Vol 9, No 1 (2018)

FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The first thematic issue of RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics

Novospasskaya N.V.
RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):9-13
pages 9-13 views

POLITICAL LINGUISTICS

Russian linguopolitical personology: political leaders’ discourse

Chudinov A.P., Nakhimova E.A., Nikiforova M.V.

Abstract

The paper presents an analytical review of publications devoted to the study of political leaders’ verbal image. The research of politicians’ individual discourses belongs to the sphere of linguopolitical personology, which is a relatively new field of Russian linguistics that focuses on the phenomenon of professional linguistic personality in the sphere of politics. The objectives of the review are to specify basic terminology, which is in use, to determine the most popular methods of analysis and research tasks, and to define the boundaries of the considered research area in the context of modern Humanities. The analysis highlighted two main subject areas of linguopolitical personology: presidential discourse study and historical personalities study. The research of political leaders’ proper names in terms of precedent phenomena is also considered to be a peripheral subject area. Each of the identified research spheres is characterized from the perspective of the goal, methods of analysis to be applied and principles of language material selection. We have grounds to believe that the use of a broad approach in defining research boundaries of linguopolitical personology enables to study a vast language material base and to use various methods of study, which in its turn results in increasing interdisciplinary connections of linguopolitical personology and even broader, of political linguistics, with other fields of modern Humanities. Thus, the identified research areas reflect the perspectives of the modern science and therefore, are to provide a multidimensional, comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of professional linguistic personality in the field of political communication.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):14-31
pages 14-31 views

Adresata specialization in public political discourse

Karasik V.I.

Abstract

The paper deals with public political discourse as presented in official speeches at the UN General Assembly sessions. I argue that main approaches to discourse studies may be defined as analysis of topic, institutional structure, tonality and performative meaning of communication. Three main types of addressees in public political discourse are singled out: general public, basic opponents and professional interpreters. Usually orators emphasize the priorities of humankind when analyzing the world political situation but sometimes they make accent on the problems of their own states or regional interaction. Stylistic and rhetorical format of official presentations at the UN mostly corresponds to norms of diplomatic interaction but sometimes it deliberately deviates from such norms which proves that media discourse with its entertaining techniques gradually infiltrates new areas of communication. Political speech tonality is the most important priority indicator of possible practical actions the world powers may take in their international policy.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):32-49
pages 32-49 views

Lexico-grammatical properties of dysfemisms (on the material of political discourse)

Lysyakova M.V., Gaevaia A.A.

Abstract

The virtual image of political mediareality that reflects modern political systems functioning in mass media heavily influences people consciousness, this is why the research is getting more and more relevant nowadays. The subject of the research is dysphemia - one of the lexical means of such influence that fulfils addressee communicative intentions. Though euphemia that is being opposed to it is widely presented in linguistic literature, dysphemia has not known any systemic analysis currently. The scientific novelty of the work is to establish the lexico-grammatical nature of dysphemisms, to reveal their morphological structure, to selectively classify dysphemisms, and to analyze functional-grammatical transformations of dysphemisms in different types of political discourse. The lexical-stylistic definition of dysphemism was proposed in the work, taking into account its pragmatic functions and priority areas of functioning. The principal difference between the use of dysphemisms in colloquial speech, journalism, and the political media discourse is shown. The central object of consideration was the most important characteristic of dysphemia - its lexico-grammatical aspect. In the article a consistent analysis of dysphemisms of various partial affinities on the extensive text material is carried out: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, particles, interjections and onomatopoeic words. As a result, it was established that in the political discourse, dysphemisms-nouns are mainly used as dysphemisms. Special emotional-evaluative content is given to proper names - anthroponyms (including nicknames) and toponyms (comonims). Allowing high variability specific nouns realize the dysphemistic function more often than nouns of other categories. In discrediting strategies, the adjectives of all three categories are also frequent: qualitative, relative, possessive. Dysphemistic activity of qualitative adjectives was noted. Relative adjectives, as a rule, perform a dysphemistic function in the composition of phraseological phrases. An increase of the dysphemistic effect in two-word composites “dysphemism-adjective + dysphemism-noun” was revealed. The forms of the verb with the semantics of the state, of the active action and of the result of the action are actively disfigured. Particles, interjections and onomatopoeia realize the dysphemistic function extremely rarely. Author’s neologism, grammatical transformations, occasional ways of word formation greatly expand the dysphemistic repertoire and the corpus of the dysphemistic denominations of the Russian language, constantly enriching the research material, supporting the scientific and practical interest in such a relevant phenomenon of language and speech.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):50-76
pages 50-76 views

Pragmalinguistics of Richard Nixon’s stylistic behavior (research into the president’s selected speeches)

Mukhortov D.S.

