Collective Memory as a Social Construct in German Discourse

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Introduction

Memory as a separate social phenomenon mediated by language [1] has been studied in the fields of semantics, morphology and the theory of nomination. As memory is described as a fragment of a language picture of the world, researchers addressed implementations of the concept “memory”, semiotic foundations and communicative nature of memory; genre analysis of discursive practices (Yu.D. Apresyan, L.G. Babenko, N.G. Bragina, T.V. Bulygina, L.M. Vasilyev, A. Vezbitska, M.A. Dmitrovskaya, A.A. Zaliznyak, B.L. Iomdin, E.S. Kubryakova, M.V. Milovanova, A.S. Molchanova, L.N. Rebrina, O.G. Revzina, M.G. Sabadashova, T.I. Skorobogatova, N.V. Skoromyslova, V.V. Turovsky, E.V. Uryson, E.G. Homyakova, O.V. Shatalova, A.D. Cherenkova, O.V. Schilenko, U. Figge, A. Keppler, A. Linke, G. Velzer). Studies of the linguistic manifestation of memory functioning present descriptions of discursive practices aimed at understanding the nature of memory, its content, mechanisms of social reconstruction of the past as well as space and time translation of its reinterpretation [2–5].

Modern culture is marked by an explosive growth of documented memory which in the context of rapid development of information and communication technologies exists as a conflicting variety of competing and cooperating, often fragmentary, senses manifested in the interaction mediated by public communicative systems. This study focuses on one memory subsystem, i.e. collective memory (CM) as implemented in discourse. The main function of CM is moral reflection on the collective past, shaping an image of the past and its value judgments, supporting group and national identities as well as legitimization of power in the modern state. All those imply using mass channels of public communication systems. For Germany, the phenomenon of CM and national identity are especially significant. The existing studies of the CM phenomenon conducted by historians, cultural experts, sociologists and psychologists testify to its significance, complexity, and multidimensionality.

The current growth of CM publicity reflected in the increasing number of “places of memory” and mass media growing attention to the ancient and recent past is politically oriented and has negative implications for history including the following: the trivialization of important historic events, the “inflation” of perpetuation, the fetishzsation, politicization and commercialization of memory [6]. The processes named above above are caused by fragmentation, high dynamics and variability of modern society resulting in a permanen search and reconstruction of identities. Modern social and cultural institutions are involved in a “new mythogenesis” creating an image of the past in its discursive practices. Meeting present-day requirements the phenomenon is a result of transformation, development, argumentation, completion, presentation and reproduction of new senses.

Mass media has a high manipulative potential as it is in mass media discourse and social reality and social chronotope (social space and time of a community) are constructed, where variable representations of media events are subjected to space and time translation. Mass media’s influence is dynamic, broad and standard-setting. Thus, media manipulative strategies result in multivariability of media reality [7].

The image of the past reconstructed and transmitted in mass media could have a different semantic potential, which does not necessarily conform to reality, it contains a subjective component, it is refracted through numerous prisms (modern political and social situation, social needs; the leading social group policies and editorial board policies; specific features of communication channels; social values and current social concepts; personal qualities, set of values, ideology and creativity of the message producer). As a sign, the image of the past is interpreted by both the addresser and addressee [7–10].

A variable retrospective presentation of an event in mass media may have various purposes. For example, confirmation and support of national or group identity may be achieved by recreating a positive picture of a common uniting past; the existing social order may be supported by creating a negative image of the past and contrasting the positive image of the present with many “changes for the best”; the negatively evaluated present may be presented in a contrastive way as an argument for confronting authorities; reconciliation of the opposing parties, reduction of tension of the conflict situation, managing the contradictory variety of the reality simulated by mass media with the help of desensitization of the mass addressee and neutral non-discussed presentation of events [6; 11].

This study addresses the needs and interests of academicians concerned with the problem of memory, memory discursive practices, language manifestation of individual memory subsystems, the principles and mechanisms of social communication as well as the significant cognitive potential of linguistics.

Methodology of Study

We proceed from an interpretation of collective memory as a manifestation in the social construct of language, shared by a collective subject; communicative and intentional by nature. The authors view language as an important systemic factor of CM functioning. All of these predetermine the significant cognitive potential of linguistic studies in this field, as well as applications of social communication theory in studies of CM manifestation [9; 12–14]. Constructed around the state and nation, collective memory performs selective, interpretive, reversible, identifying and other functions [15–20]. We view the presentation of the past in media texts as a movement of social meaning in social time realized in the form of communicative action “management” based on the subject-object relationships of communicants. A text-producer intervenes in the communicative space of the addressee to change cognitive and axiological components of this space. This includes manipulative influence within midi- or macro-communication in which sense is put in the content sent to the text-recipient and perceived by the latter unconsciously, assigned together with the content as one’s own knowledge.

