Transboundary dynamics of the English-language military discourse during the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of the research is to characterise the transboundary dynamics of the English-language military discourse during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. The research is carried out involving the material of the publications of leading English-language news agencies devoted to the conduct of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. It is noted that the armed conflict, being a phenomenon covering all spheres of society, affects the language, which is not only the main means of communication for representatives of an ethnic group, but also a weapon that influences and manipulates public consciousness. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it is the first to analyse the impact of the armed conflict taking place today on the lexical structure of the English language. The paper identifies the main trends of changes in the lexical structure of the language during the transition of units of one discourse into the space of mass media discourse. It is the first time that modern mass media are considered as a kind of cross-discursive space in which lexical and phraseological units of the military discourse acquire new shades of meaning, allowing them to act as a weapon of influencing the consciousness of the mass audience. As a result of the research, it has been found that military terminology is being activated in mass media discourse, the semantics of words and phrases are changing, the vocabulary of World War II and the Cold War is being actualised, in addition, lexical and phraseological units of military slang are being introduced into media discourse.