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The present article is devoted to the analysis of the use of conceptual metaphors and their role in formation of political discourse of English-language media. For identifying the specificity of conceptual metaphors and their influence on this type of discourse, the article presents a grounded theory research, within which metaphoric concepts are chosen with the help of content analysis method. The research shows that conceptual metaphors are significant for both collective and individual identity. Moreover, they are a primary tool for transmitting beliefs, cultural values and knowledge of a nation. As the study is conducted within the frame of political discourse, the authors make attempts to specify the peculiarities and functions of conceptual metaphors in this type of discourse. The analysis reveals that conceptual metaphor serves: • to persuade the audience; • to explain intricate processes in more familiar language; • to give a scope to combine events and issues with a general political or cultural nature. The authors come to the conclusion that conceptual metaphor is supposed to be a discourse-making factor in the press which, on the one hand, represents a powerful means to influence the audience and, on the other hand, shows national consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intertextual cultural competence has long been considered to be of utmost importance to interpreters and translators. Within the poststructuralist framework, every text contains references, implicit or explicit, to other texts. These references are known as intertextual elements or vertical context elements. The accuracy of translation/interpretation rests entirely on the interpreter’s / translator’s ability to identify the intertextual element and its function. Thus, a study of intertextuality is of high practical value. The present paper looks into the sources and functions of intertextual elements found in contemporary English-language political media discourse. The analysis is based on full-text versions of the Economist issues (2017-2018). The infracontext studies and the vertical context theory serve as the theoretical foundations of the research. Methodologically, the paper is a result of critical discourse and content analysis. The results of the research demonstrate that as much as 40-50% of headlines, leads, and captions in a given issue of The Economist are intertextual. The common sources of intertextuality, our analysis shows, are the Bible, Shakespeare, the US Declaration of Independence, the UN Charter, cultural stereotypes, movies, popular songs, advertisement, and commercial slogans. In conclusion, it can be said that the research has demonstrated a high degree of intertextuality of English-language political media discourse, which allows us to claim that intertextuality defines it as a genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article under review presents a comparative study of the key features of ecological discourse (ED). The theme of ED is as vital linguistically as it is urgent environmentally. ED presents a complex phenomenon of speech and communication distinguished by a peculiar social and linguistic context. Applying the techniques of discourse analysis the article juxtaposes features of ED as they are manifested in narrative [ND] and media discourse [MD]. The undertaken analysis involves the comparison of participants, places and time of ED in both types of ED. The study below tackles the contrast of these two types of ED on the lexical and stylistic levels. Modern investigations into the nature of any type of discourse deem it necessary to highlight strategies and tactics embedded in the texture of the discourse thus emphasizing its social context. We conducted a similar analysis contrasting strategies and tactics in the two types of ED. As the study shows ED in the narrative discourse is characterized by indirect impact and artistically suggestive connotations with ecological topic presented as a hypothetical model. Whereas in the media discourse the paradigm of authenticity and direct experiences prevails with emphasis on exact names, places, events described laconically but emphatically. Both types advance a positive pragmatic stance to ensure nature protection is viable and to inspire the reader to contribute. The authors draw on the heuristics of western scholars in the field of discourse and media discourse such as A. Bell, L. Chouliaraki, N. Fairclough, T. A. van Dijk, R. Wodak. Among Western linguists preoccupied with Ed we find works by A.Fill, A.Stibbe, W.Zhou, S. Chen most relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to determine the linguistic status of advertising based on the functional (pragmasemantic) properties of Russian advertisements. This issue is topical today, when advertising is acknowledged as a crucially important part of successful business, and has to be adequately handled in teaching future business people. The problematic side of it is that advertising contaminates features of different styles and genres, and forming students' skills of composing efficient ads requires some expertise in distinguishing such features. Advertisers have to be targeted on a certain customer, which inevitably leads to a careful choice of language means with an orientation towards the customer's taste both in the product and in the advertisement wording. The article argues that, in terms of a linguistic status, advertising makes up a special type of media discourse. Applying methods of