Functioning of Multimodal Stylistic Means in the Modern English-Language Mass Media Communicative Space

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of one class of word play in the modern English-language mass media. Non-standard techniques of material presentation are common for the English-language media communication space. Thanks to the strikethroughs and colors manipulations one fragment can be read in several ways. The material gives grounds to claim that there are linear and non-linear strikethroughs, which are realized at the level of graphemes, lexemes, word combinations and sentences. It has been established that the strikethroughs serve as a mode that expands or narrows the original meaning of the text fragment. In the process of analysis a number of strategies and tactics common for modern English-language mass media communicative space have been identified: the strategy of partial crossing out of the horizontal straight part of the lexeme (tactics of double reading information with antonymous content); strategy of intentional strikeout-correction and insertions (tactics of double reading of information with additional content); strategy of partial crossing out of a sentence by a horizontal line (tactics of double reading of the information with a possibility of personal deciphering); the strategy of partial strikethrough of the sentence with a horizontal line with emphasis on the most important part (tactics of double reading of information with duplication of content); the strategy of partial crossing out of a sentence by a horizontal line with a deliberate change of semantics (tactics of double reading of information with denial of negative connotations); strategy of intentional cross-crossing corrections and insertions (tactics of double reading of information with change of semantics of the crossed out lexeme); strategy of layering a number of arbitrary strikeouts (tactics of double reading with antonymous meaning due to a strikeout of one lexeme or its part); the strategy of partial step-by-step crossing with uneven lines (tactics of double reading of information with an emphasis on positive aspects); the strategy of crossing out graphemes, crossing lines that duplicate the semantics of a lexeme or a sentence (tactics of double reading information with an emphasis on prohibition); strategy of crossing out a lexeme, crossed lines that exclude assumptions (tactics of double reading of information with an emphasis on doubts avoidance).