HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND IDEOLOGICAL STAMPS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the interpretation of historical narrative in the context of political discourse. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate what language means are used to create ideological texts interpreting historical events. The article states that political discourse practices, adopted in any given society, are designed to give the “right” interpretation of the original historical narrative for public use. One of the most characteristic features of political discourse is the use of cliches and stock phrases. The article presents the analysis of how language expressions acquire stock phrases status, and it also stresses that figures of speech have the tendency of transformation in cliches which primarily have not a reference value, but a powerful evaluation capacity, based on the non-triviality, distinctiveness and novelty of expression. The article states that in the political discourse metaphors play a crucial role. Metaphors form their semantic bridgehead in the socio-political discourse. Journalistic metaphors are focused on the estimated effect generation - positive or negative, and they give to a discourse a dynamic saturation or a confrontational tension. Suggestive capacities of cliches are actively used by political technologists in the development of ideologies which provide power control over the public consciousness through the imposition of stereotypes and mental schemes introduced in the cognitive frameworks of a society. It is believed that the role of the ideological cliches is mostly pronounced in the states with tough political regime. However, ideological cliches equally inherent in political discursive practices of western countries which consider themselves as democratic ones, these cliches are accurately integrated in the social value system and corresponding language picture of a society.