THE CONCEPT “SET” IN GRAMMATICAL SEMANTICS OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

The article studies the ways of representing the mental category “set” in grammatical semantics of the Russian language. The research material includes phrases, models of simple sentences, phraseologized constructions and stable expressions. The conceptual analysis is carried out in the aspect of a new theory of humanitarian knowledge, the methodology of which prescribes to use a triad of concepts — interpretation, representation, convention — in the study of all significant units of language.
The concept of “set” has a single differential feature — “more than one”. The paper shows the importance of the oppositional characteristic “discrete (dissectable) set” / “non discrete (non-dissectable) set”: it is associated with the category of certainty / uncertainty and determines the discursive properties of the sentence. The article analyzes explicit and implicit ways of representing the concept of “set”. 
The implicit way of representation takes place in sentence models in which there is no iconic correspondence between logical structure and linear organization. 
The structure of sentences denoting dynamic processes in space usually serves as a matrix for imaginative representation of real and imaginary events in various areas of life, including social, economic processes, and changes in the inner world of a person. In syntactic constructions, which are common language metaphors, the concept of a “non-discrete set” is often represented as an innumerable number of specific manifestations of an entity or a property of this entity.