Syntax units in the language of the native mass media during the russian-ukrainian war: content and structure update

Abstract

Introduction. Today's strong and indomitable Ukraine needs quality media coverage of the life of Ukrainians during the Russian-Ukrainian war, which causes the pragmatization of this area. More and more actively, journalists resort to expressing their own "I" with subjectively determined intentions, to one-way speech situations with distant communicators, as well as to express contexts in order to express the presentation. Expressiveness becomes more noticeable at the level of syntax: in the specifics of the use of its units, in the features of sentence construction and their functioning in actual contexts and headings, in updating the content and structure of syntactic constructions. Syntax traditions of Ukrainian mass media, therefore, are influenced by non-linguistic factors (social, individual authorship, etc.) caused by the war and the world reaction to it.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main trends in the stylistic use of syntactic units in the language of the Ukrainian mass media during the period of the Russian- Ukrainian war.

The following tasks were set: a) to trace the main changes in the content and structural design of the syntactic units most used in the media text; b) to determine the functional load of the studied structures in the language of modern Ukrainian mass media; c) to outline the stylistic capacity of syntactic units in the language of the mass media, taking into account extralinguistic factors (journalist's intention, social need, time requirement, need for expressiveness, etc.).

Methods. The main research methods were the descriptive and observational methods, which were used to differentiate the structural-semantic varieties of syntactic units, as well as the functional analysis method - to determine their stylistic load.

Results. Changes in the language of modern Ukrainian mass media primarily affect the semantic content of the main clauses. The names of institutions, organizations, authorities, positions, participants in military operations, developers of projects, users of services, names of actions, objects, etc., which are especially important today in the life of our country, which are caused by socio-economic and political transformations in Ukrainian society as well as the circumstances of an irresistible force ‒ the Russian-Ukrainian war. In the role of the subject are proper names, which have a metonymized expression, function as well as actively, as a means of realizing the dynamics of the presentation, the principle of "direct speech" and, at the same time, talking about the context. There is a noticeable positive trend towards the active use in the language of the Ukrainian mass media of the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war of our native intertextual headings, composed of various types of simple and complex sentences. A tendency to 

actualization as headings of simple two-syllable sentences, which are used independently, without pretexts, is evidenced.

New phenomena have also been observed in the use of inserted units in the language of modern Ukrainian mass media. In particular, this is the method of deciphering nominative units, presenting them as inserted phrases in the original language; the use of information and reference inserted units that specify, specify, supplement, expand the opinion.

It is noticeable that the activation of expressive interrogative structures strung together in chains, which contributes to the expression of stylistics and aesthetics of the presentation in media texts, the creation of an emotional flavor, and the decoding of the author's intention.

New phenomena have also been observed in the use of inserted units in the language of modern Ukrainian mass media. In particular, this is the method of deciphering nominative units, presenting them as inserted phrases in the original language; the use of information and reference inserted units that specify, specify, supplement, expand the opinion.

Originality. Syntax of the language of the Ukrainian mass media at the beginning of the 21^st century has been researched quite fully: the figures of expressive syntax are described, the infrastructure of sentences of the journalistic style and the phenomenon of ellipsis in it are analyzed, a comprehensive analysis of syntactic units are carried out, and the integrability of media syntactic expressiveness is outlined. However, changes in the syntax of media texts continue: expression is replaced by a standard, verbosity is leveled by clarity of presentation, sentence structures are updated in the direction of simplification. That is why the analysis of some syntactic structures used in the language of mass media texts during the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war is relevant, considering their content and modification of the structure.

Conclusion. In the language of the Ukrainian press of the third decade of the XXI century there are noticeable changes and new trends in the stylistic coloring and functioning of syntactic units, caused by the influence of not only communicative and pragmatic factors, but also social, in particular, the circumstances of the martial law in Ukraine. A tendency to update the content of syntactic units, which acquire additional semantic and stylistic variations, is observed, which is represented in the ability to reproduce the subtlest shades of thought. Today, standard syntactic units prevail over expressive ones, and simple, uncomplicated sentences prevail over long, complicated ones. The component composition of syntactic constructions is simplified. The actualization of the phenomenon of intertextuality as an element of the culture of Ukrainian society in simple and complex syntactic constructions is traced.

We see the prospect of further research in conducting a comparative analysis of the structure, semantics and functions of syntactic units used in the language of the Ukrainian mass media during the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in all-Ukrainian and regional publications.