British Political Discourse Research Articles

Pragmatics of expressive syntax of texts of english political discourse as a problem of translation

Pragmatics of expressive syntax of texts of english political discourse as a problem of translation

Do South Asian Politicians Use More Metaphors Than Western Politicians? A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Of Metaphor In Bangladesh, British, And American Political Discourse

Several studies have investigated the relationship between metaphor and politics; however, no research has specifically focused on the use of metaphors by Bangladeshi politicians. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing the use of conceptual metaphors by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wazed, drawing from the three major source domains of CONFLICT, JOURNEY, and RELIGION. The findings are then compared to those from a study by Charteris-Black (2004), which examined variations in metaphor choice in the inaugural speeches of American Presidents and the party political manifestos of two British political parties from 1974-1997. Since there are no available corpora in the Bangladesh context, I compiled a corpus with 91 speeches from PM Hasina Wazed, containing a total of 101,490 words. Data was analyzed using AntConc software. As Bangladesh is a developing country where religion holds a significant influence, this paper sheds light on how economic development programs have impacted the use of metaphors, while surprisingly religion has not. Additionally, there are some shreds of evidence of family and personal elements appearing in the data.

National specificity of Kyrgyz and English gender political discourse

Relevance. Since the modern world is constantly transforming in terms of linguistic means, i.e. communication is undergoing several changes, there is a high need to study the national peculiarities of political gender discourses. Purpose. The study aims to provide a national interpretation of political discourse regarding gender aspects manifested in the context of linguistic and communicative parameters in the speech activities of male and female politicians. Methodology. The study analyzed political speeches by Kyrgyz and British politicians, examining linguistic parameters such as hesitation, categoricity, irony, and tone, to compare gender-specific communication strategies in both countries' political discourses. Results. This study presents the national specificity of Kyrgyz and British political gender discourse. The analysis identified the main differences between the speech activities of men and women politicians. In the Kyrgyz political discourse, men are characterised by hesitations, categorical and directness, irony, raising the tone of voice, active metaphorisation and hidden meanings. British political discourse in terms of male communication is characterised by a high degree of categoricity, almost no pauses, active use of irony, metaphorical and implicit means, and a moderate degree of emotionality. Conclusions. The Kyrgyz discourse reflects "soft power" approaches, while the British discourse shows women more actively defending their positions. Both discourses employ metaphorical language. These findings highlight the interplay between gender, national culture, and political communication styles. Keywords: speech; linguistic resources; implicitness; categoricity; emotionality

PERCEPTION OF RUSSIAN PANSLAVISM IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES N THE BEGINNING OF THE EASTERN CRISIS OF THE 1870S

During the Eastern Crisis of the 1870s, the British political elites followed with particular attention the Panslavic ideas expressed in Russia and often perceived them as a threat of the Russian Empire’s expansion into the Balkan Peninsula. However, at the very beginning of the Eastern Crisis, the British Parliament’s attitude to the Russian Panslavism was neutral or even positive and it had a considerable impact on British-Russian relations. Britain’s perception of Russian Panslavism during this short but significant period has not been researched yet. This article uses the materials of parliamentary debates to trace the transformation of images of Russian Panslavism in the British political discourse in 1876 and to analyze the mechanisms of their construction. The author identifies three models of interpretation of Russia’s “Slavic interests”, first, as “Slavic sympathies” of the Russian population, second, as Russia’s “territorial ambitions”, and third, as “Russian intrigues”, which allegedly instigated Slav uprisings against the Ottoman Empire. In the summer of 1876, the interpretation of Panslavism as sincere sympathies of Russian society for its Slavic brothers received the greatest weight in the British political discourse. This interpretation contributed to the formation of a more positive image of Russia and even a temporary change in the pro-Turkish policy of the British government. However, by the late 1876, British politicians increasingly began to suspect the Russian government of “subversive Panslavism”. The formation of images of Russian Panslavism in the political discourse of Great Britain was influenced not only the traditional patterns of British foreign policy, but also by the internal political struggle that escalated during the “Bulgarian agitation”. Panslavism was also interpreted ambiguously due to the lack of information, so politicians often based their judgments on stereotypes about Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan peoples. Finally, parliamentarians’ views were also affected by a rethinking of their own British identity. British politicians revisited issues of relevance to Britain’s own attitudes to the sovereignty of empires, the uprisings of colonized peoples, moral responsibility and Britain’s international mission.

