The paper analyzes the expression of participants by morphological and syntactic means in the polysynthetic West Circassian (Adyghe) language with respect to their characteristics as arguments or adjuncts. It is shown that the distinction between arguments and adjuncts in West Circassian is gradual rather than discrete. In addition, the same participant may be introduced as an adjunct in morphology but as an argument in syntax but not as an adjunct in syntax but as an argument in morphology.

This study is focused on the metaphorical meanings of adjectives in semantic field ‘curved-skewed’ in Russian, English and Chinese. Patterns discovered in the vocabulary of that field support the hypothesis of universality of metaphorical mechanisms in different languages.

The paper analyzes the current situation in the area of assimilation of loanwords in writing. The question is raised of the linguistic criteria and factors that are important in determining the spelling of the word. We identify and analyze the existing principles of orthographic normalization, such as the unity of the graphic form of the words, the imperative to codify rules, a unification attitude, the absence of gradations in spelling rules, and minimalism in prescriptive formulations. Using present-day examples, it is shown that, despite their seeming indisputability, these principles are not efficient enough as applied to foreign-language neology. Also discussed is the relationship between norms and codification in orthography as well as the issue of different approaches to spelling variability.

The paper describes attitudes to the Belarusian language in modern Belarusian society examined through the prism of comments on news articles on the Web. Besides comments on the sociolinguistic news articles, comments on the articles that are neutral from the point of view of the content but are written in Belarusian are analyzed, where the language choice itself becomes a trigger for sociolinguistic discussions in the comments. Such an analysis allows for getting the information about attitudes to the language under bilingualism, which could previously be obtained only through polling. The paper shows that despite the criticism of the Belarusian language being absent from the media, the language conflict is twofold: the society expresses discontent with Belarusian as a whole as well as discontent with its certain aspects. Inparticular, people criticize both usage of Russian borrowings (real or supposed) and usage of made-up words that allegedly do not exist in Belarusian according to commentators.

The paper postulates the Russian idiom of the English language as a specific semiotic system characterized by mass spreading and the system of typical structural and functional regularities. The author specifically describes peculiarities of using infinitives and infinitive constructions in the English speech of Russian-speaking people. Some conclusions are drawn on regularities of non-native speech production and grammatical idioethnicity of non-authentic English speech determined by a pragmalinguistic transfer of syntactic means of thought verbalization.

Major aim of the current research work is to find equivalents ontopic-comment level for literary translation from Japanese to Russian. Analysis is made, based on the existing translation of Yoshimoto Banana novel “Kitchen”. In this research the equivalents for communication situations expressed by “no da” construction, ellipsis, ending particles “ne” and “yo”, topic particle “wa” are studied.

The objective of the paper written by the linguist and the mathematician is to consider the languages of geometry in their written form. It opens the series of works in which significant relations between languages of science and natural languages are discussed. The core of the present paper is formed by the concept of space and its language representation in both types of the sign systems. A special attention is paid to lexical units by means of which some basic space structures are described.

The impact of globalization has led to the aggravation of national identity and ethnic consolidation problems for the Altai people. There appeared a necessity to rethink the traditional knowledge and to adapt the traditional outlook to the new environment. This paper based on a number of the few field recordings describes some peculiarities of interaction of folklorist and informants in Altai nowadays. In the new situation, the researcher becomes involuntarily included in the solution of problem of national identity. The informant acts as interpreter of traditional knowledge and is actively trying to influence the way of thinking of the researcher.

Recollections about Musa A. Oborina, an outstanding editor and publisher of foreign linguistic literature in the USSR. The author tells of her contribution to preparation of the Russian version of Max Vasmer’s “Russische etymologisches Wörterbuch” and of her struggle for publishing of Roman Jakobson’s linguistic works in Russian translation.

Orlov, a well-known old-Russian literature researcher. The essay contains peculiar details of Moscow everyday life at the beginning of the 1920s. The author tries to reproduce the specific features of Orlov’s colloquial speech.

An attempt to characterize how the essay by A. Reformatskij may help us to understand the growth of the first post-revolutionary generation of linguists in Moscow. The author also tries to show the meaning of this essay as a source for documentation of language behaviour - both of Orlov and Reformatskij.