“Never in my life have I heard such a load of absolute nonsense. Wtf.” Political satire on the handling of the COVID-19 crisis

This paper problematises political satire in a time when the COVID-19 virus has provoked numerous deaths worldwide, and had dramatic effects on social behaviour, on a scale unknown in western nations since World War II. Most populations have endured lockdown, periods of enforced domestic imprisonment, which led to images of the empty streets of big cities appearing in media, symbols of the drastic changes that the health emergency was making necessary. Yet, from the outset, comic memes began to circulate across (social) media, while in mainstream print media political satirists continued to lampoon official responses to the ongoing crisis. The paper thus aims to explore the connection of political satire and humour, asking two principle research questions: firstly, how to explain the humorous effects of these multimodal artefacts in such depressing circumstances; secondly, from a pragmatic perspective, to account for their overall socio-political function.The study uses memes taken from various online sources (Facebook, Twitter, Google) during the crisis, analysed according to a mixed approach that blends notions from Humour studies, especially incongruity (Morreall 2016), with insights from linguistic pragmatics (e.g. Kecskes 2014). The findings emphasise the emotional dimension of this form of satire, as the memes work against the backdrop of a range of feelings (anger, bitterness, disappointment, frustration, despair, etc.), many of which have been widely generated by the COVID-19 crisis and political responses to it. In short, to paraphrase Walter Benjamin (2008: 378), man may run out of tears but not of laughter. The findings contribute to our understanding of online satire as an emergent genre, one that uses the affordances of new media to extend the social potentialities of a traditional subversive discourse form.

Generative Semantics 4: The Collapse

This chapter traces the collapse of Generative Semantics, which ultimately became a movement away from Noam Chomsky’s view of linguistics, more than a movement toward a unifying vision of language or linguistics. The leaders all went in various directions. Paul Postal and Jim McCawley retained their commitments to formal modeling, but Postal developed a new, non-Transformational framework with David Perlmutter, Relational Grammar, while McCawley continued to ply an increasingly idiosyncratic Transformational model he eventually called Unsyntax. Robin Lakoff led the expansion of linguistic pragmatics and founded feminist linguistics. George Lakoff and Haj Ross took overlapping but distinct forays into non-discrete linguistics. Meanwhile, the Generative Semantics ethos was losing whatever appeal it may have had. Linguists outside the movement, and some within, found the style irritating. Meanwhile, too, Chomsky’s innovations were proving very fruitful and attracting adherents under the label, the Extended Standard Theory. Chomsky’s framework emerged from the brief Generative Semantics eclipse and now seemed the clear winner of the Linguistics Wars.

KESANTUNAN PRAGMATIK RIDWAN KAMIL DALAM SOSIALISASI VAKSINASI COVID-19 DI MEDIA SOSIAL

The discussion of this research is about the types of speech acts in the socialization of Covid-19 vaccination on social media which are closely related to linguistic pragmatics. The type of speech act from a pragmatic point of view is language behavior that has rules that agreed by the speaker and the speech partner. Since the beginning of the 2020 period until the beginning of 2021, Ridwan Kamil as the regional head and public figure has participated in the socialization of the Covid-19 vaccination. Social media is an effective forum for disseminating information, notification, or invitations for everyone to support the success of Covid-19 vaccination socialization. Even Ridwan Kamil used social media for these activities. The purpose of this study is to describe Ridwan Kamil's speech forms that adhere to Leech's maxims of politeness principles, as well as the function of politeness in Searle's (1969) language. The method of data collection is observing with the note-taking technique. The data analysis method uses data triangulation. The findings of this study indicate that from 155 speech data of Ridwan Kamil in the socialization of Covid-19 vaccination, six maxims of politeness principles are met, namely the Maxim of Wisdom, Maxim of Generosity, Maxim of Praise, Maxim of Humility, Maxim of Approval and Maxim of Sympathy; and has five speech functions Representative, Directive function, Commissive function, Expressive function and Declarative function. Abstrak Pembahasan penelitian ini tentang jenis tindak tutur dalam sosialisasi vaksinasi Covid-19 di media sosial yang berhubungan erat dengan pragmatik linguistik. Jenis tindak tutur dari sudut pandang pragmatik merupakan tingkah laku berbahasa yang memiliki aturan yang disepakati penutur dan mitra tutur. Sejak awal periode tahun 2020 hingga awal tahun 2021 ini, Ridwan Kamil sebagai kepala daerah dan figur publik turut serta dalam sosialisasi vaksinasi Covid-19. Penggunaan media sosial menjadi wadah yang efektif untuk menyebarkan informasi, himbauan, ataupun ajakan untuk turut menyukseskan sosialisasi vaksinasi Covid-19. Pun dengan Ridwan Kamil yang menggunakan media sosial untuk kegiatan tersebut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini mendeskripsikan bentuk tuturan Ridwan Kamil yang mematuhi maksim prinsip kesantunan Leech, serta fungsi kesantunan berbahasa Searle (1969). Metode yang digunakan dalam pengumpulan data yakni metode simak dengan teknik catat. Metode analisis data menggunakan triangulasi data. Temuan penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa dari 155 data tuturan Ridwan kamil dalam sosialisasi vaksinasi Covid-19 memenuhi enam maksim prinsip kesantunan yaitu Maksim Kebijaksanaan, Maksim Kedermawanan, Maksim Pujian, Maksim Kerendahan Hati, Maksim Persetujuan dan Maksim Kesimpatian; dan memiliki lima fungsi tuturan Representatif, fungsi Direktif, fungsi Komisif, fungsi Ekspresif dan fungsi Deklaratif.