Based on the theory of media priming we proceed from the fact that while re-actualizing collective memory content, a message-producer manipulates public opinion to form and revaluate a new image of the past. Activated images, stereotypes, applied and absorbed by the addressee meanings which are associated with other mental objects stored in his memory, are the basis for further inferred knowledge, they contribute to further conclusions and judgments. Viewed from the cognitive psychology perspective these processes are artificial stimulations of certain reactions of the recipient to the message when mass media selectively act is not only to control some topical issues and mark the content to be acquired but set criteria as well as spectrum of evaluation, and define the perception itself [21–25]. The sociological concept of media priming enables them to reveal mechanisms of hidden, unconscious influence on the addressee’s psychic structures and to understand how the presentation of certain content leads to the formation and “assignment” of inferred meanings associated with the initial content.

Influence, implemented as suggestion or persuasion, appeals to the subconsciousness or consciousness of an individual or a group, i.e., to their psychological or logical spheres [9; 26]. An individual addressee becomes an accessible subject of hidden influence, which primarily aims to decrease awareness and criticism, weakening the logical analysis of the relationship of the content with the addressee’s past and present [27]. This influence is based on the pragmatic function of the linguistic means, their emotive potential, relevant strategies of the presentation and translation of the image of the past and correlated tactics used by a text-producer. The strategies and tactics used by the addresser provide an emotional involvement of the mass addressee in the collective past or, on the contrary, could be aimed at desensitization of the message-recipient towards the re-actualized fragments of the past. The communicative action is interpreted as a completed operation of semantic interaction by one of the participants of communication. We consider manipulation as an active but not interactive type of communication (i.e. abstracting from any reverse reaction) assuming the certain type of speech behavior of the addresser (communicative aggression), and also the addressee’s own concept and corresponding communicative tactics and linguistic means [26; 28].

Present study data consist of DWDS texts, i.e., mass media publications from 1906 to the present (DWDS), wherein different strategic and tactical message organization types transform images of the past to the mass addressee. The description of strategies and tactics used in mass media illustrates the mechanism of public opinion manipulation and the priming-effect in social communication.

The preliminary analysis shows that the strategies used in presenting the image of the past are the strategies of positive, negative and re-actualized presentation of images of the past. The communicative tactics implementing the strategies chosen by the addresser differ in argumentation bases engaged for persuasion or suggestion, which can be based on actual data, logical conclusions or psychological aspects (emotional and ethical arguments). Thus, the selected by the authors argumentative tactics of the presentation strategies could be divided into the following groups: 1) tactics of formal and logical argumentation; 2) tactics of psychological argumentation. We also proceed from the view that a person’s attention as a mechanism participating in perceiving information cannot remain unchanged for a long time. From this perspective and based on the theory of nomination taking into account the neuro-linguistic and theoretical and informational aspects, the information structure of any message is a certain hierarchy of pieces of information in which the main points in the content are separated from the secondary. Certain compositional and elocutionary means of a produced message organize the structure of the nomination a number of compositional tactics of mass media are also significant in presenting images of the past [29; 30]. The subject of the study presented is a strategic and tactical organization of CM content re-actualization aimed at formation of a desired image of the over-individual past. Table 1 “Strategic and Tactical Organization of Presenting the Past in German mass media” (in Appendix) shows the range of argumentative and compositional tactics implementing three basic strategies of presenting the past in German mass media (1) negative; 2) positive; 3) alienating, desensitizing) and their relevance.

Analysis of the Study Results

The strategies of positive and negative presentation of the past are based on common mental mechanisms and characterized by similar sets of divergent tactics. The most productive strategy is the strategy of negative presentatation of the past applied to a positive picture of the present, legitimation of power or supporting innovations. Under the circumstances, psychological argumentation rather than formal and logical argumentation is more relevant as it corresponds to the nature of manipulative influence and decreases criticism of perception.

Below we exemplify the most (A) and least (B) relevant tactics within the aforementioned communicative strategies.

A. 1.1. Argumentative tactics of negative qualification of the past is implemented by appeal to authority within the strategy of negative presentation of the past. The purpose of the tactic is to increase validity and effectiveness of influence, confirm arguments and initiate separation of the negative axiological attitude to the past by appeal to authority, i.e., experts, eyewitnesses or participants. Appeal to authority is used as а proof and a productive method of psychological influence implying some kind of voluntary subordination of the individual. This combination of intellectual and psychological influence contributes to the effectiveness and frequency of this tactic. Authority acts as an ally of the addresser (a third party), he (she, they) can be specified (e.g., a well-known person’s opinion) or not (anyone/many/everyone meeting the criteria). Formal argumentation implies involvement of an expert as the authority, while psychological argumentation (appeal to emotional memory) presupposes attracting a person with similar experiences. Thus, the most relevant linguistic means used for these purposes are anthroponyms, nouns denoting professions, occupations, or nationalities, or lexical units (LU) with negatively indicative semantics, verbs denoting speech activity. The example below contains appeal to a specified authority (SPD-Vize Wolfgang Thlerse, der ostdeutsche SPD-Politiker), who expresses negative assessment of E. Honecker’s activities thus initiating the applied position. The relevant means of elocution used by the message-producer are LU with negative semantics (blutrünstig, kleinbürgerlich, blind, Diktator):

1. SPD-Vize Wolfgang Thlerse erklärte, wirkliche Trauer um Honecker stelle sich nicht ein, statt dessen erinnere er sich deutlich an dessen Ausspruch an die Zehntausende, die 1989 die DDR verließen: «Wir weinen ihnen keine Träne nach». Nach Auffassung des ostdeutschen SPD-Politikers werde Honecker nicht als blutrünstiger sondern als kleinbürgerlicher, fast blinder Diktator in die Geschichte eingehen [31].
‘Vice Chairman of the SPD, Wolfgang Thlerse, stated that instead of mourning for Mr. Honecker, he remembered Honecker’s statement about thousands of people who left East Germany in 1989: “We’re not weeping for them.” According to the East German politician, Mr. Honecker will go down in history not as a bloodthirsty but petty bourgeoisie, but as an almost insensate dictator’.

