Representation of the concept СВІТЛО in Ukrainian mass media headlines (2022–2026)

Alyona Palash, PhD in Philology, Junior Researcher at the Department of Stylistics, Culture of the Language, and Sociolinguistics
Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
4 Mykhailo Hrushevskyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine

E-mail: palash706@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5283-9906

Heading: Articles
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: The article provides a comprehensive linguostylistic analysis of the representation of the linguocultural concept СВІТЛО within the headline complex of Ukrainian mass media during the synchronous period of 2022–2026. The relevance of the study stems from radical shifts in the linguistic consciousness of Ukrainian society under the impact of wartime catalysts and energy terror, which deconstructs standard everyday lexemes from a purely denotative plane into multi-layered existential symbols of resistance. Consequently, the empirical data reveals an intensive semantic diffusion, through which the baseline denotative meaning of the analyzed unit is entirely substituted by the pragmatic feature of sustaining vital functions and national sovereignty. The paper substantiates two dominant differential semes of the energy crisis era, which are existential deficiency and security vulnerability.

It is proven that the evolution of the concept within strong text positions is determined by five fundamental factors, including lexico-semantic and stylistic diffusion under military threats, manifesting as the integration of technical energy terminology into the military context, alongside discursive opposition and the formation of a stable evaluative pseudo-antonymy between light and darkness. A significant role is played by pragmastylistic axiologization, which shifts infrastructure nominations into a convergence point of private experience and nation-wide solidarity. Furthermore, other key factors involve instrumentalization and frequency regularity within the digital pragmatics of service media formats, as well as intertextual actualization and archetypal connotation of precedent signs.

The study finds that the reflection of wartime everyday reality in paratextual structures is deployed through a triad of interconnected stylistic strategies, such as metaphorization and personification, which endow light with the subjectivity of a defending warrior, quantification, based on numerical and volume intensification of messages to capture the scale of crisis phenomena, and colloquialization, which minimizes the communicative gap with the audience via elliptical models and conversational derivatives.

Special attention is paid to the binary opposition  світло – темрява, which strips off its purely natural-philosophical content and transforms into a fundamental marker of the lingual construction of security and civilizational identity based on the “свій / чужий” axiological matrix. Under such conditions, the presence of light is conceptualized as a sign of ethical resilience, sovereignty, and civilizational choice, whereas the opposing member of the binary structure indexes the anthropological regression of the aggressor. The paper also identifies recent synchronous superstructures of the concept, namely its institutionalization within the security counter-discourse countering disinformation based on the truth / fake model and its functioning in the economic-pragmatic financial and grant block, indicating the profound discursive hybridity of the wartime paratext.

Keywords: concept СВІТЛО, media discourse, headline, paratextuality, semantic diffusion, binary opposition, pragmatic transformation, military narrative.

REFERENCES
Bybyk, S. (2024). Mixing Cyrillic and Latin alphabets in media texts: Problems of style, graphics and spelling. Linguistic Bulletin, 36, 158–165 (in Ukrainian).
Datsyshyn, Kh. (2021). Modern news headline in Ukrainian online media: between clickbait and informativeness. Bulletin of the National University “Lviv Polytechnic”: journalism, 2 (2), 76–82 (in Ukrainian).
Evhrafova, A. (2003). Headline as an actualizer of textual information. Style and text: collection of scientific articles, 4, 141–147. Retrieved May 18, 2026 from https://surl.li/skbjcn (in Ukrainian).
Holota, T. (2023). Manipulative messages in the headlines of news internet resources. Ukrainian linguistics, 1 (53), 135–148 (in Ukrainian).
Ivaniukha, T., & Shevchenko, V. (2025). Current trends in culture mediatization in Ukrainian online media. State and Regions. Series: Social Communications, 1, 18–25 (in Ukrainian).
Kots, T. (2023). To the problem of interaction of religious and journalistic styles of the Ukrainian literary language. Culture of the word, 98, 96–107. https://doi.org/10.37919/0201-419X-2023.98.8 (in Ukrainian).
Navalna, M.I. (2011). Dynamics of the lexicon of Ukrainian periodicals of the beginning of the XXI century: monograph. Kyiv: Vydavnychyi dim Dmytra Buraho (in Ukrainian).
Petrenko, A.S. (2021). Precedent phenomena in the headlines of modern mass media: sources, structure, reception. [Dis. … PhD]. Kyiv: Instytut ukrainskoi movy NAN Ukrainy (in Ukrainian).
Shulska, N.M., & Zinchuk, R.S. (2021). Communicative and functional potential of headlines in the language of modern media. Academic Notes of the V.I. Vernadsky Tavrichesky National University. Series: Philology. Journalism, 32 (71), 220–225 (in Ukrainian).
Shumarova, N.P., & Marynenko, I.O. (2026). Sound vocabulary of the news text (based on online media texts). Academic Notes of the V.I. Vernadsky Tavrichesky National University. Series: Philology. Journalism, 37 (76), 70–76 (in Ukrainian).
Siuta, H.M. (2017). Text as an Object of Cognition and a Central Concept of Reception Aesthetics and Poetics. Ukrainian language, 3 (63), 64–76. https://doi.org/10.15407/ukrmova2017.03.064 (in Ukrainian).
Siuta, H.M. (2026). Linguistic consciousness and linguistic identity of Ukrainians: problems and paradoxes of transformation during the war. Ukrainian language, 1 (97), 92–105. https://doi.org/10.15407/ukrmova2026.01.092 (in Ukrainian).
Solodka, L.I. (2009). Transformed phraseological units in newspaper headlines. Bulletin of Cherkasy University. Series: Philological Sciences, 140, 145–150 (in Ukrainian).
Styshov, O.A. (2003). Dynamic processes in the lexical-semantic system and in the word-formation of the Ukrainian language of the late XX century (based on the language of mass media) [Aftoreferat … of Doctor`s Philol. Sciences]. Kyiv: Instytut movoznavstva im. O.O. Potebni NAN Ukrainy (in Ukrainian).
Suska, O.O. (2006). The development of information-communicative theories of mass media and study of the influence of information space on a person’s personality. Word. Symbol. Text (рр. 211–226) (in Ukrainian).
Syzonov, D.Yu. (2024). Media phraseology in the information space of modern Ukraine: a linguistic-stylistic and communicative-functional resource. [Dis.  … of Doctor`s Philol. Sciences]. Kyiv: Kyivskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni Tarasa Shevchenka (in Ukrainian).
Yuldasheva, L.P. (2016). Headline as a textual and metatextual component. Science and Education a New Dimension. Philology, IV (21), Issue 98, 56–59 (in Ukrainian).
Zavalniuk, I. (2023). Syntactic units in the language of domestic mass media of the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war: renewal of content and structure. Scientific notes of the Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University. Series: Philology (linguistics), 37, 120–130 (in Ukrainian).

Received 04.04.2026   Revised 26.05.2026   Accepted 00.00.2026