Linguistic, Pragmatic, and Stylistic Peculiarities of 2018 FIFA World Cup Representation in British Media-Discourse

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to analyse linguistic, pragmatic, genre and stylistic peculiarities of the articles from British mass-media which cover the organization and the results of the 2018 World Cup. The importance of such analysis is determined by the necessity to investigate the public evaluation of the phenomenon under study. This will contribute to the understanding of mundane interpretations of sport in a particular culture and analyse the means of the country’s image formation. Quality and tabloid newspapers were used as the basis for the analysis, with the aim of creating an integral picture of the world’s attitude to the World Cup. The methods of discourse analysis and the analysis of the communicative situations let the author conclude that political discourse has an enormous influence on sport discourse. The politicization of sport discourse happens because of the discussion of topics from the conceptual sphere POLITICS, through the inclusion of controversial issues, on which Russia has not yet reached an understanding with the world community, into defamatory contexts. In the framework of sport discourse, the ‘friend-foe’ opposition becomes explicit, which is also characteristic of political discourse. In the British mass-media the materials with a positive illocutionary intention are mostly realized alongside with the foregrounding of politically charged issues and axiologically marked concepts. The analysis of publications in foreign mass-media is important for the purpose of understanding that ambitious sport projects help to ruin the stereotypes about Russia and create a positive image of the country on the world arena.