Globalization and digitalization force the media to look for new ways of interacting with the audience. Clickbait is a special type of catchy headlines that promise intrigue or sensation but are not true to the content of the article. As a result, clickbait headlines mislead the reader. Initially, clickbait was used only in online news aggregators or tabloids. Today, it has penetrated printed media and television, which have to compete with online media. This research analyzes clickbait techniques employed by the authors of the social and political newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets in its printed version and official Telegram channel. The study is based on 300 headlines published between 2023 and 2025. The methodology relied on descriptive and interpretive methods, as well as semantic, stylistic, discursive, and quantitative analyses. The headlines in the paper and digital versions shared the same rhetorical devices, but in different percentages. The list included omitting important information, focusing on insignificant details, quotations taken out of context, wrong cause-and-effect logic, substitution of concepts, words with wide semantics, hyperbole, false or partially false facts. Most often, the journalists used deliberate understatement and quoting without context. In the printed version, clickbait accounted for an average of 7% of all headlines. Such headlines were placed on the front page or in the Breaking News. In the Telegram posts, clickbait headlines accounted for about 10% and were accompanied by large photos and eye-catching images. 

This study investigates impoliteness in the comment section of the BBC English News website, focusing on the types of conventionalized impolite triggers used by commenters. It also examines the influence of computermediated factors, including anonymity and synchronicity, on impolite behavior. J. Culpeper’s bottom-up model of impoliteness triggers (2011, 2016) was applied to classify impolite acts. Using a mixed-method approach, we analyzed 115 comments containing 170 impolite strategies. Our findings reveal that commenters frequently targeted writers, politicians, and the BBC itself. Insults and pointed criticisms were their most common strategies, while silencers and threats were used least often. Among threats, personalized negative vocatives were most frequent, while personalized negative assertions and references were least common. Our analysis further shows that anonymity, synchronicity, and emotional expression significantly shape the manifestation of impoliteness in online comments. 

Small talk is a genre of phatic communication. As an enunciative type of discourse, small talk is inherent in oral speech produced during direct communication. Its main function is to establish and guide interpersonal relationships. In institutional communication, formalized small talk regulates the status and roles of the interlocutors. This article describes the strategies and tactics of small talk in everyday informal communication in the French linguistic culture. The material was obtained from J.-M. Gouriot’s collection of bar chat (Les Brèves de Comptoir, 2014). The list of strategies identified included cooperation, avoidance, and clarification. They were realized through the tactics of generalization, explanation, refusal to communicate, changing the topic, trivialization, and repeated question. The strategies and tactics covered a wide range of lexical, stylistic, and syntactic devices. The common semantic structure could be described as dialogue des sourds, i.e., "the dialogue of the deaf". This effect is a promising research topic: the interlocutors lack a common communicative goal, and their individual strategies depend on their own worldview, life experience, and emotional state. In this research, the small talk discourse proved to reflect the general trends in modern communication. Simplified and depersonalized, such dialogues leave out the personality of the interlocutor and communication per se, focusing on the mere exchange of information. 

Fragrance blogging is a popular digital genre that has to deal with the challenges of verbal olfactory description. Perfume reviews initiate discussion of smells, which means that this discourse falls into the category of evidentiality. Fragrance bloggers interpret a smell by describing their contact with its source, their individual experience, and appeal to the collective knowledge about it. The linguistic pragmatic approach to evidentiality made it possible to cover the macrocategory of deixis and describe the semantics of olfactory discourse in terms of intertextual, situational, and axiological components. As part of sensory discourse, the category of evidentiality allowed the authors to structure the information on various aspects of olfactory semantics. The semantic structure of olfactory discourse was applied to 28 texts from four Russian-language perfume review blogs. The semantic analysis of the verbal semiotic means of evidentiality focused on the evidential components of meaning integrated into the discourse analysis methodology. The methodology examined the methods of identifying the olfactory source in relation to the smell description modes in perfume review blogs. The research revealed three meanings of evidentiality. Personal certification was related to the immediate experience of the blogger. The derivability of judgments referred to the qualification and classification bases for the particular olfactory response, i.e., the main note, the group affiliation, etc. Finally, the indirect evidence indicated the blogger’s awareness of the collective experience regarding the smell. The methodology for analyzing fragrance blogs proved the importance of evidentiality as a category that emphasizes the situational involvement in olfaction. 

