2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
The paper provides an overview of the main trends in the study of the Russian political media discourse. Three stages in the development political media linguistics in Russia are identified. The first two phases developed as part of functional stylistics. The first saw the establishing of the space distribution and the major features of the social and political discourse, the identifying of linguistic resources role in the expression of these features, and the defining of avenues of typological study. The second stage involves analyzing the speech and genre in the structure of social and political discourse and highlighting the constitutive stylistic features of each of the dedicated text types. The third stage — actual media linguistics — is associated with the development of a comprehensive praxeological approach, in which political discourse is considered as space for political action. For this analysis techniques developed in different areas of communicative linguistics are used. The analysis reveals the linguistic expression in the discourse of actors in political life, political relations between them, shows how the genre structure of the media discourse “adapts” to reflect the ongoing political analysis of reality. As a result, the author concludes that the political discourse has become for researchers the field upon which the formation of almost all domestic communication-oriented linguistics takes place.
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
This article offers a survey of academic research in the field of political linguistics in Slovakia in the early 21st century. The author of the article concludes that political linguistics as a specific interdisciplinary field of research still runs from its very starting points in present-day Slovakia. Explicit nomination of this scientific field is still missing due to the absence of a united academic platform, including journals for the publishing of respective research outputs. However, in the course of the last two decades a number of particular academic studies have appeared dealing with various topics relevant for analysis of public discourse as well as linguistic aspects of political communication mostly in synchronic perspective. Many of these studies examine discursive nature of specific political processes and phenomena, including those with high international resonance (terrorism, Euroscepticism, social and religious tolerance, etc.). It should be noted that studies dealing with comparative analysis of political discourse in different linguistic areas have also become quite attractive. Finally, the author concludes that content analysis of political discourse has not yet been developed in Slovakia, nevertheless, studies on critical and rhetorical analysis of political discourse are on the grow whereas the most prominent place is being taken by the studies focusing on cognitive research of political discourse.
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
Considerations of linguistic perspectives in the functioning of the text forms and ways, in which they are interpreted in the media, leads to the study of numerous media phenomena in the print and electronic media. All of them leave “footprints” in different formats of communicative behavior, reflect actions of social subsystems (publishing houses, search engines, radio and television corporations etc.), which determine the essence of media communication. It is the media speech that becomes the study subject in media linguistics. Media linguistics is a relatively young linguistic discipline that is concerned with the use of language in mass media communication. Media linguistics is placed at the intersection of linguistics and media, reflects a wide dynamic in information transmission and in speech. The current state of media linguistics in Germany reflects the mentioned trend both in the context of the language actualization and in the definitions of dramatization and strategic actions of actors by the representation of reality. The role and place of the mass media in the construction of socially relevant discourses is particularly shown in the review. The modern development of media linguistics in Germany is occurring against the backdrop of active study of the forms and functions in media communication in general and in media genres in particular. In recent years the development of media linguistics in the German-speaking media space is characterized by a variety of research approaches both in the theoretical and practical aspects and offers an objective field for research. The study of media products that are realized in the press, on radio, television, etc. determines new technological concepts of media linguistics as an independent scientific space. Obviously, its complete study requires a “sample” analysis of a wide range of media genres and media formats. Therefore, the system picture of mass media communication, including “new” media, needs a deep analysis of fundamental patterns in media linguistics and non-linguistic mechanisms — media reception and media persuasion.
Keywords: media actors, media environment, media linguistics, media linguistics in Germany, media persuasion, media reception, media text, new media, медиалингвистика, медиалингвистика в Германии, медиасреда, медиатекст, медийная рецепция, медийное воздействие, медийные акторы, новые медиа
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
The article introduces and discusses the notion of cultural modality as one of the instruments of forming a peculiar axiological context of political mass media discourse. Axiological context is formed on three levels of information structure of the text which represents the discourse under study: (1) the level of the language verbalization of the message, (2) discursive level formatting the message, and (3) cultural level aimed at translating cultural values and norms into the text. The cultural level is an axiological space within which cultural modality is realized. The evaluation, which this type of modality renders, involves the correlation of the object of assessment with cultural norms accepted in this or that linguistic and cultural community: at the same time scaling “to approve — to disapprove” is performed between the poles of good and evil. Cultural modality is triggered by evaluation markers which explicate value vectors of a particular linguistic and cultural community. Cultural modality is inevitably aligned with ideological modality, which is generated at the discursive level of the formation of the media text, on the one hand, and cultural meanings that are generated at the linguistic level of text formation, on the other. Creating new sources of modalization, cultural modality contributes to agonality of the text. The main purpose of cultural modality in political media texts is to identify us and them, distance oneself from them, discredit or even demonize them. Thus, cultural modality is one of the most important axiogenic sources of the text as a whole.
