Socio-cultural conditions for public political rhetoric in the Italian language of the 19th–21st centuries (lexical aspect)

Abstract

One of the main structural units of the political discourse of any language is its socio-political vocabulary, which is an integral part of the lexical system of the language reflecting a combination of the political and social characteristics of society. Such a complex of lexical units is designed not only to convey to the audience the views of any politician, but also to affect the society through vibrant and clear speech patterns determined by existing ideological values. The socio-political vocabulary is inevitably transformed following the changes in the domestic and foreign policy of the country. This evolutionary process brings neologisms, some of which are firmly fixed in the language. This article is an attempt to evaluate the influence of the historical context on the evolution of the socio-political vocabulary of the Italian language through the examination of a number of its key features which reflect certain milestones of the country’s development and history. It considers the most vivid and widely used political terms, which are products of the linguistic creativity of statesmen in various periods of Italian history since the emergence of the single state in 1861 to the present day. The paper analyzes the factors that had a direct impact on the formation of these lexical units and the connection between personal characteristics of certain Italian politicians with their choice of terms intended to appeal both to their supporters and opponents. The article describes some aspects of the transformation process of the political language into popular language designed to ensure effective communication with the electorate.