Status of Precedent Units in the System of Intertextual Means of Contemporary Ukrainian Media Discourse

The article is devoted to the determination of the status of precedent units (precedent names and expressions) in the system of intertextual means of contemporary Ukrainian media discourse. There was analyzed the phenomenon of intertextuality in the broad and narrow senses; the functions of precedent units that realize the main media discourse purpose of informing and influence were revealed. The analysis of the essence of precedence in linguistics gives grounds to distinguish three types of precedent phenomena: precedent texts, situations and personalities, as well as two types of precedent units: precedent names and expressions. The connection of precedent units and related concepts – winged words, aphorisms and idioms – was established. Based on a comparative analysis of the views of European and American scholars on the phenomena of intertextuality and precedence in linguistics there were singled out the means of direct and indirect appeal to prototext, which enroll the quotations and references, as well as the precedent units and allusions respectively.