Ukrainian Political Discourse Research Articles

PHRASEOLOGY IN UKRAINIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: STRUCTURE, SEMANTICS, PRAGMATICS

PHRASEOLOGY IN UKRAINIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: STRUCTURE, SEMANTICS, PRAGMATICS

Conceptual demarkation between concepts «national security» and «state security» in the Ukrainian political discourse

The article is devoted to the conceptual demarcation of the concepts of «national security» and «state security» in the Ukrainian political discourse. In particular, the analysis of the categories «national security» and «state security» was carried out in the political and legal context. It was concluded that the category of national security is broader than the category of state security, which is an important marker of the democracy of the political system of a certain state. It is reasoned that the type of political regime in the state acquires significant importance in the conceptual demarcation of the concepts of «national security» and «state security». The more developed a democratic society is, the easier it is to identify conceptual differences between the two definitions. Under the conditions of dominance of an undemocratic political regime in the state (totalitarianism/authoritarianism), the conceptual features of these concepts «merge», which eventually leads to their identification.

Етичний принцип справедливості у просовуванні концепції людського розвитку

Justice is one of the concepts that are most often used in modern Ukrainian political and scientific discourse. The phenomenon of justice is complex and multifaceted and characterizes the entire system of social relations in all the diversity of its specific manifestations in the field of promoting the concept of human development. Since ancient times, justice has been one of the main subjects of scientific research by sociologists, economists, and philosophers of Western and Eastern European countries. Now, there are several interpretations of this notion. One of the most widespread is the definition of justice from the theoretical standpoint of the so-called “transcendental institutionalism”, which is the basis of the works of many famous theoreticians. Within this trend, there are competing points of view regarding approaches to the realization of justice. The concept of utilitarianism, which was widespread in the second half of the 20th century, has its adherents, in respect of the fair content of human development, even in our time. The article defends the logical construction of justice, which is at the intersection of economic theory and moral philosophy. Based on the tradition associated with Adam Smith’s classic political economy, it is grounded on the procedure of public choice, comparison and ranking of priorities. Continuous improvement and regulation of human development processes are oppo sed to the established rigid institutional approach that underlies the contract theory. The aim of the study is to reveal justice as a concept that contains requirements for adequacy of its theoretical interpretation to the practical role regarding individuals upholding their rights. The novelty is substantiating of the constructive significance of justice as an ethical category and the proximity of its democratic procedures to the real-life problems of people, which gives it priority over other similar scientific currents and concepts of liberal democratic orientation. The method of comparative analysis of definitions of social justice in the course of its evolutionary development is applied. Tools for soft modeling of socially fair consumption of goods and services by different income groups of the population are proposed.

STRATEGY OF SELF-PRESENTATION OF THE MODERN UKRAINIAN POLITICIAN: THE PRAGMALINGUISTIC DIMENSION

The article analyzes one of the speech strategies - the strategy of self-presentation, which is actively used in modern Ukrainian political discourse. It has been established that the question of the role of political discourse, in particular the influence of the linguistic personality of a Ukrainian politician on the formation of the country's internal and external political image, is becoming particularly relevant today, given the conditions of the multinational and multilingual situation that has developed in Ukraine, on the one hand, and the full-scale invasion of the russian federation to our land, on the other hand. In such conditions, the mechanisms of self-representation, the tactics of implementing the linguistic influence of government representatives on the citizens of the state are changing, which needs to be studied. The scientific investigation clarified the role of self-presentation in the formation of the linguistic personality of the Ukrainian politician, analyzed the main mechanisms of this communicative strategy and the pragmalinguistic specifics of its implementation in today's conditions. Emphasis is placed on the interdependence, mutual subordination of the content of the communicative strategy of self-presentation of a linguistic personality and a wide range of communication methods and communicative intentions of self-presenters. It was established that the tactics of identification, self-praise, demonstration of professional success and promises serve as means of actualizing the strategy of self-presentation, the application of which is outlined by certain linguistic means. The specificity of the mentioned tactics is clarified and a description of lexical and grammatical means is presented, which are important in the formation of the strategy of self-presentation of the linguistic personality, since they significantly emphasize not only the communicative and situational features of the speech of individual politicians, but also the authorial discourses of political figures within the limits of various tactics. We see the perspective of the research in studying the mechanisms of implementation of other communicative strategies in the linguistic activity of famous Ukrainian politicians, delineating the pragmalinguistic specificity of their statements, taking into account the intentions of the addressee and the peculiarities of the perception of information by the addressee.

