SPEECH PORTRAITS OF D. TRUMP AND B. JOHNSON: COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES OF POLITICAL LEADERS

Authors
A.V. Radyuk, L.S. Kolesnikova
Affiliation
RUDN University
Issue 44
Pages
118-151

The article examines the pragmalinguistic features of the image of a politician in public political discourse. Political discourse is viewed as a process of exercising power by speech means. The rhetorical effectiveness of a politician’s speech has a direct impact on the processes of mastering power, preserving, exercising, distributing it and resigning. The authors consider the communication strategy as a general theoretical plan for the implementation of such practical goals. Such properties of the communicative strategy as purposefulness, flexibility, contextuality, intentional character are noted.

Through the prism of the components of the linguistic personality, the article describes the speech portraits of British and American leaders, identifies the features of their speech, compares their points of view on the climate agenda, highlights the dynamics of their positions and their verbalization for the period of 2011-2021. The work uses the method of functional-synergetic analysis, which considers discourse as a systemic unity of semantic components interacting through pragma-semantic relations and directed towards a communicative goal.

The authors come to the conclusion that the climate rhetoric in the chosen period is clearly defined by both leaders, is essential for constructing the image of a politician as a supporter of environmental protection, and has a direct impact on his business reputation. The dynamics of views on this issue in the speeches of the American president is noted. Based on the material of his oral and written statements, the transformation of pragma-semantic system of meanings and its transition from skepticism to refutation and support are traced.

The results obtained demonstrate the serious role of strategic speech planning of a politician’s speech and can be useful for enriching the communicative repertoire of a public person.

For citation

Radyuk, A.V., & Kolesnikova, L.S. (2021). Speech portraits of D. Trump and B. Johnson: communicative strategies of political leaders. Issues of Applied Linguistics, 44, 118-151. https://doi.org/10.25076/vpl.44.06

This artiсle is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.