Лексико-стилістичні особливості евфемістичних перифразів в американських засобах масової інформації

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the question of euphemistic periphrases peculiarities of English-language extracted from American TV show broadcast on the CNN channel. The subject of the study is the lexical and stylistic peculiarities of euphemistic periphrases in American media. The paper examines the main problems of classification, derivation, and functionality range within communication situations which had been analysed, as well as lingual and stylistic, pragmatic characteristics of euphemistic units. The notion of euphemism is one of the most widespread lexical and stylistic means in the English language. It is considered to be a figure of substitution, taking into account the nature of this phenomenon: deliberate changing of one lexeme into another one in order to make it more effective stylistically. Thus, euphemisms drastically influence on modern lexis use and are realized in various spheres of a man’s life. Being a neutral word or combination of words, euphemistic periphrases make words with unpleasant, unseemly or even loathsome connotation more apt for a communicative situation, enhancing the meaning of the notion and altering its perception by recipients in a more positive way. It is worth mentioning, similarly to other language elements, euphemisms differ by dynamics and mobility and undergo constant meaning change and, consequently, achieve a new communicative effect on communicators in a certain speech case. The critical analysis of theoretical resources demonstrated us inhomogeneous criteria by which euphemisms are classified: communicators’ motifs, semantics, the topics of euphemization and details of use in speech, motivation, and the means of formation. B. Warren’s approach to the process of euphemization seems to be valid, as the scientist takes into consideration a word form and semantics. J. A. Rawson’s idea to systematization of euphemisms into two generalized groups (positive and negative units) was also integrated during the analysis. The illustrative material for the analysis shows that the most frequent topics of news programs on CNN (and, as a result, of euphemisms) are: army, state, intelligence, investigation of criminal police and Secret Service, diplomatic affairs, politics and war, the question of race / ethnic / gender discrimination in American society, physiological states and death, social and ecological problems, etc. The research results reveal that euphemisms are used within media messages with negative connotations predominantly. People use so-called negative euphemisms and lexical units, which help to mitigate unpleasant or worrying information or disturbing facts; euphemistic units also facilitate exaggeration or distortion of facts. Therefore, euphemisms are actively used within media and perform the following functions: - concealment of real cope of events in order to disguise negative aspects of certain organizations or people activity; - distortion of truth or concealment of real nature of the signified; - they might be misleading or make people pay attention to some other least important aspects of a situation; - via euphemisms, speakers avoid speaking plain; - owing to euphemisms, speakers can substitute real names of phenomena which trigger negative emotions. It had also been analysed the ways of forming of euphemisms as well as paid attention to some peculiarities in the study, namely: semantic change; borrowings; word form alteration; nuances of word formation. According to the results of the research, the most productive means of creating new lexical units is semantic change that is realized through metaphors, litotes, and periphrases. The rest of ways of euphemisms formation (such as borrowing, acronyms, compounding, derivational processes (affixation), special terminology usage, and allusions) come to fruition less frequent. Having used the lexical material from CNN newscasts for the analysis, it is possible to make a conclusion that the worked-out type of lexis plays an important role in the speech of American media and impacts the process of facts formation in new reels and, consequently, the audience’s perception of the news on actual events in the USA and all over the world as well. Evidently, through euphemisms usage it becomes real to conceal, distort, mask or mitigate the events or activity of people / companies, which had been illuminated in newscasts. Thus, the information that was changed because of the euphemization process has certain new characteristics and is different from a source material. In this way, viewers of the news channel remember and record distorted facts presented by TV anchors and draw respective conclusions.