NEGATIVE PREFIXES IN THE LANGUAGE OF FINANCE: CAN THEY BE THOUGHT-SHAPING?

Abstract

Purpose. The article highlights the research aimed at assessing correlation between the frequency of negatively prefixed terms in financial discourse and the outlook of the speakers on their economy. The article opens with a historical reference, which briefly features the problems of Sapir-Whorf theory, its achievements and the stages of its development. Materials and methods. The authors turn to the description of the research procedure, which involved the study of financial texts, their statistic processing, work with respondents and analysis of their feedback. With the focus on the Russian language the study nonetheless employed English texts as its aims required a comparative study. Results. The discussion centres on the idea that the reasons of the pessimistic view of Russians on their economy may include a language factor, notably the abundant use of negatively prefixed terms. Practical implications. The authors are assured that the language conceals more phenomena nourishing Russian pessimism about the economy. The study has opened new language areas that can supposedly be viewed as pessimism shaping.

Keywords

• sapir-whorf hypothesis
• linguistic relativity
• language of finance
• negative prefixes