Implicatures in the context of communicative act

The article presents a study in the field of linguistic pragmatics and considers the implicitness problem with respect to the communication act. Extracting an impicature of an utterance is proved to be the main condition for successful speech act. The relevance of the article is determined by the fact that the implicitness problem has not been completely studied and still has a lot of aspects to explore. The classification of different kinds of implicatures supported by examples from fiction texts is given. Moreover, some statistic data relating to impicatures types and their frequency are provided. The article might be interesting for specialists developing problems of linguistic pragmatics, communication acts and implicitness.

Institutional Framework for Language Policy in Russia: Views for the Future

Introduction. The study of language planning and policy (LPP) involves the cross-disciplinary interaction of applied linguistics and political science. The need for this is increasing especially in relation to the regulatory and organizational aspects of language regulation in the conditions of modern Russia. Methods and materials. The authors use the techniques of systems analysis and approaches of political institutionalism: normative, rational choice, theory of organizations, historical, constructivist, network. To study the materials of official documents and legislative acts, the method of textual analysis is used. Academic works of foreign and Russian authors are used through the prism of discourse analysis. Materials related to the activities of agencies and actors in the field of LPP, characterized from a structural and functional point of view. Analysis. The normative and agentive properties of LPP in the modern conditions of Russia and its regions are considered by the authors of the article through analytical procedures proposed by foreign scientists. Many developments from Englishlanguage works in this area can be adapted to the tasks of studying political-linguistic relations, taking Russian specifics into account. The ratio of institutional and conversational types of linguistic interactions is considered as a subject of linguistic pragmatics. The main subject of analysis is formal regulatory complexes and agencies specializing in this area. The analysis undertaken by the authors of the article leads to the conclusion that there is no sustainable institutional LPP model in the Russian situation. This applies, in particular, to the de facto and de jure characteristics of bilingualism as a strategic priority proclaimed at the beginning of the 20 th century. In the latest official texts, the emphasis is on strengthening the position of the Russian language. Further, the body of Russian and regional legal acts is marked by features of rhetoric and excessive symbolism. The prospects for institutionalization here are associated with overcoming such normative dysfunctions. Results. The article draws conclusions about the desirability of conceptualizing LPP within the framework of a separate state doctrinal document, as well as a system of information support and implementation of the principles of language cultivation and management.

Research impact evaluation and academic discourse

The introduction of ‘impact’ as an element of assessment constitutes a major change in the construction of research evaluation systems. While various protocols of impact evaluation exist, the most articulated one was implemented as part of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF). This paper investigates the nature and consequences of the rise of ‘research impact’ as an element of academic evaluation from the perspective of discourse. Drawing from linguistic pragmatics and Foucauldian discourse analysis, the study discusses shifts related to the so-called Impact Agenda on four stages, in chronological order: (1) the ‘problematization’ of the notion of ‘impact’, (2) the establishment of an ‘impact infrastructure’, (3) the consolidation of a new genre of writing–impact case study, and (4) academics’ positioning practices towards the notion of ‘impact’, theorized here as the triggering of new practices of ‘subjectivation’ of the academic self. The description of the basic functioning of the ‘discourse of impact’ is based on the analysis of two corpora: case studies submitted by a selected group of academics (linguists) to REF2014 (no = 78) and interviews (n = 25) with their authors. Linguistic pragmatics is particularly useful in analyzing linguistic aspects of the data, while Foucault’s theory helps draw together findings from two datasets in a broader analysis based on a governmentality framework. This approach allows for more general conclusions on the practices of governing (academic) subjects within evaluation contexts.

