LINGUOPRAGMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SATIRE AS ECHO METAREPRESENTATION IN BRITISH MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article defines linguopragmatic characteristics of satire as echo metarepresentations in British media discourse. The study characterizes the principle of satire creation by means of echo utterances and determines the main linguopragmatic means used in the formation of echo utterances. The research establishes that the most widely used linguopragmatic means of echo utterances formations are quotations, precedent related phenomena, precedent names in particular, repetitions and rhetorical questions. The research analyzes principles of the satirist’s dissociative attitude expression. The article establishes that satire is not aimed at explicit communication of the satirist’s intended meaning but its goal is to implicitly convey the author’s critical attitude towards a metarepresented idea. The dissociative attitude is realized by means of saturation, created by the satirist with the help of such linguo-stylistic means as emotive adjectives and adverbs, repetitions, words borrowed from other languages, precedent related phenomena, especially precedent names and stylistic inconsistency. These linguo-stylistic means not only express dissociative attitude towards the echo utterances, highlighting inconsistence between the existing and the ideal state of affairs but they also create comic effect of satire. Thus, the study concludes that satire is echo metarepresentation of the satirist’s dissociative attitude to the satirical target. Implicitly expressed dissociative attitude of the author to the satirical target is a necessary attribute of a satirical utterance and it is realised by highlighting the inconsistency between reality and expectations.