The tactics of “appeal to negative images and stereotypes” and “appeal to ethnic ethical arguments” are less frequently used. The argumentative tactics of negative qualification of the past implies appeal to negative images and stereotypes, i.e., the text-producer addresses some values of an individual or group and demonstrates recognizable and meaningful images to the addressee. In this case, the most relevant linguistic means are lexical units with negative semantics, figurative linguistic means, vocabulary explicating emotions of the addresser and launching mechanisms of “emotional infection”. In some cases, the addresser resorts to axiological chrononyms. In the example below, the author of the text, while constructing a negative image of the past, appeals to “Mietskaserne” (barracks), which when used as a frame are filled by the addressee with psychologically meaningful elements. Built during industrialization, the barracks are today associated with hopelessness and widespread poverty:

2. In unserem kollektiven Gedächtnis ist mit der Industrialisierung im 19. Jahrhundert das Bild der “Mietskaserne” aufs engste verbunden. Wir assoziieren damit eine hoffnungslose Überbelegung und das Massenelend des “Proletariats”. Diesem Stereotyp entsprechend, wurde der großflächige Bau von Sozialwohnungen in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren als sichtbare Lösung der “sozialen Frage” bewertet [31].
‘In our collective memory the image of barracks housing is closely connected with the industrialization of the 19th. We associate this image with the desperate overcrowding and widespread poverty of the “proletariat.” According to this stereotype, the large-scale social housing construction of the fifties and sixties was viewed as an effective solution to the “social question”’.

Using the tactics of negative qualification of some fragment of the past by appealing to ethnic ethical arguments, a text-producer relies on the moral principles shared by all representatives of the ethnic group, thus taking a certain ethical position. Criticism and non-acceptance of the vices rejected by the community (in the example below — cruel treatment of the weak and defenseless, greed, ruthlessness) often become such ethical arguments. Direct accusation is perceived with suspicion and is not effective, so the above tactics are often accompanied by moralization. The relevant linguistic means are abstract nouns, which typically describe the psychic sphere of the phenomena as well as vocabulary with negative semantics:

3. Die Produzenten — vornehmlich preußische Landjunker — halten das Erzeugnis künstlich knapp, um die Preise in die Höhe zu treiben. “Das Druckmittel ist der Hunger der Bevölkerung”, erinnern sich emzett-Chronisten. Die Konkurrenz zu Lasten von Kindern und Alten läßt den Ruf nach einer Verstaatlichung der Milchwirtschaft laut werden [32].
‘Manufacturers, especially Prussian farmers, held the products’ supply artificially low in order to inflate prices. Chroniclers remembered, “Starvation was used as a means of enforcement”. Such competition at the expense of children and elderly people helped to satisfy the claim to nationalize the dairy industry’.

A. 1.2. The compositional tactics of amplified argumentation implementing the strategy of negative presentation of the past is relied on to expand consistent argumentation that ensures introduction of new details complementing the content selected for presentation. This tactic is effective if the addresser is unknown and therefore does not have addresser’s credibility, but his position is close to the latter. It is implemented with the use of evaluative vocabulary, adjectivation (e.g. gegen den demokratisch gewählten, von vielen unguten Stichworten, die im Westen beinah vergessen sind), LU with negative semantics (e.g. Putsch, ungut, destabilisieren), verbal units denoting speech, intellectual, psychical activities (e.g. vergessen, ins Spiel bringen, etc.). The significance of compositional tactics is determined by the frequency of relevant communicative situations.

4. Bis heute wirkt vor allem der Putsch nach, den die CIA 1953 gegen den demokratisch gewählten Ministerpräsidenten Irans, Mohammed Mossadegh, unternahm. Die Unterstützung des Schahs und die Billigung des Angriffskriegs, den Saddam Hussein gegen Iran führte, sind nur zwei von vielen unguten Stichworten der amerikanischen Iranpolitik, die im Westen beinah vergessen sind, in Teheran jedoch täglich ins Spiel gebracht werden. Zuletzt soll die Bush-Regierung 400 Millionen Dollar ausgegeben haben, um Iran zu destabilisieren [32].
‘The consequences of the 1953 Iranian coup d’état organized by the CIA against the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, are still felt today. Advocating for the Shah and support of Saddam Hussein’s aggression against Iran are just two of the many key moments of obscure US policy towards Iran, which are almost forgotten in the West, but every day used in Teheran’s political games. Eventually the Bush administration, as they say, spent $ 400 million to destabilize Iran’.