Everyday phrases in the worldview of Russians: origins and exploration

This study examines the origins behind the meaning of everyday phrases forming the linguistic world image of Russian speakers. A large corpus of linguistic literature concerns the lexicon and phraseology and only a few studies look at phrases as the most common forms of thought formation in everyday pragmatics. The aim of this study was to identify origins behind the meaning of everyday phrases, and analyze their role and place in the formation and presentation of the linguistic world image in linguistic pragmatics. Unlike most studies, this work examines the problem of the worldview rooted in the language through the content analysis of phrases, rather than single lexemes, and analyzes them in the context of everyday use. The study monitored 128 individuals, aged 18 to 61 years, for three days to determine what phrases they use every day. The collected linguistic data underwent statistical processing and unique categorizes were distinguished. Of these categorizes, only one is likely to convey the linguistic worldview (it contains words with a broad range of meanings and multi-level semantics). The other two categorizes reflect single characteristics of linguistic consciousness and the pragmatics of social interaction. The results of the study may be useful in establishing links between the cognitive and communicative functions of the language and creating a map of the Russian linguistic worldview for the comparative linguistic research purposes.

THE MAIN DIRECTIONS IN STUDYING OF THE MODERN RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE PR-DISCOURSE

The article discusses the main approaches to studying the modern Russian-language PR-discourse that represents a relatively new and actively developing sphere of communication. First of all, the researchers of the Russian-language PR-discourse analyze its lexical composition. In particular, they consider the ways of adapting the English-language PR-terms that play an important role in reflecting new objects of extralinguistic reality. Moreover, the linguistic means of this type of discourse are studied from the perspective of linguistic pragmatics. The works in this area emphasize the importance of such way of speech impact as suggestion and the corresponding pragmatic methods that is determined by the manipulative character of the Russian-language PR-discourse. In the light of this peculiarity, the linguists are also interested in the process of mythologization that consists in distorting the connections between the objects of reality and is aimed at creating the positive image of the subject of PR-communication.

WORDING OF AXIOLOGICAL DISTANCING IN MEDIA TEXTS ON POLITICALLY SENSITIVE TOPICS

The current state of linguistic pragmatics is at the stage of active development of the terminological basis and theoretical and methodological foundations. One of the notions used in the generally accepted methodology within this area is "axiological distancing". The use of this notion and the corresponding method of analysis allows us to fully disclose the strategies and tactics of constructing texts to influence the reader, analyse the manipulative strategies of the author, assess its objectivity and impact, etc. The results of the analysis of the selected texts allow us to make the conclusion that the ideological opponent in the texts under analysis is the abstract notion of a religious (Muslim) fanatic-terrorist in the eyes of a Christian and a European. It finds a concrete linguistic embodiment described and classified in the article. Having fixed the criteria of axiological classification of the opponent and the main value opposition, we passed to the analysis of the wording of the resistance to the opponent as an aspect of axiological distancing. The analysis of axiological distancing proved that the identification of the opponent's features by studying the semantics of lexical units used in the reference reveals a possible communicative effect and manipulative influence on the reader. According to the identified opposition pattern, the authors form a linguistic expression of the violation of the distance between the opponents, i.e. their physical influence and spatial approximation (we made the classification). The article describes the steps of building the axiological opposition "we" – "they", which is represented by such elements as "West" – "East", "Christianity" – "Islam", "freedom" – "dependence". Special attention is paid to the ways of providing objective reflection of events and keeping to the standards of journalistic ethics.

The Role of the Experiment in the Study of the Language Material

The article deals with the role of the experiment in the study of the language material. As it is known the learning of voices is very difficult, and it requires great attention. In this case it is necessary to use the opportunities of experimental phonetics. It should be stressed that the role of experiment in the investigation of the language facts through experiment has long been proved. The author uses expedient to investigate the acoustic peculiarities of the language voices. The intonation is used to be closely related to the various emotions of a person in the speech acts. In recent years, the application of principles, conceptual schemes, ideas and concepts derived from psycho- and sociolinguistics and linguistic pragmatics in the field of intonation has become widespread. Intonation must be studied at the communicative level. Semantic categories expressed in intonation units usually refer to the communicative components of speech. In the grammatical structure of the sentence, they can correspond to the composition of any length. Accordingly, the "sphere of activity" of intonation units can have different components from word to sentence at the hierarchical level.