functional analysis to an advertising sketch and advertising slogans presented in the article, the author clarifies the basic attribute of this discourse type: whatever the structural form of an ad is, its functional essence lies in making certain psychological impacts on the recipient - sparking interest in the product thus urging to purchase it. The article discloses the specificity of Russian advertising texts and concludes that their rhetoric efficiency is ensured by persistent targeting of all speech components at the relevant communicative purport, as well as by an adequate estimate of the customer's demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study of using precedent units as a frequency type of evaluative statements in modern Russian media discourse. An analysis is made of the functional features of precedent units as evaluating tools applied to modern Russian media texts. In this work, the following research methods were used: descriptive analysis, continuous sampling, contextual analysis and structural-component analysis. The descriptive-analytical method, including observation, comparison, generalization and interpretation of the obtained facts, made it possible to have a clear idea of the linguistic subject under study, develop a descriptive sequence, organize and systematize the linguistic material. Due to the contextual analysis, it was possible to distinguish shades of meaning in the semantic structure of precedent units; and the structuralcomponent analysis provided an opportunity to consider the components of precedent inclusions. A modern newspaper publication is defined as a text of a special communicative style, with a pronounced author's personal attitude, an active arrangement of evaluative accents and a search for new possibilities for transferring evaluations. An analysis of modern factual text materials showed that precedent units are the dominant method of meaning-making, actualization of evaluative meanings, strengthening of expressiveness in general and at the level of a text fragment. Using precedent units becomes one of the style-forming and constructive tools to create a journalist's individual style. Based on such characteristics as information richness, stability and connotativity, precedent units along with other linguistic means are productively used as a base component of evaluative statements in modern Russian media discourse. The hidden reserve of a precedent unit as a linguistic sign with a "cultural meaning" allows the author to achieve discursively meaningful communicative purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of a study of pejoration as a frequency type of evaluative statements in contemporary Russian media discourse. It is stated that the language means for expressing pejorative meanings have different level characteristics: they are heterogeneous, can express a different degree or intensity of negativity, and form a semantic field of pejorativity in the Russian language. In this work, the following research methods were used: descriptive analysis, continuous sampling, contextual analysis and structural-component analysis. The descriptive-analytical method made it possible to obtain a clear idea of the linguistic subject under study, develop a descriptive sequence and systematize the linguistic material. The contextual analysis allowed us to distinguish shades of meaning in the semantic structure of pejorative linguistic means. The structural-component analysis provided an opportunity to consider the constituent parts of pejoratives. A complex analysis of the structure of the semantic-functional pejorative field of modern Russian media texts indicates that the publications most often use the near and far pejoration periphery (pejoratives-reinterpretations, zootropes and contextually determined means of pejoration), lexical units of the center of the pejorativity field, possessing objective denotative pejorative meanings outside the context, are characterized by more limited functioning. Pejorative meanings are most often created on the basis of word combinations involving only one pejorative component as well as combinations with an adverb or an adjective as enhancers of pejorativity. Very common are verbs that have in their denotative meaning destructive semantics, derivatives with negative affixes or occasional pejoratives. The highest percentage is recorded in the use of contextually determined pejorative means, primarily, zootropes. In Russian media texts, zootropes may include a pejorative component, and their evaluative character is clearly traced, or they are used with meliorative words and defined only in the context. An analysis of factual material has shown that pejorative means are the dominant method for meaning-making, actualizing the evaluative meaning and strengthening the expressiveness in general and at the level of a text fragment. Based on such characteristics as information richness, stability and connotativity, the pejoratives differentiated by us express not only the author's position and evaluation but also make the text multidimensional in semantic terms, expressive and meaningful, contribute to the increment of additional communicative shades and are productively used as a base element of evaluative statements in contemporary Russian media discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elaborate treatment of the issues as the role of ethnic information as well as other information, the contexts of the use of ethnos names - ethnonyms in mass media products, the linguistic presentation of ethnic