PREDICATIVE ARRANGEMENT OF NATIONAL ANTHEM TEXTS IN ENGLISH- AND GERMAN- SPEAKING COMMUNITIES

This article examines the predicative organization of English (ENA) and German-language (GNA) national anthems. Our aim is to explore the cognitive-communicative mapping strategies employed in these anthems through three predicative networks shaped by subcategories of modality, temporality, and personality. This objective is supported by specific tasks, such as describing the current state of the problem in the humanities and clarifying the modal, temporal, and personal features of the studied texts. These features determine the predicative algorithm for their function in public communication. The research methodology is based on a paradigmatic cognitive-discursive approach, considering language and speech phenomena through the philosophical postulates of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, form and content. This involves the comprehensive application of relevant linguistic methods (analytical-descriptive, structural semantic, functional grammatical, pragmalinguistic), techniques (classification, systematization), and procedures (contextual analysis, quantitative calculations). The category of predicativeness, which correlates linguistic units with reality, binds nominative units into sentences and sentences into cohesive texts. In the texts of ENA/GNA, this process is mediated by three predicative networks: modal, temporal, and personal, with the modal network serving as the foundation for the other two. The organization of the modal network in the studied texts is characterized by several common qualitative and quantitative features. The indicative and imperative moods are almost equally represented, whereas the conditional mood is underrepresented. Unlike other types of small-format poetic texts, the imperative becomes a mandatory mode in the texts of ENA and GNA. Both ENA and GNA exhibit similar patterns of temporality, focusing on connecting the present with the future while avoiding any reference to the past. The present tense serves as the central link in the temporal network of these texts, emphasizing the moment of speech and extending its influence into the future, thus becoming a panchronic temporal form. The study highlights that the individual networks of ENA and GNA texts are shaped by the specific use of personal deixis within direct (1st and 2nd person) and indirect (3rd person) registers. The third person is predominantly used, while the first person is the least common. The latter often appears implicitly, relating to the “target reader” of the text, who remains in the background of the speech processes. The established paradigm of predicative forms in the texts is found to be incomplete, influenced by factors such as neglect, diffusion, and dominance. In the modal network, the neglect of certain grammatical forms in favor of others results from the asymmetric reduction of three forms of objective modality to two (indicative and imperative). In the temporal network, the present tense extends into the future, leading to an indifferent attitude toward past temporal forms. In the personal network, the role of the third person is elevated, while the significance of direct register persons is diminished. The predicative system of ENA/GNA texts demonstrates the diffusion of grammatical forms, integrating rare conditional forms into the imperative sphere to express wishes and requests. Additionally, there is a symbiosis of temporal perspectives of the present and future, forming a panchronic whole. Furthermore, the interchange of the third and second persons occurs in appeals. The paradigm’s incompleteness is also influenced by the quantitative dominance of certain forms over others. In the modal network, indicative and imperative forms are predominant. In the temporal network, present tense forms prevail. In the personal network, the third person is dominant. The paper proves that the established paradigm of predicative forms in the studied texts is incomplete and asymmetrically distorted. This is caused by a number of factors: reduced number of conventional grammatical means, the syntagmatic diffusion of certain grammatical forms (the use of the conditional mood instead of the imperative), the quantitative dominance of certain grammatical forms, etc. The grammatical lacunarity of predicative forms paradigm is an inherent property of ENA / GNA texts, one of system parameters that distinguishes them from other small-format versed texts of political lyrics.