EUPHEMISMS AND POWER OF PERSUAISON IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN POLITICAl DISCOURSE OF MASS MEDIA
Abstract
The article considers euphemisms functioning in the modern British and American political discourse of mass media in the context of information warfare. The analysis has identified a number of semantic groups of political euphemisms and the reasons for their use in the political discourse of mass media. The study of euphemisms belonging to the semantic group “Armed Conflict” has proved that euphemisms function as a powerful linguistic tool to create the positive image of “our side”. Political euphemisms can be used to describe less pleasant notions in more pleasant or discreet ways thus softening the potentially negative impact of the expression or they can perform the covering up function in order to deliberately disguise actual meanings of words in political discourse. The research has also demonstrated that most political euphemisms in the semantic group “Armed Conflict” are based on the metaphorical transfer and the mechanism of replacing hyponyms with superordinates. The cognitive linguistics analysis of euphemisms in the contemporary political discourse of mass media is essential for the study of the methods of language manipulation since euphemistic expressions allow naming things without calling up mental pictures of them and, as a result, they can be used in mass media to manipulate public opinion, construct people’s beliefs about politics and influence attitudes.
About the Authors
N. A. Ches
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Natalya A. Ches – PhD, Associate Professor of the English Language Department
76, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, 119454
T. A. Tyukina
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Tatyana A. Tyukina – Assistant Professor of the English Language Department
76, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, 119454
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Review
For citations:
Ches N.A., Tyukina T.A. EUPHEMISMS AND POWER OF PERSUAISON IN BRITISH AND AMERICAN POLITICAl DISCOURSE OF MASS MEDIA. Linguistics & Polyglot Studies. 2017;(9):39-45. (In Russ.)
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