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PEJORATION REPRESENTATION MEANS IN MODERN RUSSIAN MEDIA TEXTS
Abstract
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 authorВ’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.
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