Culture-bound words as a method of speech strategies in german political discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of culture-bound words as a method of verbal strategies of political discourse, aimed at both maintaining a positive image and verbal attacks against opponents and competing political parties. The relevance of research is due to insufficient knowledge of the lexical units with a national-cultural component from the standpoint of political linguistics. The material for the study included the speeches of the ruling parties’ leaders in Germany: Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union) and Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union) in the context of the “Political Ash Wednesday” 2017. Politicians’ statements containing culture-bound words were selected by continuous sampling method. The analysis revealed that the speakers deliberately used culture-bound words in order to implement their communicative intentions. Such units illustrate non-linguistic reality; they are directly related to the values of society and influence the recipient in communication. Using the statements of A. Merkel and H. Seehofer, the author identified five speech strategies (self-presentation and discredit strategies, informationinterpretation, manipulative and agitation strategies), and also established their relationship with the use of culture-bound words.