2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The article raises the question about a four-part disciplinary status of media linguistics. The object of analysis in media linguistics is media text. The subject of the media linguistics is speech activity reflected in the media texts. The main method of analysis in media linguistics is praxeological which allows to select four scientific areas of media linguistics, the objectification of speech activity in each area gets the own consideration aspect. The first area is the grammar of media speech, which aims to identify patterns of linguistic tools selection. The second area is the stylistics of media text, which shows the impact of typical speech activity conditions in the linguistic structure of media text and set of actions for achieving the communicative goals in different contexts. The third — media linguistic discourse study — reveals what types of polycode tools express intertextual connections in a procedural unity. The fourth area — critical-evaluative — reveals manifestations of “language abuse” in the media, the norms of productive speech activities and assessment criteria of its effectiveness. Consequently, media linguistics, being of a fourfold discipline, uses the specified path of praxeology. Local methods are used for achieving the research objectives in each part of the media linguistics. In the grammar of media speech — methods of analysis of speech act as the components of texts, in media stylistics — method of stylistic analysis of media textual models — typical communicative actions, born of the aggregates of speech actions. In media linguistic discourse study — semantic-pragmatic method, showing communicative actions develop model procedures of speech activity in the media. In criticism of media speech — methods of cultural and speech analysis and critical linguistics. The four highlighted areas, the ongoing in the analysis of the interaction, gradually reveal different sides of effective speech activity in the media environment.
Keywords: components of media linguistics, criticism of media speech, media linguistic discourse study, media linguistics, media stylistics, media text, the grammar of media speech, грамматика медиаречи, критика медиаречи, медиалингвистика, медиалингводискурсология, медиастилистика, медиатекст, составные части медиалингвистики
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
On television, more frequent are the secondary forms of written language; spoken language is not spontaneous either: this is the televisual situation, televisual context, televisual writing, therefore — telesituation, telecontext, and telewriting. The author argues that the written language that appears on television constitutes an example of logovisuality. The author is interested in one of the levels of television discourse: the relevant programs of Polish tv channels. The research conducted by the author demonstrates that there are two kinds of logovisuality present on TV: primary and secondary, as well as several subtypes of the latter. The use of the written word as a means of echoing a picture, a sound, or a word is always secondary and bears the traits of intersemiotics. Language that is primarily written is presented on television as a text that is read. The types of logovisuality that are discussed in the article are as follows: 1) the texts displayed during the announcement of the presenter, and the written information about the station and the programme, 2) written information concerning the contents of the programme that is being broadcast, 3) explanations, 4) short statements informing about something which is currently not being talked about in the programme, 5) screen banners with summaries of what has just been said, 6) screen banners presenting fragments of on‑going conversations, 7) quotations of texts read by the presenter, 8) visible on the screen translations from the language A into the language B, 9) text messages, e‑mails, posts written by the viewers that are visible on the screen.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The media speech influence the prepositional system of the Russian language is considered. The prepositional combinations (PC) with the invariant ‘domination’ are analyzed (there are about 200 units in the Russian language). On the background of the survey characteristic of this group, the microgroup of prepositional combinations with the invariant ‘observation’ is subjected to analysis. It is formed on the basis of the basic components-nouns. Despite the different degrees of being preposition, all the PC of this group form directive-local opposition: под наблюдение кого/чего — под наблюдением кого/чего. On the example of PC with basic component прицел a morphosyntagmatic paradigm consisting of 13 units is revealed. The peculiarities of the text paradigm formed by the prepositional combinations with this base component are also considered. The functions of syntaxeme used with the null-form of the name in the media speech are identified. PC type под прицелом demonstrates wide compatibility with managed nouns, the extensive nominative field of which includes lexis, which has a tendency to move from subject names to attributive (под прицелом ракет — под прицелом любви). Wide compatibility of the word прицел is the catalyst of its movement towards the grammaticalization in the composition of the prepositional combination. According to the Russian National Corpus, it is revealed that the peaks of active use of PC with the basic component прицел appear 2–3 years after the socio-political cataclysms in Russia. The conclusion about the duality of the phenomenon of the popularity of prepositional combinations with the basic component прицел is made. This phenomenon objectively reflects today’s society with the utmost openness of person’s life; but it is one of the lingvotoxic tools cultivated in the media, which forms a militaristic model of reality in the mass consciousness, adding to the information space its own portion of aggression and fear.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
Contemporary Czech journalistic writing increasingly makes use of language means which are primarily associated with spoken, spontaneous and private communication. This trend, which is called conversalization, colloquialization, informalization, etc., is briefly characterized in the first part of the article. The authors of journalistic texts make use of colloquial (informal) language means (colloquialisms), mainly in order to lessen the distance between the actors of communication as well as to better approximate the supposed speech habits of the recipients. At the same time, such texts raise the sense of immediacy, ease, naturalness and emotional engagement. They also attract attention to their own linguistic construction. The recurrent use of colloquialisms naturally leads to a loss of their impact. Their difference to synonymous terms hitherto regarded as standard and unmarked thus diminishes. The promotion of colloquialisms may reach the point whereby these terms become neutralized and push previously neutral terms to the point of becoming peripheral (bookish or antiquated). The main part of the article describes the occurrence of two types of colloquial lexical items in contemporary Czech journalistic texts. The areas of focus are as follows: (a) Univerbized words (such as kulturák ʻcultural centreʼ; lahváč ʻbottle of beerʼ) and abbreviated words (such as kilák ʻkilometreʾ), which are shorter than the standard expressions and often more of expressive and emphatic; (b) loanwords of German origin (for example mord ʻmurderʾ).
