A Discursive Approach to Modern Ukrainian Non-institutional Military Discourse

Abstract

The aim of the article is to prove the need for discourse analysis for the study of modern Ukrainian non-institutional military discourse; to substantiate the methodological approach in line of discourse analysis to the study of the psychological and social context of the Ukrainian non-institutional military discourse. Materials &methods. The study has used a set of general scientific research methods (analysis, classification, systematization, explanation) in order to analyze scientific sources, to generalize research data, to define concepts. Results &discussions. The scientific interest of social psychology and sociolinguistics is aimed at studying the following aspects of non-institutional military discourse: 1)intentional (intentions, strategies, plans), namely, cultural differentiation, construction and protection of personal identity; 2)mainstreaming (embodiment of intentions in the sign-symbolic space of discourse), for example, appeal to metaphorical models, actualization of the concept WAR and its components; 3)pragmatic, namely, adaptation of military servicemen to combat stress, psychological protection from the destructive effects of a traumatic situation;4)identifying (recognition and understanding of meanings, values, construction of identity), notably, creation of a single cultural and symbolic space of a separate military community, construction of the opposition “friend foe”;5)contextual (expansion of the semantic field on the basis of socio-cultural, historical and other contexts),which is reflected in the information and psychological confrontation during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict;6)emotional, such as the definition of emotional and semantic dominance that is peculiar to military discourse. In this perspective, non-institutional military discourse can serve as a material for studying the goal-setting of ideology in society. Principles of critical discourse analysis developed by T.Van Dijk is especially relevant for the study of the peculiarities of non-institutional military discourse during unjust, aggression wars aimed at conquering foreign countries.Due to the complexity and versatility of non-institutional military discourse it is also necessary to turn to another type of discursive analysis, which has the most empirically oriented approach and allows to focus on extensive psychological issues such as cognition, emotions, attitudes, values, prejudices, memory, motives; namely, discursive psychology.Conclusions. The focus on achieving the most effective and efficient implementation of the study requires recourse to discourse analysis as the methodological approach. The concept of critical discourse analysis developed by T.Van Dijk and discursive psychology are more relevant for the study of modern Ukrainian non-institutional military discourse. Key words: critical discourse analysis, discursive psychology, non-institutional military discourse.