Contemporary genre studies need more research into the specifics of online communication. This paper describes the online genre of restaurant reviews. In this study, 200 restaurant reviews were subjected to T. V. Shmeleva’s conventional genre analysis while the methods of content and discourse analysis revealed the online specifics. Online restaurant review proved to be a hybrid genre with a reliable structure. It provides information about restaurants, evaluates them, and encourages or discourages a visit. The main genre-forming component is the perceptual experience of the critic, who abandons anonymity to gain greater trust from the recipients, i.e., impersonalized users with a consumer interest vs. identified restaurateurs looking for feedback. Online restaurant reviews are rich in words of perception, emotional and evaluative vocabulary, professional terms, and stylistic devices. In addition, they are oriented toward colloquial communication. The assessment of dictum content and polycode character are the specific features of the internet genre that complement the conventional model. All aspects of the dictum are subjected to assessment; expressive means are implemented by direct, indirect, implicit, and polycode methods. The polycode character of the review creates a multifaceted idea of the object of description while engaging the recipient in the selection process via a synergy of verbal, visual, and interactive elements. 

Effective international politics depends on the international communication encoded in the language of diplomacy. Diplomatic discourse is a communicative instrument of political influence in constructing the image or cultural tradition behind a particular political power. This article offers a new typology of modern international communication based on English-language reports, resolutions, and briefings published by the United Nations online. A review of domestic and foreign publications on the theory and typology of discourse, cultural linguistics, political linguistics, diplomacy, and media communication made it possible to determine the linguacultural profile and institutional status of diplomatic discourse. The methods of stylistic, semantic-syntactic, pragmatic, communicative, and structural analyses revealed the institutional aspect of diplomatic discourse, describing its position as a mediator for other types of communication. The methods of comparative and contextual analyses highlighted the specific profile and pragmatic semantics of diplomatic discourse. Diplomatic discourse proved to be a discourse of international communication that combines the features of business, scientific, and political communication. While lacking linguacultural and emotive components, its linguacultural profile included a rigid structure, a robust intertextuality, and an intense precision, reflected in a reliable glossary of political, military, or diplomatic terms. 

Worldview linguistics extracts lexical-semantic vocabulary from a limited corpus of texts. Such studies were especially popular at the beginning of the 21st century. This approach relied on the presumption that the linguistic worldview is formed primarily by the vocabulary, which is a system of interconnected topics. This research featured lexical-semantic groups of nouns used in exercises from Russian textbooks. It offers a new perspective on the cultural code, where codes are based on texts rather than dictionary entries or phraseological units. The research relied on the anthropological paradigm, consistent with systemic-structural linguistics. For the first time, exercises in Russian textbooks were examined in terms of their axiological potential. The exercises came from three of the most popular modern Russian textbooks for high schools. The author extracted 10,373 word forms, which corresponded to 4,455 lexical-semantic variants of meaning. The lexical-semantic forms, not words, were chosen as research units because the meanings of a polysemantic word can be attributed to various lexical-semantic groups. Based on the quantitative analysis, a lexical-semantic group is an important fragment of the linguistic worldview. Such fragments can be reconstructed from text corpora if the elements of the lexicalsemantic group possess axiological potential, provide synonymous series, and represent cultural codes. In this research, the linguistic worldview reconstructed from Russian textbook consisted of lexical-semantic groups that reflected verbal, temporal, anthropic, and bodily codes of culture. 