Also productive is the compositional tactic of negative qualification of the past violating readers’ expectations and thus contributing to the expressiveness of argumentation and manipulation of the addressee’s perception. The text-producer uses the effect of unexpectedness opposing perceptive inertia when one message is followed by another logically disconnected message. The impact of the tactic is based on the balance between meeting and violating addressees’ expectations, thus providing intensity and novelty to the generated text. The relevant linguistic means here are the verbs denoting speech, memory, intellectual activities, and lexical units with negative and positive semantics:

5. Damit ist mitnichten gesagt, daβ es auf den Kriegsschauplätzen der Welt keine Verbrechen gäbe, die sofortige Intervention auf den Plan rufen könnten. Die hierzulande neu gewonnene Erkenntnis über die mögliche moralische Dimension militärischen Handelns sollte indes nicht vergessen machen, daβ die Lüge schon immer eine treue Begleiterin des Krieges war. Wenn jeder Krieg verbrecherisch ist, dann gibt es keine Kriegsverbrechen [31].
‘This does not mean that crimes are not committed in combat operations worldwide, which require immediate actions. Our ingrained new understanding of possible moral dimensions of battlefield engagement should not prevent us from remembering that lies have always been a companion to war. And if every war is criminal, then there are no separate war crimes at al.

A. 2.1. The argumentative tactic of positive qualifying of the past through approval of its values implements the strategy of positive presentation. The emphases used by the addresser (the importance of perpetuation, careful attitude toward the past, the role of the past, experience in solving modern problems) appeal to the addressee’s psychological mechanisms:

6. Verankert ist, auch in meinem Kopf, eine Erfolgsgeschichte der Roten Armee. Ich will das Gute und das Schöne an meinem Russland natürlich nicht vergessen. Aber es müsste eine ehrlichere, zeitgemäβe Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit geschehen (Zeit 08.05.2009).
‘The story of the Red Army’s success has stuck in my head. Of course, I do not want to forget all the good and beautiful that was in my Russia. But honest and well-timed confrontation with the past is a must’.

The choice of linguistic means (LU with positive semantics (Erfolgsgeschichte, das Gute, das Schöne), the modal verb wollen, LU of the semantic field “memory” (im Kopf verankert sein, vergessen, Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit)), as well as the method of experience presentation (as deeply personal ones) are determined by the principles and attitudes of the message-producer. These principles and attitudes include initiation of sharing values of the past, building trusted relationships, and increasing the impact and reliability of presentation.

Also frequently used are the tactics of initiation of sharing positive identification. The text-producer presents his position to the reader as the one shared by representatives of this nation, i.e., he presents his subjective opinion as an objective one thus reducing the distance between communicants and inviting the text recipient as a witness. The identification can be directed to the mass addressee or a certain type of addressee specified by the text-producer. The relevant linguistic means include inclusive pronouns, indefinite and personal pronouns, negative and demonstrative pronouns, infinitive constructions, verbs denoting psychical activities and lexical units with positive semantics:

7. Man erinnere sich nur an die Zeit vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, als wir hier die deutsche Kulturmetropole hatten. Da hat es in den Regionen doch auch ein reiches Kulturleben gegeben [32].
‘I remember only the time before World War II, when here was the capital of Germans’ cultural life. The cultural life in the region was indeed very busy then’.

A. 2.2. The compositional tactic of negative contrast of contextual framing also implements the strategy of positive presentation. The addresser contrasts the negatively valued present or the earlier past in order to form a positive image and decrease the addressee’s negative perception. Thus, the content “nowadays it is not as good as before” is packed with the idea that “it used to be good”. The relevant linguistic means within this tactic are indicative LU with negative and positive semantics. In the example below the words of negative semantics qualify the present negatively (daniederliegen, Fehler, verelendet), thus implying the opposite evaluation of the contrasted past. The argumentation implemented is based on the logical rule, whereby a is “bad”, b is the opposite of a, thus, b is “good”:

8. Bei der Rekonstruktion der südkoreanischen Wirtschaft sind einige Fehler gemacht worden; es wäre vor allem darauf angekommen, die Landwirtschaft so schnell wie möglich wieder aktionsfähig zu machen. Es hat in der Vergangenheit Jahre gegeben, in denen die Hälfte der koreanischen Reisernte nach Japan ausgeführt werden konnte, ohne daβ in Korea jemand zu hungern brauchte (wenn er seinen Hunger vielleicht auch nicht gerade mit Reis stillen konnte). Heute liegt die südkoreanische Landwirtschaft so danieder, daβ aus Amerika Brotgetreide eingeführt werden muβ, da sich das verelendete Land nicht aus der eigenen Scholle zu ernähren vermag [31].
‘There were some mistakes made during the process of economic recovery in South Korea; first of all it was necessary to revive the agricultural sector as soon as possible. In the past, there were years when half of the Korean rice harvest was exported to Japan, but nobody in Korea starved (those were the times when rice was far from being the only food). Today, when South Korea is experiencing agricultural distress, even food grain is imported from America, because the impoverished country isn’t able to feed itself’.

