AUSTRIAN MEDIA DISCOURSE AS REFLECTION OF CULTURAL-LINGUISTIC BEING OF THE ETHNOS

Abstract

We consider the impact of media discourse on linguistic culture, focusing on the Austrian press and its role in development of the Austrian national version of German; we analyze the current research of the Austrian German standard, conducted on the material of modern journalism; we identify the main lexical processes that occur in modern Austrian German and are reflected in the media discourse; we substantiate the presence of convergent and divergent features in the functioning of Austrian German. The aim of the article is to reveal the features of Austrian media discourse and to identify the main processes taking place in the language of the Austrian press at the lexical level, in particular the use of Austriacisms and Teutonisms, as well as regionally marked lexical-morphological and phraseological units. We see its relevance in identifying trends in the development of pluricentric language and in elucidating the impact of media discourse on it. Thus, influence of mass media (especially of the press) on development of the Austrian national version of German is undeniable. It manifests itself in the fact that mass media, which are published in Germany, are a source of penetration of the new linguistic phenomena into the Austrian German. As a rule, this relationship is not symmetrical: German is the donor language for the Austrian German, which in this situation is the recipient language. In general, the linguistic colour of the national media is of great importance for the functioning and further development of the divergent version of German in Austria.