Functional and Stylistic Connotation of Regional Media Vocabulary

Abstract

This article focuses on the peculiarities of functional and stylistic aspects of the regional media vocabulary (Ulyanovsk region newspapers). The authors analyzed publications from the three leading sites of Ulyanovsk newspapers – Ulyanovsk Segodnya (Ulyanovsk Today), Molodezhnaya Gazeta (Youth Newspaper) and Simbirskiy kur’er (Simbirskiy Courier) from July 2019 to February 2020. The authors examined the regional broadcasting language, characteristics of printed media and lexical connotation of provincial publications. To study the stylistic peculiarities of the regional newspapers, we analyzed about 100 pages of various newspaper articles (180,000 printed characters with spaces). The conducted content analysis revealed four basic types of vocabulary with a functional and stylistic coloring. The results of the analysis showed the dominance of business vocabulary, social and political vocabulary, Internet vocabulary, as well as scientific and technical terms. According to quantitative estimation, the most widely-used group of vocabulary with functional and stylistic connotation are social and political terms (150 lexical units). This group mainly included journalistic clichés. Within the group of business lexis, the main subgroups were namely business, economic and legal vocabulary. Neologisms that are not registered in lexicographic sources are also widely used in regional newspaper publications. It should be emphasized that borrowings, primarily Anglo-Americanisms are often found in the Russian press. This is due to the fact that the English language has acquired the status of a global language. Thus, today it plays a big role in every culture and in every state, including Russia, reflecting the Russian press as well.