Speech Tactics Research Articles

Self-Presentation Strategy and Speech Tactics in Political Discourse (based on the Public Speeches of Latin American Politicians at the UN)

Self-Presentation Strategy and Speech Tactics in Political Discourse (based on the Public Speeches of Latin American Politicians at the UN)

Verb-centered means of expressing self-presentation in the English-language job-hunting discourse

This article presents a semantic, syntactic, and contextual analysis of the language means of self-presentation, conceptualized as the dominant speech strategy in the job-hunting discourse. The scope of our research is limited to the written variety of texts expressed via the genres of CVs/resumes and cover letters. The material was taken from English-language job-hunting resources: Balance, Career Addict, Career Blog, Indeed, Resume.io, StandOut CV, and Zety. It is stipulated that self-presentation can be viewed as a system of interrelated speech tactics: self-nomination, self-description, presentation of professional achievements, description of professional responsibilities, and identification with an ideal candidate type. Each tactic has its unique semantic profile. All self-presentation tactics roughly fall into two major categories—nominative and verb-centered. The latter category, which incorporates the tactics of presentation of professional achievements and description of professional responsibilities, was the primary focus of this research. A careful semantic and syntactic analysis revealed that active verbs with two-complement (in some cases, three-complement) valency are the core of the aforementioned tactics. This leads us to believe that the actant situation almost always includes the agent and theme, sometimes the benefactive. As a result of semantic analysis, lexical units were classified according to their sentimental modality—positive, negative, or neutral. Our research documented the prevalence of positive evaluation semantics in self-presentation units. A syntactic analysis was employed to identify the formal aspects of sentences containing self-presentation. The analysis showed that most sentence structures fall into three basic types of syntax reduction: a) subject omission ([I] perform regular check-ups); b) omission of the subject and the link verb ([I am] professionally trained); c) the omission of the subject and the verb of possession ([I have] numerous awards). The authors conclude that the self-presentation blueprint of verb-centered constructions identified in this article persists across all verb-centered tactics proving to be an effective means of constructing written job-hunting discourse.

UN English-Language Discourse: Peculiarities and Applications in Describing the World Order

This research paper is set in the context of growing interest in globalization and its effects on contemporary English-language discourse. The focus on discourse in the United Nations can be explained by the pivotal role of this organization in identifying, shaping and spreading global trends. The underlying assumption is that conceptual, cognitive and semantic analyses of the UN English-language discourse enable a deeper understanding of the western worldview, which expands into other types of discourse with a broad audience (the media, education, etc.). The application of the conceptual metaphor theory allowed us not only to identify a conceptual level of the concepts used, but also to more comprehensively explore the image and value levels of these concepts in order to identify the various cognitive-linguistic tools that are used to construct a model of the world order and assess modern reality. The study showed that language behaviour can be described through the dichotomy of “unification – segmentation.” On the one hand, reality is represented as a “family” field of life (based on the conceptual metaphor THE WORLD IS A FAMILY) with inherent family values and obligations. On the other hand, the world is subject to explicit categorization through the conceptual opposition of FRIEND vs. FOE and the conceptual and metaphorical model of “The fairy tale of the just war.” Mechanisms of linguistic hierarchization of participants’ relations are also revealed with the help of conceptual metaphors RELATIONS AMONG STATES ARE PARENT–CHILD RELATIONS and THE LEADER STATE IS A NURTURANT PARENT. The results of the study may be useful for further research on contemporary English-language discourse in a cognitive-pragmatic way, with the possibility of using the identified conceptual metaphors to detect speech tactics and strategies, as well as for comparative analysis of the constructed English-language world view with language models represented by other official UN languages: Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.Transl.: Britsyna N. M. 2022. UN English-Language Discourse: Pecularities and Applications in Describing the World Order. Linguistics & Polyglot Studies. 8(3). P. 70–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24833/2410-2423-2022-3-32-70-81

Motivation discourse axiological pragmatics in American coaches’ speeches

The article studies values representation peculiarities in American coaches’ motivation discourse. The research focuses on analyzing their speech tactics choices to gain the audience’s trust and indoctrinate them with necessary information. Through compiling and studying the corpus of examples the research results in specifying the notion of motivation discourse, detecting the core values of the American society and the ways to exploit them to manipulate the audience.

