Metaphorics and intertexts in the key text positions of political media discourse

This article offers an analysis of the contaminated method of metaphorization for the headline set within the political media discourse. Metaphorical models of implementing the manipulative and predictive functions of the title viewed as a strong position of the text are considered as complex formations including intertextuality and precedent elements. The study examines various ways that serve to intensify and improve precedent phenomena used as a source-sphere in translating the author’s axiological space and shaping vectors of interpretation for political articles metatext.

The headline is a brief representation of objective and reflexive prognostics, which steers the “correct” perception of the entire text. The examples are based on the method of stratified sampling, with headlines and contexts from recognized online issues “The Telegraph”, “Politico”, “The Guardian” selected, which contain specific metaphorical allusions based on precedent situations and statements. The dominance of a certain metaphorical transference model and the preservation of reminiscences to a specific precedent phenomenon within the text seen as a single interpretation space, as well as in a number of political media discourse texts creates a textual universe or a single narrative that translates a certain type of perception of the image and ideas concerning the actions of the image formation source (political figure).

Within the unified metaphorization model, the criteria features of the source-sphere (nuclear areas of comparison) in the areas of schematization and stereotypization of perception, as set by the author in the incoative components (title), there are several types of metaphorical intertextuality (paratextuality, metatextuality, hypertextuality, architectuality) implemented simultaneously.

Metaphorics and intertextuality in headlines play a key role in forecasting the perception and the interpretation of the following text, which offers ample opportunities to verbalize subjective evaluation of the described event and has the greatest potential for reflexive verification and further legitimization of the author’s subjective axiological scale. Complex metaphorization offers a basis for a wide range of readers to shape an illusion of reinforcement of the axiologems broadcast by the greater majority of members of a linguo-cultural community, as well as an impression of describing the recipient’s own thoughts.

1. Bredikhin S. N. Obshchie printsipy tekstopostroeniya kak ob»ekta raspredmechivaniya smysla (General principles of text derivation as sense desobjectivation object) // Kognitivnye issledovaniya yazyka (Cognitive studies of language). 2015. No. 20. P. 634–640. (In Russian).

2. Bredikhin S. N. Printsipy i usloviya nalichiya i formirovaniya smysla (smysloporozhdayushchie mekhanizmy) (Pinciples and conditions of sense existence and derivation (sense derivation mechanisms)) // Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovaniya (Modern problems of science and education). 2013. No. 1. P. 374. (In Russian).

3. Bredikhin S. N., Bredikhina Yu.I., Makhova I.N. Sposoby intimizatsii kontseptual’no-valernogo prostranstva kontrkommunikantov v institutsional’nom diskurse sotsial’noy raboty (Methods for intimization of the concept & value space of counter-communicants in the institutional discourse of social work) // Nauchnaya mysl’ Kavkaza (Scientific Thought of Caucasus). 2021. No. 2 (106). P. 119–124. (In Russian).

4. Bredikhin S. N., Burgakova L. D. Performativy i preskriptivy kak markery konventsional’no-final’nogo komponenta v lyudicheskom diskurse (Performatives and prescriptives as markers of conventional-final component in ludic discourse) // Aktual’nye problemy filologii i pedagogicheskoy lingvistiki (Contemporary Problems of Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics). 2020. No.3. P. 12–21. (In Russian).

5. Isaeva A. Yu. Kommunikativno-pragmaticheskie osobennosti gazetnogo zagolovka (na materiale angloyazychnykh Internet-izdaniy) (Communicative and pragmatic features of newspaper headline (as exemplified in online media)): thesis. Tula, 2017. 200 p. (In Russian).

6. Krasnykh V. V. Etnopsikholingvistika i lingvokul’turologiya (Ethno- psycholinguistics and linguoculturology). Moscow: Gnozis, 2002. 284 p. (In Russian).

7. Crace J. Hey-ho, hey-ho, it’s off to work for Snow White’s conference dwarves // The Guardian. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/02/hey-ho-hey-ho-snow-whites-conference-dwarves-get-to-work (Accessed: 25.02.2022).

8. Cramer R. ‘His Street Cred Went Up’: The Unintended Consequences of Outing the GOP Lawmakers at Jan. 6 // Politico. Oct. 18, 2021. URL: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/18/democrats-outing-republican-lawmakersjanuary-6-insurrection-516109 (Accessed: 14.02.2022).

9. ‘It is a zone of death, and we’re complicit’: Why Evangelicals are upset with Trump’s Syria policy // The One World News. Nov. 03, 2021. URL: https://theoneworldnews.com/world-news/it-is-a-zone-of-death-and-were-complicit-whyevangelicals-are-upset-with-trumps-syria-policy/ (accessed: 17.02.2022).

10. Rodríguez J.A. The Supreme Court Case That Created the ‘Dreamer’ Narrative // Politico. Oct. 31, 2021. URL: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/31/dreamers-undocumented-youth-forever-children-516354 (Accessed: 14.02.2022).

11. Schnotz W. Was geschieht im Kopf des Lesers? Mentale Konstruktionsprozesse beim Textverstehen aus der Sicht der Psychologie und der kognitiven Linguistik // Text-Verstehen. Grammatik und darüber hinaus. 2006. p. 222–238.

12. Tominey C. Parliament’s chief sleaze inquisitor faces questions about her own partisanship // The Telegraph. Nov. 02, 2021. URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/11/02/meet-parliaments-chief-sleaze-inquisitor-whose-controversial/ (Accessed: 22.02.2022).