The epithet in English‑language media discourse: Functional, semantic, and translation aspects

Background. The relevance of this research is driven by the growing influence of media in creating public consciousness, where linguistic devices such as epithets are not only literary devices but also tools in shaping the masses. An integrated approach to categorizing and functioning in the work of epithets in media texts facilitates the better comprehension of their work in building meaning, emotional associations, and manipulation. The article also takes into account translation strategies of preserving semantic, emotional, and pragmatic equivalence when translating English-language mass media text epithets into Russian through strategies such as modulation, calquing, grammatical substitution, explication, and antonymic translation.

Purpose – analysis of types of epithets and their functioning in English-language media and identification of the peculiarities of their translation into Russian.

Materials and methods. The study is based on material published in 2024–2025 in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Economist, and other publications, as well as their translations published on the InoSMI portal. Based on contextual, component, and comparative analysis, as well as statistical methods, the main types of English-language epithets and translation techniques for their rendering into Russian have been identified.  

Results. It has been revealed that epithets not only perform emotional, evaluative, and expressive functions, but also become a tool for shaping media images and exerting semantic influence on the mass audience. Successful translation of epithets in media texts requires a strategy aimed at functional equivalence rather than formal correspondence.  The translation of epithets in the media is a strategic operation to reconfigure the evaluative architecture of the text, which is necessary for adequate intercultural media dialogue.