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Media Culture
Media linguistics: origins, problems and prospects *
Prof. Dr. L.A. Brusenskaya,
Rostov State University of Economics, B Sadovaya, Rostov-on-Don, 344038 brusenskaya_l@ mail.ru
Prof. Dr. E.G. Kulikova,
Rostov State University of Economics, B Sadovaya, Rostov-on-Don, 344038 [email protected]
Abstract. Linguistic knowledge has ceased to be highly specialized and merged with the scientific aspirations of the time. One of the results of such a search became a new interdisciplinary area - media linguistics. This is one of the many application areas which is in need of "assignment" of its subject. Media linguistics is aimed at the establishment of a special function of language signs in modern media, if these signs go beyond the canonized orthodox "linguisticses" with their immutable laws. Today a rigid hierarchy of right and wrong, normative and nonnormative are replaced by media communication tolerant to the deviation when extended view about options, suitable for different circumstances wins. Methodological basis of research are philosophical laws of dialectical unity of form and content, the universal determinism of phenomena, transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, analytical method and historical-cultural analysis of a combination of inductive and hypothetical-deductive methods. The basis of the proposed research is functional-dynamic approach to the object media-linguistics - media text. Sociolinguistic and pragmalinguistic analyses, elements of the diachronic analysis and the historical flashbacks were also used. The hermeneutic approach, with its emphatic emphasis on the interpretation, methodological principle of "non-uniqueness" interpretation were determined with the specificity of the investigating problem.
Keywords: Media linguistics, media communication, media language, scientific expenses, standard, language substandard.
* The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 17-04-00109
Introduction
Expansion - expanding the boundaries of traditional disciplines is rightly called one of fundamental principles of the science of the XXI-st century.
The fact that the language at the same time addressed to the outside world, and to the person defines the exclusively special position of linguistics in the system of sciences and the legitimacy of the formation of interdisciplinary sciences.
In modern linguistics there is "diversity", "blurring borders," the "many objects".
Many inter-disciplinary areas of knowledge - sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, linguistic pragmatics, legal linguistics, eco-linguistics have become the reality. There are many reasons to believe that the processes related to scientific expansion will be only deepen, and the consequence of it inevitably will be resulted in another relations between disciplines.
In the book entitled "Science of the Third Millennium" V.V. Ivanov writes: "Instead of traditionally inherited and protected boundaries between them, there will come time of researches on problems and not on fixed conventional delimitation of activity spheres. We may hope that from now adopted a very conservative and traditional classification of knowledge there will be memories soon" [Ivanov, 2004, p. 156].
Indeed, we are witnessing the further development of interdisciplinarity: linguo conflictology (which is looking for the most efficient and effective forms and principles of the civilized communicative interaction) and linguistic expertology, formed as a result of a theoretical understanding of various linguistic and law expertises, are in the scholarly field of legal linguistics (exist in our country not more than for two decades!).
Various research directions within the framework of ecological linguistics: emotive linguoecology, ecology of translation, translingual ecology, ecological stylistics, ecological poetics have already established.
Another new branch of knowledge about language has arisen at the intersection of such objects of human life and society, as language, marketing and law.
This discipline is called "linguomarketology". It is a subspecies of functional (socio)linguistics, its subject - marketing language functioning.
It incorporated features of a special approach to a language: language considered as a commodity, discovers to a linguist new properties that remain unnoticed in other perspectives.
So, linguistic knowledge is not highly specialized, it is merged with the scientific aspirations of the time.
A new interdisciplinary field, called media linguistics became one of the results of such a
search.
This is one of the many applied areas that needs in "identification" of its subject.
Media linguistics is aimed at the establishment of a special functionality of language signs in modern media, if these signs go beyond the canonized orthodox "linguistics" with their immutable rules.
The term " media linguistics " has not yet become common, but it is used both in scholarly [see, for example, Dobroklonsky, 2007, p. 16] and academic literature [see, for example, the textbook for high schools "Language of media", 2007, p. 3].
A prerequisite for the formation of media linguistics, of course, is the existence of special language of media, which has long been analyzed in the framework of functional stylistics.
It is known fact, functional style is distinguished on the basis of primary extralinguistic styleforming factors, such as: socially significant, historically established area of communication and type of activity, correlated with a certain form of social consciousness.
The concept of functional style in linguistics is defined by the Prague linguistic circle" [Teze, 1970, p. 35-60]. Functional stylistics became a special direction, the rise of which in the country was in 50-70's of the XX-th century.
K. A. Dolinin noted the following interesting fact: if in Western European linguistics the concept of functional style did not left any significant trace,but in linguistics of the Soviet period it was extremely popular [Dolinin, 2004, p. 607-620].
It is interesting, that the concept "functional style" enjoyed the same success in the socialist countries - Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland.
Both a concept, and a relevant, related with it field of science (functional stylistics), have a clear localization in a particular geopolitical space.
And it's not the only coincidence: in the late 80's after several decades of prosperity and recovery, functional stylistics gradually descends from the stage, that means that the temporal boundaries of the era "functional stylistics" coincided with the "era of the Communist system".
Paying attention to such a "double coincidence", K.A. Dolinin draws a conclusion about a specific causality of functional stylistics with administrative practice and ideology of socialism.
One of the reasons the " bloom" of functional stylistics was that "... in isolation from the world science and, moreover, active opposition to the latest trends in linguistic thought (in particular - structuralism) it was necessary to oppose something to "idealistic bourgeois linguistics", to find or create some own original product to maintain the prestige of Russian science" [Dolinin, 2004, p. 610].
First of all the object of scientific analysis of functional stylistics was the literary language (in its stylistic varieties). Implicit functional stylistics developed the position that the similarity of the places of use connected with the sphere of human activity - science, administration, the media, artistic creation, leads to typological similarity that is the unity of actually language, linguistic features.
The idea that in the rich language with a long written tradition, there are no closed means of expression tied exclusively to one style was not popular. Maybe it was connected with that regulation from the "top" was so strong and was able to provide required unity.
The idea of "big" functional styles was repeated and repeated, was hammered into the heads of several generations of students that it had entered the consciousness of the majority of them and strengthened there, especially because in the 50-70's speech practices in all institutionalized spheres were in fact very similar.
And anything deviated from the standard, looked suspicious [Dolinin, 2004, p 627-618].
Another interesting idea of the cited author - the ongoing analogy between the functional stylistics and socialist realism: both the one and the other is a manifestation of typical for the Soviet era nomenclature thinking according to which everything must be strictly regulated and represented in the form of approved from the "top" stable properties meanwhile decreed from the "top" is represented as natural, objectively existing, and the only appropriate [ibid].
It is clear that since the late 80-ies, when the public communication space became infinitely more diverse, a crisis of the traditional functional stylistics came inevitably.
The idea of the inviolability of the "great styles" gave way to the acceptance of the diversity of speech genres.
The theory of speech genres were formed under the influence of the publication of the M.M. Bakhtin's work "Problems of speech genres," written in the early 50s, but published only in the late 70-s. Mikhail Bakhtin brought the most diverse phenomena to speech genres.
The main idea is that speech genres for the speaker ...are regulatory, the speaker does not create speech genres, they are given to him, almost like a native language is given to him.
Speech genres, according to Bakhtin, is relatively stable according to the subject stylistic and compositional types of statements, the standard model of the whole speech, and without speech genres speech communication would be almost impossible [Bakhtin, 1986, p. 250-296].
Godfathers of the Bakhtin's ideas have yet very diverse picture of genres, even there is no unity in understanding the nature of the speech genre among adherents of one school, and moreover there is no consensus structure list of the genres.
The main features of genres are the availability of an addressee, an addressor, an observer, a reference situation, communication channel, the whole context of interaction.
Despite the popularity of the idea of speech genres, many authors still have a desire to describe the functional nature of the language using the traditional term "style," and, in addition to the generally accepted 5-6 styles scholars offer many other. So, many authors believe that advertising should be accepted as an independent functional style. Or compare; in the Preface: [Skvortsov, 2006, p. 4]: "We can believe that we are eyewitnesses of forming and operating a new functional style of business and commerce, banking and cash, trade and industrial relations.
The appearance of commercial-style (business language) is a bright voice a sign of modernity. In the same way as the formation of style "computer" communication." Emergence of commercial style (business language) is a bright speech sign of modernity and the formation of
"computer" communication" style as well. Investigators of contemporary media talk about a special "glamorous" style.
However, none of these "styles" is not described with sufficient fullness: stylistic norms are not marked (moreover they are not codified), features of a particular speech genres that constitute these styles are not revealed.
In modern works on stylistics there are very rare indications of the unity of the publicistic style, and the wording "publicistic style" is not often used. It is replaced by a combination of "media language" or the namination "mediastyle".
Mediastyle is considered to be the source of the modern literary norm (the language of literature by the end of the XX-th century lost its standard-making function). If researchers said about a modern publicistic style, as a rule, they underline its complexity and branching: this style differenciates substyles: official, political- agitating, political-ideological and strictly publicistic one.
G.Y. Solganik believes that as the field of mass communication is not limited with the literary language, and captures the other layers, it makes an interaction of the literary language with national one, explores these layers and contributes to the democratization of the literary language, when softens the understanding of "non-literary" not as forbidden but as a possible, but limited means [Solganik, 2016, p. 11]. The concept of literary remains, but becomes more broad, flexible and democratic.
Mediastyle is considered to be more influencing general condition of the language, than artistic and fictional style. However, the study of media language in all its manifestations can lead to the conclusion about the absence of a single vertical norm of this style (vertical norm, which is manifested at all the language levels -from phonetics to syntax and creating the language community of style, is described in details: [Boruchov 1989, p. 4-21].
In the modern information space, in addition to traditional media, there is "public journalism" (citizen journalism - moblogging, blogging). As you know, a number of blogs-thousanders got equal rights with traditional media. Today mediaspeech is characterized by some features such as interactivity, multycode), hypertextual branching.
Materials and Methods
Methodological basis of research are philosophical laws of dialectical unity of form and content, the universal determinism of phenomena, transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones. Analysis of current issues of media linguistics has interdisciplinary nature and requires scientific approaches - analytical method and historical-cultural analysis, a combination of inductive and hypothetical-deductive methods. The basis of the research is functional-dynamic approach to the object of media linguistics - media texts. For contextual interpretation of the language features of modern media there were also used sociolinguistic analysis based on the correlation of social and linguistic phenomena) and pragmalinguistic analyses including a broad "context of situation". There were also used elements of diachronic analysis and historical flashbacks. The investigated problem area with its specificity determined the hermeneutic approach with its accentuated emphasis on the explanation, because the study has a interpretative sense. Methodological principle of "non-uniqueness" of interpretation is also important, because the same language phenomenon can be (with sufficient argumentation) interpreted in different ways.
