Functions of intertextuality in English press releases

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the implementation of the category of intertextuality in English press releases. Analyzing intertextual inclusions, it was found that their use increases the argumentation of the text. It was determined that in addition to performing their basic communicative and pragmatic functions (authoritative confirmation functions, functions of the object of critical consideration, illustrative and aesthetic functions), intertextual means are also used to create a figurative effect, thus perform a stylistic function. Performing the functions of informing and influencing, the media text widely uses citation to give credibility and expressiveness to the transmitted information. Based on the analyzed material, we distinguish three main pragmatic functions: substitution, illustration, and argumentation, which allows making the object of study both direct and indirect citations, which differ with a graphic sign of the presence or absence of quotation marks. It is believed that the main task of press releases is to inform. Quotations in the press release are characterized by communicative and pragmatic relevance and the importance of reference situations and phenomena. With the help of quotation inclusions, an interpretive outline of the event is created, which sets the vector of interpretation of what is happening. Thus, the ways of including quotations in the text, their logical and semantic connections with introductory words, author’s comments, and context indicate that quotations in the texts of the press release are designed not only to inform but also to influence, forming a certain attitude to reported information. The analysis of the practical material revealed a significant manipulative potential of the citation language, which is the possibility of its use to assess and interpret reality. The pragmatics of quotation language is not only the transmission of some factual information but also implicitly the author’s attitude to the information being reported.