ON THE SECONDARY EXPRESSIVIZATION OF SOME PERIPHRASES REFERRING TO WOMEN IN RUSSIAN MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

The study is focused on figurative periphrases which refer to women in Russian print media. The starting point for the discussion is the notion that the conventional periphrases are an important part of the phraseological fund of a language and the examination of their functioning in discourse can reveal some salient features of contemporary value system. In newspaper articles, the conventional periphrases referring to women tend to be used in a polemical or ironical type of context. In such cases the effect of secondary expressivization is observed, which shows the speaker's attitude to traditional gender stereotypes reflected in language. When applied to the units under consideration, the rhetorical devices of negation, oxymoron, аntithesis and wordplay enable the journalists to challenge the established mental models and address some gendersensitive social issues.