Discussion
The language of modern media is often criticized. But this is the feature of not only recent time, compare: "The language of a newspaper had never enjoyed a good reputation. It was scolded by the writers (e.g., S. Maugham said that the newspaper for him is still the raw from the knackery), linguists (the famous linguist A.M. Peshkovsky took the newspaper language to the
lower literary formations), journalists, etc." [Solganik, 2008, p. 471]. As for modern Russian media, then, in spite of actuality, urgency and relevance of many published materials, they are full of different deviations even from system norm. The error becomes valid and not convicted opportunity, that is, cease to be a mistake. [Vasiltsova, 2004, p. 3].
Professional standards of journalism have become less stringent to the use of the Russian language. The emphasis is on the originality, sensationalism, even scandalousness. G. Khazagerov used such metaphor: causticity of media, which can no longer be described as a challenge to officialdom, the media has become something like a tin can on a cat's tail. Cat-media can be, wants to be serious, but can do nothing to escape from the rumbling idle containers of its forced "wit". Remains all to pretend that the cat fun [Khazagerov, 2006].
With such obvious negative characteristics, media language, however, is highly influential (including the fact of the loss fythe fiction of its regulating role).
"The language of the people to some extent became derived from the language of the newspapers," wrote G.Y. Solganik [2008, p. 472], referring to Soviet period and Soviet newspapers. This conclusion was drawn from the results of the associative experiment in 1975, when it turned out that newspaper association (i.e., newspaper clichés of this time) was not only the first but also the only single one for every third examinee. This conclusion refers to the period, which was characterized by the consolidation of the language norms and speech norms, turned into dogma. During the so-called "perestroika" period in our country the renewal of the newspaper language began. With the abolition of censorship, ideological taboos and strict stylistic rules, the media language became extremely diverse -both in form and in content. The rejection from the old styleforming rods marked the move towards language personality of the text author.
And the main way to break "officialdom" is the use of all "grassroots" language, such as slang and vernacular.
The view that the norms of the mass media language are broader than norms reflected in prescriptive dictionaries is well-known fact. The main feature of the media language is considered to be prevalence from connotation over denotation and axiology, meanwhile connotations differ from each other with strong contrast.
Compare: "[In the post-perestroika period] talkers in the broadcast had frankly fun, striking distinguishing itself with the swagger from a funeral dignity of Soviet speakers. At first it amused, but the endless jokes, winking soon fed up, and I'd give anything to hear the sovereign bass of Balashov, reading the report of the General Secretary (Y. Polyakov "Beyond inspiration" // Literature Newspaper, April 12-18, 2017). It is the medialanguage that shows as objective characteristics rapprochement between the literary language and non-codified areas. To characterize the normative space of the modern Russian language it is important to note that the current public discourse often represents the playing field.
Analyzing modern media, V.S. Elistratov [2004, p. 69] notes total installation on a pun, which, even being "forced" not funny, "created according to the principle, "he quipped himself -and he immediately explained himself". For example, language play based on the combination in one word fish'ka of English part as the root morpheme fish and Russian suffix ka after the apostrophe (in advertising of canned fish, in a footnote, there is an explanation what fish is, and fishka, as a trick is a Russian jargon word with the appropriate meaning). The consumer says sadly "ha ha" in a tone of donkey Eeyore".
Entertainment purpose is a significant, often dominating in the new communicative spheres, determined with the latest achievements of new information technologies. That property of the Internet communication had been repeatedly noted by researchers that called hedonism and orientation on the norms of youth play behavior as the dominant model of modern mass culture the organizing principle of many genres of Internet communication [Galichkina, 2012]. It ispossible to talk about formation in the society of a certain communicative strategy, actively supported by the
media and formulated as "the primacy of novelty and creativity, combined with the stylistic negligence". This fashionable communicative strategy in its postulates is autonomous from the rhetoric and orthology. Its first postulate is: If you say and write originally and brightly, then you do not have to speak and write correctly. Its second postulate is: it is better to say pretentiously than to speak transparently. A guide to classical rhetoric, originating in Aristotle's investigations, is clearness, the most important landmark of stylistics (mostly functional one) is relevance, the appropriate benchmark of orthology is correctness, and they are now replaced with originality, showiness, sensationalism.
Actually language change is inseparable from changes in communicative strategies typical for modern society. The present time I. Volgin described as "the age of universal deverbalization, celebration of clip consciousness»:
And God is mooing like a cow,
And Manuscripts burn.
In the beginning there was not the Word,
But clip and video
(E. Pisareva "Personal Data of Igor Volgin" // Literature Newspaper, 2017, No. 10).
Today, the media relentlessly cultivate an upbeat, festive mood", the most popular words became jargon words with "entertainment-silly semantics". It is often to hear that it is logical "deviation of the pendulum", when the pathos, which previously was extremely a lot, is replaced by a "chronic sense of humor". Linguists faced with the task of forming the criteria for speech expressiveness, which fall within the ethical-linguistic norm and linguistic expression, which is contrary to this norm. Sharp pejoratives, often in relation to former and present leaders of the country, became not just acceptable, but also ordinary. The media is not just acceptable, but sharp pejorative became units of normal steel, often in relation to former and present leaders of the country:
Abdication of paltry Gorbachev and the triumph of tipsy, swaggering like a turkey, Yeltsin - all this shown on TV, caused despair and anguish. Constantly with some absurd ideas there have arisen in the broadcast Livshits, Chubais, Aven, Burbulis, Shakhrai, Nemtsov, Boris Fedorov, Gavriil Popov, Soskovets and Nosovets and also Stankiewicz, similar to the increased in human growth celluloid Ken, friend of Barbie doll. All of them were, in fact, comic characters, if not the terrible result of their clubhand efficiency (Y. Polyakov "Beyond inspiration" // Literature Newspaper, April 12-18, 2017). Of course, there are more or less unambiguous cases (for example, with using direct invective that was unthinkable at all in the media before).
