UDC

811.112.2’37(045)

Authors

Astakhova Tatyana Nikolaevna
Postgraduate Student, Institute of Philology and Cross-Cultural Communication, Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russia)

Abstract

Evidentiality and authority are communicative categories playing an important role in the organization of communication process. The article analyzes one of the types of evidential meanings – reportive – used in German mass media. The results of the investigation prove that the markers of reportive evidential meaning correspond with the markers of authority. The data obtained allow us to classify information sources mainly used in media texts dealing with politics and economics. Linguistic means simultaneously expressing evidentiality and authority raise the reliability of the information. However, we sometimes observe “distrust markers” in the nearest context; in this case we can conclude that the authority of the information source is unstable. In such a way mass media can either weaken or strengthen the authority of politicians, organizations and well-known persons.

Keywords

evidentiality, reportive meaning, German mass media, authority

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