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The purpose of this paper is to expand the understanding of the research potential on the hashtag. The author departs from the traditional understanding of the hashtag as a mechanism for structuring information flows in social networks and considers this phenomenon as the key to the study of the relation between language and consciousness under the conditions of the modern media space. In this work, the author adheres to the paradigm of media linguistic research where language is considered to be a cognitive mechanism, and the relationship between language and media is studied from the point of view of their impact on the conceptualization of reality. From the point of view of cognitive semantics, a hashtag can be described as a quantum of content obtained as a result of semantic compression of the content of a publication done by a sender. At the same time, a hashtag is able to set the model of interpretation of the marked message, that indicates its manipulative potential. The article demonstrates the possibilities of combining linguistic analysis of a hashtag, including cognitive semantics methods, with the application of automated monitoring technologies of social networks based on processing Big Data. According to the author, such a combination opens up new possibilities for the research into the relationship between language and consciousness, including the study of the network nature of collective cognitive space. At the same time, the author points out that the algorithms of working with hashtags in solving various problems related to the research of the conceptual sphere of the modern media space require a deeper development involving not only linguists but also specialists in the field of information technologies, communication theory, sociology, neuroscience and etc.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
On the basis of critical discourse analysis results of Slovak sociopolitical media, we study some its aspects: conversationalization, colloquialization, trivialization, vulgarization, fact uncertainty, infotainment and other manifestations of the prevailing “qualitative” reference points of the today media text intentionality. An intentionality problem as the main force of creation and decoding of any media text or media reality, as a peculiar construct on crossing of social and discursive realities, is quite difficult, therefore our research was limited to partial description, interpretation and explanation only of some aspects, mainly its language realization (on lexicon and syntax). The special attention is given over to the axiological deficiency of ideal maxims, which in the case of media institutional discourse are in ethical codes defined as communicative behavior. We consider axiological deficiency of media discourse at two levels — in the attitude towards “objective” reality and in relation to the text (a process of its creation). Maxims of journalistic professionalism in a certain measure were always an incomprehensible ideal: because of a human factor, there can’t be an absolutely non-ideological choice of the facts, and the role of the text “creator” needs intention judgment of his activity. It is considered necessary to put an accent on creativity as impartiality, a balance of facts, materials and views, no manipulation, high professional and language competence, accurate language feeling. The repeating of the defective phenomena, especially today very frequent axiological pathological persuasion, has negative consequences for traditional journalism: evoke with audience deny of standard, “classic” newsmakers in favor of alternative sources. We present a few examples from the Slovak periodical press illustrating our conclusions, and also a quite detailed critical analysis of the one media text on which we illustrate some identification moments of defective intentionality.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The article focuses on a discussion that the media rhetoric approach to the study of modern practices in media discourse should be included in a new paradigm of linguistic disciplines concentrated on the person speaking. The problem of formation of media topics in modern media is discussed on the basis of existing archetypical toposes of Russian culture. Interpretation and transformation of the national system of topics are one of the sides of the strategic activities of modern media, forming a new picture of the world, the media picture of the world. The example of ʻUkraineʼ as a new media topos is used to understand the processes of change in mental dominant of contemporary consciousness of Russians. Verbal play related to the sphere of this media topos demonstrates primarily targeting of such a speech behavioral dominant as aggression and is expressed in a creative invective. Such discursive practice becomes normal for Russian-speaking environment (especially on the Internet) and clearly demonstrates the most significant function of the mass media, the function of ideological argumentation. This is a universal media-discursive function which can be derived from the analysis of Russian, Ukrainian, and international media space. It is in line with the most important media discursive strategies of desacralizing and hedonizing. This phenomenon is regarded as ambiguous. Furthermore, it transforms and distorts archetypical dominants in people’s mentality. Monitoring the creative invective as an instrument of destruction of archetypical culture dominants from within is of paramount significance.