The present paper provides a review of the most discussed issues with regard to creating a universal formal approach to study the politeness theory. What we see now is the lack of a proper metalanguage, and proliferation of various theoretical approaches: the presentday terminology describing polite behavior is represented by a variety of concepts: ‘appropriateness’, ‘saving face’, ‘face constituting’, ‘rapport management’ etc. along with a great number of diverse discursive practices in different cultures makes it quite a challenge to provide a coherent overview of politeness strategies. However, despite considerable fragmentation in politeness theory research we can observe certain consistency in the chosen methods for the interpretation of empirical material and experimental data. Firstly, specialists avoid using the term ‘politeness’ in theoretical reasoning due to abundance of peripheral semantic components realized in the speech of language users from different cultures, and restrict its employment to the interviewing of respondents. To interpret certain behavior as (im)polite and analyze its perception, the impact of expectations and norms is increasingly taken into consideration. Although research of authentic verbal interaction based on discourse analysis is still quite common, a greater focus on paralinguistic aspects of communication can be predicted. Research findings in the politeness theory will be more and more applied to discursive practices to benefit the health and welfare of the society.

In this paper we present the methods for the automatic identification of argumentation patterns and the results of their application. These methods have been employed to analyze argumentation annotations of 25 scientific texts from two thematic areas. Under study were the expert annotations constructed manually with the help of web tools for visualizing argumentative statements and argumentation schemes, as well as for modelling the argumentation structure of a text as an oriented graph. Such graphs contain two node types: information nodes denoting statements and their connecting reasoning models (schemas) from Walton's compendium. The regularly employed reasoning models and their structural combinations (argumentation subgraphs) form argumentation patterns. Patterns containing more than one scheme are unmarked in initial graphs. As a result of processing argumentation annotations from the collection, we have constructed a joint spectrum of argumentation patterns with their absolute and text frequencies. The methods of frequent subgraph mining have been used to identify argumentation patterns containing three or more schemes. The subgraph matching has been performed through the use of the NetworkX package which implements the VF2 algorithm for subgraph isomorphism testing. We have analyzed the calculated frequencies to identify both the general principles behind the use of argumentation patterns typical of scientific texts, as well as the specific tendencies of their functioning within distinct thematic areas (linguistics and computer science). These general principles regulate the use of both separate schemes and their structural combinations. The latter appear in two configuration types: either as sequencies of argumentation schemes (up to 5 elements) or as tree structures (which contain up to 8 nodes). Specifically, we demonstrate that branching within a tree-form pattern typically presupposes the parallel use of identical argumentation schemes. Additionally, branching of argumentation patterns occurs more often in proximity to the main thesis of a text, than near the initial premises. Finally, the thematic area can condition not only the use of separate schemes, but also their structural combination within complex patterns. The results obtained are applicable to the evaluation of text similarity based on argumentation patterns employed in them, which, in its turn, can improve the clustering and classification of texts, evaluation of their persuasiveness, as well as the formal synthesis of argumentation.

This article considers the conflict of the comical and the rational in the dialogues of the short-short film serial entitled “Tu mourras moins bête” (“You will die less stupid”) produced on the basis of comics of a French artist and caricaturist Marion Montaigne and broadcast by the French-German company ARTE. In the framework of the study we define a short-short film as a comic microfilm text whose structure includes a thesis and an argumentation sentence with an unexpected ending. This meets the specificity of the present popular scientific discourse both to inform and influence the viewer, thus making the interpretation easier.
Analyzing the comical in popular scientific discourse, we rely on its conceptualization by the French philosopher Henri Bergson proposed in his essay “Laughter”. He considers the comic as the phenomenon appropriate only to the humans. Defined as the formula of laughter and a way of semiotization of funny aspects, the comical is used to express emotions which reinforce the impression the viewer receives from the information in the text. It is argued that due to frequent usage of the comical (typical of everyday speech) the author manages to convey both the rational and the emotional information in popular scientific discourse.
A video sequence provides a good example of the two trends’ interaction in popular scientific discourse. The rational verbal description which already contains the main information needs to be demonstrated as the part of argumentation. In the film it is the borderline symptoms (manifestations) which are discussed and one of them “anger / impulsivity” is demonstrated in a comical form. The dialogue demonstrates the above symptoms of the character’s behavior with his/her usage of slang and vulgar language to make the situation funny and to add a stronger argumentative force to it.
Another characteristic form of presenting knowledge in argumentation is realized by means of nonsense which makes the conflict of the rational and the comical possible. A necessary condition for it is the creation of two worlds (planes): one is real and rational, the other is fictional and irrational. Absurdity is supposed to play a game with the viewer in which audio and video sequence shows the absurdity of the naïve worldview in order to get home the knowledge more effectively.