The specifics of the representation of speech strategies and tactics in educational audio podcasts

The object of the research is educational audio podcasts presented on the platform Smotrim.ru (Radio Mayak audio podcasts): "100 Minutes" (16 issues), "Literary squabbles" (11 issues), "Understand yourself if you can" (15 issues), "Conversations about Literature" (14 issues), "Diary his Wives" (11 issues), as well as episodes of the audio podcast hosted on the Polka.academy platform – "Between the Lines" (7 issues), published from 2021 to 2023. The subject of the study is the pragmastilistic specificity of media texts represented in empirical material. The purpose of the work is to present various interpretations of the term "audio podcast", to consider definitions of the concepts "speech strategy" and "speech tactics", approaches to their classification, as well as to identify and describe dominant communicative strategies and tactics explicated in educational audio podcasts. To achieve the stated goal, methods of content analysis, linguistic stylistic and pragmastilistic analysis of media texts were applied. Despite the fact that audio podcasts are now in demand among the audience and are presented on various platforms, including on the websites of major radio stations and streaming services, this media phenomenon still needs scientific reflection. Thus, the works of Russian researchers have not yet formulated a generally accepted definition of an audio podcast, nor has a unified point of view been developed on how to consider an audio podcast as a new kind of radio or an independent format. In addition, the communicative and pragmatic specifics of media texts explicated in audio podcasts have been studied very little. This determines the relevance and scientific novelty of the research undertaken. As a result of the analysis of empirical material, dominant speech strategies and tactics implementing them were identified. Conclusions are drawn about the stylistic originality of the analyzed media texts.

SPECIFICITY OF THE THEATRICAL STRATEGY AS A LEADING STRATEGY OF MANIPULATIVE INFLUENCE IN THE PROCESS OF THE PRE-ELECTION DEBATES OF D. TRUMP AND H. CLINTON

Objective. The objective of the present article is to analyze the materials of the pre-election debates of H. Clinton and D. Trump in order to justify the use and analysis of the strategy of theatricality as one of the most influential in the process of political debates. Methods. The main scientific results are obtained using a set of general and special research methods, namely: analysis of video and audio materials of election debates, comparison, synthesis, systematization and generalization of scientific literature. Results. The ability to use communicative strategies, in particular, the ability to competently include in one's speech tactics and strategies not only for lowering and raising, but also theatricality, is a very important quality for a politician, especially for a person who is applying for the position of president of the state. Knowledge of a large number of communicative tactics, their combination, appropriate use is an indicator of a politician's competence, his ability to manage the opponent and the audience. Thus, the text of pre-election speeches of candidates for the post of president of the USA (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump) was chosen as an illustrative material for the study of strategies of manipulative influence. In our research, we rely on the classification of strategies and tactics of manipulative influence, which was proposed by the researcher O. Mikhaliova, because this classification allows for a comprehensive consideration of the main strategies used in political discourse and, as a result, for the maximum achievement of their goals. In particular, the researcher singles out the strategy for lowering, the strategy for raising, the strategy of theatricality. In our research, we examined and analyzed in detail the use of the theatricality strategy by American politicians, and also carried out a quantitative and comparative analysis of the use of the strategies we previously studied. It was established that the strategy of theatricality, which is implemented with the help of appropriate tactics, is the most used in the process of pre-election debates. The strategy of theatrics combines the tactics of incitement, differentiation of “own-other” and promises. Quantitative indicators of the use of downward, upward and theatrical strategies, which were the object of our research earlier, are outlined. It was determined that the strategy of decline and the strategy of theatrics were the most active in the process of their use by political figures during pre- election debates.