Human cognition and semiotics have their roots in the natural environment. Spatial generation is a mechanism of semiosis associated with spatial perception reflected in linguistic and cultural structures. The article introduces a vector nomination model of universal associative patterns between ascending /  descending vectors and the cultural concepts of male / female or active / passive. The spatial perception manifests itself in intradirectional aspects, when the environment affects cognition, as well as in extradirectional, when cognition affects cultural practices. The research relied on an interdisciplinary approach that united semiotic, mythological, and cognitive analyses of Indo-European traditions and climatic phenomena. The ascending vector (earth → sky) was consistently associated with the masculine and the sacred (Indra, Zeus, burial mounds, etc.) while the descending vector (heaven → earth) was connected with the feminine and the fertile (earth goddesses, funeral rituals). The climatic phenomena of El Niño (active, destructive) and La Niña (stabilizing) confirm the universal character of this binary, which makes spatial generation a key mechanism for mythologizing natural processes. This mechanism persists in modern discourses. The research can be expanded onto other cultural traditions, with a subsequent experimental verification of the effect of spatial vectors on associative thinking. 

The article explores the value orientations typical of residents in monotowns, i.e., single-industry towns. The linguistic data were obtained from an indirect associative experiment through an analysis of stimulusresponse speech acts. The methods from corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics made it possible to identify the hierarchical framework of key values in the consciousness of respondents from the diamond mining town of Mirny, Republic of Sakha. The core values included health, family, love, friendship, and security, as well as their semantic associations. The methodology for calculating speech act characteristics included the intersection index (O – Number of Overlapping Associates) and intersection strength (OSG – Overlapping Associate Strength), which reflected the psychological proximity of value meanings in communicative practices. The method revealed the integrative and regulatory role of values based on parameters of speech acts as social actions. The results show how language captures and transmits value orientations, reflecting both universal and ethnocultural perceptions. The findings contribute to the development of interdisciplinary linguistics, enhancing the understanding of value system in single-industry settlements. The method can be used for social planning, academic programs, and cross-cultural studies. 

The interpretative process of legal language is an activity aimed at reconstructing the mental representation of meaning. According to juridical linguistics, correct understanding of legal language requires more than mere linguistic skills: it needs interpretative competence. Despite its intrinsically metalinguistic nature, the decoding of the legislator's will goes well beyond purely linguistic presuppositions. The paper illustrates the interpretative models of decoding the information conveyed by the juridical linguistic sign, as well as highlights their limits. G. Pino, A. Ross, and G. Carcaterra offer a variety of interpretative models intended for decoding the sender’s intention (mens legis). This paper synthesizes the literal and the deontic interpreting paradigms. The literal model, which focuses on the superficial data, relies on semantic methods, i.e., componential analysis. The deontic model uses formal techniques based on the deontic modality and on the systematic criteria of the legal system in general (ratio legis). Both the interpretative models have their limitations, which implies the need to remodel the interpretative activity and adopt an integrated model that will take into account the specific meaning of legal terms and the deontic logic. 

This article introduces a complex core and peripheral structure of metalinguistic consciousness in online discourse. The research covered 50 metalinguistic comments published in an online community dedicated to the issues of the modern Russian language. The discussion focused on the grammatical gender of the word tiul (curtain lace). A set of standard and specific methods showed that the fragment of native speakers’ metalinguistic consciousness consisted of a distinct core and periphery. The core included linguistic conservatism, which manifested itself in the tendency of native speakers to preserve the original orthology and reject new standards. In general, linguistic conservatism occurs when a linguistic personality strives to maintain linguistic stability. The periphery included myth-generated linguistic theories identified through a quantitative and content analysis of online comments, which either promoted the norm or introduced new interpretations of the word. Aligned with relevant research on metalinguistic consciousness, the study covered online metalinguistic speculations made by native speakers. The material provided a deep insight into the way metalinguistic consciousness manifests itself in online discussions of linguistic issues, thus providing access to the metalinguistic consciousness. 

