Explication of intellectual wordplay based on English and Russian headlines: a comparative description

This article presents an explication of intellectual wordplay as a special form of linguo-creativity, based on a comparative analysis of Russian and English headlines. The effect of intellectual wordplay is created through the realization of the metaphorical potential of headlines as a linguistic device that stimulates cognitive operations in the reader's mind and leads to a re-evaluation of value components. The aim of the research is to identify the linguistic potential of intellectual wordplay as a form of comprehending and understanding the world, transmitting a system of cultural and national values of two linguocultures. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it identifies, for the first time on the basis of headlines, the linguistic means of wordplay that create the effect of an intellectual obstacle, the overcoming of which makes it possible to reveal the mechanisms of transmitting the value-semantic content of the linguocultures under consideration. The results show that the representation of meanings of wordplay is revealed through means of metaphorization, allusive phrases, and phraseological units in individual-authorial processing, which incorporate universal features in the perception of political, socio-cultural, and economic realities in the context of two different linguocultures. The analysis of examples confirms the significance of the linguistic potential of intellectual wordplay as a form of comprehending and understanding the world, in which the correlation of linguistic means and value orientations explicates and differentiates the cultural and axiological attitudes of a particular linguoculture.