Lexical properties of broadcast media discourse

Broadcast media discourse is characterised by the lexical features similar to those of the print media language. These features fall into two large groups: standardising and expressive ones.

The standardising lexical units of television and radio discourse embrace:

- neutral literary lexical units;

- book style words (or bookish words);

- special or topical lexicon referring to a particular sphere of use (business, politics, law, military, science, education, ecology, culture, sports), including the names of organizations, establishments, parties and other associations in their full or abbreviated form;

- neologisms;

- culturally marked words (realia);

-collocations (clichés). They take intermediate position between idioms and free collocations1:

to be too little too late – слишком поздно и в недостаточном объеме

to be on the increase – увеличиваться

to be under threat – быть под угрозой

to claim lives – стоить жизней (вести к потерям)

to go ahead – продолжать

in earnest – всерьез, старательно

to lag behind – отставать, запаздывать, волочиться

to make one`s way – двигаться вперед

to make headlines – стать объектом внимания прессы / попасть в газеты

to pin hopes on – возлагать надежды на

to pose threat – представлять угрозу

to take to the streets – выйти на улицу (для выражения протеста, несогласия)

safe heaven – надежное, безопасное место

to voice concern – высказывать озабоченность

in the run up (to) – в преддверии чего-л

in the wake of – по пятам, следом / в кильватере

The expressive lexical units of television and radio discourse embrace idioms, colloquial words (including colloquial phrasal words; colloquial idioms, former slang words, words with a reduced stem), intensifiers, and emotively charged literary words (epithets, metaphors, similes, etc.).

British broadcast media does not use many proverbs, as they are considered to complicate the discourse, deprive it of its individual originality. The so-called deformed proverbs1, however, do occur in the broadcast media discourse quite frequently. For example, the proverb to make hay while the sun shines used spontaneously by a journalist has been transformed into while the sun is shining or making hay out of something:

a) But the Conservatives are bound to do whatever they can while the sun is shining (Sky News);

b) The Tories should be making hay out of it (Sky News).

Sometimes both parts of a proverb undergo changes, as they may be subject to transformations or even to total replacement:

a) A curry aday keeps arthritis at bay (Sky New s);

b) This is a haystack. Now try to find a needle (Sky News)

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14