scholarly journals The pragmatics of metaphor and metonymy in a media text

Author(s):  
Maria Andreevna Samkova

This article deals with metaphor and metonymy as language tools that function in a media text. Metaphors and metonymy violate the Grice’s maxims and serve a disinformation strategy. The metonymy in a media text is expressed mainly with the help of names (-onyms) and performs two functions. The pragmatic function is to shape the reader's perception. The instrumental function is to form the subjective image. The metonymic models (part – the whole, concrete – abstract, dominant – secondary) indirectly refer to an object, which allows the author to create a negative image without the risk of incriminating lies or disinformation. A metaphor in a disinforming media text helps to form a pejorative assessment of an object. The main functions of a metaphor in a media text are manipulative (metaphors form and fossilize stereotypes) and emotional-evaluative (metaphors appeal to emotions). The nature and game metaphors are frequently used in a media text. The nature metaphor is effectivebecause of its simplicity. The game metaphor forms the image of an adversary/enemy. Metaphors and metonymy in a media text make it either informationally redundant or eager, ambiguous and emotional. Metaphors and metonymy violate the Cooperative Principle and contribute to the manipulation of the readers’ perception and consciousness stimulating verbal aggression in readers’ comments on media texts

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Hadeel Mahmoud Ibrahim ◽  
Juma’a Qadir Hussein

Lying is a controversial issue as it is closely related to one's intended meaning to achieve certain pragmatic functions. The use of lying in literary works is closely related to the characters’ pragmatic functions as in the case of Miller's The Crucible where it is used as a deceptive complex phenomenon that cannot be observed out of context. That is, the use of lying as a deceptive phenomenon represents a violation to Grices's Maxims. Thus, the study aims to qualitatively examine the kinds of maxims being violated, the kinds of violations conducted, the strategies followed in the violations, and the pragmatic functions behind such violations across the different categories of lies. To this end, the (30) extracts found in Miller's The Crucible have been all examined following Grice's (1975/1978) Cooperative Principle and Implicature theories. The analysis has revealed that the quality maxim was breached most of the time with a percentage of (96,6~97%), covert violation occupied (66,6~67%) (the same percentages of both prototypical lies and Intentional Deceptive Lies), fabrication was with (83%) and the pragmatic function ''to avoid punishment'' appears with (46,6~47%). This means that truthfulness was violated beside other maxims, and strategies of  fabrication. Such a violation enhances lying, and false-implicature, and intensifies the tragic end for most of the innocent characters. Minor lies are slightly concerned with plot development and events escalation. Finally, the characters lie in order to achieve certain pragmatic functions. However, the most dominant function adopted when lying was to avoid punishment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Meibauer

Several philosophy of language scholars have recently argued that the intention to deceive is not part of a well-defined concept of lying. So-called bald-faced lies, i.e., asserting what is false while speaker and hearer both understand that the speaker does not believe what s/he asserts are provided as evidence. In contrast to these proposals, it is pointed out in this article that lying is necessarily connected to an intention to deceive. Consequently, it is argued that so-called bald-faced lies are not proper lies but acts of verbal aggression. Since bald-faced lies attack the face of the addressee and the viability of the Cooperative Principle (Grice 1989a), they are analyzed as insults. Thus, the traditional idea that lying is connected to the intention to deceive is upheld.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
Ksenia Posternyak

The subject of this article are the linguistic means used to form the image-concept “Russia”. Corpus content analysis on the wide range material of the British print and electronic press for 2017-2019 is the base for constructing the nominative field with the core and near, far and final peripheries of image ”Russia”. The conceptual analysis revealed verbal means used for expansion of the concept volume and its component layers- metaphorical, nominative, evaluative and associative. These devices create the negative image-concept of state Russia in British public consciousness.