Ukrainian Political Internet Discourse: Signs of Language Aggression

The problem of language aggression, hostility, and contempt is one of the most acute in the modern world. The rapid spread of this phenomenon is associated with the development of the Internet and social networks, which led to revolutionary changes in people's communication and the emergence of new types of socio-political interaction. The accessibility of internet resources, the absence of communication barriers that are present in real life, and the speed of information transmission have greatly expanded social contacts. The growth of language aggression, hostility, and contempt in society and the resulting need to invent and implement models of nonviolent language interaction have created new areas for research for Ukrainian linguists. The purpose of the study is to define such concepts as language aggression, hostility, and contempt; to identify the dominant areas of language aggression, hostility, and contempt in the Ukrainian political internet discourse. Language aggression, hostility, and contempt are aimed at humiliating other people or a group of people. The most frequent stereotypes of aggression are associated with discrediting based on political views, ethnicity, language views, less often – gender, age, religion, social status, etc.

FUNCTIONS OF INAUGURAL SPEECH IN UKRAINIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to defining the main functions of inaugural speech as a speech genre of Ukrainian political discourse. The functions – integrative, inspiring, declarative and performative – are distinguished. The function of integration is realized as calls to unite the Ukrainian people and appeal to the people as a single community. The inspiring function is to form state values ​​and calls for a better future that has a long historical tradition. In the inaugural speech, this function is subordinated to the integral structural and compositional element, which is quite a large semantic block. Inspirational function is manifested in Ukrainian in two forms: praise of historical events and traditions and criticism of the experience of predecessors. The declarative function is to formulate the principles on which the new president will work, ie the program part of the inaugural speech is subordinated to it. The performative function indicates that the new president swears allegiance to the people, swears to take care of the country and acts as the leader of the state.

Асоціативний потенціал антропонімів українського політичного дискурсу

This article is devoted to an experimental study of the associative potential of anthroponyms in Ukrainian political discourse. We turned to a free-associative experiment in order to study the status of anthroponyms in political communication, as well as to reveal their associative potential. The results were interpreted using statistical and typological data processing, along with the methods of component analysis, cognitive modeling, etc. As words-stimulus, we used the names of domestic and foreign politicians from different periods known to modern speakers (not only to specialists in the field of politics and journalists but also to the general public) – no matter the ambiguous attitude of the society toward them and their activities. The experiment participants were representatives of different regions of Ukraine, of different ages, levels of education, and professions. The main object of the analysis was the associative reactions of the speakers obtained during the experiment. The main focus was on studying the semantic specifics of anthroponyms, associative connections, and the peculiarities of the functioning of these units in political communication. The experiment results showed a significant associative potential of the anthroponyms in political discourse, determined by objective and subjective factors. Those associations that have to do with the anthroponyms-names of famous Ukrainian and foreign politicians of different periods convey essential background knowledge of speakers and determine the semantics and pragmatics of these units. Most often, in associative reactions to anthroponymic stimuli, we can trace such denotative characteristics as a politician’s field of activity, the historical period in question, place of activity, nationality, appearance, character traits, intelligence, behavioral features, and other typical features. Furthermore, anthroponyms cause connotative reactions. Experimental studies prove that anthroponyms have, although somewhat specific, yet rich semantics and form a part of the process of encoding and decoding information.