The discursive formation of British national identity: the lexical aspect

British national identity has been in the zone of constant study by scientists for a long period of time, but after Brexit, interest in this topic has increased significantly. The British nation, especially the part of it that was on the side of the Eurosceptics, after Brexit was aimed at strengthening the British identity and completely destroying any influence of globalization on the British nation. But despite the expectations of the British, many scientists agree that the national British identity is still in crisis. Thus, the object of this research is the culture-bound lexical elements of the English-language political discourse of online mass media, and the purpose is to identify the current state of British national identity through the analysis of the words-realities of the British political discourse. Current works (not older than five years) by Russian and foreign scientists in the fields of political discourse and national British identity form the methodological basis of the research. The analysis of the culture-bound lexical elements of English-language political discourse is carried out on the basis of online media texts for the period January–April 2024, which makes the study innovative and reflects the trends of modern linguistic science. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the national British identity is in a state of crisis. Brexit and subsequent events gave the British nation hope for the ascent of national identity and the return of its former imperial greatness, but analyzing the current articles of British online publications on political topics, it becomes evident that international processes still prevail over the British identity. The further perspective of the research lies in the field of studying the discursive formation of British identity from the point of view of syntactic, grammatical, and social aspects.

Cross-Linguistic Stylistic Fusion: How English Political Discourse Shapes Russian Political Science Professionals

The pervasive impact of the English language on global linguistic landscapes is undeniable, with Russian being no exception to this trend. This study explores the extent to which English has influenced Russian-language political discourse, particularly focusing on the stylistic elements that have percolated into the vernacular of Russian student political scientists. Through a meticulously designed experiment, the authors investigated whether the continuous exposure to authentic English political texts – both oral and written – within a structured academic setting has led to the stylistic emulation in the students’ own Russian-language political speeches. Utilizing a complex analytical approach that combines linguistic-stylistic, functional-linguistic, structural-semantic, and statistical methods, the research revealed a notable incorporation of imagery and humor akin to that found in Anglophone political discourse. The findings of the study indicate that a majority of participants have adopted and actively employed stylistic devices such as humor, irony, self-irony, and expressive language tools in their speeches. These devices stand in stark contrast to the traditional tenets of Russian political oratory, suggesting a discursive-stylistic convergence with English norms. The implications of this study are twofold. Academically, it contributes to an understanding of cross-linguistic stylistic influences in an era of increasing globalization. Practically, the insights gleaned from this research have the potential to enhance the teaching methodologies for foreign language acquisition in the field of political science, ensuring that future professionals are equipped with a nuanced command of language that reflects contemporary communicative practices.

REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT «ОТБАСЫ / FAMILY» IN THE KAZAKH AND ENGLISH POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article talks about how the concept “otbasy/family” is represented in the Kazakh and English political discourse. Representative feature of the language as one of the most functional characteristics of human includes the ability to see the world and accordingly it can represent the representation of this world in its semantic and conceptual spheres. All, what is significant in the world and in the reality surrounding us cannot be but verbalized by the means of human language. In other words, it means that every pattern of language goes through the process of language nomination and find its adequate linguistic representation in different forms. The materials of the study were political speeches of the American politicians such as Donald Trump, Joe Biden and inaugural speech of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym Jomart Tokayev. We took political discourse in order to show figurative meaning and language modification of the concept of "otbasy/family". Conceptual (conceptual) analysis, lexical-semantic and comparison methods were used during the research. As a result of such a study, it became possible, on the basis of comparative studies of linguistic units, to determine the ethnic specificity of the mentality of these peoples, to reflect the linguistic features and linguistic and cultural nature, the specificity of consciousness and thinking of each nation.

The Semantic Space of Concepts in Modern British Political Discourse

The article examines the semantic space of concepts in modern British political discourse. The basic concepts of GOVERNMENT, POLITICAL EVENTS, CITIZEN and ECOLOGY in the British press are analysed, taking into account: 1) the main, dominant, feature; 2) additional “passive” features; 3) the actualization of the internal hidden form. It was determined that these characteristics allow the concepts to be updated on different levels, as well as to be perceived by carriers of different cultures in different ways. On the basis of the content-analysis of modern British media contexts and semantic network analysis, a field model of the political discourse of the modern British press was constructed. It is proved that all the presented sub-concepts are at the final stage of formation in British political language consciousness, which is indicated by the high density of political discourse lexemes that objectify these sub-concepts.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПЕРЕВОДА ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ БЕЗЭКВИВАЛЕНТНОЙ ЛЕКСИКИ В РАМКАХ МЕДИА- ДИСКУРСА (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ THE NEW YORK TIMES)

