Alūziju izmantojums žurnāla “Ir” virsrakstos
Authors: Juhņēviča Liene Katrīna 
Published: October 2020

In the press language studies, relatively little attention is paid to the titles in the printed press. Therefore, titles in the magazine “Ir” were studied and analysed from the point of view of the use of allusions. The titles of the magazine “Ir” were excerpted during the period from August 9 to October 31, 2018. These include a more detailed analysis of the titles in which the use of allusions appears vividly. The titles of the magazine reflect the topics of 2018, such as the 100th anniversary of the state’s independence, the 13th elections of the Parliament, as well as the new theatre shows. The most vivid allusions are seen in the titles of the culture section and comment pages of the magazine “Ir”.
It should be mentioned that Latvian orthography rules require capitalization of all first letters of words in the names of magazines and newspapers. However, the magazine itself does not comply with this rule by using a small initial letter in its name. In the article, the capital letter is used referring to the name of the magazine, following the spelling of the Latvian language.
The name of the magazine “Ir” is short, accurate, and affirming. Titles of the articles are used as a technique that interests and attracts the reader. There is a trend that titles in the magazine are purposefully designed to attract the reader’s attention. The title initially has the emotional hue that the author uses to give direction to the reader and show his attitude to the described topic and the analysed problem.
A purposefully used allusion in the title encourages the reading of an article published in the magazine. Reading long text requires motivation, so the title serves as an impulse and an incentive for the reader to read the text. The titles serve as an indication to the reader of the subject under consideration. With the title, the author shows his assessment of the issue affected by the article. Dite Liepa writes: “The author of the text goes to the reader in different ways: both as a dispassionate set of facts and as a personality who independently appreciates and describes the situation, demonstrates his position and tries to deviate from the clichés of the press with the individuality and stylistic freedom of language.” (Liepa 2011, 93) The titles in the magazine “Ir” show the tendency that the authors of the magazine are vivid personalities who are interested in readers with their own language-specific style.
“The title is a special type of journalistic style text, which briefly and laconically refers to the most important information in the following text. The title is read by every reader of the press edition or Internet news portal first, and then the reader thinks about the information and the need to read this article.” (Kalnača 2011, 116) Titles do not appear as a separate subject in the printed press. The titles in the printed press and the Internet differ in terms of content and structure. “One of the goals for journalists is to attract the attention of newspaper readers, make the newspaper interesting to the possibly wider range of readers. This goal can be achieved by providing news in a comprehensive, binding, intriguing way because today, people want to do and get something new, unusual, different.” (Oļehnoviča 2016, 43) Publishing aims to inform, interest, persuade, and educate. (Lokmane 2005, 32) One of the ways of attracting readers’ attention is the use of allusions.
The purpose of the media is to attract a reader, but the reader must be able to perceive and understand the text in the press. The journalist’s main goal is to hand out information in a way that is easily perceived by the reader. Journalism must consider the readers’ understanding of the text. “The understanding of the text forms from the following aspects: language knowledge, situation, linguistic context, the vision of the text’s (creator and) receiver.” (Fāters 2010, 275) So, the reader must be able to capture and understand the information provided in the press. The authors of the magazine “Ir” also count on readers’ understanding of the text while trying to attract their attention. Readers firstly see the title, so it must be intriguing enough for the reader to continue reading the article.