SEMANTIC SHIFTS IN CONFLICT- RELATED CONCEPTS: ANALYZING 'PEACE' AND 'NEGOTIATIONS' DURING MILITARY CONFRONTATION

The semantic transformation of peace and negotiations in military conflict discourse is a critical linguistic phenomenon that shapes political narratives, diplomatic strategies, and public perception.The article examines the interrelation between these concepts, outlines the boundaries of their explication, and highlights the main ideological and geopolitical goals for which political leaders and the media use specific strategies of reinterpretation and manipulation.Drawing on Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT), Frame Semantics, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the research identifies dominant linguistic mechanisms that influence the interpretation of peace and negotiations in conflict settings.The methodology integrates metaphor analysis, discourse analysis, and corpusbased linguistic study to systematically investigate linguistic structures in political speeches, diplomatic statements, and media discourse.The foundational material of scientific scrutiny encompasses official statements from world leaders (e.g., Biden, Trump, Zelensky, Netanyahu), peace agreements (e.g., Minsk Agreements, Oslo Accords), and media reports from both Western and non-Western sources to ensure a comparative perspective.The investigation reveals that: a) peace is semantically framed as either a strategic victory or a coerced surrender, depending on the speaker's political stance; b) negotiations are constructed as either a diplomatic necessity or a deceptive maneuver, often relying on war-related metaphors that equate diplomacy with battlefield strategies; c) modality, repetition, and euphemistic language reinforce rigid ideological positions, making genuine diplomatic resolution challenging.These findings highlight the linguistic mechanisms that underpin wartime discourse, demonstrating that peace and negotiations are not neutral terms but rhetorical tools used to justify, prolong, or delegitimize conflicts.The article contributes to the broader understanding of how language constructs political realities, offering insights into the strategic role of framing in international diplomacy and conflict resolution.Future research might focus on exploring the longitudinal evolution of peace and negotiation discourse, incorporating social media narratives and grassroots political communication to capture a more dynamic picture of linguistic shifts in wartime rhetoric.Additionally, further comparative studies across different cultural and linguistic contexts could reveal how regional and historical factors influence the semantic transformation of peace and negotiations.