ACTUALISATION OF THE UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT CONCEPT IN THE ВВС DISCOURSE

Abstract

At present, the theory of concepts is one of the leading in Ukrainian linguistics and attracts attention of many scientists. In particular, researchers study the representation of various concepts in Ukrainian and international mass medias. However, the UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT concept, which was actualised in 2014, is currently left out of the attention of scholars. The paper aims to describe the structure of the concept and the features of its language representation in reports of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), one of the most popular English news services in the world, for 2014–2018.
In the analysed BBC materials, the UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT concept clearly divides into such subconcepts as MILITARY CONFRONTATION AND FIGHT FOR TERRITORIES, ECONOMIC STANDOFF, MEDIA WAR (INFORMATION WAR), LANGUAGE WAR, STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS INDEPENDENCE. Each of them contains such semantic components as parties to the conflict, ways of interaction, agents of influence, objects of influence, negative consequences, locations and conflict resolution. All these elements are actualised through the set of lexemes that represent ontological (facts), axiological (values and ideological orientations) and expressive constituents, the combination of which allows journalists to form public opinion successfully.
The authors argue that in the language representation of the UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT concept BBC journalists remain quite restrained and try to avoid clear assessments. Nevertheless, due to mass medias striving for combining informational content with imagery and expressiveness, elements of emotional, evaluative and expressive connotation become apparent in some materials of the news service.