WORD FORMATION OF WEATHER LEXIS IN THE ONLINE NARRATIVE OF WEATHER NEWS STORIES (ON THE MATERIAL OF BRITISH NEWSPAPERS)

Abstract

The aim of the investigation is to study word formation processes in the semantics of weather lexis in the online narrative of weathernews stories in British newspapers.

Methods. The source base of the study is represented by a corpus of electronic texts of the new genre “weather news story” in Britishelectronic quality (www.thetimes.co.uk, www.theguardian.com/uk) and mass (www.www.thesun.co.uk, www.thedailymail.co.uk) newspapers (2014–2017). The research is methodologically based on structural-semantic and functional research methods. Theapplication of a functional approach in our study enables the identification of the specifics of functioning and organization of lexicalunits in the contextual environment of the online narrative taking into account their role in the formation of content and meaningof weather news stories. At the same time, the use of descriptive and comparative methods allows revealing more deeply the individual(author) features of the texts under study.

Results. A review of the literature confirms the idea that the creation of new words is based on the models and word formationtypes that are already established in the language or re-emerging. The modern word formation of weather lexis in weather news storiesis characterized by typical methods of word formation, among which we distinguish the affixation, compounding, blending, shortening,and conversion. The common types of word formation in the genre under research are affixation and compounding. The most commonprefixes are prefixes with the contrasting semantics un-, anti-, de- and the diminutive prefix mini-, among the noun suffixes -ation,-er, -ism, ity, -ness and adjective suffixes y, -ly, -al, -ic, -ish, -ent, -ous. Both dictionary (normative) and occasional (author) forms are distinguished. The use of occasional forms serves as an expressive means of reflecting the author’s worldview, where the authordeliberately violates language norms to provide a certain expressive background to the story.

Conclusions. The analysis of word formation of weather lexis in weather news stories shows that its organization occurs throughthe prism of word formation features of the narrative and diversifies weather news stories.