VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL MEANS CONVEYING SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES OF UKRAINIANS IN ENGLISH MEDIA TEXTS

Abstract

As a result of English mass media texts analysis, the paper puts forward a nomenclature of verbal and non-verbal means used to convey socio-cultural values inherent in modern Ukrainian society. Based on the review of various approaches to defining the notion of sociocultural values, the authors offer a matrix generalising the content of this concept as it is considered within such fields of humanitarian knowledge as philosophy, ethics, psychology, sociology, and linguistics. The survey carried out among the residents of Ukraine, Great Britain, and the USA allowed identifying those socio-cultural values of Ukrainians, being most frequently presented in English media, namely: freedom, patriotism, yearning for peace, dignity, humanity, tolerance, responsibility for one’s own actions and deeds. The analysis of 118 fragments, selected out of 40 English mass media texts of various genres (interviews, news, articles, posts on social media, magazine covers, caricatures, graphic images, video materials), whose contexts actualise socio-cultural values of Ukrainians, enabled the authors to come up with the set of verbal and non-verbal means. The most frequent verbal means conveying the values, include specialised vocabulary, the use of nouns with negative connotations, comparisons, metaphors, and evaluative adjectives. Among the most recurrent non-verbal means there are visual components (graphic images representing the eye contact, facial expressions, mimicry, etc.), as well as the use of national colours, symbols, clothes, etc., which serve as a mode of broadcasting such Ukrainian values as patriotism, the power of will and spirit, yearning for peace and freedom, love for the family and Motherland, as well as freedom and unity of Ukrainians.