In January 2013 against well-known journalist O. Romanova, there was initiated a criminal case under the article 319 of Criminal Code (insulting a representative of authorities), the reason for which was O. Romanova in Facebook published the photo of the employee of the police with the following commentary: "This COP fucking was fed up with me. She smoked constantly and I went after her and made sure she cigarette butts threw into the trash." After initiation of criminal proceedings became known, the journalist said that she wanted "a court session, a big, public, for the purpose of trolling', however, she did not want to insult the policewoman and used the word " f...g" not as a noun but as a connecting word. It is clear that such means of language expression are not just condemned, but they deserve criminal prosecution.
G.G. Khazagerov rightly notes that as a publicistic koine (on its place) a special variant of thieves' jargon diluted with interns lexis and phraseology is used in our media today. It is uncomfortable neither to argue nor to seriously discuss anything in this language; in fact, this is "a trap for the speaker " [Khazagerov, 2006]. The problem of today is the cultivation of public communicative space in general and media in particular.
Results
Improving media led to media was transformed into a key area of speech usage. It is the texts of the mass information most often are often used for description of current language condition. "...it is the language of mass media that is the code, the universal sign system, through which a picture of the surrounding world is formed in individual and mass consciousness, " [Dobroklonskaya, 2007, p. 13].
Media language largely shapes the "language of fashion".Because the lexicon is "a chronicle of the society", fancy words are the most informative in sociolinguistic terms for each stage of society development. Compare the analysis of the popularity of the words such as project and product, manager in the investigation: [Krongauz, 2008]. M.A. Krongauz believes uninformative content as an important feature of modern texts, which is formed with the fashion to use words with generalized meaning.
On the one hand, the generalization hides the essence, on the other hand, significance and seriousness is given to the case. The phrase "I take part in the project" can mean completely different things, that is really it can mean everything and nothing."
Such words as manager (meaning everything: from a seller to a head of a large enterprise) and business (to the question: Who is he? - you can get a response: He has got his own business, which actually means nothing. This is a definition through negation: this is neither salaried employees nor civil servants, nor bohemians) have the ultimate degree of abstraction. See: [Krongauz, 2008, pp. 38-39].
Like any fashion, the fashion for certain words "is both attracts and irritates. Someone does not like these words, someone does like and does use them correctly and incorrectly, and someone does not like, but still use because they are fancy" [Krongauz, 2008, pp. 102]. Compare an ironic feature of the word project: And these, how to call them, "projects" - the newest unit of measurement for the creative activity? They need the words, and precise, fresh, not overwritten words. Speaking banality, you will not convince anyone to participate in your undertaking, will not collect money for it, will not explain, representing to the world something done as you blessed it for with your creativity (Culture, 2017, No. 19, p. 3).
A derivative from the word ambition - ambitious - has become extremely trendy. It is said about ambitious tasks and projects, these expressions are especially popular in media, announcements of employment are full of phrases such as young and ambitious team, etc. It is possible to think that negative connotation has been formed under the influence of extralinguistic circumstances (for example, it is well known fact what happened to the ambitious projects in the field of medicine or in education). However, in fact, this connotation existed originally, etymologically and it is recorded in many explanatory dictionaries. Rather, modern fashion dictated the choice (not quite relevant) of attribute in the following example: Catherine II had an ambitious goal to provide whole Russia with porcelain (the First channel TV, March 4, 2017).
New "trendy" units replaced former ideological cliches. The word nomination takes a special place in connection with "carnivalization" of life, rapid flourishing of numerous and various festivals, presentations, prizes and awards. Original it is a term of linguistics - 'to name, to give a name, name, naming process'. The word quickly became common. Although there is a word applicant (soiskatel, pretendent) in the Russian language, - only a new word nominee (nominant) is operated. Newspaper discourse imposes primarily one designation that does not contribute to the enrichment of the media language that has the strongest impact on readers, shapes language taste. The most famous and respected people, representatives of intellectual professions circulate through media words like steeply (cruto):
Sergei Zhorin, a lawyer of the TV stars:
I like my profession. I wanted my children to become lawyers. But then I realized that the doctors were steeper. They save lives. An experienced doctor may own clinic open, and it will always feed a family (Komsomolskaya Pravda, March 31, 2017).
However, there is an exception in this rule, 11-year-old Anfisa Korableva, which is engaged in aerial gymnastics, became the darling of the jury. "Steep (cruto), you're so brave!"said Renata Litvinova... (Komsomolskaya Pravda, March 31, 2017).
The modern media has a fashion for the irony. The ironic sense is a situational implicature -the conclusion to which the recipient comes interpreting pragmatic content of the statement in communication. Language (including implicit) means of expression of irony are studied in, except linguistics, in the whole complex of the Humanities, such as aesthetics, ethics, psychology, philosophy, logic.
Researchers [G. Khazagerov, etc.] note as a feature of nowadays expansion of the irony into those public spheres, where pathos dominated (that, of course, is determined by the socio-political causes). Many features of media depend on the features of communicative situation as a whole.