Author(s):  
Нина Сергеевна Болотнова

Введение. Изучение прагматики заглавий текстов разных стилей и жанров представляет интерес ввиду их особой роли в организации познавательной деятельности читателей и воздействия на массового адресата. Современная коммуникативно-когнитивная парадигма лингвистического знания нацелена на выявление средств и способов эффективной организации общения в разных сферах, включая массмедиа. Цель – выявление регулятивных возможностей заглавий разных типов в газетных статьях с точки зрения воздействия на массового адресата. Материал и методы. Исследование проведено на материале «Российской газеты» (№ 8393 за 2021 г.). Изучено 63 заглавия статей, размещенных на сайте «Российской газеты», c учетом содержания данных медиатекстов; обобщено 1 300 ответов 20 информантов – участников анкетирования. Работа выполнена в русле теории регулятивности, разработанной в коммуникативной стилистике текста. Результаты и обсуждение. Название отдельных статей входит как элемент в заголовочный комплекс медиатекстов «Российской газеты». Текст газетных публикаций на сайте сопровождается рубрикой, заглавием, анонсом, включает лид и указание на автора, содержит гиперссылки на другие медиатексты, фотографию, которая либо предшествует статье, либо представлена рядом с ней, выполняя иллюстративную и уточняющую функции. Установлено, что в большинстве названий доминирует воздействующая функция, связанная с привлечением внимания массового адресата, в остальных – информативная. Регулятивный потенциал названий медиатекстов в основном связан с побуждением читателей к чтению статей. Это происходит благодаря недоговоренности, смысловой многоплановости заглавий и создаваемой на этой основе интриге, привлечению внимания адресата на основе используемого в названиях приема обманутого ожидания за счет оксюморонов, употребления тропов, прецедентных текстов, языковой игры, риторических вопросов, требующих соучастия. Таким образом, спектр регулятивных средств и структур, представленных в названиях статей, позволяет стимулировать внимание читателей к знакомству с последующими за заглавием медиатекстами. По результатам опроса информантов их предположения о возможном содержании медиатекста на основе восприятия названия, как правило, не совпадали с реальным содержанием статей. Очевидно, что недоговоренность заглавий выполняет, прежде всего, прагматическую функцию и требует уточнения и дополнения в виде других сопровождающих медиатекст материалов, включая анонс и фотографии, отчасти восполняющих недостающую в названиях информацию. Выявлено, что стимулирующая роль названия определяется и установкой на целевую аудиторию, т. е. обоснована связь заглавия, стимулирующего последующее знакомство с медиатекстом, с целевой аудиторией, с фактором адресата, включая возраст потенциальных читателей и их интересы. Заключение. Предложенный подход к изучению прагматики названий как элементов медиатекста на основе теории регулятивности позволяет судить о некоторых закономерностях в организации познавательной деятельности массового адресата и эффективности типов заглавий, связанных с отражением актуальной тематики, критерием полезности для адресата, умеренной языковой оригинальности, созданием интриги за счет использования особых регулятивных средств и приемов. Полученные наблюдения представляют интерес для медиалингвистики и коммуникативной стилистики текста. Introduction. Study of texts’ headlines of different styles and genres in respect to their pragmatics is of interest in view of special role in organization of readers’ cognitive activity and influence on mass addressee. Up-to-date communicative and cognitive paradigm of linguistic knowledge aims to detecting of means and ways of effective organization of communication in different spheres including mass media. The aim of the article is detection of regulative facilities of different types of headlines in newspaper articles with relation to influence on mass addressee. The material and methods. The research was carried out on the material of «Rossiyskaya Gazeta» No. 8393, 2021 [https://rg.ru/gazeta/rg/2021/03/01.html]. 63 headlines of the articles from the site of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” had been studied, taking into account the content of these media texts; 1300 responses from 20 informants – participants of the survey– had been summarized. The research is carried out in line with regulative theory, developed in communicative stylistics of text. Results and discussion. The title of individual articles is included as an element in the headline complex of media texts of the «Rossiyskaya Gazeta». The text of newspaper publications on the site is accompanied by column, headline, notice, it includes the first paragraph of material, indication to the author, it contains hyperlinks to the other media texts, a photo that is placed before the article or beside it to realize illustrative or qualifying function. It is determined that influence function dominates in most titles, and in the others – the informative one. Regulative potential of media texts headlines is connected mostly with a motive for readers to read the articles. This is due to lack of understanding, semantic versatility of headlines and intrigue that is set up on its basis, and attracting attention of addressee on the basis of method of disappointed affectation which is used in a title due to oxymoron, tropes, precedential texts, language game, rhetorical questions, that requires participation. Therefore, range of regulative means and structures in the articles’ headlines permits stimulating readers’ attention to introduction with next by the title media texts. Based on the results of a survey of informants, their assumptions about the possible media text’s content in line to perception of a title did not match as a rule with real information in the article. It is obvious, that the lack of understanding in the titles performs primarily a pragmatic function and requires clarification and addition in the form of other accompanying media text materials, including the notice and photographs, which partly fill in the information missing in the titles. It was detected that stimulating role of a title is determined by direction to primary audience, in other words the connection of a headline that stimulates the following introduction with media text with primary audience, and addressee factor including the age of potential readers and their interests is proved. Conclusion. The introduced approach to study pragmatics of headlines as the element of media text on basis of regulative theory allows to judge some regularities in organization of cognitive activity of mass addressee and efficiency of titles’ types, which are connected with reflection of actual themes, criterion of addressee profit, medium language originality, creation of intrigue due to usage of special regulative means and methods. The surveys are of interest for media linguistics and communicative stylistics of text.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-214
Author(s):  
Alena Kalechyts

