Quantitative Analysis of the Word Spread Dynamics as a Factor in Identifying of the Youth Mass Media Significance

Abstract

This study examines the role and place of youth media in changing the vocabulary of the Russian language. For a comparative analysis, three words were used, the factors of popularity of which are political propaganda, the frequent use of the word in a certain youth magazine and the widespread prevalence of the word on the Internet. A wave-like dynamics of an increase in the frequency of the word, which has become popular thanks to publications in the youth media, has been revealed: matured readers of the magazine, after 20-25 years, begin to actively use the word introduced into their vocabulary by the authors of the publications. The question is raised about the significance of the mass media for the dynamics of changes in the vocabulary of the language. A method has been developed to prove the influence of the mass media on the dynamics of changes in the vocabulary using the tools of quantitative linguistics. The history of the frequency of use of the analyzed words in the Russian language allows us to speak about the importance of youth mass media as determining the worldview and linguistic picture of the world of the text. Moreover, for other words in which the frequency correlates with the historical setting, the contexts of use themselves indicate the connection of the increased frequency with the personality of a particular publicist or writer and with the texts he generates.