Pejoratives as a means of verbal manipulation in the English discourse of social media TikTok and Twitter in the context of anti-Ukrainian propaganda

Abstract

In the course of the informational component of the Russian Federation’s hybrid war against Ukraine, social networks remain a powerful weapon of Russian propaganda. Kremlin Internet trolls have chosen social networks as a tool for spreading anti-Ukrainian narratives, the latter social networks today are a favorable platform for the use of manipulative technologies of verbal influence. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin trolls have emphasized the intensification of their work in the English-speaking segment of the social network, and they are especially active on one of the most popular social networks today, TikTok and Twitter. Language is the most powerful means of manipulation; accordingly, effective manipulation of consciousness is practically impossible without the use of verbal means of manipulation. That is why the study of strategies, tactics and linguistic means of verbal manipulation, which are used to spread anti-Ukrainian narratives, is an important task for modern linguistic studies. The purpose of the study is the analysis of verbal means of manipulative influence, which are used to spread anti-Ukrainian narratives, in particular, such a powerful linguistic means of manipulative discourse as pejorative vocabulary. To solve the tasks set in the work, the method of information analysis, the synthesis method, the continuous sampling method, and the descriptive method was used. It was found that to spread anti-Ukrainian narratives in the English-language segment of social networks TikTok and Twitter, Kremlin trolls resort to such manipulative means as discrediting strategies and tactics of criticism and accusations, the implementation of which is achieved through the use of pejorative vocabulary. Identifying and analyzing the means of verbal manipulation used by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda is one of the primary tasks for researchers in the fields of humanities, social and behavioral sciences because the spread of anti-Ukrainian propaganda threatens the image of Ukraine, can provoke inter-ethnic and inter-racial conflicts, and also carries a threat to diplomatic relations with partner countries.