The analysis of three works of Western European literature published in 2018 gives grounds to speak about significant genre deformations of modern prose. Widespread at the end of the twentieth century micronovel gradually loses its canonical form, transforming into mobile species. In particular, we can talk about the micronovel-novelette (J. Barnes “One Story), about the micronovel-revelation (B. Schlink “Olga), about the micronovel-comments (P. Patrolin “I decided to stop writing).

The article analyzes the structural changes in the three-part model of the V.V. Nabokov’s mystical metaprose (named “Sirin” in the Russian-language period of 1930–1938 – “The Luzhin Defense”, “Glory”, “Camera Obscura”, “Despair”, “Invitation to Execute”, “Gift”. It is shown that the novels of the Russian-language period V. Sirin conducts a series of rigorously thought-out scientific experiments in search of finding the true position of a person in the world – from the model of the victim of the universe – in “Protection of Luzhin” through various options for man’s moral choice in favor of a vali­ant act, freedom and immortality, or sin, betrail and death, to the study of two types of artist – the false creator and the authentic one. Only a creative person can be happy in the world, for only the universe in all three of its forms is subject to it. This is the conclusion of V. Nabokov / Sirin’s ethical and philosophical quest.

The article deals with the dynamics of the work of poets, composers and the state commission on the text and music of the Hymn, and perception of their work by the political leaders of the country, as well as by the Russian Soviet and emigre press. Most sources are first introduced into scientific circulation.

The article describes the communicative stereotype of robot in children’s movies. It reveals the characteristic features of this stereotype, formed by the directional selection of language means (verbal and kinesic) on the nominative and communicative levels. It shows that the communicative fields of the interrelation of positions and personal sphere, activating in speech, destroy the robot’s communicative stereotype. The article describes the aesthetic effects of deliberate withdrawal from it, a radical break of the stereotype (contributing both comic and tragic meanings), etc.

The article deals with the study of the grammar of the Serbian language over the past fifty years, begining from the last century seventies up to the present. The seventies of the last century represent a period when the study of the Serbian language continued the post-war tradition, and at the same time the results of new linguistic stu­dies are introduced into scientific circulation, phenomena are considered that were not previously the subject of attention of Serbian science. This is also the time when new young researchers working to this day are included in the study of Serbian grammar. The aim of the work is to present the most significant results of studying the grammar of the Serbian language and emphasize the novelty of the specified period studies.

The article examines the range of abusive vocabulary in Nikolay S. Leskov’s novel “Soboritians” and story “Islanders” and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Bro­thers Karamazov” as one of the characteristic features of the authors’ idiolect. It reveals a correlation between expletives and the types of characters in these works and suggests that their use is governed by strict determinism. The functions of abusive words are marked. It reveals that the analyzed literary works by Leskov and Dostoevsky are marked by the predominance of the expletives scoundrel, fool, beast, jester (ʻpodletsʼ, ʻdurakʼ, tvar’ ʼ, ʻshutʼ) among others. Attention is also paid to the high frequency of the word ʻdevilʼ (ʻtchyortʼ). The analyzed material confirms the hypothesis of the relationship between the frequency of expletives and types of linguistic identity. The inability of identifying oneself with any class or social group, a kind of social schizophrenia that leads to swearing, aggression and a nervous, often split personality, creates a special type of linguistic identity – Homo Increpans (“Swearing Man”). The idea reaffirms that Nikolay S. Leskov and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky themselves belong to the Homo Increpans archetype as well: the active use of abusive words in texts of different genres, not just fiction, typifies their idiostyle to a great extent. For the purpose of comparison of the use of invective features by different authors the concept of associative field of the text is given and the fragments of such kind of fields in Nikolay S. Leskov’s novel “Soboritians” and story “Islanders” and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” are introduced.

