Functional essence of multi-code as a multi-level linguistic sign (based on the material of German literary text)

The article describes the topical problem of multi-code in modern textual formations including not the only one but a considerable number of sets of language codes and sub-codes. The code concept definition enables us to consider apart from the elements of different language code systems (foreign language, dialect, jargon, etc) the inclusion into textual formations of such elements of other varieties (graphs, drawings, notes, etc) as multi-code. The functions of multi-code are considered on the text material of German fiction discourse.