A phonological system is the objective basis of a human language sound system. Each language has a unique phonological system of its own. Th phonological system of the Russian language is determined by the сonsonant dominant whereas Chinese − by the vocal one. Ths is the fundamental diffrence of two phonological systems reflcted in spelling (orthogramma) of the words in Russian and Chinese. Th spelling of the Russian words is characterized by a combination of consonants (вздрогнуть «flnch», брызг «splashes»), whereas in Chinese it is characterized by a combination of vowels (guǎi “turn”, kuài “piece”). Th comparison of the phonemic structures in Russian and Chinese allows one to reveal some common features: a sound variety of words is provided by a maximum of fie derivatives of phonological zeros, which phonetically in Russian and Chinese languages are implemented by weak vowels. Weak vowels diffrentiate phonemic word series; also, they can provide speech realization of the proceeding consonant. Weak vowels in this case are generalized by the derivative phonological zeros and correspond to a zero phoneme.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the evocative influence in news and analytical media genres including news article, interview, article, report and conversation. Practical manifestations of the evocative influence on the example of excerpts from the texts of the listed genres are considered. Explication of conceptual features in various media texts is studied for the fist time explaining their evocative influence on the recipient. The degree of similarity of verbal and evocative influence, the prevalence and relevance of genres in modern media discourse are studied. Various genre classifications are given, most widespread in modern media discourse are highlighted. The evocative effect is represented by the type of speech influence associated with the realization of author’s intentions, the verbalization of concepts and the explication of conceptual features by linguistic means.
The evocative influence of the recipient was analyzed on the example of American and British media texts. Several ways of evocative influence have been revealed through the explication of the hidden evaluation of the events. Evocative influence is expressed by:
1. a hidden evaluation of the events expressed in the selection of news and means of representation;
2. a problematic formulation of journalistic material aimed at verbalizing concepts in the journalist necessary set of conceptual signs;
3. the wording of questions predetermining the answers of the interlocutor;
4. borrowings of the interviewer’s stylistic techniques by the interviewees in the answers to the questions;
5. the use of verbs expressing the importance of decision-making, displacement, conflict of law, military conflict, etc .;
6. the operation with concepts that are represented in the recipient’s picture of the world and act to receive new information;
7. the explication of conceptual features of concepts in analytical reports;
8. the use of evocative techniques to fid out the facts, opinions, forecasts.
It is proved that the verbalization of conceptual features in media discourse can be used to provide evocative influence.

The article considers nominative components of the constructions with causative verbs, which in Avar are usually used to fulfill the causative semantics. The analysis of such constructions in different Dagestanian languages was not being conducted yet, with the exception of Aghul language. Semantic causative oppositions are not studied yet either in comparative or descriptive glue, including certain grammar constructions with the meaning of causation. The research of the causative constructions from the point of view of general typology is an urgent task not only for Caucasian linguistics, but also for theoretical linguistics as a whole, being widely represented in the languages of different typology. Grammar and semantic research of nominative components (subject and predicate) of the causative constructions belonging to different morphologic-syntactical types in Avar, pursued the only aim to reveal and describe the changes taking place in the structure of the sentence during causative derivation.

The article also shows different semantic roles of subject and predicate in the fulfillment of causation and reveals the dependence of syntactical structure of causative constructions on syntactical nature of the verb (transitive, intransitive, experiential) and fulfillment of different semantics of causation. The approach of linguistic description and logical-sensitive modeling allowed us to find that models of different structure represent different semantics.

The article will be interesting for those who study Caucasian languages and linguistic typology. The results of the research will be useful while composing historical-comparative grammar of Dagestanian languages.

The article sets a specific goal: on the basis of a certain number of illustrative examples selected by the author, to trace the development of metaphorical utterances in the language of science and in the language of fiction. Taking into account the available critical material on the present problem (the works by G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, L. V. Kulchitskaya, N. D. Arutiunova, V. N. Telia, E. O. Oparina, O. Yu. Buynova and some others) the author of the article shows that metaphor, as a rule, performs the generalizing function of the transition from known facts to the unknown.

However, metaphor in the language of science reflects the level of intellectuality of an individual, generating certain judgments and conclusions accordingly. In the language of fiction, metaphor serves to create an image with an evaluative and expressive meaning. In both cases, the characteristic features of metaphor were pointed out in the article. However, in the process of comparing different objects, it has been found that in the language of fiction metaphor does not fix relations relying on the principle of “similarity and difference”. Most often, metaphor has a culturological character, thereby vividly emphasizing the conventionality and incompleteness of the identification of the objects to be compared.

