LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONSTRUCT “EVALUATIVE JUDGEMENT OF A JOURNALIST” IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE - Lexicogrammatical and stylistic means for journalistic materials

Oct 15, 2026

The article outlines linguistic features of the construct “evaluative judgement” as a new phenomenon for Ukrainian journalistic practice. Through analysis of its structural elements, the author describes lexicogrammatical and stylistic devices that realize evaluative stances in media discourse. Evaluations are argued to rest on factual information combined with knowledge, experience, journalistic standards, and open-source data. The study also identifies tense/voice choices, impersonal constructions, complex attributive groups, and complex sentences, alongside expressive figures and markers of probability. The results can support journalism education and media professionals’ competence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Evaluative judgement in journalism and law

Distinction criteria between evaluative judgements and facts

Prior research and scholarly background

LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONSTRUCT “EVALUATIVE JUDGEMENT OF A JOURNALIST” IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE Zoriana Haladzhun Lviv Polytechnic Nationality University, Lviv, Ukraine [galadzhyn_zoryana@ukr.net](galadzhyn_zoryana@ukr.net) The article outlines lingual features of the “evaluative judgement” construct, being new for the Ukrainian journalistic practices. By means of analysing the structural elements of this construct, the author defines its linguistic features as well as comes up with lexicogrammatical and stylistic means representing the “evaluative judgement” construct in journalistic materials. Considering the data from practical journalistic activities, the author presumes that evaluative judgements of a journalist are based on factual information and manifest themselves via vast linguistic means corpus, being much broader than the lawmaker has defined it. In the context of the problem, the paper suggests to view “the evaluative judgement of a journalist” as his/her subjective point of view, opinion on a certain subject, personal assessment of facts or events on the grounds of knowledge, experience, journalistic standards, and information obtained from open sources, based on factual information that can be introduced into media content with the help of linguostylistic means. As exemplified by media content, the author comes up with the conclusion that apart from using such linguistic means as hyperbole, allegory, satire, which are defined by the law, as well as patterns that express evaluation or uncertainty, emphasising information probability (for example, it seems to me, in my opinion, I think, etc.), the construct under analysis also manifests itself through the use of particular tense and voice forms, impersonal constructions, complex attributive groups, complex sentences, etc. The author suggests applying the obtained results to form professional competence of both students of journalism departments and creative mass media specialists in order to ensure secure implementation of their duty to inform. Keywords: evaluative judgment; the journalist; expressive means; stylistic means. Introduction The subject-matter of the journalistic profession has changed considerably with the shift of the society from industrial to information type. If earlier the main objective of creative media workers was to record facts of reality as well as spread propaganda and idealise regime of the time, these days a journalist is considered to be both an active participant of democratic process and a co-author of media landscape. This led to the change of the scope of this profession, so it acquired a holistic character. Continuous rivalry of two constitutional rights, that is the right to freedom of speech and the right to the respect of person’s honour, dignity and business reputation, is the reason for law actions against journalists. Moreover, in the past of Ukraine, this was also the means of cessation of mass media activity, because they couldn’t compete with the state machine, while a decisional law of the European Court of Human Rights was scarcely applied. As of today, the situation is much better, though there is still some formalism in the way Ukrainian courts deal with this issue. Journalists often find it difficult to prove that the material or its part is an evaluative judgement rather than factual information. As far as the issue of evaluative judgements is related both to journalism and law, Ukrainian legal scholars write not much on this topic. However, a legal scholar, Luapenyk (2003), made first attempts to single out distinction criteria between evaluative judgements and factual data so that the judges could use them in practice. Later on, these criteria were specified and became more precise in the research done by Mozharovs’ka (2014) . As for journalism scholars, they write practically nothing on this topic. Practising journalists are really interested in this question, yet they don’t have enou

FAQs

What does the article define as the “evaluative judgement of a journalist”?

It presents it as the journalist’s subjective viewpoint and personal assessment of facts or events based on knowledge, experience, journalistic standards, and information obtained from open sources.

Which linguistic devices are identified as expressing evaluative judgements?

The article lists expressive and stylistic means such as hyperbole, allegory, and satire, as well as forms that express evaluation or uncertainty and probability, plus tense/voice forms, impersonal constructions, complex attributive groups, and complex sentences.

Why is proving evaluative judgement difficult in Ukrainian court practice?

Journalists often struggle to demonstrate that the material, or part of it, is an evaluative judgement rather than factual information.

Oct 15, 2026

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