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The publication is a voice in the discussion on the essence of an (internet) meme treated as a communication phenomenon bearing the characteristics of a separate media genre, carried out on the basis of Polish research. The starting point of the analysis was to discuss a relation between meme as defined by Richard Dawkins and (internet) meme genre. As a result of this discussion, the observed phenomenon was considered one of the possible phenotypic effects of the meme treated as a unit of cultural information. The properties of the (internet) meme treated as a media genre were based on the method of genological analysis developed by Maria Wojtak. The subject of the analysis, in accordance with the adopted methodological assumptions, was a selected series of memes, and, on a meta level, academic, popular-science and fanlike statements concerning internet memes. As a result of these analyses, the structural, pragmatic, cognitive and stylistic characteristics of particular aspects of the internet meme genre pattern were described. The structural features of the (internet) meme include multimodality, interactivity, intertextuality. The pragmatic features are the functional potential, the sender’s independence, the recipient’s active position. The cognitive aspect is the relevance of the topics discussed, and the comments represented the picture of the world of the message sender. The stylistic features of the meme include colloquiality and its manifestation in different types of language games. A multilevel character of the genre was observed not only in individual “meme-realizations” or individual “meme-series”, but also in a “meme template” itself.
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The aim of the study was to establish what is a persuasive speech culture in modern political cultures of Russia and Serbia. As a material, 12 texts in Russian and 12 texts in Serbian were analyzed, these texts refer to candidates Sergei Sobyanin (candidate for mayor of Moscow) and Zoran Radojičić (candidate for mayor of Belgrade). The article shows that in both analyzed discourses the thesis “It is necessary to vote for candidate X” is substantiated by the following arguments: “Because the X team is the best”, “Because the country’s president supports the X nomination”, “Because a number of famous people support the candidacy of X”, “Because ordinary citizens support the nomination of X”. Media discourses of Russia and Serbia are distinguished by the rhetorical design of these arguments in the media discourse of Russia and Serbia. Media discourses in Russia and Serbia also differ in: a) the discourse of the Moscow candidate for mayor actively uses data on the positive results of his team’s work, while in the discourse of the Belgrade candidate for mayor the main means of creating a positive image of his team was the use of evaluative adjectives; b) the president of Russia assesses only the business qualities of the Moscow mayor, and the president of Serbia characterizes the Belgrade candidate as a person; c) ordinary Moscow citizens, whose images are represented in the Russian media discourse, have names and actively expressed civic position, while ordinary citizens of Belgrade have no names and are passive; d) the Moscow candidate does not comment on the criticism of opponents, while the Belgrade candidate puts label on the messages discrediting him and doesn’t counter-prove; e) an important place in the discourse of Belgrade mayoral elections is occupied by the self-presentation strategy of the candidate for mayor (as opposed to the discourse of elections in Moscow).
Keywords: argument, Belgrade mayor, elections, media discourse, Moscow mayor, Radojičić, Sobyanin, thesis, аргумент, выборы, медиадискурс, мэр Белграда, мэр Москвы, Радойичич, Собянин, тезис
2019
№ 1
(Vol. 6)
The article considers media discourse as a complex of intra- and extralinguistic structures reflecting a “fragment” of reality and accumulating the hierarchy of knowledge about what is going on. It demonstrates how the quality of informational reflection of a person’s activity in different spheres of our life depends on the knowledge of facts which organize being as well as create a communicative effect in a text. The article proves that according to such an approach media discourse is a communicative phenomenon which encompasses all aspects of communication starting from speech organization to plunging of a text “into a life space” which provides communication and has an objective to organize a creative cooperation, a dialogue between a journalist and a reader, a listener, a viewer and an internet user. The ways of searching for such cooperation are defined. In works of the Belarusian scientists, the linguistic nature of a media text is shown. A media text is studied in relation to social experience and “bilingual linguistic memory” of the society. The informational image of an event, fact and phenomenon is constructed on the basis of cognitive models and their projections on real situations. A journalist who produces a text as well as an addressee who comprehends this text both use ready-made formulas. A system of social organization of media speech is taken out of these formulas. Models of communication based on a text-web platform are drawn up. These models become more complex by using multimedia forms and predetermine new stylistic priorities.