The article examines the issues of the non-equivalent vocabulary translation in the sphere of English political media discourse. Today, due to the processes of globalization and the expansion of the media space, the issues of translation of the non-equivalent language units in different spheres, including lexical units in the sphere of media discourse, become more and more relevant. Because of the rapid development of political relations between countries, new words appear in the media that may not have their exact equivalents in the target language, which becomes one of the most challenging tasks not only for the translator, but also for translation studies, lexicology, intercultural communication and other linguistic disciplines as a whole. The aim of this article is to consider the main problems and ways of translating the non-equivalent vocabulary of modern political topics, to analyze the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the translation of the non-equivalent vocabulary in the media discourse, and to draw conclusions about which translation techniques are the most common and adequate when translating the non-equivalent lexical units in the social and political texts of the media discourse. In order to achieve the aim in the article we have reviewed the existing classifications of the elements of the field of the non-equivalent vocabulary, provided the basic research terms, as well as analyzed the translation techniques, typical for the political texts of mass-media discourse. Having carried out a comprehensive analysis of the studied material, it is noted that if the lexical unit of a media discourse text belongs to the field of non-equivalent lexical units, the ways and the adequacy of its rendering is determined not only by lexical and grammatical transformations, but also by extralinguistic knowledge and the translator’s cultural grasp; the most difficult lexical elements for translation are political terms, jargon and emotive-evaluation vocabulary, the rendering of which is often determined by pragmatic aspect of the translation; the most common and adequate translation techniques were semantic development, compensation, descriptive translation, and contextual transposition.

Exploring the Cognitive and Semiotic Structuring of English Political Discourse: Implications for EFL Teaching

The paper delves into the cognitive and semiotic structuring of English political discourse and its implications for English as Foreign Language (hereinafter – EFL) teaching. The study aims to identify the linguistic means of concept verbalization and analyze their role in reproducing the cognitive and semiotic space in the discourse. The study’s findings suggest that English political discourse’s conceptual sphere is realized through linguistic signs designating cultural values relevant to American society. The analysis shows that the concepts PEOPLE, DEMOCRACY, and POWER are characterized by the highest frequency of usage in the analyzed corpus. The former are the symbols of national identity and contribute to better world discretization and reality structuring in the American people’s minds. By understanding the cognitive and semiotic structuring of English political discourse, EFL teachers can better equip their students to communicate effectively in the target language and develop their critical thinking and intercultural communicative skills.

ON DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FUTURE WORLD: AXIOLOGICAL ASPECT

The article considers the axiological aspect of the future world construction in the English political discourse. The image of the future is regarded as a mental structure shaped by linguoaxiological operations. Its content is predetermined by the axiological scenario of the present, encoded by language units. The critical role of the concept “innovation” in the construal of the future world image has been revealed. The tool kit of the future world construal consists of: 1) a cognitive script of the future; 2) means of its verbalization; 3) discourse illocutions. Axiologems that model the future world image are identified: “progressiveness”, “importance”, “necessity”, “completeness”, “fantasticality”.

Technology and older adults in British loneliness policy and political discourse.

This article provides an analysis of recent loneliness policy and political discourses from the United Kingdom pertaining to older adults. Although government asserts that several groups in society are "at risk" of loneliness, older adults remain the most frequent targets of policy interventions. Technology is positioned as playing a role in the causation and alleviation of loneliness. Little research has examined loneliness in political discourses. With a focus on how loneliness intersects with themes of technology and aging, this article presents an analysis of discourses guided by Bacchi's What is the Problem Represented to Be (WPR) framework. It endeavors to answer the following questions: What is the problem of loneliness among older adults represented to be, and what is the role of technology in this context - problem or solution? In the discourses, assertions are made that issues of loneliness, societal change and digital exclusion are intertwined. Lonely older adults are problematized as hard to find and thus connect with interventions, warranting surveillance measures like loneliness heatmaps. Technological interventions to assist older adults in maintaining independence and connections to social networks are often proposed as solutions. The findings indicate dominant discourses position older adults primarily as subjects in need of care and as non-users of technology. Technology is positioned as a cost-effective tool to fill gaps in an overburdened and under-funded social care system that compounds issues of loneliness. The author argues the neoliberal and stigmatizing undertones within the corpus may undermine efforts to combat loneliness. Further, austerity is silent in the dominant problematizations of loneliness, foreclosing upon alternatives that problematize loneliness as resulting from neoliberal policies that continue to dismantle public infrastructure and social care.

