Government statement as a genre of political discourse(on the example of the speeches of the German chancellors A. Merkel and O. Scholz)

Abstract

The article examines the genre of a government statement in Germany in terms of political content and linguopragmatic specificities. It should be noted that this genre can be described as orientational-ritual, which is characterized by informing and integration strategies, as well as self-praise and tactics of promises. The texts of the speeches follow a virtually set structure. The authors’ aim is to analyze linguopragmatic specificities of the government statements made by German chancellors on taking office using the examples of speeches by A. Merkel in 2018 and O. Scholz in 2021. During the research, the following methods were used: academic literature analysis, discursive analysis, text analysis, contextual analysis, quantitative method, comparison, and generalization. The study is quite relevant due to the fact that the German chancellors’ government statements were practically not analyzed from the linguistic point of view. This approach was partially used in the works of E. Hermann, but at the same time, it is typical of German authors to consider mostly political content and the influence of government statements, which can be seen in the book edited by K. F. Korte. Among Russian researchers, D. S. Slyusarev focused on linguistic analysis of government statements. The work is logically divided into two major parts, namely political and linguistic analysis. In analyzing the political component, the authors examined the political situation in Germany at the time of the Bundestag elections of 2018 and 2021 and the assumption of power by A. Merkel and O. Scholz. In the process of linguopragmatic and discursive analysis of the speeches, the following features were noted: the use of gender-symmetric forms, idioms and metaphors, intertextuality, wordplay. Government statements are characterized by plenty of culturally marked vocabulary, which can be explained by the topic of the speeches.