A Linguistic-Pragmatic Study on Collocations in Business Media Discourse

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic-pragmatic characteristics of “conflict activity” (CA) collocations in English business media discourse through a lexical-semantic analysis. By examining a corpus of articles from prominent American business news outlets, we identified 426 collocations that constitute the CA lexical-semantic field. These collocations were scrutinized for their expressiveness, cultural markers, appellative function, and their role in conveying business realities. The research found that language in American business media discourse exhibits a blend of informative and expressive functions, prevalence of clichés, engagement techniques, culturally marked units, and a dominance of the appellative function. The study also highlighted how stylistic devices like metaphor, metonymy, antithesis, and hyperbole endow expressiveness to the core lexemes. Findings contribute to our understanding of the lexical-pragmatic characteristics of business media discourse and offer a nuanced insight into their role in shaping readers' perceptions and attitudes.