Famous linguists and representatives of culture say in relation to modern language situation about "language disturbance", compare our time with the era of Peter I, with its inherent interstyle and interray eclecticism. In such situation, all the evaluative (actually pragmatic, emotionally-expressive, connotative) properties of even the most common words become not obvious.
A particular problem that arose in the era of globalization, is associated with the use of anglicisms. On the one hand, we can speak of universal tolerance to the borrowing, on the other hand, sharply negative views are frequent and, when borrowing is considered to be pollution, damage, a symptom of national humiliation, "slag" of native language and even "spiritual and linguistic occupation of our consciousness". The situation with the Russian language seems almost catastrophic due to the influx of anglicisms, threatening to national identity, compare:
Extreme forms of Anglomania in the modern Russian language (about which with amazing humanitarian knowledge and with no less striking for the official person feeling the Chairman of the State Council of RC Vladimir Konstantinov said at the forum) is also the encryption method of nothingness. Word without meaning and emotion for the Russian ear, relieves from necessity to spend mental strength (Culture, 2017, No. 20).
The English units gushed into the language like not just a huge stream, they are fixed, become popular in everyday communication and in the language of media.
They also affect speech and communicative activity of Russian native speakers, how information is perceived and interpreted. Meanings, correlated by the speaker with language structures when dealing with innovations of Anglo-American origin, is often very vague, that can have a disorienting effect on the consciousness of communicants. The reasons of fixing borrowings in the language-receptor are well known. On the one hand, these are linguistic factors, such as conceptual, lexical and semantic gaps; on the other - these are sociolinguistic factors, such as higher prestige of the foreign word and language fashion.
Borrowing words of all types (assimilated borrowings and exoticism and barbarism not assimilated by the system) create new reality in the mind of the addressee, serve as an instrument of widespread of new types of behavior, affect the field of aesthetic tastes, ethical views. There appeared the conceptual spheres, represented by new borrowing, which offer a different conceptualization of reality - with a focus on visible success, showy beauty, shocking, individualism, etc.
Judgments about following features of Russian national spirit, such as " world responsiveness", the ability to comprehend the ideals of other peoples and transform them are well-known. The "coenobitic and adopting" Russian language could absorb a huge number of alien elements and not to lose its identity. Today, however, the scale of borrowings seemed to be daunting and malicious, scholars say about the irrepressible invasion of Anglo-Americanisms.
Those units are least condemned, which are the only names of well-known denotates. However, the same words are often regarded as legitimate borrowings, as excessive elements, polluting native language and violating its spirit of [Marinova, 2008, p. 4].
A key question is whether lexical borrowings enrich the language or, on the contrary, "hinder the increase of his wealth, remaining barren and at the same time depriving the native words of the language the opportunity to take their place in the conceptual system, where their originating power could place " [Sudilovskaya, Merkulova, 2010, p. 97].
We believe that I.B. Lobanov is absolutely right. He believes that the global question - do we need borrowings? at large, does not make sense; we can argue about definite words - is it possible to speak, write and think without them, and if not, how to use them [Lobanov, 2013, p. 74]. It is clear that in all cases when borrowing from another language fills the semantic or pragmatic gap, permits to create a thinner nuanced sense of the statement, performs the euphemistic function, corresponds to a global principle of economy of language and mental efforts, it enriches the language-receptor. Another case, when borrowings are connected in native speakers understanding with inappropriate communicative strategies.
Thus, N.E. Petrova and L.V. Raciborskaya [2011, p. 96] consider "unwarranted use of foreign elements, which often serve not for the purpose of nomination or clarify of existing concepts, but are used purely for promotional purposes, in order to make aggressive influence on the reader or listener" one of the manifestations of verbal aggression.
This usage of Anglo-Americanisms is sign of irresponsible pollution of language and conflict "near" and "far" pragmatics (terms by G.G. Khazagerov) [2016]: that is good as a particular technique, productive within the one text, is detrimental to the linguistic and cultural situation in general.
It is known that the problem of borrowings in a number of countries (France, Germany) is solved at the legislative level (the Tubon law, etc.). However, legislative prohibitions are unlikely to change the situation, because the problem of inappropriate usage of foreign-language units is from the sphere of culture, and not from law). It is impossible to appeal to civil conscience, to make people proud of their language, to respect their roots with the help of laws or directives. All this can come only in close connection with the improvement of the general culture. Identity, spiritual and intellectual autonomy are inherent features of social and personal freedom, and a free linguistic personality has the right to choose from an entire arsenal of native or borrowed means of language expression. But mastering the methods of optimal usage of the whole variety of language resources is inseparable from the general linguistic and cultural enlightenment. The process of borrowing the words of certain denotative spheres is intensified not only when the new empirical knowledge cannot be expressed by existing lexical units, but also when there is a shift in the axiological system (usually in the atmosphere of common sociocultural changes). Anglo-Americanisms, as the representatives of the fragments of alien, different culture, due to the high status of borrowing and/or change of attitude to the phenomena of reality are able to bring specific, special connotation into existing linguistic and cultural model, and to be agents of new values and new structures of knowledge. Anglo-Americanisms, contributing to the translation of the" alien "picture of the world, including the "alien" value system, in a way direct cognitive activity according to the knowledge contained in the lexical meaning of the word as the structure of knowledge. As written by L.P. Krysin [2008, p. 167], "external influences on the language are almost never leaves society indifferent, and it is often perceived by native speakers of the language-recipient (at least, part of them) painfully and nervously". The severity of these sentiments depends on extralinguistic factors. It is well known that there were periods of extremely negative attitude to borrowing (for example, the period of "fight against cosmopolitanism", etc.) and periods of relative tolerance to external influences. In a situation where the Russian Federation is thought as a part of a unified civilized world, a single human community, and unifying trends and the priority of universal human values are dominated in politics and ideology, the attitude to foreign-language borrowing is the most tolerant.
