The Dictionary of Political Terms in the Media as a new lexicographical product

The article introduces to the academic community a new dictionary of political terms created on the basis of materials of the Russian mass media of the 21st century. The aim of the work is to explain the concept of the dictionary that fixes not the normative, but the actual meaning of political terminology in the media discourse of our time. The structure of the entry is described by the example of the entry OLIGARCHY; the analysis of the practical lexicography results is made. The entry consists of sections that describe the conceptual, figurative and evaluative layers of the political concept represented by the term "oligarchy", it also contains an illustrative material. Such a structure of the entry allows analyzing the definitions of the term offered in mass-media, presenting information of encyclopaedic character, which undoubtedly has a linguo-cultural specific character, determining a circle of concepts that are associatively connected with the analyzed term. The analysis of metaphorical compatibility of the term representing the political concept in the Russian mass-media establishes a set of images the political concept correlates with in the language consciousness, determines the attitude of mass-media representatives to it, shows its assessment. The material presented in the entry "Oligarchy" conclusively shows that besides traditional conceptual attributes "political and economic domination of a small group of persons", "possession of a significant capital", the attribute "dishonest enrichment by non-market methods", which appeared at the end of the 20th century, is preserved, and its stronger modification "dose connection with crime" appears, a new attribute "permissiveness and indifference to the destiny of the population" is staticized, the conceptual attribute "shadow influence on the state policy", characteristic for the 1990s, is reduced. Metaphorical representations in mass-media discourse create quite a negative image of oligarchy as a certain subject or object impeding the normal functioning of society. It may be an aggressive creature that has outraged people, that has them by the throat or steps on them with its iron foot, an octopus that has clasped the country in its feelers, a weed that has taken roots in the Russian ground, a grave disease. The negative assessment of oligarchy by the Russian mass-media is traced not only in metaphors, but also in direct assessment, in particular, in a lot of contexts such conceptual attributes of oligarchy as "universal evil" and "condemnation" are key ones. Thus, the research has shown specific features in the functioning of political terminology in the Russian mass media of the 21st century that are expressed in the transformation of the semantics of terms, in the updating of their conceptual content and in the change in the assessment of corresponding concepts by mass-media representatives.

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