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
Principles governing contemporary metamorphosis of political communication influence its studies. Additionally, the main spheres of research interest in on political communication are determined in clear correspondence with these rules. Current studies in the area of political communication partly belong to political communication and to some extent are absorbed or infected by it. It results in confusion of views on media researcher’s obligations. In particular, voices emerge that he or she is obliged to deliver outcomes which can be easily mediatized or politicized (this is expected to ensure some alleged positive impact on transformation within the field of media and politics). In this context it is rather not surprising that contemporary research on political communication rarely starts from questioning which dimensions of human existence should/may be or should not/may not be mediatized or politicized. Moreover, representatives of studies on political communication not infrequently excessively ensure that they offer some kind of well-founded and reliable knowledge. However, the conclusions presented by them usually have to be asserted as nothing more than some functional idiosyncrasy.
Keywords: cognitive horizon of studies on political communication, political communication, politicization and mediatization of studies on political communication, studies on political communication, исследования политической коммуникации, когнитивный горизонт исследований политической коммуникации, политизация и медиатизация исследований политической коммуникации, политическая коммуникация
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
The article contains the analysis of basic communicative strategies employed by the participants of TV debates, a type of political discourse. The study was conducted using the videos of the Trump — Clinton debate during the 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 which are the top characteristics of this type of discourse. 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 to project 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 with the aim to create a more beneficial personal profile. In the end, the author suggests using the conclusions made in teaching oratory and effective public speaking techniques to students.
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
Media speech reflects most vividly problems in the functioning of language and ongoing processes in speech practice. That is why in its mirror we often examine the speech of politicians which is directly related to the main trends in speech practice — intellectualization and democratization of speech. To designate the two styles of political discourse, the article introduces two terminological phrases — Brussels newspeak and populist rhetoric. The Brussels newspeak — one of the styles in today's Bulgarian political communication — is in accordance with the process of intellectualization. A vivid expression of the process of democratization of speech is populist political discourse. The main characteristics of these styles are given. The competition between the two styles of political talk is based on a delicate balance in the political space. In the media field, there is a struggle between the participants in the conflict to make public think in the coordinate system of their concepts, understandings and values. These styles polarize and weaken public attitudes towards the verbal and non-verbal behavior of political actors and they are a serious challenge for journalists who must daily make choices as to whether to reflect an authentic political speech or abide by ethical journalistic standards and seek the truth.
2018
№ 2
(Vol. 5)
The article deals with phraseological structures (FS), which express cognitive stamps and clichés. This is the reason for the origin of adjacent syntactic units, serving as patterns for speech structures. The language of politics and media appears to be a productive source of these stamps and clichés. Articles from the Arguments and Facts journal, published in 2014–2017, featuring urgent political stories, served as the illustrative material for this research. The article reveals the most popular phraseoschemes that have been transformed by the authors. These structures have been classified according to their role in the text: marking the topic, expressing the author’s attitude, establishing opposing views on the subject matter. In order to maximize the expressive potential and the modal-evaluating function, adjacent syntactic units are commonly exposed to the following transformations: transposition, substitution, addition, omission, unification, division. These transformations are associated with the language layers. Among the most common types are lexical, lexico-morphological and syntactic transformations: using words in the figurative meaning, changing narration to the interrogative form. The transformations considered in the article have a common evaluating function, which is expressed, in particular, in an intolerant attitude to the subject matter in mass media discourse.