Abstract: The reviewed work is the monograph of the teachers of Pushkin State Russian language Institute V. I. Shlyakhov, Professor of the department of the theory and practice of the teaching Russian as a foreign language, and L. N. Saakyan, associate Professor of the department the General and Russian linguistics. In the book the authors describe categories of text in the semantic-structural and cognitive-communicative aspects. This approach allows to study the indissoluble unity of the surface structure of the text and its main categories and the deep structures. The monograph consists of three parts. In the first chapter «The Main categories of the text» analyzes the communicative space as a unique en-vironment, which fully manifested the meaning of the words and emo-tionally-estimated relation of man to inform. It examines the traditional text category (coherence (cohesion), temporality, modality and others) in the light of the cognitive-communicative approach. In the second chapter «The Phenomenon of the scenarist in oral and written texts» discusses modern linguistic doctrine of the text, in particular the theory of the scripts and frames, the theory of the impact of the texts on consciousness and human activity. The authors use the theory of the scripts and frames in the analysis of different types of speech activity (including such com-plex as the communication in the mode of confrontation, of domination, collaboration) and describe the stage of interpretation of scenarios of verbal interaction. The third chapter is «The Category of indirection in the texts (indirect ways of conveying thoughts and emotions in the text)» is dedicated to categories of indirection as the main features of indirect, complicated meaningful communication. The authors describe such indi-rect means of information transfer, as metaphors, irony, euphemisms, al-lusions, omissions, etc. The paper discusses a number of research techniques that can be used to identify in the texts meanings, concentrated in the deep structures of metaphors, parables, euphemisms, idioms, and allusions. Special attention is paid to explanatory techniques that reveal the deep structure of the text. The advantage of the book is the abundance of the examples of art (prose and poetry) texts by national and foreign authors with comments. The monograph has a theoretical and application nature. The authors’ material has direct access to the practice of the teaching Russian as a foreign language. 

Keywords: deep structure, text category, cognitive-communicative approach, communicative space, speech activity, Russian language, text, concept, research methodology, explanatory techniques