English Political Neologisms: From Semantics to Pragmatics of Usage

The article is concerned with linguistic means of political discourse as one of the forms of communicative interaction in society. The general notion of discourse with respect to thematic, socio-psychological and functional approaches is considered, the notion of political discourse as a specific use of communication aimed at retention of political power is also analyzed. A supposition about the importance of person-centered approach in the process of interaction between public authority and members of the society within the media landscape is made, in particular, while using social networks, creating an illusion of intimacy and targeted communication of a politician with a member of potential electorate. Modern political communication is not so much based on topic-oriented language system as is determined by emotional stylistic format clearly seen in the choice of original linguistic means. In order to analyze linguistic material, a number of methods have been used: the method of componential analysis, contextual analysis and intent analysis in combination with personological approach to the estimation of politicians’ personalities and their professional activities, which made it possible to determine the specificity of cultural-situational functioning of neologisms in media. The analysis of political neologisms from the point of view of their semantics with the emphasis on evaluative and national-cultural components of connotative meaning as well as the linguopragmatic effect of their usage seems to be high on the agenda. The introduction of neologisms gives prominence and a certain competitive advantage to speakers thanks to creating an expressive effect and the consequent imprinting of neologisms in the linguocognitive worldview of recipients. Two groups of neologisms with explicitly (containing related semantic components of meaning) and implicitly (on the base of extralinguistic factors) expressed negative evaluation have been distinguished: socio-political neologisms and personological political neologisms. It is stated that political neologisms obtain stimulating and manipulative potential and can not only serve as triggers to social activity but can also be a means of manipulation with the purpose of reinforcing cognitive stereotypes. Personological slang neonominations are notable for significant stability of referential meaning, high frequency of usage due to simplicity of word form and easiness of memory retention since they often reflect common value orientations of ordinary carriers of mass consciousness.