Lingvovisual pragmatics of pulled-out elements in English-language internet media texts

Nowadays the study of media text pragmatics is one of the research priorities in media linguistics. The pragmatic potential of a media text is actualized through the symbiosis of its verbal, nonverbal, and multimedia components, which are equally capable of having a powerful impact on mass consciousness. The article focuses on the linguovisual pragmatics of the so-called “pulled-out” elements in English-language Internet media texts, which have not been studied so far. A pulled-out element is a graphically emphasized construction within a media text, containing a very short summary of the topic covered in the article, or quotations with different references describing the position of the journalist, participants of the event or experts towards the topic, or containing additional information. Following their functional orientation and type of graphical display, the pulled-out elements are divided into three main types: callouts, pull quotes, block quotes. At the graphic level, all three types are represented by a font and font size different from the article itself; they are often located to the left or in the center of the article and can be highlighted with a colored background. The linguistic representation of the pulled-out elements is determined by their functional nature: a simple but pragmatically effective syntactic and semantic structure of the included sentences is used, in most cases implementing the “clickbait” principle. The type, content, and quantity of the pulled-out elements used depend on the genre specifics and linguistic properties of the media text. The pulled-out elements of the media text perform a number of functions, the main of which are informative, attractive, affective, integrative, and ideological. It is stated that the pulled-out elements, being an integral attribute of the modern media text and one of the ways of its creolization, effectively incorporate verbal and nonverbal (graphic) components to have a multi-layered pragmatic impact on the recipient. A comprehensive study of the nature of this phenomenon, regarding its actualization at the structural and semantic levels, is necessary and relevant for media linguistics at the present stage of its development.