Feminitives in the Mass Media Texts as the Gender Marker of Authorship (on the Example of the Author’s Column of the Deutsche Welle Project)

The purpose of the study is to identify and characterize feminitives in the mass media texts as the gender marker of authorship on the example of the «Author’s column» of the «Deutsche Welle» project for the period from June 3, 2019 to July 1, 2021. Research methodology. In the course of the research a set of methods was used, in particular: analysis and synthesis – to determine the range of scholars and their publications on word-formation of feminitives both in the historical aspect and at the present stage; work with documentary sources and monitoring – to identify feminitives in publications; descriptive method – to characterize the peculiarities of the use of feminitives and their implementation by writers – participants of the «Deutsche Welle» project; comparative method – to determine the productive word-forming models by which feminitives are formed; grouping and systematization – to reflect the trends of embodiment in the author’s texts of the linguistic worldview with the help of feminitives; generalization – to formulate conclusions on the use of feminitives and their implementation as a gender marker of authorship. Results. Word-formation and the use of feminitives have repeatedly been the subject of scientific research, but today we are witnessing a significant transformation of the Ukrainian language (the emergence of a large number of borrowings, re-actualization of obsolete word*s, introduction of dialectisms in the standard language, etc.), and among other things  – the activation of innovative feminitives as a need of the modern world. Since this phenomenon is just beginning to gain momentum, it does not yet have a deep thorough understanding. In the studied texts, we most often come across stylistically neutral feminitives with suffixes -к-а, -иц-я, -ин-я. Usually, these are the names of females by profession, by type of activity, by place of residence. Of particular interest is the practice of using feminitives in the plural with a clear distinction between males and females. Cognitive-connotative characteristics of feminitives in the author’s columns of the «Deutsche Welle» depend both on the gender of the author (men usually use stylistically neutral words) and on the individual style of the authors, as well as on the subject of the post and relevance (topicality and acuteness) of the topic for themselves. Novelty. The article on the material of the author’s columns of the «Deutsche Welle» project describes the features of the use of feminitives in the language of mass media. The article analyses and describes the innovations for the designation of females, in particular as a gender marker of authorship, etc. Practical significance. The study of the functionality of feminine vocabulary in media texts makes it possible to determine the main achievements of the modern Ukrainian language, to find out the mechanisms of creation of feminitives and their use in the language of the media. The results of the study can be used for further research and in the educational process during the training of future journalists and philologists. Key words: feminitives, author’s column, language of mass media, word creation of modern Ukrainian publicists.