Notional field for the conception of format in mass communication

Download paper
Tatyana I. Surikova

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Chair of Russian Language Stylistics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: surikova_t@mail.ru

Section: Media Language

Linguistic analysis of the semantic field of the “Format” notion, being the key one in communication of 1990-s–2000–s, demonstrates two differently directed tendencies of its use, conditioned by its actualization of the seme “standard”, “model for imitation”. The first one is an aspiration in the mass media theory for terminologization, definition of a meaning, imbedding in the conceptual row ”text – format – genre” and filling in the terminological lacuna. The other one is the definite erosion of the meaning and co-occurrence right up to the loss of any meaning, transformation into a normal fashionable word.  

Keywords: format, seme “standard”, fashionable word, semantic field, terminolоgization of a meaning