This research focuses on the analysis of lingual realization of the uncertainty principle through the perspective of post-modern philosophy and culture. The uncertainty principle is recognized as the basic principle of post-modern discourse practices and is postulated in terms of cognitive linguistics. Its relevance for linguistic research methodology is proved. The principle of uncertainty as applied to linguistic range of issues is defined as the pattern of interaction between quantitative and qualitative parameters of interconnected lingual phenomena. It expresses the inversely proportional dependence between two linguistic variables. The deeper the exposure of one feature of the language phenomenon, the more indefinite other parameters come forward. The principle is realized in English in a complex way: on the level of mental structures (as a concept), on the lexical level (as discrete lexical units), on the grammatical level (as the grammatical category of indefiniteness), on the textual level (as textual space organization) and on the level of discourse (as potentialities of self-organization and interaction of discourse constituents). The major means of lingual realization of the uncertainty principle distinguished in the thesis are: lexical (direct nominations; symbols; free and phraseological word-combinations), grammatical (morphological - the indefinite article, indefinite pronouns, modal verbs; and syntactic - interrogative sentences, especially rhetorical questions, conditional sentences, complex and compound sentences complicated with sub-clauses and homogeneous elements, elliptical sentences). Textual means are represented by: formal means (vagueness of structure, acentricity, non-linearity, hypertextuality, text openness) and content (vagueness of plot, vagueness of author, curvature of chronotope). The most effective categories through which the uncertainty principle is manifested in the postmodern discourse are referentiality, intertextuality, anthropocentricity and informativeness. The analysis of the factual material justifies that the basic function of the uncertainty principle in a discourse is transference of the focal center that causes the discursive divergence of vectors of authorial intention, material presentation and reader's perception. The methods of the uncertainty principle actualization are singled out: semantic isotopy, textual non-linearity and self-organization, rhizomatic way of arranging textual cohesion and coherence, ramified architectonics and interpretational plurality. The research outlines the most effective mechanisms through which the uncertainty principle is manifested in the English postmodern texts: conceptualization, de-focusing, language economy and redundancy, double coding, specific arrangement of texts and discourse. Thus, a wide range of means of the uncertainty principle realization determines its relevance for modern linguistics.