Лiнгвопрагматика новорiчного привiтання як мовленнєвого жанру полiтичного дискурсу: зiставний аспект (на матерiалi промов Анджея Дуди i Володимира Зеленського)

The purpose of the study is to analyze the New Year’s speeches of the President of Poland Andrzej Duda and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. The main methods used are linguopragmatic and comparative. The main genre parameters of the text are revealed and the requirements as to its content and structure are outlined. The structural components in the New Year’s speeches of the presidents for 2018–2020 are characterized, and a compari son of Polish and Ukrainian presidential discourses is made. Speech acts that determine the linguopragmatic potential of New Year’s speeches are analyzed. A typology of communication strategies used by the Presidents of Poland and Ukraine in New Year’s speeches to influence the recipients in ritual political communication is proposed. The specifics of New Year’s speeches in Polish and Ukrainian political discourse are determined.

Comic in Ukrainian political discourse

In the article there is defined the concept of comic as a rhetorical and semantic technique in public discourse, which exerts psychological and behavioral influences. There are highlighted the main features of the comic, in particular: the comic is available for human perception; it causes laughter among representatives of a certain social group, demonstrates the difference between different groups (motives of comedy are not global, they will be funny only for a certain people); entertains the addressee, does not cause suffering and does not activate emotions of empathy in the audience to which it is directed. A. Bergson defines the basic rule of the comic – to demonstrate the unnaturalness, inflexibility, something uncharacteristic for normal life. The philosopher describes also three additional principles of the comic: repetition (the repetition of the certain signs – verbal and nonverbal – will be funny), inversion (replacement of social roles) and interference (semantic ambiguity of a one sign).The article identifies the comic’s techniques used by Volodymyr Zelensky as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine during the 2019 election campaign. The materials for the study are political advertising, distributed both by classic media (television and outdoor advertising) and by social media. Author states that in the materials of V. Zelensky’s political agitation are present all of three methods of the comic, described by A. Bergson.In the article is claimed that laughter is able to perform the following social functions: to stimulate the development of the community by pointing out the outdated trends, as well as to ridicule those who wants to initiate social development. Comic, widespread by political leaders, can identify areas of public discontent and at the same time create space for psychological relief by spreading a sense of indifference to the future.

The Impact of the Ukrainian Factor Over the Political Elite and the Civil Society of Transdniestria

There are studied political, social and other grounds of formation of the Transdniestrian political elite and civil society as self-sustained political phenomena. These institutes have been developing not isolatedly but in the framework of those political processes that were typical for the region during the period of its establishment and existence in different social and political conditions. There are summarized and analyzed different aspects of the Ukrainian factor impact over these processes as by direct influence of the Ukrainian political elite and civil society, as well as in the context of ideological concepts formulated in the Ukrainian political discourse during a long period of time. Concrete methods of the Ukrainian political class impact over the Transdniestrian political elite and civil society are also presented. A very special activity of the Ukrainian side could be seen up to 2014, when the Transdniestrian political elite had been considered in Kiev as an independent subject with its own interests that in its turn determined the choice of certain forms of impact. Direct inter-elite communication used to be one of the most meaningful forms of such impact, that allowed to identify the sides’ interests and to find mutually acceptable decisions on the highest and high levels. Since 2014 the situation has changed dramatically. The Ukrainian political elite refuses to recognize the Transdniestrian political elite’s status of a separate (independent) subject and considers it to be a tool for the Russia’s interests’ implementation. There appears a special role of the border factor as of a key resource for pressure over the Transdniestrian political elite, its business interests, options for traffic etc. The same way the Ukrainian side minimized contacts with the Transdniestrian civil society. But at the same time Ukrainians keep for themselves the option for monitoring the Transdniestrian political system. In the Ukrainian political narrative there appears a contradiction, when the Ukrainian political authorities can’t use a symbolic potential of a number of Transdniestrian locations, actual for the modern political ideology of Ukraine only because that these locations are situated on the territory controlled by the Transdniestrian political elite whilst Ukrainians avoid any contacts with the latter.

