The paper examines cause-and-effect relationships from philosophical-logical, linguistic, and methodological perspectives. These connections themselves are interpreted as an indivisible semantic complex. The article presents lexico-grammatical (notional and functional parts of speech; simple and composite sentences) and textual content. It is emphasized that the ability to identify cause-and-effect relationships is a universal learning activity. It contributes to the formation and development of schoolchildren’s language competence, reading literacy, culture of thinking, as well as speech skills. Moreover, the research gives meticulous attention to the in-class unlocking of the lexico-grammatical potential of the language for expressing the cause-and-effect relationships of objects, actions, states. The study also focuses on the identification of syntactic construction polysemy and the use of syntactic synonymy resources to solve cognitive tasks, as well as on multifaceted work with text. Such work includes rearranging semantic text blocks, anticipating the content of its further parts, creating one’s own texts in literary or publicist styles according to the specified parameters. The assignment types described in the paper outline ways to achieve a high level of subject and meta-subject performance. The study analysed scientific, teaching and learning, reference sources in conjunction with modeling, observation, and the descriptive method.

The relevance of the issues the paper discusses is conditioned by the necessity to find effective means to form scientific ideas about language, the language system, and the connections between language and society in school students. The article aims to substantiate the methodological feasibility of using a comparative cognitive task in Russian language lessons as a tool to form students’ scientific linguistic world-picture. To achieve this goal, the study relied on the following research methods: theoretical-descriptive, observation, pedagogical experiment. The article specifies the concept of a «comparative cognitive task» in relation to the goals of teaching Russian at school. Such a task is a type of cognitive task aimed at discovering new knowledge by searching for similarities and differences in linguistic units of one or different languages. The paper proposes an original typology of comparative cognitive tasks based on lexical material. The typology, in accordance with the material underlying the task, includes 1) tasks of comparing facts from one language, 2) tasks of comparing facts from different languages. Depending on the activity method, comparative cognitive tasks are divided into 1) tasks of finding a marked element; 2) tasks of grouping linguistic phenomena; 3) tasks of conducting a stylistic experiment (when comparing facts from one language) or tasks of restoring text with gaps based on the comparison results (when comparing facts from different languages); 4) tasks of creating one’s own text based on the comparison results. The article gives examples of original tasks developed by the author and provides a methodological commentary on them. Moreover, the study interprets the results of testing these tasks in the sixth form, which enabled me to conclude that comparative cognitive tasks contribute to the formation of ideas about the language system and arouse students’ interest in linguistic phenomena.

The paper considers the research and pedagogical activities of Boris Trofimovich Panov (1923–2007), a famous Russian linguo-methodologist of the mid-to-late twentieth century. The relevance of the study is due to the scientist’s significant contribution to the development of Russian language teaching methodology. Moreover, B. T. Panov’s developments can be effectively used in accordance with the innovative trends of the modern educational process and the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard. His most significant teaching materials and study guides which address the theoretical and practical issues of teaching Russian in secondary schools are considered from a modern perspective. The research results are based on the analysis of scientific and scientific-methodological sources, the descriptive method, and methodological experience generalisation. The paper concludes that B. T. Panov’s methodological writings remain relevant since mastering new things is impossible without reliance on traditional methodological knowledge that ensures the continuity of scientific development.

The article analyses one of the late V. Ya. Bryusov’s little-known poems. The research focuses on the composition, key semantic fields and oppositions, spatial and temporal organization of the text. The article pays meticulous attention to the ways of presenting the lyrical hero and the linguistic means of expressing agent-object relations. The semantic-stylistic analysis of the text and the method of slow reading show how the lyrical plot unfolds, what accent the linguistic form brings to the interpretation of the figurative and semantic content of the poem, as well as to its subtext formation. Componential analysis is used to characterise the complex of meanings of the lyrical text core units. The research highlights the originality of the mask image and the presentation of the lyrical subject of the poem. The article concludes that the seemingly brief and simple plot conceals a complex intertwined subject-object structure.

