Precedent Situation: Possibilities of Description and Verification (Using the Example of PS “Petrov and Boshirov”)

The article discusses the problem of studying such a precedent phenomenon as a precedent situation (PS). Its study noticeably lags behind other precedent phenomena (precedent text, precedent name, precedent expression). This is primarily due to the fact that currently researchers, having a set of basic characteristics that define a certain situation as a precedent, as a rule, do not practice its comprehensive analysis, which also solves the problem of verifying this situation as a precedent. The transition from the stage of discussing the main features/characteristics of a PS to the stage of proposing ways to describe it and proving its precedent status is long overdue. Firstly, the very attempt to develop such a scheme/procedure is an urgent research task, since it cannot be a simple compilation of PS characteristics proposed by different authors, but must be based on certain principles/approaches. We believe that the cognitive approach is the most “natural” in the case of describing any precedent phenomenon, and the choice of certain positions of such a description is associated with those conceptual characteristics for PS that were proposed by researchers involved in the theory of precedent in general and the scientific description of a precedent situation in particular. Secondly, the description and verification of the precedent status of hypothetical PSs actively used by native speakers in various types of discourse will allow us to reach a new level of studying this precedent phenomenon. First of all, this concerns media discourse, which is currently demonstrating increasing activity in updating various linguistic means, especially in the field of evaluative vocabulary. The 5-step procedure for describing the PS proposed in the work, which is essentially a comprehensive analysis of the PS, allows the researcher not only to achieve his goals, but also to identify the so-called problem areas that indicate the peculiarities of the functioning of a particular PS in modern communication.