Abstract

The paper seeks to analyze pragmalinguistic features of the politician’s stylistic behavior by studying nominative and syncategorematic parts of speech in his discourses. The hypothesis is regardless extralinguistic factors in a communicative situation the stylistic behavior can be seen as the touchstone of the politician’s success. A deficient stylistic behavior is fraught with communicative flops. The paper discusses theoretical grounds of pragmasemantic analysis of the politician’s stylistic idiosyncrasies, suggests a classification of categories for pragmasemantic analysis, pinpoints a cluster approach to studying lexical and syntactic units, and provides new insights into semiotics of the status-bound type of language identity. This article drawing on Richard Nixon’s selected speeches, The Checkers Speech (1952), The Great Silent Majority Speech (1969), and The First Watergate Address (1973), specifies the concept of presidential language identity. A determining factor moulding the stylistic behavior of this kind of people is a stressful or semi-stressful situation. The method of research in the article is termed as ‘pragmasemantic analysis of the politician’s language identity’. It is yet to be elaborated in detail. The article attempts to define it as focusing on interrelated grammar categoties, like personal pronouns, verb tense, functional and auxiliary verbs, article, numerals, and prepositions, along with communication-bound categories of optimism/pessimism, diplomatic/bossy, president-like speech/unpresident-like speech, age, gender, vested interests group membership in order to find out the politician’s idiosyncrasies and communication strategies and tactics. The article argues that whatever strategies and tactics Nixon persued in his discourses, his stability in the domestic political arena was guaranteed only by truthful verbal behavior. The Watergate speeches failed him and he paid the price for it. The paper, hence, highlights the problem of studying truth/lie verbal markers which largely depend on the author of the text in question.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):77-92
pages 77-92 views

Semantic transformations in the translation of german diplomatic discourse (based on Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s public speeches)

Shapochkin D.l.

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of German diplomatic discourse as a linguistic phenomenon in the perspective of its translation and transfer by means of semantic transformations from German into Russian. The diplomatic discourse of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the former German Foreign Minister (2005-2009 and 2013-2017), is used as a research material. As a result of the analysis, the author confirms the hypothesis that modulation is the dominant semantic transformation in the translation of diplomatic discourse, and that the translator of diplomatic texts should pay special attention to clarifying semantic development and concretization, holistic transformation and context synonyms. In addition, the author concludes that such kind of transformation as adaptation is not applied in translating texts of diplomatic discourse.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):93-104
pages 93-104 views

Comminicative strategies of american polititians (basing on the 2016 election campaign)

Tymbay A.A.

Abstract

The article contains the analysis of basic communicative strategies employed by the participants of TV debates, a type of a political discourse. The study was conducted using the videos of Trump - Clinton debate during 2016 US presidential campaign. The major principles of building of a political dialogue of this type were singled out by means of a linguistic analysis, showmanship, competiveness and personification being the top ones. The article illustrates different types of turn-taking, shows the difference between turns and backchannels, simple overlaps and deliberate interruptions of a partner. However, the choice of turn-taking type is not random. It depends on the strategic planning of the candidates, who view it as a means of projecting their personality as well as their political programme onto the audience. Thus the dual nature of discourse is highlighted: a dialogue between the candidates and the dialogue with the audience. The communicative strategies chosen by the politicians are viewed by the author as a means of influencing the opponent and the electorate in general, one of them being denigrating the opponent for the purpose of creating a more beneficial personal profile. In the end the author suggests using the conclusions made in teaching students oratory and effective public speaking techniques.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):105-123
pages 105-123 views

Precedent toponym as a political symbol

Bugaeva I.V.

Abstract

Precedent toponyms in the political discourse often mean the symbols of the state power: the Kremlin, the White House, Wall Street, Berlin, London, etc. This article is devoted to the analysis of meanings of the precedent toponym “Red Square”. The continuous sampling from the Russian National Corpus, some text fragments from fiction, oral speech and Internet resources were used as the study material. The toponym meaning in the concrete context was determined with the help of semantic analysis aimed at defining of the main seme. The obtained meanings were classified. As a result 16 semantic meanings of the precedent toponym “Red Square” were identified. In the Russian linguistic view of the world the toponym “Red Square” has denotative, connotative, precedent meanings added by the unique associative background. The comprehension and evaluation of these meanings are different in the groups of native speakers and non-native speakers of the Russian language. This toponym has gradually formed the image that has become the marked sign of the world culture possessing its own system of notions and associations. For people studying the Russian language as a foreign language some well known precedent toponyms such as Moscow, the Kremlin, Red Square have only political meaning as the symbols of Russia and the state power. Forming the cultural competence while working with foreign students it is useful to find out the full range of meanings of the precedent toponym.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):124-135
pages 124-135 views

The representation of Canada in political discourse

Ustinova O.V.

