I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

discourse, discourse marker, discursive words, evidentiality, pragmatics, textual function, polyfunctionality, Karachay-Balkar language.

The proposed work is performed as a part of an on-going research project aimed at description of evidentiality in Karachay-Balkhar language. The paper represents the study of semantics and functional variability of the most widely used discourse marker SORA. The functional properties of this marker are mentioned in dictionaries, grammars and number of specific studies, but they were not subjected to special analysis. The paper aims at bridging this gap. We identify that discourse marker sora is highly polyfunctional. Being a discourse marker with an expressive, conative or discourse structuring function sora presents a more increased pragmatic scope than those with a textual function operating at a more profound level of the discourse. The experimentally obtained data prove that sora is capable to perform a variety of communicative and pragmatic functions: reflecting the process of interaction between the author and the reader, conveying the author’s attitude to what has been said, expressing inferential meaning, based on logical reasoning and ensuring the text coherence. The results have shown that the topic is characterized by rich empirical detail and intriguing theoretical issues. The summarization of these issues can serve as a start for further reading and exploration. The study also contributes to the general theory of evidentiality.

Кошева Астра Шагабановна – кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры русского и иностранных языков Северо-Кавказской государственной академии, г. Черкесск, Россия; e-mail: kosheva57@bk.ru