Significance of Linguistic and Cultural Codes in Russian Diplomatic Discourse

In the context of modern interstate conflicts, diplomacy becomes a key tool for resolving contradictions, therefore, the study of diplomatic discourse is an extremely important subject of modern interdisciplinary research. Diplomatic discourse as an institutional type of discourse is called to protect the interests of the state and the people, and accordingly contains special vocabulary that expresses cultural characteristics and national values through linguistic and cultural codes. The purpose of the study is to investigate what deep cultural meanings and historical narratives are actualized when using linguocultural codes in modern diplomatic discourse. Research objectives: to determine the features of diplomatic discourse, to study the meanings of linguocultural codes as special lexical markers in diplomatic speech, to determine their types in Russian diplomatic discourse. The term “linguocultural code” is most common and developed in detail within the framework of Russian linguoculturology, and foreign researchers more often have correlating concepts: “cultural code”, “code” in semiotics, “cultural models” and “cognitive metaphors”. In this article, we have studied linguocultural codes on the material of transcripts of speeches by Russian diplomats and politicians (S. V. Lavrov, V. A. Nebenzya, M. V. Zakharova, V. V. Putin, E. M. Primakov and G. M. Gatilov) and identified the following types of linguocultural codes: historical, spiritual, moral, religious-Orthodox and civilizational, which form a complex, interpenetrating axiological system that represents the national worldview. We examined these codes in terms of linguocultural, axiological, cognitive and historical aspects and identified their three main functions in diplomatic discourse: semiotic, cognitive and pragmatic. As discourse analysis and content analysis of diplomatic speeches have shown, the use of codes allows Russian diplomacy to transfer the discussion from the legal to the moral and ethical plane, create a narrative about Russia as a «guardian of traditions» and emotionally strengthen arguments, making them more resistant to criticism from Western opponents. The study demonstrates that linguocultural codes are not stylistic decorations in diplomatic speech, but discourse-forming concepts and effective «soft power» in protecting national interests.

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