Precedence actualization in the journalism of Ivan Bagrianyi

Abstract

This article investigates precedence phenomena, which manifest different culturally significant information in the journalism language of Ivan Bagrianyi. The paper focuses on the fact that the writer’s journalistic works activate the cognitive basis through the intertextuality and precedence. Author’s journalism is based on the use of various precedent phenomena, which are stated as the bright markers and verbal sensory stimuli. Precedence phenomena are defined as the results of certain cognitive operations, specifically “packed” knowledge, serving as a means of encoding, transforming and interpreting relevant information. Their use within the proposed communication activates evokes the reader’s attention and encourages for appropriate logical operations that contribute to the correct decoding of the reduced content.

It also states that the writer applies graphic (quotation marks, ellipsis) and text (various comments preceded by represented text samples) precedence markers. Above mentioned marking is traced the example of headlines. It is determined that the citation of so called “foreign texts” has not only a pragmatic orientation, but also demonstrates the peculiarities of the linguistic personality, his aims, motives, intentions, and linguistic-cultural orientation. Due to these facts one can speak about the author’s belonging to the corresponding national community. This article also shows that the author uses mainly well-known, actively repeated intertextual samples, which form the basis for the further text production. They belong to the group of units with a high precedence degree. Moreover this paper reveals functional and pragmatic inspiration of precedent phenomena. The following features of precedent phenomena are represented, such as nominative-informative, persuasive, axiological, pragmatic, passive-identification, human, expressive-decorative, etc. The list of such functions is unlimited. In addition, one and the same sample illustrates the implementation of a number of functions, although, undoubtedly, one of them should be considered as the dominant one.