Abstract

The primary purpose of this article is to examine the Canadian image in political discourse, to identify the factors creating this image. Due to the most relevant political speeches, messages, government reports, analysis of statistical data there are being worked out some tools for building the image of Canada on the world stage. Lately, political discourse is becoming a subject of study for linguistics. The interest in the phenomenon is motivated by a wide range of linguistic instruments used as an effective tool to manage the public perceptions. Study and analysis of the mechanisms of political communication allow to decode pragmatic information hidden in the political texts. The subject of the work consists in highlighting the linguistic approaches to the representation of Canada in the international diplomacy. The object of the work is an examination of political discourse in the public statements made by political figures, government documents, which reflect social and political realities. The methodology has developed under the influence of cognitive linguistics of domestic and foreign scientists. Research study includes cognitive and conceptual analysis to reveal distinctive features of the social and political realities; interpretive and context analysis to select political texts. It exposes the ways of representation of Canadian image, demonstrates its weak and strong sides. A vast factual material reveals multi-faced nature of Canada and provides an identity set of lexical units which are reflected in political discourse. The material illustrates today’s image of the country and the perceptions of Canada throughout the world. The idea of multiculturalism is justified by the guiding ideology of ethno-cultural plurality. The main sources of information are official government documents (laws, acts, reports), statistical data, parliamentary debates, party agenda, political speeches. All the provided material combined mass-media information, the Internet.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):136-157
pages 136-157 views

POLITICAL LINGUISTICS. SCIENCE 21.0

Political cartoon as a genre of political discourse

Dugalich N.M.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the modern political cartoons on foreign policy and socially-significant topics in Arabic and French. Political cartoon is a genre of political discourse that entered the scope of linguistic problems in the middle of the 20th century and is an actual problem of modern linguistics. Political discourse has such characteristics as anthropocentrism, multidisciplinarity, expansionism, functionalism and explanatoriness. The genres of political discourse can be characterized as a homogeneous and creolized text; political cartoon is a creolized text that unites iconic and verbal levels and has paralinguistic characteristics. The object of the carried out analysis is the creolized text of the modern Arabic-language and French-speaking political cartoon. The subject of the study in this work was the structural, cultural-specific and linguistic characteristics of the political cartoon text in Arabic and French. The material of the study was selected to be more than 100 cartoons on political topics in Arabic and French. An appeal to the genre presentation of political discourse and comparative analysis of political cartoons is a topical issue of linguistics in the absence of a sufficient number of scientific works touching on this topic. It should be noted that the well-known works devoted to political cartoons use material which is contemporaneous with the author of the study. The study of political cartoon phenomenon in various linguistic cultures is a sphere of the actual multidisciplinary research as the author’s creative beginning at the level of the text and drawing interacts in the political cartoon with the tradition and its genre frames, producing a volume-rich multi-layered creolized text, decoding of which requires the addressee to have the language, logical and extra-linguistic presuppositions and skills of analyzing the political cartoon.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):158-172
pages 158-172 views

‘Mr. President, discourse matters: a contrastive analysis of Donald Trump and Barack Obama’s discourse

Casañ-Pitarch R.

Abstract

Whether a person is depicted as a hero or a villain, his discourse can be representative of his personality; the way the audience is addressed or the type of used words can play a part in determining the public image of any individual. This paper is contextualized within the analysis of political language. The purpose of this research is to analyze the language forms used by the current president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, and as well to discuss how their linguistic discourse influences their public image in the field of politics. The method implemented in this research is based on the analysis of three main focal points: the amount of words and length of sentences, the morphological composition and the use of pronouns in their speeches. The corpus of this research consists of six speeches which are equivalent in pairs and delivered by each president in the same specific contexts: their presidential announcement, election night victory and inauguration speech. The results obtained in this research show some significant differences between the two presidents regarding the analyzed items and they seem to justify how they affect their public image. In conclusion, it seems that there are some reasons why each president is using or used a specific type of discourse, which is clearly addressing certain people, groups or classes that are willing to support their ideas and proposals.
RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):173-185
pages 173-185 views

Ideologeme the “Slavic community” in the modern political discourse

Timofeev S.E.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of ideological concept the slavic community in the modern political discourse. The main approaches in interpretation of the slavic community were considered and analyzed here, as well as the invariants of the ideologeme and constituents of its semantic field by means of the method of the frame knowledge representation with the explication of the semantic field constituents. The subject of the research is the ideological concept of the slavic community . The object is the ideological usage of the concept the slavic community in the modern political discourse. The content of the political character with a keyword the slavic community was selected in the system of the “Russian National Corpus”. The theoretical grounds are based on the conception of the slavic community created by the ideologists S. Gradirovsky, E. Ostrovsky, P. Shedrovitsky. The main methods used in the research were: the method of semantic analysis with a cognitive-semantic description of the word semantics, summary and grouping of statistical observation materials. Such type researches are valuable for the political linguistics. As a result the usage frequency statistics in political discourse of variants of the ideologeme the slavic community was compiled, as well as regularities in usage each of its variants were revealed, and the research results were explained.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):186-199
pages 186-199 views

Political discourse as object of linguistic analysis

Sukhanov Y.Y.