Compare, however: "...borrowing, as a rule, occupy empty space. <...> The number of gaps in our language is terrible. Those gaps that linguists could help to fill, but it seems, that creative
formation of neologisms according to the rules of the Russian language, no one except M.N. Epstein, is not practiced. A pity, because borrowed words is a marker of gaps in the Russian language. <...> Who will take care of the style, revive the Russian language, if not native speakers? Borrowing - in a way of betrayal" [Moniava, 2016, p. 299].
It is known that in the choice of lexical units the tendency to simplification of the text (due to acquirement of new and new one-word designations) and code magnification plays a big role -foreign words are borrowed for expression of concepts which can be transferred in Russian only descriptive. The saving factor that results in more information is transmitted per unit of time is decisive.
However, it is also clear that borrowing brings some discomfort to the part of native speakers. People (especially of older generation) do not understand foreign language innovations and feel aggrieved when somebody speak to them in a "foreign" language. Hence numerous statements about the "epidemic", "influence", "dominance " and so on of Anglo-Americanisms that harm national identity.
In 2016, the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University published a collection of questionnaires "Journalists about the Russian language", which contained answers including the question about the attitude to borrowing in the media. The vast majority of answers were quite tolerant (with caveat about relevance in the absence of the Russian analog, about compliance of meaning to a foreign-language etymon, and etc.).
Compare: "...there are a lot of borrowings in sports, but it only helps to paint the report " [Golovanov, 2016, p. 134]; Compare, however: "... journalists pour foreign words, so meaning is lost. This is especially noticeable in the sports field [Sadikov, 2016, p. 361]; "We have to fight with the dummy, but don't expel the necessary words, for example - terms, appealing to them is absolutely justified. It is dreadful when utterly unnecessary words are borrowed. For example, the interjection wow. Is it not possible to express your feelings in Russian?" [Solganik, 2016, p. 474].
"We extremely use borrowings. ...we have less respect for our own words, ... we have ceased to appreciate the Russian language, hence there is separation, misunderstanding between people" [Frolov, 2016, p. 477].
In this collection, there are a lot of expressive statements that clarify the essence of the problem: "Borrowing can not harm (as porcelain teeth do not harm, put instead of removed one; and another thing, when a porcelain tooth tries to replace an alive, healthy tooth - it is necessary to fight for such a tooth)" [Chelyshev, 2016, p.435]. A well-known writer Dmitry Bykov, [2016, p. 97] noted that attitude to borrowing, as the attitude to American jeans: if there are not good Russian jeans, you can wear American ones.
The materials of this collection of questionnaires confirm that today a fairly calm reaction to the abundance of Anglo-Americanisms is still dominated, tolerant attitude to diversity which is created by both "own" and "foreign" means prevails.
Another "painful" point of the modern media language is the lowering of the normative threshold and the legalization of sub-standard units. In general, in many modern linguistic cultures there is quite loyal attitude to the substandard vocabulary - jargon and vernacular. V.I. Zhelvis [2004] wrote that every one of fourteen words in modern English spoken language has a sharply reduced connotation, invectives are included into the lists of the most used words. Today, the attitude to the substandard has been radically changed. If argo was considered to be the "language of outcasts or just overindulgence" [Elistratov, 2000, p. 576], but now it is known that the literary language and substandard mutually influence each other (in this case sub-standard is an important source of innovation in the common tongue), that "conflict-free" coupling of these language elements there is in the modern media texts.
Gaming nature of the communicative code of the substandard units and not focus on their contradistinction to the norm seems to be especially attractive. T.A. Kudinova writes about the necessity of substandard as destabilizing element, which in turn contributes to keeping a language
system as homeostasis [2011, p. 19]. However, the massive penetration of the substandard into the media space, of course, leads to degradation and damage, because many slang units reflect a cynical view of the world. Jargon units, as a rule, not differentially transfer semantic and pragmatic content. Ambivalence jargon destroys the nuances and shades, as a result, the language is flat, and this is threatening an environmental disaster. Ambivalence of jargon destroys the nuances and shades of meaning, as a result, the language becomes poor, and this can result in environmental disaster. Substandard units (peripheral ones relating to the literary language) easily win central positions, and in the consciousness of modern Russian native speaker there is a problem about the existence of borders between the literary language and slang, or the words that linguists on the habit consider to be slang, are part of the literary language [Rozin, 2006, p. 421]. In modern society, the scope of decency are significantly expanded, including in the media. Slang units and invectives are super frequent in talented and loved by the youth TV programs such as "the Comedy Club". The Federal Service for Supervision in the sphere of informational technologies and mass communications registered the newspaper with the title "E-mine!!!" Nikita Mikhalkov in an interview can not escape the substandard word trendet:
All I wanted was the transparent management, favorable to the Union, and banging on in the hope that you hear me and kindly understand, and while I was banging on all of this, egghead lawyers works so that the building stopped to exist as property of the Russia... (Tamara Moskvina "'Men's notebook").
