MEDIA NARRATIVE / GRAND NARRATIVE: ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article examines the main characteristics of the debatable categories of contemporary linguistics, namely the media narrative and the grand narrative. Particular emphasis is placed on the definitional content of these contested concepts, viewed through the prism of innovative linguistic approaches, including media linguistics, legal linguistics, linguistic image studies, and cognitive linguistics. The study analyzes the principal approaches to interpreting narrative as a discursive objectifier of media meanings and identifies its logical-structural as well as communicative-stylistic parameters. Using media phraseological units as retransmitters of media narrativity, the article demonstrates their effectiveness within information flows, often achieved through the combination of real and unreal facts embedded in precedent expressions. Phraseology frequently participates in the creation of narrative messages and, in some cases, itself becomes a separate narrative that is actualized and widely disseminated by the media. Narrativity expressed through media phraseological units enters a hierarchy of connections ranging from dominant (basic) to partial (local), which in Ukrainian-language communication constitutes a segment of strategic information communications oriented toward both domestic and foreign recipients. Special attention is paid to the functioning of grand narratives in the media space, their role in shaping collective perceptions, value orientations, and social meanings. It is demonstrated that the media narrative serves as a tool for the conceptualization of social reality, whereas the grand narrative functions as a model integrating individual narrative constructs into a coherent worldview system. The article also outlines prospects for further research into narrativity in the digital media environment and the integrality of linguistic knowledge within the broader humanities.