Another highly relevant tactic in positive presentation of the past is the tactic of consistently expanded argumentation. The text-producer uses a consistently amplified argumentation the proofs of which are equally distributed, thus deepening and supporting the main message. This tactic is effective if the addresser’s position is shared by the addressee and, as a rule, is combined with other tactics. The relevant linguistic means are evaluative vocabulary, adjectivation, dialogization, lexical units denoting speech, intellectual activities, emotional sphere of the person and lexemes with positive semantics:

9. Der deutsche Aktienmarkt hat sich in der ersten Handelswoche des neuen Jahres in Top-Stimmung präsentiert. Der Deutsche Aktienindex Dax legte auch gestern … noch einmal zu. Das wichtigste deutsche Börsenbarometer hatte in der Woche … die Marke von 5 500 Zählern überschritten. Infineon-Aktien gewannen fast drei Prozent. Händler verwiesen auf positive Vorgaben der US-Halbleiterwerte. … Die Anteilsscheine der Deutschen Post verteuerten sich um zweieinhalb Prozent. Die Post-Aktie ist … der bevorzugte Wert der Branche. Nach Aussagen von Händlern hofft der Markt auf positive Äußerungen zur Umsatzentwicklung am Montag [38].
‘The first trading week of the new year opened with surge of optimism in the German stock market. Yesterday, the German DAX stock market index rose again. This week, this important stock market index has risen to 5500. ‘Infineon’ shares climbed to almost 3 percent. Dealers all note a rise in US semiconductor shares. The shares of German Post rose 2.5 %. These shares … are key industrial figures. Traders expect positive dynamics from the market turnover on Monday’.

A. 3. In order to make obsolete some fragments of the past, mass media as a “clichéd means of social control” [33] imposes some common opinion, value and normative cliché [34; 35], thus implementing the informative suppression of the recipient by the social institution. In this approach, a media event is viewed as a set of continually reinterpreted texts lacking connection with reality and integrity. Media events are reduced to the points of some classifications, categories, manifestations/illustrations of common laws, general historical processes, trends in the development of society, nature of man and society, source of experience, historic knowledge, traditions; they lose the status of a particular event and their own significance. Thus, they are subjected to trivialization and fetishization (corporeal mediation, reification, exchange/replacement by a thing in the addressee’s consciousness, which becomes an object of emotional experience/ axiological attitude, or ritualization leading to depersonalization of perception. The tactics of ‘neutralization’ of some fragment of the past by transferring the accent from the event to its commemoration, realizes the strategy of desensitizing presentation. While mentioning a historic event, the message-producer avoids its categorization stating only the tradition connected with the event. In this case, the past is interpreted as a base to form commemorative practices of the corresponding events in the past. The sign replacing an event reproduces only the external form of the latter (fetishization not accompanied by interiorization of the content and personal experiences). It leads to the situation when memory stops functioning if not connected to the place and image. Commemoration is a contextual phenomenon, political instrument with a high manipulative potential strengthening stereotypes of collective consciousness and initiating the process of sharing the idea of national historical unity. It is used for selective “management” of the past when historical reality is substituted with artificial objects, when a historic event and access to it are mediated by the practiced tradition [36]. This tactic is realized with the help of chrononyms, LU of the semantic field “memory”, toponymic vocabulary, and LU denoting objects and phenomena of psychical sphere, space and time parameters of communicative practices:

10. Allein in Brandenburg und Berlin kamen Tausende Menschen zu insgesamt zehn Ehrenfriedhöfen oder Gedenkstätten, um im Rahmen der «Tage des Gedenkens und des Sieges» mit Militärparaden und Festveranstaltungen an Deutschlands Kapitulation am 8. Mai 1945 zu erinnern [32].
‘On the Victory Day in Brandenburg and Berlin a total of thousands of people came with military parades and festivities to 10 military cemeteries and memorials in order to call to memory the capitulation of Germany in May 8, 1945’.

Another tactic used to de-actualize some fragment of the past is the tactic of moralistic interpretation of the past. This tactic presupposes that the significance of a particular historical event is reduced to interpreting the past as some lesson and warnings for future generations; the text-producer presents the main function of the past and historical knowledge as some historic experience only. Moralization implies appeal to socially shared ethical standards and moral principles; it is the main instrument of mass media. While presenting the past mass media as channels of a social communication system are supposed to provide comprehension and generalization of particular facts, present and support models, provide educational lessons, political instruction, and acquire social and political experience. “Moralistically” described, the past loses its brightness, acuteness, and its importance is reduced to its training function. The relevant linguistic means are chrononyms, lexical units denoting the objects and processes of memory, verbs of intellectual activity. In the text below, the past events (the fall of Weimar democracy, the period of Nazism in Germany) are represented to the addressee as some historical horizon, a source of experience and knowledge, as for the addresser he distances, abstracts himself from the events. A text-producer mentions that the German people derived the right lessons from the events mentioned, some of which remain in the memory as long as Babylonian captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar (as a common example of the persecutions against Jews). For implementing the tactics of moralistic interpretation of the past, the addresser uses chrononyms of the described events (die Weimarer Demokratie) and historical parallels (die babylonische Gefangenschaft), as well as the lexical units of the semantic field of memory (im Gedächtnis absinken, eingebrannt sein, im Gedächtnis bleiben), verbs and verbal phrases denoting intellectual processes (das Notwendige lernen, aus der Geschichte lernen), and proper nouns (Nebukadnezar, Auschwitz).

