Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the key features of periphrasis use (semantics, structure, grammatical combinability, stylistic functions) on the example of Kazakh, British and Spanish mass media. The following methods were used in the study: comparative, lexical-semantic, stylistic, analytical-synthetic, contextual, graphic. It was found out that the main semantic groups of periphrasis are the following: names of cultural and political figures, cultural and historical events, geographical objects, communities, terminological units and metaphorical constructions. The euphemistic periphrasis used in Kazakhstani mass media were divided into semantic groups: names of diseases, terminological concepts, names of social groups and designation of participants of military actions and protests. In the British press, euphemistic periphrasis is included in the following semantic groups: names of negative social phenomena, names of specific individuals and social groups, names of military actions and designation of diseases. Euphemistic periphrasis in the Spanish press denote negative socio-political phenomena, military actions and terminological units. In Kazakhstani newspapers, euphemistic periphrasis was used to soften information and demonstrate tolerance, in British newspapers to increase the emotional-expressive impact on the reader and soften information, and in Spanish newspapers to increase the level of imagery and soften information. This study can be used to create new technical tools for semantic analysis of texts, for comparative study of strategies for introducing periphrasis into media contexts and for the study of euphemisms in international communication. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .