Pragmalinguistic characteristics of euphemia as a mean of implication in diplomatic discourse (based on the speeches by Gerhard Schröder)

The article discovers the phenomenon of euphemia through pragmalinguistic knowledge. The research focuses on the pragmatic grounds of euphemisms, which are the most important components in the encoding implicit information. The authors also provide an analysis of those pragmatic grounds that were actualized in the diplomatic speeches by Gerhard Schröder.

Humour Stereotypes and their role in the emergence of interethnic and international conflicts

The article examines the main ethnic stereotypes, prerequisites and ways of their formation in a humorous discourse presented by the genre of anecdote. The main means of ethnic prejudices of humorous stereotypes expression, the reasons and methods of their formation are analyzed. A new principle of their classification is given according to the consideration of stereotypes from the standpoint of psycholinguistics. The paper also presents the schemes of humor perception by Russian and German ethnic groups. Using the material of anecdotes as the main form of modern humorous culture, it is shown how these schemes work and how ethnic stereotypes manifest themselves in an anecdote, how the relevance of stereotypes affects the change and disappearance of certain anecdotes from national everyday life. The means of expressing ethnic prejudices in the discourse under consideration are negative-evaluative communicative strategies of value differentiation, distance, and discrediting foreigners.