The Russian-Ukrainian War in Ukrainian Political Discourse

The proposed article aims to explore the discursive dynamics of Ukraine caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. The semantic and pragmatic dominants of relevant political texts were revealed by the method of discursive and content analysis. The article considers the peculiarities of the political discourse of Ukraine after the beginning of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2014. Discursive changes in wartime are analyzed through comparisons with the pre-war state, the leading feature of which was the mode of „brotherhood” with Russia. In the course of the analysis it was established that there was no logical immediate change to a „hostile” discourse with the beginning of the Russian aggression. Ukraine was unprepared for an adequate response to Russia's military aggression not only in real but also in discursive terms. Instead, a euphemistic complex was formed in Ukrainian political discourse to present Russia's aggressive actions as something else, something different. In this regard, an attempt is made to analyze the reasons for the belated response of Ukrainian society, especially the leading echelon of Ukrainian politics, to external aggression. Particular attention as a reason for this state of affairs is paid to post-totalitarian influences, which remain relevant to the socio-political dynamics of Ukraine. Among the key ones is the lack of a full-fledged historical and political narrative and the reproduction of mental schemes of the totalitarian past. Along with this, positive changes in the representation of the Russian-Ukrainian military confrontation as such were identified and studied. The discursive mechanisms of creating a narrative adequate to the military situation and discursive means that oppose Russian aggression are analyzed. At the same time, it was found that in the process of forming a specific discursive order, certain canons and standards of the former metropoly remain relevant in the Ukrainian context. First of all, it concerns the inclusion of substandard elements in the official communicative repertoire as a tool of information confrontation in hybrid aggression. The article concludes that a holistic historical and political narrative is the cornerstone for the formation of national and state identity. Without this, the establishment of a full-blooded state subjectivity of Ukraine appears to be an extremely difficult task. In modern Ukrainian realities, we have not a uniquely specific political discourse as part of a detailed historical and political narrative, but a post-totalitarian discursive surrogate, in the mirror of which even the contrasting notions of war and peace lose the necessary clarity. Key words: Russian-Ukrainian war, political discourse, historical and political narrative, post-totalitarian consciousness.

Твіт як мовленнєвий жанр українського та американського політичного дискурсу: лінгвопрагматичний аспект

Твіт як мовленнєвий жанр українського та американського політичного дискурсу: лінгвопрагматичний аспект

КОНКОРДАНС ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ ДЛЯ ВИВЧЕННЯ КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНОЇ СТРУКТУРИ ПОЛІТИЧНИХ ТЕКСТІВ

The article highlights the main directions of application of corpus approach in modern linguistics (scientific and theoretical research, lexicography, linguodidactics). The article presents the possibilities of concordance technologies as a tool for studying the conceptual structure of a political text. Concordance is considered as a way of elaborating an array of corpora of texts of Ukrainian political discourse in 2014-2020. The aim of the article is to reveal the method of using the technology of stacking political texts corpora and concordances to build a nominative field of certain concepts. The study was based on corpora of political texts, which cover the issues of language, language policy, language law and the status of the Ukrainian language as the state language in Ukraine (printed publications: «Hazeta po-ukrainsky», «Holos Ukrainy», «Dzerkalo tyzhnia», «Tyzhden», «Ukrainskyi tyzhden»; electronic publications: www. bagnet.org («Bagnet»); www.censor.net.ua; www.comments.ua (Information and analytical portal «Komentari»); expres.ua («Ekspres-online»); www.focus.ua («Focus»); www.gazeta.ua; www.dt.ua («Dzerkalo tyzhnia»); www.slovoidilo.com («Slovo i dilo»); www.svoboda.org.ua; www.tsn.ua («Televiziina sluzhba novyn»); www.tyzhden.ua («Tyzhden») and others. The object of analysis was the concept LANGUAGE in the Ukrainian political discourse of 2014-2020. The subject of analysis is the specifics of explicit verbalization of the concept LANGUAGE. Concordances allow to analyze different contexts, to deduce the value of a keyword semantics on their basis, to model a nominative field (direct / indirect nomination) of the studied concept of LANGUAGE. The main task of the concordance is to display all cases of use of the word registered in the texts. Unlike the dictionary, which puts the dictionary article in the main place, the concordance gives examples - the right and left contexts of the word. Concordances are used to solve the following linguistic problems: - comparison of different possibilities of using the same word, - analysis of keywords, - analysis of frequency of words and phrases, - search and research of phrases and idioms, - search of translation, for example, terminology, - creation of lists words (used when publishing).

