FUNCTIONS OF RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY IN AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of the functional aspect of religious vocabulary in the American presidential discourse. The work is carried out within the framework of a communicative-functional scientific paradigm. The purpose of the study is to analyze the functioning of religious vocabulary in the implementation of communicative strategies and tactics in the American presidential discourse of the twenty-first century. The genre types of political discourse are considered, in particular, the presidential discourse and its features. The following types of presidential discourse are singled out as ritual, orientational and agonistic. The features of the use of religious vocabulary in the inaugural speeches of American presidents, their interviews and pre-election appeals of the 21st century are analyzed. Religious vocabulary in the investigated texts is represented by three groups, namely: general religious vocabulary, biblical words, and quotations from the Bible. The most representative group is the general-religious vocabulary, in particular, the following lexical units: God, Creator, Bible, Scripture. The functions of religious vocabulary in the implementation of strategies and tactics in the American presidential discourse are considered. The largest number of investigated lexical units belonging to religious vocabulary serves to implement the strategy of forming the emotional mood of the addressee (35%) through the tactics of taking into account his value orientations and unity; self-presentation strategy (30%) through tactics of identification, opposition and solidarity; argumentative strategy (20%) through tactics of validated assessments and contrastive analysis; agitation strategy through appeal tactics (10%); information-interpretation strategy (5%) through the tactics of recognizing the existence of the problem and emphasizing positive information.