Socio-political vocabulary is considered as part of the journalistic style. Therefore, it is quite susceptible to semantic changes that occur after the political and social movements in the state.
general information
Each new stage of historical development leads to the fact that the use of socio-political vocabulary is changing. The most striking example of this is the October Revolution and the events preceding it. Each such turn leads to the fact that there is a language restructuring of different activities. The language of the socio-political sphere is, first of all, the promotion of ideas and views. Its appearance and existence is due to extralinguistic factors. The situation that prevailed in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century is indicative. Then there were more than 150 different political parties, structures, organizations, directions and trends. Dissatisfaction with the then existing order, disunity, social disorder, the inability of the authorities to restore order led to a situation that A. M. Selishchev called "vigorous linguistic activity." The essence of this phenomenon was that various segments of the population, political parties and individuals sought to express their attitude to the events of that time, as well as to discuss issues important to them. This contributed to the updating and consolidation of new, previously unused words and their combinations. For example, democratic freedom and rights, names of political parties, the system of choice of power and so on. Then three blocks of parties dominated: the left, the centrists and the right. It was from them that the sociopolitical vocabulary of the Russian language drew in many respects.
Now this sphere is more free and informal, it is enough to have access to the Internet - and a person has a wide opportunity to enter the discourse. Although, in order to join a certain group of people with a common position, it is necessary to have a fairly substantial supply of knowledge.
What task is being performed
Socio-political vocabulary has a significant role in society. At the same time, researchers face a number of tasks in the study of this area:
- Insufficient study of this issue in works devoted to terminology.
- Weak study of the functional and semasiological aspects.
- Identification and subsequent systematization of language vocabulary.
Detailed studies of these aspects make it possible to obtain and enrich the idea of the lexical composition of the groups under consideration. These actions are important not only in the study of vocabulary, but also for conducting diachronic analysis. In this case, the study of issues is solved in two aspects:
- Status and properties of socio-political vocabulary as an integral subsystem of language.
- The study of specific thematic and semantic groups.
The most simple in execution is work with the compilation of a dictionary of the political sphere. But this raises the problem of a comprehensive description of the semantic structure of lexemes and the identification of household specifics. How is she solved? For this, a corpus of lexical units is used, extracted from sources that directly record the real features of the functioning of the units of interest. These include documents of political parties and public organizations. The main attention is paid to their programs, appeals, appeals, open letters. If you add to them shorthand reports on speeches of deputies in the State Duma, memoirs of politicians, memoirs, periodicals and some other literature, you can get a very high-quality idea of vocabulary.
What is wrong here? And how to classify?
A study of socio-political vocabulary, which is based solely on material extracted from dictionaries, cannot be regarded as absolutely reliable. The reason for this, according to some scholars, lies in the very nature of the source, which is simply the product of lexicographic modeling of the language system. That is, in this case a situation of “double subjectivity” arises. It affects the scientific significance of the research. Moreover, dictionaries, as well as the whole language, are not without prejudice. The most common criticisms are the content of a certain point of view and the presentation of a specific understanding. Therefore, most often, attention is paid to words and compound names that are used to service the sphere of social and political life. There are quite a few classifications of social and political vocabulary. Which one to choose depends on the goals pursued. In this article we will consider the following thematic groups:
- Forms of social organization.
- The subjects of supreme state power.
- Country device forms.
In this case, thirty-four thematic subgroups are additionally highlighted. As a small list, you can cite the name and contents of open letters and appeals, legislative documents, political events and actions.
About functional features
Speaking of what constitutes socio-political vocabulary and phraseology, it is simply impossible to circumvent the role it performs. At the same time, contextual deterministic semantic ambivalence is manifested:
- Actualization of negative connotative sem in the structures of initially neutral tokens. For example, "United Russia - a party of crooks and thieves." Initially, the neutral designation acquired a pronounced negative color.
- Actualization of positive connotative microcomponents of initially neutral tokens. For example, the phrase "United Russia" in the program of this party.
The terminology and vocabulary of the socio-political sphere are two separate, but at the same time closely interconnected, dynamically developing systems. Their main functional features are:
- Rethinking existing composite non-terminological names. For example, the Slavophiles are opposed to the Constitution of the Russian Federation proclaiming multinationality, and bet on the Russian ethnic group.
- The functioning of a number of items in specific conditions. An example is the term quasi-synonyms. These units are characterized by over-actualization of the initially existing denotative microcomponents. As an alternative, we can consider the distribution of terms in their original form or with a certain extension and specification. In the first case, this applies when something over-relevant should be done. For example: Putin is the president. For expansion and concretization, a phrase like: the head of state of the Russian Federation is suitable. These are examples of socio-political vocabulary.
What else?
Continuing the last list, it should be noted:
- The formation of new colorful non-terminological names of occasional origin, which are based on a combination of certain parts of speech. For example: Putin crab.
- The fixed form of the singular as an indicator of the well-known person of the head of the country.
- Low semantic inter-component communication of individual items of a composite nature.