positive / negative data, their influence on consciousness of information consumers and their functions in press media of any country is considered very topical. Since the role of mass media along with other factors in giving corresponding or conflicting characteristics to interethnic and intercultural communication in that society or country is huge. The frequent occurrence of ethnos in various negative contexts may lead to the formation of negative associations on the ethnos in the consumer consciousness. That is why mass media is one of the mechanisms of controlling and influencing the public consciousness in positive or negative propaganda of the nation's image, the national identity, national unity processes. In this regard, the study of the headlines of press publications is being realized as they have an impact on the formation of an opinion of a reader about a definite ethnos, the emergence of an ethnic stereotype in the society in general. In Kazakhstani press you can find ethnonymic headlines that come with ethnic names. In this issue, we must take into account the fact that the notion of ethnos in the understanding of majority of people is brought into line with the state of that ethnos. Headlines are primarily intended to inform the content of the text. And at the same time, the author intends to influence the reader, expressing his or her emotion, positive or negative estimation, in relation to the issue in the text. Similarly, any ethnic name or ethnonymic headlines that come with its various linguistic forms have such tasks. Ethnonymic headlines including evaluative and expressive meanings concerning a definite ethnos in their content, are directed to influence the consumers emotionally, and even the author may aim at convincing, inspiring confidence in his offered principles on some ethnos or people or changing their opinions and viewpoints. From this point of view, in order to study the influence of the ethnonyms of positive / negative content as an element of mass media discourse on the readers' consciousness (to form ethnic stereotypes, evoke association) and on interethnic and intercultural communication the database of the headlines consisting of ethnonym from Kazakhstani Kazakh and Russian mass media was created. According to the content the collected ethnonymic headlines were grouped according to ethnic household, political and social, behavioral peculiar to the ethnos itself (moral, humane features), cultural-historical data. Different linguistic approaches (implicit structure, use of anthroponyms with ethnic informational meaning, ethnofolisms, the state, country name) were used to select individually the ethnonymic headlines identifying the ethnos implicitly and ethnonymic headlines formed on zoomorphic methaphors. These peculiarities of the collected headlines were taken into account in the social survey conducted for the study of their effect on the viewpoints and opinions of the readers about ethnos and the questions were formulated in the following forms: Does the headline of a newspaper article attract your attention? Can you imagine what the newspaper article is about having read its headline? Do you meet any texts that show a discrepancy in the headline, including an ethnonym (naming ethnos, nationality) and content?, What do you think what country or what ethnos these headlines say about "Tabeti artkan aidakhar eli (the country of dragon with a great appetite)", "Alyp "aidakhar" shynymen azhal kysha ma? (Will the great "dragon" really die?)", What associations and ethnic stereotypes do you have about this country or Russian ethnos when you read the headline "Ayu tangbaly Resei (Russia with the mark of bear)?", What associations and ethnic stereotypes do the zoomorphisms (the names of animals) evoke from you about these countries or these ethnoses when you read the headline "Kedendik odak: Ayu, ayudyng konzhygy zhane koi (Customs union: Bear, bear's cub and sheep)"?, What associations and ethnic stereotypes do you have about these ethnoses whan you read "Kazakhi ne umeuyt rabotat' - vpechatleniya kitaiskikh turistov (The Kazakhs do not know how to work - the impressions of Chinese tourists)"?, How do you react to the headline "Striptease at the wedding: why is the Kazakh press silent?": a) I negatively think about the ethnos; b) I do not react in any way; c) I believe that this is a manipulative device (intentionally used for a negative attitude to the ethnic group) etc. As it is shown in the scientific database, the content analysis, identified as "the method of identifying and evaluating the content of a text and other sources of information, especially mass media materials" is used in our research to study associates as an indicator of the process of influencing the linguistic consciousness of the readers of ethnonymic headlines in mass media resources, to process the results of the soical questionnaire formulated to define the influence on formulation of positive and negative opinions about ethnos and to determine the linguistic characteristics (semantic features, combination, implicit knowledge in the headlines) of newspaper headlines. The following advantages of the method of content analysis are particularly useful for our research: "Content analysis may be considered as an additional method (for example, when analyzing open answers) in the study of the frequency (or scope) of the use of one or other semantic units in the analyzed text, in determining the effectiveness of the influence of the report, in the study of the volumuous one-type documents that