MANIPULATIVE TACTICS IMPLEMENTATION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Background. The political discourse of modern society is a complex, multi-faceted and multi-level entity characterized by a variety of goals and objectives and functioning within the framework of current political, economic, geopolitical, cultural and other realities. Linguistic analysis of modern political discourse and, in particular, identification of the most frequent linguistic means of implementing manipulation in political discourse, is of particular relevance today and is important not just because it expands the theoretical scientific base, but for its practical value for the formation of a mature point of view and critical thinking when dealing with the texts of political discourse. Purpose. The analysis of manipulative techniques is of particular scientific interest. The purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of manipulation from a psychological and linguistic point of view, to identify the main pragmatic strategies of manipulation and to identify the most frequent linguistic means of their implementation. Materials and methods. The empirical material was interviews and individual statements of leading Russian and Western politicians, as well as the works of domestic and foreign political scientists and journalists presented in modern media. At certain stages of the study, in the course of the work, such research methods as discourse analysis, linguistic description, contextual and semantic analysis were used. This study relied on the descriptive method in order to interpret the research material, classify the identified communicative scenarios and systematize the language means used. Results Having analyzed in detail the empirical material of the modern political discourse in Russian and English, the authors identify three main pragmatic manipulative strategies, for each of which they provide characteristic tactics, supporting them with examples of statements by outstanding Russian and foreign political figures of our time: the strategy of promotion (tactics aimed at forming a positive image, leveling the critical narrative, hidden presentation and presentation); the strategy of demotion (tactics aimed at forming a negative image, abuse and infringement, imputation of guilt and exposure); the strategy of neutrality (tactics with the potential for motivation, constructive joint activity and full awareness). The analysis of the empirical material also made it possible to identify the most frequently used linguistic means verbalizing the tactics listed above. These include: the use of epithets and metaphors, lexical repetitions, quotations from famous and outstanding personalities, phraseological units and emotionally charged lexemes.