Means of verbal influence in English media texts. Dualism of influence

Ключевые слова: средства вербального воздействия, вербальное воздействие, речевое воздействие, медиатекст.

speech impact media text

In the era of a rapid development of information technology and mass media, especially in the field of social and political journalism, means of verbal influence are used widely and actively. At the present time, a far-reaching mass media system has become an intermediary between the individual and the real world, which surrounds him. This system informs him about events, news, phenomena and objects. It is important to note that such information is often provided from a certain viewpoint, with a certain connotation and evaluation.

Despite the large number of publications and scientific works that represent verbal influence, this issue remains to be open, fragmentarily examined and insufficiently investigated. The main reason for it is dynamism of this phenomenon, as from year to year technology, culture, society and language continue to progress, as a result new methods of verbal influence appear, and at the same time it becomes necessary to find and expand directions of its study.

The necessity of the research is actualized due to the fact that means of verbal influence is a complex phenomenon, which represents the interconnection of cultural, social, linguistic and psychological components. Its essence resides in producing of influence on recipient in the course of verbal communication, which can be oral or written. Special attention must be paid on means of verbal influence used in English media texts, which are examined in this article. The importance of the conducted research is conditioned by enhancement of the role of English media-texts in the nowadays society. This investigation gives an opportunity to determine exactly, what means of verbal influence are used on which language levels, their character and types.

English-language media texts, which are published in the Internet on official news websites of Great Britain (BBC News, The Guardian) and USA (Fox News. NY Daily News, ABC News), serve as materials for this research.

The aim of the research is multifaceted examination and investigation of means of verbal influence, based on materials of English-language media texts, their specialties and character of influence on recipient.

According to the aim of the work, the following tasks are realized: to define a scientific understanding of the definition of verbal influence; to distinguish and examine types and levels of influence, to get acquainted with the notion of media text and its specialties; to define means, which are used to produce negative and positive effects.

The object of the research is means of verbal influence. The subject of the research is usage of means of verbal influence in English-language media text, duality of influence and its representation on different language levels.

To accomplish the tasks in hand the following research methods are used: observation, which helps to examine means of verbal influence in English-language media texts comprehensively, the method of analysis and synthesis with the following using of the classification method in relation to levels and types of verbal influence in English-language media texts.

The theme of verbal influence has always been essential and has always been a matter of great interest for scientists of different fields and spheres. Verbal influence, as a concept, has a decades-long history and dates back to roots of antiquity. At the beginning of the 20th century an active interest to verbal influence as to a branch of science started to appear. In the second half of the past century, attention of scientists to verbal influence has increased; the systematical investigation of this phenomenon from psychological and social sides was conducted.

Every language, which exists in the world, is a unique system of signs, which potentially can mirror all things, which exist in the reality. Language can be called an external manifestation of thinking on the generalized level of symbolic signification.

V. V. Vynogradov distinguishes three main functions, which are peculiar for every speech act: communicative, informative and the function of influence [1, с. 6].

According to the theme of this work, we consider thoroughly the last one of the mentioned functions. L. L. Fedorova writes that “verbal influence is an unidirectional speech act, the task of which is to apply social influence, which is caused by the speaker on the listener during their communication” [2, p. 46]. As the role of this function is to form the language semantics of the utterance, we can additionally mention such words of V. F. Petrenko: verbal influence is aimed to cause changes in the individual consciousness, or what is synonymic for us, it has to deal with changing of the implicit image of the world” [3, p. 325].

According to scientific and research works of A. A. Leont'ev, verbal influence is a speech act, which is directed to object and has an illocutionary force. Additionally to this, as an illocutionary force we understand a leading function of utterance and the way to obtain a certain communicative aim and intention of this message addresser [4, p. 206].

Another researcher E. F. Tarasov understands verbal influence as transmitting of information in the form of a signal complex, which contains a message about something and orients the system, which perceives it, according to the sense, which was embeded into it [5, p. 3-14]. The scientist emphasizes, that this phenomenon means regulation of an individual activity by another person with the help of speech, its final goal is to control and manipulate the interlocutor.