11. Ich denke, aus der Geschichte des Fehlschlags der Weimarer Demokratie und aus der Geschichte der Nazis und ihrer zerstörerischen Verbrechen hat fast unser ganzes Volk tatsächlich das Notwendige gelernt. Und wenngleich manches im Gedächtnis absinkt, so sind doch der uns belastende Genozid und Auschwitz so eingebrannt, dass sie ähnlich lang im Gedächtnis bleiben werden wie die babylonische Gefangenschaft zu Zeiten Nebukadnezars. Die Historiker hatten in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren einen erheblichen Anteil daran, dass unser Volk aus der Geschichte gelernt hat [31].
‘I think that from the history of the Weimar Republic democracy failure and from the history of the Nazis and their devastating crimes almost all of our people, in fact, learned the necessary lessons. And even if some memories weaken, the bloodcurdling genocide and the Auschwitz concentration are engraved on our memory so firmly that we will remember them as long as humanity keeps the memory of the Babylonian captivity during the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Historians in the fifties and sixties contributed considerably to the fact so that our people would have learned the lessons of history’.

B. 1.1. The least effective of all argumentative tactics are the tactics causing destructive emotions of the addressee (aggression directed to oneself), it is the tactic of negative qualification of the past by admission of guilt. The admission of guilt for some action implies negative evaluation of the latter. If the message contains information that someone identifying himself as the recipient of the message or sharing public opinion considers himself guilty, then, while decoding the message, the receiver qualifies the event as negative (the content: “I/we/all/everyone/is guilty”; the sense: “what happened deserves censure”). The relevant linguistic means within this tactic are verbal units describing the phenomena and processes of the psychical sphere of a man (e.g. in the text below einräumen, sich auseinander leben, wissen, vergessen), LU with negative semantics (e.g. auseinandergedriftet — a metaphor to denote unfriendly relations, literally “drifting apart in different directions”). In this context the described tactic is combined with the tactics of argumentation of negative qualification the past by identification. The message-producer identifies himself with a particular type of addressee (Americans and Europeans desiring to be honest and not intimidated by facing the truth). The group admits that they forgot about the common fate of the two continents on both sides of the Atlantic and the mistake is to be corrected. Thus, the past event receives negative evaluation.

12. Er räumte ein, dass sich Amerika und Europa in der Vergangenheit auseinander gelebt hätten. Wenn wir ehrlich zueinander sind, wissen wir, dass wir manchmal auf beiden Seiten des Atlantik auseinandergedriftet sind und unser gemeinsames Schicksal vergessen haben. Es gelte nun, diese Beziehungen zu erneuern [31]. ‘He admitted that the United States and Europe lived in the past as strangers to each other. To be honest with each other, we have to realize that we, on both sides of the Atlantic, drifted apart, and forgot our shared destiny. And today it is necessary to revive our relations’.

B. 1.2. The less frequent argumentative tactic of implementation of the strategy of positive presentation of the past is the tactic of positive presentation of the past via nostalgic mythology. The text-producer creates a “sentimental”, “rainbow” image of the past thus turning history into some mythological space in which the past is idealized, aestheticized, harmonized and interpreted as the source of stability, which the present lacks. Nostalgia is used as a social therapy of compensational and adaptational types. The relevant linguistic means are lexemes denoting the emotional sphere, vocabulary of positive semantics, and verbs denoting memory, the meanings of which contain semantic primitives “revive”, “enliven”, and “miss” thus indicating a corresponding emotional response. E.g.

13. Mehr Geld würde auch in den kommenden Jahren nicht zur Verfügung stehen, teilt die Senatsfinanzverwaltung mit. Hampel … kann sich an Vorwende-Zeiten erinnern, als diese Summe allein für den Westteil zur Verfügung stand. Den hervorragenden Standard, den einst die West-Berliner Straßen hatten, werden wir nie wieder erreichen [32].
‘According to the financial management of the Senate we won’t have more money in the coming years. Mr. Gampel … still remembers the time before the merger, when the entire amount of money was at the disposal of Western Germany. We will never achieve the exceptional standard that once characterized the streets of West Berlin’.

B. 2.1., B. 2.2. The less relevant tactic for positive (1) and negative (2) presentations of the past in German mass media is the compositional tactic of recurrent argumentation. While applying the tactic, the message-producer repeatedly addresses the theme elaborating it with the use of lexical repetition, synonyms and derivatives, constituents of one semantic field. In the given text the recurrent theme is the theme of “crime” constructed with the help of the following LU manifesting the conceptual sphere of crime: 1) verbrecherisch «auf der schiefen Bahn (umgangssprachlich), delinquent, kriminell, straffällig, illegal, rechtswidrig, ungesetzlich» (DWDS); 2) Täter «jmd., der eine Straftat begangen hat» [37]; 3) Opfer «jmd., der eine Missetat, etw. Schlimmes erdulden musste» [37]; 4) Unrecht «etw., was dem Recht, Rechtsempfinden widerspricht» [37]. This tactic is less frequent as it is associated with additional efforts of both sides aimed at elocution and decoding the dominant image and recurrent theme.

