Political linguistics

Early 20th Century

Initially, discipline was considered a kind of stylistic or rhetorical research. The material on the topic was more likely to be recommendatory or critical, that is, it was intended to show its readers how to achieve success in public speaking or other public speech activities, including in the political sphere. Especially actively studied various aspects of the rhetorical skills of political leaders and their "exposure".

20s - 50s

The formation of political linguistics as a separate science took place after the First World War, which led to numerous human losses (9.5 million people), the disappearance of 4 empires from the political map of the world, redistribution of state borders, a radical change in people's perception of the world. ^[1] In the world that changed after it, the study of political communication and its relationship with socio-political processes became more and more necessary. The experience of the propaganda confrontation of the warring countries clearly demonstrated that knowledge of the mechanisms of manipulating public opinion is of high scientific and humanitarian value. The most significant works of this period are related to the activities of Walter Lippmann , who was engaged in the creation of propaganda leaflets for the Allied army in France. It is Lippman who authored the concept of “agenda-setting process”, that is, highlighting some issues in political communication and hushing up others. Thus, the scientist distinguished between the real relevance of a particular problem and its “importance” in the perception of society. ^[2] W. Lippmann also made the first attempt to apply content analysis to study human perceptions of the political situation in the world. In 1920, he published a study of the texts of The New York Times block of materials on the October Revolution of 1917, which clearly demonstrated that the average American could not have any objective opinion on the events taking place in the world due to the anti-Bolshevik bias of the analyzed texts.

Another researcher of this period is P. Lazarsfeld . He studied the dependence of electoral behavior on campaigning in the media. His research is most famous for the 1940s presidential election. For six months, Lazarsfeld interviewed a focus group of 600 people in order to determine the effectiveness of the campaign (in particular, political media texts). According to the results of the study, it was found that only 54 respondents changed their opinions about the candidates, and even fewer respondents did so because of information published in the media.

The Second World War (more destructive in scale than the first) exacerbated the need for research and understanding the role of language in politics. A significant contribution to the establishment and development of political linguistics at this stage. in addition to communication specialists, the British writer George Orwell and the German literary critic Victor Klemper, critically examining the totalitarian discourse, contributed. Modern political linguists often celebrate the prophetic gift of George Orwell , who in his 1984 work, written in 1947, clearly demonstrated how to use a language to make a person believe lies and consider it a true truth, how exactly one can lay the foundation for state ideology oxymoronic slogans “War is peace”, “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is power”. In particular, the principles of “doublethinking” were described in the novel and the dictionary of “newspeak” was given , that is, the methods of verbal manipulation of the human mind with the aim of gaining and maintaining power in a totalitarian state were described ^[3] The “newspeak” described by J. Orwell is the fruit of his imagination. And the German philologist Victor Klemper himself for 12 years watched the fascist “newspeak” and described it in his book “LTI. The language of the Third Reich. Notes of the philologist. " The practice of the fascist “newspeak” turned out to be more diverse and sophisticated than the imagination of J. Orwell.

60s - 80s

In these years - the years of the Cold War - a new concept of “nuclear language” appears in the conceptual apparatus of linguistics, which politicians use to justify the possible use of nuclear weapons and the catastrophic consequences of this event. Metaphorical images of a possible nuclear catastrophe appear in the texts (“nuclear winter”, “nuclear apocalypse”, “arsonists of war”, etc.). In addition, during this period, studies of political vocabulary, theory and practice of political argumentation, political metaphors are carried out, the practice of the functioning of the political language in political debates, election campaigns is investigated; the scientific apparatus of political linguistics is being specified. At this time, the attention of specialists was focused on the study of communicative practice in modern Western democracies. These studies have shown that in conditions of “freedom”, language manipulation of consciousness is constantly used.