This article is devoted to functional-linguistic research into the actualization of a complex cooperative effect of pragmatic impact on recipients’ emotional, volitional, intellectual spheres within modern English discourse of mass media. The authors analyze the notions of speech manipulation, persuasiveness and conclude that it is necessary to study the interconnectedness of explicit and implicit communicative goals, specific functional properties of a certain type of discourse and the inventory of verbal means, available to interlocutors. Articles published in The Economist are chosen as empirical material due to the popularity of this British magazine among ESP students and teachers. Despite the fact that journalism ideally rejects the idea of manipulating readers’ minds, functional-pragmatic evolution of English mass media discourse and the dynamics of communicative norms have led to the popularity of non-standard verbal means in newspaper and magazine texts, thus providing multiple opportunities to cause pragmatic persuasive impact. Guided by the strategic communicative intention, journalists combine language units and arrange them in a particular sequence, while considering the whole network of functional ties among utterances. It helps generate powerful cooperative (synergetic) effect and change readers’ attitude to the described phenomenon, modify their emotional state and intentions, activate required frames and scripts in their consciousness.

The article presents the analysis of the standards belonging to the corpus of the stable figurative comparisons that describe the beauty and the ugliness of a person or object and contain the words bonito, hermoso, bello, guapo and feo. The concepts of the beautiful and the ugliness are multifaceted and changing in time, so that the study thereof helps to reveal the aesthetic taste and preferences existing in a certain language community and in a given period of time. The standards associated with the beauty and ugliness have been distributed in 8 and 9 semantic fields respectively. For the standards of beauty the following semantic fields are highlighted: religion and mythology; precious stones and metals; artifacts, works of art and literature; celestial bodies; flora; fauna; dawn and sunset; representatives of show business and the world of fashion. The standards of ugliness are distributed in semantic fields: religion, myths and beliefs; household items; flora; fauna; night; representatives of show business and the world of fashion; the names of real people who became the embodiment of ugliness; negative phenomena; negative situations.

The article considers grammatical, semantic and syntactic characteristics of the apposition in the Spanish language, a separate element of the binary constructions with substantive or pronominal basics (separate appositive structures). For example: “Madrid, corazón de España, late con pulso de fiebre” – “Madrid, the heart of Spain, beating in a furious rhythm,” where “Madrid” is defined as «corazón de España» which is a separate apposition (appositive group). It focuses on the analysis of separate apposition on the communicative level, determining the extent of its mandatory or optional use in logicalsemantic organization of the text, the article semantic actualization of separate apposition depending on the denotative aspects of a noun or its equivalents. A comparative analysis of several translations from Spanish into Russian with regard to appositive groups featured in the text of the first part of “Don Quijote” by M. Cervantes (on translations by N. Lyubimov, B. Engelgardt, B. Krzhevskiy and A. Smirnov) was carried out. The work has a practical significance as its provisions and findings can be applied in teaching, both theoretical and practical foundations of the translation.

The article represents an effort to develop the method of cognitive analysis in translation and on this basis to identify inherent mechanisms and forms of equivalence in translation. The author looks into translation from the semiotic point of view taking the semiotics of sign in speech (the verbal sign seen as a speech act) as a basis of subsequent scientific scrutiny. In the structure of the verbal sign, sense and reference are opposed to each other. The reference accounts for the identification of the designated object in sign, while the sense needs to be reflected in interpretation. In terms of the sense of the verbal sign the author singles out: 1) elements of sense capable of determining the sign referential meaning, and 2) elements of sense which are not capable of doing it. According to this differentiation, equivalents in translation are analyzed. The author concludes that the interpretative relation in translation evolves in an inverse order: not from reference to sense, but from sense to reference. The reference is a variable aspect of translation and accounts for transformation, and the sense is an invariable aspect and the basis of translation. In order to preserve the sense, a translator introduces changes into the reference. Some examples of English-Russian translation are analyzed as cases of transition from figurativeness to pragmatics and to reference. The article may arouse interest of specialists in the theory of translation, semiotics and the theory of communication.