14. Heute sei vielen der verbrecherische Charakter der DDR-Macht nicht bewusst. „Es wird verklärt und verharmlost, nicht nur im Osten, nicht nur von Tätern. Das Unrecht des SED-Staates hervorzuheben, heiβe nicht, in der DDR gelebtes Leben zu entwerten“, erklärte Wulff. Es ist gut, dass es im Rechtsstaat möglich bleibt, auch den Täter als Opfer zu begreifen [32].
‘Today many people are not aware of the criminal nature of the GDR authorities. “It is idealized and trivializes not only in the East, and not only by those who are to blame. To reveal the injustice of the state under the SED dictatorship does not mean the depreciation of life in East Germany,” Wulff pointed. It is good that in the legal state it is still possible to see offenders as victims’.

B. 3. The less frequent tactic implied in desensitizing presentation of the past is the tactic of the de-realizing anonymization. The tactic is aimed at the addressee’s interpreting the past as a concept at a long distance thus depriving it its “individual specific features” and details. The tactic is implemented by manipulating abstract concepts (e.g. ‘fate’, ‘destiny’) thus forming a fatalistic position (the past is an imperative, it is beyond a man’s control, eliminating value judgement) and distracting the addressee from characteristics, reasons and consequences of the event itself. The addresser uses abstract vocabulary, LU denoting objects and phenomena of psychical sphere of a man (e.g. Neigung, Schicksalsverhängnis, Persönlichkeit, Erörterung):

15. Die im ganzen hervortretende Neigung, in der Entfesselung des Weltkrieges ein Schicksalsverhängnis zu erblicken, das über die Köpfe der beteiligten Persönlichkeit hinweg auf tiefere Ursachenreihen zurückging, hat gewiss einen Fortschritt gegen die ältere, zu stark formale Erörterung der Kriegsschuldfrage … [31].
‘In general, the tendency to see in the outbreak of a world war only the bad luck that has nothing to do with what is in the minds of participants involved in the surrounding events is determined by a number of serious reasons and definitely has some advantages over the old, too formal comprehension of the war guilt...’

The tactics of decreasing the importance of the past via its classification is not typical for German mass media either. While implementing the tactics, a text-producer includes some periods of the past into different classifications, refers them to particular categories thus qualifying the periods of the past as elements of generic concepts. In this case a particular event loses its urgency and importance; it is presented and perceived by the addressee as one of a type or class. The relevant linguistic means are abstract vocabulary, lexical units describing objects and processes of intellectual activity. The text below presents contemplation on the past in which the text-producer emphasizes prejudices, experience and knowledge/scientific conclusions. The political and historical events in Europe before 1939 are categorized under the concept of “European concert” and contrasted with the concept “European balance”. The difference between the two, in the author’s opinion, is either presence or absence of balance of forces, pressure, threats, compulsion from the more powerful partner. Thus, the situation in the past is presented to the addressee as one of the types of relationship between participants:

16. Vielleicht sind es Vorurteile, vielleicht Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse, zu denen wir uns mühsam durchgerungen haben. Immer stammen sie aus der Vergangenheit, aus der Geschichte, aus einer Zeit, die einmal war. Die europäische Geschichte und die europäische Politik wurden bis zum Jahre 1939 bestimmt durch den Begriff des “europäischen Konzerts”, des Zusammenwirkens der europäischen Großmächte, wobei das “europäische Gleichgewicht” nur eine besondere harmonische Kräftelage ausdrücken sollte, die das Zusammenarbeiten des “Konzerts” ohne einseitigen Druck, ohne dauernde Drohung eines übermächtigen und übermütigen Gewalthabers sicherte [31].
‘Perhaps this is prejudice; perhaps it is experience and knowledge that we have acquired with great effort. They always come from the past, from history, from the time it had once been. Until 1939 European history and European policy had been defined by the concept of the concert of Europe and by cooperation of the great powers of Europe, and upon that the concept of European balance had been used to denote particular harmonious arrangement of forces enabling collaboration of the Concert without unilateral pressures, without prolonged threats from the party having the upper hand’.