Verbal Means Expressing a Negative Assessment Used to Create a Negative Image of J. Biden in the US Oppositional Political Discourse

The article is devoted to the study of verbal means expressing a negative assessment used to create a negative image of J. Biden in the US oppositional political discourse. The definition of assessment and assessment act is given, its structure is
 determined. The main signs and features of the oppositional political discourse are described. The evaluative structures of the negative assessment type used by the leading US opposition journalists M. Kelly and T. Carlson are analyzed. In the course of
 the analysis, it was found out that a negative assessment in the oppositional political discourse is expressed by multi-level linguistic means, which are either accurately
 explicated in the language or contextually conditioned, that is, they are rendered mainly connotatively. With the help of these means, one of the main strategies of the oppositional political discourse is implemented - the strategy of downgrading, that
 is, the creation of an anti-image of a political figure. The speech tactics that ensure the success of the implementation of this strategy include the tactics of negative analysis, accusations, denunciations, discrediting, mockery, and others. The explicit
 means creating a negative assessment include the use of expressive vocabulary with a pronounced seme of a negative assessment, the use of amplifying discursive elements (expressives), the use of morphemes, lexemes and syntactic structures with negative semantics, the use of various invective verbal means. Implicit means, where a negative assessment is generated under the influence of the context, include the use of expressive syntax (interrogative and exclamatory sentences, short sentences, sentences built on the principle of antithesis), the use of metaphors, including extended ones, irony and sarcasm, lexical units subjected to pejoratization in a certain context, depersonification (reverse personification). The combination of these verbal means enhances the illocutionary and perlocutionary effects and leads to the creation of an anti-image of a political figure, which is one of the main goals of the oppositional political discourse.

TACTICS OF OBJECTION IN A POPULAR SCIENTIFIC MEDICAL BLOG

The article is devoted to the functioning of objection as a text-forming technique for creating popular scientifi c medical blogs. It is explained that the most popular tactic for the representation of scientifi c knowledge is clarifi cation. The choice of medical topics is not accidental, traditionally medicine is the fi eld of knowledge that causes actors to demonstrate their competence regardless of education (everyone is a doctor to himself). Hence the importance of objection as one of the forms of interaction with the audience during the deployment of the trajectory of popularization of scientifi c knowledge. Using the example of medical blogs popular with the public on the Dzen platform, the methods of audience involvement based on objection are considered. The analysis allows us to identify three main trends that are in demand in the implementation of objection tactics on popular science channels: dialogization, intellectualization and ironization. The channels themselves were chosen according to the principle of implementing each of these trends. The analysis of empirical material is based on a general scheme: the characteristic of the content of channels is given, a speech portrait of the authors is created, dialogical unities are analyzed. The analysis of dialogical units demonstrates the means of implementing objections are identifi ed: negation means, specifi c union formations, communication blockers, etc. Speech tactics of objection expression, language markers of objection are determined. The objection is considered as the main contact-setting technique, which has a positive eff ect on the popularity of the channel. It is used as one of the possible forms of dialogical interaction, but is deliberately emphasized, brought to the fore, becomes the basis of publications. Moreover, the conclusion of the study was that the objection is a text-forming technique for constructing not only individual dialogical units, but also channels as a whole.

Речевые тактики реализации стратегии самопрезентации в немецкоязычных lifestyle-блогах

The study focuses on German-language lifestyle blogs, which are being considered from the perspective of their authors’ self-presentation and presentation of their lifestyle. The aim of the study is to determine some of the ways used by the authors of German-language lifestyle blogs to implement the communication strategy of self-presentation. The paper discusses the genre features of lifestyle blogs, which serve as a platform for a certain lifestyle, defines the strategy of self-presentation as the leading communication strategy of this type of Internet blogs and highlights some tactics for implementing this strategy. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that based on the material of a German lifestyle blog, a number of speech tactics for implementing the self-presentation strategy have been identified for the first time. As a result, it has been proved that the speech tactics of conveying objective and subjective information, conveying information from a third person, using a promoted image, demonstrating competence and uniting with the addressee serve to effectively implement the blogger’s self-presentation strategy.

Реализация конструктивного речевого поведения педагога в конфликтной образовательной среде

The aim of the research is to identify the verbal means of constructive speech behaviour of a teacher in the implementation of skills set by the professional standard of a teacher in relation to the participants in a conflict educational environment. The paper substantiates the necessity and expediency of forming constructive speech behaviour in conflict situations as one of the most important components in the system of professional activity of a teacher. The paper is novel in that examining the problem of formation of a teacher’s constructive speech conflict behaviour, it identifies standardised educational and developmental skills, namely, the ability to manage students’ conduct to ensure the safety of the educational environment and the ability to provide pedagogical support to a student in a conflict situation. The developed speech means of implementing professional pedagogical actions in a conflict educational environment, considered as the verbal techniques for revealing the content of educational and professional tasks for educational modules in professional pedagogical education related to conflict resolution, are new as well. As a result, it has been proved that it is possible to ensure the safety of the educational environment and preserve the personal well-being of students in a conflict situation by realising the potential of the persuasion, argumentation, encouragement, empathy, prohibition speech tactics. This demonstrates the extent to which teachers master constructive speech behaviour in a conflict educational environment.