The article analyzes the peculiarities of Sergei Dovlatov’s style and cultural markers present in his prose that represent difficulties for preservation in translation, using as an example the novella “Zapovednik” and its translations into English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Through a comparative analysis of the texts employing the communicative-functional approach in translation studies, the author studies the translation strategies undertaken by translators into different languages to convey the stylistic originality and the humor of the novella. Translation of humor is particularly difficult, as it always appeals to implicit knowledge, which may be lost on a person raised in a different culture. Due to these peculiarities translators often resort to a strategy of domestication, adapting the humor to the culture of the translation. This strategy is not always justified, as it may contradict the author’s intention. Allusions to cultural phenomena also complicate the perception and understanding of the translated text. As the analysis demonstrates, in spite of a difference in worldview among adherents of different cultures and ignorance of the realities of the source text’s culture, leading to a translation’s inevitable loss in expressivity and misrepresentation of the author’s ideas, the translators largely succeeded in conveying the linguistic and cultural peculiarities of the novella.

The article considers some problems of translating into Russian the texts of religious themes and the use of citations in speech, fiction and in journalism. The main attention is paid to the problem of adequate translation of religious texts, the experience, rules and principles of translation, the analysis of errors encountered, inaccuracies and other errors, which together represent samples of inadequate translation. There are also cases of inadequate transfer of proper names, primarily theonyms and anthroponyms, illustrated by the author’s examples of incorrect transmission, use or interpretation of biblical names. Examples of biblical phraseology misuse, misunderstanding, misinterpretation are adduced, as well as the causes of such inadequacy, which are sometimes rooted in the wrong centuries-old translations. It is noted that inadequate translation of religious texts sometimes finds expression not only in oral or written speech, but also in art, in painting and sculpture, in particular. It is noted that this problem is not new. Examples of inadequate translation or interpretation are taken from Septuagint and Vulgate, works of fiction, journalism, literary and popular scientific works.

The article examines the language material of the “Anti-phrases” Internet game, where anti-phrases are riddles, created on the basis of precedent units by replacing all components of the prototype with words, opposite in meaning. The study of gaming transforms is relevant due to the fact that the precedent units, being prototypes of anti-phrases, are closely related to the collective invariant representations of the national culture and are background knowledge that serves for mutual understanding of members of the speech community. The choice of one or another precedent unit for paraphrasing (creating an anti-phrase riddle) indicates the relevance of the chosen prototype in modern linguoculture, since it is precisely the popularity of the phrase with the participants of the game that provides for its fundamental decipherability and communicative validity. The focus of the work is on the precedent units that served as the basis for the creation of anti-phrases repeatedly. The hypothesis is advanced and substantiated that the prototypes that have repeatedly served to create inverted riddles are included in the linguocultural minimum of the modern Internet user. Based on a quantitative analysis of 88 synonymic anti-phrase series, the core, center, and periphery of the linguocultural minimum are distinguished. It is concluded that the linguocultural minimum should be created as a result of combining different methods, complementing each other and synthesizing both the analysis of the objective linguistic material and its subjective interpretations, obtained experimentally.

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) – an American Romantic writer– as a foreign correspondent of the U. S. A. in Europe covered the revolutionary events of 1848–49 for the New York Tribune. Her dispatches from Rome are especially interesting for researchers, as Fuller was both а witness and а participant of the revolution in Rome; these dispatches are the object of analysis here. Fuller combined a journalistic report with an attempt to grasp the historic significance of the events. The analysis shows that, to achieve this goal, she used the experience of the historical genres of literature and fine arts. Fuller compared the events in Rome and their participants with the images created by writers and artists, analyzed the methods of the authors in order to develop her own narrative strategies and explain them to the readers as her partners on the way to understanding the meaning of the historic moment the world was living through. Fuller’s publicistic works were a synthesis of artistic forms, documents and journalistic reports; this synthesis enabled her to show the scale and significance of the events in Europe, express her own position and support the revolutionaries who, she believed, continued the cause of the American Revolution.

Omens are considered to be one of the ancient ways of coding everyday behavior, unquestioning observance of which guaranteed the archetypal person stability and well being in everyday life. Household omens fix the codification of everyday life, making them in the form of stable, well-structured models that have survived almost unchanged.

The aim of the work is to investigate the so–called “pseudo-omens”, which are the basis of the television series “Blind” (638 series), the specifics of their functioning in the time continuum. The presented paradigm of new omens explicates new properties and features of the ancient genre on the basis of system and non-system connections arising at the intersection of the main semantic coordinates. The author builds a special model type of omens, indicating an attempt to mythologize the consciousness of a modern man, because television as an effective means of suggestion blurs the line between reality and the fictional world. The results of more than 30 years study show that while meteorological and agricultural omens gradually turn into a passive reserve of the Russian language, household omens are actively used in different groups of the population. Among the arguments in favor of this conclusion, we can note the emergence of a significant number of scientific studies focused on the description of superstitions and the search for an answer to the following questions: why superstitions were created, why they are still used, why we believe in them. The material of the article allowed to formulate an explanation of the grounds for predicting the most likely causes of such a wide spread of household omens.

In the Russian and Persian languages we can find stable combinations that have the same or similar meaning used in the same sphere. Such syntagmatically linked phrases must be compared when teaching Russian as a foreign language, since mastering the system of phraseological units should begin by introducing the correspondences that arise in different languages and cultures on the basis of the generality in the picture of the world.

In this article we examine semantics and the use of phraseological units with a component of black and white colors in the Persian and Russian languages that are an important part of the culture, significant for the construction of the national picture of the world.

A comparative analysis of the data suggests that there are similarities and differences between the Persian and Russian languages. Based on our analysis, we can divide phraseological units into 3 types, differing in degrees of similarity: 1) total equivalents: phraseological units having identical structure, figurative basis and semantics both in Persian and Russian; 2) partial equivalents: phraseological units with the same meaning both in Persian and Russian but with relatively different components and structure; 3) non-equivalent constructions: units that exist only in Persian and related to the worldview of the Iranian people.

The purpose of the publication is to analyze the sociolinguistic situation in the Republic of Tajikistan, which goes through a difficult historical stage of the linguistic and cultural code revival. The following data collection methods were used: the direct observation, interviewing, sociological methods such as traditional analysis and content analysis of documents, linguistic method of contextual text analysis, etc. The conclusion was made that the Tajik language undergoes transformation due to objective and subjective cultural and historical reasons. On the one hand, the accelerating pace of life contributes to the emergence of new lexicon to be quickly and competently integrated into the modern vocabulary of the nation. On the other hand, it is important to keep the literary and historical basis of the native language, the language of the ancestors: the classical Persian language and the richness of spoken language, which is not always used competently in modern means of mass communications. The process of linguistic adaptation must be based on the interaction of official structures and civil society, so that all innovations would be reasonable, understandable and convenient for use by all levels of society.

The analysis of existing studies at the scope of cognitive linguistics and the methodology of teaching foreign languages has shown a significant degree of elaboration of this topic and allows the authors of the article to talk about the great potential of using the achievements of cognitive linguistics in the practice of teaching a foreign language. The article tracks the causes of the increased interest in recent cognitive language studies and approaches to the study of cognitive linguistics. The authors point out the special role of cognitive linguistics as a new scientific paradigm in the practice of teaching foreign languages. The general modern tendencies typical for the given scientific direction are commented with reference to the teaching of English in a law school. The examples of the difference in the compatibility of linguistic units in Russian and English show the need for developing students’ conceptual analysis skill. The authors explain how the achievements of cognitive linguistics can be used in teaching a foreign language, including English, to Russian-speaking students. The proposed cognitive-linguistic methods, study of the external frame structure of the word, the conceptual analysis and the formation of interpreting skills of foreign concepts, according to the authors, can significantly improve the effectiveness of teaching a foreign language, including English, at various levels of education and in various higher and secondary educational institutions.

This book (compiler professor Tsybova) is aimed at introducing students, postgraduates and teachers of higher schools to linguistic works. In contrast to the already existing readers compiled by Professors V.A. Zvegintsev and F.M. Berezin, this book includes passages from scholarly works by contemporary Russian linguists: member of USSR and Russian Academy of Sciences, member of Linguistic Society of Paris, Professor honoris causa of Vilnus University, scientific researcher in chief (Institute of Linguistics of Russian Academy of Sciences) Y.S. Stepanov, member–correspondent of USSR and Russian Academy of Sciences Professor honoris causa of Armenian Academy of Sciences, scientific researcher in chief (Institute of Linguistics of Russian Academy of Sciences) N.D. Arutiunova, senior researcher (Insitute of Linguistics of Russian Academy of Sciences) Professor E.S. Kubryakova, Vice-Rector (Russian State University for the Humanities) Professor V.I. Zabotkina, Professors V.M. Leichik, V.Z. Demyankov, N.N. Boldyrev, I.G.Torsueva, E.G. Belyaevskaya, S.V. Grinev-Grinevich, I.S. Uluhanov, V.F. Novodranova, N.V. Ufimtseva, E.A. Sorokina, V.A. Iovenko, N.V. Ivanov and the Polish linguist Professor Y. F. Nosowicz. This reader (598 pages) consists of 6 parts: fundamental problems of general linguistics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, terminology, and translation. Since the reader does not include all the branches of contemporary linguistics and the works of all Russian outstanding scientists, there are perspectives for developing and continuing this reader