Euphemistic Headlines in Economic News Articles of German Newspaper ‘Die Tageszeitung’
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2023-12-6-190-211
Abstract
Analysis of Euphemized Headlines on Economic Issues from the German Electronic Publication ‘Die Tageszeitung’. The study examines articles from the period 2022 to 2023, as this timeframe coincided with heightened attention from German media towards events related to the energy crisis and economic problems. The relevance of this research lies in the fact that economic issues often give rise to the emergence of new euphemisms and euphemistic expressions. Based on criteria such as denotation of undesired referents and improvement of referent characterization, euphemized article headlines were identified. A total of 44 euphemistic expressions were selected using a comprehensive sampling method. The authors provide detailed commentary on each expression from the perspective of hedging techniques. A classification of euphemistic expressions in German-language journalistic discourse is proposed, encompassing five thematic groups: povertywealth, strikes, work, price increases, and inflation. It is noted that the group of headlines addressing inflation and price increases (particularly in relation to gas and electricity) is most susceptible to euphemization. The authors conclude that German journalists employ various euphemistic techniques in their headlines, including loanwords, compound words, wordplay, and others.
About the Authors
E. L. Shubina
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elvira L. Shubina - Doctor of Philology, Professor, Department of German Language.
Moscow
Ju. A. Raikova
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Julia A. Raikova - lecturer, Department of German Language.
Moscow
References
1. Apresyan, Yu. D. (1995). Selected works. Lexical semantics (synonymous means of language), 1. Moscow: Languages of Russian culture. 472 p. (In Russ.).
2. Berdova, N. M. (1981). Euphemisms in the modern German language. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. Kiev. 230 p. (In Russ.).
3. Chaporukhina, M. G. (2021). Euphemisms and dysphemisms in an online news article and comments on it. Political Linguistics, 1 (85): 95—102. DOI: 10.12345/1999-2629_2021_01_08. (In Russ.).
4. Kovshova, M. L. (2007). Semantics and pragmatics of euphemisms. Moscow: Gnosis. 320 p. ISBN 978-5-94244-015-2. (In Russ.).
5. Krysin, L. P. (1994). Euphemisms in modern Russian speech. Rusistika, 1,2: 28—49. (In Russ.).
6. Krysin, L. P. (2008). The Word in modern texts and dictionaries: Essays on Russian vocabu-lary and lexicography. Moscow: Znak. 320 p. ISBN 978-5-9551-0175-0. (In Russ.).
7. Lakoff, D. (1972). Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Jour-nal of philosophical logic, 2 (4): 458—508.
8. Nikitina, A. M. (2015). Euphemisms in teacher’s speech as a means of harmonizing pedagog-ical discourse. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. Moscow. 214 p. (In Russ.).
9. Nikitina, I. N. (2009). Euphemia in foreign and domestic linguistics: the history of the issue and the prospect of research. Bulletin of the V. N. Tatishchev Volga State University, 1: 49—64. (In Russ.).
10. Orlova, E. A. (2018). Euphemisms and dysphemisms in political texts of the British media. Proceedings of the IV International Scientific Conference. 133—136. (In Russ.).
11. Prince, E. F., Frader, J., Bosk, C. (1982). On hedging in physician-physician discourse. In: Linguistics and the professions, 8. Norwood / New Jersey: Albex Publishing Corpora-tion. 83—97.
12. Prudyvus, A. N. (2006). Euphemisms in modern German. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. St. Petersburg. 17 p. (In Russ.).
13. Rounds, P. (1982). Hedging in written academic discourse: precision and flexibility. Michigan: The University of MicXhigan. Mimeo. 78—84.
14. Sedova, A. V. (2022). Hedji in economic discourse (based on the material of the Swiss version of the German language). Philological sciences in MGIMO, 8 (2): 40—52. DOI: 10.24833/2410-2423-2022-2-31-40-52. (In Russ.).
15. Shubina, E. L. (2019). Hedge approximators as professional tools of German journalistic dis-course. The discourse of professional communication, 1 (1): 83—98. DOI: 10.24833/2687-0126-2019-1-1-83-98. (In Russ.).
16. Shubina, E. L., Sedova, A. V. (2021). Hedge Euphemisms as Tools of Economic Discourse. Nauchnyi dialog, 11: 183—200. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2021-11-183-200 (In Russ.).
17. Sidelnikova, E. A. (2017). Communicative-pragmatic and translation specifics of euphemization and dysphemization in newspaper-journalistic economic discourse: monograph. Stavropol: NCFU Publishing House. 176 p. ISBN 978-5-9296-0864-3. (In Russ.).
18. Solodilova, I. A., Sokolova, T. Y. (2017). Criteria for identifying euphemisms. Bulletin of Orenburg State University, 11 (211): 73—78. (In Russ.).
19. Vanyushina, N. A. (2009). The use of foreign words as euphemisms. Language, communica-tion and social environment, 7: 55—60. (In Russ.).
20. Zöllner, N. (1997). Der Euphemismus im alltäglichen und politischen Sprachgebrauch des Englischen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. S. 444. ISBN 9783631316535. (In Germ.).
Review
For citations:
Shubina E.L., Raikova J.A. Euphemistic Headlines in Economic News Articles of German Newspaper ‘Die Tageszeitung’. Nauchnyi dialog. 2023;12(6):190-211. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2023-12-6-190-211
Views:
362
Email this article 