Pronouns as “fine details”: building implicit dialogue with audiences

Abstract

The article examines the issue of textual actualization of pronouns in Russian-language media discourse of Belarusian media. Focus centers on identifying and describing the pragmatic potential of specific pronouns, mechanisms, and patterns of their pragmatically conditioned functioning in media texts—in relation to, on one hand, text-forming means and textual categories, and on the other, pragmatic rules and conditions of pronoun usage by journalists as media text authors. Pronominal units, as key components of media text dynamic structure, are analyzed as means of constructing semantic dialogue with the audience, performing journalists' professional procedures, and enacting professional speech acts. The study demonstrates that pronouns can be employed by journalists in media texts as connotatively marked units enhancing the pragmatic force of utterances – their impact on the audience. Dependence of pronoun pragmatic potential realization on functional-typological text parameters and socio-ideological norms of media discourse is traced. Selectivity of pronominal lexicon toward the intentional setup of the text or its fragment is noted. Text analysis reveals correlations between predominant information types in media texts (factual, primary, normative, evaluative) and journalist-selected pronominal words, such as those with generalized or indefinite reference. The conclusion posits that pronouns as speech units in media discourse acquire a specific pragmatic paradigm formed by a system of pragmatic increments, which mostly exhibit regularity and thus can be “computed.” Pragmatic actualization of pronominal words serves as a means of shaping content-conceptual information and the overall pragmatic stance of media texts.