ПОБУДОВА ЖАНРУ «ПУБЛІЧНА ПРОМОВА ПОЛІТИКА» СУЧАСНОГО АНГЛОМОВНОГО ДИСКУРСУ

The article examines the structure of modern English political discourse's «public speech of a politician» genre. Nowadays, one of the urgent issues of modern linguistics is the study of discourse in terms of the speech behavior of a person in the broad context of his life activities in society. Directly, "discourse" is multifaceted and is used with different meanings. In the study, the authors used President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's speeches to the legislative bodies of other countries and online appeals to the world community regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war. The research proves that compositional clarity is essential in constructing the «public speech of a politician» genre. According to many researchers, the addressee needs to have a sense of proportion in the volume: the speech should be the topic and facts required at most. In particular, three blocks can be distinguished in the composition: – greetings to the audience; – the main part, and the summary. Each block differs in the corresponding graphic and linguistic stylistic embodiment. Attention is focused on convincing the audience and taking into account socio-cultural and historical factors, professional characteristics of listeners, and regional differences. The authors note that in each block, the president of Ukraine carefully chooses words to emphasize the importance of what he said. Using repetitions in his speeches, he expresses respect for the countries' leaders, appeals to the world community, and strives to build close associative ties between Ukraine and the states, to which he addresses and outlines the tragic nature of the current situation.

Gender Peculiarities of Modern English-Language Political Discourse

The paper examines the gender orientation of political discourse from a stylistic viewpoint. Gender markers contemporary English political discourse and the colloquial clichés that these markers form are analyzed. As politicians appear on the political stage, the verbalization of their political ideas is a new and promising oratorical experience. Therefore, the ways and means of analyzing the linguistic characteristics of politicians in terms of tenderness and benevolence seem to be a relevant and promising aspect of the study, given the linguistic and psychological features of intercultural communication.

An anatomy of the British war on woke

The British war on woke is an intensive ideological campaign against social justice movements that is mobilising far-right tropes and conspiracy theories within mainstream British political discourse. It sees itself in a battle of good versus evil, reason against the dark forces of pre-modernity, ‘Cultural Marxists’ and a ‘globalist elite’ intent on ruining ‘western civilisation’ and replacing ‘white’ British culture with woke multiculturalism. The authors examine this campaign’s discourses on various digital media including magazines, blogs, news sites and Twitter, and used search engines and a media database to capture a network graph of a community waging its war on woke. Using the graph metric of ‘betweenness centrality’, they isolate and visualise a small densely inter-connected homophily of political actors who share media platforms and cooperate with think-tanks, campaign groups, and ‘educational charities’. Using van Dijk’s concept of the ideological square, they explore the conceptual logics driving this campaign to its extreme positions, often justified on the basis of representing the interests of the British white working class.

Pragmatic Value of Hedging in British Political Discourse

Hedging is part and parcel of any discourse (either oral or written). It’s worth mentioning that the functions of hedges are not totally agreed on by the scholars. However, they all admit the multifunctional nature of this phenomenon and its dependence on the context. Mostly hedges imply lack of commitment, indicate politeness (negative and positive), fuzziness, lack of certainty, protecting one’s ego. Despite the extensive research carried out in this area, there are not so many studies that address the issue of hedging in political discourse. The aim of the present study is to analyse pragmatic value of hedging as a means of persuasion and manipulation. Main focus is given to prosodic features and their strategic role in hedging. The material comprises speeches of British politicians at conferences, press conferences, in British Parliament and political debates. The observations made in the paper proved that prosodic means (either in complex with other verbal means or in isolation) contribute to pragmatic effect of hedging in political discourse as a valuable tool to persuade people, to shape their opinion, to mark “us vs them” opposition, protect one’s ego and lack of personal involvement.

