Pozhar A. Pragmatics of Verbal and Non-Verbal Means for Designating the Character's Age in the English Fictional Discourse

The thesis carries out a complex research of verbal and non-verbal meansfor designating the character's age in the English fictional discourse in the frameworkof pragmatics. The research clarifies the notion of "the person’s age" as the category objectifiedin language, speech, and discourse through multilevel verbal and non-verbal units for designating age semantics. It reflects consistent periods of individuals' development marked by the diversity of age features, which are differently conceptualized dependinon the historical epoch, national and cultural differences of various ethnic groups and their linguistic models of the world. They are accompanied by changes in biological, physiological, mental-cognitive, behavioural and social characteristics, awareness of which forms the individual and collective age identities and determines the modelsof socio-communicative behaviour in interactions with even-aged and various-aged interlocutors.