This article examines methods of verbal interaction with disease in Middle High German medical incantations on the material of three charms of the 15th century aimed at healing fever, apoplexy and purulent disease. The analyzed texts are of special interest since they have never been discussed in such types of research before and have never been translated into Russian, whilst they may provide some useful material for typological studies within the German charm literature as well as within the Germanic and Indo-European traditions. In addition, they demonstrate a characteristic mixture of the old pagan and new Christian mentality, in which disease (and, therefore, the fear of death) is depicted as an element of the gloomy archaic Lower World (represented, however, by the Devil), and the hope of salvation (healing) is associated with miraculous power of Christianity (that is, monotheistic religion), represented by the names of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and the holy evangelical apostles. Thus, Christian authorities and relics occupy the place of the old pagan Upper World in this hybrid picture of the world, manifested in incantations. All the texts are printed in the original in the transcription by V. Holzmann (Holzmann V. “Ich beswer dich wurm und wyrmin…”: Formen und Typen altdeutscher Zaubersprüche und Segen. Bern, 2001, 322 S.) with our translation into Russian and necessary comments. In this article we speculate upon the specifics of the perception of disease in Medieval German charms as heterogeneous and hostile substance originated in the Lower World and propose our typology of Middle High German medical incantations, which is based on three main types of communicative strategies supplied with text examples. The conclusions arrived at may interest specialists in the German language history and literature as well as folkloristic, culture studies and medicine of the Middle Ages.

This paper examines the issue of using zoologic metaphors as a means of verbalizing group/individual perception of children by adults. The research was carried out on the basis of a survey conducted among representatives of American and British cultures, as well as on the examples from media discourse, namely The New York Times and The Times. This approach allows us to focus not only on the child perception by Americans and Britons as a whole, but also by individuals. The purpose of this study is to identify, analyze and compare the context of the use of zoologic metaphors employed to conceptualize childhood experiences by representatives of American and British linguocultures.

The article is dedicated to a study on the concept CHINA in the minds of native Russian speakers and the national worldview that has been formed at the present time. The relevance of this article is determined by the research interest in the significance attached to the concept CHINA worldwide and the need to identify specific cultural features of the Chinese national mentality as viewed from the outside. The relevance of the concept CHINA as the object of our paper is accounted for by the role of China in the contemporary world, as well as by political, economic, cultural, scientific, and other contacts between the Chinese and Russian peoples. The results of the free associative experiment on the stimulus “China” are used as a source of material for the reconstruction of the concept. The participants of the experiment were students of Kazan Federal University (KFU); teachers of KFU of various specialties; translators, engineers, employees from different enterprises and institutions in the city of Kazan; students of the preparatory department for foreign students of the Xian Petroleum University (foreign students from Russia).
The aim of the article is to identify the cognitive features of the concept CHINA, and describe its structure in the minds of native Russian speakers. While achieving this aim, the following tasks were performed: 1) conducting a free associative experiment; 2) analyzing the reactions of the informants in the associative experiment; 3) identifying the parameters of reactions according to cognitive characteristics; 4) building the structure of the associative field “China”; 5) describing and identifying the concept CHINA in the minds of native Russian speakers.
It has been shown that the core of the associative field includes associates about Chinese culture and its people. A high-frequency word “Panda”, seems to symbolize China. Almost all the respondents emphasize Chinese culture and the people’s mentality. The core of the associative field consists of the units concerning public life, health, and famous places in China. Tea exists in the minds of native Russian speakers as a favorite drink and a precious gift. The periphery of the associative field includes words related to Chinese politics, the army, and bilateral interstate relations. The cognitive signs identified in the free associative experiment on the stimulus “China” demonstrate Russian people’s great interest in all the aspects of Chinese culture and create a multifaceted idea of China.

The article is a review and analysis of recent publications dealing with the study of language consciousness. The analysis has revealed two types of research: the one aimed at describing the characteristics of some fragments of the language consciousness of a certain group of people, and the other one aimed at comparing fragments of the language consciousness of different groups of people. As a rule, the comparison is based on the activity that representatives of the two groups carry out regularly. Studies of this type give ground for conclusions about the causes of the observed phenomena since they identify factors that influence changes in the mental lexicon. Such factors are essentially the features of regular activity and the features of the individual and personal experience. For studies of the first type, the traditional interpretation of language consciousness as an integral part of human consciousness is suitable. For studies of the second type, a different interpretation of linguistic consciousness is required, the one that fixates the pattern of changes in the language consciousness of different groups of people. The author defines language consciousness as a psycholinguistic concept that shows how the internal and external factors for the functioning of a language as a human property are associated with changes in the meanings and senses of linguistic signs. Thus, language consciousness is not an integral part of individual consciousness, but a theoretical construct that fixates the patterns of change in the mental lexicons of a group of people depending on sociocultural and individual and personal factors. This concept reflects the ways the speech experience of a cultural group is organized depending on certain internal and external factors (those fixed by theory). The language consciousness does not contain a listing of the properties of individual images of consciousness, but instead a general pattern according to which the images of group or individuals consciousnesses are organized forming finally a certain system with its specific connections and characteristics which are determined by the impact of a peculiar combination of inner (personal senses, emotions, values, etc.) and outer (regular activity, social codes, cultural stereotypes, etc.) factors.

