of the early 19th century Germaine de Stael. Self-reflection of the woman-author is expressed in the character of the heroine, who is artistically represented in the framework of gender discourse, inextricably linked with the historical and social context of the era. The article analyzes the representation of the feminist ideas in the form of an artistic text, which has influenced further development of gender issues in French literature. The analysis is based on modern theories of gynocritics, “double voice”, in particular, which allows one to interpret the text of the selected novel from the point of view of feminist concepts. Having selected the epistolary genre, which presupposes the presence of an “omniscient reader” (lecteur omniscient), having chosen a feminist theme and also entitled the novel in the name of the main heroine, de Stael had created new forms for a literary embodiment of gender themes that would later originate the concept “women’s writing” and would be developed by feminist theorists.

The main aspect of the analysis lies in the gender identity of the heroine of Madame de Stael’s novel “Delphine”, whose romantic exclusiveness is depicted by the writer through intellectual and moral independence. This image is interesting in that it portrays the feminist sentiments of a later time.

In modern society, the Internet has usurped the role of the main source of information, which has the ability to influence public opinion on current issues quickly and effectively. In its expanses, media tools are employed to create and promote stereotypes, often neglecting not only the veracity of the information offered, but also the norms of morality. In this situation, literature is also undergoing changes. Social and educational functions it performs tend to be replaced by the infortainment function, proper to the media. The article aims at tracing the process of Russia and its national character image formation in the works by A. Perez-Reverte, widely known to the Russian-speaking reader, by revealing typical features of the characters and judgement about Russia, on the one hand, and analyzing individual characteristics, on the other. The analysis is based on the novels La sombra del Aguila, Territorio Comanche, La piel del tambor, La carta esferica, La Reina del Sur, El pintor de batallas, El asedio, El tango de la guardia vieja and the essay El francotirador y la cabra, Sobre patriotas y palomitas, Los perros de la Brigada Ligera, Peliculas de guerra.

The article is dedicated to the study of annotations in Spanish books from communicative perspective. The publishing blurb is an integral part of the book; it has an interdisciplinary nature because it combines features of advertising and literary texts. This type of text, well represented in the book market, is popular and needed and reflects the current language situation. Therefore, blurbs for a book, their structural, grammar and pragmatic expression determine the need to study this type of text. The article can be interesting for philologists, publicists, and editors. The paper considers the main components of the communicative process that have their peculiarities in the Spanish book annotations, analyzes the text structure and types of publishing annotations. All of these parts perform an advertising function. The research has showed that annotation for a book is a communicative process in which the publisher, using pragmatic, structural, semiotic, grammar, and rhetorical characteristics of this type of text, seeks to urge the reader to acquire and read a book.

This article contains basic information about the hungaricum - a unique concept that emerged in the early 2000s in Hungary. This concept is used to identify rare and typically Hungarian objects, phenomena, products and services that are inextricably connected with the Hungarian way of life, Hungarian traditions and culture and reflect the national characteristics of Hungary, outstanding people, their achievements and inventions. The article describes how a civic initiative to collect and preserve a wide variety of national values was born and developed in Hungary. The main purpose of the initiative was to provide a detailed description of hungaricums as well as to include them in a special register, work on their protection, preservation and transmission to subsequent generations. The initiative was supported by the state, and in 2012 a law was adopted on the national values and hungaricums. The author describes the procedure of including hungaricums into the Register of National Heritage. The article provides a list of hungaricums which currently comprises seventy titles and describes those that most clearly represent the Hungarian reality and gained recognition outside of Hungary as well as those that have an interesting history of their origin or designation from the point of view of culture-through-language studies.

Riddle is one of the oldest syncretic genres of folklore, which both regulated the key events in human life and translated the centuries-old life experience of the people. Despite the oral form of existence, many riddles have retained their original structure, as well as linguistic and cultural identity based on national archetypal thinking and national mythologies. The aim of the work is to study the cosmogonic riddles of the Russian and Tatar languages, to identify the specifics of their imaginative organization. The study establishes unique and universal characteristics for each object, allowing one to decode the information of color, temporal characteristics, and number of the object, its form and relationship with other objects. Particular attention is paid to the secondary nomination of the moon and the sun, having national specifics. In the Russian riddle, according to East Slavic tradition, the zoomorphic code (with lexemes “a cow”, “a bull”, “a horse”, “a stallion”) was widespread because it was indicative of the magic character of the described subject. In the Tatar national riddle there is an input of the lexemes designating the related relations (the father, mother, the sister, the brother) that in its turn reflects national mythology about the earth and the sky creation. In this article the authors examine the problem of the input of the secondary nomination of the denotation and its mythological causality. Linguistic material is accompanied by a linguistic and cultural commentary, which allows a deeper insight into the process of denotation coding. The method of content analysis and the method of linguistic reconstruction of culture were used in the work. The results of the research can be useful for folklorists, linguists dealing with the issues of national cultures, their reflection in the folklore text.

