Implementation of modality in the English-speaking media texts

Among the most important areas of modern linguistics, very well fit into the overall paradigm of modern linguistic studies. It presents a natural appeal to the text as the final product of the active speech activity of a person, the study of which is directly connected with the consideration of the text and text forming semantic categories. Including categories of personality, temporality, locality as actual signs of a coherent text is the category of modality.

The definition of modality (from the Latin. Modus - measure, method) introduced with regard to the logic of the judgment in the same matter, by Aristotle and further developed in the works of such researchers as I. Kant, then took in a classical philosophical system, and later found application in linguistics and mathematical logic. In logic, modality is seen as the most significant sign of judgment as forms of thought and is determined either as a category classifying judgments depending on the nature of the relationship between the subject of judgment and its signs, in other words depending on the character reflected in the content of judgments of objective relations, or as the degree of reliability of the contents of thought, a delivered judgment [8 p., 239].

Modality (from English. Modality) is defined as functional-semantic category which expresses the attitude of the speaker towards the content of the statements and the content of the utterance to reality [1, p. 2].

Modality is a relatively newer category of linguistics that reflects particular aspects of human thinking. Thoughts arise in the process of human mental activity, the result of the perception of the surrounding things and phenomena of the real world. Thinking, in turn, cannot occur without language, as language cannot be divorced from thinking, because language is the direct reality of thought.

A modal statement is characterized as "a complex statement that includes a suggestion and its modal characteristics and gives a rating included in his simple utterance or a describing situation, on a particular view"[6, p. 12].

Modality is one of the most complex linguistic categories, the nature, the composition of certain values and means of expression which a variety of opinions and conflicting points of view.

To the sphere of modality include: the juxtaposition of the statements on the nature of their communicative orientation (statement, question, motive); the opposition on the basis of "approval"- "rejection"; value changes in the range of "real" is "unreal"; a different degree of certainty in the reliability of the speaker emerging from him, the idea of reality; the various modifications of the connection between subject and predicate expressed by lexical means ("want", "may", etc).

The category of modality according to the complexity of the expression language has no equal. Study the specific means of expression of modality have been conducted for many decades in the framework of different linguistic schools and directions. In the words of Charles Bally, "Modality is the soul of the sentence; as thought, it is formed mainly as a result of active operation of the speaking subject". Developing this idea, Vladislav Panfilov says: "Modality is an obligatory, unavoidable quality of speech. The speaker may not arrange and address the statement without modal qualification" [5, c. 40].

A special place belongs to the theory of modality developed by academician Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov and developed further by his disciples. Subjective formed the beginning of the sentence modal words and particles, introduction cintamani that "...lexically expand the scope of the category of modality in the direction of expressing various logical and emotional-evaluative meanings and different stylistic qualifications of speech" [3, p. 53].

This provision of Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov leads to the conclusion that "extended" semantic scope of a modal assessments and qualifications about the famous term modal relations. Modal values entered in the proposal by the lexical method, called scientists "modal colors, shades of" forming a second layer of modal meanings in the semantic structure of the statements, because they are superimposed on grammar primer suggestions that already have a modal meaning – objective or subjective [7, c. 55].

Alexander Bondarenko considers modality as semantic field and includes a range of linguistic phenomena the communicative setting of the utterance, the category of service listener, and also notes the link with the "semantic-pragmatic field of quality and emotional evaluation", treating the assessment as the periphery of the modality. And although Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov warned of the need for separation of modal evaluation and the emotional, expressive values, this delimitation is difficult and sometimes artificially [2, p. 8].

The problem of modality and means of its expression has not received to date. Despite the large number of special studies devoted to the analysis of the category of modality in its grammatical entities (see the works of Igor Pavlovich Raspopova, Tatyana Borisovna Alisovoy, Martin Grepl), the subject of disputes and disagreements among linguists still remain issues such as the definition of the notion "modality", means of its expression in particular languages, the ratio of modality with other categories.

In modern conditions of development of information society special relevance, the study of discrete units of the media stream. Beyond doubt, the main unit is a media text, which allow to unite some diverse and multi-level concepts, like a newspaper article radio broadcast, TV news, Internet advertising and other products media.

Appearing in the 90-ies of XX century in the English literature, the term "media text" quickly spread in the international academic circles and in the national media discourse. Rapid consolidation of the concept of media text in scientific consciousness was due to a growing interest of researchers to study problems of media speech, the peculiarities of language in the sphere of mass communication.

Huge attention to this issue paid by such famous scientists as Teun Van Dyck, Martin Montgomery, Alan bell, Norman Faircloth, Robert Fauler, that considered the texts of mass media from the point of view of various schools and areas: sociolinguistics, functional stylistics, theory of discourse, content analysis, cognitive linguistics and rhetorical criticism. The attention of scientists was attracted to a wide range of issues: the definition of functional-stylistic status language, media, and ways of describing different types of media texts, and the impact on media speech socio-cultural factors, and linguistic and media technology exposure.

In Russia a significant contribution to the establishment and development of the theory of media text, as well as methods of study introduced by such scholars as S. I. Bernstein, D. N. Shmelev, V. G. Kostomarov, Y. V. Rozhdestvensky, G. Y. Solganik, S. I. Treskov, I. P. Lysakova, B. V. Krivenko, A. N. Vasileva. In the most complete form the concept of the media text as basic categories of medialinguistics was first formulated in the research of T. G. Dobrosklonska [4, p. 3].

As has been noted, the concept of media lies the organic combination of units of verbal and media series. This property of texts media emphasizes, in particular, many English authors, considering the media text as a set of verbal and media characteristics.

The well-known researcher of language media Alan bell in the book “Approaches to Media Discourse,” writes: “the Definition of media goes beyond the traditional view of text as a sequence of words, printed or written on the paper. The concept of a media text is much broader: it includes a voice quality music and sound effects, visual images – or as talk, media texts in fact, reflect the technology used for their production, and distribution". [8, p. 239].