Expressive potential of image-based similes in speech of don dialects native speakers

The article presents the results of study of the similes, used by native speakers of the Don dialects and reflected in spontaneous oral speech, and in prose portraying the characters of the Cossack origin. Graphic and expressive characteristics of language units are determined, and their semantic and stylistic potential is identified, the ways of its realisation in the text are shown, depending on the situation of communication. The comparative analysis of the similes is carried out in the aspect of the simile as a means of expression of a person-subject opinion, estimate attitude to someone or something, as a means of reflection of the specificity of people's thinking, i.e. aesthetic perception of the surrounding world.