are relevant to the research topic, the need for a clear and objective analysis; in the case of non-systematic materials on the subject of research; when the document language (style) is important; when it is important to prove that the document contains implicit content, in mutual review and supervision of the collected data with the help of other methods (surveys, observation and control). In the result of the research the possibilities of the influence of negative semantics included in the content of the ethnonymic headlines, as well as the irrelevant (inaccurate) use of ethnonyms (ethnos, nationality names) in the headlines of the article devoted to conveying any negative individual situations, firstly, on the formation of negative (undesirable) ethnic steoreotypes and associations in the linguistic consciousness of readers about the ethnos or the country (state) coordinated with that ethnos were defined. Secondly, the negative influence on the formation of the image of the ethnos or the country (state) associated with that ethnos, the image of the nation. Thirdly, it is established whether in the linguistic consciousness the ethnic stereotypes were firmly formed or not according to the fact that the respondents find correctly or incorrectly the implicitly given ethnos in the headline by different linguistic approaches (implicit structure, anthroponyms with ethnic informational content, use of ethnofolisms, the state, country name). According to the results of the questionnare, the high or low indicators of formation of negative opinion about the ethnos in the ethnonymic headlines in the negative context were defined as the factor of accepting or refusing of the representatives of that or other ethnos to associate themselves with that ethnos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the functions of modern media in the situation of information confrontation. It shows that the media may play an increasingly destructive role exacerbating political conflicts between nations creating negative stereotypes of opponents and even demonizing them. Manipulation of public opinion, which has become an important function of the media, is getting more explicit and takes more aggressive forms. As aggression in the media discourse can be performed by both verbal and non-verbal means, we offer the term information (or media) aggression, which is broader than speech/linguistic aggression as it implies multimodality. We define distinctions between persuasion, manipulation and aggression showing that sometimes they can work together. Media aggression is viewed in our study in relation to the referent (affective aggression) and in relation to the audience (cognitive aggression). The purpose of this article is to prove that the growing media aggression is a feature of modern media discourse and this function can be analysed within the framework of manipulative discourse as manipulative persuasion. The data for the study was taken from leading quality American and British newspapers (The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times, The Economist), news sites of BBC and some others covering the relations between Russia and West. The study was conducted through critical discourse analysis developed by Fairclough [1], Fairclough and Wodak [2], van Dijk [3, 4], Wodak [5, 6], Weiss and Wodak [7] and others and multimodal approach [8, 9]. The results revealed various strategies and linguistic means of media manipulation and aggression. They also showed that in the atmosphere of information confrontation the function of information aggression is gaining momentum and can be viewed as manipulative persuasion. The knowledge of the strategies and linguistic means of manipulation is essential for the students of SL while reading, analysing and translating media texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: modern linguists, who study language features of media, fix significant increase in irony and language games in headlines and heading complexes. Authors of media messages abundantly use the puns based on a polysemy of words, use different kinds of metaphors, precedent texts and names. Specificity of mainstreaming precedent phenomena in the media headlines is the fact that the headline is a complex linguistic phenomenon, possessing cognitive performance. Heading complex, as well as media discourse as a whole, which has properties such as metaphors and precedentiality, quite often acts as an object of the language game with different cognitive mechanisms and processes. Methods: the research guide to this article is a comprehensive analysis of the cognitive aspect of language game on the example of precedent phenomena, which are actualized in the headlines of modern media texts. We use the term "precedent phenomenon", which is general and includes the notation "case text", "case-situation", "case-name". Precedent phenomena are nuclear elements of the cognitive framework as a set of key knowledge of the ethnic groups to which the individual belongs, this knowledge is known to every average representative of the ethnic groups. Conclusions: that is why today's headlines in the media contain a huge number of precedent phenomena known to the average resident of the country. Cognitive approach to the study of headlines containing the elements of language game within the precedent phenomena is that precedent phenomena are treated as special mental structures - concept-frames containing information on a typical situation of implementation of messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]