Identifying and interpreting euphemisms and dysphemisms in RFL classes (the case of political discourse)

This article is devoted to the issue of the need to include in the course of Russian as a foreign language the work on the analysis of Russian-speaking political discourse, the issues of identifying and interpreting euphemisms and dysphemisms in the political discourse, in particular. Euphemisms and dysphemisms are widely used by Russian speakers in a variety of communication situations and speech genres, including political discourse, which makes the research devoted to the systematic description of their functioning in modern Russian-language communication and their place in the Russian language picture of the world urgent. The relevance of the present study is due to the need to integrate the results of cognitive and pragmatic research into the purposeful activities of the teacher of Russian as a foreign language to form the linguistic personality of a foreign student, capable of educational and professional activities in the conditions of multicultural dialogue. The paper deals with the formation of foreign students’ skills and abilities of discursive analysis of the Russian text, identification and interpretation of speech tactics and strategies, the strategy of dominance and resistance, implemented in speech through the use of euphemisms and dysphemisms, in particular. At high levels of proficiency in Russian as a foreign language B2-C1 these skills are a necessary element of the professional competence of humanities professionals. The choice of political texts as the material for the analysis is connected with the fact that for professionals in the humanities, in the field of international relations, in particular, political discourse is a significant sphere of official communication and professional interaction. The aim of the present study is to analyze the theoretical foundations for describing euphemisms and dysphemisms for linguistic and pedagogical purposes, and to develop an approach to creating learning materials aimed at building the skills and abilities of foreign students to recognize hidden meanings and tools of indirect communication in Russian political discourse. The use of the proposed approach helps to develop in foreign students the ability to analyze political discourse and to identify the author’s key and secondary intentions, as well as to improve the skill of operating political terminology and the selection of lexical and verbal means in accordance with the communicative situation and the communicative goals and intentions pursued. The authors relied on the works of domestic and foreign linguists and methodologists in their research. The sociocultural, competence and systemic approaches were used in the research, and the method of complex text analysis and descriptive method were applied.

Коммуникативные тактики ведения конфликтной дискуссии (на примере медийной репрезентации заседаний Генеральной Ассамблеи ООН и Еврокомиссии, посвященных специальной военной операции в Украине)

The article examines the features of political discourse within the framework of the military conflict in Ukraine. The relevance of the study is due to the need to identify communicative and speech strategies and their tactics in the positions of opposing sides to resolve the conflict. The purpose of the article is to analyze the strategies and tactics of the communicative behavior of politicians in a military conflict based on the material of reports at the thematic and linguistic levels. The work was carried out using the method of contextual analysis, descriptive method. The research material was the texts of speeches by the official representative of Russia to the UN General Assembly and the EU representative to the European Commission. The authors come to the conclusion that the communicative behavior of politicians within the framework of non-controversial speeches has its own characteristics at the thematic as well as at the linguistic level. The topic of Ursula von der Leyen’s speeches during this period is reduced to the general theme “The future of Europe”, where the main threat to the future may be “Russian aggression” along with the energy crisis. In the speeches of S.V. Lavrov’s main topic is “the policy of the “collective West”” and “The Ukrainian regime”. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that in official speeches there are emotional evaluative vocabulary, periphrases, evaluative adjectives, metaphorical models that implement such communicative and speech tactics as persuasion, condemnation, appeal to facts, support for the affected state, promises using the techniques of “reference to authorities”, “reinforcement”, “quoting”, “giving examples”, “introducing elements of informality” and others. The authors of the article show that the ethno-cultural specificity of the communicative behavior of politicians involved in the military conflict of countries on the part of European politicians is manifested in such features as “preservation of democracy”, “protection of democratic values” from autocrats. The Russian side in its speeches appeals to the preservation of traditional values calls for the fight against discrimination on religious grounds, with aggressive derussification.

