scholarly journals Functioning of Emotive-Evaluative Vocabulary in a Political Text

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliya S. Polyakova ◽  
Elena V. Suvorova ◽  
Alexey Yu. Trutnev

This paper is aimed at highlighting the problem of the use of emotive-evaluative vocabulary in the English-language mass media political discourse, which is a relevant topic since the scope of media texts in English is widespread in the information community and the media language is the basic means for communication, phrasing, conveying and storing information. Political discourse is a popular area of research of linguistics, as it covers all aspects of modern life and society. Being mainly broadcasted by the politicians, it is considered a complex linguistic phenomenon, whose objectives, direct or indirect, are aimed at disseminating, implementing political authorities and obtaining the majority of votes during the election campaigns. The article is devoted to the evaluation categories, which refer to the semantic and pragmatic categories and can be one of the strongest tools of influence on the public. Within the framework of our research 29 English articles, posted on the Internet, concerning the political leaders of the United States and Great Britain, attributing the personal characteristics to them, were analysed. Using the continuous sampling method there was found 214 examples of English emotive-evaluative vocabulary. During the study, the methods of compilation, interpretation, and descriptive methods were used.

Author(s):  
N. A. Tribunskaya ◽  
V. D. Shevchenko

This article is devoted to the study of discursive structures in political sphere, represented in the English-language source Twitter of the President of the United States. The purpose of the study is to analyze the discursive structures that arise as a result of the interaction of political discourse with other types of discourses. To achieve it, the authors set the following tasks: identifying specific markers in the political discourse that characterize the presence of other discourses, analyzing the features of the communicative situation of message transmission, identifying the features of interdiscursiveness and polydiscursivity. The material for the analysis was the statements of Donald Trump on Twitter from November 1, 2019 to November 1, 2020. The authors of the article use various methods: descriptive, contextual analysis, comparative, methods of observation, content analysis and discourse analysis. The study uses the linguistic concept of the American scientist D. Himes S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G, which includes an analysis of the components of the situation: Participants, Ends, Act Sequence etc. Using the situation model in the messages, participants, their actions and other characteristics were highlighted. President is the author of the messages, while the addressee is a collective one. The same participants, depending on the context of the message, become participants of other types of discourses. The article examines such types of discourses as economic, educational, medical, which are part of political discourse. Their choice is due to the socio-economic significance of the issues of economics, education and health care in the life of society. In addition, the media function of political communication is reflected. The texts are posted on the Internet platform, due to which the political discourse is drawn into the space of the Internet discourse. The analysis made it possible to identify the features of large-scale interdiscursiveness and to highlight the levels of discursive heterogeneity.


1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Sullivan ◽  
Pat Walsh ◽  
Michal Shamir ◽  
David G. Barnum ◽  
James L. Gibson

In this article, we present data showing that national legislators are more tolerant than the public in Britain, Israel, New Zealand and the United States. Two explanations for this phenomenon are presented and assessed. The first is the selective recruitment of Members of Parliament, Knesset and Congress from among those in the electorate whose demographic, ideological and personality characteristics predispose them to be tolerant. Although this process does operate in all four countries, it is insufficient to explain all of the differences in tolerance between elites and the public in at least three countries. The second explanation relies on a process of explicitly political socialization, leading to differences in tolerance between elites and their public that transcend individual-level, personal characteristics. Relying on our analysis of political tolerance among legislators in the four countries, we suggest how this process of political socialization may be operating.


Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Petrovich Evlasev ◽  
Larisa Alekseevna Sychugova

This article is dedicated to examination of the questions of functionality of evaluative lexis in political discourse of the United States. The relevance of the topic is substantiated by the heightened interests of research towards the peculiarities of expressing evaluative meanings in various types of discourse. In modern linguistics, the analysis of functionality of evaluative lexis in the political discourse is of unequivocal interest, since axiological interpretation significantly affects the life of modern society. Research methodology is comprised of the work of such Russian linguists as I. S. Alekseeva, A. A. Ufimtseva, T. A. Znamenskaya, N. D. Arutyunova, and others. Special attention is given to the method of realization of negative evaluations. The goal of this  article consists in the methods of expression of evaluative meanings s using stylistic means, as the language is an effective weapon in the world of politics. The political texts of US mass media served as the material for this research due to the fact that mass media influence the formation of public opinion, the course of political discussions and referendums, rating of political and public figures, political parties, and public organizations. The conducted analysis demonstrates that the US political discourse includes different lexical and stylistic means applied for exertion of ideological influence, as well as formation of certain attitudes on certain realities of political life among the recipients.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-117
Author(s):  
Donald E. Cook ◽  
Conrad L. Andringa ◽  
Karl W. Hess ◽  
Leonard L. Kishner ◽  
Samuel R. Leavitt ◽  
...  

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that it is necessary to reaffirm its support for the concept of school health education, from kindergarten through grade 12, for all schoolchildren in the United States. A basic concept of pediatrics is prevention, and health education is a basic element in the delivery of comprehensive health care. The public is continually bombarded by the media about the high cost of medical care and the overutilization and incorrect use of medical facilities. The media also writes about the problems of increasing promiscuity and illegitimacy; the money wasted on quackery; practices that are detrimental to the health of people in the United States; and the lag in the dissemination of new health information and facts to the public. The Committee on School Health believes that community health education programs, of which school health education programs from kindergarten through grade 12 are an integral part, are one of the most viable methods to help alleviate these and similar problems. Therefore, the Committee on School Health makes the following recommendations and urges action for them at state and local levels. 1. Health education is a basic education subject, and it should be taught as such. Health education is compatible with other traditional subjects and can enhance the contribution that other basic subjects make to general life experience, understanding, and skills. 2. Planned, integrated programs of comprehensive health education should be required for students from kindergarten through grade 12. Instruction should be given by teachers qualified to teach health education.


Author(s):  
Randal Marlin

Terrorist events are breaking news for the media whose ethical responsibility can be debatable. Tactics of terrorism vary from kidnapping, hostage-taking, hijackings, and others up to mass destruction, including the use of nuclear weapons. Media responses and coverage strategies of such tactics also vary, with some reluctant to provide terrorists with the “oxygen of publicity.” Some striking similarities have appeared recently between the build-up to the war on Iraq begun by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration in 2002, culminating with the start of war in 2003, and the 2012 push by current U.S. President Barack Obama for action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In the earlier case, the presumption was established in the public mind, without adequate evidence, that Iraq possessed or was about to possess weapons of mass destruction, and had the will to use them against the United States. In the latter case, the background presumption is that Iran is actively seeking to produce a nuclear weapon, with Israel as a potential target. This claim also lacks solid evidence at the time of writing, but has come to be accepted in some media as an uncontroversial fact. This chapter looks at aspects of how different English and French Canadian newspapers, as examples, covered the push for war on Iraq. It includes reflections on the use of language in reporting on the war itself. The central concern is with the media role in fear-mongering and propaganda for war.


Author(s):  
Víctor Hernández-Santaolalla

Social media brings to the forefront two very important factors to today's politics: the prominent role of the internet and the importance of personalisation which is closely tied to a tendency of political candidates to overexpose their private lives. This does not mean that the candidate becomes more relevant than the political party or the ideological platforms thereof, but the interest tends to fall on the candidate's lifestyle; on their personal characteristics and their most intimate surroundings, which blurs the line between the public and private spheres. Online profiles are used as a showcase for the public agenda of the politician at the same time as they gather, on a daily basis, the thoughts, tastes and leisure time activities of the candidates. This chapter offers a reflection of the ways in which political leaders develop their digital narratives, and how they use the social media environment to approach citizens.