The deep full-scale analysis of the phenomenon of verbal influence claims to understand how it is realized and on which levels it can exist. The description of such mean according to a certain level allows examining of linguistic constituent of the phenomenon in details, what is unquestionably important for this work. The combination of pragmatic approach with consideration of verbal influence belonging to the certain level gives an opportunity to describe the concrete instrument in functional relations language to speech, taking account of its role in the universal sprachraum and in the specific communicative situation.

Having analyzed scientific works of such scientists as B. F. Porshnev, P. B. Parshyn, I. A. Sternin and O. P. Zhuravl'ov, we distinguish the following complex of levels on which verbal influence can exist and be viewed: 1) phonological, 2) prosodial, 3) somatic, 4) lexico-semantic, 5) morphosyntatic, 6) extralinguistic.

In our work we consider and analyze language levels, on which duality of influence on recipient appears and can be found. Besides language levels, on which means of influence can be used, other segments, which are connected with extralinguistic activity, exist; they play an important role for efficiency of communication, prosodial, somatic and extralinguistic levels belong to them.

On the phonologic level the main influential factor on addressee is a phono-semantic content of one or another text. Phonosemantics of the text is formed with the help of associative content of sounds and letters, which convey them. On the lexico-semantic level main devices and means are lexical units. Due to diversity of lexical semantics, the choice of words can be considered as the universal and unique instrument with the help of which the most various types of influence can be realized. Under the morphosyntactic level the connection between language content, which is aimed, and the orientation of addresser and recipient is meant. Within this level mostly structural-grammatical, morphosyntactic and syntactic means are to be analyzed.

To analyze the phenomenon of verbal influence comprehensively and fundamentally, it is necessary to give consideration of its types. Firstly it can be understood as pragmatic orientation of utterance or settings for certain actions, which are realized through the use of means of verbal influence. This setting or orientation can define the type of influence and designate parameters of the message.

Within the frame of researches conducted by L. L. Fedorova verbal influence can take form and get such character types: social, will expressive, informative and explanatory, emotionally-evaluative.

The character of interaction between addresser and addressee is another important parameter, as influence can be implicit (indirect) and explicit (direct) [6, p 37]. The peculiarity of implicit influence is that will and purpose of the addresser's message is not expressed directly, it is veiled and transferred with the help of other means. Explicit verbal influence has a form of direct expression of addresser's thoughts and purpose, in other words it has apparent appeal for action.

In our work we found upon the statement, which I. A. Sternin has made, that any type of influence can have two main fundamental directions - positive and negative, in other words manipulative or loyal character. Loyal character has as a purpose motivation of addressee to agree with speaker's viewpoint consciously. And manipulative character is that one, which provokes unconscious motive for action and thinking, which is in contradiction with recipient's understandings and perceptions of the world [7, p. 67].

The main materials for the research, which is conducted within the scope of this work, are media texts. So it is necessary to get acquainted with the notion of media text. According to the theme of this work, we understand the notion of media text, as a cumulative product of three main global subsystems of mass communications: journalism, PR and advertisement.

For the analyses media texts have been chosen, which are posted in the Internet, on the official famous and worldwide-popular news websites. This decision can be fundamentally explained, as because of technological and informational improvements, more and more people prefer to look through news and events with the help of different Internet platforms and content feeds.

First of all, it is necessary to examine means of verbal influence, which provoke negative effect. It must be noted, that the notion of influence often has a negative shade and can be associated with manipulation, insertion of thoughts and views.

On phonological level means of verbal influence can be successfully used in English- language media texts:

(1) Free Women Writers, an organisation supporting female writers in Afghanistan, issued a response to Mr Ghani's comments on Facebook. “Who can be the hope for Afghan women when their president thinks being a woman as well as womanhood is embarrassing” they said (BBC News, 03.12.2017).

