The development of modern printed and electronic mass media, in Britain in particular, makes it necessary to define key features of the British newspaper discourse, including in respect of different inclusive. Th e article deals with classification of allusions regarding their functions in the newspaper discourse. Th ree main groups of functions are defi ned on the basis of the functions of the text itself. The author analyses some examples taken from modern British newspapers to illustrate functioning of allusions in the text. Furthermore, some conclusions are made regarding specific features of source texts, which prove the idea of inbuilt allusiveness of the modern culture.