Gender and paradygmatic lexical innovations specificity in English media discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of gender–paradigmatic specificity of lexical innovations in English media discourse. The analysis revealed that lexical innovations can enter into paradigmatic relations both with commonly used words and phrases and with lexical innovations themselves. Among lexical innovations that can enter into paradigmatic relations, the following categories were identified: synonyms among lexical innovations; synonyms among commonly used vocabulary; antonyms among lexical innovations; antonyms among commonly used vocabulary and homonyms among commonly used vocabulary. No homonyms among lexical innovations were found during the analysis. The greatest number of examples of paradigmatic relations of lexical innovations among English media texts are homonyms among commonly used words and phrases. It was found that the paradigmatic relations of lexical innovations are based on the formal or semantic similarity of words, that is, the relations of synonymy, antonymy and homonymy. An important element in the construction of gender differences was the opposition of "male" and "female" and the subordination of the feminine to the masculine phenomena. Most of the analyzed examples of gender related lexical innovations of the English–language media discourse contain a gender component both in the semantic structure and in the actual definition of the new word. According to the study, gender related lexical innovations indicate the stereotypical distribution of male and female roles in the family and career, and their semantics reflects changes in socio–cultural terms. The research material was based on electronic sources and selections of examples of media texts presented in the Internet resources such as: About words. A blog from Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster dictionary and Word Spy. The Word Lover’s Guide to New Words. The prospect of the study is to consider the specifics of lexical innovations in media English discourse in the aspect of translation in the future researches.