Abstract: The subject of this research is the symbols characteristic to the genre of folk ballade. The object of this research is lyrics of the Russian folk ballads. The following compilations of ballads served as the material for this research: “Russian Ballad” (edited By V. I. Chernyshev, N. p. Andreev, 1936), “Folk Ballads” (edited by D. M. Balashov, A. M. Astakhova, 1963), “Russian Folk Ballad” (edited by D. M. Balashov, 1983), “Ballads” (edited by B. P. Kirdan, 2001), “Epics. Historical Song. Ballads” (edited by A. V. Kulagina, V. A. Kovpaka, 2008). The author carefully examines the peculiarities of ballad symbolism and its functions. In the course of research, the following conclusions were formulated: consistency of the genre order depends on the presence of the system of artistic visual means; central in the poetics of ballad belongs to symbolism, parallelism, antithesis, epithets, and metaphors; symbolism in the romantic ballads is presented quite extensively; often a symbolic situation becomes a part of psychological parallelism presented in many ballad concepts; syntactic parallelism can be placed in any thematic link and amplifies by antithesis. In certain instances, antithesis appears an important technique for creating a tragic effect. Ballad poetics is subordinated to explication of the overall genre trend, including the reflection of fundamental universals and principles. The novelty of this work consists in the attempt of textual analysis of the major compilations of ballads, as well as in selection of the symbols for their further analysis within the framework of implementation of genre characteristics.

Abstract: This article explores the phraseological units with the elements – cosmonyms that have anthropocentric characteristics in the English language. Within the framework of the research, the author selected 49 phraseologisms with the elements – cosmonyms resolved into semantic components. Phraseological units of the English and French language with the elements-cosmonyms that have anthropocentric characteristics serve as the object for this research. The subject is the semantic specificities of these phraseological units. The selected phraseological units carry the characteristics of a person and their activity. The goal lies in the analysis of the English and French phraseological units with the elements – cosmonyms. The works aims to determine the use of cognitive approach indicating the orientation of language towards the description of a person and their activity. The following methods were used in the course of research: continuous sampling from phraseological dictionaries; analysis and synthesis in revealing the semantic peculiarities of phraseological units; classification for arranging the analyzed idioms in due sequence; quantitative method for comparing quantitative data and processing the results of sampling from English dictionaries; observation and generalization. The author suggests the ideographic classification of the selected phraseological; units; analyzes the semantics of phraseological units of the English language with the elements – cosmonyms. Practical relevance consists in the fact that the research result give a systemic representation on the use of phraseological units with the elements – cosmonyms for describing the person’s character in English.

Abstract:  
The subject of this research is the symbols common to the folk genre of British ballad. The object of this research is the text of English and Scottish folk ballads. Review of the main studies dedicated to the texts of ballads is presented. In the course of analysis of the ballad genre, the author attempts to determine its key features. Special attention is given to the analysis of artistic expressive means of the medieval ballad texts. Among the poetic means, the paramount function is assigned to symbols; therefore, the author explores namely the semantics of symbols and their lexical representation. The five-volume collection by Francis James Child “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads” served as the textological framework for this research. The scientific novelty consists in the attempt to analyze the ballad poetics of the English and Scottish folk ballads. The article draws a number of conclusions on the identification of genre, describes its characteristic features, and analyzes the role of ballads within the system of folklore genres. The conducted research of the texts of British folk songs allows concluding that the central place in introduction of the main genre features is defined by the lexical means, among which an important place belongs to symbolism. Thus, ballad was not able to fully realize its genre categories and universalities without special tools that would allow formulating particular ideas. Ballads certainly represent a set of artistic expressive means, which attains a special function namely within the genre.