2021 ◽  
pp. 98-118
Author(s):  
Sandro Galea

This chapter investigates how politics and power shape health outcomes, with special emphasis on how these forces intersect with economic inequality and the disproportionate burden of sickness experienced by low-income populations. During the spread of COVID-19, American political leadership faced a test of its ability to respond to sudden crisis. Rising to such a difficult occasion requires detailed plans for what to do in such a scenario, robust public health infrastructure, and leadership which takes decisive, data-informed action, listening to experts and communicating clearly and consistently with the public. Tragically, COVID-19 found the United States lacking in all these areas. Political leaders are in a position to mold public opinion, nudging the public mind towards new ways of thinking. The precise term for this is “shifting the Overton window.” By helping to mainstream a cavalier attitude towards COVID-19, the Trump administration shifted the Overton window towards greater acceptance of behaviors which create poorer health. The chapter then looks at the failure to adequately address race in the US. Among the factors that shape health, the area of race is particularly sensitive to political dynamics.


2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Grusky ◽  
Emily Ryo

We test the popular claim that poverty and inequality were “dirty little secrets” until the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina exposed them to a wider public. If this account were on the mark, it would suggest that the absence of major antipoverty initiatives in the United States is partly attributable to public ignorance and apathy coupled with the narrowly rational decision on the part of policymakers to attend to other issues about which the public evidently cares more. Using the 2004 Maxwell Poll, we find strikingly high levels of awareness and activism on poverty and inequality issues even prior to Katrina, clearly belying the “dirty little secret” account. The follow-up Maxwell Poll, which was administered in 2005 immediately after Katrina, revealed only a slight increase in public awareness of poverty and inequality. The Katrina effect was evidently dampened because (1) the large number of preexisting poverty activists reduced the size of the residual population “at risk” for conversion to antipoverty activism, and (2) the remaining non-activists were ardently opposed to poverty activism and hence unlikely to be receptive to the liberal message coming out of Katrina.


1996 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Johnson ◽  
Wayne Wanta ◽  
Timothy Boudreau ◽  
Janet Blank-Libra ◽  
Killian Schaffer ◽  
...  

This agenda-building study employed a path analysis model to examine the three-way relationship among the public, the media, and the president on the issue of drug abuse during the Nixon administration. The path model also measured the extent to which these actors were influenced by real-world conditions about the number of drug-related arrests in the United States. Past studies have suggested a cyclical relationship should exist among the president, the press, and the public. This study, however, found a linear relationship with issues moving first, from real world to the media and the public, then from the media to the public, and finally from the public to the president.


1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf T. Wigand ◽  
Hans-Dieter Klee

SummaryUnderstanding the priorities and workings of the mass media are a prerequisite to gaining the attention of the media and, more importantly, the cooperation of those who control access to media space and time. In addition, one needs to understand information and news filtering and gate-keeping functions carried out by the media. It is also essential to understand the interplay between reporters and their news sources and the fact that both entities have their specific priorities and agenda. In the United States of America the media’s behavior may be viewed and understood, at least in part, as the journalistic performance and exercise in the principles of the First Amendment within the Constitution. Simultaneously though the media are part of the free enterprise system, implying that they are a business whose primary motivation is to maximize profits and minimally to survive as an organization. The media, however, are not in the business of health care, medicine or public health. This contribution characterizes the health information setting in the United States of America. Relevant research has demonstrated that in the process of gaining health information by the consumer, food producers can be highly successful in influencing food-purchasing behavior and thus may have an influence on health and eating behavior. Among the issues addressed here are scientific alarmism, information confusion, disinformation, misinformation and the often resultant paradoxical behavior exhibited by the public. The knowledge gap-hypothesis is explored with regard to its appropriateness in this setting. Researchers found that short, unequivocal and positive media messages - so-called magic bullets - addressing single and relatively simple behaviors can be highly effective and that whatever advice is given should be uncomplicated and negative elements associated with the message should be avoided.It is important for scientists, medical experts and nutritionists, the media and food producers to realize that they all play a vital role in achieving broad-scale health behavior. They need to cooperate and work together to produce a set of clear, consistent, focused and positive messages based on current scientific knowledge and trends. Only then can such recommendations be communicated, understood and acted upon by the public. It is especially important to educate and inform children properly about the appropriate judgement and analysis of advertised messages pertaining to health and eating behavior questions.


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