Review of recent issues on humor field

The paper presents a brief review of some original issues in English, gained by the main argument-the theme of humor from the standpoint of different scientific approaches, and from the perspective of various aspects of the consideration of humor. Humor occupies a significant place in the spiritual life of social communities and all spheres of society are permeated by this phenomenon. The papers of both established scholars and novice ones from different countries are summarized. An attempt is made to differentiate the works according to the research areas and to present them in the light of general research lines and further perspectives in the study of humor

Specificity of Semiotic Organization of Internet Memes of Professional Community of Lawyers in Social Networks

The article deals with Internet memes that function in the professional community of lawyers in the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki as a polycode text. The question is raised about the grounds for the analysis of Internet memes. The purpose of the study was to consider the semiotic organization of Internet memes of the professional community of lawyers. The relevance of the study is related to the need to study the features of speech practces determined by the forms of informal communication within such a social structure as the professional community of lawyers. The novelty of the research is seen in the development of analysis parameters that take into account the specifics of the Internet meme as a kind of polycode text, due to the peculiarity of the professional community of lawyers. An analysis of Internet memes is presented for a number of reasons. It has been established that textual memes and creolized memes, in which the text component plays a leading role, prevail quantitatively. Images in Internet memes have a high artistic and general cultural potential, which indicates a high level of the general culture of the authors and recipients of Internet memes. The semiotic analysis of Internet memes gave an idea that the professional community of lawyers significantly influences all parameters of the description of Internet memes functioning in it, which allows us to make an assumption about the existence of a specific unofficial discursive area of the corresponding professional discourse

Functions of English-Language Borrowings in Russian and Italian (on the Basis of Radio Discourse)

The process of borrowing English words in Russian and Italian is discussed in the article. Particular attention is paid to the communicative-pragmatic analysis of the peculiarities of the use of Anglicisms in radio speeches. In the study of dynamic language processes, the media and communication have traditionally been the main sources of replenishment of the lexical structure of the language, including through foreign borrowing. The relevance of this work is determined both by the increased scientific interest in comprehension of active language processes in recent decades, and the linguists refer to comparative studies of dynamic phenomena in systems of different languages in order to identify similar or different processes in them, due to national linguistic specificity. A review of the scientific literature on various aspects of the study of borrowing in the analyzed languages is performed, the choice of material is substantiated, and research methods are described. The results of a comparative analysis of Russian and Italian radio speeches are presented. It is established that English-language borrowings have an extensive set of functions that are auxiliary in relation to the system-forming function of radio discourse - the impact on the target audience. It is proved that the coincidence of the main borrowing functions in the radio discourse of the analyzed countries is due to the strong position of the English language as a universal international means of communication

Gold nanoparticles electrodeposited on glassy carbon using cyclic voltammetry: Application to Hg(II) trace analysis

The electrochemical determination of Hg(II) at trace level using gold nanoparticles–modified glassy carbon (AuNPs–GC) electrodes is described. Starting from HAuCl4 in NaNO3, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were deposited onto Glassy Carbon (GC) electrodes using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV). Different deposits were obtained by varying the global charge consumed during the whole electroreduction step, depending on the number of cyclic potential scans (N). AuNPs were characterized as a function of the charge using both CV in H2SO4 and Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEG-SEM). The AuNPs–GC electrodes were then applied to determine low Hg(II) concentrations using Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (SWASV). The AuNPs–GC electrodes provided significantly improved performances in Hg(II) determination compared to unmodified GC and bare Au electrodes. It was shown that the physico-chemical properties of the deposits are correlated to the performances of the AuNPs–GC electrode with respect to Hg(II) assay. The best results were obtained for four electrodeposition cyclic scans, where small-sized particles (36 ± 13 nm) with high density (73 particles μm-²) were obtained. Under these conditions, a linearity range from 0.64 to 4.00 nM and a limit of detection of 0.42 nM were obtained