Abstract
The article is a study of typical language means that take part in actualizing the text of an anecdote in the process of communication. It also substantiates functional specificity of an anecdote, its genre features as well as advances a generalized linguistic definition of the anecdote as a small form folk text. The author suggests viewing the anecdote as a small entertaining didactic story with a witty ending based on the facts from life of historical figures or ordinary people. This story, being the product of comic collective reflection on a relevant social situation or a natural change in human values, reflects national, mental and human experience accumulated by the societ in order to achieve an entertaining or criticizing effect. The hierarchical system of the functions of an anecdote is described in the paper by their following sequence: general didactic function → creative-and-teaching pragmatic orientation → entertaining-and-educational purpose. As a result of studying the specificity of lingual means’ actualization in the text of an anecdote, the author summarizes typical characteristics of the genre of an anecdote as follows: conciseness, light-heartedness, folk origin, dialogical directionality, evaluative and argumentative nature, which consists in language play and sound play in the anecdote actualization. Attention is focused on the fact that prosodic organization of an anecdote is the most significant means for correlating the two-dimensional semantics of its text against the background of other lingual means.
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