BIBLICAL PRECEDENT UNITS AS INTERTEXTUAL ELEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY MEDIA DISCOURSE

Modern media discourse is featured by a certain freedom of choice of linguistic means to express the author’s intention or to draw attention to the event covered. Globalisation of the information space initiates dynamic processes of image perception and reinterpretation of universal concepts under the conditions of intercultural communication. The article deals with the analysis of biblical precedent units as intertextual inclusions for linguistic expressiveness with a profound pragmatic component in the language of modern media and the Internet. The research is devoted to investigation ofbiblicism functioning specifics in media discourse which is considered a driving force of modern language. Correlations of global bible concepts in different linguistic communities are also considered. For contextual interpretation of biblical precedent units in modern media discourse the following methods were implemented: descriptive-comparative method, the method of continuous sampling, the method of contextual analysis, the method of interpretation. It was found that the rich internal form of the biblical concept increases the pragmatic potential of intertextual context, performing the following functions: expressiveness, philosophical reconsideration, symbolism, provocation, initiation of semantic association, and text quintessence. On the example of illustrative material, taken from a corpus of media — Russian, British, American periodicals and the information space of the Internet, it is shown that the main biblical meanings and concepts are universal in terms of associative chains, formed in the consciousness of the recipient. On this basis, the conclusion is made that some correlations exist between different forms of presentation of religious doctrine and their modern interpretation, which found expression in a certain connection of some concepts and evaluations. Refs 15.