In the example above we can see such phonosemantic elements of influence: a large concentration of the sound [і], which is systematically repeated in the message. This stylistic device, which is used on the phonologic level, is called assonance. In this fragment repeating of this penetrative sound creates an effect of reinforcement of energy, intensity of the situation and nervousness.

Repeating of the cognate words women - woman can be designated to means of verbal influence. Such a device contains phonological and lexical specialties, as it is marked with repeating of similar lexical units, which are close by sounding.

Used means of verbal influence belong to informative and explanatory type, as this media text is the narrative with comments. Nevertheless, it has a strong emotional connotation and shade. The character of used means is more likely to be implicit, as the speaker juts out neither to a negative, no to a positive statement, and this comment seems to be similar to a rhetoric question, which leads to thinking.

Concerning the last characteristic, it can be supposed that the abovementioned mean is a suggestion. The absence of a direct evaluation can prove it. There is also an attempt to influence emotions, especially to evoke compassion to women from Afghanistan. It can oppress rational thinking, as feelings prevail. The addresser of the message latently expresses discontent with the president, in the same way he motivates an audience to think about such an event.

Having examined and investigated a great quantity of media texts, it is appropriate now to cite and analyze examples, with subsequent detecting of means of verbal influence, their main characteristics and a negative impact, which was set as a goal on the lexico-semantic level:

(2) Just how dumb Donald Trump is: Look at how counterproductive his war on the Republican Party has been. Is Donald Trump, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly stated, a moron? It is safe to say Trump has made some incredibly dumb moves as President. His presidency has, so far, not been a largely successful one. As I wrote two months ago, Trump is isolated, impotent and has an overblown sense of grievance. Congress has largely distanced itself from him and his agenda. Simply put: When it comes to tackling the important issues of the day, Congress is putting Trump at the kids ' table (NY Daily News, 10.10.2017).

Confirmation of the above statement is using in this fragment such means of verbal influence: emotionally marked lexical units, which have a negative connotation incredibly dumb, impotent, overblown sense of grievance; a vulgarism - a moron, which can be translated into Ukrainian as «недоумок, кретин чи ідіот».

At the end of the utterance there is a stylistic figure of speech, in particular an authorial metaphor: “Congress is putting Trump at the kids' table”. By using such lexical units and figures of speech, the author of the article expresses a negative attitude to American political leader, besides he forms an image of a narrow-minded, weak, unsuccessful person, which behaves himself irrationally and childishly in the consciousness of recipient.

There are hortatory clauses in the article, such as: look, just think, and a lot of affirmative sentences, which exactly state one viewpoint and don't allow any other variants: “Just how dumb Donald Trump is”; “Trump is isolated, impotent and has an overblown sense of grievance ”. Taking into account such a peculiarity of this media text it can be said, that verbal means, which are used here, have features of manipulation, because they impose readers the author's viewpoint and make them to accept it as the only one and right.

Correspondingly to other specialties, means of verbal influence used in the article belong to explicit ones, as the addresser unconcealed, really straight and even blatantly present his opinion to the audience. This fact, that the author evaluates Donald Tramp's activity on the politic area using hortatory constructions, can prove that means of verbal influence have a will expressing character: order and persuasion.

Examples of means of verbal influence on the morphosyntactic level can be found in such an extract from English-language media text:

(3) “I think the time has come to change the government. The government is corrupt. We're sick of the corrupt,” said a protester, Avi Elmozlinu. “Bibi and his government are destroying the country. There's been enough corruption, ” said one demonstrator, Michal, a Tel Aviv resident who preferred not to give his full name (The Guardian, 03.12.2017).

In the quotation, which is analyzed, the syntactic stylistic device anadiplosis is used: “I think the time has come to change the government to change the government. The government is corrupt”. It emphasizes on the connection between two ideas and expresses addresser's attitude to the situation, in particular a lot of worries because of the current state.

