The paper analyses the evocative-stylistic punctuation phenomenon with the dash in contemporary German belles-lettres discourse chosen as an example. This phenomenon has not been given sufficient consideration in the existing publications. The concepts of expressive and emotional are explored and differentiated; expressivity is defined. We found that the choice of the dash sign with the integrity of the information implied, including semantic, emotional and modal aspects, is a function of the

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... thor's communicative intention and may be accounted for by the context, or by the author's preference to use this particular punctuation sign as a constituent of personal style. The primary factors that ensure expressive and stylistic effect are identified: conscious deviation from the norm prescribed by punctuation rules; enhancement of the sign position; connection with the constructions of expressive syntax. Deviation from the norm is the separation of the article by means of a dash from the noun, to which the article refers; the subject from the predicate. The strengthening of the sign position consists in replacing less expressive signs with a more expressive dash sign, or in combining three dash signs with an exclamation mark, creating the effect of emotional tension and incompleteness of statements. The dash serves as means of expressive division of the text and contributes to creation of expressive information, being a marker of expressive syntactic constructions.