Linguocognitive Features of Stylistic Devices’ Distribution in English-Language Media Discourse (Based on Quality Press Dated 1990-1999)

Abstract

Purpose. The article studies the linguocognitive features of stylistic devices’ (SDs) implementation in English-language media discourse. The research was done on the material of a representative selection of articles from quality press (including The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times) and involved two stages, making use of quantitative and frame analysis.

Results. Registering and counting the total number of SDs in the articles of the research corpus led us to conclude that the most actively employed SDs are metaphor, personification and metonymy, the latter two frequently entering into stylistic clusters, thus enhancing the emotional impact on the recipient. Studying the distribution of SDs in accordance with the language layers they occur on, demonstrates the overwhelming prevalence of lexical SDs over syntactic and phonological ones, which we are inclined to explain by the written form of the discourse analyzed. The frame analysis brings us to the conclusion that out of the three possible frame models (FMs) found in media texts (FM Phenomenon, FM Event, FM Personality) the one describing abstract phenomena is activated most commonly. The total number of SDs actualized in the articles of the three FMs is comparable, however, the ones representing the FM Event tend to contain fewer SDs, which can be accounted for by the genre of such articles which is the news.

Conclusion. The results obtained allow us to conclude that the patterns of stylistic devices’ distribution in media discourse are determined both by the internal structure of the discourse analyzed and by the frame models which underlie the semantics of media articles.