Abstract

The urgency of the work is due to the fact that at the present stage of development political linguistics is considered one of the most rapidly developing and most promising areas of linguistics. The name of this direction indicates the subject of his research - political linguistics is engaged in the study of “political communication”, that is, speech activity that is oriented to the propagation of certain ideas, emotional impact and motivation of citizens to political actions, to accept and substantiate political and social decisions in the conditions of many points of view in society, for the development of public consent. The goal of political linguistics is to study the various relationships between the political state of society, the subjects of political activity, communication, thinking and language. That is why the main task of political linguistics is to study the relationship between subjects of political activity, communication, thinking, language and the political state of society. In modern linguistics, one of the most developing areas is political linguistics. This position can be defined as evidence of the extensive involvement of the society in political processes and, as a result, the increased interest of science in communication in the political sphere. The following research methods are used in this article: stylistic, syntactic and lexical-semantic analysis of fragments of texts; semiotic analysis; elements of the component analysis of lexical units; elements of content analysis; descriptive method and its main components (observation, interpretation, generalization). Foreign and domestic researchers turned to the study of various aspects of the pre-election discourse. In particular, the studies of Bazylev VN, Bokmelder DA, Budaeva EV, Vodak R., Repina EA, Chudinova AP are devoted to the political discourse. Bakumova EV, Baranova AN, Sineoki NA, Sheigala EI and other scientists. The work of such scientists as Borbotko VG, Karasik VI, Makarov ML, Cherniavskaya VE devoted to the study of cognitive linguistics, theory and history of discourse development in science. and others.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):200-212
pages 200-212 views

Russian and Рolish political lexis of the proto-slavic origin

Kobylko J.

Abstract

Due to the genetic proximity of the Russian and Polish languages may seem, that political terms of both discussed languages overlap. Actively complementing the political thesaurus of vernacular with the using of different normative and individual word formation. Contemporary communication is filled, above all, with the language of politics. Therefore, political lexis is made available to all carrier for vernacular. Specialist vocabulary is used, above all, by experts and analysts. Mass media play important role in this process, constituting an effective mechanism of impact on social consciousness. See all the similarities and differences between political terms in Russian and Polish by lexical material and analyzing specific terms. The study’s validity is a poorly developed comparative analysis of Russian and Polish political terminology. The Russian and Polish lexis of the Proto-Slavic origin, in which the meanings were changing, as well as common concepts, which represent different origins with words. The material studied is called political processes, institutions and people. The terminology was collected from Russian-Polish lexicography and mass media texts.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):213-222
pages 213-222 views

Forms of address as a mean of expressing social conflict in the Mikhail Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog”

Di Z.

Abstract

In the speech of characters artistic work, reflecting significant extra-linguistic events reflected historical time and space. Difficult period in post-revolutionary Russia is marked not only by economic problems but also language, one of which is associated with the development of a new system of appeals. The ability of a person to use cases in the implementation of the communications is evidence of its formation as a full-fledged member of society. In “Heart of a Dog” M. Bulgakov, which tells of the formation of a new man, discursive justifiability of various addressing forms are obvious: on one hand, they are an indicator of social stratification, and on the another - to show the socio-ideological confrontation of the Transfiguration and Shvonder. The article discusses the address in the speech of the main characters of the novel, noted the high relevance of pragmatic and discursive weight, which accentuates shown by the author social conflict between the new government and its environment - such as Sharikov and other “proudly” using a form of comrade in its new senses (‘equal’, ‘associate’), and the adherents of the old values - culture, respect to each other, correct and smooth treatment of people and appeals to them. Special attention is paid to the use of forms of dealing with words comrade, citizen, sir, mister , and the reaction of recipients to these forms of address, evidence of mutual rejection of rules of etiquette that are characteristic of the representatives of the proletariat and the intelligentsia. In conditions of ideological and political confrontation, appeals are able not only to characterize the level of cultural and intellectual development regulating the choice of forms of appeals, taking into account different criteria, but also to indicate the place occupied by the speaker in the socio-political orientation system, to express an attitude toward the ideological opponent, they become one of the instruments of influence.

RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics. 2018;9(1):223-237
pages 223-237 views

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