2023 Issue №4

The article has conducted a comprehensive analysis of Joseph Brodsky’s poem “I always kept saying that the fate is a game...” based on functional-semantic and communicative-pragmatic approaches. In the process of analysis, the main emphasis is placed on the author’s modality as a means of transmitting his individual worldview. The author’s modality is con­sidered as a text-forming semantic category, explicit at various textual levels: lexical, syntac­tic, phonetic, and compositional. The role of the following language resources in structuring the authorial modality of the analyzed text has been identified: syntactic parallelism, poetic meter and rhythm, tropes of various structures, stylistic diversity of vocabulary, phonetic instrumentation, and compositional organization of speech. It is established that the combina­tion of means expressing the author’s modality in the poem is a way of representing signifi­cant philosophical categories for the poet, such as time, space, loneliness, and fate.

Based on the functional-semantic analysis of the use of idioms with the component сердце (heart), their ability to form a modal context and to explicate various modal and evaluative meanings is revealed. The study also demonstrated that shades of modal meanings in figurative expressions can overlap and be in motivated interrelated relationships with each other.

The article evaluates the linguistic units of the lexical-phraseological level related to the lexical-semantic group “plants.” Metaphors, comparisons, and phraseological expressions possessing imagery, semantic dualism, and an associative nature of expression are character­ized. The aim of the research is to identify the axiological meanings of an extensive group of linguistic units representing the plant code in Russian culture. Attention is given not only to the core but also to peripheral “plant” semas, allowing the inclusion of extensive layers of vocabulary and phraseology in the study. A methodology for axiological analysis of figurative units is developed, consisting of the following stages: identification and typology of evaluative meanings, determination of the basis for evaluation, and modeling a fragment of the value system. In general, figurative language units with the semantics of plants describe people and various aspects of their activities. In studying the general evaluative meanings, it was found that the majority of units with the semantics of plants have a negative evaluation, with the basis for transfer being the properties of plants dangerous to humans. The analysis of specific evaluative meanings allowed for the identification of aesthetic, ethical, intellectual, valeologi­cal, utilitarian, sensory-taste, and other evaluations.

Using a comprehensive approach to the analysis of linguistic facts, a fragment of the lexi­cal structure of hagiographic text formed by verbal units is characterized. The material for the study consists of hagiographic lives of saints and martyrs from the Synodal edition, which are part of the May cycle of the Menaion Reader. The authors focus on the syntagmatic aspect of the lexical structure of the hagiographic text, manifested in the distribution of lexical units and their collocations. As a result, a quantitative dynamics of verbal units is identified, re­flected in the increase in the proportion of verbs in the part of the hagiography describing the saint’s journey to righteousness. The distribution of verbs throughout the text of different lexical-semantic groups is determined by the type of monastic or martyric asceticism of the saint and the content of the compositional part embodying various hagiographic topoi. The role of lexical repetition in expressing the content of the text is demonstrated. The specificity of hagiographic lives is established, characterized by the use of verbal units whose meaning has evolved through semantic derivation, reflecting the metaphorical reinterpretation of a specific action in a spiritual plane.

The paper focuses on unofficial names for the city of Kaliningrad and its residents inves­tigated on user comments in regional social networks and a survey conducted by regional media (approximately 5000 participants). The study identifies the main patterns of forming unofficial demonyms and toponyms, including those derived from the pre-war name of the city, Königsberg. The pragmatic functions performed by these names are determined. There is noted an asymmetry in the composition of unofficial names for the residents of Kaliningrad compared to the demonyms that can potentially serve as motivating bases. It is established that the presence of a significant number of pejorative nominations within the framework of the regional onomasticon is driven by the residents’ desire to improve the city’s condition and preserve their own identity.