Abstract
Linguistics of deep structures, methodological linguoconceptology, receptive aesthetics are of inter-est for the study of speech / non-verbal manipulation in the story by A. Chekhov „The Death of a Government Clerk“ as a double meaning - linguistic and textual. A structural study of Chekhov’s humor made it possible to establish the role of speech / non-speech manipulation as a source of metasense. The study of illocutionary influence, manipulation - forms of verbal / non-verbal exposure reveal in the metasense structure of the meta-observer. The concept of metasense in the story by A. Chekhov is based on the delimitation from semantic gaps. The semantic gaps are considered in the context of the read-er’s interpretation, the metasense is a method of accurately translating the author’s thoughts. This approach is based on the study of speech / non-speech manipulation and irony as methods of illocutionary influence of the speaker on the listener. The connection of semantic spaces and metasense is shown in the role of a meta-observer - methods of reproduc-ing the plot of changing Chervyakov, the image of death, the chain of indices, the author’s remarks, physiological gesture, transformation of the event into a non-event. This is how the genre unity of the joke and drama was established.