The article considers lexical-semantic and pragmatic characteristics of gastic units in the context of the cognitive-discursive paradigm. These lexical units are analysed as an element of the national-cultural picture of the world, reflecting everyday, symbolic and communicative practices. The methodological basis is formed by the methods of component, frame, elements of pragmalinguistic analysis, the corpus sample from the National Corpus of the Russian Language is used as a material. The main pragmatic functions of gastic units are determined, including phatic, expressive and etiquette. It is established that gastic units have a high pragmatic potential and function as carriers of cultural meanings in interpersonal communication. Semantic groups of gastic units, such as nominations of dishes, processes of eating, cultural and ritual forms of the macroframe of the feast were revealed. The obtained results contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of gastic units in the formation of the linguistic picture of the world