EUPHEMISMS AND DYSPHEMISMS IN ONLINE POLITICAL NEWS ARTICLES AND IN THEIR READERS’ COMMENTS

Abstract

The article aims to reveal the specificity of functioning of euphemisms and dysphemisms in the most widely commented Internet news of 2017-2019 about the domestic politics of France (Le Figaro, Le Monde) and Russia (RIA Novosti, Lenta.ru) and in the readers’ comments to these news articles. Euphemism and dysphemism are viewed upon as units of language, not speech. They are used as response utterances to something considered negative in a communicative situation. Euphemism aims to hide this negativity, while dysphemism, on the contrary, emphasizes it. Since the concept of “negative” is rather subjective and the reaction to the prohibition of the negative is also subjective, there arises the problem of differentiation between euphemisms and dysphemisms. Referring to the concepts of “meaning” and “sense” allows the researcher to single out additional groups of lexemes and solves the problem: the author distinguishes “pure euphemisms and dysphemisms” and “hidden euphemisms and dysphemisms” (a schema illustrating their correlation is presented). The functions of euphemization and dysphemization and some linguistic means of their expression are also considered. Strong evidence was found that the differentiation between euphemisms and dysphemisms depends on the context of the utterance: the extralinguistic situation (by whom, for what reason, when a certain utterance was made; what are the relations between the communicants, etc.) , as well as the linguistic environment of the lexeme in question (other lexemes and syntax).