Symbols in the Ukrainian Public Discourse (Analysis of Presidential Speeches on the Occasion of Constitution Day)

This article develops the understanding of symbols as a certain type of signs, the meaning of which is established by agreement or habit. There is an opinion that symbols in public discourse are a reflection of values and anti-values of the society, which are formed in the process of mass communication. This article identifies the main features of the characters, including emotional engagement, attachment to a particular act of communication, as well informativeness. The types of meaning are determined, and the mechanism of nomination is explained. The article reveals the concept of semantic competition. M. Edelman’s opinion that value structures can be divided into mono-, bi- and multimodal — depending on the number of values assigned to key symbols. The presidential speeches delivered before the Ukrainian Constitution Day in 2017–2020 were analyzed in this article. Thanks to the content analysis of emotionally colored words, the symbols, which are characteristic for the speeches of P. Poroshenko and V. Zelensky, were identified focusing both on similarities and differences of Ukrainian values and anti-values. This article analyzes the nominations used by speakers to give meaning to key symbols. Aspects of semantic competition of the key symbols are defined here as well. It was revealed that during the tenure of President Poroshenko, other symbols circulated mostly in the Ukrainian public discourse than those during the presidency of V. Zelensky. Among the common key values for both presidents, we can find “Constitution,” “Constitution Day” and “freedom”. There is a semantic competition in their use. Both presidents underline the negative meaning of the term “parliamentary immunity.” Poroshenko expresses the threat using symbols such as “Russian aggressor”, “fifth column,” “corruption,” “Russian Empire” and “war.” On the other hand, V. Zelensky does not use symbols of external threat. It was found that the value structure formed by Poroshenko’s speeches showed signs of bimodality, and the one created by V. Zelensky’s speeches — multimodality.

Topical Rumor Detection based on Social Network Topic Models Relationship

The rumor detection problem on social networks has attracted considerable attention in recent years with the rise of concerns about fake news and disinformation. Most previous works focused on detecting rumors by individual messages, classifying whether a post or blog entry is considered a rumor or not. This paper proposes a method for rumor detection on topic-level that identifies whether a social topic related to a reference or authoritative topic is a rumor. We propose the use of a topic model method on social, scientific and political domains and correlate the topics found to detect the most prone to be rumors. Two scenarios were analyzed; the Zika epidemic scenario where our reference set of topics are scientific and the Brazilian presidential speeches where our reference set is extracted from the political speeches themselves. Results applied in the Zika epidemic scenario show evidence that the least correlated topics contain a mix of rumors and local community discussions. The Brazilian presidential speeches scenario suggests a strong correlation between rumor topics from both the speeches and the social domains.

Modality in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo’s Presidential Inauguration Speeches

This study examined the modality in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo’s Presidential Inauguration speeches in October 2009 and 2019. This study shows the similarities and differential modality values in the speeches. By employing modality, people are unengaged to express ideas that do not seem to be facts with various degrees of certainty. This research included the purposes of applying modality in the speeches. The research was conducted using qualitative descriptive methods, specifically through documentation observation. The results showed that there were three types of modality in both of the Presidential speeches out of the four types of modality stated by Holiday. There were no differences found in the values of the speeches. These values were the indication of how Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo’s intended to manage their programs in the second period of their leaderships as Indonesian president in 2009-2014 and 2019-2024. Keywords: Modality, Type, value, Presidential, Inauguration Speech

Assertive Speech Acts in Donald Trump’s Presidential Speeches

This research investigates assertive speech acts in Donald Trump’s presidential speeches. It classifies the assertive speech acts based on their illocutionary forces according to Bach and Harnish (1979). The data were taken from three speeches by Donald Trump. The results show that the illocutionary forces of assertive speech acts found in the speeches are affirming, alleging, asserting, avowing, claiming, declaring, denying, maintaining, propounding, saying, and stating. The act of stating is the most commonly used (44%). The findings suggest that Trump uses the act of stating mostly because he wants the hearer to believe him that the policies he has made are the best for the United States.

