International Journal of Philology

Functional and stylistic features of contemporary English

Nina Petrusenko, Iryna Soina
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Abstract

This study aimed to conduct a thorough study of functional and stylistic changes in English on the grounds of pragmatic adaptation of both official and journalistic discourse to the problems of digital globalisation. As the principal research method, a complex approach, involving the principles of a systemic functional analysis that provides for a full-blown discourse comparative analysis of the official and journalistic text, as well as a comparative linguistic study to distinguish different morphosyntactic types of expression, was used. The results revealed that the dominant trend in the development of English is the priority of interpersonal metafunction, which makes it possible to realise a synthetic personalisation even in official conservative texts due to an attempt to achieve some psychological contact with the interlocutor. The analysis of Apple’s official discourse pointed out that the main way to make it more legitimate is by using a lot of nominalisation and full-blown passive constructions that focus on technological results. In contrast, The Verge showed how to deconstruct the official narrative by using intensifiers as a way to increase the number of words that have strong evaluative content and a negative tone and by making the presentation more subjective. Examining a case from socio-political communication allowed us to identify the polarity that exists between the technocratic euphemisms and deagentivisation of the administrative process in the Home Office official discourse and the strategy of creating social anxiety in The Sun, realised through violent verbal metaphors of struggle and pronominal strategies of inclusion aimed at the emotional activation of recipients. The results obtained in this research confirm that English has become such a semiotic system that its pragmatic and emotional compatibility is valued higher than its grammatical correctness, due to intensifying the flow of information

Keywords

hybridisation; deformalisation; communication; legitimisation; systemic functional analysis; media resources

Suggested citation
Petrusenko, N., & Soina, I. (2026). Functional and stylistic features of contemporary English. International Journal of Philology, 17(1), 49-66. https://doi.org/10.31548/philolog/1.2026.49
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