FORENSIC LINGUISTICS COURSE IN MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMS: THE EXPERIENCE IN RUSSIA.

The paper discusses baseline principles of education in the sphere of forensic linguistics in Russian Federation on the example of the discipline "Forensic linguistics" which is included into Master's Degree Program "Applied linguistics" for the students of philological faculties and institutes. The authors present the content of the course, its basic topics, such as a) linguistic expertise - its general characteristics, main methods, the object, goals and the subject; the problem of abuse in linguistic expertise; b) problems of semantic analysis from the point of linguistic expertise; c) classification of speech influence methods; d) lexicographic sources (including e-versions) in forensic linguistics; e) principles of text analysis in linguistic expertise. The course includes different aspects of the speech influence theory, its cognitive and linguistic basis, the problems connected with interpretation of linguistically defined terms in the text instructions and laws. Specific attention is devoted to commercial designations in order to define the degree of their originality and the degree of mixing with the opposite designations (according to phonetic, semantic and graphic features); setting of the dominant element in the combined trademarks including verbal designation; linguistic expertise of trademarks. The authors discuss the competences of students at the end of the course. Students should study the researches in the sphere of forensic linguistics, manuals and guidelines for linguistic expertise; the trends of modern linguistic expertise; principles of linguistic analysis of speech activity products. Students should be able to use linguistic terminology for qualifying legally significant situations, to use the terminology of the related disciplines; to carry out a linguistic analysis of the typical legally relevant situations. A future master should possess information on existing laws and regulations regarding the linguistic expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]