Specificity of euphemistic lexis in media discourse on the example of Russian press from 2017-2021

This article investigates the issue of euphemistic lexicon used in Russian periodicals of the early 21st century. The purpose of the study is to analyse the functional features of euphemisms, the specifics of their use in media discourse, and to determine their role in the manipulation of public opinion. The material of the study consisted of texts in modern Russian socio-political periodicals. Examples of euphemistic units from the newspaper sub-corpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language are used as illustrative material. The manipulative potential of euphemisms is manifested in masking the true meaning of the message by creating a neutral or positive connotation, distorting the real scale of events or phenomena. Publicistic discourse is a source of information for a wide audience, which strengthens the influential role of euphemistic lexicon. The central focus of the study is to identify priority topics belonging to the socio-political sphere that are subject to euphemisation in the modern Russian press. There is an indication of an increase in the number of euphemisms related to socially significant topics and spheres of human activity in the journalistic discourse. The characteristic feature of this group is its close connection with socio-cultural processes. The repeated use of euphemism weakens its key function and stimulates the formation of new euphemistic units. The use of some euphemisms in publicistic discourse is dictated by the norms of political correctness in modern communication. The results of the study presented in the article indicate a fairly wide use of euphemisms in the language of the modern Russian press.