Substandard units are often put forward in a strong position - in the title and lead. The pragmatic goal of any title is to achieve results, namely to make the reader to suffer emotions and think as the author wants, and at the same time to impress imagination of the reader with an unexpected sensation. At the same time, the title is both a part of the text and a pretext signal. At the pre-text stage, it attracts the reader, affects his intellectual and emotional spheres. And then, being included into the frame structure of the reader's consciousness, the title turns into a tool to control the reader. It is well known that classical publicism was based on a small correlation of expression and standard. Today, the recipient sometimes becomes a hostage of the target of the newspaper: if the goal is to inform, the desire for expression is excessive. We can speak about occurrence of the reverse situation when the form used to attract maximum attention is more important than the content.
In this connection, view of S. Yastrzhembsky (who since 1996 was the Press-secretary of the President Boris Yeltsin) in an interview to the newspaper "Interlocutor" is very representative (2017, № 5):
S. Yastrzhembsky: that vocabulary used by the current Director of the Information and Press Department in Moscow has been absolutely unacceptable in before. Expression, jokes...but what times - such songs. I am sure that the speakers ' language will be changed again after a new reducing tension in relations with the West.
Corr.: Can diplomacy achieve anything with trolling-Facebook stylistics?
S. Yastrzhembskiy: There was a loss of the public language on both sides. All these attempts to explain it do not lead to anything... Some children's satisfaction for a few minutes in all this: "Oh, how I answered him!" What is happening? Nothing. I don't like such a language.
In TV air (program "Big science" (!), OTR, February 11, 2017) The doctor of Philology, Professor Of the Higher School of Economics I.M. Dzyaloshinsky used substandard words, insults: reptiles, scoundrels, do not know anything - it is, of course, about modern students.
The analysis of slang units in creative texts leads to the conclusion that they are "more valuable and more adapted to expressive effect of the word form itself that allows, paradoxically, to speak about a greater (in comparison with the literary language) the proportion of the aesthetic component of the word mark" [Merentsov, Sidorov, 2008, p. 167]. Indeed, the study of media texts shows the great importance of these units as a text-forming means.
As it is known, freedom of speech is unlimited if the speaker is within the boundaries of "Ego". But as soon as the word begins to affect someone else's mentality, morality, etc., the freedom of speech should be limited to the limits of legitimacy. M.V. Gorbanevsky believes that the usage of invective and obscene language in the newspapers, on TV or radio should be regarded as hooliganism [Gorbanevsky, 2007, p. 67] that, in our opinion, is absolutely fair to those who do not agree with the great Russian writer: "It is a clear that abuse can not take place in a decent society and in a decent book " (M. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time").
H. Moskovtsev and Shevchenko noted the following regularity: the more authoritarian is the state and society, the stricter it observes "moral principles" in general and language taboos in particular. The fact that observance of dogmas of speech and dogmas of morality was strictly monitored demonstrated an important way of control over a person by the state.
Tracking dogmas of observation of morality and speech is an important method of control over people. In harsh regimes and swears were banned. The word was equated to action in them. And punishment for violation of speech taboos was real, effective [Moskovtsev, Shevchenko, 2009, p. 79-83].
Modern works on invective speech, emphasize the game element of invectives and the fact that they are psychologically alleviate suffering superheavy circumstances; indicate their useful function: through them a person becomes free (in a harmless way) from the aggression that overflows him/ her. And in normal communication the usage of such expressions is a sign of friendliness and reduction of interpersonal distance. According to N.D. Burvikova and V.G. Kostomarov [2008, p. 3], language taste of epoch in the last two decades was influenced by the liberalization, democratization, finally the carnivalization of reality. "The modern genesis of the Russian language shows us examples of qualitative transformation of literature in the direction of losing significance in the public perception, and the growing importance of the colloquial language" [ibid]. Actually "carnivalization" often determines the turn towards the substandard, the relationship of which with the literary language is carried out very intensively.
As it is known, the attitude to the substandard can characterize the linguocultural community as a whole: researchers repeatedly pointed more tolerant attitude to the substandard, which is peculiar to educated Americans in comparison with educated British, which also corresponds with other features of these linguocultural communities.
As for our culture, we can talk about a more tolerant attitude to substandard in recent decades. "Protective care" in the framework of ecological linguistics today is not limited only to the literary form. The negative attitude towards the activation of substandard was replaced by the acceptance of the objectivity of this phenomenon, which is organically connected with the processes of liberalization and democratization of public life. Public communication today is often conflict, for example, due to the fact that the boundary between book speech, including journalism, and everyday speech, has almost disappeared and "the media language got such a "freedom" that not every article may be read aloud" [Alexandrova, Slavkin, 2016, p. 26]. Speech aggression is closely related to invectives and obschenizms. Not accidentally, one of the useful functions of obscenisms is " canalization" of aggression. Manifestation of rudeness and speech aggression is connected with violation of communicative norms, that is, norms focused on creating conditions that ensure the maximum possible effective communication in any communicative situation and with taking into account its features. A common strategy in the media is a "hint" on obscenity, using dots on the place of obscenisms. A new form of speech aggression, reflecting a high degree of interpersonal and social aggression, is the so - called trolling. It is a product of its time that did not exist in the pre-Internet era. In the Russian segment of the Internet - in Runet now in its entirety the modern language is reflected, which is characterized by coarsening, permanent formation of the "image of enemy" and often - vicious anti-social aggressiveness. Trolling is characterized by violation of the principles of traditional forms of communication described by Grays [Grays, 1985, pp. 217-237]. Trolling violates the maxims of politeness. From the point of
view of maxims of politeness, trolling is destructive phenomena. Techniques that are used in trolling, today are carefully described. This is an arbitrary change of dialogue theme, active implementation of invective and obscenisms, excessive categoriality of statements, manipulative use of the concept "friend or foe", strategy of provocation, defamation and hyperbole. It is quite rightly noted that the nutritional soil for trolling is anonymity. Most often, users communicate anonymously in a virtual space.