Political discourse uses the category of otherness to legitimize the actions of the government and shape collective identity. The article examines the lexical representation of the semantic category of otherness in American socio-political media texts covering the military conflict in Iraq in 2014–2017. The analysis involved 30 media texts (33,960 words) from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. As a result of processing 508 unique nouns (3,590 uses), eight lexical-semantic groups were identified as part of the category of otherness: forces opposing the Other; opposition to the Other; influence of the Other, strategies and tactics of the Other; names for the Other (opponents, enemies); objects and phenomena of the Other; victims of the conflict; psychology and perception of the Other; economic and social manifestations of the Other and their consequences. American media employ linguistic means to contrast Us and Them by selecting particular lexemes, their contexts, emotive meaning, and connotations. The semantics of otherness is manifested through the description of the conflicting sides and their actions, with an emphasis on threats, fears, and consequences for civilians. The model provides a deeper understanding of the linguistic mechanisms that form the image of the Other in media discourse and its role in shaping public opinions and political strategies. 

In East Slavic languages, the declension of neuter gender toponyms always poses a certain problem. This research covered neuter toponyms ending in -ovo/-evo/-yovo, -ino/-yno in Russian and East Slavic languages. If used in their initial form, neuter proper names violate the rules of morphology and syntax. The author investigated the structure of such toponyms, their origin, and morphological peculiarities. The tendency for retaining  their initial form persisted for several reasons. The first one was the need to distinguish between masculine and neuter topomyms. The second was the impact of adopted nouns. The third reason was the generally poor level of philological culture. Another reason could be the declinability of the first part in two-part names. This article focuses on common nouns ending in -o that were adopted in the 18th century, which tended to retain the form of the nominative case in spite of the fact that they were similar to the original Slavic names of neuter morphological gender. Often considered a typically Soviet trend, the non-changing of flections of toponyms, ending in -ovo/-evo/-yovo, -ino/-yno started in the pre-Soviet period. These toponyms are generally declinable, and that matches other Slavic synthetic idioms. 

Alexander Gorodnitsky’s Road to Pushkin (2021) contains a poetic triptych: 1) Moscow, 1831; 2) Pushkin to Pletnyov, July 22, 1831; 3) Spleen. These three poems were written in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last poem compares the poet’s own experience of lock-down spleen with the historical analogy of the autumn of 1830, when Alexander Pushkin was quarantined in his family estate of Boldino due to a cholera outbreak and which became an exceptionally productive period for the great Russian poet. Gorodnitsky centers his Pushkin myth on the utmost value of art. Moscow, 1831 describes how an existential crisis gave birth  to the golden age of Russian literature. The other two poems are palimpsests of Pushkin’s imagery and motifs, exploring the nature of Russian spleen (khandra) and coping with it. In the triptych, Pushkin’s biography echoes with Gorodnitsky’s own life. 

The article describes the poetic oeuvre of Vladimir Bashunov (1946–2005) and the way it echoes the so-called Pushkin’s myth. The Altai poet projected Alexander Pushkin’s life on his own poetry and essays. The intertextual approach with biographical, structural-semiotic, and mythopoetic methods made it possible to explain how Pushkin’s biography and poetry turned into an inexhaustible source of allusions for Bashunov’s poems. In his Essay on Pushkin, Bashunov created a literary image of the great poet with such core poetic symbols as Garden, Door, Path, Shore, and Meadow. The leading motives included a feast at the edge of the abyss, a fair  moment frozen in time, the creativity of solitude, love of autumn, a talent wasted, etc. The Orphic myth of the poetas-sacrifice killed at the peak of his fame is supplemented by the psychological traits that make the much-revered figure of Pushkin human and dear to Bashunov. He wished he had met Pushkin and compensated for this impossible wish by noticing Pushkinian echo in the nature of the Altai mountains. This creative effort incorporated the Asian highlands into the national myth created by Alexander Pushkin.