HUMANITARIAN RESEARCHES

Journal of fundamental and applied researches

Simile in English-speaking publicistic writings: peculiarities of functioning

2022. №1, pp. 36-40

Belova Ekaterina E. - Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, belova_katerina@inbox.ru

Arkhipova Maria V. - Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, arhipovnn@yandex.ru

Parshina Xenia V. - English language teacher, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, kseniabarabashova666@gmail.com

The publicistic style is widely applied in various spheres of social life and services a wide variety of public relations (political, economic, cultural, moral and ethic, religious). The newspaper reflects the modern level of language development, and various expressive and descriptive means are used in English mass media articles. The current research provides analysis into the expressive means used in the English-speaking newspapers The Daily Mail, The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, Daily News, BBC News, Los Angeles Times, Esquire and The Washington Post , with a view to distinguishing a simile and studying its use and functioning in publicistic texts. The article covers the issues of simile classification and simile use functions. Based on the structural approach similes are classified into simple and sustained ones. According to the content similes are classified into trite and genuine. Similes can fulfill the following functions in the text: image-creating, evaluative, expressive and super-organizing functions. The study and illustrative material confirm that the exposition of the author’s mind and the attitude to the events in the publicistic style is unfeasible without a simile.

Key words: English, publicistic style, simile, trope, mass media language, functions of similes

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