For citation:
Balashova L. V. The genre of the Russian Federation’s President’s address to its citizens during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the mirror of a conceptual metaphor. Speech Genres, 2022, vol. 17, iss. 2 (34), pp. 115-132. DOI: 10.18500/2311-0740-2022-17-2-34-115-132, EDN: JXTSZB
The genre of the Russian Federation’s President’s address to its citizens during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the mirror of a conceptual metaphor
The article deals with the linguistic and cognitive analysis of the most regular and conceptually significant metaphors used in the genre of the address of the President of Russia when characterizing the epidemiological and socio-economic situation in the country during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that it is this form of communication and this method of meaning production which allows the head of state to express his position accurately and emotionally, and in this way to influence the addressee (citizens of the Russian Federation, its individual representatives) during the acute global crisis associated with the pandemic. The aim of the article is to identify the regular models of metaphorization and their cognitive functions used in the genre of V. V. Putin’s address when characterizing the situation in the country and the world from March to July 2020. The research is based on 48 transcripts of appeals, meetings, conversations of the head of the Russian Federation, published from 03/25/20 to 07/06/20 on the official Kremlin website. As a result of the complex methodology of semantic, discursive, linguocognitive analysis of texts, it is established that the President of the Russian Federation prefers linguistic, systemically organized transfers, focusing on the informative component of his speech. The voluntative function is performed mainly due to a clear and understandable cognitive matrix of specific metaphorization models, the core of which is the understanding of the epidemic as an animated phenomenon aiming to destroy humanity. The task for all active forces of the society is to counteract the aggressor. The semantic means used to express this concept are military and militarily oriented spatial, anthropomorphic transfers. In parallel, V. V. Putin consistently uses the model of purposeful activity as a movement in the chosen direction: the country must develop, overcoming all obstacles on the way, including the pandemic.
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