In the first part of the article published in Stephanos No 1, 2019, we began to summarize and analize the statistical information collected during some inter-faculty classes of science fiction and fantasy studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2013–2017 years. In that part certain data on the audience of inter-faculty classes, their understanding of the “science fiction and fantasy have been provided. Names of favo­rite authors in science fiction and fantasy have been commented, as well as lists of texts in science fiction and fantasy which had received the studentsʼ highest esteem. In the se­cond part of the publication we summarize and analize the information of preferred by the students of inter-faculty classes types of science fiction and fantasy and abstract their perception of “ideal” science fiction and fantasy text, formulated, inter alia, as advice and wishes for modern writers in science fiction and fantasy.

The article is devoted to the definition of the concept term as a linguistic manifestation of special concepts. The formation of a new term is carried out, as a rule, on the basis of the language material in existence. Conducted study suggests that the term, as a linguistic manifestation of special concepts, is a key tool for professional-scien­tific activity.

The article is addressed to the little-researched modern literary material – Marina Stepnova’s novel “Bezbozhnyj lane” (2015) as a phenomenon of psychological prose. The author analyzes the problems of the work, the images of the central characters, their relations with the changing historical time and their self-identification; attention is paid to the mystical aspects of the artistic content.

The article explores the discourse of the bilingual newspaper The Southern Star / La Estrella del Sur, published during the British occupation of Montevideo in 1807. The emergence of this periodical is seen as one of the first episodes of the intense United Kingdom – Uruguay relations. We analyse the “language of occupation” as a set of linguistic means and tactics of manipulation used for propaganda purposes. Particular attention is paid to the Spain – UK antithesis, as well as the use of the epistolary genre to legitimize the pro-English discourse.

The English literature of the end of the 19th century reflected symbolist ideas, especially those increasing the interest in ancient myths and legends. In the novel by Oscar Wilde the ancient plots woven into the narration get new interpretation and create an image of the protagonist Dorian Gray, whose name symbolizes blooming youth and divine beauty in European culture and indirectly expresses the author’s ethic views.

The article analyzes the literary features of the essay, published in the newspaper “Russkoe Bogatstvo”. This essay is being examined in order to find out particularities of special Korolenko’s essay methods. The author of the article highlights such literary features as fiction images-symbols, typification, attention to the details. The author has come to the conclusion, that there were combined combined the elements of different genres: necrologue, the journalistic genre of the portrait in the newspaper and the artistic genre of the literary portrait, built in the form of the ancient Greek encomion. Korolenko, using the artistic images conveys to the reader his thoughts in the conditions of strict censorship. He convinces a reader of the significant role of the journalist G.B. Iollos for the Russian public and the correctness of his ethical concept – the need to respect the rights and freedoms of any person, regardless of religion and origin.

The article focuses on the spoken language imitation in the comedies by 16-century Siena-born authors (A. Piccolomini and other Intronati Academy members). The linguistic tools used for the written transmission of the features of spoken usage are examined. The morphological and syntactical examples associated with non-formal oral discourse are given. It is concluded that most of the parlato recitato phenomena are pragmatically marked.

The article deals with lexical means of expression of one of the types of modal meanings is the situational modality in Russian. The lexico-semantic field “situational modality” acts as an object of the research and the subject is lexical units referred to this field in Russian and their use in “Corpus of A.S. Pushkin” of LGCLL (Laboratory of the General and Computational Lexicology and Lexicography).
So, in this article part of modal information, which might be call “a situational modality” is considered. The article provide the research with the results the purpose of which was a compilation of the preliminary list of the lexical means having the ability of transferring the important information, and the partition of its units between microfields. The main problems, which arose in the analysis of the obtained background word-stock have been solved.
In addition, results of a corpus research of the composition and the use of means of designation of a situational modality (on the material of the corpus of A.S. Pushkin LGCLL) are described and provided in the article; results on carrying out preliminary operation on the analysis of properties in use of the nouns naming the microfields (possibility, impossibility, obligation, desire, desirability, undesirability) of the “situational modality” field, where the frequency of these nouns and some features of compatibility with predicates are revealed in Pushkin’s texts. There was provided a frequency of the main predicates representing microfields too: to want, can, be due. Then the analysis of the obtained results was carried.