Epiphora is another morphosyntactic expressive mean, which is presented in this example: “The government is corrupt. We're sick of the corrupt”. It produces an effect of culmination in the utterance, gives negative evaluation and expresses speaker's attitude. By placing two comments together, the journalist uses repeating of words government and corrupt/corruption, as the mean of verbal influence. On the level of subconsciousness it provokes installing of connection between these two notions.

Means of verbal influence used in this media text, have emotive and expressive, explicit character, as they demonstrate directly and openly thoughts, views and attitudes of speakers. By the type, they belong to the persuasive one, as they appeal an audience to make large-scale actions.

Verbal influence can be positive. It is obvious, that means of its realization, peculiarities, main types and levels stay unchanged, but they have as an aim creation of positive image, appeal to social important actions, motivation or inspiration of society, formation of right views, opinions and conceptions of environment and objectively existing world.

Positive means of verbal influence on the phonologic level prevail in media texts, which concern such themes: culture, society, protection of nature and surrounding and other globally important issues, which appeal to the whole humanity. A great example can be found in the below mentioned extract, which is devoted to air-pollution and invokes people to solve this problem:

(4) The new findings reiterate that walking and cycling have a huge role to play in tackling the air quality crisis that causes tens of thousands ofpremature deaths every year. (The Guardian, 04.12.2017).

Here we can see repeating of the ending -ing in words findings, walking, cycling, tackling, the high vowel and rhythm, which can be traced even during reading to yourself, create increasing tension, which in the following text passage is enhanced by combination of sounds [s] and [і], in words crisis, causes, deaths. Using of such combination has an effect of suggestion of fear, strong feelings and emotions. In such a way, the addresser of the message invoke in reader a desire to think over problems of environment, appealing to worries and social belonging of readers to one large family - humanity, which now suffers from a serious ecologic problem.

To form a positive effect, means of verbal influence are often used on the lexico- semantic level:

(5) Champ had also “desperately wanted someone to adopt her baby, ” Holets said and he wanted to be the one. “I got so tired of seeing so many situations that I want to help, but can't. But in that moment I realized I had a chance to help, ” Holets continued. “I am so thankful and blessed and humbled that we are allowed to be Hope in our family, ” Holets said (Fox News, 03.12.2017).

Lexical units, which have stylistic connotation and belong to poetic diction or bookish words, such as: desperately, blessed, humbled, serve as means of verbal influence, as they create a special sense of loftiness, nobleness and generosity, which characterize the hero's actions. Besides, the metaphoric name of a girl “Hope” serves as a figure of speech and stylistic mean of influence on the lexico-semantic level. It can be understood as an indication that hopefulness is always a strong weapon of belief even in the case of “no way out situations”. All these means invoke a positive reader's reaction, approval of the main hero of the article and make recipients to think about doing acts of kindness.

The type of this verbal mean of influence is emotional-evaluative and implicit, as the direct motive for actions is absent, but on the level of subconsciousness, the addresser tries to convey that we need to be virtuous and charitable, as it is one of the highest virtues in the world.

Influential function can be conveyed not only with the help of poetic words, but also with the use of slang, as the next example demonstrates:

(6) He said he sees people getting in trouble for their tweets, and says they should follow the old advice of thinking before you speak: “Think before you tweet, ” Obama said.

“Same principle. ” (ABC News, 01.12.2017).

Having analyzed this example, we can reveal repeating of the Internet-slangism and neologism tweet, which means to public a note in the social network Twitter. This lexical unit is used by political leader with an aim to make the audience to think about what they write in the Internet. It can be proved with such a hortatory clause: “Think before you tweet”. This phrase demonstrated that Obama is really aware of new technologies and informational novelties. So it can increase possibility that recipients will listen to this advice.

This verbal mean of influence has a will expressing character, which can be understood as a persistent advice. The explicitly of the phrase motivates readers not to think over words, but just agree with the statement. All the more this phrase has a positive influence on addressees, as this advice is rational and useful for a social life.

