Cyrillic sign in English advertising text

The article is devoted to the features of Cyrillic precedent signs’ functioning in English advertising polycode text. The assembled corpus consists of 170 polycode texts (121 texts are American, 49 texts are British). The corpus was divided into four groups: texts containing English words with a single element of the Cyrillic alphabet; texts with several elements of the Cyrillic alphabet in an English word; texts with alphanumeric complexes, in which the transformation of English words is made by replacing Latin letters with Cyrillic signs and Arabic numerals; texts with transformed Cyrillic letters in the English word. The verbal and non-verbal components of polycode texts are characterized, the relationship between verbal and visual precedent phenomena of Russian origin in American and British advertising is noted. Typical transformations in English texts are highlighted: replacement of N with Й, И, П, Л; R with Я; Y with Ч, У; F with Г; U with Ц; H with И; W with Ш, Щ; O with Ф; A with Д; E with Э, 3; B with Б, Ь; X with Ж. It is emphasized that the Cyrillic signs are accompanied in the found texts by verbal and non-verbal elements, which are precedent phenomena of Soviet and Russian origin (anthroponyms, polytonyms, toponyms, eventonyms; signs-symbols of the Soviet era: hammer and sickle, red five-pointed star; constructivist style of an advertising poster design, etc.). The conclusion is that the Cyrillic sign (or its imitation) can be ranked among the precedent phenomena, since it has the following features: it refers to the original source, i.e. the Cyrillic alphabet, and, alongside with other precedent phenomena, participates in new meanings formation; it is recognizable, well-known, renewable and often repeated in texts with a reference to the realities of Soviet and Russian reality; it gives the texts an evaluative connotation (being used in these polycode texts as a means of creating a comic (ironic) effect by combining the incompatible); it serves as a sign of a specific (linguo)culture, transmits stereotypical ideas about it.