Figurative language is part of our everyday life where meaning is communicated indirectly. Metaphor is among the major figurative devices that are commonly encountered in interactions. This study investigates the use of metaphors employed to conceptualize abstract concepts, namely that of anger in both English and Arabic. For this purpose, a corpus of metaphorical expressions denoting anger in both languages was utilized. These expressions were classified based on their metaphorical mappings and later analyzed using Kövecses’ (2002) framework. The results indicate that although the two languages share several anger conceptualizations, they have specific differences. These differences were attributed to language differences, in that language genius and vocabulary repertoire often influence the conceptualization process. Culture also proved to be another source of elements like climate and lifestyle that manipulate the conceptualization process. The study of metaphorical conceptualization of emotions in general and anger in particular in the Arabic language is a prospective topic that requires further research.

Maintaining communication may sometimes be ignored by the speaker. One may have a style of offensive and controversial statements while others speak based on the rules of communication without violating the theory of Grice’s conversational maxims. An example of the former is Trump’s speech about the Orlando Mass Shooting on March 16, 2016. Very often Donald J. Trump’s speeches seem to be offensive and controversial. However, some audiences find them effectively acceptable. To explore Trump’s big phenomenon speech, the authors carry out thorough research by applying the Critical Discourse Analysis which focuses on the text dimension. The results of this research are analyzed by using the qualitative approach. The application of the text dimension theory makes it possible to conclude that in the analysed speech Donald Trump successfully delivered his conservative beliefs and values to the audience by utilizing fear and making use of the media and the tragedy which took place in Orlando in March 2016. His victory in the 2016 presidential elections also points to the effectiveness of the speech. This research contributes to the understanding of critical discourse analysis and the way it functions in the study of various social issues.

The article is devoted to the study of language means used to create a pragmatic effect of humour and the comic in English-language comic books. The issue is considered in the context of studying the comic book not only as a creolised text and a special literary tradition, but also as a separate type of artistic discourse with a set of characteristic functional-linguistic parameters. Understanding the cognitive-discursive mechanism of humour in a graphic work is of particular interest in terms of optimising the creative and professional interaction between the artist and the author of the narrative text, who often act as a collective producer of modern comic book discourse. The empirical material of the study comprises examples of comic situations from various issues of comic books by Marvel and DC pub- lishing houses related to different topics, formats and time periods. Observation, quantitative analysis, the use of discursive means of the comic, linguistic-pragmatic analysis of humorous situations and generalisation of the obtained statistical groups and their interaction are used as methods of the research. In the article, the author proposes the definition of a comic book as a type of text and a separate type of artistic discourse, as well as distinguishes it from purely humorous types of graphic literature. The study differentiates between the terms “device” and “means” in the context of humorous pragmatics, offers a classification of comic means, as well as gives a brief description of them. In this article, an attempt is made to identify stylistic and functional-pragmatic features of the use of a number of means of creating a comic effect in the semantic structure of an English comic book. As a result of the study, the author formulates conclusions about the influence of the graphic component on the manifestation of the means of the comic, intertextual orientation and the interconnectedness of these means, as well as the functional load of humour in the English comic book.

This article is devoted to the study of the way phraseological units function in the English mass-media discourse. The choice of English-language journalistic texts as the object of the study is due to their prevalence and significance in the global information environment, the widespread use of phraseological units and idiomatic vocabulary in the media, as well as the significant pragmatic potential and multifunctionality of English-language phraseological units, which make up the arsenal of means for journalists to perform their key professional tasks. Based on the analysis of modern theoretical sources, the article investigates the issues of the functional and pragmatic nature of phraseological units, while specific empirical material of English-language media illustrates the selected functions of phraseolog- ical units, considered in their relation to the functions of media texts. The study also provides the functional analysis of the problems and features of the use of phraseological units. In addition, the author pays special attention to the connection of English-language phraseological units with the linguocultural worldview of native speakers, as well as the main characteristic features of the journalistic style of speech. The study confirms that most phraseological units are aimed at performing several tasks simultaneously within one text. Their use allows the producer of the mass-media discourse to bring the media text closer to the work of art in terms of style and language, providing it with emotional and evaluational information, to make the text more fascinating for the reader, to succinctly and convincingly express the thoughts and emotions of the journalist in relation to the subject described, as well as to convey various elements of a certain nation’s culture to the recipient.

The purpose of this study is to specify the cultural and educational characteristics of modern media discourse and determine the principles for selecting electronic information resources for foreign language teaching / learning based on their cultural and educational potential. The survey on the cultural and educational characteristics of the media space in the context of the dialogue of culture, conducted at the Foreign Language Department in Moscow State Pedagogical University (February 2022), and the discursive analysis showed that modern media space can be characterized by mythologization, interactivity, manipulativeness, hypertextuality, clustering, social orientation, clipping, dialogicity, multiculturalism, symbolism, eventfulness, ideologization, educational value, and mobility. According to the respondents, such characteristics as interactivity, multiculturalism, educational value, mobility, and dialogicity possess a positive potential for foreign language learning, but clipping, eventfulness, ideologization, manipulativeness, mythologization, and social orientation can negatively influence the educational process. It is especially important to consider it while selecting social media resources that possess a big potential for forming an intercultural competence in the dialogue of cultures. The fundamental principles of media resources selection included the principle of taking into account the developed characteristics, and the principle of excluding media resources with negative characteristics. Further studies are needed to determine the directions of modeling the cultural media space with educational tasks and those including intercultural interaction.

The development of online media and the growth of the number of Internet users provoke the rise of new forms and genres, which initially appeared in the English language. In the sphere of business, it has become essential to have a website, the main compo- nent of which is the “About Us” section. Minitexts placed in this section in the course of time changed their focus from being merely informative to becoming advertising. This transfer of its functional value has led to the change in structural and semantic features of the text. The research aims at analysing linguistic features of the texts of the type mentioned. The research seems to be relevant because it deals with the media discourse which offers new ways of promoting goods and services. Such new forms require scientific treatment of their structure and content. The scientific novelty of the study lies in treating the above-mentioned texts from the point of view of their dynamics. The authors claim that there has been a functional change in the texts under consideration from them being informative to becoming promotional which caused the changes in their structure, contents, and volume.