Poštapalice u jeziku sredstava javnoga priopćavanja
Catchphrases in the language of the media

Summary/Abstract: Media communication has been the subject of various scientific and professional analyses, first and foremost due to the influence it has on the society and on individuals. Aside from the content of the message, which has recently been in the focus of communication and media experts’ attention, linguists are particularly interested in its linguistic aspect at all its normative levels: from the level of correct spelling and pronunciation to the level of grammar and style. Although there are no real or standardized media communication rules, media communication is expected to use the standard language. The standard language is therefore the language sui generis, a sort of a super variety “that is considered by the speakers to be the most appropriate choice of language in official communication (Trask, 2005), which media communication most certainly is. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) due to the specificity of their profession, media officials communicate with speakers of different language varieties and the standard language serves as a kind of cohesion element, and (2) media discourse has great influence on linguistic consciousness, particularly on the language culture of the members of a particular linguistic community. Since it is a part of public communication, media language should possess qualities of choice and high style, which as a rule excludes the use of catchphrases. They are a signature of poor rhetoric style and frequently serve as “ancillary words in live speech” (Vrljić, 2007). Catchphrases are unnecessary at both semantic and syntactic levels; they carry no meaning or content and therefore their use can have a detrimental effect on both the expressive and impressive levels of the message. The organization of speech units is hindered by the usage of catchphrases and their excessive use can cause fatigue in the listener and the incorrect receival of the message.

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