Appendix 1. Strategic and Tactical Organization  of Presenting the Past in German Mass Media

Strategy of Negative Presentation Of The Past 44,1 %	%	Strategy of positive presenting of the past 26,2 %	%
1	2	3	4
ARGUMENTATIVE TACTICS
PSYCHOLOGICAL ARGUMENTATION
tactics of appealing to negative images and stereotypes	15.24 %	tactics of argumentation by confirmation of value of the past	16.2 %
tactics of appealing to ethnic ethical arguments	15.24 %	tactics of initiation of sharing positive qualifying by identification	13.5 %
tactics of appealing to negative individual addressee’s experience	12.38 %	tactics of appealing to ethnic ethical arguments	12.6 %
tactics of initiation of sharing negative qualification by identification	10.48 %	tactics of appealing to positive individual addressee’s experience	8.1 %
tactics of confirmation of necessity of replacement of the past	5.72 %	tactics of appealing to positive images and stereotypes	7.2 %
tactics of argumentation by description of unpleasant consequences	476 %	tactics of argumentation by the description of positive consequences	7.2 %
tactics of argumentation by admission of guilt	1.9 %	tactics of nostalgic mythology	6.3 %
FORMAL AND LOGICAL ARGUMENTATION
tactics of appealing to the authority	17.14 %	tactics of formal argumentation	10.8 %
tactics of formal argumentation	12.38 %	tactics of appealing to the authority	10 %
tactics of logical argumentation	4.76 %	tactics of logical argumentation	8.1 %
total	100 %	total	100 %
COMPOSITIONAL TACTICS
tactics of expanding consistent argumentation	28.26 %	tactics of negative contrasting of contextual framing	32.61 %
tactics of violation of the reader’s expectations	19.57 %	tactics of expanding consistent argumentation	19.57 %
tactics of concentrated accenting	15.22 %	tactics of concentrated accenting	15.22 %
tactics of positive contrasting contextual framing	13.04 %	tactics of violation of the reader’s expectations	13.04 %
tactics of reverse argumentation	13.04 %	tactics of reverse argumentation	13.04 %
tactics of recurrent argumentation	10.87 %	tactics of recurrent argumentation	6.52 %
total	100 %	total	100 %

Continuation of appendix 1

1                                2                                             3	4
STRATEGY OF ALIENATING NEUTRALIZED PRESENTING OF THE PAST
tactics of transference of accent from event to its commemoration	32.19 %
tactics of moralistic interpretation	20.69 %
tactics of summarizing illustrative theoretization	18.39 %
tactics of metahistorical reflection	13.79 %
tactics of qualifying fragments of the past	11.49 %
tactics of de-realizing anonymization	3.45 %
Total	100 %

Conclusion

In mass media, re-actualization of collective memory content implies presentation and transmission of the transformed image of the past to mass addressees. Thus, social communication as performed by mass media presupposes manipulation of social consciousness achieved by artificial stimulation of particular reactions from the message recipient and the use of priming-effects provided by selective and interpretive functions of mass media. Message construction is based on tactics and strategy selected, while ‘managing’ communicative action is dependent on the subject-object relationship of the addresser and addressee and the message-producer changes the cognitive and axiological components of the communicative space of the addressee.

The strategy of negative presentation of the past is more typical indicating that German mass media predominantly appeal to the past to create a positive picture of the present, legitimize the power and support innovations. The strategies of positive and negative presentations of the past are based on common mental mechanisms and implemented with the help of the same set of tactics. The research shows that psychological argumentation prevails upon the formality and logic, thus signifying the manipulative nature of the impact. The negative picture of the past is typically presented and translated via argumentative tactics of appealing to authority and the compositional tactics of expanding consistent argumentation. The positive image of the past is created with the use of the argumentative tactics of confirmation of the value of the past and compositional tactics of negative contrasting of contextual framing. Re-actualization of the past is mostly performed via transferring the emphasis from the event to its commemoration. The least relevant is the tactics of de-realizing anonymization as it hampers educational and propagandist functions of mass media. The authors of the article view memory as a cognitive structure with an emotional index. Emotions are important operators to estimate one’s experience, and serve as the foundation for qualifying an event, that is why value judgment of the past implies appeal to the emotional sphere of the addressee. Discourse manifests re-actualization of the collective memory content and significance of re-interpretation of the past. Application of the socially important memorized information implies selection, combination and evaluation of past events. Collective memory re-actualization also presupposes partner influence, both real or illusive, creation of some “common reality”, or a communicative space. The addressee participating in producing a message is involved in a dialogue, identifying himself and thus separating and confirming his national and group identities. The interpretive, intentional and communicative nature of collective memory is manifested in language.

About the authors

Larisa N. Rebrina

Volgograd State University

Email: lnrebrina@volsu.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0512-980X

Doctor Habil. of Philology, Leading Researcher, Professor, Department of Foreign Language Communication and Linguodidactics

100, Prospect Universitetskij, 100, Volgograd, Russian Federation, 400062

Marina I. Solnyshkina

Kazan Federal University

Email: mesoln@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1885-3039

Doctor Habil. of Philology, Professor of the Department of Theory and Practice of Teaching Foreign Languages, Head and Chief Researcher of Research Lab “Text Analytics”, Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication

18, Kremlevskaya Str., Kazan, Russian Federation, 420021

Tatyana A. Soldatkina

Kazan Federal University; Mari State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: fia.vr.solta@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8198-6550

Candidate of Philology, Chief Researcher of Research Lab Laboratory “Expert Systems for Processing Language Structures and Vibroacoustics”, State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education “Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University”, Associate Professor of the Department of English Philology, Mari State University

18, Kremlevskaya Str., Kazan, Russian Federation, 420021; 1, Lenina sq., Yoshkar-Ola, Russian Federation, 424000

References