The category of evaluation in modern Russian media

Denisova Galina V.,

Doctor of Culturology,

Professor of the Semiotics and General Theory of Art Department

Deputy Dean for Scientific Development of the Faculty of Arts

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: g.v.denissova@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7719-8380

Smirnova Olga V.,

Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor,

Head of the Digital Journalism Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: smirnova.olga.msu@yandex.ru

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1349-4241

Sapunova Olga V.,

Senior Lecturer of the Verbal Arts Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: sapunovaov@my.msu.ru

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2179-6592

The article analyzes the category of evaluativeness as one of the units of the language system of modern domestic mass media. In the course of the research, the following scientific tasks were solved: assessing the percentage of contexts of journalistic materials with positive and negative connotations; tracking the dynamics of such publications; correlating these materials with precedent events. The dynamics of the use of lexical units that make up the lexical and semantic field of the named category in online media and on newspaper websites in the period from 2019 to 2023 is traced. The tendency to increase the share of evaluative vocabulary has been revealed. The conclusion is made about the processes of decategorization due to the dominance in lexical and semantic fields of lexemes expressing moderate expressiveness, instead of capital units nominating the category. The results obtained confirm the hypothesis that an increase in the number of publications containing lexical units with positive and negative connotations may be due not only to information guides, but also to an increase in the total volume of content produced by the media, which, in turn, requires professional tracking of the dynamics of their appearance in the context of specific precedent events.

Keywords: evaluation category, decategorization, evaluative vocabulary, media conflict, Russian mass media
 

The study was financially supported by the Lomonosov Moscow State University Development Program (Project No. 23-Sh02-16)

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