The Status of the Category of Comparison in Modern Linguistic Research

The study of the category of comparison is a traditional topic of linguistics, which is acquiring particular relevance in connection with the interest of modern linguistics in comparative studies of languages and cultures. Generalization of views on the status of this category in language in the works of the last decade allows us to identify three directions in its study depending on the degree and features of taking into account the correlation of epistemological, logical and linguistic aspects. The generalization of views on the category of comparison offered below is the result of studying modern research on this category using the material of languages of different systems. Despite the great diversity of approaches to studying this category, all of them are devoted to identifying a certain semantic invariant that unites heterogeneous elements of the system of means of expressing comparison in different languages. This work is an attempt to highlight the problems of such research in the first decade of the 21st century.