The article considers the semiotic features underlying in epic poems David of Sassoon and Beowulf. An attempt has been made to examine linguistic and extra-linguistic semiotic units (sign-word; sign-symbol, sign-expression) that are of central importance to the poems mentioned.

Gaiane MuradianAssociate Professor, The theoretical background of cyberpunk literature would be void without the actual analysis of extrapolation and metaphor in William Gibson's (the forerunner of cyberpunk subgenre) Neuromancer (1984). Despite being examined as a product of both imaginative and cognitive worlds, the metaphor cannot thoroughly express the actual reality. The latter aim is realized through extrapolation which can be described as a scientifically oriented cognitive estrangement, rational imagination capable of making predictions which have a reasonable chance to become reality. Thus, extrapolation deals with how to construct metaphor on truth and helps to draw the borderline between the scientifically oriented truth and the imaginary truth. The delimitation of the given borderline contributes to knowing and recognizing the original language and style, the cognitive and imaginative maps of cyberpunk literature. It is the cyberspace and its characterizations of matrix, simstim, memory, Microsoft(s), DNA that represent the main components and sources of extrapolation for the imaginary urban space examined quite closely in Neuromancer. The infiniteness of Cyberspace reflects the probability of those futuristic and trajectory settings which are the main "inhabitants" of Gibson's cyberpunk. The settings are extrapolated and transmitted to the realm of metaphoric chains in which extrapolation functions as a unique type of cyberpunk metaphor.

The present article highlights the main problems related to the functional-communicative study and causal discourse markers. Both markers are widely applied in English textual and communicative discourses. The functional-communicative nature of the markers has been examined with reference to dialogues and monologues in fiction. The latter make it possible to clarify the importance of the adversative and causal discourse markers in the organization of the overall discourse. A number of features typical of both adversative and causal markers are revealed due to the context. In case of heavy dependence on the context, the markers do not perform a wide communicative function, for example in monologues, whereas in dialogues the role of the communicative function is enhanced.