Expressive means in English-language online media (based on articles about the war in Ukraine)

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Sumy State University

EXPRESSIVE MEANS IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ONLINE MEDIA (BASED ON ARTICLES ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE)

NAZARENKO O., YARMAK D.

Annotation

The problem of expressiveness has been quite relevant for some time now. Scholars have been studying the expressiveness in various aspects since the 50s of the 20^th century. However, there has been great interest in the research of this notion in mass media discourse. This is due to the fact that the media cover the largest audience in the Internet. It is difficult to imagine the scale of the information's impact on the recipients, especially when it comes to the emotional aspect of a person. This is where the significance of expressiveness in the texts of mass media arises. expressive english language media

The research is devoted to the study of expressive means in English-language online media based on articles about the war in Ukraine.

This article considers the phenomena of expressiveness and expression and analyses the studies of mass media discourse and its peculiarities. It also demonstrates how authors use stylistic devices in mass media and the analysis of the pragmatic function of expressive means used in the text is provided, their impact on the reader, his thoughts, views, etc.

Key words: expressiveness, expression, mass media discourse, discourse, media space.

Анотація

НАЗАРЕНКО О., ЯРМАК Д. Сумський державний університет

ЗАСОБИ ЕКСПРЕСИВНОСТІ В АНГЛОМОВНИХ ОНЛАЙН МЕДІА (НА ОСНОВІ ДОПИСІВ ПРО ВІЙНУ В УКРАЇНІ)

У статті розглядаються експресивні засоби в англомовних онлайн медіа на основі дописів про війну в Україні. Пропонується погляд на такі явища як «експресивність» і «експресія». Розглядаються мас-медіа дискурс та саме поняття дискурсу. Також демонструється, як автори використовують стилістичні прийоми в засобах масової інформації, проводиться аналіз прагматичної функції виразних засобів, використаних у тексті, їх вплив на читача, його думок, поглядів тощо.

Ключові слова: експресивність, експресія, мас-медійний дискурс, дискурс, медіапростір.

Formulation of the problem

In the English-language online media, there is now a tendency to highlight the situation in Ukraine on a permanent basis, the reason for which, of course, was the beginning of a terrible war due to Russian aggression. The news contains a large number of statements, opinions, ideas, views on certain events. Most of them are full of different means of expression, which have their own intensifying qualities in a sentence. This manifests a clearly directed communicative action, which is focused on the desire to influence the reader indirectly, to cause various feelings, psychological reactions and emotions.

Analysis of recent scientific papers

The problem of expressiveness has been studied by such scholars as Ch. Bally, V. A. Chabanenko, Zh. V. Koloiz, N. I. Boiko and others.

The aim of the article is to analyze the notions of “expressiveness” and “expression”, to define mass media discourse, to study the peculiarities of expressiveness of the news discourse of the English-language online media and evaluate its pragmatic function.

Presenting the main material

The term “expressiveness” may seem quite easy to understand, but there are still no clear definitions of it in modern linguistics. The scope and content of this concept are not identical among different authors. Sometimes, the terms “expression” and “expressiveness” are perceived as synonymous. The definition of “expressiveness” and “expression” as representatives of the expressive function of the language are close, but not identical [1, p. 25]. Therefore, it is necessary to differentiate them.

According to I. I. Kolomiiets, expression is a linguistic-stylistic category that is generated by imagery and is always evaluative; specific utterance, emphasized sensuality of language [2, p. 19]. The expression does not express anything, but only intensifies the effect of the uttered unit. Expression includes a whole range of different mental and social factors.

Expressiveness, on the other hand, is already the intensified (increased, strengthened) expression, such a psychologically and socially motivated property of a linguistic sign that deautomatizes its perception, supports sharpened attention, activates a person's thinking, causes tension of feelings in the reader [6, p. 6]. It becomes obvious that expressiveness has a broader meaning than expression. Expressiveness plays a significant role in the stylistic aspect of the text. It manifests itself in various forms of distinctiveness.

People use various stylistic devices that give brightness, imagery and emotionality to the made statement, forcing the reader to perceive the expressed more vividly and with maximum effect. In this regard, N. I Boiko states that lexical expressiveness as a semantic supercategory is represented in language and speech by such subcategories as emotionality, evaluability, intensity, and parametricity. Imagery belongs to the main and defining, but optional categories [1, p. 11].

Based on the previous statement by N. I. Boiko, the main components of expressiveness can be classified into:

a) emotionality;

b) evaluability;

c) intensity;

d) imagery.

