Linguistics

The article deals with the problem of distinguishing between polysemy and homonymy from the point of view of systemic (lexicographical) and psycholinguistic approaches to meaning. The existing methods of interpretation of verbal associations are revised in the light of different views on the representation of polysemy in the mental lexicon. The
author proposes the associative fields analysis method which aims to reveal the semantic structure of a polysemous word in language consciousness.

The author attempts to prove that feelings are categorized on the model of the container, that they compose the crypto-class ‘Container’. Different types of classifiers are considered, as well as the usage of lexical units denoting feelings within them.

The article considers the specific character of Iran’s image being formed in the modern Russian media on the example of such newspapers as Argumenty i fakty (Arguments and Facts) and Izvestiya
(News). The author addresses the study of metaphorical patterns used in media texts, and concludes that the anthropomorphic and sociomorphic models are the most recurrent.

The article deals with the analysis of communication of a politician in the social network Twitter. The research is based on D. Trump’s microblog. The focus is on the means of interaction between the politician and the recipient, his self-presentation, and ways of shaping public opinion and reality.

The article presents cultural and linguistic comments to Stefan Gruber’s column Wortschätzle in an Augsburg newspaper StadtZeitung. The column often has a meta-linguistic slant. Swabian words and expressions,
defined by the author of the column in Standard German, are analyzed and translated.

Among some formal elements featuring a particular communicative significance of fiction prose paragraphs, the article distinguishes such syntactic and stylistic structures in the text of I. Murdoch’s novel An Unofficial Rose as interrogatory, negative, emphatic ones, as well as a specific use of deictic elements and conjunctions.

This article deals with the specific use of tense forms in the modern medical text and focuses on their role in representing the doctor – patient relationships. The author comes to the conclusion that tense forms can be used in an uncharacteristic meaning even in the medical text, separating the doctor’s voice from that of the patient.

Analyzing the results of a linguistic experiment, this article investigates the usage patterns of precedent phenomena in the discourse of American young adults. The findings indicate that there are two major
grammar models for the speakers to utilize precedent phenomena: comparative constructions and noun phrase complements. These patterns reveal some unique characteristics of the language units of interest.

The article highlights a semiotic approach to the study of specific language units: abbreviations and phraseological units. The relation between the signifier and the signified helps to perceive the process
of the formation of new linguistic signs which can be both motivated and arbitrary. In both cases the asymmetry of a linguistic sign causes the appearance of either a new signifier (in abbreviation), or a new signified (in phraseology).