The end of the last century was marked by an all-conquering interest in linguophilosophical problems in linguistics. Undoubtedly, the most relevant and at the same time the most promising today can be recognized as the description of language in the totality and interdependence of its ontological and epistemological characteristics. Such descriptions include the book by Yu. L. Vorotnikov "Degrees of Quality in the modern Russian language", published in 1999.

The author's reasoning and assessment are based on a principled approach to the concept of quality as the most important philosophical category. Based on the relevant provisions, in particular, in the brilliant works of Yu. S. Stepanov, Yu. L. Vorotnikov qualifies the philosophical meaning of the concept "as a synonym for a widely understood quality". This widely understood quality is the ontological object of the author's description.

Since the focus of the study is not on the quality itself, but on the degree of manifestation of a qualitative trait, the methodological tool for measuring this degree is gradation as a kind of universal category that "reflects the ability of human thinking to dissect qualitative changes occurring with objects into certain segments, quantify them and correlate them" (p.11). Thus, the gradation of the "quantity of quality" in the compared carriers of the trait(s) is the main epistemological category of the description.

The content-formal characteristics of quality degrees are presented from two angles: a) as the quantity of quality that manifests itself in different states of the same carrier (relative or relative degrees of quality) and b) as the quantity of quality that manifests itself relative to the "norm" of the trait (regardless or absolute degrees of quality). A twofold approach to the subject of research forms the composition of the book.

In the first chapter, various theoretical concepts are described in detail and critically understood, which reflect views both on the problem of dividing degrees of quality and on the problem of their terminological designation. In addition, questions about the place of positivity in the system of quality degrees and the "norm" of the trait are considered here, as well as a number of other problematic issues on the research topic.

To substantiate the author's main position, we recommend section 1.1., where the reader is offered a historical digression into the problem of size distribution.-

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chewing degrees of quality from its origins (Lomonosov, Grech, Pavsky, Vostokov, etc.). Vorotnikov concludes this excursion with a general argument that issues related to the specifics of expressing degrees of quality in the Russian language are currently being revised on the basis of new approaches to the material of language research. In the light of this, it is quite natural that the author's attention is focused primarily on the concept of A. V. Bondarko, who, describing the functional-semantic field (FSF) of comparativity (degrees of comparison), distinguishes between its two types - explicit and implicit, which, according to Yu. L. Vorotnikov, corresponds to the traditional opposition of relative and non-relative degrees of quality (P. 22).

The second chapter describes the system of non-relative degrees of quality. Section 2.5. describes the means of expressing such degrees with a lengthy analysis of examples of designating high, low, and medium degrees of quality.

A description of the relative degrees of quality and the means of expressing them is presented in the third chapter. Systemically, degrees of quality of this kind are characterized in the triad equative (equal degree) - comparative - superlative. In sections 3.4. -3.10. the ways of expressing the gradation of a trait in all positions of the mentioned triad are studied in detail, using numerous examples and with a thorough analysis of the relevant scientific concepts.

On thirty pages of the text of the fourth chapter, the reader is introduced to specific language material that illustrates the functioning of certain types of gradation structures. All examples are accompanied by a meaningful author's comment.

In general, the monograph by Yu. L. Vorotnikov is of undoubted interest both for its linguophilosophical orientation and as a real contribution to the development of the original description of the semantic structure of the language proposed by N. Yu.Shvedova on the basis of general semantic categories. The author of the book" Degrees of Quality in modern Russian " introduces the category of measure into a number of such general categories, considering the pronouns how much and how much as its semantic outcomes (deictic words specified by the language system, according to Shvedova).

L. P. Katlinskaya, Doctor of Philosophy

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