"...in the Internet world, where no one apologizes to another, whose memory is as memory of a hamster - for a couple of days, and there is, alas, the most modern and living society, in which there is little tact, little desire for truth and a lot of hatred abhorrence " (Komsomolskaya Pravda, February 10, 2017).
Y.M. Konyaeva [2015, pp. 149-148] believes that the trolling has gone beyond the limits of the network communication that is specific communicative practice, which is typical in general for the media (not just electronic ones). In essence, the communicative phenomenon of trolling consists in a special way to reduce the assessment of the speech subject, it is a mechanism of crossing out positive information in the text. Trolling, according to Yu.M. Konyaeva, is a method to indirectly identify a point of view that allows to sow doubt in the soul of the recipient [Konyaev, 2015].
It is significant that absolutely all journalists who answered the questions of the questionnaire, organized by the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University (questionnaires published in the collection "Journalists about the Russian Language", 2016), demonstrated sharply negative attitude to the possibility of using obschenizms in the media.
Compare.: "I personally have never used profanity in my works and will never use, because I have enough other words to convey my position to the reader. I think that this (use of profanity) is the manifestation of laxity and rudeness. I can understand that sometimes profanity is juicy, very exact, emotional, and sometimes it can be even appropriate. But the thing is, when you don't talk a tete-a-tete with someone or in a group of your buddies, and your conversation becomes the property of neighbors or passers-by, it can ruin their feelings, it's already not good, because such words are intended solely for internal use.
To show it to a wider audience is just not to respect the audience..." [Romanov, 2016, p. 347]; "Profanity can be used when those who hear it, are ready to hear it. For example, it is possible in the kitchen with friends" [Tashev, 2016, 400].
In modern media communication, there are many "pain" points: a decrease in the threshold of normativity, unmotivated usage of anglicisms, a high level of aggressiveness (and verbal aggression is a reflection of deeper aggressiveness caused by its prolonged suppression by external forces, as well as fear of the surrounding reality as a result of a sharp change in living conditions). In modern communication, the situation there has become permissible drastically negative expression, rigidity in the estimates. In the speech there was activated the genre of invective, which relies not only on the system of means allowed in the literary language for discrediting the opponent, but also on expressive expressions located more than outside the ethical and linguistic norms. We can talk about the detabooization of rough language, which has become common, while the media form an addiction to this layer of words.
However, there is also the opposite - "counter" - tendency to "soften" speech. Cultural-linguistic tendency of political correctness becomes such opposite tendency in results, goals and strategies of the applied language means, thanks to it the field of coordinated communication and expedient functioning of language units is expanded. Speech interaction with" good " intentions, expressed in the correct form, aimed at the consistency of the communicants is the ideal of modern society. Massively implemented in society, it will contribute to the fact that the individual will be able to perceive other people's (even alien) ideas and opinions without internal aggression, to show not only tolerance, but an sincere interest and respect for the peculiarities of other people. Modern orthology implies the extension of the regulatory framework in the media space. The
predominance of tolerant attitude towards different deviations does not exclude and even implies the existence in the linguistic consciousness of a sufficiently clear idea of the normative space. It is on its background deviations are understood as deviations. At the same time, only strict adherence to ethical and linguistic norms will expand the field of benevolent communication. In modern conditions rigid hierarchy of right and wrong, normative and non-normative are replaced by media communication tolerant to the deviation when extended view about options, suitable for different circumstances wins.
Conclusios
Thus, in modern conditions linguistic "isolationism" has gone into the past and linguistics actively draws on the ideas, arsenal and methodologies from many Humanities. The division of disciplines into the private areas is compensated with the creation and interaction of the intermediate edge disciplines that make possible not the study of isolated phenomena, but complexes of phenomena connected causally. Cognition cannot neglect the factor of integrity. A common epistemological basis for solving complex interdisciplinary problems should be created. It is obvious that mutual adaptation of the linguistic and journalistic apparatus is inevitable within the framework of media linguistics.
Constant dissatisfaction with the language of media should be overcome, including with the participation of linguists. Without linguists it isimpossible to identify additional information that is regarded as a subtext or implicit information. Since the universal property of the language is the asymmetric dualism of the language sign, the description of linguistic phenomena often requires reference to presuppositional facts. It is possible to express implicit semantics, to separate verbalized and non-verbalized meaning at the level of the text or even a single statement. Statements with implicit semantics are an implementation of the non-canonical method of language coding. The common profit consists in keeping a high cultural level in media communication, and it should limit the manifestation of a destructive elements, even if it is relevant for some specific purposes in a certain target audience.
Acceptance of media linguistics as a special branch of linguistics makes relevant many areas of interdisciplinary research of the media language. Among the most perspective ones, in our opinion, are the following:
- the ratio of verbal and audiovisual components in the media language;
- compliance of media texts to the ideas of ecological communication;
- widespread of ethic-linguistic norms through media;
- correlation of systemic and contextual norms in the mass media system.
Finally, we consider the didactic (pedagogical) aspect to be extremely important, since media linguistics as a branch of linguistics should become both an educational subject at journalism faculties and a separate profile of training within the areas of "Journalism" or "Philology".
Acknowledgements
The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 17-04-00109.
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