MECHANISMS OF CREATION AND FUNCTIONING OF CONTEXTUAL SYNONYMS IN NEWSPAPER TEXTS

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Published: 2026-04-14
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46281/bjmsr.v11i2.2853
Keywords:
Contextual Synonymy, Media Texts, Nominalisation, Metaphorisation, Periphrastic Nominations, Lexical Flexibility, Functional Commonality, Political Discourse

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Iryna Kazymir
Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, English Language Department, Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0230-4281
Nadia Yesypenko
Professor, Department of English, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6698-3201
Tetiana Mitrousova
Senior Lecturer, English Language Department, Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8961-9381
Yuliya Davydyuk
Associate Professor, Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies, Khmelnytskyi National University, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2819-7696
Olga Beshlei
Associate Professor, Department of English, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7127-0866

Abstract

Newspaper discourse is characterized by high lexical variability aimed at ensuring semantic precision, stylistic diversity, and expressive evaluation of events. However, the mechanisms through which contextual synonyms are formed and function across different topical domains remain insufficiently systematized, particularly in quantitative and discourse-oriented terms. The study investigates the dominant mechanisms of creating contextual synonyms in English-language newspaper texts and examines their functional differentiation in medical, sports, and political discourse. The empirical basis of the research consists of 304 newspaper articles, including 197 medical, 66 sports, and 41 political texts, selected from British mass-market and quality newspapers published between 2021 and 2024. The study employs contextual analysis to establish synonymy within specific micro-contexts, lexico-stylistic analysis to classify the principal lexical and stylistic mechanisms involved in the creation of contextual synonymy, and statistical analysis to quantify their distribution, using semantic, functional, and referential criteria for identification. The results reveal clear domain-specific patterns in the distribution of mechanisms of contextual synonymy. In medical media texts, nominalization is the most frequent mechanism (18%), followed by metaphorisation (15%) and metaphtonymisation (7%), while pronominalisation (10%) and numeralisation (8%) serve to generalize and structure statistical information. In sports discourse, nominalization is likewise dominant (20.8%), accompanied by metaphorisation (8.3%) and periphrastic expressions (8.3%), reflecting the need for precise yet expressive event representation. Political texts demonstrate a predominance of periphrastic nominations for political figures (18%), with negative or neutral political action nominations (15%), geographical terms (15%), and military-situation nominations (13%) forming a substantial share of contextual synonym usage. The findings indicate that contextual synonymy in newspaper discourse is organized through stable semantic–functional–referential overlap and realized through quantitatively differentiated lexical-stylistic mechanisms, with nominalization prevailing in medical and sports discourse and periphrastic nomination predominating in political discourse.


JEL Classification Codes: D83, L82, Z13, Z11.

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Article Details

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2026): Continuous Publication

Section

Research Paper/Theoretical Paper/Review Paper/Short Communication Paper
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Iryna Kazymir , Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, English Language Department, Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine

Iryna Kazymir is a Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer in the English Department of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University. Author of over 50 scientific works, 3 of which are educational in nature. She is the author of one individual monographic study. She has 3 scientific articles published in journals indexed in the international scientometric database Scopus. Scientific interests cover a wide range of linguistic, linguo-cognitive, and phraseological issues: cognitive linguistics and conceptual analysis, discourse analysis and media linguistics, phraseology and intertextuality, linguistic philosophy and methodology, lexical semantics, contextual synonymy, and conceptual metaphor/metonymy (metaphtonymy) in media texts.

Nadia Yesypenko , Professor, Department of English, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

Nadia Yesypenko is the Doctor of Philological Sciences, Full Professor, Department of English of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine. Author of over 101 scientific works, 17 of which are educational in nature. She is the author of one individual monographic study. She has 6 scientific articles in publications included in the international scientometric databases Scopus/Web of Science. Scientific interests cover a wide range of linguistic and linguo-cultural issues: English morphology and terminology; text analysis and individual author’s writing style; various methods of conceptual analysis of verbalized knowledge structures, such as frame analysis and profilization; cognitive/conceptual metaphors; cultural concepts and textualized concepts, allusive notions; iconicity in text.

Tetiana Mitrousova , Senior Lecturer, English Language Department, Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine

Tetiana Mitrousova, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior lecturer at the English Language Department, Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University. Author of over 100 scientific works, over 20 of which are academic and 4 are educational in nature. She is an author of an individual monograph study, of an international thesis and an article in the international scientometric database Scopus. Scientific interests cover a wide range of issues in linguistics, i.e., phonology, English phonostylistics, cultural linguistics, etymology and dialectology, language teaching methods.

Yuliya Davydyuk , Associate Professor, Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies, Khmelnytskyi National University, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine

Olga Beshlei is a PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Department of English, and a Ukrainian scholar specialising in discourse studies, framing, metaphor, media discourse, inclusion, visual literacy, and contemporary English-language communication. She holds a CELTA certificate and a PEIC C2 certificate. She is the author and co-author of 38 peer-reviewed articles published in Ukrainian and international academic venues, including 5 Scopus-indexed publications, and the co-author of 2 collective monographs published in English. Her research addresses political rhetoric, metaphor, framing, gendered media discourse, inclusion, AI-related discourse, war discourse, migration, and the representation of Ukrainian refugees in Western media. Olga Beshlei has participated in research projects at the university, national, and international levels. She has worked as a researcher in state-funded projects on inclusion in wartime and national resilience, led a young scholars’ grant on visual literacy in English language teaching, and headed the SmartTalk Teacher Training project on AI-based simulation training for future English teachers. She has also participated in the British Council and Ministry of Education of Ukraine initiative New Generation School Teacher and in eTwinning activities in Ukraine.

Her academic profile includes international fellowships, training programmes, and research placements in Germany, Lithuania, Romania, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Israel, and Ukraine, including Erasmus+ staff training weeks and the Digital Umbrella for Ukrainian Teachers programme at Ludwigsburg University of Education.

Olga Beshlei , Associate Professor, Department of English, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

Yuliya Davydyuk is a PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies of the Faculty of International Relations and Law, Khmelnytskyi National University. Author of over 35 scientific works. She is a member of the authorship team of 3 textbooks published in Ukraine. She has 2 scientific articles in publications included in the international scientometric databases Scopus/Web of Science. Scientific interests cover a wide range of philological studies: cognitive linguistics and poetics; stylistics; text linguistics; linguocognitive analysis of literary texts; translation of literary texts; literary studies; linguistic studies.

 

How to Cite

Kazymir , I. ., Yesypenko , N., Mitrousova , T. ., Davydyuk , Y. ., & Beshlei , O. . (2026). MECHANISMS OF CREATION AND FUNCTIONING OF CONTEXTUAL SYNONYMS IN NEWSPAPER TEXTS. Bangladesh Journal of Multidisciplinary Scientific Research, 11(2), 48-57. https://doi.org/10.46281/bjmsr.v11i2.2853
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