The article deals with the creation of an electronic dictionary based on the “Pushto-Russian Dictionary” by M. G. Aslanov, which is currently the most comprehensive Pashto dictionary. However, paper dictionaries inevitably become outdated, while electronic dictionaries have a number of indisputable advantages over traditional ones. The work on an electronic dictionary includes three stages: 1) compiling a vocabulary (or using an already completed one), 2) creating a morphology base, 3) working with syntax, which consists in creating a corpus of texts that will allow revealing non-free compatibility of words, starting with a word combination. The article focuses mainly on creation of a Pashto morphology database for an electronic dictionary, on nouns and adjectives, which has never been done before. According to grammatical variables, the paradigmatic classes of the indicated parts of speech are distinguished, as well as all possible forms of the word (morphemes) within the classes. Twenty-six paradigmatic classes are distinguished for nouns, and eight for adjectives. Some classes are divided into subclasses, each of which includes one word. This refers to the so-called exceptions to the rules. For each class, the most characteristic word is given as a model. Each morpheme (as well as each meaning of a word) appears as a separate dictionary unit, which allows the user to easily find the desired word, as well as to make a reverse translation. This article is intended for Afghans who speak Pashto, as well as Russian speakers who deal with Pashto. Of particular interest are the results of the study for those who compose or intend to compile electronic dictionaries, especially of rare languages.

The article examines the sociocultural phenomenon of the Latin American «lettered city» («la ciudad letrada»), still poorly studied in Russia, by focusing on the Argentine intellectual elite of the mid-19th century, known as «Generation 1837». The political discourse of its most prominent representative, Domingo F. Sarmiento (1811-1888), writer of the romantic school, enlightener and statesman, president of the republic from 1868 to 1874, is investigated using the method of thesaurus analysis. The material of the present study is his essay «Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism» (1845).

The results of the analysis make it possible to redefine the relation between the concepts of «civiliza-tion» and «barbarism» in the cultural code of the Argentines, as well as allow to shed light on other aspects of both civilizational and national identity of the Argentine people, to which a fundamental contribution was made by very famous writers, poets, philosophers, historians and publicists of «Generation 1837».

The article attempts to conduct a linguocultural analysis of the concept of garibi (“wandering") as a reflection of the Tajik linguistic world image. The research is carried out on the material of selected lexicographic sources, letters and messages to relatives from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and vice versa, which appeared in 1992 and were broadcasted on the air of the special program Hoki Watan (“Dust of the Motherland") of the state radio “Tajikistan", when thousands of people fled to Afghanistan during the civil war in Tajikistan (1992-1997).

The researched radio broadcasts are a vivid evidence that Tajik women as subjects of the Tajik-Persian language world image have made a great contribution to the return of their relatives, Tajik refugees, from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to their homeland. They appealed to their close people, using the garib concept not only to describe their position in a foreign land, but also to transfer their emotional experience, involvement in common grief, sympathy and compassion. The spiritual condition of the authors of the messages was expressed in poetic fragments included in the texts.

As a linguocultural element, the concept of garib reflects the socio-political situation in Tajikistan, the distress of the Tajik people, the emotional state of media communication participants - witnesses of the civil war (1992-1997).

The study of this concept in the Tajik mentality in modern conditions is extremely important. Because, firstly, the bulk of Tajik labor migrants live and work in Russia, and in general, under the influence of globalization processes, many Tajiks choose other countries for temporary or permanent residence; secondly, the Tajik language is taught in Russian universities as a foreign language or the second eastern one.

The article analyses the reasons for the poor quality of modern foreign language course-books and writers’ typical mistakes. The reasons consist in 1) the lack of a generally accepted theory of the tertiary level foreign language coursebook, 2) the author’s insufficient competence, 3) increasing pressure on university teachers to produce and publish coursebooks. The paper suggests that a specific author’s competency, comprising research, intellectual, methodological, and linguistic competences, is central to producing a good coursebook. An algorithm for developing a modern authentic coursebook is proposed; each of the five stages thereof requires some of the above competencies, whereas lack of any of these leads to an inadequate product. Typically, it fails to provide a system of exercises and tasks to ensure the promised results in terms of developing language skills and attaining the desired level of linguistic competence. Feasible ways to improve the quality of coursebooks are suggested: 1) revising approaches to assessing teachers’ qualifications, 2) raising requirements for the quality of coursebooks, 3) training would-be materials writers in theory and involving them in actual writing through co-authorship with experienced colleagues.

The present work deals with the phenomenon when the Higher Schools Academic Programs tolerate the different generations of both domestic and European (French) authors textbooks coexistence. Appealing to the Federal Educational Standard and principles of competence approach, on the one hand, we are trying to theoretically justify this coexistence by using the notion of Doxa and Habitus. The article focuses on statistical comparative analysis and graphical representation, such as diagrams, maps, and tables. This method was dictated by the development of Humanities in general, and Digital Humanities in particular, as well as by aspiration to objectivity. The field of research, confined only to Paris urbanonims, allows us to demonstrate the results in graphics due to the electronic resources, the use of Google Maps in particular. Different representation of Paris enables us to analyze the culture generale, sociocultural and poly-cultural competencies determined by Common European Framework of Reference. This analysis leads to the conclusion about different understanding of competence in the Russian and European traditions of French study.