Levels and techniques of wordplay in headlines in English-language medical media discourse

The purpose of the study is to identify the levels of organization and pragmatic potential of wordplay in headlines in English-language medical media discourse. The scientific novelty lies in systematizing and describing wordplay techniques at different levels of the language system, as well as in examining a type of discourse that has received little attention in linguistics. The study identifies mechanisms through which shifts in meaning, transformations of formulaic expressions, sound associations, and the activation of a word’s inner form create additional interpretive layers involving choice, uncertainty, evaluation, and comparison in discussions of medical issues. Wordplay is found to occur predominantly at the lexical-semantic and intertextual levels, while phonetic and word-formation techniques – which affect the form of the linguistic sign – are less common. The findings show that wordplay in medical media headlines helps adapt specialized medical knowledge to the demands of mass communication by attracting readers’ attention and guiding their interpretation of medical issues. Its use is constrained by the requirements of medical communication for terminological precision and clarity of content. These findings refine our understanding of wordplay in headlines as a significant feature of contemporary medical media communication.