Sestimated Potential of Antonomasia in the Language of Modern Press

Abstract

The article examines the specific aspects of antonomasia in modern media on the example of online versions of the German-language press: “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Bild”, “Die Zeit”. The aim of the study is to identify the pragmatic potential of this type of nomination in the articles on political topics. The relevance of the study is accounted for by contradictory approaches to such a multifaceted linguistic phenomenon as antonomasia within the framework of a pragmatic study of online media discourse. Antonomasia is a means of linguistic nomination, which is realized in speech and performs an evaluative function in the German-language media course, thus causing a special interest of a researcher.The main objective of the study is to identify the evaluative and influencing functions of antonomasia, which contribute to the formation of a certain position in the reader. The methods of continuous sampling and semantic analysis are used. The selected examples are divided into the cases of antonomasia of the first type (the transfer of a proper name to other politicians) and the second type (the transfer of mythological and literary characters to famous politicians). A special attention is paid to the analysis of the semantic modification of proper names in online media discourse and the background knowledge required for both “decoding” and translation of antonomasia by a native speaker into other languages. The paper states that antonomasia is always based on a secondary nomination and evaluation, it can also be part of the opposition “we” - “they”. The analysis of the practical material made it possible to reveal the estimated potential of antonomasia. The authors come to the conclusion that the analyzed material testifies to the relevance of antonomasia in the online media discourse on political topics, and its significant impact on the reader’s perception of information.