End of XX Century and Beginning of XXI Century

During this period, two significant events in the world take place: the end of cold water and the beginning of “perestroika” in Russia. Against this background, “globalization” of political linguistics is taking place. It attracts the attention of specialists in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other countries. In the post-Soviet space, the problems of political linguistics, which were previously inaccessible for research for political reasons, are being actively mastered. the sphere of scientific interests of scientists is expanding, new aspects of the interaction of language, power and society (the discourse of terrorism, political correctness, social tolerance, fundamentalist discourse, etc.) are being studied. Political linguistics is becoming an independent scientific direction with its subject and object of study, methodological apparatus, scientific schools (Yekaterinburg , Tyumen, Volgograd, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Krasnodar) ^[4] .

There are two fundamentally different approaches to the subject of political linguistics.
The first defines the meaningful boundaries of political linguistics as coinciding with political discourse or discursive analysis of politics. This approach considers political linguistics as one of the sections of applied linguistics. According to this approach, “the subject of political linguistics is political discourse as a set of discursive practices that identify participants in political discourse as such, or form a specific topic of political communication” ^[5] .
The second approach considers political linguistics as an independent, interdisciplinary and integrated scientific direction. According to this approach, the subject of the study of political linguistics is political communication, that is, speech activity focused on the propaganda of certain ideas, the emotional impact on citizens of the country and their incitement to political actions, in order to develop social harmony, make and justify social and political decisions in a multiplicity of points vision in society. ^[6] French sociologist R. Schwarzenberg wrote that political communication for the political system "is the same as blood circulation for the human body" ^[7] The main goal of political linguistics is to study the diverse relationships between language, thinking, communication, political actors and political the state of society, which creates the conditions for developing optimal strategies and tactics of political activity. ^[eight]

Concepts related to political communication.

• Political communication is the process of communication between political actors. :
• Political language is a variant of the national language oriented to the sphere of politics.
• Political text - a text intended to influence the political situation through the propaganda of political ideas, emotional impact on citizens and their incitement to political actions. A political text is characterized by a direct or indirect focus on the distribution and use of political power.
• The style of a political language is the speech features of the use of the national language that are characteristic of a certain politician, a certain political organization. For example, representatives of liberal views actively use foreign political terms, and representatives of national - patriotic forces prefer traditional Russian words and expressions.
• The genre of political speech is a means of individualizing the text. According to their functional purpose, they distinguish: ritual genres (greeting, inaugural address, etc.), orientation genres (decrees, reports, agreements, etc.), agonal genres (slogan, leaflet, speech at the rally), informative genres (newspaper publication, appeal citizens to politicians).
• Political Discourse . It does not have a single definition. In Russian science, discourse is defined as current speech activity in this area. By the definition of T. A. van Dyck, discourse is a complex unity of language form, meaning and action, which corresponds to the concept of “communicative event”. In the figurative expression of N. D. Arutyunova, discourse is speech immersed in life.
• A rally discourse is a type of political discourse in which the political and communicative situation “rally” influences the content and design of texts.
• Values ​​and anti-values. Value is what political actors consider important for themselves, what they are striving for, and what they are ready to fight for. For example, "Highest Values ​​- Man." Anti-values ​​- that which is perceived as undesirable, harmful, against which the subjects of political activity are fighting. For example, corruption, terrorism.

The study of linguistic, textual, or discursive phenomena

In this area, specialists study units related to a particular language level (vocabulary, phraseology, morphology, syntax), or text units - genre features of political texts, their composition, means of communication between parts, textual means of emphasizing meanings, etc. Also in this area of ​​research is the study of the so-called "speech behavior."

The Study of Modern Political Language

This area of ​​research in political linguistics is devoted to the dynamics of metaphorical systems and the correlation between the evolution of political metaphors and changes in the socio-political situation in the world, in particular, their archetypal properties and variability. The first property is expressed in the fact that the system of political metaphors has a stable core, does not change over time and is reproduced in political communication for many centuries, that is, any country in the modern world political metaphors remain unchanged, reflect the stable determinants of human consciousness or the archetypes of the collective unconscious. And the second, which contradicts it, is that the development of culture, science, political events and technology cannot but affect their evolution and change.

