The Message of Political Slogans. Case Study: A Study of Slogans from the 2024 Election Campaign in Bulgaria

Abstract: The article examines the expressions in political slogans from several consecutive election campaigns held in Bulgaria in 2023 and 2024. Natural language analysis tools developed in the field of logic and philosophy of language were used to reveal the intention behind the slogan. In advertising, the slogan engages consumers in a language game and provokes them to choose a given product over others similar to it on the market. This characteristic of the slogan has also been adopted in election campaigns. By analyzing the implicit meaning of slogans, conclusions can be drawn about the message that the party aims to convey to its voters, even when it is not explicitly stated. An analysis of implicatures, and prototypical and salient expressions used in slogans is applied to achieve this goal. With the use of such means of expression the pragmatic inference is possible because people in a linguistic community have common sociocultural and linguistic intuitions. In this sense, the message of the slogan conveys values that are shared by the audience. The article examines examples that show the emotions that copywriters intend to provoke in voters. Prototypical and salient phrases are interpreted with minimal cognitive effort, because they are used frequently and participants in a given language community understand them almost instantly. Implicatures are perceived as a kind of form of linguistic creativity, which is realized in the text of the slogan, so a personal connection is created between the representatives of a political party and its voters, although another of their essential characteristics is also preserved - the free interpretation of the speaker’s intentions. Keywords: implicatures, political slogans, elections, prototypes, speaker meaning, pragmatic philosophy.