- Bookishness and stylistic elevation of titles. It arises as a result of the context environment. For example: an all-Russian autocrat.
- A combination of quasi-synonyms in one stable and indivisible name. For example: emperor.
- The emergence and use of metaphorical composite non-terminological names of occasional origin (for example, the supreme master over all Russian land).
- A few, but striking examples of the use of lexemes in conditions of artificially created discrepancies between semantic and stylistic characteristics and context, it is possible to actualize the seme of irony within the framework of the connotative macrocomponent of values. As an example, we can cite such an anachronism as the king-father.
Summing up, we can say that the widespread use of quasi-synonymous words during the performance of functional tasks is characteristic. The considered socio-political vocabulary, examples of which were given, demonstrated the presence of a developed system of relations. In addition, there are terminological polysemy and hyperheroinima. These are the functions of socio-political vocabulary distinguished by its consideration.
What processes does this represent?
And is it possible to draw parallels with modernity? The use of socio-political vocabulary is always the result of dissatisfaction with certain moments or even crisis phenomena in the state. The emergence and deepening of contradictions in the socio-economic and socio-political sphere, the emergence of problems, changes in the life of the country allows us to judge the prospects. An example is the situation of the early twentieth century. Then a number of upheavals and crises literally stratified, creating a stormy hodgepodge and good soil for the social explosion that occurred in 1917. In addition, we can recall the conditions in which the Soviet Union collapsed (riots, massacres, and even something similar to genocide in the Central Asian republics). From a relatively fresh situation, one can mention the situation on Bolotnaya Square, when many thought that the revolution would happen due to reaching the boiling point. That is, any radicalization of the words of socio-political vocabulary, examples of which can be seen even now, leads to the situation aggravating. This is clearly reflected in the socio-political vocabulary.
Different groups and strata of the population
This is more relevant to specific points and features. First of all, one should recall the ideologically determined selection of certain language means by members of different parties. After all, correctly conveying the promoted information to potential supporters means gaining additional political strength. And strengthen your own position. In this case, you have to be guided by two factors:
- The ideological settings of a particular party.
- The composition of the potential electorate.
For example, nationalist right-wing movements rely on the use of socio-political lexemes and terms that are of a native Russian origin. Leftists prefer new and borrowed. Moreover, in practice, they can use the same words, only with the observance of a certain variability and different semantic content. In other words, it can have a diametrically opposite meaning in the documentation of different batches. In addition, the active elements are constantly forming new terms and tokens. This occurs within the framework of such processes:
- Rethinking of existing names.
- Implementation of a specific language policy by a specific political force.
- Updating previously borrowed items.
Moreover, determininization by the lexemes of nominative specialization is often observed. The reason for such phenomena is the following:
- The connotative meanings are actualized due to the influence of the semantic background of the semantic environment.
- A nominative reorientation is carried out. By this is meant that a new conceptual content is beginning to be invested in the token.
But at the same time, sociopolitical terminology is quite characteristic of stability and stability, because by its specificity it is formed quite slowly.
The situation in other states
Throughout the article, the main attention was paid to the situation within the Russian Federation. Let’s see how things are going with other countries. And as an object of study will be selected English socio-political vocabulary. In it over the past few decades, there have been numerous qualitative and quantitative changes. They were caused by the very rapid development of society. In this case, there is a clear tendency to complicate the forms and components. So, the modern socio-political vocabulary of the English language is based on the formation of new affixes, which allows you to experiment with word formation methods. At the same time, their appearance and design reveals the existence of close relationships between different levels of the language. To the greatest extent this relates to morphemic and lexical. Quite common in this case is bifunctionality. The essence of this phenomenon is that there are units that are both tokens and affixes at the same time. This phenomenon, as well as a large number of intermediate elements, indicates that there is no clear boundary between them. Thus, neologisms create the necessary conditions for the formation of derivational elements. They, in turn, are used to create new lexical solutions. Etc. At the same time, there is a growth trend in the proportion of complex words. It is from them that the largest group of lexical decisions is formed. In the process of the formation of a large number of semantic neologisms, several mechanisms take part, each of which in its own way complicates the internal form.
Periodicals and fiction
Socio-political tokens retain their special name status, but at the same time they fulfill a pragmatic, axiological and aesthetic function. Moreover, the latter is more typical of fiction. The consistency of the selected and used lexical sets is manifested in numerous multidimensional and multilevel relations. Particular attention should be paid to:
- A developed and numerous system of quasi-anonymous connections, when opposing views are objectified in the language.
- Unrepresented, but vivid terminological polysemy.
- A developed system of quasi-synonymous connections, which are the product of the multidimensional nature of the used socio-political names.
Conclusion
So we looked at examples of socio-political vocabulary and phraseology, how they are formed, studied by specialists, compared Russian and English. At the same time, two important points should be highlighted in the end: words and their application can be used as an indicator of the development and course of processes. Secondly, the basic criteria for conducting the study are developed, the permissible limits of application are substantiated and specified, the issues of the ratio of various units are considered.