The article aims to analyse the specific features of using metaplasms and technically related devices as language play means in modern Russian poetry. Additionally, the study determines their functions in literary texts. The study is relevant as the functions of a language play created with the help of various sound transformations of words have not been studied thoroughly enough. Nevertheless, the extensive use of metaplasms and similar changes in modern Russian poetry indicates the need for a more detailed investigation of this issue. The study relied on the methods of functional, contextual, and semantic analysis. This choice is determined by such poetic text features as the non-randomness of the author’s choice of linguistic means and the fundamental importance of context in their interpretation. The research made it possible to identify the following functions of metaplasms and related linguistic phenomena: 1) comic; 2) gnostic, including its variety – the function of rethinking; 3) hedonistic; 4) pragmatic; 5) iconic; 6) text-forming; 7) stylization function. Recognizing the high importance of metaplasms and related devices as a means to preserve rhyme and meter, the article concludes that it is advisable to consider other functions significant for analysing the meaning of poetic texts. The analysis results complement the theoretical information about the phonetic means of language play available in the scientific literature, thus enabling a detailed philological analysis of poetic text in school and university teaching.

The article describes psycholinguistic methods used to model the processes of modern schoolchildren’s perception and comprehension of the text of A. P. Chekhov’s short story "The Death of a Government Clerk". We postulate that the processes of perceiving and understanding fictional texts are conditioned by several factors. These include the quality of the text itself, its size, the closeness of the work to recipients, recipients’ gender- and age-specific qualities, and the peculiarities of their conceptual systems. The research data are the results of two-stage psycholinguistic experiments conducted with the participation of Omsk secondary and vocational school students. The first stage was performed according to the method of semantic differential. It aimed to diagnose the process of emotional perception in the experimental subjects. In the second stage, the students had to answer questions concerning the basic semantic lines of the text. The first stage revealed an emotional attitude to the text and the influence of the gender factor. The former was manifested in different intensities of the evaluation parameters concentrated in the area of negative coefficients. The second stage showed the results of the comprehension process as the totality of gender-, socially, and psychologically determined interpretations of the semantic content of the text. The comprehension process is associated with choosing certain supports such as particular textual signs, the socio-psychological model of the author, the plot, and others.

The article considers ways of representing the functional-semantic category of intensity at the lexical and word-formation levels of the language. At the former, linguistic units are expressed by a separate word (adverb, adjective), fixed prepositional case form, phraseological unit. At the word-formation level, the study describes derivational means and new lexemes formed with these means, as well as word-formation processes and patterns. The research is relevant as it concentrates attention on the dynamic processes determining the development of the category of intensity in the twenty-first century language. The article aims to show the dynamics of derivational and lexical intensifiers in modern media and literary texts. The materials of the study are texts obtained from print and electronic media, television and radio broadcasts, as well as twenty-first century fiction. Within the level approach framework, the paper employs derivational and lexical-semantic analysis. The functional-pragmatic aspect of the study determined the use of contextual and pragma-stylistic analysis. As a result, the study has characterised the productive derivational means (affixes and affixoids) and word-building processes (reduplication) of expressing intensity, as well as new words formed with their help. Moreover, the research has shown the connection between the categories of intensity and evaluativity in derivational processes. In addition, the research has identified factors (the semantic-stylistic features of affixes and derivational bases, the context) determining the expressive-evaluative nature of new formations. The paper reveals the areas for the development of lexical intensifiers: 1) expansion of syntagmatic possibilities and the associated emergence in speech of new phrases (such word combinations violate lexicographically well-established traditions); 2) addition of new units to the class as a result of intralinguistic borrowing and semantic derivation. New intensifiers with vivid expressiveness, imagery, and evaluativity serve as a tool to make speech more expressive.