Investigation of the general laws of political communication - the study of the idiostyle of various political leaders, political directions and parties

This area of ​​research is devoted to the study of idiolects by the so-called “speech portraits” of leading politicians. Specialists also strive to characterize the role of idiostyle in shaping the charismatic perception of a politician, and turn to the peculiarities of speech of specific political leaders. In a separate group should be allocated studies on the relationship of political position and speech means of its expression. In particular, it was found that political extremists (both right and left) are more likely to use metaphorical images. It is easy to notice the increased aggressiveness of the speech of a number of modern politicians who adhere to nationalist views. Of particular interest is the comparison of metaphors in the communicative practice of politicians from different states. The work of J. Charteris-Black, studying the rhetoric of British and American politicians, shows how metaphors are regularly used in the speeches of political leaders of the USA and Great Britain to actualize the necessary emotive associations and create political myths about monsters and messiahs, villains and heroes. Such studies make it possible to identify the preferences of specific politicians in choosing a particular conceptual field for describing political reality. For example, the “iron lady” M. Thatcher is prone to military metaphors, George W. Bush actively uses criminal images, and S. Berlusconi prefers football metaphors.

Monographs and study guides

• Baranov A. N. Introduction to Applied Linguistics: Textbook. allowance. / A.N. Baranov; - M.: Editorial URSS, 2001.— 360 p.
• Budaev E.V., Chudinov A.P. Foreign political linguistics. M .: Science; Flint, 2008 .-- 352 p.
• Budaev E.V., Chudinov A.P. Modern political linguistics. Yekaterinburg: Ural State Pedagogical University, 2006 .-- 252 p.
• van Dyck, Theun A. Language. Cognition. Communication: Per. from English / Comp. V.V. Petrova; Ed. V. I. Gerasimova; Entry Art. Yu. N. Karaulova and V.V. Petrova. - M .: Progress, 1989 .-- 312 p.
• Contemporary Political Linguistics: A Textbook / E. V. Budaev, M. B. Voroshilova, E. V. Dzyuba, N. A. Krasilnikova; open ed. A.P. Chudinov; Ural. state ped un-t - Yekaterinburg, 2011 .-- 252 p.
• Parshin P. B. Research Practices, Subject and Methods of Political Linguistics / In Scripta linguisticae applicatae. Problems of applied linguistics. Moscow, 2001.
• Romanov A. A. Political Linguistics: A Functional Approach. Moscow-Tver: INR RAS, TvSU, 2002 .-- 191 p.
• Tikhonova M. S. Political Linguistics: Textbook. allowance / M. S. Tikhonova; Omsk State University. - Omsk, 2012 .-- 132 s.
• Chudinov A.P. Political Linguistics: Textbook. allowance / A.P. Chudinov; Flint Publishing House, Science. - Moscow. 2006 .-- 256 s.
• Shapochkin D. V. Political discourse: cognitive aspect (inaccessible link) / D. V. Shapochkin: Publishing House of the Tyumen State University. - Tyumen. 2012 .-- 260 p.
• Sheigal E. I. Semiotics of Political Discourse / E. I. Sheigal. - Volgograd, 2000 .-- 431 p.
• Schwarzenberg R.-J. Political Sociology. M., 1992 .-- 175 s.

Articles

• Baranov A.N. Political discourse: farewell to the ritual // Man. - 1997. - No. 6. - S. 108-118.
• Voroshilova M. B. “Political Linguistics”: Milestones of Development // Pedagogical Education in Russia. - 2014. - No. 1. - S. 45-48.
• Pimenova M.V. Political Conceptual System // Political Linguistics. - 2010. - No. 2 (32). - S. 47-57.
• Sinelnikova L.N. Political Linguistics: Coordinates of Interdisciplinarity // Political Linguistics. - 2009. - No. 30. - S. 41-47.

• Scientific journal 'Political Linguistics'
• Arutyunova N. D. Discourse // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary . - M .: SE, 1990. - ISBN 5-85270-031-2 .