Речевая тактика комплимента в русском медийном диалоге (на фоне китайского языка)

The study aims to identify the specific national characteristics of the tactics of compliment in Russian speech behaviour against the background of Chinese speech behaviour. The work is novel in that it is the first to shed light on the peculiarities of the Russian speech tactics of compliment through the lens of its national specifics against the background of such an unrelated and typologically different from Russian language as Chinese. The study is carried out on the material of video recordings of media dialogues from Russian and Chinese TV programmes selected taking into account the conditions of symmetry of the considered communication situations. As a result of the study, it has been found that in Russian speech behaviour, a compliment is a frequent speech tactics that opens communication, it is more often expressed explicitly and in the form of a direct compliment within the frame “attractive appearance”. The study notes that Russian speech behaviour is dominated by compliments realised by the direct naming of the addressee’s positive property in combination with a positive assessment of this property by the speaker, without excessive expressiveness or metaphors and figurative comparisons. The simplicity and brevity of the Russian compliment are conditioned by the speaker’s desire to demonstrate the sincerity of their feelings.

Коммуникативные задачи речевой тактики «Акцентирование внимания» в рамках стратегии самопрезентации в учебном дискурсе (на материале преподавания иностранных языков в вузе)

The article talks about the communicative tasks of the tactics of “Focusing attention” within the framework of the strategy of self-presentation in the educational discourse on the material of teaching foreign languages at the university. Aim. As the purpose of the study, a comprehensive study of the communicative tasks of the speech tactics of “Focusing attention” is highlighted based on the analysis of the discursive practices obtained in the context of the teaching type of discourse. In the work, the author gives his interpretation of this tactic, considers it from the positions of the speech-acting and lexico-semantic levels.
 Methodology. The author gives concrete examples obtained from the survey and analyzes the replicas from the point of view of the theory of speech acts and language explication based on four languages: English, Russian, German and French.
 The result of the study is a comprehensive description of the speech content of tactics “Focusing attention” in the situation of educational activity in the classroom, identifying lexical and semantic means of expressing this tactic. The scientific novelty of the proposed research consists in an attempt to fully present the solution of the communicative tasks of the speech tactic “Accentuation of attention” within the framework of the study of the academic discipline “Foreign Language” at the university and taking into account the strategy of self-presentation.
 The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained in the development of general and special courses on language theory, theory of speech influence, stylistics, pragmatics of speech communication, rhetoric, methods of teaching foreign languages.

Особенности жанра и композиции текстов немецкоязычных онлайн-путеводителей

The study aims to identify the corpus of specific linguostylistic means and the genre-compositional originality of the texts of German-language online travel guides. These texts are reference publications aimed at a wide range of readers and they are used primarily by tourists for a more detailed acquaintance with a travel destination. The texts of online travel guides, along with the texts of excursions, audio guides, leaflets, catalogs, brochures, virtual excursions, travel agency websites, belong to the genres of tourism discourse and are characterised by a distinct structural organisation, a variety of speech tactics, verbal and non-verbal codes and perform the informational, advertising, accumulative and regulatory functions. A travel guide is a “calling card” of a cultural and linguistic community, which allows forming certain holistic stereotypical images in the minds of recipients regarding a foreign-language worldview. The paper is novel in that it makes the first attempt to carry out a comprehensive analysis of different-level linguistic means representing the genre-compositional features of modern online travel guides. As a result of the study, it has been proved that the texts of German-language online travel guides have a distinct compositional structure, are characterised by a set of specific linguistic means that implement the general communicative task of tourism discourse, i.e. making an impact on the recipient.

