Images of Crimean and Scottish referendums (on the material of British and Russian media)

The article analyzes the linguistic means of representation of the Crimean and Scottish referendums in 2014 on the material of British and Russian media, reveals and compares the characteristics of these images with the help of discourse analysis. The image of the Crimean referendum in British media is formed by the units of language, including metaphors and idioms, that express negative normative and ethical estimation, as well as by antithesis. As a result, British media create the negative image of the Crimean referendum, which is described as an illegal political act initiated by Russia - an aggressive state led by the president, who has annexationist ambitions. The image of the Scottish referendum in Russian media is formed by the metaphors with the general meaning of destruction, pernicious force and divorce, as well as by military metaphors, idioms and words of specific lexical sets. The Scottish referendum is described in Russian media as an event fraught with fatal consequences in economical, political and cultural sectors of Britain, which aggravated the dissent in the British society and produced contradictory reactions of the citizens and politics of Great Britain and Western countries.