Interrogating the “economic migrant” in British political discourse: race, class, the economy and the human

ABSTRACT Over the past 30 years, the label “economic migrant” has become widely used in British political discourse. Yet it has not been subject to sustained scrutiny. Those that have considered how it is used have predominantly focused on its relationship to asylum. In this paper, I build on such work by examining some of the core ways the “economic migrant” is conceptualized in British political discourse. Based on an analysis of Hansard data and select British newspapers between 1983 and 2021, this article establishes three common formulations of the label. Then, drawing on work related to Man, race, class and the economy, it argues that in different ways – in part, depending on different policy contexts – these usages produce distinct class-based forms of racialization that are grounded in ideas of economic otherness. The “economic” in “economic migrant” plays a central to justifying inclusion and exclusion on classed, racialized terms.

«Сказочные» карикатуры как инструмент дискредитации в британском политическом дискурсе (на примере The Guardian)

The article considers the implementation of the discrediting strategy in the British political discourse of 2021—2023. The material of the study was political cartoons published in the Guardian, which contain iconic and verbal allusions to the plots of British folk and author's fairy tales. A fairy tale is considered as a precedent phenomenon presented with varying degrees of detail: at the level of a precedent name, a precedent situation, a precedent chronotope, a precedent plot, a precedent text. The interaction of iconic and verbal components is considered. It is shown that fairy-tale allusions turn out to be an effective tool for discrediting the portrayed politicians and the transformations they carry out, since they allow the addressee to build a dynamic image of a “man-in-situation” and predict the development of the situation. Precedent situations, in turn, make it possible to endow a character with a certain set of negative personal characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of readers' comments, on the basis of which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the effectiveness of the impact of the cartoon.

Бинарная концептуальная оппозиция «МЫ – ОНИ» в современном англоязычном политическом дискурсе

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They” in modern English political discourse. One of the frequent ways of speech manipulation in political discourse is the use of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They”, which has the central role in political discourse in general. It is established that the analyzed opposition is variable and can be used at different levels – external and internal. Materials and Methods. The speeches and statements of the President of the United States of America Joe Biden for the period from January 2 to February 24, 2023 are considered as the material of the study. The frequency of use of lexical units used to represent the opposition “We – They” is determined using the LancsBox corpus manager application. Analysis. It is identified that various strategies and tactics are used in political discourse to influence the recipients of information by politicians due to the need to prove their opinion, convince the recipients of the correctness of actions, emphasize their importance and significance for the whole country. The primary objective of the study is to systematize the discursive tools of speech influence in political discourse, which are based on conceptual oppositions. Results. The significance of the results lies in the possibility of using the obtained data for an adequate perception of the information presented in the political discourse, on the one hand, and for creating own political texts, on the other hand. The scientific novelty lies in the analysis of modern material and in the effort to build a linguistic model of the use of the binary conceptual opposition “We – They” in Joe Biden’s political discourse. The novelty is also characterized by the statistical data provided, obtained using automated text processing and the creation of an electronic corpus, which can be further expanded by speeches of other political figures. The adaptability of the developed electronic corpus opens up the possibilities of the further computer-aided study of binary conceptual oppositions in political discourse with reference to the methods of digital linguistics.

The notion of « white working class » in British political discourse, fro

Brexit has been considered as the vote of a « white working class » by a significant part of the media, politicians, and academics. This expression became rapidly mainstream despite its atypical construction. One can reflect upon this new rhetorical category, different from the traditional notion of “working class”, and is implicitly but clearly construed first and foremost in opposition to non-white workers, and not to the « bourgeoisie » or the middle-class. Brexit is also largely presented as the expression of strong Eurosceptic and anti-immigration opinions supposedly prevalent in the « white working class ». This paper aims at understanding how these assumptions about the « white working class » and its claims developed in British political discourse to the point of being a crucial topic during the Brexit discussions. The focus of this paper is a discursive analysis of the British traditional parties in power, in the context of what has been called a « white Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T22:56:00VLbacklash », triggered by multiculturalism1. The period considered starts in 1997 with the election of New Labour on a multiculturalist agenda. The second term of Tony Blair in 2001 Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T22:57:00VLwas a watershed moment, because it was then that he clearly turned against the previously multiculturalist agenda of his party. Since then, both the Labour and the Conservative parties have nurtured the theme of the « white working class »2 as left behind Vincent LATOUR2022-09-01T23:02:00VLby multiculturalism. This idea reached its pinnacle with Brexit in 2016, with lasting effects until 2019, when the Conservatives won by a landslide on an agenda focused on restoring the place of the « white working class ». This paper aims at showing the convergence of both parties around the rejection of multiculturalism and the defence of this newly construced section of the population, which led to the shift of British political discourse towards the right, with the promotion of the British identity as essentially « white ».