Речевые тактики и приемы реализации стратегии выведывания информации в немецкоязычном политическом интервью (на материале программы «Маркус Ланц»)

The aim of the study is to highlight some of the speech tactics and techniques used by the interviewer to implement the communicative strategy of information reveal in the German-language political interview. The paper deals with the role of the addressee in the German-language political interview; analyses the strategy of information reveal as the main communicative strategy of the interviewer; presents speech tactics of the addressee using the material of the political talk show “Markus Lanz”; highlights some speech techniques for the implementation of these tactics. The study is novel in that it is the first to consider the strategy of information reveal as the leading speech strategy of the interviewer in the German-language political interview; as well as the first to present the destruction of the interlocutor’s communicative space as one of the effective speech techniques for the implementation of this strategy. As a result, it has been proved that the speech tactics of doubt and refutation, as well as various ways of intrusion into the interlocutor’s communicative space serve to reveal information in an effective manner in the German-language political interview.

Implementation of Speech Tactics of Persuasion Strategy in Virtual Communication during COVID-19 Pandemic: Communication Moves

The communicative moves are analyzed, through which tactics of persuasion strategy are implemented: the tactics of referring to authority, the tactics of reasoning / persuasion and the tactics of a negative scenario. The study was conducted on the material of more than 150 threads of comments on LiveJournal posts, which are examples of the implementation of these tactics, published during the COVID-19 pandemic and selected by a continuous sample. The main research methods were the methods of linguo-stylistic, pragmalinguistic and contextual analysis, descriptive and comparative methods. It is concluded that the tactics of referring to authority are characterized by a communicative course of mentioning an authoritative person, a communicative course of clarification, demonstration of one’s own awareness, a communicative course of comparison / alignment; the tactics of reasoning / persuasion was achieved through the use of a communicative course of demonstrating the irrefutability of conclusions, a communicative course of expressing an assumption; the tactics of the negative scenario were embodied in the communicative moves of deceived expectations and the prediction of the apocalypse.

Speech Strategies of Defamation (Based upon Experience of Forensic Linguists)

The article considers the repertoire of direct and indirect speech tactics applied to implement strategy of defamation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation employed to defend Russian Federation’s interests and its citizens’ interests, support international piece and safety; defamation of Russian government authorities executing defense of Russian Federation’s interests and its citizens’ interests. The material of research – video files, pictures, screenshots of the social nets, containing the signs of defamation. The method of discourse analysis, semantic analysis, motivation and target analysis are used in the research. The typical set of speech tactics of defamation strategy was revealed. The set is a certain basis for a linguist to qualify utterances as defamatory.

Языковые индикаторы конфронтационной речевой стратегии дискредитации, используемой в повседневном супружеском дискурсе

The article examines the features of representing the confrontational speech strategy of discreditation, used in everyday communication, particularly in marital discourse. The goal of the research is to identify the speech tactics employed in domestic communication between spouses for the purpose of discrediting and weakening the communicative position of the communication partner. To achieve the research goal, descriptive method, method of compo­nent analysis, observation and interpretation method, intent analysis, and discourse analysis were applied. Linguistic indicators expressing the confrontational speech strategy were stud­ied at all levels of the language system — semantic, lexical, lexico-grammatical, syntactic, as well as at the pragmatic one, taking into account the communication situation. Dialogues between spouse characters in the poem "Dialogue at the Television" by V. S. Vysotsky served as material for observation, representing a vivid example of role lyrics. The research established that the discreditation strategy is implemented through speech tactics of threat, accusation, reproach, request, appeals to authority, and appeals to precedent. The analysis resulted in the identification of typical linguistic indicators that shape specific confrontational speech tactics.

Manipulative strategies and tactics in Joe Biden’s presidential victory speech

The study was carried out within the framework of political linguistics. The article provides an analysis of the strategies and tactics of Joe Biden in his victory speech in the presidential election on November 7, 2020. The author sets himself the task of studying the self­presentation of a politician. The paper examines the main characteristics of political discourse, the results of the study provide examples of various tactics and strategies that the president used in his speech. The task of the study is to identify and analyze various speech tactics, and an attempt is made to justify their use. The following tactics were identified and analyzed: tactics of association, identification, highlighting positive information, illustration, citation and tactics of discrediting the opponent. The result of the analysis showed that it is important for the president to create a positive image in front of the American people, his speech is filled with patriotic statements and gratitude to his electorate. The relevance of the work is due to the growing interest in political discourse on the example of American politicians. It was concluded that Joe Biden positions himself as a confident leader of the American people, who is destined to change the lives of citizens for the better and strengthen the grandness of his country.