The article discusses the features of the functioning of phraseological units and other stable combinations in the headings of the media texts of Belarusian and Russian online newspapers. We analyze the pragmatic function of intertexts and present them as pointers to certain types of speech acts. The intent of the addressee is the most important factor in creating a text. It is usually reflected, directly or indirectly, in every communication product. The main purpose of media texts (or a hint of it) is contained in headings, especially when they are intertextemes, various renewable speech units that we classify according to the types of speech acts: representatives, rogatives,directives, commissives, contactives, declarations and expressives. Such headings are best used to perform a pragmatic function because they retain an emotional and evaluation component that stimulates communication with the mass recipient. These stable units (phraseological locutions, winged expressions and aphorisms, paroemias and compound terms) comprise the background knowledge of the participants in communication and are therefore productive language tools used by journalists in their practice. And very often the intertextemes are transformed or updated. Employees of “BelGazeta” and “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” use both the general phraseological fund of Belarusians and Russians and the national language means in web media texts. The headlines of “BelGazeta” havea distinctive feature, as they mix graphic and lexical systems of different languages (Russian, Belarusian,English and, less frequently, Ukrainian). This fact can be explained, firstly, by the tendency to widely spread the features of the conversational speech of Belarusians, trasyanka, in book speech styles. And, secondly, by the address policy of the publication of the named newspaper, which is aimed at the mass Belarusian reader. Following the use of occasionalisms, updated stable expressions, we also call the above feature a specific method of influencing the addressee.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-193
Author(s):  
Vladimir Miokov ◽  
Vesna Vučinić-Nešković

This study analyses the media coverage of the privatization of Knjaz Miloš, Serbia’s most famous mineral water factory, as well as the manner in which the multinational companies were presented in this process. The focus of the paper is on the conflict between major stakeholders as they were presented in analyzed media texts. Three phases of the privatization process are analysed in this paper. The first phase is the period from October 2000 to September 2003, when the news about privatization came out in the media; the second phase is from August 2003 to December 2003, when the first potential buyers appeared; and third is the period from August 2004 to September 2005, when Knjaz Miloš was finally privatized. The conclusion of this analysis is that a negative image of multinational companies prevails in the domestic media. Such an image is not ideologically coloured (as it was in the 1990s) and is seldom openly presented. The general attitude is sceptical, even though an awareness of the importance of the participation of multinational companies in the process of privatization is present.


2021 ◽  
pp. 30-47
Author(s):  
Galina Kopnina

The article presents short analytical review of the mass media texts researches devoted to the problem of recognition of verbal manipulation. It was found that in addition to traditional algorithms of “hand” identification of manipulation in the text / discourse (with the help of linguistic analysis), there are automatized systems of verbal manipulation recognition in mass media being developed. Despite the fact that at the current stage of science development the automatized systems which can recognize potentially manipulative texts of some types (fake texts; texts of negative tone including verbal aggression) have been already established with philologists’ participation, the problem that has been mentioned cannot be considered as solved in general due to diversity of manipulation and exitance of the number of problems among which there is a lack of uniformity in the interpretation of the key terms and the lack of dictionary of manipulation techniques and devices, all these makes the parametrization of indicators (markers) more difficult. The Kazakhstani researchers’ idea stating that the text manipulativity is determined by its intensity level of the set of indicators of a particular type requires further experimental confirmation using various materials. The author of the article believes that the last word in identification of verbal manipulation should belong to a man.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Glascock

Given the increasing relevance of verbal aggression in today’s society, the goal of this study was to assess the relative contributions of potential demographic and sociological factors. Emerging adults were surveyed, and the data were analyzed using correlations and hierarchical regression. While television viewing, video game playing, and music listening were positively correlated with verbal aggression, only (rap) music listening remained significant when demographic and other sociological influences were factored in. Overall, the hierarchical regression analysis found religiosity, parental and peer influence, quality of neighborhood, sex, and media usage (listening to rap music) to be significant contributors to verbal aggression among emerging adults. Male participants reported more verbally aggressive behavior than women, and African Americans reported more verbal aggression than White respondents. While media usage seems to play a significant, but relatively small role, other demographic and sociological factors such as gender, neighborhood, religion, peers, and parents appear to be major contributors in the development of verbal aggression among emerging adults.


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