The Influence of the Mass Media on the Russian Prepositional System

Abstract

The media speech influence the prepositional system of the Russian language is considered. The prepositional combinations (PC) with the invariant ‘domination’ are analyzed (there are about 200 units in the Russian language). On the background of the survey characteristic of this group, the microgroup of prepositional combinations with the invariant ‘observation’ is subjected to analysis. It is formed on the basis of the basic components-nouns. Despite the different degrees of being preposition, all the PC of this group form directive-local opposition: под наблюдение кого/чего — под наблюдением кого/чего. On the example of PC with basic component прицел a morphosyntagmatic paradigm consisting of 13 units is revealed. The peculiarities of the text paradigm formed by the prepositional combinations with this base component are also considered. The functions of syntaxeme used with the null-form of the name in the media speech are identified. PC type под прицелом demonstrates wide compatibility with managed nouns, the extensive nominative field of which includes lexis, which has a tendency to move from subject names to attributive (под прицелом ракет — под прицелом любви). Wide compatibility of the word прицел is the catalyst of its movement towards the grammaticalization in the composition of the prepositional combination. According to the Russian National Corpus, it is revealed that the peaks of active use of PC with the basic component прицел appear 2–3 years after the socio-political cataclysms in Russia. The conclusion about the duality of the phenomenon of the popularity of prepositional combinations with the basic component прицел is made. This phenomenon objectively reflects today’s society with the utmost openness of person’s life; but it is one of the lingvotoxic tools cultivated in the media, which forms a militaristic model of reality in the mass consciousness, adding to the information space its own portion of aggression and fear.