Here, emotionality stands for the ability to both experience one's actions, emotions and express them. Emotionality does not relate to expressiveness, but rather serves as a mean to create it. Evaluability helps to assess the speaker's attitude towards the subject of speech. Intensity accumulates a word or expression with its semantic saturation and it becomes reinforced. Imagery uses figurative language, often visually descriptive.

The persuasive characteristic of expressiveness is due to the increased brightness and creativity of the transmitted message. Expressiveness is multicomponent and related to other phenomena included in the system of emotional information. It is the result of the interaction of evaluation, emotion and intensity.

Nowadays, the tendency towards emotionality, evaluability, expressiveness and constant search for different ways of expressing oneself is characteristic of modern media discourse. I. H. Miroshnychenko defines media discourse as a socially determined linguistic phenomenon (the functional environment of which is the media space), aimed at the exchange of socially significant information [3, p. 43]. In order to implement their own ideas, journalists must focus the attention of readers on certain facts, events, problems, create the desired atmosphere of perception and interest around them, imagine an expressive assessment and fix it in the minds of readers, form in them a certain attitude to the problem, stimulate some practical actions for the addressee. We must also remember to separate the very notion of discourse from mass media discourse. Discourse is considered as an essential part of communication and therefore it is defined as a complex communicative phenomenon. From the point of view of professor K. S. Serazhym, discourse is, figuratively speaking, the life of the text in our consciousness, it is the superimposition of the information we receive from this text and our knowledge of the circumstances, the impulses of its generation on the mental-sensual information field of our individual “Myself' [4, p. 13]. The notion of “discourse” has been studied in linguistics since the 20th century. Today, it varies from researcher to researcher and this tells us about the ambivalence of its perception by the scientific community, as well as its polysemy. So, it is better to look for its original meanings in foreign linguistics, because it is there that this notion started to appear. For example, the Dutch linguist Teun A. Van Dijk in his study “Language. Knowledge. Communication” says that discourse of news is a product of the collective activity of a certain social community of people who are engaged in the collection, processing and spread of relevant, socially significant new information through the mass media [8]. Also, the British scientist Malcolm Coulthard distinguishes 2 types of “discourse”: verbal and written, but he notes that there is no universal division that could solve the problem of “discourse” [7].

It would be also relevant to touch on the field of discourse realization, in our case it is the media space. O. M. Seleznova proposes a theoretical approach, according to which media space is a part of the information space that is localized by the corresponding material territory and non-material area, it determines the existence and activity of mass media (including digital media), it functions outside the inner world of a person, but performs direct and indirect informational influence on one's consciousness [5, p. 363]. The constant presence of people in such informational space will result in the formation of their thoughts and views on various events taking place in one or another type of mass media discourse. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how the author influences the reader through the text.

In this article, we take as an example various statements from British and American articles about the war in Ukraine. In many of them from such a media giant as BBC News, the use of verb phrases is often traced, e.g, “We were among those few citizens who tried to physically oppose the Russian invasion of our town, " recalls Oleksii from Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port city that has been occupied by Russian forces since the first days of the war” [9]. The main purpose of news texts is to inform readers about what is happening in the world. At the same time, the thematic relevance of the news message determines its dynamics, and accordingly, the number of verb phrases. The greater their number, the more dynamic the text. Verbs and their derivatives determine the dynamics of the message, indicating changes.

Another example is the spread of abstract words in English texts: “The city was besieged by Russian forces, bombarded day and night, targeted relentlessly and indiscriminately with Russian missiles” [10]. Using abstract words makes it possible to think objectively when there is no concrete subject. It causes the reader a need for imagination and so encourages him to reflect events in the brain in the form of imaginary signs.

A distinctive feature of English-language news is the presence of emotional and evaluative vocabulary. It is characteristic of journalistic style and modern media discourse. For instance: “We've seen on a daily basis now the terrible images of the way that the electrical grid in Ukraine has been battered by ballistic strikes and drone strikes from the Russians - they face the same threat and same challenge in the cyber domain, ” Mr Docherty told the BBC” [11]. The descriptive epithet “terrible images”, or the repetition of “strikes” and the use of the word “threat” strengthen the reader's emotional perception and contribute to his subjective evaluation. The expressed has the intent to reinforce the audience's feelings and understanding of the current situation of the citizens of Ukraine.

Authors often put important information in front, for example: “More than 1,500 new graves have been dug at a mass burial site near the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to an analysis of new satellite images carried out for the BBC” [12]. The indication of the main information at the beginning determines its importance in the sentence and strengthens the effect of the perception of the message. It makes the reader to process it first and foremost.

