Abstract: In the light of deliberate attention of modern linguistic science and a range of social disciplines to the problem of personality and language, the unresolved question of the nature of language game in the texts of different stylistic orientation remains relevant and polemical. Comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon at hand requires the study of linguistic material that would reflect the specific nature of language game, which represents the organic synthesis of genre-stylistic affiliation and creative uniqueness of linguistic personality. Therefore, the examination of language game in the authorial publicistic writing, namely publications of V. V. Nabokov draws particular interest. The subject of this research is the various manifestations of language play on the lexical-semantic level, which implies occasional alignment of semantic plans, change of the usual meaning of the linguistic unit. It is established that the publicistic heritage of V. V. Nabokov is notable for the artistry that is atypical for such genres; it can be traced in the choice of lexical means, their subsequent interaction and transformation. The usual linguistic units acquire the new plane of content, which largely determines the functional-pragmatic vector of publications and the authorial position that reflects the the tendentious suggestive intentions characteristic to the authorial publicistic writing: accusatory, critical, etc. Change of the usual plan of perception is achieved by various means; most typical is the reference to semantic invariant, which in the authorial context contravenes the known presuppositions. The observations indicate that the language game based on the partial or full change of usual meaning of the word is of syncretic nature: as a rule, the new metaphorical level is not limited by modification of a single lexeme, but extends to the entire structure and compositional volume of the sentence.