Features of functioning of expressions with word ''of God'' is in the religious and secular texts
The paper gives a comparative analysis of semantics and of the linguistic status of polysemantic expressions мир Божий ‘Divine peace', свет Божий ‘Divine light' and страх Божий ‘awe of God', as they occur in religious and secular texts. In the modern Russian language, when it is used in the religious sphere, there is an urgent need to update the internal form of some frequently used expressions. For example, analyzing such expression as свет Божий, it becomes clear that for the author of a religious-oriented text ‘light' is an attribute of God, as comes from Him; the word Божий is therefore essential. By contrast, for the authors of texts with another thematic focus, the meaning of свет Божий is assigned to the token ‘the Earth'. Moreover, the idea of ‘God' is almost absent in this case; this token can therefore be taken out of this expression easily and without any semantic changes. The language of sermons demonstrates semantically motivated use of expressions as opposed to semantically unmotivated use of the same expressions in texts of other kinds. Consequently, the use of a special type of multiple meaning, semantic syncretism, seems to be typical of sermons almost to the same extent as of poetry.