International journal

Speech Genres

ISSN 2311-0759 (Online)
ISSN 2311-0740 (Print)

For citation:

Leontovich O. A. “Violent rhetoric” and political correctness in the genre of electoral political debates in American electoral discourse. Speech Genres, 2025, vol. 20, iss. 2 (46), pp. 118-127. DOI: 10.18500/2311-0740-2025-20-2-46-118-127, EDN: EWEKES

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0).
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Language: 
Russian
Heading: 
Studies of individual genres
Article type: 
Article
UDC: 
УДК [342.849.2(73):811.111(73)’42]|2023/2024|
DOI: 
10.18500/2311-0740-2025-20-2-46-118-127
EDN: 
EWEKES

“Violent rhetoric” and political correctness in the genre of electoral political debates in American electoral discourse

Autors: 
Leontovich Olga Arkadyevna, Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University
Abstract: 

The article is devoted to “violent rhetoric” as a type of oratory practice used in the genre of political debates and is based on the material from the 2024 U. S. electoral campaign. The data were collected from speeches of American politicians, their statements in the media and on Twitter, as well as from Russian and foreign publications and TV news broadcasts from January 2023 to August 2024. The research methods include rhetorical analysis, critical discourse analysis, semiotic and contextual analyses. The article examines the characteristics of American presidential rhetoric, such as simplicity of speech, semantic vagueness of key concepts, a small amount of factual information, a high degree of pathos and aggressiveness, and the use of simplistic humor. The main features of “violent rhetoric” identified in the course of the research are the use of confrontational strategies, fierce attacks on opponents, as well as war and aggression metaphors. The study also shows that the central focus is on issues of political correctness, which are directly related to the main contradictions between Democrats and Republicans. “Violent rhetoric” creates social tension, leads to the radicalization of political views, and poses the risk of real physical violence. 

Key words: 
genre of electoral political debates
“violent rhetoric”
political correctness
American electoral discourse
confrontational strategies
war and aggression metaphors
verbal threats
Acknowledgments: 
Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке Российского научного фонда (проект № 23-18-00238), https://rscf.ru/project/23-18-00238/. The work was funded by Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-18-00238), https:// rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-00238/.
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Received: 
24.08.2024
Accepted: 
09.10.2024
Published: 
30.05.2025