Емоційність політичної взаємодії (за матеріалами цифрових дискурсів України та РФ)

A comparative analysis of Ukrainian and Russian non-official political discourses is presented in the paper. Indicators of emotionality and political interrelations intensity are considered. Political texts of online-media «Ukrainska Pravda» and «Lenta.ru» were used for the research. Period: 2005 – 2019. The indicators were calculated with computer programs (Python language). The difference between the two discourses was observed in 2005-2013. In Ukraine political interrelations intensity indicator is larger, however has been decreasing from 2005 (1,4 – 0,9), in Russia the indicator is much smaller (0,41-0,47). In 2014-2015 in Ukraine the indicator decreased to 0,86-0,88, and in Russia an insignificant growth was observed. This may be explained with information policy change of the Russian mass media because of the «hybrid» war. The general trend in Ukrainian political discourse is decrease in political interrelations intensity, which is interpreted as being a reason of constant non-official mass media discourse digitalization. There is one more difference between the two discourses – in the emotionality indicator. High numbers (0,35-0,42) in Ukraine in 2005-2013 and low ones in Russia (0,19-0,22). And the positive correlation is found between political interrelations intensity indicator and emotionality in Ukraine. And there is no such correlation for Russia, thus political interrelations in the country don’t provide emotions. After 2014 emotionality indicators are almost the same (for Ukraine decrease of the indicator, for Russia – increase). And one more difference is in emotional level of texts about political actors (the countries’ presidents). Here to 2013 a significant difference is observed with high emotionality of messages about Yuschenko and Yanukovych (however in the case of the latter constant decrease of the indicator is observed). In the times of Poroshenko low numbers are discovered, however, in 2019 the largest indicator is fixated. In Russia the less emotional period is for Medvedev, this shows the imitative character of the power change in the country, and from 2014 the indicator growth is observed. Thus, in the first period of digitalization, emotionality and political interrelations intensity indicators seems to be significant to differentiate the authoritative (Russian) and transitive (Ukrainian) regimes.

The meaningful and typological aspects of precedent expressions in the Ukrainian political discourse (by materials of the debate between P. Poroshenko and V. Zelenskyi)

The meaningful and typological aspects of precedent expressions in the Ukrainian political discourse (by materials of the debate between P. Poroshenko and V. Zelenskyi)

Гумор в українському політичному дискурсі

The research focuses on the problem of humor in Ukrainian political discourse, which is interpreted as a manifestation of human activity. The peculiarities of the combination of political and game discourses in Ukrainian political communication were clarified, which resulted in the active use of humorous components in the speeches of politicians. Linguistic means of expression of humor in posts on social networks and speeches of Ukrainian politicians are analyzed. The purpose of our study is to investigate linguistic means of humor representation as the main manifestation of comic relief in Ukrainian political discourse. The purpose was to solve the following tasks: to outline the concept of political discourse in terms of the game concept of communicative activity; to analyze political genres in the speech of Ukrainian politicians; identify the linguistic features of political trolling; to find out the specifics of humor in the Ukrainian political discourse. The material of the research was the statements, speeches and posts in the social networks of famous Ukrainian politicians (L. Kravchuk, P. Poroshenko, V. Zelensky, Yu. Tymoshenko, U. Suprun etc.). Political humor is a communicative strategy in communicating politicians with one another and with ordinary citizens, and is a form of protection and distance from political problems. The appearance of a comic effect in communicative interaction depends on the intensity of the speaker and the extralinguistic factors. The main expressions of political humor are jokes, jokes and trolling. Trolling is featured in social media posts and aimed at ridiculing political opponents. The specificity of the Ukrainian political humor in the linguopragmatic aspect is provocative, irony and personal addressing of speech.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ ФРАЗЕОЛОГІЗМІВ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МОВИ В ПОЛІТИЧНОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