The article examines verbs functioning in the sphere of digital technologies in terms of their entering the Russian language via secondary borrowing. The material of the study is verbs ending in -irovat’ possessing computer and digital semantics. They are associated with the corresponding English words and at the same time coincide in form with old loanwords. These are the lexemes the Russian language assimilated a long time ago (for example, administer, activate, archive, block, generate, encode, configure, copy, route, log, fragment, export, and so on). The study considers ways of assimilating secondary borrowings and the specific features of their functioning in the modern Russian language. We conclude that some of the analysed verbs show homonymic relations with the old loanwords, while others have polysemy relations. The semantic structure of the verbs already borrowed by the literary language, as well as their word-formation (suffix -irova-) facilitates the active assimilation of secondary borrowings. Some of the verbs with computer semantics differ from the old loanwords in connotations.

The article considers reasons and conditions for the spread of a new syntactic colour designation pattern, i. e. an attributive phrase with a colour identifier and a noun in the nominative case (X tsveta moloko / milk-coloured X, X tsveta baklazhan / aubergine-coloured X). The new model (X tsveta moloka / milk-coloured X, X tsveta baklazhana / aubergine-coloured X), which is inconsistent with Russian grammar, coexists in modern speech with the normative pattern. The study aims to determine the route of dynamic changes in this language area subject to variation. Using contexts extracted from the Russian National Corpus (the main and newspaper sub-corpora), the research identifies all grammatical variants of compound colour names and their qualitative and quantitative correlation. As a result, the body of colour terms having no codified variant is established. At the next stage, the research employed the "Media Archive" service (since 1996) of the electronic media bank "Integrum" as a source. Based on its materials and using a hypothetically specified search, the study has specified the composition of grammatically varying composite colour terms, as well as the composition of colouronyms that have no variants (tsveta diplomat / diplomat-coloured, tsveta kardinal / cardinal-coloured, and so on). The reasons for actualising the new analytical colour designation pattern include the novelty factor (tsveta cosmos / space-coloured, tsveta "beeline" / "beeline"-coloured) which is supported in writing by quotation marks and/or in the case of borrowings by writing in the original script. Other factors are the influence of a similar analytical pattern with an unchangeable adjective (tsveta electric / electric blue), regular use of a nomenclatural name (in advertising texts, in merchandise catalogues, and the like), and the tendency towards analyticity. The results of the research can be used in the practice of teaching Russian at school when studying the styles of the Russian literary language and their differences. In addition, they are relevant to lexicography when compiling specialised linguistic dictionaries, especially those that codify new colour terms in the Russian language.

The idea that until the beginning of the nineteenth century the sentence theory was considered in writings about the theory of eloquence has long been a locus communis in works on the history of Russian linguistics. Russian grammars contained «slovosochinenie» (i. e. syntax) as a syntactic section which stated the rules for connecting different parts of speech into combinations built according to the type of agreement and government. This «commonplace» of syntax historiography deserves a new addition. It is necessary to study the reverse influence issue and answer the question what role the first Russian grammars played in the development of rhetorical theory. The article analyses eighteenth- and nineteenth-century grammatical writings using the methods of extracting, commenting on, and interpreting fragments concerning rhetorical devices. As a result, the study has revealed a close connection between the Russian grammars by M. V. Lomonosov, A. A. Barsov, N. I. Grech, F. I. Buslaev and the theory of elocution. It is particularly true in terms of considering figures of speech, as well as in the sections on the rhetorical period types and the sequence order of the sentence parts. For instance, M. V. Lomonosov in his «Russian Grammar» analyses the examples of «transfer» and «omission», that is, inversion and ellipsis (omission) of sentence «parts». A. A. Barsov, who lists and defines nine «syntactic figures», developed this tradition further. N. I. Grech in his «Practical Russian Grammar» considers reverse word order, ellipsis, «tozhdeslovie» / tautology (intensifying lexical repetition) and «deviation» from strict grammatical agreement of names and verb forms (syllepsis). F. I. Buslaev, enlarging the syntactic section in his «Experience of Historical Grammar» with lexicological topics, gives close attention to tropes that demonstrate different ways of meaning transfer, i. e. metaphor and metonymy (for instance, synecdoche). The paper concludes that Russian linguists of the mid-tolate eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries aspired to add a section on the expressive use of grammatical language resources to the syntactic theory.