The article is dedicated to the study of political marginalization viewed as a communicative strategy, aimed at retention or attainment of political power. Political discourse, despite the perceptible tendency towards personalization of the political communication particularly noticeable in politainment, is defined as a predominantly institutional type of discourse in which the dyad ‘agent – client’ plays an important role. From the traditional standpoint of view, it is believed that agents have discursive power while clients have none. However, as the undertaken research shows, it is quite difficult to draw a distinct line between agents and clients in political discourse. The point is that using the strategy of marginalization, politicians can present themselves as non-politicians (i.e. non-agents), untypical (atypical) politicians, for example women politicians, politicians holding on to minority political views, etc. At the same time, the strategy in question is most likely unrestricted by political forms of marginalization in the sense that it can correspond to the politician’s search for selfidentification with marginal social groups whose rights are infringed upon, including national minorities and LGBT. Furthermore, even those social groups which, in fact, have long ceased to be marginal in the Western world (e.g. women) can be exploited by marginal politicians who prefer to characterize them as people who are not enjoying equal rights with elite, privileged representatives of the society (e.g. men). Thus, the study of marginalization presupposes the analysis of the complex structure of social relationships, unveiling manipulative aspects of marginalization (NB: the politician’s self-representation as the non-politician should almost always be considered as an instance of manipulation) and exploration of linguopragmatic aspects of marginalization.

From the end of September 2020 to November 2021, the Year of Germany was held in the Russian Federation. At present, while summing up its results, it seems only relevant to do some work on the study of the multifaceted ethnolinguistic community of Russian Germans, especially its Moscow diaspora. In this article, two key points are considered: the history of representatives of the community to the present day and the empirical part of the study that analyzes indepth interviews of respondents from among young Russian Germans under the age of 35, living in Moscow. The main purpose of the work was to find out what state this ethno-linguistic community is in today: to consider the problem of self-identification of its members, to trace their native language level and interest in studying and preserving the cultural heritage of their ancestors. The study of various sources has shown that throughout the history of the life of Germans in our country, the attitude towards them has repeatedly changed: from positive to hostile, to more neutral; from praising this community as that of competent specialists and innovators in many fields to persecution and repression during the first half of the twentieth century, and, eventually, refusal to be recognized as a full-fledged community. As a result of these actions on the part of the Soviet government, the community of Russian Germans found themselves in a state of identity crisis facing the problem of the gradual disappearance of their linguistic and cultural landscape. Interestingly, the interviews compiled on the basis of a form created within the framework of the “Languages of Moscow” project helped to find out that in Moscow, historically one of the most important centers of initial settlement of Germans in Russia, their community is not visible any more due to the low level of presence of native Moscow Germans. At the same time, there is a chance for its growth since many respondents consider it to be important to pass on their rich cultural and linguistic heritage to their descendants and continue to develop it on the territory of Russia. So, we believe that the current work has a potential for further and deeper research of the ethno-linguistic community, in particular with the focus on the diaspora of Russian Germans who emigrated to Germany (namely rusacks).

The article deals with discursive manifestation forms of the cultural and ideological content of cancel culture and woke movements. It is suggested that these phenomena are connected by cause (woke) and effect (cancel) relation. Both are analyzed in terms of the discursive semantics, which is mainly concerned with the critics’ narratives of the above phenomena, the positions of their proponents being poorly verbalized. Nevertheless, just as an example, we present a linguistic analysis of the petition posted by US undergraduate students. The category of proponents also includes representatives of management structures, described by the words government (AmE) and illiberal bureaucracies whose meanings are extremely broad in American culture, which may cause some misunderstanding. The translation interpretation of woke and cancel cultures is also supported by linguo-stylistic and cultural information from English and Russian dictionaries on the words cancel and culture. As a result, it is proved that the phrase cancel culture can have the following adequate context-related correspondences: “culture” of cancellation and “cancellation” of culture. However, in the opposite direction (from Russian to English), for similar content, the equivalents woke, wokeness, wokeism appear to be much more precise, especially if cultural or social values are implied rather than pop celebrities.