The political worldview as a part of the national worldview is an open structure that is constantly evolving. The language political worldview is a complex of representations of the people, recorded in the language units about political reality at a certain stage of society development. The phraseology of the Ukrainian language depends directly on the language political world-view, therefore the phraseological units (PhU) in some way form national and cultural peculiarity of political discourse. Investigation of the specific features of functioning phraseological units is an effective way to study the representations of the language speakes about political reality, its interpretation, indicating the relevance of the proposed article The article analyzes the peculiarities of the PhU functioning in the Ukrainian political discourse. The types of structural and semantic transformations of phraseological units are ellipse, substitution, expansion of component composition have been investigated. In political discourse both traditional and transformed phraseological units accurately characterize current events: financial issues, cooperation with partners, warning about the negative consequences of wrong actions, etc. Diferrent by semantics and structure phraseological units are used in accordance with the linguistic situation, context, author’s thought etc. Transformed phraseological unit загравав із проросійським електоратом (the traditional PhU гратися (грати) з вогнем «to behave carelessly, to do something dangerous») is applied to express the author’s assessment, the attitude to the political situation. The function of phraseological units in the political discourse makes it informative and expressive, and thus one of the main functions, influential, is realized. PhUs not only as nominative, but also as estimated units are used with the aim of realization of the unity of rational and emotional information in the text.

ГОЛОДОМОР В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ ПОЛІТИЧНОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

ГОЛОДОМОР В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ ПОЛІТИЧНОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

Decentralization Issue in Ukrainian Political Discourse: Selected Cases

Decentralization Issue in Ukrainian Political Discourse: Selected Cases

НОВІ СЕМАНТИЧНІ ВІДТІНКИ ЛІТЕРАТУРНОЇ ФРАЗЕОЛОГІЇ: "ЧОРНАРАДА" П. КУЛІША

The article deals with stylistic transformations of a phraseologism of literary origin THE BLACK COUNCIL, which in mass consciousness is connected with: a) the eponymous chronicle novel by P. Kulish; b) a historical event, nominated as Nizhyn General Council of 1663; c) usurpation of power during the Cossacks Age and further economic decline. In modern times, the phraseologism can be considered in other relevant contexts, primarily political ones. To clarify the deactivation of the notion of THE BLACK COUNCIL, the texts of media communication as one of the dominant spheres of the modern society have been used. The study presents data from electronic search engines in which the analyzed phraseologism acts as a time marker. The greatest media reflection on the phraseologism is observed during periods of social shifts: mass actions and revolutions (2004 and 2014), parliamentary crises (2006, 2014 and 2019), presidential campaigns, changing presidents and / or the political course of the country. In fact, the analyzed phraseologism is regarded as a certain ideologeme of the modern Ukrainian political discourse. To verify the author's ideas, the method of media monitoring was used, which allowed to correctly show the role of the phraseologism and its stylistic transformations in genre syncretism as well as the statistical method, which supported the conclusions made. The author also analyzes broad derivative potential of the investigated phraseologism, which leads to a change in semantics and evolution of Ukrainian literary language as a whole. The author's attention is drawn to new semantic shades of the analyzed phraseologism, which are related to: a) updating of the language resource in media communication, b) expansion of the world information field, c) adjustment of value guidelines of Ukrainians, d) changing of political situation in the country. In fact, the phraseologism THE BLACK COUNCIL is an effective stylistic resource for describing the political situation, and its semantic transformation enhances media influence on the recipient, given his background knowledge.