On covert and overt sayers: A pragmatic-cognitive study into Barack Obama’s presidential rhetoric of image construction and (de)legitimisation

This article aims to investigate narrative reports based on the use of reported speech frames from a pragmatic-cognitive perspective. As rhetorical means of image creation and (de)legitimisation, they are frequently employed to represent utterances that constitute integral elements of short narratives incorporated into American presidential speeches. This paper’s main objective is to propose an original taxonomy of sayers, namely speakers of words reported (Halliday 1981, 1985; Vandelanotte 2006) in political discourse and to investigate their potential for self- and other-presentation and (de)legitimisation of one’s stance, actions and decisions. The data used for illustrative purposes comprise extracts from Barack Obama’s speeches delivered during his presidency (2009 and 2016) and have been selected from a bigger corpus of 125 presidential speeches by three American presidents: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy. Findings in this study indicate that specific sayer types have greater potential for effective image formation and contribute to (de)legitimisation of events.

Persuasive Language in Presidential Speeches

Persuasive strategies in political discourse provide opportunities for politicians to influence, guide, and control their audiences according to their desires and benefits. This study examines the persuasive side of the language used in presidential speeches delivered by Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani. This contrastive study delineates persuasive strategies based on the Aristotelian approach towards the methodology of persuasion. Through extracting our corpus from the internet, we analyzed it using Aristotle’s three means of persuasion (ethos, pathos, and logos). The corpus analysis was performed through qualitative content analysis according to the predefined themes and considering earlier investigations within the frame of Aristotelian rhetoric. The results indicated the prominent role of logos in presidential speeches as the most frequent strategy. Also, the analysis indicated three contrastive themes of religion, time, and participant names in the speeches of the presidents which signified their different cultural and political discourse. The impact of contextual aspects has also been discussed.

Rhetorical Questions as Orator’s Means of Addressing the National Spirit of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians in Presidential Speeches

Retorika kā pārliecināšanas māksla kopš Aristoteļa laikiem, īpaši pēdējā gadsimta laikā, izpelnījusies kritiskās diskursa analīzes pētnieku uzmanību. Retoriskie jautājumi kā viens no politiskajā diskursā lietotajiem retorisko līdzekļu veidiem tiek škietami par zemu novērtēti, it sevišķi situācijās, kad runas mērķis nav skaidri redzama argumentācija, pārliecināšana vai manipulācija. Attiecīgi retorisko jautājumu slēptā doma enkurojas dziļāk diskursa uztveres procesā un tādējādi atmiņā tiek uzglabāta ilgāk. Pētījumā analizētas 175 Baltijas valstu prezidentu runas, kas sniegtas dažādos nacionāli svarīgos brīžos kopš Latvijas valsts neatkarības pasludināšanas vai neatkarības atjaunošanas Lietuvā un Igaunijā līdz valstu simtgadei 2018. gadā. Veiktais pētījums salīdzina retorisko jautājumu lietojumu prezidentu runās sinhronajā un diahronajā skatījumā un analizē to potenciālo ietekmi uz klausītāju, ņemot vērā jautājumu tematisko un diskursīvo saturu Baltijas valstu sociālā, vēsturiskā un politiskā kontekstā. Pētījuma rezultātā tiek secināts, ka retorisko jautājumu lietojums, izmantojot tādas nacionālās identitātes veidošanas stratēģijas kā kopējās politiskās vēstures konstrukcija, valsts kā nacionāla kopuma komunikācija un nāciju politiskās tagadnes un nākotnes konstrukcija, var uzrunāt cilvēku zemapziņas emocionālo līmeni un konkrēti atbildības un piederības sajūtu, tādējādi netieši veidojot klausītāju uztveri un ietekmējot to potenciālo rīcību attiecībā pret valsti. Turklāt vairākos gadījumos tiek secināts, ka retoriskie jautājumi lietoti kombinācijā ar citiem stratēģiski spēcīgiem valodas līdzekļiem, kā metafora, hiperbola un paralēlās teikumu struktūras, kas pastiprina vēlamo retorisko efektu uz klausītāju. Tāpat, salīdzinot retorisko jautājumu lietojumu sinhronajā aspektā tika secināts, ka Latvijas un Lietuvas prezidentu runās šie jautājumi tiek lietoti retāk nekā Igaunijas prezidentu runās. Attiecībā uz diahronajām izmaiņām retorisko jautājumu lietojumā, secināts, ka laika gaitā retorisko jautājumu skaits runās palielinās, tomēr šīs izmaiņas drīzāk ietekmē tādi savstarpēji neatkarīgi radītāji kā prezidenta politiskā piederība, runas mērķis, kontekstuālā situācija vai runas tips un mērķauditorija.