THE EXPRESSIVE MEANS OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC POPULAR TEXT (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF THE UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION OF MICHIO KAKU’S BOOK «THE FUTURE OF THE MIND: THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST TO UNDERSTAND, ENHANCE AND EMPROWER THE MIND»)

Abstract

The article deals with expressive and pragmatic possibilities of those linguostylistic means that emphasize the scientific popular outline of a book by Michio Kaka’s «The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind». It reveals the components that are connected with the emotional and intellectual influence on the audience. The article establishes that the active author’s position regarding the formation of addressee scientific knowledge promotes the assimilation of complex rational concepts, predetermines the constant interaction between a researcher and a reader. The functional yield of expressive elements facilitating perception is determined. It outlines the linguistic or extra-linguistic factors due to which scientific ideas can become popular and well-known. It notes that the professor of theoretical physics involves interlocutors to complex problems and bioethical issues, constantly encourages collaboration. The interrogative headlines, rhetorical questions, dispute elements, «question and answer» uniformity and open final parts illustrate the role of a reader. Hence, the author leaves him/her the priority to adjust differences. The figurative context (analogies, personification, metaphors, simulated imaginary situations, convergence of distant concepts) activates the reader’s imagination and better reveals the essence of unknown phenomena, fulfilling the cognitive function. The contrasting effect of semantic meanings (oxymorons, contextual antonyms, paradoxes, antithetical concepts) underlines the difficulties of modern scientific research, experiments, and forecasts. Literary and cinematic reminiscences become an organic component of the presented scientific worldview, combine objective physical knowledge with artistic thinking and aesthetic feelings. The prospects of our study are to analyze other expressive and evaluative means of identifying science popular intelligence and prospecting, to explore the components of the author’s linguistic behavior, to reveal his creative personality and the signs of an individual style.