What type of study is this?

This is a Continuous Sampling study (also classified as: Discourse Analysis, Corpus Analysis, Dictionary Definitions Analysis, Semantic Analysis, Linguocultural Text Analysis).

September 10, 2025Open Access

Peculiarities of the Use of Zoonyms in Russian and British News Discourses

Key Points

Zoonym use plays a significant role in enhancing the attractiveness of news texts in both cultures.
Using a corpus analysis method, Russian news often features zoonyms linked to proverbs, while British use is metaphorical.
The study employs discourse analysis to examine how zoonyms function within news contexts to convey socio-political meanings.
Findings suggest that despite their rarity, zoonyms maintain high relevance for pragmatic and aesthetic effects in news language.

Abstract

The subject of this article is the linguocultural features of the use of a separate class of onomastic units - zoonyms - in the context of modern Russian and British news discourses. The use of zoonyms in socio-political and journalistic texts of a news focus is aimed at increasing the attractive potential of the news text (especially when used in the title or announcement of the article) for a potential reader, as well as the aesthetic, pragmatic and implicit content of the material in question. The work describes and analyzes headlines, news briefs and elements of full-text articles of Russian (RIA Novosti, RBC, TASS, Gazeta.ru) and British (Times, Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Observer, Daily Mail) news publishers. The work used the methods of continuous sampling for selecting news discourse texts; the method of discourse analysis for studying textual material; the method of corpus analysis for automated extraction of zoonymous units; method of dictionary definitions analysis, method of semantic analysis of zoonym lexemes; method of linguocultural text analysis to identify ethnospecific parameters of zoonym functioning in Russian and British news discourse. The aim of the article is to identify and describe linguocultural features of zoonym use in modern Russian and British news discourse. The scientific novelty of the study lies in comparing the features of zoonym use as a separate type of onomastic units in the texts of modern Russian and British news discourse. The study found that, despite the relative rarity of zoonym use in modern news texts, their role in implementing the attractive and pragmatic function remains consistently high. In Russian news discourse, one can note the high frequency of using zoonyms in the context of paremiological units (proverbs, sayings, phraseological locution), while for modern British news discourse, it is typical to use zoonyms as metaphorical nominees of various actors of political discourse, as well as to form the image of political figures or political movements.

Peculiarities of the Use of Zoonyms in Russian and British News Discourses

Key Points

Abstract

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