The example, in which positive means of verbal influence on the morphosyntactic level can be found, is concerned the media text, which tells about Orville Rogers' centenary celebration:

(7) Even at his age, Rogers said, he continues to run because “It makes me feel good. I'm convinced - in my own personal experience - that it's good for me. ” Rogers added. “Exercise is good for you to have good health and a long life. That's a combination I can't turn down. ” (ABC News, 01.12.2017).

In this extract repeating of a lexical unit good is used, which is combined with such words as run, health, exercise. All this creates effect of worlds' interrelations and an associative row: exercises - running - good for health. The inserted construction is used as a syntactic stylistic mean: “I'm convinced - in my own personal experience - that it's good for me”. In such a way, the speaker gives an unobtrusive advice to the recipient and motivates him to keep a healthy lifestyle, because he accents attention that it is proved by a long-life experience and gives good results.

Means of verbal influence used in this article can be referred to the combination of an informative and emotional-evaluative type. The character of the influence is direct, open and explicit, as the text is aimed at rendering of information and giving of advice.

CONCLUSIONS

Verbal influence as a phenomenon can exist and appear on phonological, prosodial, somatic, lexico-semantic, morphosyntatic and extralinguistic levels. In the work only language levels were analyzed, exactly such as phonological, lexico-semantic and morphosyntactic.

Taking pragmatic orientation into account it was distinguished that verbal means of influence can be of such characteristic types: social, will expressive, informative and explanatory, emotionally-evaluative.

According to the character of interaction between addresser and addressee influence can be implicit (indirect) and explicit (direct). It was defined that any type of influence can have two main fundamental directions - positive and negative, in other words manipulative or loyal character. So this phenomenon has a feature of duality.

Means of verbal influence, which provoke negative effect, were divided into manipulative, suggestive and persuasive. It was determined, that such means of verbal influence are used mostly in media texts on political and criminological topics.

Means of verbal influence, which have positive effect, are directed at increasing of a level of morality and ethicality, protection of nature and environment, formation of social and political activity, motivation to actions, which are useful for health and so on.

As a conclusion it must be said that verbal influence have a property to change mindset, psychological and emotional state, viewpoints, minds, feelings and believes of a person. Nowadays, methods and means of verbal influence are used more actively and massively. Language of media texts is a powerful and vivid mean of influence on society, and it has duality as a property. Through the use of well-set and elaborate choice of means, the influence on recipient is executed, that assists to achieve addresser's intentions and to provoke necessary shifts and changes in the consciousness and activity of large-scale groups of recipients.

REFERENCES

1. Vynogradov, V. V. (1963). Stilistika. Teoriya poeticheskoi rechi. Poetika [Stylistics. Poetical Speech Theory. Poetics]. Moscow: AN SSSR.

2. Fedorova, L. L. (1991). Tipologiya rechevogo vozdejstviya i yego mesto v strukture obshcheniya [Typology of Speech Influence and Its Place in the Communication Structure]. Voprosy Yazykoznaniya, 6, 46-50.

3. Petrenko, V. F. (1990). Struktura soznanyya v rechevom vozdeystvyy [Structure of consciousness in speech influence]. In N. A. Bezmenova, V. P. Belyanyn, & N. N. Bohomolova Optymyzatsyya rechevoho vozdeystvyya. Moscow: Nauka.

4. Leont'ev, A. A. (1969). Yazyk, rech', rechevaya deyatel'nost' [Language, speech, and speech activity]. Moscow: Prosveshchenye.

5. Tarasov, E. F., Bezmenova, N. A., & Luzyna, L. H. (1990). Rechevoe vozdejstvie v sfere massovoj kommunikacii [Speech Impact in the Sphere of Mass Communication]. n M.: Nauka.

6. Rizun, V. V., Nepyyvoda, N. F., & Kornyeyev, V. M. (2005). Linhvistyka vplyvu [Linguistics of Influence]. Kyiv: Vydavnycho-polihrafichnyy tsentr “Kyivs'ky universytet”.

7. Sternin, Y. A. (2001). Vvedenie v rechevoe vozdejstvie [Introduction to Speech Impact]. Voronezh: Izd-vo Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta.

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