Example of the use of reported speech (direct speech) in the text of the article was found: “Not all climate solutions are good for people. It's not just about cutting emissions, we must frame all our work about people and the world we are creating, ” she told BBC News” [13]. “He has returned the compliment: "Ramzan, you are on fire!” he said in one of his social media posts” [14]. It has recently been noticed that people can often take the statement out of context and use that reported speech to quote someone.

The active use of questions, exclamatory sentences as well as sentences containing rhetorical questions are also seen in large amount of articles throughout the mass media, e.g., “How much food has been shipped from Ukraine?” [15], or “Where has the food gone?” [15]. They serve to increase the level of emotional coloring, attracts the reader. The use of rhetorical questions makes the audience be open to trust the author and it enhances the expressiveness of certain parts of the text.

In the analyzed texts, such syntactic features as long and complex (complex-subjunctive) sentences were noted, for example: “The weapon, known as a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, is one of 18 so far given to Ukraine by the US. It's part of a huge assistance package of $52bn (Ј45bn), which is twice as much as all other countries combined” ' [16], or the other one would be, e.g. “However, says Ben Barry, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukrainian forces have been making quite slow progress towards the city of Kherson ” [17]. As we see, it is in complex sentences that the information is presented in the most complete way, without loss of meaning. The addressee pays attention to a more complex sentence structure, making more cognitive efforts to process information. The recipient retains attention on this sentence and as a result, it becomes marked in this element of discourse, and its pragmatic potential increases.

We cannot also ignore the importance of using certain tenses in mass media news. Namely, the use of Present Continuous and Present Perfect, for example: “That's why everything that is happening now [strikes on infrastructure] is genocide. His task is for us to die, to freeze, or to make us flee our land so that he can have it” [18], and “Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly approved the evacuation of civilians from parts of Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine” [19]. The use of the Present Continuous and Present Perfect tenses implements one of the characteristics of a news message - novelty and relevance. The author reports on events that are happening now, or that happened recently, but have a current outcome. The recipient understands that this event is relevant at the time of publication of the message.

Finally, I would like to note such an interesting finding as the use of the impersonal construction there - to be, which also has its own expressive character, e.g. “Now there are suggestions that Russia might be about to give up at least part of it as it prepares defensive lines for the winter” [20]. This construction is focused on a neutral form of information presentation. That is, so that the opinion of a specific author would not be expressed. But it cannot be assumed that the author's opinion is completely absent when using it. The construction there - to be serves to convey to the reader the belief in the correctness of the statement, without indicating the opinion of a specific person.

So, as we can see, attempts to make the material as attractive as possible push journalists to search for “fresh” vocabulary, use non-standard emotional and expressive units. In this case, emotionally colored vocabulary is an effective expressive mean of influencing the reader in publicist style texts.

Conclusions

Analysis of the notions “expressiveness” and “expression” showed that expressiveness is broader than expression. In the stylistic aspect, this is a property of the text that manifests itself in various forms of expressiveness. For this purpose, various stylistic devices are used to give brightness, imagery, and emotionality to the expressed unit, forcing the reader to perceive the picture in different forms of perception. Attention was paid to the problem of discourse, which includes various aspects of language and types of texts, including media texts, but is still an incompletely explored concept.

Mass media play a key role as well in how information will be perceived and what effect it will have on its consumer. The process of forming opinions and views of the masses on various events and phenomena is carried out with the possible aim of realizing one's own goals and intentions. To do this, the authors of online publications resort to various linguistic means and stylistic devices. In general, media texts can be characterized as expressive, brightly colored, which have an implicit author's assessment. Its specific use increases the attractiveness of such texts for recipients. Different constructions simplify the structure of sentences and shorten the distance between the author and the reader. This topic is relevant and promising for further research in the area of pragmatic effect produced by mentioned above expressive means and stylistic devices.

References

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12. The agony of not knowing, as Mariupol mass burial sites grow. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63536564

13. COP27: Ukraine a reason to act fast on climate change - Rishi Sunak. URL: https://www.bbc.co .uk/news/scienceenvironment-63548466

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17. Ukraine war: Why is control of Kherson so important? URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63511626

18. Ukraine war: Kyiv Mayor Klitschko warns of evacuations if power lost. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63535263

19. Ukraine war: Putin endorses evacuations from occupied Kherson. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63523043

20. Russia-Ukraine war: At the front line of Ukraine's struggle for Kherson. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63489081

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