Peculiarities of Augmentatives in Modern Mass Media

The article analyzes lexical items, the augmentatives, that are used in the language of modern mass media; it is defined new lexical items and expansion of the sphere of their functioning in media materials on social and political and other subjects; it is defined the functional and stylistic role of augmentatives in the language of the press and negative assessment in publicistic materials.

The descriptive research method and observation method were used as main in studying augmentatives in the language of Ukrainian periodicals of the XXI century. At different stages of the research the method of functional analysis was used to determine the stylistic load of lexical items.

It is concluded that in the language of Ukrainian periodicals, the augmentatives are rarely used, unlike diminutives. They most often have a negative assessment function, representing neglect, condemnation, contempt, etc. Sometimes, with the help of augmentatives, they show the size of the object, phenomenon, or a living being that the author writes about. In general, the augmentatives give some expressive coloring to the text.