Representation of the Category of Sacredness in Homiletic Texts (as Exemplified in the English Language).

The purpose of the article is to describe the semantics, structure and function of the homiletic text in the context of its text-forming category – sacredness. The categorial content of sacredness, represented by multi-level linguistic means, is defined as a type of knowledge (sacred knowledge), incorporating onomatology, imperative slant and eschatology. These segments of sacredness predetermine the semantic distinction of homiletic texts and serve as the basis for their linguistic classification. The basis of the structural organization of the homiletic text is manifested through the basic text contrast (sacred knowledge vs. non-sacred knowledge). Its implementation is carried out through linguistic means representing three categorical segments of sacredness and semantically correlated with them linguistic means of the opposite emotional-evaluative slant. The proposed concept of sacredness allows us to avoid extralinguistic grounds in the process of classifying homiletic texts.